₦airaland Forum

Jodera:
Spy360, Saliba made a mistake in the 53rd minute when he was attempting to dribble out from the back but Bamford stole the ball and ran through on goal with one on one with Ramsdale.

Saliba left him to run free without engaging him instead he banked/relied on Ramsdale to make a save and thankfully Ramsdale did.

That Exactly was what I expected Gabriel to do against tottenham instead of stupidly sliding Richarlison. God knows if Saliba had stupidly engaged Bandied the way Gabriel engaged Richarlison, maybe na different tori we dey talk now

The timing of the game is important (53mins) because he would risk getting a red.

However, have you ever heard of the saying 'if you miss the ball, don't miss the man'?

Think about it.

kokaneprodigy:
You read where I mentioned he didn’t do anything wrong.

However, defenders should understand gimmicks from attackers in such situation particularly where we have more to lose.
If his studs had made substantial contact he would have been sent off irrespective. Diego Costa did this thing to one of our defenders back then when we played against Chelsea and we suffered for it.

I agree with you here. Bamford tried to get in his head and almost succeeded. We were lucky VAR was active.

Tinubu supporters all have plans to relocate abroad. That's even if he wins. Clowns. Ogun punish una

germaphobe:
to be honest, i think gabriel had a good game. yea the added time drama can be argued but over all he was good. and i would boldly say he wasn't the week link between him and saliba today. just say craze come enter him head later on.

omo, todays win feels kinda so so good because it shows we can still hold our side from much pressure.

ps: who has that ronaldo and anthony ft celebration pics, cus that was exactly how i felt when the game ended.

Gabriel was actually better than Saliba yesterday.

mostob:
Holding is a sweeper too not a tackler.

You see am

omenka:
My vote is for Jagaban. Nothing would change that.

Even after realising that you are stupid?

hisgrace090:
Imo remain obidient.

Full Obi-dient. I was in Imo State and saw it clearly. Even other party members are Obi-dient

Roland17:
I get your thoughts, you agree with me that he needs to be benched but are worried we have no one reliable to play that LCB.

To me it’s more about helping Gabu at this point, else his lack of awareness and concentration will cost us important points.

Let’s see what a White/ Saliba combo can do. I am not sure what’s going on but I am hoping we are not planning to continue fielding players in opposite areas of their strength. Tomiyasu needs to go back to his RB position or we play him alongside Saliba so Gabu can sit.

Whenever a player is sure of not being easily replaceable they can become complacent and rash in their decisions. I believe that's one of the problems of Gabriel.

As regarding our options, we need a leftie tackler. In a 2 CB system, one of them must be the tackler and the other the sweeper. Saliba and White are similar because they are not hard in tackling. Saliba and White are both sweepers. The only other tackler we have is Holding and he is right footed.

ObaIgwe1:
Honestly we need to let Gabriel rest for a week or 2. Let's use the back of Tomi, White, Saliba and Tierney.

But credit to Leeds, they really fought so hard. But thanks to God we won.

Next!

I said it here when the league was to start that we lacked an alternative for Gabriel at LCB. It will be a tough decision for Arteta to drop him in a competitive game. Any person in our current team we choose will make the defense line weaker for sure.

Roland17:
While we are at it, Gabu needs to see bench. He has lost it..

To play who? That's the issue. If we can get a better alternative that would be great

kokaneprodigy:
Make I no lie if that his drama had cost us this win, this place no go contain me and his fans.

Even when he was not guilty as charged?

iamoyindamola:
To me it still a red card
But how will the ref give red without PK

It was a non-sporting offence

jerryunit48:
Some people go get heart problem today

Especially Oyigboupdate

Workch:
Atiku is most likely to win

Atiku will not win Nasarawa and Benue for obvious reasons. Those people don here am for Fulani hands. Obi will win up to 60% of NC. A quarter of Benue people are Igbos.

BadaYusufAmoo:
Peter Obi cannot win the 2023 election.

The former deputy governor of Sokoto state, Mukhtar Shagari, has said he rejected the opportunity to become Peter Obi’s running mate.

The PDP stalwart said he did not “see the path through which Peter Obi will win the election in this country.”

Read more>>>https://www.legit.ng/politics/1497347-2023-election-peter-obis-chance-sinks-powerful-northern-politician-discloses-major-secret/

I watch that interview and you portrayed it wrongly.

He was asked what he thinks after the Economist released a poll that showed Peter Obi was likely going to win the Presidential election.

He started yarning jazz. Talking about how he was the first person PO approached for VP. He had 2mins to make a case for and prove why his principal Atiku should defeat Obi but he failed woefully.

In fact, with his revelation if his children would hate him for denying them the chance of becoming the children of the next VP. People now see him as foolish.

iamoyindamola:
He should be
If i remember his correct moniker i will tag him

Pickabeau

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.
~Bob Marley (Redemption songs)

If we all decide to think clearly, honestly and without prejudice, none of us will vote either Atiku or Tinubu.

Let truth be told.

iamoyindamola:
peakabeau1

Yessssssss!



Memories are sweet

Hope say him dey fine o. E don tey

kokaneprodigy:
Guy where you dey all these years?
You see Pataki?

Those days when this thread was a war zone.

Every day na fight.

Chai we don grow up o.

Iamoyindamola can relate. Sod what's the moniker of that your best paddy self?

Jodera:
Lol, I get the sarcasm part— DWYL.


But I'm not looking at us saying we're outscoring our opponents as facts. What I'm looking at is that our GK is hardly tested in almost all our matches even when the defence are put under pressure and few of the goals conceded was because of foolish errors from main culprit (Gabriel). Take away Gabriel childish error and we'll be talking of 2 cleansheets in 4 home games(against Fulham and Tottenham) as opposed to the non-clean sheets being brandished about.

Hope you get my point

Ok. I get your point. I think you can argue with that.

Let's hope Gabriel improves and the errors reduce. Everything with sit.

Jodera:
The thing is that I feel you're looking at it as a simplistic view. More like, if a team loses, that means they played badly or if a team wins that means they played better. But we all know in football, that's not always the case and that's how it is with this our defence.

Our defence are leaking goals not because the structure or organisation isn't good but because of poor childish errors by individuals which can be easily cut out from the game. The only game I'll blame the defence is against Man u but for all other games it's mostly Gabriel's error.

It'll be unfair to blame the whole defence for an individual error and that's the point I'm trying to make

I added a bit of sacarsm.

The thing is that with the decision to use a single pivot, and a high defensive line- we are giving more attention to attacking than to defending. This will definitely lead to errors. We can then hope that the defensive play will become more perfect.

But since we are outscoring our opponents one may argue we shouldn't be complaining. Meaning it is working. Agreed.

But nevertheless we cannot underestimate the importance of not conceding.

Jodera:
Lol... We all know this isn't true na.
You judge a game after the game have been played and never before.

Everyone thought Tierney will start but we saw Tomi started and that will affect any prediction they'll give.

Also, Liverpool players are back plus we hardly win them even with our great form or Liverpool's poor form, so that will be another factor to consider. Tottenham on the other hand were playing badly but scraping out wins plus they haven't beaten us at our home since 2011. Anybody who will look at those stats and still think we'll walk over Liverpool or have an easier game with Liverpool compared to Tottenham are just using emotions and this season's hysteria to analyse it

I so laughed when Paul Merson Predicted a 4-1 win. I was like "against which Liverpool"?

There's a reason I said before the game.

Before the game we know the odds.

For example, our game against Fulham was the hardest we have experienced on the pitch, but it's the easiest before we played it.

Same way, before the game Liverpool was the easier game compared to Tottenham. The poor start, poor defensive records, lack of physicality, injuries and general system of play. That's why the gamblers predicted 4-1, that's Chris Sutton of BBC and Paul Merson of Skysports.

Then even during the game, we didn't play as good as we did against Tottenham but still won convincingly. Our first half was very poor like you said, if we played that against Tottenham they would beat us.

I hope you get me now.

Jodera:
This was the first half against Liverpool. I've never been afraid this season the way I've been afraid in the first half ystdy. Look at our shots. We had 3 shots meaning aside the 1min goal and the 45min 2nd goal, we had only one shot during the game. We were outpossessed in possession and we were losing all duels both in midfield and attack

If you think the game against spurs which we played them like small pikin from beginning to the end and had Conte gave up at 71mins is harder than Liverpool that made us work our win throughout 90min, then I have nothing to say and leave you to your opinion

The best way to judge is before the game. Before the game, everyone was about Saka Vs Tsimikas and Martinelli Vs TAA. That shows we already had a chance. Sutton of BBC in his weekly prediction predicted a 4-1 victory.

Like I said, we played poorly in the second half but still scored twice. That first half performance against Spurs would not yield us two goals because Spurs are very physical and organized defensively. That physicality and organisation required a higher level of performance and tactical nous to break down.

If you ask the players they will tell you.

kokaneprodigy:
So what’s wrong with my initial post where I said we need to work on the defense. Cos na where this argument start.

I said we need to work on that defense, you typed a rebuttal claiming the defense is fine. I pointed evidence with stats, then you went on to say the defense is prone to errors.

Jodera you sure say Spy never collect your password.

We cannot continue to ship in goals and expect to finish the league well. The attack has been bailing us but it is not a sustainable model. At the long run it will tell.

So Jodera Kokane is right.

Re: DWYL

Jodera:
4...Attack: Martinelli was Man of the match for me but nothing is giving my joy than my front three. Their workrate, creativity, decision making and skills each of the front 3 is something most teams lack. All three doesn't have great height but the way they jump for aerial ball to win it and their good ball control is giving me joy. Their understanding with the Midfield and fullbacks and the way they're fluid in attack(knowing when to tuck in or go wide) is something that adds unpredictability to our game. It's no wonder goals are rampant. They so terrorised Liverpool that Klopp have to put in Konate to minimize threat. Long may it continue

5...Arteta: The way things are going, I might soon turn AKB(Arteta knows best ). The way we changed the game in the second half must be a big credit to him while his tactical tweak of using Tomi at Lb was a very very good call. I was jittery at first but he proved why he's the coach.
The way we approached the game, his assemblage of players who are highly technical on the ball(GK inclusive) and our positional sense(watch the way we always attack the half-spaces which makes us easily evade any opposition pressure) is really a good work on how far his imprinted his ideas on the team. Never have I felt so much joy watching arsenal than this season (Infact, since December of last season) and this I say... Thank you Arteta.

I'm so glad for the 3 points
Leeds next after uel

Long may our form continue
COYG!!!

You should start a blog. Excellent piece.

Jodera:
Spy360, remember when I told you Liverpool's game will be harder than Tottenham's game and we need to grind 2x harder than what we dished against Tottenham? What do you think about ystdy game. Do you still see it as an easy win when compared to Spurs?

Liverpool was easier to me.

Our first half wasn't good. But the two goals at both ends of the half favoured us but we totally dominated the second half. Taking two leads despite playing fairly poorly means it would have been easier.

Again, Liverpool are more technical while Spurs are physical. This too favoured us because we were more technical than them.

Against Liverpool we controlled the wings easily and our best players were the front players.

Take away both errors, there's no way Liverpool was going to score. Same as Spurs but they focused more on defending which made it harder.

BlueRayDick:
My post match analysis

OUR FLUIDITY IN ATTACK

A lot has changed in our attack play. I rememver how we lamented here last season about Arteta being defensive minded first above any other thing and how we were struggling to score goals from our defensive games. However things have significantly changed since pre-seaon ; in fact we've scored at least 2 goals in each and every match we've played except for the man utd match in which we put 1 past their goalkeeper.

Our change in fortune in attack showed in our attack play yesterday. Jesus was giving Van Djik serious problem contesting for aerial balls even when he's not as tall as the defender. Saka and Martinelli made life a living hell for Tsimikas and Alexander-Arnold respectively. A lot of people believe Martinelli would be too hot for Trent to handle and that was exactly what played out. Our front 3 is so good that u always believe in them to have a shot on target at least at the end of a counter attack move. I will rate Martinelli 9/10, Saka 8.5/10 and Jesus 8/10 for the match yesterday.

OUR STEELY MIDFIELD

The joy of seeing a fully fit Thomas Teye Partey take charge of the midfield is something that can't be explained but better experienced. Partey along with Xhaka practically made Henderson suffer in the middle. I observed loserpool wanted to play through the middle but we snuffed the living daylight out of their midfield. Odegaard may not have been in that hot blistering form we want but that didn't stop him from dictating play from the middle. The fact that Xhaka was getting confident and getting into attacking positions in contrast to his non mobile football in the past year makes it all enjoyable to watch. I will rate Partey 9/10, Xhaka 8.5/ 10 and Odegaard 7.5/10.

OUR BACKLINE THAT LIMITED THE ATTACKING THREAT OF LOSERPOOL

Yesterday may not have been the best of days for our defence as they shipped in 2 goals that could have been avoidable if there was much positional awareness on the part of our two CB'S, yet it could've been worse.

On the RB Ben White was simply amazing. He did a very good job in stifling loserpool's attack on his side of the pitch. Tomiyasu practically kept Salah in his pocket all game and only released him the moment klopp gave up and subbed him off out of frustration. Gabriel and Saliba dealt with Loserpool's goal threat through the middle exevot for the two goals conceded in the match. Saliba is indeed a rock. I hope I'm not the only one that has noticed Saliba has been involved in turning defence into attack which had led to goal or goal scoring opportunities of recent? It looks so unreal that the young man is still 21. The scout that recommended him.should have his pau doubled abeg. Gabriel messed up with the error leading to goal, but we are grateful he picked himself up and did that feint that allowed Saka score the second goal. I'm rating Ben white 8/10, Saliba 8.5/10, Gabriel 7/10 and Tomiyasu 9/10.

AARON RAMSDALE IN GOAL

Our goalkeeper didn't really have much to do in the match as our defenders were up to their A-game except for the two goals that shouldn't have happened. I like the fact that Ramsdale able to see the game out, cos I was scared seeing Turner trying to come on. It's just so annoying that we can't have two good goalkeepers in one team, I mean I watched Leno play vs West Ham yesterday and was wishing he could've stayed as backup goalkeeper to Ramsdale but then it is what it is.
I will rate Leno performance 6/10 sha.

OUR SUBSTITUTIONS

Honestly I didn't pay much attention to our subs cos I was already high as 4ck and was oy concerned about us keeping the slim advantage till the final seconds. I noticed Tierney wasn't bad tho.

OUR GAFFER THE MAIN MAN
I bet Klopp didn't see that Tomiyasu plot twist coming ( none of us saw it coming anyways). I mean the moment we saw Zinchenko was doubtful, the next thing is to think of Tierney playing in that LB position. Arteta springing a surprise on us all made it difficult for Klopp on anybody to plan for that. The fact that the joker worked really well and Salah was tossed inside Tomiyasu gucci bag should be credited to Arteta. Arteta outwitting Klopp is something that gives us all joy. I will rate him 9.5/10 for this game abeg!

Excellent ratings and beautiful comments.

That Tomiyasu inclusion was the icing. Big ups to Arteta.

I think we should appreciate that Arsenal is very lenient and patient with coach and player performance. We would have lost the coach and most of these players.

Arteta and Xhaka especially. It's important to see value in a person and try to give them the benefit of doubt before taking action.

Last two seasons we all wanted Xhaka out due to his lack of mobility and erratic defensive tendencies. Last season we all wanted Arteta out due to his lack of experience. Today we are all happy both stayed and enjoying the benefits of our patience.

This takes us to the likes of Gabriel and Lokonga. With patience they will learn the ropes and we will reap the benefits.

mostob:
This victory sweet my Belle
The match was a battle of tactics and Arteta came out top.

Ramsdale ... I was afraid when he went down during the first half. A look at Turner on the bench preparing and I can say that Turner doesn't trust himself. There was nothing he could do with both goals though. Calm amd excellent distributions by the way. 7/10

White ... To be honest, I was not worried about him. I knew he would get the job done. He was hardly beaten today. 8/10

Saliba .. this guy is a gem. I said it earlier that he is made of stone. His calmness kinda gave us the first goal. Should have done better with the second goal. 8/10

Gabriel ... His only negative side is the defensive mistake. However I like the way he responds to these mistake. In the Spurs game, he made a brilliant turnover for the 3rd goal after his earlier mistake and today,I was surprised to see him at the other end of the pitch, doing a feint pass for Saka's goal. I kinda like his Agbero mentality too, it showed he was not afraid to do the dirty job. Was lucky not to punish the team with his handball 8/10

Tomiyasu was barely tested today. He made football so simple today. I'm not sure he even break a sweat. 9/10

Partey ... No much talk. He is not called octopus for fun 9/10

Xhaka ... How I wish his shot had gone in. The way he deleted Matip was a thing of beauty. What a leadership and fighting spirit he possessed. 9/10

Martinelli is truly an animal. He almost singlehandedly won the match for us today (coughs). What has Arteta given him to eat? That was a top-notch performance from him today. My MOTM 10/10

Saka I was angry he was not given much passes in the first half. His penalty was not given much credit. To rebuild and refurbish his mentality after that Euro penalty miss is something worth a massive commendation. He has now scored against all the big 6. 9.5/10

Jesus No much talk. If you have Jesus in your life (team), all your problems would be solved. The way he bullied VVD to win that corner eh... 9/10

Odegaard .. His work rate was massively impressive today but his decisiveness let him down. He should have gotten a goal today. We need him to put up some figures in addition to his work rate too. 8/10

Nketiah Was I the only one not worried when he came in for Jesus? I knew there will not be much drop in quality as far as our striking department is concerned. 4/10

Tierney ... This guy is old school and dependable at the same time. Klopp planned to take the game to the right wing with Firminho and Henderson overloading that wing but Tierney's introduction shut off the threat. I kind of like how he cautiously avoided giving away a penalty. 6/10

Vieira His sub was a tactic to waste time. Didn't do much. 4/10

A 10/10 for Arteta today.

Bonus: Another 10/10 for Sambi too. Dude almost piss for body because of the nervy ending of the game .

A big thank you to Agric fowl FC

Good analysis.

I think you were very generous with the points. I understand the excitement can be too real.

I think Nketiah deserves a bit above 4 as he came in late and to defend

iamoyindamola:
There was a time lfc attack and it was Jesus that cleared our line
This werey auba will never be in such position
Let him talk many of them have done the same

Auba is just jealous. Like a gilted glamour girlfriend when she sees that you've moved on with a better classic one.

afrodoc2:
Omo! Tomiyasu lock Salah up like person wey owe am money.

Salah's value just dropped by half

BlueRayDick:
As una dey blame Gabriel for the goal he gave away, e for make sense if u acknowledge his role in that second goal too o

Some people are just here to spot errors.

Nobody has argued that Gabriel didn't mess up that goal. But they will just want to pick fault

Roland17:
Jesus starting that counter from the edge of our box and Gabu leaving the ball for Saka are going to be underrated moves in the build up to our 2nd goal.

You get eye