Odd game really all in all..
Before it would i have taken a point? Yes.. However i felt they were there for the taking, we think we have defensive issues? Well they take that to a different level..
But at 2-0? We shouldnt be letting them back into it so easily.. I remember Wenger talking about Swansea last season when they were being compared to Arsenal and he said something along the lines of
They play sterile football, they keep it but dont do any damage with the ball.. Just hold the ball with no thought to either give it away or take risks to penetrate
Not an exact quote but it was certainly based along that..
Well at 2-0 in games thats what we need to do.. We need to just keep the ball and take the sting out of games.. We have top top footballers so they can keep a football, but at times we are like school kids, just desperate to get that next goal and give the ball up so cheaply..
The game as a whole though we were probably lucky to get away with a point, they were the better side, but we took adavantage of two defensive f**k ups, and if we had finished better at times we could have took adavantage of a couple more..
But im trying to look slightly neutrally at the way we approached the game.. Ive been calling for us to be tighter at times and more pragmatic, and we certainly tried to be tighter than in other games, we looked to defend and the wide forwards certainly dropped in to help defensively which they havent been doing all through the season.. So was that by design or by the fact we took an early lead and dropped?
There were one or two fantastic individual performances.. I thought Carra was immence, dont need to expand, he just was..
I felt Luis was brilliant off the left side, not only for his want to join up the attack but the way he went about dropping defensively and offering cover for his full back, thats one place we went wrong sunday at Oldham, the way the manager set them up with a 4-2-4 essentially meant that the full backs, both kids still were woefully exposed by having no help in front of them, but Luis was superb at that last night, he dropped back, helped cover Johnson, and then the other way his vision and energy were exceptional..
I thought Henderson did well again, his energy to try to link the front three with the midfield is fantastic..
One issue i still have is the midfield.. The balance rather than the players.. Both midfields were passed by alot yesterday again, it was interesting to see Arsenal as they play the 3 in there as well, and as much as i felt Wilshere had a really good game for them the midfields are often stuck in no mans land with too much ground to cover..
Overall.. Frustrated we losta two goal lead.. Disapointed really but on the overall game we were probably lucky to get that..
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