₦airaland Forum

Spy360:
We are playing at home. Let City bother about beating Chelsea in SB

daveP:
E get the kine way player go play vs EPL teams oerson go easily conclude if such player go ball vs UCL teams. Zubi no give such vibes one bit. Make Arteta just allow Norgaard get rhythm abeg.

Spy360:
We are playing at home. Let City bother about beating Chelsea in SB

mine3112:
I will not entirely blame Arteta for the lost. Raya can't play all competitions for goodness sake. Kepa should be ashamed of himself.

mine3112:
On point. We can beat Bournemouth even if it is a lone goal. City will drop points against Chelsea.

BlueRayDick:
There's nothing wrong starting Ur best players in a cup final! Kepa had been playing all cup games up to that moment.

Most top coaches will start their best players in all positions going into that match. For a team that wants to break the jinx of not having a trophy to show for your efforts over the years, making such sacrifice won't be too much.
What if Raya get injured in the match? Will Kepa produce half of what Raya gives in the Epl or champions league? It hurts loosing the final to city considering our barren years but we still need to reason with the coach. Like I said earlier Kepa should be ashamed of himself afterall city used the backup keeper whom I think Kepa is better than.

If he had started Raya ahead of Kepa, what is the worse that could've happened? It's not like Raya is a 100 million superstar player we are trying not to hurt his ego by starting him even when we know he has a worthy competitor that bests him in all metrics.

That human sentiment you are displaying here is what got to Arteta which made us lose the match eventually starting from Kepa's expected fumbling.

BlueRayDick:
There's nothing wrong starting Ur best players in a cup final! Kepa had been playing all cup games up to that moment.

Most top coaches will start their best players in all positions going into that match. For a team that wants to break the jinx of not having a trophy to show for your efforts over the years, making such sacrifice won't be too much

If he had started Raya ahead of Kepa, what is the worse that could've happened? It's not like Raya is a 100 million superstar player we are trying not to hurt his ego by starting him even when we know he has a worthy competitor that bests him in all metrics.

That human sentiment you are displaying here is what got to Arteta which made us lose the match eventually starting from Kepa's expected fumbling.

iamoyindamola:
City won't drop points against Chelsea with that mumu coach and over hyped players
They will collect 2 or more, we should just worry about ours, we have 4 home games and 3 away
We need 5 wins meaning if we win all home and draw the 3 away or win 1 we are champions
We must win the remaining home games period

mine3112:
What if Raya gets injured in that match? Will Kepa produces half of what Raya gives in the Epl or champions league? It hurts loosing the final to city considering our barren years but we still need to reason with the coach. Like I said earlier Kepa should be ashamed of himself afterall city used the backup keeper whom I think Kepa is better than.

BlueRayDick:
What are the odds that Kepa will get injured in a cup final when he's not been injured in almost 40 matches in both EPL and UCL up till that moment?

You think players like Kepa care about things like " shame on you"?

It's the coach who gets the full blame even when a loss is due to a handful of players being unfortunate. Are you not reading the room? Are you not seeing how fans come for Arteta's head when we lose one game in ten matches as if he's not the one who oversaw the other 9 games we didn't lose?

Starting Kepa in that match will haunt Arteta years after he's done with his managerial career. I won't be surprised if he writes it in a book years after his managerial career

BlueRayDick:
I will always hold Arteta responsible for our loss to city in the Carabao cup final just by reason of starting Kepa in goal instead of Raya.

That shitty decision cost us a chance to compete favorably against city in the game.

mostob:
Losing against City was as a result of many flaws and surely, starting Kepa didn't top the list.

Wenger was in the exact same scenario in 2014. Fabianki or Szczesny? The latter was the first choice but Fab got the nod to start. Note that we're chasing our first title in years. Guess what! Fab was the hero. He saved Wigan's first two kick which set the momentum in our favour. He started the final too and we won.

Two truths can coexist. Let's say Raya started that match and we went on to lose with Raya getting injured, the narrative here would be why Arteta threw bigger trophies away by injuring his first choice goalie. I believe we lost against City because they're tactically superior that day and we showed no fight.

Even Raya himself is not guilty of hollers (the draw against Wolves).

Fkforyou:
Because of him Rice is no longer doing the box crashing like he used to do before.

Rice is being over worked at this point.

daveP:
I tell you. There's nobody that missed Jorg and Partey like Rice right now. Those two imo offered more to his overall fluid multitasking abilities than Zubi. He's now cautious cos e dey fear for zubi.

MSGAMBLE9:
I laughed when I see people called out Zubi, I remember Rodri faced the same when he came in vis-a-vis Toure... Even with those 2 you mentioned Rice has never had the numbers he is having now with Zubi, 2nd only behind Bruno in chances created in EPL despite Zubi allegedly limiting him 🤣🤣🤣🤣, that he (Rice) is the odd favourite now for PFA Award and 4th in Balloon d'Or power ranking...

When it's comes to his (Zubi) job as a DM, he's leading the League in Interceptions and second ball, he even has more successful long passes than all our midfielders combined despite allegedly playing safe 🤣🤣🤣...

His tactical knowledge is acknowledged and captured better in this link...

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c2lr9rp9q12o

MSGAMBLE9:
I laughed when I see people called out Zubi, I remember Rodri faced the same when he came in vis-a-vis Toure... Even with those 2 you mentioned Rice has never had the numbers he is having now with Zubi, 2nd only behind Bruno in chances created in EPL despite Zubi allegedly limiting him 🤣🤣🤣🤣, that he (Rice) is the odd favourite now for PFA Award and 4th in Balloon d'Or power ranking...

When it's comes to his (Zubi) job as a DM, he's leading the League in Interceptions and second ball, he even has more successful long passes than all our midfielders combined despite allegedly playing safe 🤣🤣🤣...

His tactical knowledge is acknowledged and captured better in this link...

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c2lr9rp9q12o

daveP:
Lol. With Partey, Rice was doing great with Chances created and his Balon d'Or ranking proved that too. You can fly with any other levels but not this "Zubi made Rice a better player" one abeg. It's really Hilarious. We all can see how terrible Zubi is at his job versus big clubs and how it gives Rice EXTRA duties at the back.

Zubi gives the panic jibe when we play top 6.

His duty is he made Rice better but every time he's watched, he's caught ball watching for up to 10 goals from opponents, aside the erroneous passes?

Okay

Roland17:
The confidence baba take type like say no be the same Zubi we dey watch?

Yesterday, he repeated the same mistake with an ill-advised back pass to Raya that nearly resulted in a goal.

Roland17:
The confidence baba take type like say no be the same Zubi we dey watch?

Yesterday, he repeated the same mistake with an ill-advised back pass to Raya that nearly resulted in a goal.

mine3112:
Why is Arteta not playing Norgard? He may not be a prime Zubi but the guy is very intelligent and can make thing happens for us.

daveP:
Lol. With Partey, Rice was doing great with Chances created and his Balon d'Or ranking proved that too. You can fly with any other levels but not this "Zubi made Rice a better player" one abeg. It's really Hilarious. We all can see how terrible Zubi is at his job versus big clubs and how it gives Rice EXTRA duties at the back.

Zubi gives the panic jibe when we play top 6.

His duty is he made Rice better but every time he's watched, he's caught ball watching for up to 10 goals from opponents, aside the erroneous passes?

Okay

Roland17:
Right now, Zubi doesn't play as a DM in our system. Whenever we have possession, Zubi pushes higher and occupies the attacking zones Rice previously occupied, particularly last season. It is the reason he is also scoring a lot of goals. Without possession, Rice is sitting and rotates around Zubi's triangle whenever we don't have the ball. Zubi is extremely jittery with the ball under pressure, he struggles with making good decisions and prefers to keep things simple.

Rice being odds favorite for the PFA has nothing to do with Zubi, if anything it shows how much of Zubi's deficiency Rice covers. Rice has shown tremendous progress since he joined Arsenal and he is such a versatile player. Have you watched our positioning in the final 3rds of our attack? Right now, Rice is central to Arteta's tactics. After last season, we all agreed we needed to see Rice in those attacking zones more but that hasn't been the case this season because we have to accomodate Zubi. Zubi can't play the lone 6.

When we got Zubi, I thought we were getting a Deep-Lying (DLP) midfielder who positions at the 6 and helps us build from the back but that hasn't been the case. Zubi can't even receive the ball from the Raya to help us build the attack. Rather, we see players like Odegaard/ Eze come deep to build. In the absence of these players, you will notice Raya uses the width of the backline to restart possession because Zubi isn't reliable. We have seen him lose possession over and over again, some have cost us goals and nearly did again yesterday. My expectation was a player who can be incisive with his passing but we are seeing more lateral, back and safe passes from him.

Leyqute:
You have started underrating City because of UCL win. I don’t see them losing to this disjointed Chelsea side coached by a part time final year English student. Didn’t the last 3 years teach you enough?

daveP:
No clean sheet for Barca in 14 consecutive UCL games.


Make e no kon reach our turn and we go pause that record o. Ehen. That's if Alvarez doesn't show in 2nd leg sef. It looks more like Atletico at this point.

MSGAMBLE9:
It's just an agenda, the person that play safe is purportedly leading the team in line& breaking passes and has the team long ball efficiency while at same has more interceptions and second ball win rate (that dwarfs even Rice's even while he is not the DM in your words) all thanks to Rice covering his "Deficiency"? 🤣🤣...

This is the Official PL version of what you wrote ( of Zubi average positioning)... Please watch


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IUV1VVKopI

BlueRayDick:
Baba mi, I fully understand the analogy you are trying to draw with that 2014 scenario you are painting. I watched the 2014 FA cup from start to final and I can boldly tell you Fabianski was a better keeper than Kepa has been.

I have watched Kepa over the years, I watched him at Chelsea in a cup final and also watched him in Arsenal colors. I knew right from day one that starting him in the final will spell a disaster for us and it did. I put up a post days before the match that Arteta shouldn't make the mistake of starting him ahead of Raya for that cup final as a reward of some sorts. Unfortunately, Areta thought otherwise and his howler led to the first goal.

I always mention how Kepa struggled to control his area how he's less dominant in aerial balls. There's no way Raya was going to spill that ball that led led to city's first goal. I mean I still saw evidence in the die minutes of yesterday's match when Sporting crossed a dangerous ball into our box. Raya didn't attempt to catch the ball but punched it out of his area ferociously.

That cup final really pained me gan o. I admit we didn't create as many chances as we should've, but sometimes having a good defence line can spur you to a victory like we witnessed yesterday evening and games like Newcastle first leg.