₦airaland Forum

AnfieldFan:
His boot was on the ground...A red card necessary...If anything, Thiago should have seen a red but he got fouled earlier..

It wasn't a handball, but they saw a corner on screen, what stopped Taylor from giving the corner then?
For all we know, we could have scored from the that particular corner...

Var checked for handball not for corner kick. They Just told Taylor their own jurisdiction which was "no handball". Yeah, there's high probability you guys might have scored from the corner but that's not Var area to talk on, that's the work of the ref. So if ref makes a mistake there, it has nothing to do with Var.

Same way if a player dives outside the box and his teammate scores through the resulting direct free kick, the goal will stand but if same player dives inside the box, Var will look into it since that's a penalty decision (Var area)

AnfieldFan:
You said they check wrong situations that lead to goals...
City scored from a corner, a corner that shouldn't have been given because Cancelo was offside...
If the ball wasn't deflected for the initial offside and City scored, it would have prompted them to check and give the offside,l(I understand perfectly).I'm just that considering Liverpool plays the highest defensive line in England, saying offside decisions shouldn't be called because they weren't goals just works against us...
Think of it this way, Sterling scored but was ruled offside, assuming his shot was parried by Allison for a corner, and they then score from that corner, would it suddenly make Sterling onside...

Now you get it.
If Allison had parried the ball to corner kick, it means the ball is out of play and that's another sequence. So once play is restarted (which is corner kick), if Man city eventually scored from that said corner kick then it's a Goal.

Same way Var would have called for offside if cancelo scored directly from that his initial offside position


Now example of wrong situation that leads to go is this .. Assuming the ball went out for a throw-in but let's say Arnold brings it quickly into the field of play(without having a throw-in), then refree (who didn't know that ball went out) still allowed play to go on and then Liverpool scored through that resulting attack. In that case, Var would call and overrule the goal.

AnfieldFan:
Cancelo was offside for the corner that led to City's second goal..
Var didn't check it but awarded City the corner... Salah's ball that was ruled a goal kick despite Var clearly seeing it was a corner after checking for handball...
Fabinho saw only a yellow because his foot was mainly on the ground....

Lol. I think you guys should know the work of Var. I mean, what Var have authority to check out and what they don't have authority on.

If ref didn't award a corner kick/throw-in correctly, Var don't have the authority to check and correct it.

Var only checks red card fouls, penalties foul/handball, offsides or any wrong situation that the sequence directly leads to goal.

Any other thing no concern Var, so your examples no concern Var at all.

daveP:


Omoeux!

Our able Striker.
Na now everywhere don burst

Spy360:
After his experience on the Roma bench, I should believe he will be willing to try his luck against our current FBs. Or else, it's good bye.

He better acts fast sha.

Spy360:
I'd rather have Nketiah at CF than ESR at LW as it stands today. However both gives us options in attack.

Like what Jencejyde was lamenting about, not signing a striker in Jan may cost Arteta big time. But still keeping faith with Lacazette will cost Arteta more. He will regret it.

Our season is still salvageable. The earlier Arteta does the tweaking, the better.
If it's because of captainship, Lacazette will not the first captain to be benched in arsenal na.

Spy360:
Some people cannot discover their destiny until it's too late.

AMN would have been a brilliant FB until Arteta. He loves FBs that can drift into midfield and create loads of tactical opportunities and tweaking. But AMN nor want hear.

E just tire me for the boy I swear. Now was the reason for going out on loan if you're not even seeing the game time you're insisting on.

Maintland Niles consistently warming bench in Roma. When will someone tell this boy that midfield is not for him and that he would have been seeing more minutes anywhere as a fullback.
Even TAA that's a recognised fullback was a midfielder at Liverpool academy but played fullback when they lacked one just as how Ainsley broke out too. Now he's a regular player with both club and country while Ainsley still dey do strong head

Spy360:
Moving Martinelli to the centre will weaken the LW where he is more productive for us. I think Nketiah is just being overlooked. He was rubbish against Villa, but has been good in the last two games.

ESR is an able deputy in that left wing so it's not really an issue.
Though whether Nketiah or Martinelli is better as long as Lacazette is out.

LostMyZeal:
Shameless Uefalona fans

Person jilt una to go collect fat pay cheque for PSG + arrangee French award, but una still want am back. For what exactly?!

And where's the dignity, if I may ask

I came to PSG to win ucl...yen yen yen

Y'all keep shifting the goal post and deluding yaselfs

But you want Ronaldo to leave your club cos they don't deserve him now abi??

You see yasef??

Spy360:
Saying Lacazette is the least of our problems tells your whole story. It's sad for me because you don't know that our priority now is to score goals.

That Lacazette is not the focal point of the team structure means he is useless because of his performance.

As for Nketiah, he may not be the best idea of a good striker we need, has shown that he is a better prospect of goal scoring than Laca even in the last two games we lost he has struck the bar twice. I am not that's the goal we want but it tells us that if given more playing time to blend he can do better than what Laca is serving us currently.

The thing is presently Lacazette is useless in that number 9 position. Before at least he doesn't score but at least he brings other things he brings to the table, but now he's not scoring, not linking up play, not assisting and not even pressing from the front again. It seems he's even lost all hope and that's the worrying part coming from a whole captain.

Like you said, Nketiah might not be the solution but at least, he's way way better than Lacazette now and I agree. Laca have lost it.
I just hope Arteta gets sense and do the needful

The way forward to salvage our season now is to start either Nketiah or Martinelli as CF (I prefer Martinelli tho) and revert back to our 4231 with Sambi and Xhaka together. I still feel we can still push forward as long as Arteta will move away from that 433 for now till Partey comes back. Tavarez needs to be back and needs some talking to get him back to form

The boys shouldn't lose head. Not now.

mostob:
There is one tall guy in our academy, Mollaj abi na moller Dem dey call am...maybe we should start using cross and nod tactic

Not really cross and nod tactics but use longballs to bypass the midfield press when under pressure from the back. I raised this point earlier saying we need a striker/attacker in that's good with that but Blueray and Spy think say I dey hold brief for Lacazette


Anyways, na Moller you dey talk about, but I've not been hearing much about the guy oo. Maybe him no dey too shine for u23s

Itsrm:
My greatest joy will be seeing Arsenal and Manutd outside the top 4 and I will be happy to present this to you when the season ends and Arsenal does not make top 4.

Why not hold it first till then

50d33q:
Lfc most important match of the season, firminho is on bench..
Jodera will come and tell us how he's important to klopp and lfc

Lol, Haba na.

Wetin concern me concern Firmino presently.

mostob:
And if we decide to part ways with Arteta, who will replace him?

This is not even the time to be thinking about this sef.

mostob:
Xhaka should partner Sambi.
Nketiah should start and Pepe needs more minutes

Yeah, it's better we just go back to that 4231. Xhaka and Sambi together.

I just wish the 3 are Saka, Odegaard and ESR while Martinelli plays 9 but Arteta won't think that way.
Moreso, I prefer Nketiah starting than Pepe if I'm to choose one between the two. Pepe is always infuriating to watch to be honest.

Conte and his spurs are not dropping points and the worst part is that they're picking up points with swagger. Long road for us

50d33q:
This is defensive tactics not compulsory j use to think goalkeepers are the last line of defence
All these rules are strange to me I swear

So many new stuff sha even tho Diz isn't new.
I think it's just getting highlighted more

Roland17:
My take is, it is not clear and obvious by just looking at the pic above. If the offside is not vs Sanchez (based on the 2 player offside rule) why did we waste all 4 minutes drawing line and looking for wetin no loss? All the angles couldn't see Cucurella's feet/heel but they needed to justify the call.

You get my angle now?

Yea, I get where you coming from now

50d33q:
Corner kick o when did that one start

Mostly in corner kicks, at least a player normally stay at the pole side to guard it which mostly never plays opposition players onside , but unfortunately for us no player was by the pole side to keep Martinelli onside.

The rule is just straight forward, at least two opposition players is to keep a player on. It can either be keeper and another outfield player or 2 outfield players.
In Martinelli case only 1 opposition player (Sanchez the keeper) kept him on

50d33q:
How?

You need AT LEAST 2 opposition players to be before you to be considered on.

From what I saw, it's only Sanchez (1 opposition player) that was before Martinelli

Roland17:
I see Sanchez's white boot. If it based on the pic, the offside isn't clear and obvious.

if it's only Sanchez boot that's before him, then he's still off.

johnjunior39:
Saka is overwhelmed and need to rest, he is young with heavy burden. Is not how it should be. Saka need to be rested against Southampton.

Lokonga is not a DM. He will fair better with a senior player who will teach him. As much as many don't like Xhaka,he does a lot in that middle.

When I saw that middle ,I know only miracle can change things.

We just made our ambition not impossible but hard

I pity Saka. In fact I pity the young lads.

Arteta needs to come up with a different formation other than 433 and quick cos it isn't the strength of this present players.

Saka is tired, and it'll be more work from him going forward since everyone will be looking up to him now for inspiration

BlueRayDick:
Jodera and Lacazette are a match made in heaven. When I tell am say he loves Laca passionately my guy denied it.

Lol, na you know.
My point about Laca have always always been clear

daveP:
Conte's Spurs will decimate Arteta in this current state. No jokes. If its not Kane or Son, Dejan is there.

I was always harping on more goals, but its true we don't have a striker truly. That Lacazette and 20hrs no goals is deeper and painful than we see. Especially as Arteta saw Auba and Laca and had to let Auba go. O think he values the control than the results.

It's only a matter of time before it gets to this isn't it??

Roland17:
In my opinion, I think the coaching staff overreacted to the Crystal Palace loss and made way too many changes that affected the team’s balance. I know Tavares has been poor but I think we could have gotten more from him than we did Xhaka playing that position. We went into the game with a disadvantaged mentality with these changes!

I thought the shape/ player selection for the formation chosen and tactic utilized made it difficult for us to settle into any rhythm and you could see the players struggle to advance the ball. The middle of the park selection was a more troubling one for me because we have seen this over and over again that Odegaard needs to be playing higher up the pitch, anything less is exposing the team and sabotaging his strengths max.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why Martinelli has not gotten a chance at the CF position, instead of the strikeback CF we have been parading. A 4-3-3 with Lokonga/ESR/Odegaard in the middle against a pacy, physical and high pressing 3-5-2 midfield of Trossard/Bissouma/Caicedo/Mwepu/Gross spells nothing but disaster.

Exactly, that disadvantaged mentality was it for me. I was also thinking Arteta overreacted not using Tavarez. If you noticed, I said I hoped Arteta will start tavarez against Brighton and not fall into the temptation of shifting Xhaka to Lb position. That alone killed anything we have in that midfield cos I always know, ESR and Sambi and Odegaard are so soft there.

If it's even better with Martinelli at that CF sef, it's better as he have better understanding with his attackers while being a good goalscorer. Na the Nketiah wey be the option naim I dey get big doubts.

The thing is Arteta allowed the loss of crystal palace to get to him as well as the pressure of Tottenham gaining advantage. I just hope we don't cave in

Spy360:
Na me you dey talk to so?

I see how you carefully and systematically avoid calling those who insisted on Lacazette.

Arteta should know that keeping Lacazette in the starting line up as against using Nketiah will be his greatest undoing this season. Make we dey watch o.

The thing is that Lacazette is the least of our problems now Tbh. Even the Nketiah you're always clamouring for had over 30min to score but he didn't. I'm not even saying Laca is the best for us or shouldn't be benched, but who will bench him? Nketiah that's suppose to grab his opportunities now is not even scoring or showing that he wants it. At least, you won't say Nketiah isn't seeing shirt presently.

But that's by the way. Why I said Lacazette is the least of our problem in this structure is because the play is not heavily revolved around him. Not that he's not a problem this past few weeks, but his issue don't really have a big impact compared to if A Partey gives below-par game or his replacement isnt giving that kind of quality or almost.

Like I always said, this team depends on structure and the personnel to have quality to carry it out. The day will lose that(which means losing the dominance) is the day I'll get worried. With that structure, we'll always create chances that anyone can score from. Since crystal palace game till now, you can see how guys are gnashing their teeth

Now, am I saying the striker role is useless in this structure? No! Actually if we have a striker that can score goal better than Lacazette, we'll be scoring 4-5 goals, but even if he doesn't, we'll be relying on Wingers. The issue here is the source of that creativity and midfield balance that our attackers feed from to play their game and defenders have confidence to push up and easily pass ball to midfield.

Once that midfield creativity and balance is altered and subdued, then we'll be ready to see more games like today

afrodoc2:
The guy has been a bit disappointing so far to be honest. I was one of his biggest fans and I expected him to take the next step and dominate EPL defences.

I think Tuchel needs to play a more attacking and higher octane system to get the best out of him.

Hmm, before he came to EPL, do you see him as a Striker or as an Attacking midfielder that will be deadly?

NinjaXmetahuman:
No 4ophy for arsenal again until arsenal fans like jodera beg Wenger


Road clear for conte to sneak tottenham back into top 4

Make Wenger go sleep abeg

We suppose dey look forward not backward

Itsrm:
That's true

Thank God say na "if" I talk.

mostob:
And he was already getting it right o..then two injuries and boom! He scattered everything.
Hopefully Tomi will be back to fill Tierney's void and Xhaka will go partner Sambi or Elneny.
BTW is there no striker in our academy wey we fit manage ni

I read Tomi will be back (at least during the bench) against Southampton. Hopefully, he plays Tierney wing since he's two-footed and Xhaka returns back to midfield.

I don't think Tierney's injury would have had that much impact if only Tavarez showed that form he showed like at the beginning of the season. In fact, I will put it as the loss of confidence of Tavarez that scattered everything more cos it made Xhaka move away from that midfield.

My worry is that who will play that Partey role, except we shift back formation to 4231 instead of 433. We all know both Xhaka and Sambi can't play sole 4 at all.

When I saw the Lineup I was just pessimistic to say the least.
Slow man Xhaka at Lb
Soft Lokonga as sole 4 guarding Odegaard and ESR.
If only tavarez was trusted, maybe Xhaka in midfield would have helped cos it seemed too soft

The ⅔ change in midfield was too much in my opinion. Even tho we're slipping away from top 4 (spurs winning as of time of writing), we still in it.

I just hope we deliver something against Southampton. After Southampton our toughest test begins at such a bad time for us.
I wonder how the camp will be feeling right now, all the optimism and confidence
Hmm

Coyg!!

For those who wanted to see Odegaard and ESR (playing as 8s) because Xhaka kills attack. Hope we've seen how we dominate the midfield with the duo of Ode and ESR

For those who think since the structure is in place, "anybody" can replace "anybody" . Hope we've seen how Sambi plays that role very well almost as good as Partey.

For those who think Partey is not our engine Room and ensures our dominance through how he beats press, give forward passes and always start buildups from the back receiving balls from our CBs. Hope we've seen how our CBs were confused because lokonga doesn't have the qualities to beat press and start attack from the CBs. We can see how he's easily subdued.

Oh, and our attack was subdued today again? Hmmm

Southampton up next