(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 3)

Good one seen on twitter...
Arsenal waiting to appoint new manager until black friday as they believe they can get a discount

Fair enough. I'm just sick of his bullshark, quite honestly. He seems like a nice guy, but he's run us into the ground.

We were run into the ground long before Emery came. He just hasn't been able to reverse the slide.

Don't agree; this is the easily the worst we've been since I started watching Arsenal ~20-25 years ago, with perhaps the best attacking players since we had Thierry.

Is it all his fault? Of course not; but the reality of football is that the head coach/manager will be the first one blamed. He certainly hasn't helped himself. Let's not pretend we have worse players than Burnley, and he's struggling through with a poor squad.

At least the fanbase are united for once! Not sure if _anyone_ wants to keep Emery anymore.

Apparently the squad has been given 2 days off which is rather unusual. Appears to be some kind of social media ban too. Even the Arsenal accounts are very quiet.

Sounds to me like Emery is gone but they want to confirm the new Manager before announcing?

The talk around the Wolves fella seems to be the loudest right now. Not all that convinced myself. His record is nothing against Emery's, but he does have the benefit of having already adapted to english football.

 

Are you bringing Slack's formatting to the forum now? :D

If Freddie is caretaker until the end of the season we'll be United 2.0. Next thing he'll be head coach and we'll be comfortable with his 'rebuilding' that's got us to 9th place in the EPL.

Edit: I rate the guy as a get Emery out the door quickly and take a few weeks to find a replacement option, as opposed to something longer term.

I'd only want a caretaker _if_ we have contracted someone to take over at the end of the season (and preferably not Allegri).

I don't know a thing about Freddie. But, hiring a "proven winner" with "experience" and backing him with his overrated, over paid, past it players is also going to send you on a one way path to being United 2.0

Sure it sounds like a cliche but the most important thing is not how many trophies a manager has won in the past, but whether their philosophy and goals for the club suits what the club, players, and fans expect. If that's right they should be able to hire a backroom staff that make sup for other deficiencies.

Particularly important due to Arsenal's financial restrictions, compared to the Citys/Barcelonas/Madrids of the world

Agree. We need to be aiming higher. Allegri is the only one on the list who I think can take us further; it's just down to presence, and being able to manage the egos.

We're just leaking bad results unnecessarily now. Even if they don't have a replacement lined up, surely letting Freddie take the reins until we do is better than this. 

Emery is a troubled, isolated figure at the moment, and it seems like torture making him go through the motions when he clearly isn't getting any cut-through at all now. 

The writing is sandblasted on the wall and our club leadership needs to hurry the f*ck up and make the call.

Forget the top 4, our aim this season while Emery is in charge will be to avoid relegation. It's getting that bad.

Moving slowly from anger to apathy. Didn't even finish watching the game.

And he's gone. Was no way he could continue any longer.

Yup, was no way he was surviving that result in a half empty stadium. Curiosity made me want to go to the game, if anything to cheer Xhaka's return, but a chest infection kept me at home.

Quotes from Arsenal suggest Freddie is interim while we complete a process.

Here's hoping Poch is made enough at Levy to come our way :D

It all seems a bit too late with 4th out of sight for this season but hopefully we can at least play with some sort of identity and games become enjoyable again.

Thats that then. Were officially in the modern world, gona be hard to get used to managerial merry go rounds. My preferences for next one off the rank:
1 Pochettino
2= Arteta, Rodgers

                        Leno
Bellerin Chambers Luiz Tierney
                 Torreira Xhaka
                Pepe Ozil Auba
                         Laca

Come on freddie you know you want to

We love you Freddie...

Hopefully were going through our ManU patch faster than ManU are... We just sacked our moyes, but were skipping van gaal and mourinho and going straight to our solsjkaer...

And in true Arsenal fashion you'll skip the FA Cup and Europa League trophies as well!

Akshually were the most successful club in FA cup history so that wouldnt really be "in true arsenal fashion".
When it comes to europe though... you may have a point hahahaha

Well there were improvements and some of the same old shark. What I liked was the way we seemed more eneregised, faster passing, better movement off the ball. What we're still shark at - defending. To be more specific tracking our runners and not being carved open too easily.

I think this team could do with a breather from Guendouzi. I love his heart and enthusiasm but the man offers nothing defensively. Beaten in the air and regularly loses his man. I'd like to see us return to a 4-2-3-1 with Xhaka and Torreira employed deeper and give a front 4 of Auba, Laca, Ozil, and Pepe the freedom to attack as they'd like which Xhaka and Torreira sitting a bit deeper so as to protect that backline a bit more. 

Wasn't a fan of the subs nor the team selection. Not a good start for Freddie.

Well, with Man Utd and Chelsea winning today, that's top 4 officially gone, I'd say; and we're just into December..

I love Guendouzi but I think you've got a point about his defensive awareness brumbys. I'd like to see us give Xhaka/Torreira a crack tomorrow.

And for goodness' sake can we pleeeeeaaaase see Tierney and Bellerin both start???

I'm a huge fan of Lacazette but I'm also thinking it would be good to see us play with wingers.

My preferred lineup tomorrow would be:

                      Leno

Bellerin-Chambers-Luiz-Tierney

             Xhaka-Torreira

            Pepe-Ozil-Martinelli

                Aubameyang

Agree with that team. Still huge issues, but the best we can do.

I'd probably still play Laca though, he's always good at home.

Top 4? I'm just hoping we make the magical 40 point mark

Looks like Freddie's sticking with this midfield diamond thing.

3 changes from last time out. Torreira in for Guendouzi. Bellerin in for Chambers. Sokratis in for Mustafi. Also Nelson comes onto the bench in place of Saka. Freddie's a fan of Nelson, going by his comments last week, and now this selection.

                     Leno

Bellerin-Sokratis-Luiz-Kolasinac

                    Xhaka

           Torreira    Willock

                      Ozil

               Laca     Auba

That was embarrassing. 

What a fudgeing mess we are.

No manager in the world could sort that lot out.

We need a complete squad overhaul... 2020 is going to be a long year.

Relegation battle, here we come

Relegation here we come

Reminds me of the Sunderland documentary. We're a rabble. No heart.

How bad is Torreira, by the way? It's shocking how much he has regressed -though perhaps we just overrated him in the first instnace.

Most of that was actually our best performance for some time, particularly after the half time change in formation.

But we missed our chances, they took theirs, and that's that.

We really are in the doldrums, and need to lift quick.

Always the optimist Paul!... there were certainly a couple of green shoots early in both halves but they quickly reverted back to the directionless, leaderless, gutless dross we've become known for.

We haven't won in 9 games. We lost out in terms of possession, shots both on and off target, and corners. We were at home to Brighton.

Our next two fixtures are West Ham away and City at home. Can anyone really see us getting any more than a point out of those? That would put us on 20 pts from 17 games. 

Fun times.

View from the stands...
First half formation didn't work. It was more a 4-3-3 with Ozil playing out wide left most of the time. Willock & Torreira played ahead of Xhaka, with Willock pushing on the CB's alongside Lacazette.

Willock wasn't up to the mark, he has to score that header, and was wasteful in the transition regularly.

Second half started brighter with Ozil more central and Pepe out wide instead, funny how having an actual winger and an experience attacking mid in their natural positions helps our balance.

Freddies confidence comments are bang on - a lot of times the guys had a great pass on they didn't make because it was a 50:50 chance of success. Need to have the courage to do this.

Personally all I'm worried about is why did it have to be this season that I got the season ticket :(

Also Sokratis is done. He can't defend anywhere near his level from last year, nor can he play the ball out. He regularly looks to be sharkting kittens while under pressure and moves the ball SO slowly around the back.

Just quietly, reckon a half crocked Kos would still be our best CB by some margin

Will be very interesting to see who they bring in... we need someone who knows the league and the players in it, and can build a competitive squad on a relatively modest budget... with the LA stadium costs growing by the day, there's no way the club will get anything out of KSE any time soon/ever... so here's my current view - please keep in mind these opinions will have changed by the time I've gotten to the end, but here goes:

I'm far from convinced Mikel Arteta is the solution. Not because I doubt his technical/tactical capability, but more because of the environment he's working in and the quality of players in it. Our group is far from what he's used to dealing with, and when City have a hole they tend to buy what they need to fill it - he won't have that luxury at AFC, he'll have to develop some of the players we have... can he do that?

As for KingPaddyV, I'm similarly unconvinced although in his favour he has morphed Nice into a solid defensive unit - so that's certainly in his favour... but it seems they're pretty clueless going forward, so I'm unsure how that would translate to us... though I'd much prefer a return the "one-nil to the Arsenal" days than our current mess. We could do a lot worse than fixing our defence then slowly rebuilding.

I've never been a fan of Brendan Rodgers - especially when he was at Liverpool. But, I've matured - and evidence suggests he has too... I'm beginning to think he might've been a good option; though it looks unlikely now as I can't see KSE giving Leicester the reported 14 million squid no he's signed a contract extension.

Speaking of sp*ds (which we weren't, but hey...), Pochettino is still floating around and hasn't ruled us out, yet. Fits the supposed criteria in that he's seemingly available... He's taken a crap team from a crap club with bugger all budget whilst building a new stadium to the ECL final and a consistent top four... til this season at least. Would he burn his Sp*rs achievements (*cough* trophies)?... I can't see it. But if he was keen, he'd be my choice - in a canter. 

Despite Nuno Espirito Santo having the best name of those being mentioned as likely candidates - there are reports AFC aren't keen as there are "communication issues". I'm not sure what these are as his english communication skills are fantastic, though coming from the people who hired Emery, who knows what this means - perhaps he's not so flash with MS Office? Comms skills aside, he appeals as a possibility though I can't see it/him happening as other candidates are probably better.

And speaking of reports, whilst SkyBet has him at the shortest odds to get the gig, it seems Max Allegri has reiterated his desire to take all of the current season off before looking for a new gig, so that would appear to rule him out. For now at least... notwithstanding the aforementioned communication issues would be a bit of a challenge. Again.

There's also Eddie Howe in the second line of betting with several agencies (around 10/1) which would show a change of direction for the club and a desire to move a little more toward going back to the future, in as much as having an English boss again - but importantly a guy who has demonstrated an ability to build competitive squads with monopoly money. The big question is how that would translate to a big club... quickly followed by the question of whether we're still a big club?

Back to those out of a job; Marcelino seems there or thereabouts and whilst tactically he could be brilliant seeing what he achieved at Valencia (and Villareal previously), we get back to that comms/language things again. He's also lost his last two roles because of personal differences which indicates he's his own man who wants things his way... and I don't see the KSE Arsenal rolling with that... Carlo Ancelotti is around two but he's another who's philosophy and methodologies (for me) don't align with where we're at and what we need.

Of course I'd love Erik Ten Hag but he's regularly spoken about going back for the top job at Bayern so I'd imagine his sights are set on that whilst they've an interim boss.

Many of us (well, me) love what Julian Nagelsmann has done and is doing for one so young. But the timing isn't right for him (or us really), and we're probably too much of a "project" (read: shambles) for him to risk at this early stage of his career... we also need someone (imo) who can take control and manage up and down - whilst JN is undoubtedly talented he's not that guy. Yet.

Oh, and there's also Arsene Wenger... KIDDING!!!!

TLDR; I've no idea who we'll get and for me there's no realistic stand out candidate. We need someone with a broad set of skills and a good deal of experience - and we need them quickly.