{"id":8378,"date":"2023-09-19T18:19:17","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T17:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8378"},"modified":"2023-09-21T04:44:28","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T03:44:28","slug":"a-new-era-as-we-return-to-europes-top-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8378","title":{"rendered":"A new era as we return to Europe&#8217;s top table"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>And so to the Stadium of Stone for our first Champions League game since March 7, 2017.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The weight of history hangs heavily. That evening, Bayern Munich beat us 5-1 at the Emirates in the Round of 16, having been a goal behind and outplayed until Laurent Koscielny was inexplicably sent off early in the second half, and we capitulated.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 10-2 aggregate score in the tie was the heaviest suffered by an English club in the knockout stages of the CL or its predecessor competition, eclipsing Barcelona&#8217;s 9-2 thwacking of Wolves in the quarter-finals of the 1959-60 European Cup.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, it was our seventh successive CL Round of 16 exit and third straight 5-1 defeat by the Germans in the waning Wenger years. As the Guv&#8217;nor presciently wrote in his match report, &#8216;There is an end-of-era feel to it all&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet a new era dawns as night follows day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a id=\"HLCYCcA3Te5MBthnqutxYg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1435246892\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'HLCYCcA3Te5MBthnqutxYg',sig:'6aYlZBX89q98nqUJQyMGfG0zF5CTrTJRccX4AYD4Hbo=',w:'594px',h:'450px',items:'1435246892',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" async=\"\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We most recently entertained our Wednesday evening visitors, PSV Eindhoven, in the Europa League group stage last season. A 1-0 to the Arsenal at home was followed by a 2-0 reverse in Eindhoven, although that would not impede our progress to the knockout rounds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previous encounters were in the Champions League in 2002, 2004 and 2007. The first two ties were group stage matches, navigated unbeaten with a win and a draw in both cases. However, in 2007, PSV turned us over in the first knockout round, 2-1 on aggregate. We lost the first leg in Eindhoven, 1-0, and could only draw the return at the Emirates 1-1, PSV&#8217;s Brazilian defender Alex scoring at both ends.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Goonerverse melted down after that shock defeat, as only the Goonerverse can, or at least that part of it too young to remember some bad nights in less glamorous locales such as Peterborough, York and Wrexham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our visitors will be making their first appearance in the CL group stage since 2018-19, having eliminated Sturm Graz and then Glasgow Rangers in the preliminary qualifying rounds. They sit atop the Eredivisie on goal difference from Alkmaar and Twente with four wins out of four and are unbeaten in nine games in all competitions this season (eight wins and a draw), scoring 28 goals and conceding six.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since our last encounter, they have lost some of their brightest young talents: Cody Gakpo to Liverpool, Noni Madueke to Chelsea, Ibrahim Sangare to Nottingham Forest and Xavi Simons back to PSG.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Replacing them, former PSV fan favourite Hirving &#8216;Chucky&#8217; Lozano has returned after four seasons at Napoli. Fellow winger Noa Lange (an injury doubt for Wednesday, although he has travelled) and defender Jerdy Schouten have arrived from Bruges and Bologna, respectively. Barcelona full-back Sergi\u00f1o Dest, one of three US internationals in the squad, has joined on loan, as has Southampton&#8217;s promising young German centre-back Armel Bella-Kotchap, who, like Lozano, was signed as the transfer window was closing. The highly regarded Johan Bakayoko, already a full Belgian international, has established his place in the team after being promoted from the Under-21s last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Bosz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New boss Peter Bosz, a former Dutch international, arrived in the summer to replace Old Horseface. Van Nistelrooy walked out in a huff a game before the end of last season, probably just ahead of getting the push. Bosz, himself, had been sacked by Lyon 10 games into last season after a run of four losses and a draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, his CV includes taking Ajax to a Europa League final and stints managing Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen. At the latter, he developed the innovative tactic of playing two hybrid 8\/10s as an attacking double pivot. One was a teenager born an hour&#8217;s drive away and raised in Leverkusen&#8217;s academy who would become the youngest player to make 100 Bundesliga appearances. This wunderkind\u2019s name was Kai Havertz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Havertz was tailor-made for Bosz&#8217;s front-foot football based on possession and a high press. The tactical lineage is Dutch total football, Guardiola&#8217;s positional play and Klopp&#8217;s gegenpressing, with the first of the three genetically dominant. Bosz&#8217;s double attacking pivot \u2014 Havertz and Julian Brandt in Leverkusen&#8217;s case, for which perhaps read Havertz and \u00d8degaard for Arteta, eventually \u2014 was highly fluid. You might even say unpredictable, but I couldn&#8217;t possibly comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Achilles heel of such an attacking approach is vulnerability to counterattack, something repeatedly exposed at Dortmund, whose defence, anchored around Sokratis Papastathopoulos, once of this parish, was neither the speediest nor most mobile. At PSV, there are great hopes for the pairing of the robust Brazilian Andr\u00e9 Ramalho and the speedy Paris-born Bella-Kotchap (shades of the Gabriel-Saliba partnership), which got its first run-out in the 4-0 league win over NEC Nijmegen at the weekend. Schouten, equally comfortable as a CB or DM, can play alongside or ahead of them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bosz customarily sets up PSV in an attacking 4-3-3, deployed in both qualifying round ties. If he does not fancy a one-to-one match-up with our midfield, he will switch to 4-2-3-1. PSV lined up that way in its two most recent league games, perhaps dry runs for Wednesday. Either way, veteran captain and club talisman Luuk de Jong will lead the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arteta will not want us to fluff our lines on our return to the CL, a competition that we are, remarkably, fourth favourite with the bookmakers to win (why only fourth, I hear you ask). However, the manager&#8217;s other consideration is that the game is sandwiched between last Sunday&#8217;s grind at Goodison and next Sunday&#8217;s home NLD, with a League Cup tie against Brentford the Wednesday after.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nevertheless, one of the purposes of strengthening the squad during the last transfer window was to cope through rotation with the additional workload of the two-games-a-week treadmill without a significant drop in quality from our strongest XI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I pencilled in Raya to make his debut against PSV, but Arteta&#8217;s surprise selection of the Spaniard on Sunday knocked that idea on the head. We don&#8217;t know if Ramsdale was dropped or rested, and Arteta, surprise, surprise, is being gnomic about it \u2014 and, I suspect, revelling in leading everyone in a merry dance of speculation. Based on little to no knowledge (OK, no knowledge), I will plump for Raya to retain his place (but Ramsdale back for the neighbours).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The back four\/three-plus-Zinchenko should pick itself, as will the starting midfield, but I expect early substitutions with Tomiyasu, Jorginho and Havertz all getting minutes off the bench. Trossard should replace the hamstrung Martinelli. Eddie will likely be rested for Jesus, though Saka could do with it more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Rice, \u00d8degaard, Vierira<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka, Jesus, Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The &#8216;holic pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With so many new faces, PSV will be an unknown quantity but have the quality to be a handful. They are in form, but their front-foot approach should suit us. The gentlemen of the turf have us odds-on favourites. Scant value is to be found in the score betting unless we find the net, VAR-unimpeded, four times or more. Yet it is a game we should win, albeit we may do so by only the odd goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy the game, &#8216;holics, near and far, and for those going, make it a special European night..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And so to the Stadium of Stone for our first Champions League game since March 7, 2017.&nbsp; The weight of history hangs heavily. That evening, Bayern Munich beat us 5-1 at the Emirates in the Round of 16, having been a goal behind and outplayed until Laurent Koscielny was inexplicably sent off early in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8378"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8390,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378\/revisions\/8390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}