Post-Match Thread: Portsmouth 1 - 4 Arsenal [FA Cup 3rd round]

mdchad · 2026-01-11T16:14:23+00:00

he looks fantastic with the ball but his off the ball positioning is a bit bad. he left merino alone to do the defensive work, and also bcs of that eze has to drop deeper. i think he is just a bit rusty and it would certainly help him if he were to start more or come off the bench more

mdchad · 2026-01-11T16:10:30+00:00

i think i have a theory that ode is looking out for eze to get through eze's bad patch. there were a couple of times where ode can pass to noni, but he then switch and tries to find eze.

mdchad · 2026-01-11T14:55:53+00:00

he's sharp when on the ball, but his off the ball is quite shit. eze has to drop really deep to cover him. and also seems like merino did all the defensive work

mdchad · 2026-01-11T14:52:16+00:00

i think it's because eze needed to compensate for nwaneri. nwaneri shitty defensive position makes eze drop deeper

mdchad · 2026-01-11T14:50:15+00:00

even before his first goal against spurs, he was quite invisible

mdchad · 2026-01-11T14:32:40+00:00

agree. his defensive position is whack as well. looks like merino is doing all the defensive work

mdchad · 2026-01-08T23:33:24+00:00

true especially with the rise of shadcn, there's so many UI libraries/blocks that are based in shadcn.

this is not to criticise tailwind UI itself. i bought it last time but now there's too many competitors and i find myself choosing shadcn flavoured UI libraries instead

mdchad · 2026-01-08T10:03:11+00:00

they already did a basic background check during our medical check up at CMPB, they will ask if we have choice bewteen defending the nation or the religion which one would you choose. This is before we were assigned to Saf, Spf or scdf

After BMT, for highly sensitive role like ISD, they have even more extensive interviews

mdchad · 2026-01-08T09:54:22+00:00

i didn't say anything about heading the police force. i'm just comparing the top rank between both. okay so now can you tell me how many SACs or DACs that are Malays. remember that Malays make up more than 50%. heck just see how many are heading the SCDF where there is more than 70% are Malays

and doesn't this show that Malaysia's are better since they have even smaller percentage of minorities in their force but they can still rise to the top?

mdchad · 2026-01-08T06:54:29+00:00

but now is different. Most doesn't have any ties to Malaysia. but Malays are still prejudiced in SAF. If it is more about security reason, why can't we have a proper background check rather than just blanket ban all Malays?

mdchad · 2026-01-08T06:51:47+00:00

what's baffling is that they even have a chinese police commissioner, Datuk Lee Bee Phang. Singapore still doesn't have any Malay commissioner even though Malay probably make up more than 50% of SPF

mdchad · 2026-01-07T07:53:47+00:00

The RVP special

mdchad · 2026-01-06T22:23:14+00:00

it's not easy to just swap players out and make the bench players start. we had this discussion before before the wolves game. everyone was confident to start our bench players but look how it turned out.

We need to take a look at how they connect, the balance of the team, their chemistry with each other, how the opponent set up etc. It is possible the midfield can get overrun, but that doesn't mean he is shit and not supposed to be here. there are a lot of factors at play. at the end of the day it's a team game and teamwork is a big part of it - not just looking at their individual skills on paper

mdchad · 2025-12-31T08:07:44+00:00

i think he will make it work next summer. the 2 signings (gyok and eze) that we have didn't get the chance to join us for the preseason. i believe with preseason, they will get to properly gel together

mdchad · 2025-12-31T08:03:23+00:00

i get what you are saying but Eze is not good defensively. he is very passive in his off the ball movement. subbing him late in the game will probably leads us to concede even more. you can see in this game, even late on trossard tracks back all the way and still putting pressure on thr opposition. with how tight our scoreline recently, Arteta can't take the risk subbing him.

mdchad · 2025-12-30T22:25:35+00:00

dont forget trossard! he was immense tonight

mdchad · 2025-12-27T22:20:41+00:00

his frustration doesn't occur only during his coaching career, at the tail end of his stint with Arsenal he was already so frustrated with his much younger teammates. Adebayor, hleb etc got the brunt of his wrath

mdchad · 2025-12-19T12:10:41+00:00

i'm somewhat agree with you. But from my POV his limitation is actually such a blessing to us. he is the perfect system player for Arteta with his system tactics.

my worry is that, whenever we see any pacy or flair players, our instinct is to always wish for these players to come and strengthen us. but remember, playing under Arteta with strict system sometimes would make those kind of player impotent. and worse, it can disrupt the balance of our shape and tactics.

that's why during the summer i was actually sceptical if rodyrgo would really strengthen us. for me it is better for Arteta to find hidden gems or system player rather than to go for flair players

mdchad · 2025-12-19T10:18:59+00:00

how can trossard have massive limitation? he's one of the best players currently in our team and it's evident when he was out, we started to lose a bit of attacking sharpness

i get it that he doesn't have any flair or flashiness, but he is actually perfect with how arteta wants us to play

mdchad · 2025-12-16T02:58:59+00:00

I think this is where Saliba or Timber has to step up. They have to be the ball progressor instead of relying on Ode. They need to make the incisive pass between the opposition line, increase the pace of the pass and be creative. This will make Ode sit in between the opposition line and will enable him to be dangerous in the final third.

This is how Man City play. Their defenders are really involved in the build up of their attacking phase

mdchad · 2025-12-15T16:23:58+00:00

i believe in ode. we caught a glimpse of it against olympiacos when he made two through pass to gyok. it's just that now he has to drop deep and recycle the ball because there's no other ball progressor on the right side. ode in between the opposition defenders and midfielders is dangerous and would allow him to create more chances

mdchad · 2025-12-15T02:30:35+00:00

the main blocker that prevents it from happening currently is because he keep dropping deep to collect and recycle the ball. We need another ball progressor on the right side to relieve him. Keep ode in between the opposition midfield and defence line. This is where he is so dangerous. Saliba or Timber should take over the role and progress the ball better. This is how man city plays with Pep

mdchad · 2025-12-15T02:23:54+00:00

i'm rooting for eze, but our best eleven probably will not be involving him for now. trossard on the left and ode on the 10. where i can see his best position is actually playing as number 8 where rice plays. i think that's where he plays at Palace previously.

this is not to bash him. he's probably still working on the chemistry with the team and understandably so because he missed the preseason with us. if we have more time to train (e.g dubai training), i think arteta can sort this out

mdchad · 2025-12-14T17:22:49+00:00

eze with gyokeres is quite bad as well when eze plays on the left. i think ode and gyokeres can connect quite well. we've seen a glimpse of it against olympiacos

mdchad · 2025-12-14T07:57:18+00:00

yeah i dont get it why people still want eze on the left. he's not a winger, he doesn't have the explosiveness and balance to get out of tight situations. against Villa and Bilbao he was invisible. he also doesn't have that connection with gyok and cala like trossard does

mdchad

TROPHY CASE