luthersfarm

Doomed now. Crowd will turn, players will become even more shells of themselves, Ruud will become more stubborn so as not to appear like he's bending in the wind and the club with death spiral.

Only my 4th game this season but I'm just home and my main takeaways... Atmosphere is dead... I think the loudest chant I heard was after Man City scored their second goal and the crowd managed a "Leicester. Leicester" for about 10 seconds. Surprised to see so many people blame JJ for the first goal, it's 100% on those that let Foden just drift into a shooting position and the goalkeeper should be pushing that anywhere but where he did and he'll be doing that 50 times a day in training. I actually thought in the first 45 that JJ's running up the right was our main pressure release and let us get up the pitch a lot and create space elsewhere whereas I think VK didn't offer much until the last 20 or so. Both need to work on end product. Bilal was great with lots of energy and quality and I think with every game he's adapting more to the league and will be a great player for us. Very impressed with Soumare even if he did fade towards the end but he was the stand-out to me in a midfield where everybody played well today. Missed chances! Frustrating that we couldn't do better with the chances we created and at the game some of the offsides looked really marginal and would like to see them back. Second goal was too easy but chasing the game and their quality it is what it is. I think one noteable thing under Ruud is that the players seem to have bought more into what he's trying to do and never seemed on board with whatever it was Cooper was trying to do.

Midfield nonexistent, much like all season. Normally you have to break through the midfield, then break through the defence. Teams playing against us just seem to be at our defence immediately with no resistance from midfield. No other teams are this weak. The amount of shots we concede is because our midfield is so useless.

That picture above of their first goal is pretty damning really and it's why I can't really be too harsh on our full backs. it's so obviously a tactical issue. The whole team shape is a shambles. The midfield doesn't look like they know where they're meant to be positionally, they just clump together. Need Cooper gone.

I very much disagree. Mistakes happen and every player will make the odd mistake. However when you've got a team of international footballers (Faes, VK, Justin, Ndidi etc) making mistake after mistake it comes down to coaching, tactics etc. It's not like multiple players collectively forget how to play football. It's why I find it hard to be too harsh on any single player (a lot of the comments about VK for instance in this thread are pretty harsh). I reckon if you took any of the aforementioned players out and put them in another team in this league they would do well and we'd all be going "why couldn't they do that for us" and I'll tell you why... Steve Cooper.

We're incredibly easy to read. Far too predictable. Hudson-Odoi and Elanga looked lively and you could never tell what they were going to do next. Fatawu was incredibly one dimensional and Mavs just didn't look arsed. Not one of our midfielders ever look like they're going to threaten with a dangerous pass but I wonder how much of that is down to the lack of movement in front of them.

No composure at CB No defensive cover at all from midfield No creativity for central midfield Lazy wingers Lack of movement up front It's everything (except Mads) We are worse than we were last year. Worse squad against far, far better opposition. Worse manager too. The only thing I think is massively overstated on this forum is criticism of the full backs. Mistakes have been bad but every game both full backs are completely exposed with no cover from midfield or the wings. Ultimately just doesn't look like a team. The issues were known before a ball was kicked this year though. Poor recruitment etc.

easily our best outfield performer, only midfielder we have that looks like he can create

get in

I don't see a lack of effort, like most our team at the moment it just looks like they just have no clue what they're being asked to do

He'll go to Chelsea, they need him as they only have Sanchez, Bettinelli, Jorgensen, Bergstrom, Kepa, Petrovic, Slonina and Anselmino currently

Thought he did well

Not that it changes anything but just watching motd and does anyone think JJ was fouled after poking the ball on the 4th goal? Pokes it then sterling goes into him, probably given elsewhere on the pitch

Didn't deserve a point but still gutted First Arsenal goal comes down the left, Mavididi doesn't track Timber and I think Skipp is slow getting back to defend the space Second Arsenal goal comes down right, Justin could show him on his left but Winks can see Trossard and never makes any attempt to get the right side of him which is why I think Mads was mad at Winks after the goal First goal back for us bit lucky but decent delivery Second goal back nice play down the left and great strike by JJ Third goal for Arsenal naive to leave someone unmarked at the back post what can you say very stupid but looked to be a conscious decision as we did it other corners to protect around Mads Fourth goal is what it is 3 against 2 while chasing, Mads should have held it in first instance but can't fault him otherwise I think our two main issues are a midfield which does nothing off the ball to protect the backline and our inability to create chances

Arsenal was always going to be incredibly hard even if we had our sh*t together Second half shows that we do have a bit of fight, would be nice to see it against the Evertons and the Palaces as well though Play JJ striker next game?

He's sensational

I think he looked really good today.

Wrong appointment in the first place sadly. I'd give more time if it looked as though the team were working towards a new system but it just looked a bit hopeless at the moment.

Bit of a Championship game. There doesn't seem to be any sort of plan? At this level it really is bizarre. Hermansen - best Leicester player at the club and was great again today. Would be surprised if he's here this time next year. Defense - thought JJ was okay today actually, goal came from his side but Faes gets dragged massively out of position leaving a huge gap in the middle and also thought the winger on that side was Everton's best player, Faes could be so much better but he just makes poor decisions a lot, thought Okoli looked good and had a great presence and battle with DCL, Kristiansen meh he looks a bit headless sometimes. Would rather see Riccy on the right and JJ on the left with Faes and Okoli in the middle. Midfield - not good at all, Ndidi the best of them but Winks was anonymous and El Khannouss looked lively but ultimately a bit clueless (probably more the managers fault ). Think the midfield offers very little protection to the back 4 and when on the ball take far too long to decide what to do with it. First half especially they missed a lot of decent runs by taking too many touches before releasing. Midfield is our weakest area of the pitch. Forwards - Vardy starved of service so hard to judge, Ayew totally ineffective on the right but looked strong at times, poor getting back and poor final ball, Mavididi was decent today and with more support could have been a real threat. Not enough to judge Edouard on. Fatawu would have given Everton a much tougher time and probably done more tracking back too. Manager - doesn't seem to have any ideas really and the players don't seem to be playing to a plan.