Overman wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 8:22 am
The likes of Gruev and Darlow were mainly second choice players when we were in the Championship. They should not even have been part of the equation at this level and then we've still got Byram on the bench as well! This goes down to poor recruitment over the summer as we all know. However, we made it far too easy for Arsenal yesterday a training game for them. Hopefully we live and learn and pick ourselves up for the Forest game. The board really do need to bring one or two more shrewd signings.
It costs money we don't have to move players on, it takes multi windows to build up the squad.
People criticise Gruev for not being the type of player he isn't but he does his job when needed. Same for Darlow. Byram is a squad filler on a low wage like the other two.
If beating Arsenal is really the standard we expect at this point then the grim news is that NONE of our players are good enough.
Tell me how much you expected the club to spend on replacing those players at this point?
' "Football is about the people and the players,” he said. “Then there are those who will mingle in the middle: the coaches, executives and journalists. That last group represents the worst part about football" Marcelo Bielsa
1964white wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 8:37 am
Every goal was defended woefully, James.
It seemed to me only Joe Rodon came out of this defensive mess with some credit. I'll have to watch the match again to analyse our defenders accurately
Poor marking for first goal, albeit a wonderful whipped in cross.
Calvert-Lewin seem to get in the way of Darlow for their second goal,
Struijk committed himself too early with his miss-tackle & didn't stop the cross in the box, where Bogle was caught napping, allowing Gyökeres to tap in.
For their fourth goal, Struijk got done again as Jesus turned him inside out to score with ease.
I have to say Arsenal's crosses into the box are sheer quality.
Struijk gets found out when coming up against really top class opponents. It's not by chance that we have conceded so many down our left. And how many chances has he missed at the other end this season ? When you have CBs who aren't capable of stopping crosses coming in then you have a big problem.
Some fans are still wedded to him mentally because he's the last player left of an era under a former manager, and they can't let him go.....
Last edited by CHAPELALLMAN on Sun Feb 01, 2026 9:53 am, edited 2 times in total.
1964white wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 8:37 am
Every goal was defended woefully, James.
It seemed to me only Joe Rodon came out of this defensive mess with some credit. I'll have to watch the match again to analyse our defenders accurately
Poor marking for first goal, albeit a wonderful whipped in cross.
Calvert-Lewin seem to get in the way of Darlow for their second goal,
Struijk committed himself too early with his miss-tackle & didn't stop the cross in the box, where Bogle was caught napping, allowing Gyökeres to tap in.
For their fourth goal, Struijk got done again as Jesus turned him inside out to score with ease.
I have to say Arsenal's crosses into the box are sheer quality.
That is pretty much how I remember it, of course, we have similar vantage points in the stadium, but if I watch the goals back I think I’ll find that’s a fair summary.
Don’t cry because you said goodbye to your pet, smile because you said hello
DDB220 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 8:50 am
The striking difference to our block is how deep as team we often are. The defensive line is a 5 yards inside the 18 yard box and the midfield line is on the edge of the 18 yard box. DCL was isolated because when we win possession we either lumped it or lost the ball in the few attempts we tried to pass it out from defence.
In contrast the Arsenal set up when we had a few periods of possession was much higher.
Their press and squeeze is impressively coordinated.
We struggled to break their lines, particularly centrally, every attack we mounted was pretty much down the flanks and our final delivery when we did find some space was lacking quality.
The difference in quality was very very evident.
It was akin to death by a thousand cuts as our confidence just evaporated.
We need to have a complete rethink about how we press the opposition. Your first line of defense are your forward players when they are trying to play it out of defense. And the likes of Okafor don't press at all.
Also, a pundit on MOD last night pointed out how we had too many players sitting deep when defending set pieces etc, to the extent that it created congestion, with players getting in each other's way. Crowding the players together when defending doesn't necessarily mean that you defend better. And then if you win possession, you don't have any outlet higher up the pitch.
Last edited by CHAPELALLMAN on Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
CHAPELALLMAN wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 9:58 am
We need to have a complete rethink about how we press the opposition. Your first line of defense are your forward players when they are trying to play it out of defense. And the likes of Okafor don't press at all.
Anyone waiting for Okafor to turn up might as well pack it in. Not going to happen in a month of Sundays!
Keep The Faith MOT WAL Never mind, it'll all come out in the wash............
PhoenixUnited wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:06 am
Anyone waiting for Okafor to turn up might as well pack it in. Not going to happen in a month of Sundays!
Very much looking like an expensive dud now. Most "luxury " players at least turn up every now and again - this one never does even that.
CHAPELALLMAN wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:09 am
Very much looking like an expensive dud now. Most "luxury " players at least turn up every now and again - this one never does even that.
When you're looking to impact and change the momentum of a match, such as yesterday, you look at the bench and we've spent £50 million on Okafor, Longstaff and Perri.
So you can say other teams have £50 million players to bring on and change a game, but we spent our £50 million on those three
White Riot wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:17 am
When you're looking to impact and change the momentum of a match, such as yesterday, you look at the bench and we've spent £50 million on Okafor, Longstaff and Perri.
So you can say other teams have £50 million players to bring on and change a game, but we spent our £50 million on those three
Which is about half the budget.
I was listening to a pod the other day in the Athletic which mentioned that this summer PL clubs had spent something like 300m on a group of strikers who were such a bad fit for their clubs.
No guarantees are there, and truth be told we do seem to be inclined to judge players on pretty small sample sizes. How long did it take Summerville to establish his credentials at West Ham? A season and a half?
I don't think Longstaff is a bad buy, and the other two had time to improve output.
' "Football is about the people and the players,” he said. “Then there are those who will mingle in the middle: the coaches, executives and journalists. That last group represents the worst part about football" Marcelo Bielsa
Irish Ian wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 9:47 am
It costs money we don't have to move players on, it takes multi windows to build up the squad.
People criticise Gruev for not being the type of player he isn't but he does his job when needed. Same for Darlow. Byram is a squad filler on a low wage like the other two.
If beating Arsenal is really the standard we expect at this point then the grim news is that NONE of our players are good enough.
Tell me how much you expected the club to spend on replacing those players at this point?
In all honesty we ferked up big time during the summer recruitment period. It all got a bit desperate towards the end. I didn't expect us to beat Arsenal, but I did expect us to give a better account of ourselves. The likes of Gruev and Darlow are always going to exposed at this level. I would agree the bulk of our players are not good enough for the Premiership.
Farke to his credit has got them grafting hard, but it's going to take a toll and he was desperate for reinforcements. In fairness, we haven't laid out that much money for a newly promoted side. Such players should have been replaced during the summer as we had plenty of time to recruit and assess. Essentially, it's not a case of at this point, that just feels very reactive. The club have hyper-fixated on one player for far too long as per usual. They know best and I am sure there's a cunning contingency plan somewhere.
White Riot wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:17 am
When you're looking to impact and change the momentum of a match, such as yesterday, you look at the bench and we've spent £50 million on Okafor, Longstaff and Perri.
So you can say other teams have £50 million players to bring on and change a game, but we spent our £50 million on those three
Unbelievable isn't it ? Money well and truly squandered which we couldn't afford.
A revamp of the recruitment team has to be a priority. Not sure how much Farke had to do with it.
Overman wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:24 amIn all honesty we ferked up big time during the summer recruitment period. It all got a bit desperate towards the end. I didn't expect us to beat Arsenal, but I did expect us to give a better account of ourselves. The likes of Gruev and Darlow are always going to exposed at this level. I would agree the bulk of our players are not good enough for the Premiership.
Farke to his credit has got them grafting hard, but it's going to take a toll and he was desperate for reinforcements. In fairness, we haven't laid out that much money for a newly promoted side. Such players should have been replaced during the summer as we had plenty of time to recruit and assess. Essentially, it's not a case of at this point, that just feels very reactive. The club have hyper-fixated on one player for far too long as per usual. They know best and I am sure there's a cunning contingency plan somewhere.
The spotlight has to be on the recruitment team now. We scruitinise the performance of various players, but ultimately the buck for how they end up performing starts and ends with the people who do the recruitment.
1964white wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:34 am
Ampadu, Gruev & Calvert-Lewin marking fresh air for Arsenal's first goal.
Rodon left to cover two men.
Screenshot 2026-02-01 10.32.11.png
They mentioned our players ball watching on MOD and not being aware and glancing over their shoulders. That was on one of the corners they were talking about.
A basic defensive coaching issue, and players not using their grey matter enough.
Barlow Boy wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 9:51 am
That is pretty much how I remember it, of course, we have similar vantage points in the stadium, but if I watch the goals back I think I’ll find that’s a fair summary.
Do you like torturing yourself BB ?
I would leave it mate and and archive that particular game into your collection marked as " watch at a later date"
We could all see what the problem was yesterday and we all pretty much know what the answer is, but who's got the 500 million plus
CHAPELALLMAN wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:38 am
They mentioned our players ball watching on MOD and not being aware and glancing over their shoulders. That was on one of the corners they were talking about.
A basic defensive coaching issue, and players not using their grey matter enough.
And this against a team that is number one for set piece delivery and scoring from, particularly corners. So, it isn't like we wouldn't expect this from Arsenal, we had the same exact problem down at their place.
What did we learn and improve from the first match?
1964white wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:54 am
With Calvert--Lewin infront of Darlow, he hasn't got a clear punch on it with the ball hitting Justin's back who was also on the near post.
So neither Justin, Calvert-Lewin & Darlow managed to clear the cross away efficiently.
Darlow can't take all the blame, he is impeded by his own players.
I reckon it's a Justin OG.
A complete mess!
Screenshot 2026-02-01 10.48.49.png
Too many players at the near post, creating congestion and actually impeding our keeper. Three of our own players all going for the ball, but no Arsenal players, and it ends up in the net !
Last edited by CHAPELALLMAN on Sun Feb 01, 2026 11:26 am, edited 3 times in total.
White Riot wrote: ↑Sun Feb 01, 2026 11:10 am
And this against a team that is number one for set piece delivery and scoring from, particularly corners. So, it isn't like we wouldn't expect this from Arsenal, we had the same exact problem down at their place.
What did we learn and improve from the first match?
