27 Dec 2023 15:49:22
Hi all,
Such a shame that last nights debacle came after a pleasant Christmas.
This result has been on the cards for a little while with the way we play. high up the pitch waiting for offside.
OK till the opposition have a couple of sprinters who run through so many times.
Playing Konsa at right back would be ok if we had 3 centre halves and a secure left back.
Last night we had Costa and Lenglet, just 2 c/h and Konsa going down the right.
4 at the back is ok allowing one wide player to advance
3 at the back allows 2 wide defenders to make 5 when needed and last night we needed a 5.
In the middle we were wanting, Toyieleman, Kamara were sorely missed. Luiz was driven back by through balls.
Dendonker tried but was not in the game.
Watkins was on holiday somewhere.
Bailey, McGinn and Ramsey worked hard but after 30 mins the ball was not with us.
The reality is that last night was a blip and Emery will correct the errors.
We must put on a performance next game and take revenge to silence the critics.

1.) 27 Dec 2023
27 Dec 2023 16:31:29
TOV, good to hear from you, playing the high line obviously has it's merits and in the main has been working, however teams only need to beat it once to hurt us.I agree it's been coming unfortunately we were totally submissive in the second half and the result was totally self inflicted.I agree Emery will sort it, unfortunately teams have seen us against Wolves, Bournemouth Forest, Sheffield, Man U and the two Conference games that we can be controlled quite comfortably.

2.) 27 Dec 2023
27 Dec 2023 19:36:39
City and Arsenal saw us against Forest, Bournemouth, Wolves, and in the Conference League games and yet they didn’t control us, the fact is we missed Tielemans and Kamara and we don’t have the quality or depth of squad at the moment to cover those losses. Bad day at the office, the key test is how we respond.

3.) 28 Dec 2023
28 Dec 2023 13:10:59
Tov great to see you back

4.) 28 Dec 2023
28 Dec 2023 16:45:07
100% agree lotm your bang on the money, truth is our bench wasn’t great and the passing skills of both Torres and tielemans are a huge loss and that 1 stupid moment from kamara has cost us a couple of points, maybe even 5 but at least he will come back well rested, I refrained from posting after the result as I’m finding it hard to be over critical as the season pushes on, it’s being a super 12 months and I’m sure we will dismantle Burnley this weekend and get back to normal, good news is Newcastle are on the slide and we took points from the other teams behind us.