Before kickoff a look at the table showed the painful truth that the old enemy could go top of the league with a win, while we were more modestly aiming to go into the top half. There could not be a better game to end a dismal run of performances and results that have had the fanbase looking squarely at the manager to lead us out of this funk. Would it be one of the good days?
When the team was announced we were boosted by the news that Thomas Partey was passed fit to play. I am not a doctor and I have to trust our medical staff but given how this decision turned out it is one that many will question in the cold light of day. And today the light is ice-cold indeed. Absolutely sub-zero.
We kicked off and Laca immediately kicked the ball out of play. I laughed at that. It was a comical mistake that did not cost us anything much. And I vaguely thought that at least our passing could not get worse. Right?
Our second potentially comic moment took only a minute longer to arrive, the hopeless Xhaka rugby tackling Kane outside our box. If another player had done it I might have found it amusing but having seen the Swiss do the same thing countless times before when he could not get near the ball I was not impressed. I managed a mirthless grin as he escaped without a clearly deserved booking. Gary Neville on Sky commented that he seems to commit about 800 fouls per match, which may be an exaggeration. I then laughed at Eric Dier as he Luized the freekick high and wide.
The game settled quickly enough. We had more possession, as you would expect against a team setup by the translator. There were a few fouls in midfield, we had a couple of crosses but nothing much was happening. Until it did…
In the 13th minute we spread the ball wide to Bellerin who put in a poor cross aimed at Auba. Spurs headed it clear and flicked it on to Kane in the centre circle. Gabriel was not tight enough to challenge him or foul him. Partey opted against a cynical takedown. Perhaps he is not yet used to playing in a team that lets the opposition take a mere two touches from their own penalty box to put you into last-ditch tackle territory?
The unmolested Kane spread it wide to Son. Son ran at Holding, who backed off, and from thirty yards he smacked a wonderful shot that flew past Leno.
Tottenham 1 – Arsenal – 0
It is hard to blame the keeper when the shot was so good. And I understand why Holding did not commit. He had no cover (Bellerin trying to make up ground, Willian looking suspiciously like Theo – running in the right space but never looking interested in actually making a tackle) and if he dived in then Son’s quick feet might well have gone past him and given the South Korean a one-on-one from inside the area. Better to let him shoot from 30 yards as he won’t score often from there. But yesterday was the day he did. Sometimes them’s the breaks.
Could we respond?
Well, sort of. We continued to control the ball but, as so often, without creating clear chances. Partey showed his quality in the midfield. Xhaka also showed his quality. Ahem. Unfortunately, that is not of the same level as Partey. I am finding it hard to watch him foul his way slowly around the pitch, passing backwards and killing our attacks with a skill I wish our deep lying midfielder possessed at stopping the opposition’s attacks.
Bellerin got forwards but did nothing apart from give away another foul throw. I would call it a schoolboy error but schoolboys know how to take a throw in.
Auba got no service and was not really involved. Saka and Willian had the ball in good positions but created little. Willian did improve his recent set piece delivery but we do not have the personnel to attack these crosses. Not that we worked that out all game. If at first you don’t succeed etc.
With five minutes to go Auba pulled out to the left and put in a low clipped ball that Willian made a good run towards. The Chelsea Willian smacks that left-footed into the goal. Our version seemed to withdraw his foot at the last second and the ball bobbled behind him on yet another day to forget for the Brazilian. His Arsenal career so far has been a bit Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind – most of us would pay good money to have it erased.
As we passed the 45 minute mark and went into injury time we broke forwards after a clearance from Holding. Lacazette played a beautiful pass through for Hector who tried to find Auba. A frustrated figure throughout the game, the Gabonese is really in the doldrums. Quite what he was trying to do as he ran backwards away from the ball is anybody’s guess. It was weird at the time and a day later the replay is no better. If he had gone towards the pass he would probably have nicked it before the defender and had either a penalty or a shot on goal from 12 yards and the game might have gone another way. Instead Aurier brought it out and passed it to Lo Celso who was standing centrally between their penalty box and the centre circle. From that position he had only three Arsenal players, Holding, Gabriel and the keeper, between him and the goal. In contrast the two defenders are marking three Spurs players apart from the one with the ball. What kind of defensive shape is that?
Xhaka was ten yards in front of Lo Celso. It was a crazy starting position for a bloke with no recovery pace even if his midfield partner had been covering. But he was not. Thomas Partey had felt his thigh injury recur and hobbled to the touchline. Despite Arteta’s desperate attempt to push him back into the space he had vacated he was going nowhere fast, just like Xhaka. The timing of that injury was very unlucky and very costly.
We all knew what was coming. Lo Celso passed to Son, who played in the overlapping Kane. Despite a moment of confusion when the Spurs striker was surprised to find something large and wet in his mouth he realised in time it was just his tongue, and twatted the ball in off the bar. Not much Leno could do.
Tottenham 2 – Arsenal – 0
Ceballos came on for Partey before the half ended. As the second half started we had a brighter spell, with Ceballos himself looking lively. However, we were not creating clear chances and the match settled into a pattern we have seen before against Mourinho sides. We dominated the ball. They sat back and did nothing (they are such a dull side) We put in a huge amount of crosses. But we have forwards who do not score headers very often and the spuds defence were fairly comfortable.
Auba had possibly our best chance of the match as, for once, he connected with a whipped ball in from Tierney but his header was poor, failing even to hit the target. Boy does he need a goal.
Lacazette almost ran on to a Bellerin cutback following some tidy team play but he did not attack the space with enough conviction and so found himself half a yard short. Had Rambo been playing at 10 he would have scored.
Laca had a couple more half chances and he did well to force good saves from Lloris. Playing as a 10 the Frenchman had a decent game. Some good touches, linkups and efforts on goal mixed with some poor moments when he failed to keep possession or find a pass. Despite being involved in some dangerous situations it was unsurprising that he struggled to find space against a side that packed the middle of the park and tried to smother him out of the game. However, his workrate was excellent. He fought hard all match and when Spurs had their first attack of the second half, in injury time, it was Lacazette who sprinted the length of the pitch to crop up as our last defender and win a tackle on the edge of our box. Top effort.
Spurs offered nothing all half. Their work was done. We subbed on Nketiah for Bellerin but it made no difference. We did not get a break despite doing a lot of positive things. They defended deep, untroubled by all the crosses in the world, and the match played out predictably to end without further goals.
So, what do we make of that? Perhaps there is a lot to say about the club, even yesterday’s match? I won’t try to say it all when I know you lot will continue to fill The Drinks with the good sense they have come to be known for. I’ll touch on a few things though.
The dust has settled enough that I am over the initial sickness that losing to that shower always induces. I have stayed away from social media which, I imagine, has some pretty unhappy people being quite vocal about how they feel. Which they are of course free to do but, as the man said, not for me, Clive.
As a team we have a lot of problems. At the end of last season we all knew we lacked creativity. It was our biggest problem. So we signed Willian and pursued Aouar, ultimately unsuccessfully. Willian has so far been very poor, failing to add the one quality he was primarily bought for. Worse still is that Pepe, despite his lack of consistency, is an unpredictable player who scores goals, yet his place has been taken by a predictable player who does not score goals. We are actually worse as a result.
Our press has gone out the window. Even the positional discipline that was so excellent away at Manure has disappeared faster than Roadrunner, leaving Mikel Arteta treading air like Wile E Coyote. Our best midfield player by some distance has been allowed to talk himself into the team when not physically ready and it will surely see him out for a while at a time when we need him the most. Was that well handled?
Individual players are struggling. Auba can’t buy a goal, although he is getting none of the service he thrives on, so that is not entirely down to him. Rob Holding suffers from a lack of pace. And he always will. Bellerin’s defensive contributions are worrying. Saka is too young to be responsible for getting us out of jail and this season he has struggled to build on his impressive numbers last season. Laca has missed a lot of good chances- he must start finishing.
Meanwhile, Granit Xhaka makes me weep. Tears and tears of confusion and sadness. Like a naughty child that has woken up on Christmas morning thinking that they were going to get a nice present from Santa but instead has to watch a highlights reel of every backwards pass Xhaka has ever made for the club and has realised it is so long it will go on until Boxing Day and they are going to miss all the turkey and the Christmas specials.
All that said, I have plenty of faith that Mikel Arteta will come good. And patience for him to do so. Not everyone shares this opinion, and it does not make it any easier to watch our current struggles whatever you think of the future. I think the issues at our club go far deeper than the manager and I want to stick with someone who I see huge potential in rather than throw the towel in because we have hit a bad patch. In any case, I can see no chance that the club will get rid of him anytime soon, so giving him my full support continues to be the only viable option. I expect that, at some happier point further down the line, he will look back at this tough spell as being a formative one during which he learned a lot.
I do, however, have little sympathy when he keeps starting Xhaka, who is just not good enough. And I wonder what has gone on in the last two months? Even eight weeks ago we looked like a team with a game plan. Now we look clueless and it is on the boss to sort it out and show that we are on the right path. The lack of clarity about what we are trying to do in the last couple of months has been concerning and I hope for all of us that we see some improvements sooner rather than later.
Fortunately for us, Arteta is a man with a steely determination and it appears the players are fully behind him. They are putting in a shift, and I did get a little frustrated with a couple of people who said yesterday that they were not putting in any effort. That was not what I saw and strikes me as lazy ‘analysis’. It is not just a question of running a bit more.
We have a handful of top players that have quality and workrate. We can build around them. There is also a lot of potential in some of our young players who will surely get more game time as the season unfolds. There are grounds for positivity as well as realistic concerns at where we are right now and I think it is sensible to acknowledge both.
And look, football is a funny old game. Maybe next week we scrape a win through an offside goal that a faulty VAR fails to rule out (causing Sean Dyche to do his impression of an aged bollock crossed with a furious beetroot), we all have a good laugh, something shifts in our fortunes and we start to build some momentum? Maybe Pepe returns with the bit between his teeth and displaces Willian? Maybe Auba scores a hat trick and goes on a run of goals? Maybe Partey is not so badly injured and has a great Christmas spell? Maybe we move early and decisively in the transfer market and add players we need to the squad whilst trimming some we don’t? (Edu- that one is on you!)
Who knows?
Football is mad. 2020 is bonkers. Anything could happen. After a dispiriting day like yesterday we are all hurting and no one thinks we are where we want the club to be. Maybe it will get worse before it gets better. But there are no quick fixes for this one. If we are in Hell then we are going to have to keep going. Let’s keep going together.
Victoria Concordia Crescit
First, and feeding off scraps
A fine job, GSD. Losing to that lot up the road is always painful but writing about it is even worse. I guess that’s the lot of a writer on a fine blog and you made an excellent fist of it. We just have to stick at it and keep giving the team our support.
We’ll win (in the league) again
Don’t know where, don’t know when
But I know we’ll win again
Some sunny day.
Excellent write up GSD.
GSD,
You’ve managed the remarkable feat which was often performed by the late , lamented guvna of making sense of a painful defeat and thereby making it seem ever so slightly less painful. That’s a very well-balanced report with the right mix of anger, frustration , despair and hope .
I absolutely agree about Arteta . I remember Bertie Mee taking over a team that had been a shower the season before and which had lost its two best players . For the first few games they were brilliant and then they lost their momentum and those who had lauded Mee were then wondering why you’d appoint a physio to be your manager . A few months later it turned again and the rest is history.
As for the personnel I had my say in the last drinks and we both emoted on Xhaka last year during his ‘outburst’ . He is a complete pain in the arse. Why does he keep getting picked?
Still best foot forward. Let’s put a run of wins together and get Auba scoring which might help me catch the supercharged BathGooner at the top of our Fantasy League . Maybe in fact Bath might lend his considerable talents to help Mikel ?
Great work GSD
Feeling desperately disappointed, down, disheartened and depressed.
That was a performance that no one worth his salt could possibly be proud of. Chance after golden chance went astray. Easy opportunities to gain advantage were scorned. These are dark days and the future looks bleak. They say there are no pictures on a scorecard but some of those misses will be imprinted in my mind’s eye for months to come
The result can’t even be blamed on the conditions. OK, it was a cold, bleak, mid-winter day and the ground was muddy and heavy – but that’s no excuse, the situation was the same for every player.
But as the old saying goes, all the fancy iron work in the world is worth nothing if you can’t hit the back of the cup from six feet.
Things didn’t start well. An easy 150 yard shot to the green faded into the pond then the putt was missed for double bogey. Thirty Stableford points on a misty day. What’s to be done to reverse this decline?
Well, judging by the twatter on the twatterverse the solution is simple. Fire my manager and get a new one.
Brilliant, deep, inspired thinking. And far-sighted too. I’ll give it a try. Should make things much better – at least until I’m back on the tee next Saturday. 🙂
And on a lighter hearted note – that’s an excellent summary, GSD. I particularly enjoyed your commentary on Arteta with which I agree wholeheartedly.
Until all three of the Marx Brothers (Xhaka, Kolasinac and Mustafi) have left the theatre, we’ll make little progress. Clive made this observation three years ago. He was right then and he’s right now.
Fantastic piece in the most intolerable circumstances, GSD. Great job! You sum up my feelings entirely. I have nothing to add.
Heh @ TTG @4. 😎 A pure fluke, sir.
Fire my manager and get a new one.
Cheaper than firing the players. And much easier too. 🙂
The Partey thing really bothered me, he’s not been at the club five minutes and thinks he can just walk off the pitch in a NLD. Would he have just strolled off when he was playing in Spain? In any game, let alone a derby.
I’m not exactly AMN’s biggest fan, but he played superbly in two of our biggest games just a few months ago and now can’t get into the team? Hmmm.
Great piece Dino.
I have nothing to add.
COYG
Excellent, GSD. Stuck just the right note.
We’ve just got to take it one game at a time and somehow grind out way out of this.
No ticket for me in the ballot for the relegation six pointer against Burnley next weekend.
It has been revealed that Kenny Sansom has a form of dementia, but it is most likely alcohol related and is reversible. Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is caused by a vitamin B1 deficiency often due to prolonged use of alcohol. Nothing to do with concussive head injury or trauma.
Get well soon, Kenny.
Cheers all. I’m grateful for some lovely responses after a tough game and a tough post.
It was a long one but I had a lot to say!
Toolsy, who I think is a new poster who had the last drink in the last bar… please pull up a stool and have a drink here whenever you feel the call. You are very welcome!
Cheers for the update Cynic.
Get well soon Kenny.
Did anyone see what happened to Saka’s nose?
In the second half he was absolutely gushing claret but I saw no replay of the incident. He is a young kid and can be a bit quiet, he doesn’t have the outgoing personality that some of the top young talents do. But i was impressed with his attitude to carry on after that. He did not let up his intensity or effort and i was proud of his reaction. Good lad.
I did not put a comment about Xhaka’s eventual yellow card in the post as I had already made my view clear (again) but that was a frankly ridiculous challenge and I found myself agreeing with Jamie Redknapp of all people that it was daft beyond belief and did nothing to help the team.
Leadership is not all about blood and thunder. It can be about discipline and doing a job for your team. Keeping a cool head and not letting your frustrations get on top of you. Xhaka has some good leadership qualities (ones which are clearly respected by the squad) but he lets us down with his faux aggression at times that it doesn’t serve the team but gives expression to his own annoyance at crap situations. I’d rather see him put more effort into avoiding these situations in the first place.
Or just, you know, not see him at all.
Could we put Ceballos in at 10 and play Elneny and AMN behind him? Burnley are hardly gonna be expansive and we need to do something to open them up. It is too soon for ESR but might he get the shout in the Europa League to strut his stuff?
Incidentally, I was calling for Laca to be played as a ten a while back. I dunno if that would have worked out well or not. He does have an eye for a pass and is a good footballer. But that boat seemed to sail and we don’t really have the time for him to learn how to find space in a new position. He also can be infuriating in that he is one or two touches away from being brilliant but loses out just before he hits the final pass. Can he reinvent himself in this position (and learn how to score from deeper too) or is this change just a sign of how poor our options are?
Heh @19.
Well done, GSD !
A horrible performance to have to mull over and write about – reliving it all over again.
Our defensive shape has disintegrated, our defenders start positions are horrendous and our habit of backing off and backing off, allowing attackers to waltz into our box and take free shots is driving me mad.
Our midfield neither creates nor defends and our attack seems to have entirely forgotten where the goal is.
That, in a nutshell, is where we have regressed to since a really heartening display against Man Utd a few short weeks ago. Others have written enough about the details but something else happened yesterday that has gone unmentioned by commentators and pundits alike. And it is not the first time. With my health professionals hat on, this issue really annoys me ……
Harry Kane, untouchable in his position as England captain, has decided that the best way to win a header against an opponent is not to try and jump or head the ball at all. Instead he prefers to duck under both ball and opponent and make a back for him, levering him dangerously high into the air to come crashing down where and how he may. When this turns particularly nasty, Kane himself will go to ground or grab his own head, as though he has been unfairly cluttered by his airborne foe. And he gets away with it again and again – unpunished by naive or willing officials, loathe to punish our England, ahem, hero.
I could include here a few well tried and highly amusing insults directed at Kane, but this is too important a matter to reduce it to name calling.
We saw, last week, a terrible clash of heads at The Emirates which left a Wolves player with a fractured skull and our own David Luiz lucky not to be joining him awaiting surgery in hospital. I have commented in this bar more than once before – when our dear old Guvnor was still in charge – that some duty of care to fellow professionals should be written into the laws of the game, so that two powerful athletes cannot be allowed to hurl themselves at a ball with their heads, with complete disregard for the safety of the other players around them. I don’t know how that can be achieved in the “win at all costs” atmosphere of the Premier League, but it has to happen.
This point has recently become even more topical with the emergence of ageing ex-footballers who are now suffering from dementia after years of constantly heading footballs. Fractures of the skull are more immediate but no less important.
So an accidental but reckless, potentially paralysing or even fatal, clash of heads, or a quite deliberate lifting and upending of an opponent to land on a possibly broken neck – is one any less desirable than the other ?
Harry Kane and other deliberate “back makers” must be stopped now. It is dangerous play, pure and simple and already outlawed as such. That should be the easy bit.
Wise words from a professional physiotherapist and an expert in sports medicine. Thank you Trev.
Great drink Trev @21. I’m appalled that the MSM are ignoring these repeated egregious challenges. Sooner or later it’ll result in serious injury if Kane isn’t stopped.
Trev@21: excellent point. Action has been taken against reckless tackles that endanger opponents’ legs. I don’t see why the same protection should not be offered to heads.
I seem to recall Kane going over Xhaka’s back early in the first half, as if he was doing a Fosbury flop high jump, for which he won a free kick but which should have had a yellow for simulation.
Excellent stuff GSD – a really well composed report of the NLD. You managed a balanced report when most of us are full of angst at the outcome of the match.
Trev @ 21 – top comments from a professional sports injury practioner. There was a match
a few weeks ago ( sorry can’t recall the other team at this moment ) when he did the same act of diving under an aerial challenge on the edge of the penalty area resulting in him and the defender crashing to the ground. He raises his head whilst lying on the ground looking at the ref to say that’s a penalty thank you very much. The ref bought it hookmline & sinker – well its the England captain isn’t it. In my opinion it was dangerous play by him and he should have been carded for it. Of course he scored from the awarded penalty. It was both d@ngerous and cheating.
Bad luck on the Burnley ballot C100 – your match report would have made a potentially drab game much more bearable.
Belated thanks for a very fair and
well-written report GSD.
And voracious stuff @1 Steve T 😁
Best wishes to Kenny Sansom,
I hope you’ll be better soon Kenny.
First rate journalism, GSD. Keeping behind the team is crucial, and will bring us out of this slump all the sooner.
Trev@21, you’ve hit the nail on the head as far as Kane is concerned. Sadly, no officials appear to have the guts to call him out for it, and some poor sod will probably get badly injured as a consequence.
Any substance to this rumour that Ozil is off to Fenerbahce in January? Seems we’ve heard that before.
A really refreshing review packed with the right mix of realism and humour. I guffawed at the bit about Xhaka and Sean Dyche.
Arteta must get at least a couple of seasons before any talk of a sack and he must be backed in the transfer market. Getting a creative midfielder and a good central defender with pace and presence are important. Neither Holding or Chambers will do as both lack any sort of pace. We will have to see how Mari fares once he starts getting to play full time.
Arteta appears to have the bad habit of persisting with players he believes in even when they are not performing (Xhaka, Willian etc) and ignoring players, like AMN, who have proven themselves under him. He understandably stopped playing Ozil but his refusal to give AMN chances is baffling. I am also all for giving youngsters like Balogun a chance; they won’t do any worse than those playing now.
We are in real trouble if we fail to beat Burnley.
A pitch-perfect review and analysis GSD, bravo!
A football team can score goal many ways and if we list them in descending order of efficiency and repeatability: fast and precise pass and move through the lines to progress through the midfield, combination play on the wings to create space for cutbacks (and using runners from midfield to attack spaces in the box) , crosses and set-pieces to attack, counter-attacks after absorbing pressure for sustained period of time, pressing high up and and forcing mistakes, just get the ball in and around penalty box and get your strikers to make use of half-chances.
Last couple of season we have relied overly on the last three in the list, the three least efficient of the avenues, and have relied significantly on Auba (and to some extent Laca) to make things happen, which may have taken a toll on them, a. This fact was demonstrated clearly by the shots on goals and expected goals stats. And now Auba cannot turn half-chances into goals and Laca is moving ever so slowly we are exactly where we were afraid we will be. This was bound to happen sooner or later.
Auba I am hoping will get his mojo back and will rediscover that extra second of speed and that extra bit of ruthlessness and accuracy in the immediate future. But we need to be working hard on and off the field to find solutions to implement better the more efficient ways to score goals.
Hoping also that returns of Pepe and then Gabi will add that extra bit of unpredictability and drive (respectively) to offer Auba help on the scoring department. Willian hasn’t scored a single goal yet despite starting most of our PL matches and quite a few Europa matches. Maybe that is just an “adjusting to new team” blip, hopefully, and he will start sharing that responsibility too…
This was
Martinelli played 45 mins for the U23s tonight
Under 21’s actually Countryman.
In a very disappointing display we went down 3 nil away at Wimbledon in the EFL Cup round of 32.
Had 70% possession but only managed 2 shots on target, where have i heard that before.
Ended up with 9 men on the pitch after midfielder Akinola and Saliba were both sent of in the 2nd half.
Fine review of the match GSD,
But i have to say, having only just watched the full game, that it was more like a friendly match than a full blooded no holds barred NLD.
Where was the aggro, the in your face, get that up you toe to toe, no backward steps,
thunderous full blooded tackles, loads of yellow cards mayhem that are normally associated with these matches. ??
Nowhere to be seen, it was all very polite soporific bland stuff which depressed me.
Not the Arsenal that i expected to see, something is wrong somewhere.
And to Dorset Mick
Well done with the Hound on winning the Cup,
Hope the prize money was decent, and more importantly, i hope you managed to get a bet on at a decent price. ??
Good luck with the rest of your treatment mate, I’ll be thinking of you.
United (against Leipzig) and Barca(against Ramsey’s Juve) getting their arses handed to them in the CL tonight
Barca going through anyway, but at the moment, depending on the PSG result, United dropping into the Europa.
Thanks for the report, GSD. It must been a tough one to write but you were well up to the task.
Trev@21
That’s a very thought-provoking drink and you are far more expert in assessing these issues than me. That recent penalty against Brighton was a good example of Kane getting away with a dangerous foul ( as you describe) and actually getting a penalty himself . I’d dearly love to have a player with his goal instinct but not his deceit .
I was clearing my disk space on the TV last night and saw some reruns of the Big Match from 1976/7. I was a regular North Banker then so saw a couple of the games . Interesting to see the incredible difference in ‘ tackling’ , challenges in the air and lack of simulation. It was like watching an entirely different sport ( and played on awful pitches which radically reduced the skill level ).Yet players, unprotected as they were , weren’t injured anything like as much . When you got clashes of the head ( remember Talbot and Wile in the semi at our place ) they played on ‘ heroically ‘ putting their lives in danger and the consequences are being seen now . We are wiser now medically but the spirit of the game is less honest for all the taking of the knee and kicking the ball back to the opposition after a stoppage.
I think the game lacks something now. It’s so fast bookings for tackles that are a fraction too slow seem ridiculously soft . Players cheat each other and the public and changes to rules like handball make the game a farce . It’s a combination of money, modern values and the impact of TV and social media . But something has been lost in my opinion
It is the first rule of growing old, TTG: Nothing is ever as good as it was. 🙂
Very true, Ned – nostalgia ain’t what it used to be 😏
But something has been lost in my opinion
I know it’s a toxic term thesedays but masculinity.
Do I want someone playing in my team who cares so much about his hair that he has his own personal hairdresser (note – not barber) on call to fly in, yes fly in, to shave a special pattern into his nut, or do I want someone who’d slide tackle a pack of lions if it meant winning the game?
No contest.
I want Dennis Bergkamp. An artist with a claw hammer as well as a sable brush. I don’t want someone for whom the ball is too heavy to throw it in.
Generally speaking.
Ta.
I know someone’s going to cry about how offensive that is, but when I say masculinity I’m using that to cover a whole range of qualities which includes courage. Not just physical courage, but the strength of spirit to impose yourself on a game. Could you imagine Thierry Henry playing like Aubameyang? He wouldn’t wait for a game to come to him, he’d go and get it.
That’s not to say he didn’t have bad games and bad spells but he’d be DEMANDING better service and if he didn’t get it, he’d use his own skills to make things happen.
Too many players thesedays lack balls, which is why I used that word and also Bergkamp as an example. He could kill you with his ability and had a nice sideline in thuggery when required. And yeah I do miss good old thuggery of the honest kind. The sort where if your team mate got a whack, you’d get yours in later. Not the sort of cowardly stuff that sees you go over the top with a leg breaker but the genuine hardness that means you are not to be messed with. Either by the opposition or your own team mates.
We lack that and the game lacks it.
With you 100%, Cynic @41 & 42.
A lot of players who strut around like matadors now couldn’t live with the game in the 90’s, let alone the 60’s and 70’s. Certain things have improved in the game in the interest of player safety but as in everything else in life, the pendulum that moved in the correct direction has swung too far.
Snouty Storey anyone?
UTA
Vi-er-a, whoa-oh
UTA
Our midfield would be so much better for either of those fellas though neither would last long on the pitch. I’d take a Paul Davis, Kevin Richardson or Brian Talbot too.
Cynic@41: Perhaps the game needs some Chinese rule-making:
Athletes are not allowed to dye their hair, grow long hair [for boys], wear weird hairstyles, or wear any accessories.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55227538
Cheers GSD!
And well in Trev @21
Honest thuggery. The mind boggles. Only honest thuggery I’ve ever seen was Paul Davis on Cockerill. Which the ref at the time didn’t. All of my group on the northbank saw it clear as day. Yeah Bergkamp had a temper on him. Didn’t make him any cleverer when he a got 3 matcher for flattening Lomas with his elbow, and nearly fucking the double up for us.
This Turkish report says Ozil has been approached by clubs in Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Italy but is leaning towards a move to DC United in the MLS as he believes the USA will be a better base for his esports business, M10.
https://www.dha.com.tr/spor/mesut-ozile-en-ciddi-teklif-dc-unitedtan/haber-1802117
Costly bit of thuggery that was for
Davis sadly.
I’d take that Chinese rule and I’d add a no tattoos clause to that, unless it’s LOVE and HATE on the knuckles or birds with big tits on the forearm. And only in plain blue ink with no colouring in.
And if anyone wants to wear leggings or gloves to keep warm, here’s a nice bench coat and a hot water bottle as well, take a seat.
Jessies.
Cynic @51, I’ll see your addition to Ned’s original Chinese rule and I’ll raise you.
Black boots only.
You’re an athlete. Ballet dancers wear coloured pumps. You’re an athlete.
Geddit?
Absolutely agreed and if the boots are those slip on things, with a big band around the top to hold them on to your feet instead of laces, they’d be banned from using a car to get to training, and from accepting lifts.
Get on a bike.
With stabilisers, as they’d obviously need them.
Have to say Cynic and Bath, some fine gammon in here today. 🤣🤣
Slice of Pineapple anyone?
Far too effeminate! What’s wrong with a fried egg and English mustard on the side?
Egg and mustard? Anyone who eats such an abomination is fucking welcome to it.
You’ll be putting pineapple on pizza next!
We live in very different times don’t we.
It’s touching on a difficult area but I wasn’t certain that the fourth official was being overtly racist last night in Paris. I abhor racism in any form , we were all made completely equal as Cynic emphasised a couple of weeks ago but sometimes people of a certain age commit slips of the tongue by using terms like ‘ coloured ‘ or by referring to people by skin colour to identify them without wanting to be discriminatory . We need to learn that this is a sensitive area and some racial groups can understandably be offended by awkwardly phrased terms but I think sometimes comments are made innocently which give offence unwittingly and perhaps slight slips are made in stressful situations . Does that justify that sort of joint meltdown last night ?
When you see the events at Millwall last weekend that is overt racism and deeply disturbing. I would close the ground , that club has form .
C100 @58, what an absolute abomination that is. Chicken is almost as bad.
Esso @57, fried egg and mustard. Yum. Has to be English mustard though. Thought you’d have been an aficionado, mate.
Fried egg on top of the gammon. Runny yolk. Slice through, then anoint with English mustard. Wash down with either a cup of tea or a pint of beer. Nectar.
Actually I’m not sure about Pizza with or without pineapple. Foreign muck. Only good for throwing at Sir Alex Ferguson.
OH C100, you are missing out. A well made pizza is a wonderful meal but the non-Italian habit of throwing all sorts of crap on a soggy base is heresy. The best pizzas I have tasted were in Naples and were simply Margeritas (a fine drink as well!).
Pizza Express Romana-style pizzas are excellent and their American Hot in a box from the suprmarket is an excellent alternative for these Covid-cautious times. Pizza Hut pizzas and Chicago-style deep pan pizzas are absolutely awful.
I’m beginning to think you are taking this discussion seriously Bath. Is a Margarita mild or bitter?
One of the only pieces of advice my Father gave me about women. When you first go out, ask them what they are drinking, mild or bitter. Make it clear there’ll be none of this brandy and babysham nonsense at 10 bob a go!
Pizza is fucking joy! Spent 18 months living in Italy, including spell as a waiter in a Pizzeria. Never saw a slice of Pineapple within 800 kilometres of our place. Egg and mustard is absolutely foul. Mustard is foul with most things except decent roast beef.
I’m in the middle of a few sherbets, better fire up the copyright monitor. You have been warned!
That’s the sort of stuff my son subjects me to on long trips to away games! We are mutually tolerant. He plays me hip hop, I play him Dad rock. Curiously we both like jazz, especially Miles and Trane.
(Whispers …I’m not being entirely serious about pizza).
Dad Rock you say
50 years ago. Read about it in the parents’ Sunday Times; scared the shit out of me then.
Hahahahahahahahaaa
Tsk, tsk above.
Pineapple is almost essential on a pizza – except for a Costco margarita which is amazing just as it is, but has 3 or 4 different cheeses on it.
Mustard is great with a sausage and especially a frankfurter but preferably a good German mustard, not that tonsil destroying English stuff ! 😆🤣
Esso @67, now you’re talking!
Trev, that’s doubly ridiculous. Pineapple – really? I though you had more taste. A Margarita does not have 3-4 different cheeses on it. Surely even Costco must know that.
pizza a taglio in rome or naples is the best pizza in the world. mozzarella and zucchini flowers? yes please.
nicely reviewed, gsd. i’m going to put up the chevrons, but i appreciate your effort and wild-eyed clarity. fuck the spurs.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>