Another frustrating watch which ended with us being happy with a 0-0 at Leeds.
Leno - 9 - Two great saves, did have one flappy moment but overall was strong.
Bellerin - 6 - Created our 2 best opportunites, and the second should have been a match winning assist. Defensively wasn't great, and lost the ball putting us in trouble a couple of times.
Holding - 5 - Didn't do too much wrong, but it was a rather quiet day for him.
Gabriel - 5 - Had a couple of moments where he let the ball bounce off him straight to an attacker to give Leeds 2 good chances. We were a bit lucky Leeds were so bad going forward really.
Tierney - 6 - Gave us more attacking thrust than anyone, and put in his usual defensive performance.
Xhaka - 3 - Game totally passed him by. Often he is the player with most touches (100 odd), yesterday he had 36 touches - the same as Pepe who was sent off after 50 minutes. Did not get close to the Leeds midfield (Phillips had 106 touches).
Ceballos - 5 - Doing the job of two men, he led the way for us in touches, tackles, dribbles, interceptions, second in shots. So comparitive to his team mates he did well. However it wasn't great.
Willian - 1 - Started by taking on and beating his man in the first minute. Then did fack all else for 45 minutes before being withdrawn.
Pepe - 0 - Had a shot and created a chance. Arguably the most lively of the front 3. But let an opponent get in his head, took the bait and no matter how soft the "headbutt" was, he gave the ref little option.
Willock - 5 - The moment that summed his performance up was when he picked the ball up, beat his man and his options for a pass were Auba standing still, Pepe standing still and Willian standing still. He shouted at Willian to make a run, only for Willian to run towards him. He was at the heart of the move that led to our best 1st half chance, spotting the run of Bellerin and picking him out. Let down by the experience around him.
Aubameyang - 4 - Had a couple of chances, but looked bereft of confidence and wasn't making runs. A fair few managers feel he is best from wide, and yesterday backed that up.
Nelson - 4 - Came on at half time, but before he could settle we were down to 10. Struggled to get involved and his set-pieces let him down.
Saka - 6 - Came on just after the red and gave us hope we could actually sneak a win. Then wasted a golden opportunity. Then got injured - hopefully a minor one. When fit he really needs to be given an attacking role in our team.
Maitland-Niles - NA - Came on for Saka, touched the ball once. Given Pepe is out for 3 games, and Willian and Saka are doubts, could Arteta give him a chance in an attacking role?
Arteta - 4 - He tried to change it up, but could not find a way to make us attacking. Made the right call to drop Lacazette, but started Willian and Pepe. Have to credit him for getting a draw against the odds, and his plans were hurt by Partey being out. Tried to protect Saka, circumstances went against this though.
It was a bad performance, not too many players came away with credit. It opens up the question as to how Arteta will approach the Wolves and Spurs games coming up. Will he stick with 4-2-3-1, will he go back to 3-4-3 or maybe try another set-up. Hopefully Partey will be back.
Molde next, a chance to qualify and give ourselves 2 games off.
Yesterdays ratings.
posted on 23/11/20
comment by CrouchEndGooner (U13531)
posted 36 seconds ago
So if he hadn't got sent off what rating would you give him
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posted on 23/11/20
Our youngster Reiss and especially Saka gave the game another turn in our favour. With the introduction of both there were a different approach in our game. Think Reiss deserve a bit better than you gave him.
posted on 23/11/20
comment by CrouchEndGooner (U13531)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by CrouchEndGooner (U13531)
posted 36 seconds ago
So if he hadn't got sent off what rating would you give him
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posted on 23/11/20
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EnglVQ8WMAE33h7?format=jpg&name=large
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We all thought things were bad back then.
Never mind the invincible, I would love just to be playing like we used to in 16-17.
The football on show is just horrific at the moment.
posted on 23/11/20
Just saw 2 pretty horrific stats that basically sum us up at the moment
Xhaka completed zero passes to willock, and just 3 to ceballos. The player with the most completed passes to aubameyang was Leno.
How the feck have we got to a state where we produce stats like that!? Doesn’t matter how secure we are at the back, or who we play in attack, if we play like that we’ll be no better than a mid table team.
posted on 23/11/20
Tbf Xhaka barely completed a pass to anyone. Bet most were to Tierney and Gabriel?
I do think the lack of movement is a contributing factor, as said about Willock in the article. But then is the lack of runs because they don't think the pass will come and they are wasting their time?
Need to get Luiz in as a QB if we want forward passing I guess ...
posted on 23/11/20
Yeah most of his passes were to tiereny. Ceballos wasn’t much better with supplying the forwards, he passed 6 times to Pepe, 2 to auba, 2 to Willian, 1 to saka and 1 to willock.
Yeah it’s a combination of the both lack of forward passes and movement, you do see our forwards make runs though and get ignored, seems unless it’s a fall back run from deeper, our midfielders won’t make the pass. But the forwards do need to make them more, can even just help move defence around, even if pass doesn’t come.
Pretty much any attacking stat is horrific at the moment, so hard to blame one thing. The whole system needs a massive readjustment in that area. Think partey will help with some of it, but still loads of work to do to fix it, on and off the pitch
posted on 23/11/20
Need to get Luiz in as a QB if we want forward passing I guess ...
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That is a depressing read tbh. Have to rely on a 33 years old CB to be the main link to the attack just show how far down we are.
Him contributing is one thing but being the main provider is another one.
posted on 23/11/20
Here's another stats from Orbinho:
"Saka (3) completed more passes to Aubameyang in the game against Leeds than Willian, Pepe and Willock combined (2).
The link between midfield and attack has been almost non-existent all season."
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For reminder, Saka only played just over 30 minutes.
posted on 23/11/20
Xhaka needs to not be playing for us. I wish we had got rid of him in January. He got a lot of credit (some deserved, some not) for having the character to come back after his falling out with the fans but I felt that somewhat obfuscated the facts of how negatively he affects our play just by being in the team, both attacking and defensively.