Well 1-0 is not an insurmountable difference to overturn.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The 2024-2025 Football Thread
- Thread starter Scepticalscribe
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I disagree, and for the record, am a Fulham FC supporter.
I watched BBC's Match of the Day of the Liverpool vs Tottenham game, and there was a great breakdown, post game, of how Slot has tweaked the side, and matchplay. In essence, Van Dyjk, is playing more long passes towards the right side wing, to Salah, and then has an attacking midfield in between, to run forward pulling defenders away. Watch these YT videos
I do not have the luxury of having the BBC football achieve at my pleasure but if I did I bet I could come up with multiple examples of Klopp employing the exact same tactics when he was manager of the club, maybe not with the same players involved but with the same tactics, yes. Slot did not make Liverpool a league winning side, Klopp did. When Klopp left Liverpool the team was at the best it had ever been. There was nothing Slot needed to do except to keep on winning that is and hope his rivals fall behind and that is EXACTLY what happened, Man City fell apart, Arsenal & Chelsea began to fall by the way side, Man United and Spurs were no where in contention. When it became clear what was happening to City, Chelsea, United and Spurs there was only two teams who were considered good and strong enough to challenge Liverpool and they were Arsenal and Newcastle. Like Liverpool, Arsenal had a very good squad. Newcastle had the financial means to build a very good squad but that never happened. Arsenal started to fall and Newcastle never really got going. The title was Liverpool's all along. Arsenal was the ONLY really challenger to Liverpool once it was seen City imploding.
Yes everyone is entitled to their opinion but I have no doubt if the BBC gave me access to their football footage database I could disprove their case of saying how Slot turned Liverpool into premier league champions. Klopp built that team to become league champions before he left. All it needed was a competent manager to take over and guide them to the finish line.
Now that they've won the league they will have a target on their back and all teams will study how they play. Without reinforcements they will struggle. Long ball to Salah won't cut it against teams with competent fullbacks.
And losing Trent will be significant
Last edited:
I am coming to the conclusion that supporting Arsenal is akin to a form of masochism, an exquisitely agonising form of torture of oneself.
Although, in fairness, I daresay much the same can be said for supporting many - if not, most - of the other teams in the Premiership, and elsewhere.
Although, in fairness, I daresay much the same can be said for supporting many - if not, most - of the other teams in the Premiership, and elsewhere.
I'd argue there are about 18 teams in the PL harder to follow!
So much to unpick. As one of the most successful sides in history, and also, a team in the top flight, other teams will always want to beat them, and the job of any manager of a club that is to play them, is to dissect their game/style. As for the remark about Salah, they have had all season, but considering the volume of goals and assists, they failed. They were very unfortunate to lose to PSG, who I believe will go on to win the Champions League.
I'm sure they will buy wisely, and as they have experienced long periods without Trent, I doubt he'll be missed as much as many of you believe.
Such an incredible statement, and as you are not a football manager, quite outrageous. As for your remark 'There was nothing Slot needed to do except to keep on winning that is and hope his rivals fall behind' There is little point even attempting to take apart your premise, as I fear your responses, will be even more incredulous.
PSG made 10 changes against Strasbourg. Whilst Arteta played his usual 11 bar 1. Again. Sometimes you can understand the argument that he overplays his players. And the only chance they get to rest is when they're injured.
It's now looking even more concrete that PSG will likely go through next week.
Meanwhile Emery may yet get European football. Although Watkins goes missing again.
And Vardy helps Leiceter win. Probably the most value a club has gotten from a player bought for £1m.
Ok. If you say so.
Harry Kane has won his first title...almost 32 years old.
www.theguardian.com
Bayern Munich win Bundesliga for 33rd time to delight Kane and Kompany
Bayern Munich have won the Bundesliga title after Bayer Leverkusen drew at Freiburg, giving Harry Kane his first major trophy
Sigh.
"Again" is the key word in that sentence.
He does overplay his players, and the nature of the modern "high pressing" game means that this (notwithstanding modern advances and developments in areas such as diet, training, and improved medical facilities, and so on) - over time - can be very costly - physically, and psychologically - on a small enough squad.
That is on him, not the team.
My problem (and I used to be a teacher, which meant that such students were a source of considerable frustration to me) is that Mikel Arteta - though gifted in many ways - refuses, or is unable, or does not wish to, - to learn from his mistakes.
And his mistakes - and his clear refusal (or inability) to learn from them, or want to learn from them, - are costing the team, and ensuring that the team - though talented - are unable to progress, or develop, further.
Agreed.
Indeed.
Vardy has been a superb - a superb - player for Leicester; his contribution to the club goes well beyond the £1 million they paid for him; his heart and soul and sheer, passionate commitment to Leicester - he is now 38, and still scoring in the Premiership, almost a decade after Leicester won the title (a time when he could have moved, there were suitors, not least Arsenal, but, to his credit, he stayed put) - cannot be calculated.
Actually, - and remember his actual background, not just that price of £1 million, but the earlier criminal conviction, the cuff, the curfew, - and remember what he has given to Leicester, the city and the club - what a role model for the club - to my mind, he is - quite rightly, considered to be a club legend.
We finished the season with a draw and were placed well above the relegation zone... I'll take it!
I already wrote off this season back in Nov. All well and good putting up a performance against City and Madrid, but we have been awful since...Nov
Emirates has not been a fortress since 22/23 season. And our forward line is getting worse each minute. I mean you have a problem if Declan Rice is now the goalscorer in the team.
I personally don't subscribe to the narrative that Arteta can't be questioned. Yes he's been brilliant for us in recent years. BUT maybe he's just not the man to get us over the line.
I have no doubt he'll succeed at some point with or without us.
But he has woefully underachieved in my opinion given the money spent.
He has 3 glaring weaknesses for me;
1. He doesn't know how to overcome low blocks
2. He doesn't know how to facilitate individual brilliance from players. Everything is systems based which won't always work.
3. He is woeful at juggling several competitions.
Luis Enrique, Hansi Flick, Inzaghi have all built formidable successful teams with less money. And they've never managed in the EPL either.
Arne Slot is a first timer who spent nothing and won the league at a canter. Granted he inherited a good team from Klopp.
If he (Arteta) loses to PSG on wed (and i think he will), and Spurs or Utd win the Europa League, i think he will find himself in muddy waters.
I personally want to see what he does with Berta in the summer window. At this point we now need 5 players, 4 attackers and a 6.
But if he fails to win a minimum of 2 trophies in the next 18 months then i'm no longer interested.
And judging by the latest rumours, some players might be losing faith too. Seeing how Saliba is batting his eyes at Madrid.
Emirates has not been a fortress since 22/23 season. And our forward line is getting worse each minute. I mean you have a problem if Declan Rice is now the goalscorer in the team.
I personally don't subscribe to the narrative that Arteta can't be questioned. Yes he's been brilliant for us in recent years. BUT maybe he's just not the man to get us over the line.
I have no doubt he'll succeed at some point with or without us.
But he has woefully underachieved in my opinion given the money spent.
He has 3 glaring weaknesses for me;
1. He doesn't know how to overcome low blocks
2. He doesn't know how to facilitate individual brilliance from players. Everything is systems based which won't always work.
3. He is woeful at juggling several competitions.
Luis Enrique, Hansi Flick, Inzaghi have all built formidable successful teams with less money. And they've never managed in the EPL either.
Arne Slot is a first timer who spent nothing and won the league at a canter. Granted he inherited a good team from Klopp.
If he (Arteta) loses to PSG on wed (and i think he will), and Spurs or Utd win the Europa League, i think he will find himself in muddy waters.
I personally want to see what he does with Berta in the summer window. At this point we now need 5 players, 4 attackers and a 6.
But if he fails to win a minimum of 2 trophies in the next 18 months then i'm no longer interested.
And judging by the latest rumours, some players might be losing faith too. Seeing how Saliba is batting his eyes at Madrid.
Last edited:
Excellent, thoughtful and well-argued post - and not just because I find myself in agreement with you.
To his - Mikel Arteta's - evident weaknesses, I would add inflexibility (which you have already touched upon) and what seems to me to be a clear inability to learn from his mistakes.
I wonder whether anyone (players, or staff) in Arsenal feels able to "speak truth to power".
This season, I must say that I have found some of the excuses (the pitch, the ball, the ref) advanced for poor performances utterly risible.
What a cracking match in Milan tonight. A classic European night!
Nervous @Scepticalscribe?
Could be a very important night in Arsenal’s history. First goal will be crucial.
Could be a very important night in Arsenal’s history. First goal will be crucial.
Gnawing my nails, @Apple fanboy, gnawing my nails.
Notwithstanding our excellent performance against RM, I must confess that I am not overly optimistic about our chances in the clash taking place later this evening.
Indeed, I am of the opinion that the outcome of the Papal Conclave is considerably less clear that tonight's result is likely to be.
However, I remind myself - and console myself - that reaching the semi-final of the Champion's League is an achievement not to be sneezed at, and that for now, at least, (and on the back of a series of very underwhelming recent performances), we are still lying in second place in the Premier League (for the third consecutive year).
To be candid, you’re never confident of late! But good luck anyway.
This is true.
However, the nature of their play (and their string of underwhelming recent results) have all contributed to this unsettling lack of confidence; these days, not only do I know that they can't (or won't) score from play (or, it would be vanishingly unlikely for them to do so), equally, I cannot be certain that they will manage to protect a lead, or defend against a late, leaked, goal, (or lapse, or lose, concentration in such a sloppy manner as to concede a goal in the first few minutes).
In any case, I remember - with fond amazement - just how wonderfully relaxed I was, and how much I enjoyed the lack of stress in supporting that team - during the season when the Invincibles conquered.
Thank you.
Last time I felt relaxed watching West Ham, Tony Cottee and Frank Mcaveney were playing up front for us!
Showing my age!
I had thought - for a brief, fleeting, moment or two - that you might have written that you were last relaxed when the legends Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore and Martin Peters were playing for West Ham.
In truth that’s a bit before my time. But I did see all three play for West Ham in a legends game. As I recall Bob Wilson was in goal.