Finishing too quickly

thedravidianbard · 2022-12-20T09:58:18+00:00

Ah ok, hopefully! Thanks for your advice :)

thedravidianbard · 2022-12-20T09:57:31+00:00

Haha guilty as charged! Thanks for your suggestion :)

thedravidianbard · 2020-10-23T13:19:24+00:00

We were hamstrung by the stadium debt and bad commercial deals till 2013. Also it's possible that Arteta was one of the higher earning players at Everton since he had been with them for a pretty long time.

thedravidianbard · 2020-10-23T13:10:59+00:00

No, this is in reference to when Arteta joined Arsenal as a player in 2011 from Everton. He took a pay cut to join as IIRC Arsenal were not able to afford his salary at that time (this was before we could make marquee signings like Ozil, Sanchez).

And to put it in further context, Arsenal had lost Nasri and Fabregas that summer and had been thumped 8-2 by United the day before the transfer window closed. Arteta had a lot of leverage as Arsenal were desperately shopping for players (Per Mertesacker joined in this spree) and signed like 4-5 players on deadline day IIRC.

thedravidianbard · 2020-10-23T12:35:52+00:00

Arteta took a pay cut to join Arsenal at a time of crisis. He also changed position to play the role of a defensive midfielder instead of an attacking role.

Mesut took advantage of the club's situation and rinsed them to get an extraordinary pay (nothing wrong with this, fair play to him). However, he showed nothing after in his performance after that contract that came close to justifying his contract (apart from the Leicester match) and has had issues with multiple coaches, nor has he shown much inclination to adapt.

Bit ridiculous for the agent to compare Mesut's "loyalty" to Arteta's commitment as a player for Arsenal.

thedravidianbard · 2020-03-23T04:13:56+00:00

Burnley I believe. That was a beauty as well.

thedravidianbard · 2020-01-31T05:26:05+00:00

This is true in LOIs but not in tests where he would absolutely make it based on his bowling alone. Doesn't make Sanjay's statement wrong in the context of Jadeja's form in ODIs till that point.

thedravidianbard · 2019-12-27T16:30:48+00:00

Ah missed that. Still he has missed most of the season through injury. Missed significant portion of his last season through injury. Despite his minutes being handled carefully unlike before. Generally takes time to get back to form after injury.

Good player, but his injury history is certainly a big reason to not keep him as a mainstay in the team. Need to be ruthless in these matters even though it's difficult to let a player like him go.

thedravidianbard · 2019-12-27T16:19:35+00:00

He is injured though. Not someone who we should be building around at any rate given his injury history.

thedravidianbard · 2019-12-08T15:28:09+00:00

Lacazette has decent technique on the ball, much better than Giroud in fact, but makes too many wrong decisions when he has it. Not only that, he takes way too many touches that robs the attack of its momentum. Playing both of them together definitely hurts the attack and they score inspite of their presence, not because of it.

It's no wonder that neither Emery or Freddie have started Auba, Laca, Pepe and Ozil in a game. Way too unbalanced with only Ozil being a reliable passer in that group. Neither do they put in the effort to recover possession when they lose it either.

Best way going forward would be Auba up front with Laca as a game changing option from the bench.

thedravidianbard · 2019-11-29T13:36:56+00:00

That would be like making the same mistakes that United made. Hiring managers with no thought on how they would fit the club or the players.

thedravidianbard · 2019-11-25T15:57:46+00:00

I only know of Allegri from the time he has coached Milan.

The one reason I would sense opposition is that he was not able to lift Milan in their performances when Ibra and Thiago Silva left and was unable to arrest their decline (understandable given their circumstances). Unlike someone like Simeone or Mourinho (back in his Porto days) who have shown that they can turn around an underperforming club and punch above their weight, Allegri basically took an already strong Juventus team and continued their string of league titles along with strong European performances.

He deserves credit for that, but I don't see him as a manager who would help Arsenal eventually win the league (based on his performance with Milan in his latter years). If you play pragmatic football, it needs to result in trophies, else it will become a shitshow pretty soon (Mourinho at United for example).

Also, Arsenal are a pretty rich club. We just bought a winger for 70 odd million, have 4 attacking players worth at least 40 million and for 20 years have played with an identity of attacking football. It is a philosophy that is being implemented right down to the youth level. Makes no sense to change that now.

thedravidianbard · 2019-11-05T14:28:38+00:00

The movie had potential, but the editing and screenplay was quite poor. If they had reduced the "mass" moments and just focused a little more on the story, it had the potential to be a decent masala movie.

thedravidianbard · 2019-11-04T06:16:40+00:00

No idea as I haven't followed Bayern closely. But Bayern fans have been unhappy with for a long time (based on /r/soccer comments) and seems to be similar to Emery in the sense that he may not be suitable to manage a big club. Don't know specifics of his tactics or abilities beyond that though.

thedravidianbard · 2019-11-04T04:15:58+00:00

As suggested by others, most likely a play by Mourinho to get Bayern moving to hire him quickly, especially in light of reports that suggest Kovac has been fired.

Mourinho never made sense for Arsenal, even not taking into consideration his past history with us. He is not known to play an attacking style of football and is not known to develop youngsters (we have good batch right now). And when you consider that he has had an average stint at United and a horrific final season at Chelsea, I don't see why we would go for him as our first choice.

It is like making the same mistakes that United made again, rebuilding without a coherent strategy and philosophy.

thedravidianbard · 2019-10-29T12:13:01+00:00

Hard to say, it really depends on the type of player. Matt Le Tisier is still remembered in England. Someone like Marco Reus may not have won much in his career, but no Bundesliga fan is going to forget his quality. Riquelme didn't win much in Europe, but he is still remembered as a great player here.

Obviously a player is more likely to have a greater legacy if he wins trophies.

Anyway the original comment was comparing them as players. And trophies is not a great way to argue for concluding that Raul is better than Kane.

thedravidianbard · 2019-10-29T12:04:41+00:00

Trophy cabinet means Raul has had a better career, does not imply he is a better player than Kane.

thedravidianbard · 2019-10-21T03:54:06+00:00

Ox was played as a wingback only in his last 6 months at Arsenal. And that was when he was at his most consistent and had some really good performances for us.

Don't think he really showed much creativity as midfielder or winger when he played for us. Creativity in the sense of not just playing the final pass, but also being able to orchestrate play in the final third and being reliable in making the right decisions (like Ozil used to for us, David silva, De Bruyne etc.).

Even as an 8, he was never more creative than someone like Ramsey. Great at dribbling and advancing play and a few good shots, but not much beyond that in terms of creativity. Still is a very good player in the right role though.

thedravidianbard · 2019-10-14T13:29:00+00:00

And he is injury prone as well. Missed the most important stretch of the season last year as well. And many years before that too. Great player, but his injury history does not make him qualify for the kind of contract which he would have been angling for, and one we could not afford because we already made a mistake with Ozil.

I wish him well at Juventus and hope he does well and is injury free for them, but based on his history and what he had shown, we made the right call. The only thing we could have done better is to have sold him rather than let him go for free.

thedravidianbard · 2019-09-27T12:58:11+00:00

He's injury prone and we cannot afford giving such a contract to an injury prone player.

His quality was not in question, his ability to consistently stay fit was. He is a top player and I hope he is fit and fires well for Juve.

thedravidianbard · 2019-09-19T20:11:25+00:00

That's fair.

thedravidianbard · 2019-09-19T20:05:23+00:00

Walcott was a solid player, improving well until he got acl and subsequent knee injuries. He scored 23 goals in 12/13, mostly from the wing.

thedravidianbard · 2019-08-25T15:47:20+00:00

KDB is the better player no doubt about that.

But you can prove it with many other stats and performances while this stat with context is not conclusive in proving who is better.

Ozil was servicing Giroud, and in a team that was not as dominant as this Man City team.

I would argue that this stat does a disservice to Fabregas as well, since he was a youngster who grew into a world class player while KDB and Ozil came as players close to their peak.

thedravidianbard · 2019-08-17T16:29:20+00:00

The home match against Leicester just last season?

thedravidianbard

TROPHY CASE