Mane - Firmino - Salah
Keita - Coutinho - Henderson
I bet Daniel Sturridge is sitting there right now rejecting approaches from the sort of crap club he will have to settle for in August.
Mane - Firmino - Salah
Keita - Coutinho - Henderson
I bet Daniel Sturridge is sitting there right now rejecting approaches from the sort of crap club he will have to settle for in August.
What sort of player is Keita? That strikes me as 5 attackers + Henderson but I might misunderstand Keith a little.
It also seems we're likely to get Robertson from Hull. £8m. Not much to complain about there.
The bolded ones are all backup though, right?
Trouble is Salah and Mane are both better from the right, but you'd expect both of them to start. You've gotta put Coutinho in the midfield three if only to fit others in (and he was playing there toward the end of last season, or at least a couple games?)
Mane, Firmino, Salah
Coutinho, Keita
Henderson
Would be harsh on Wijnaldum. You could just shove captain Henderson on the bench and go all out mental attack. Heavy metal etc.
You've also got Lallana missing out, which is again harsh on him.
Options are good though.
Is the defense still a pile of shit?
Dejan Lovren is, yes.
Coutinho in the midfield three is only going to happen against wank (which is a good idea, incidentally). I would imagine Wijnaldum-Henderson-Lallana would be the BIG GAME midfield trio (from currently available options), but assuming everyone is fit all the time is daft. Someone is always injured and Liverpool's bench was very weak last season.
Oh yeah, forgot about Lallana. He was arguably the best player? In conclusion, I have no idea.
1-1 against Wigan at HT.
Alexander-Arnold looks to be genuinely pushing Clyne for starting right-back... very impressive so far.
Lallana was probably our best player last season (Coutinho missed too many games).
It's all incredibly average, Coutinho & Mane apart.
Lallana just kept getting injured for months on end after playing for England.
Much like Torres coming back with a muscle injury every fucking time he played for Spain in 2008/09. You'd think they'd learn.
If you sign Oxlade Chamberlain expect to have a good portion of the team out with hamstring injuries. I love to watch him play when he's at it but he's so, so, so bad when recovering from injury. His entire Arsenal career could be summed up 3 bad games with 2 average games, hits another level for 3 games, out for 7 weeks, repeat. The player is absolutely there which is why I'm frustrated we'll no doubt lose him but he has baggage.
I'd be genuinely interested to see how Chamberlain got on in a system like Liverpool's (assuming he would play as one of the supposed midfielders). He's always seemed like he has talent, but not really as a wide man (I'm sure Southampton always had him pegged as a central midfielder). Now that Arsenal have adopted the a la mode 3 man defense maybe he'll get a chance there for them (or just get to play as a wingback as and when hamstring injuries permit).
In other news, look at the state of Diego Costa:
I looked for a better one on their official site but there must be some kind of embargo on them (that's probably an archive photo). I bet there's a fair amount of timber around the midriff there.
I think that'd be interesting to see too, Niko. Sure he'd be willing to press like Klopp wanted (until he got injured at least).
Seems that Kolasinac dude will be first choice left wingback for Arsenal, and Bellerin will presumably be on the right, so Ox would be on the bench. If I was him, or just about any player there, I'd have a change and try somewhere else.
He was absolutely immense as a wingback last year but I'm starting to think anyone can look good there. I'd say he's an improvement on Lallana in his dribbling ability but his final ball off a touch is really poor which often has him beating a man but then knocking it into the next or fucking up the next ball. I once saw him beat the same man with a Cruyff turn 4-5 times in as many seconds and then fail a 5 yard back pass on the halfway line, as an example. He shone as a wingback as he was often taking a cross off the first touch back off a pass from the edge of the area and he hits it very sweetly. It's noticeable how much interplay he has with Giroud vs Ozil, a man of many touches.
In our old formation he would/should get in front of Walcott but Ramsey/Xhaka/Oxlade-Chamberlain is a weird mix of CMs.
Ozil should be sold. He has given arsenal four years of decent game. He is 30 now (i think) with one year left on his contract. He isnt going to start doing better numbers. It should be oxlade who should be first choice for that right wide slot. Both walcott and ozil are way best their experation date.
Bellerin looks like he is staying so RWB is probably going to be bellerin. Put oxlade in front of him, further up the formation.
The Ox sees himself as a central midfielder these days. Though how this much rumoured move to Liverpool will help, I don't know. He's more likely to play there for Arsenal than us.
lol at Costa. Maybe China is too demanding a league and he's holding out for Thailand.
I can't see any point whatsoever in spending £25m on Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Ozil is 28, scored 8 goals and got the 6th most assists in the league last season where he spent 3.5 months injured. He was poor the moment Arsenal became a poor team. Very much a player who makes good teams great rather than someone who drags them through. Still a fantastic player. No-one wants him outside of Fenerbache because no-one still plays with a 10/8 hence he'll stay.
Scored our best goal last year too, the guy is a non-competitive version of Bergkamp you just need to put good enough players around him to let him play his game
:d
@phonics Does he not have a habit of disappearing in big games, though? Genuinely asking. I don't watch that much of Arsenal.
It's more that Arsenal do, but he stands out more because he doesn't PRESS and people expect him to do something with nothing.
As Lewis says, that's far more Arsenal's fault than Ozil. In our two marquee wins over big opposition (the 2 3-0's vs United and Chelsea) he was absolutely key in both. I watched him vs West Brom when I went there on boxing day and a ball went out of play due to his fake and he ended up kicking the water bottles by the corner flag into the crowd and screaming so loud I heard it in the middle tier. We won 1-0 through an 88' Giroud header (selling him is going to be the biggest mistake we make this year) despite dominating the game. Though you could that problem down to a poor conversion of chances etc.
Hes both frustrating and in the top 10 players that's ever played for the club (that I've seen)
That's fair enough. And yeah selling Giroud would seem a mistake to me. If he'd rather be off probably not much you can do though.
Arsene Wenger is literally the only manager in the world that's never kept an unhappy player. If you're willing to let Alexis Sanchez go on a free next year to win the league this time round, why would you let Giroud go because it's a World Cup year.
Former Southampton Striker Emmanuel Mayuka
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Southampton in Twitter fat shaming controversy....
I had a dream last night I was in line for some pizza and Mike Ashley was ahead of me in the queue. I wish he kept to his word about giving Rafa what he needs. At least the new guy almost scored on his debut. Looks like Gouffran's away which is fine. A season in the Premier League might be too much for him.
Interesting from Mourinho on Lukaku: http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Fe...ource=facebook
Loic Remy's been told he can leave Chelsea this summer, according to Sky.
I'm not sure there'll be too many takers for him now - I was expecting him and Benteke to tear it up last season for Palace, but he spent nearly all season injured, he's 30 now and he'll still be on big wages.
I'm more surprised he's still there.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40609989
Chelsea have signed Bakayoko.
£40 million is the new £12 million.
Aguero to Chelsea?
I'm a twit
Milan are basically buying a new first XI at this point.
Biglia now to add to, Bonucci, Andre Silva, Musacchio, Rodriguez, Conti, Calhanoglu and Kessie. Signing Donnarumma to a new deal and supposedly still want Belotti.
I'd completely missed Andre Silva going there. Thirty million quid and Porto were still skint enough to send Neves to Wolves for half that.
Inter.
Milan are basically spending money until fair play kicks in for them in September.