Rapid Viennanginas A Europa Group phase KO 1755

[Clash]

Just watched the highlights and Leno had an absolute nightmare didn't he.

I think he'll be ok and come good again. All keepers make some mistakes and every time they do people will be extremely critical.

Yes I agree that he had a nightmare and I also think he is a good goalkeeper. From when Leno got injured in Brighton to the beginning of this season he didn't play, and Martinez excelled. Arteta still had a decision to make on his first choice keeper and at that point Leno had done nothing wrong except get injured.
He made a choice that either way would be a gamble. The spotlight on whoever he kept would be intense. Martinez has started well at Villa, but got away with a horrible mistake in one game because VAR intervened.
Look back to October last year. Look at the comments on the Liverpool away in the League Cup thread about Martinez. One comment was on the lines of "can't believe people want Martinez to replace Leno"..another called Martinez a disaster or a joke.
Martinez was and maybe is better than Leno at playing out of the back. But we are living in hindsight on our first choice keeper. It can't be changed. There were comments on threads about Jack Grealish not being good enough, and now it seems he is all we need,. Imagine if we had been linked with Barkley,
Hindsight is wonderful, Before the Brighton game away last season, how many would have picked Martinez ahead of Leno? Not too many I guess. I wouldn't and maybe Arteta didn't either.

Leno crept under the radar a bit before Martinez broke through at the end of last season in terms of scrutiny but if the truth be known I never felt he was a world-class goalkeeper. Good shot stopper yes but constantly getting found out with his distribution when the opposition is pressing high. Add to that he likes to flap a lot, it's inevitable he will make mistakes in every game he plays, it's just a question of whether he gets away with it.

We do need to move on though, the net effect of the Martinez sale was we got Partey in who for me is the first proper midfielder we've had for years.

Maybe yes but couldn't we have sold Xhaka and one or two others instead for more money than we got for Martinez?

[rodders999]

Sadly we couldn't Clash because they're on too high a wedge with us to shift on elsewhere. That's why they all stayed despite professing to want to play football so badly

The reason Martinez was an easy sell was because he was on what 30 odd grand a week? Villa sign him up and easily double his wages, that's not possible with the likes of Kolasinac and the rest of the dross on 100+ grand a week already

[SteveO 35]

Boy, we're a difficult watch these days aren't we?

Now I realise this cup doesn't mean much to a lot of people round these parts, but to me it matters far more than the Premier League boreathon....so I sat down with a beer at just before 6pm hoping for a swashbuckling display to swat these pubbers aside by 4 or 5.

70 minutes of utter tedium before 5 minutes of coming to life, followed by 15 minutes of watching Leno trying to give it back away.

Fair fucks to two players I normally call out for other reasons - David Luiz who stood tall throughout and actually showed some leadership, and Bellerin for coming on and making an instant impact when the Southampton cast off showed exactly why he's.......errr.......a Southampton cast off. Nice debut from Partey too.

As has been said too many times, the ever revolving midfield axis (one week Ceballos, next week Elneny, one week Xhakaturd, next week Willock) can rotate itself to death and will never provide the answers so desperately lacking from this team.

Lacazette is nothing short of a disgrace at the moment - I'd say the 'rotate to death' between him and Nketiah is in the same category as that midfield quartet above - meh, what difference will it ever make?

Thank fuck for the win! With the exception of the first game against Fulham (a team I expect to rival Derby's record low total points) this season has been a hard watch so far. Tighter at the back definitely, but like GG's 1995 vintage everywhere else!

[Clash]

Sadly we couldn't Clash because they're on too high a wedge with us to shift on elsewhere. That's why they all stayed despite professing to want to play football so badly

The reason Martinez was an easy sell was because he was on what 30 odd grand a week? Villa sign him up and easily double his wages, that's not possible with the likes of Kolasinac and the rest of the dross on 100+ grand a week already

Fair points mate, you're probably right. It's more complicated than just getting the dross out and keeping the good ones.

We are still enjoying the long term benefits of Wenger and Gazidis's shrewd dealings in the transfer market

[gooner265]

this means nothing to me

Quality quality choon

Quality, quality band

[StuartL]

As I say after every match these days....how fucking good is Gabriel? Looks like he’s been playing back there for us for years.

Also Partey is going to huge for us in the centre of that midfield, shades of PV in some of his play.

As for the rest of it? MUCK.

We have improved the team with those 2 additions enormously, plus Tierney and Saka but we still look as shite as ever

I’m worried now that Arteta’s last years as a player (under Wengers tip tap shite) is how he thinks the game should be played.

[Herd]

I was actually nodding off a lot until they scored and then it livened up a tad.
What did we learn not much really Lacazette is Lazy how long shall we say Pepe is a work In progress ,Leno can't do play out from the back under pressure.
But Party looked good and we won in the group of death. Can someone tell me why with no crowds why the fuck are Dundalk playing in the capital??

The players and press facilities at Oriel Park Dundalk are not up to.UEFA standard. Apart from that they have a plastic pitch (which is allowed ) and a dreadful kip of a ground even by League of Ireland standards.

Ok thanks for that I know they had a row with the cuntz at the Irish rugby bods about playing at Lansdowne road ( no shock there) but if theirs no crowd who cares !
Its a crying shame Id have loved to have gone to Dundalk and popped over to Crossmaglen for a shindig with the bhoys !