F*** Off Mourinho

Leave a reply

I do not get it, I really don’t.

People on Twitter saying they would like to see Jose Mourinho as Arsenal manager. They are idiots. Every single one of them.

There are many reasons why Arsenal should not touch Mourinho with a barge poll.

No longer a winner

Mourinho was untouchable when it came to success in the 00s.

From his remarkable Champions League win with Porto, back to back titles with Chelsea before repeating the feat with Inter Milan, but since overseeing the treble with Inter Milan in 2010, his crown has certainly slipped.

Since 2010, he has overseen just 2 league titles in 9 seasons, managing Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United.

Gone are the days when bringing in Mourinho almost guaranteed you the title.

Only do it with money

At Chelsea, he managed a team that spent money like no other in the history of the game. Inter Milan was a similar situation as he took over the Italian club in the wake of the 2006 Calciopoli scandal that saw the likes of Juventus and AC Milan take a while to recover from.

Real Madrid are the biggest club in world football and not too far behind them are Manchester United.

At Porto an argument will be made that he proved he could do it with no money, yet this success was 15-years ago and Porto were still the richest side in Portugal.

Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United – the most powerful sides in their league at the time.

Has he ever won the league title when his side have not had the most money to spend? Has he every joined a side struggling and turned them into league champions? The answer to both is no.

Toxicity

Arsenal is a fairly toxic place at the moment.

Fans are abusing players, arguing with each other, unhappy with the manager and angry at the running of the club. A positive atmosphere does not surround the club.

Bringing in Mourinho will be adding fuel to the fire.

Many fans would take an instant dislike to him; remembering his comments about Arsene Wenger, the Ashley Cole scandal and the way he has insulted the club previous.

He is a manager who constantly calls out opposing managers, criticises his own players publicly and digs out the fans.

You only have to look at Manchester United under him. Speak to their fans. They were not happy with the way he behaved, acted and carried himself. They turned quickly.

The man lacks class. He does not carry himself well at all. A narcissistic character, he believes himself to be bigger, more important than the club he is working for. He will drag that clubs good name through the mad to get success; success which is clearly drying up.

He plays a negative brand of football, setting his teams up to firstly not lose before they try and win.

Do we really want to add his character to the boiling pot of toxicity that is Arsenal at the moment?

 

The guy has no class whatsoever. If you are calling for him to become Arsenal manager, you are forgetting what Rocky Rocastle said.

Remember who you are, what you are and who you represent.

Keenos

Inconsistency Arsenal’s Enemy

1 Reply

Unai Emery

Unai Emery looks like a man lost at the moment.

He is clearly overthinking things. Over complicating things. Constantly chopping and changing what he is trying to do. Players like confused. Unsure what to do.

This season he has failed to put out a consistent starting XI, in a consistent formation.

Against Crystal Palace he went 442. This continues his trend of chopping and changing the formation.

From 3 at the back to 4231 and 433; the continual changing of tactics and formation is a big reason why we are struggling.

The best teams in the world have a consistent way of playing in a consistent formation.

Arsenal’s invincibles lined up 442. You could name the best XI. Liverpool currently top the league, unbeaten, just 2 points dropped. They play 433 and Jurgen Klopp nearly always puts out the same starting XI (injury permitting).

It is the same with Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea sides of the 00s, of Alex Ferguson’s Man U sides in the 90s. A consistent formation and a consistent way of playing.

Emery is inconsistent in formation, tactics and personnel.

Taking into account Arsenal played on Thursday, how many training sessions would the team have done in 442? Maybe just 1?

Now talented footballers should be able to slide into different formations. But at the highest level you still need that consistency of tactics and selection. Players need to be almost telepathic, knowing where a team mate will be without having to look. That only comes with the consistency.

England beat New Zealand at the weekend. They did it through working hard on the train ground. Developing the tactics to win and sticking with them. Every English player knew his job, knew where his team mate would be.

Unai Emery’s downfall will be that he chops and changes too much. He is not giving our talented squad the time to settle, play together in the same formation week after week.

VAR

“Clear and obvious mistake”.

That was the statement that was released by the FA with regards how VAR would be used to overturn the decision of the on-field referee.

Up until this weekend, VAR had backed the on-field referee’s decision on almost every occasional – even when there was a clear an obvious error.

Last Monday Sokratis had his shirt pulled whilst in the air at a corner. VAR decided that failing to award a penalty was not a clear and obvious mistake; even though it was a clear and obvious penalty.

That decision had been consistent with how they had been using VAR. Numerous blatant penalties – such as the one Wolves should have got against Tottenham – had been failed to be given. That all changed this weekend.

VAR decided that Calum Chambers had fouled someone in the build up to Sokratis 2nd goal. It was a mystifying decision and was by no-means a clear and obvious error by Martin Atkinson. In fact it was not an error at all.

What the replay actually showed was Chambers being fouled by a Crystal Palace player, who shoved the Arsenal man two handed in the chest.

VAR was supposed to be used to clear up controversy. But the officials are using it in an inconsistent manner. Some teams are benefiting, others are losing out.

In the last 2 games Arsenal have been denied a blatant penalty (at 0-0) and had a goal disallowed (at 2-2). That is 5 points robbed off of us by the inconsistent using of VAR.

5 points makes a big difference. That would rocket Arsenal up from 5th to 3rd; and would go a long way to calming down the Islington faithful.

VAR can be a good thing; but it needs to be used consistently by the officials. At the moment it is not creating a fair playing field.

Keenos

Match Report: Arsenal 2 – 2 Crystal Palace

Leave a reply

Arsenal (2) 2 Crystal Palace (1) 2
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Sunday, 27th October 2019. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Calum Chambers, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz, Kieran Tierney; Mattéo Guendouzi, Granit Xhaka; Nicolas Pépé, Dani Ceballos, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang; Alexandre Lacazette.
Substitutes: Hector Bellerin, Lucas Torreira, Rob Holding, Emiliano Martínez; Sead Kolašinac, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka.
Scorers: Sokratis Papastathopoulos (7 mins), David Luiz (9 mins)
Yellow Cards: Calum Chambers, Mattéo Guendouzi
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 57%
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Attendance: 60,345

Today will be the litmus test for us; after Thursday’s late, late show in the Europa League that saw us victorious against Vitoria SC, we needed a good performance (and a great win too) in the Premier League to bolster our confidence. Maybe our questions were answered as early as the seventh minute in this London derby when Sokratis Papastathopoulos received a quick pass from Granit Xhaka (via a Nicolas Pépé corner) in the Palace penalty area; his trusty right foot made no mistake in placing the ball into the lower right hand corner of the net. If this wasn’t enough excitement for the discerning Emirates crowd, five minutes later, again from a corner, Alexandre Lacazette slotted the ball to the much maligned David Luiz who wasted no time in whacking the ball into the top left corner of the net for our second goal at close range within fifteen minutes of the start!

Over the next ten minutes or so, as to be expected, our goalscoring chances were abundant. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was desperately unlucky not to score a third, as was Kieran Tierney, on his Premiership debut, with a fierce shot from a corner that went extremely close indeed. As these things happen, the game slowed down from the frentic, exciting beginning that we had happily witnessed. Just after the half hour, as is always the way, controversy became the norm again. Calum Chambers clumsily fouled Wilfried Zaha within our penalty area, and as is de rigueur this season in these heart-stopping circumstances, the technological eye known as VAR was called into the decision-making process for referee Martin Atkinson to help make his on-field decree. Yes, the penalty was given, and Luka Milivojevic got one back for the visitors.

Obviously the goal buoyed the visitors and they came back into the match and got close to an equaliser on a couple of occasions; but also, to be fair, we matched them toe-to-toe and got back into the game, rather brightly and keenly it has to be said. In the closing stages of the first half, we organised ourselves well, and the home advantage worked well in our favour. On the stroke of half-time, Nicolas Pépé hit the post with a match-winning shot from inside the Palace penalty area from a ball that was truly gifted to him by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The whistle blew soon afterwards, and we went into half-time on the ascendancy.

So what happened in the half-time break? Did someone have an argument or something? Whatever it was, it became apparent quite quickly that Arsenal did not look the same team as they were previously. Seven minutes after the break, our questions were answered when James McArthur managed to shake off Granit Xhaka on the left, thus placing a cross deep into the Arsenal penalty area for Jordan Ayew to equalise. Shortly afterwards, Granit Xhaka was substituted for Bukayo Saka, at which point the Arsenal crowd showed their extreme displeasure at him when he was walking off the pitch; it didn’t make things better when he merely put a cupped hand to his ear is an act of defiance, along with a mouthful of abuse. Worse was to follow. After twenty minutes or so of midfield sparring (as well as Sead Kolašinac replacing the fatigued Kieran Tierney with fifteen minutes of the match remaining in the meantime) a perfectly good enough Sokratis Papastathopoulos goal was ruled out by (yes, you guessed it) the obligatory VAR review; after all the confusion, the upshot of it all was that this decision cost us the match, ultimately. How can it be? Whatever reason it was, barring a bizarre tackle by Mattéo Guendouzi literally at the end of the game that saw him being booked for his trouble by Martin Atkinson, that was that, really.

Forget the VAR controversies, the Granit Xhaka incident, and the indifferent performance by the referee; the up and down of it all was that this was yet another unsatisfactory day at the office for us. We just went to pieces at times in the second half, and all this after the fantastic start that we had as well! Does anyone teach this team game management? Where are the alpha male leaders? And more to the point, where on earth is Mesut Özil these days? Worryingly, not only are we fifth in the Premiership, but there is now a five point gap that has opened up between Chelsea and ourselves. Somebody at this club needs to get a grip, and quickly. Time is of the essence. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday, 30th October at 7.30pm (Carabao Cup). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.