the playing mantis wrote: ↑Tue Apr 05, 2022 8:18 pm
g88ner wrote: ↑Tue Apr 05, 2022 4:19 am
Stick with the team though. They’re having a wonderful season all things considered and deserve our support.
Wonderful all things considered, care to quantify that?
No European football to distract them. Out of cups early. Biggest spend in Europe. Basket cases at Spurs and United yet we are barely ahead of them having had much easier fixtures.
There are some outstanding individuals potentially but are they being harnessed as they should, are they developing?
Should we stay 4th by end of season it will have been a decent season. Anything else is failure and to say how wonderful they have been so far is sheer delusion!
Not sure you needed to call me delusional ffs
Genuinely don’t think I am at all but fair enough.
“Wonderful, all things considered” = very young team reliant on a small squad and the goals/assists of young lads with no striker in the squad whatsoever and a team that was pretty much assembled this season.
Honestly, I think the players are doing really well (especially with so much churn and change in strategy and personnel from the board, Edu and Arteta). We basically have to grind out wins every week because Laca isn’t a goal threat. That’s asking a lot of Saka, ESR, etc.
Also, apart from the odd abomination (like against Palace) I think we generally defend well as a group and I really enjoy that side of our game.
And don’t forget the context of my “wonderful all things considered “ comment. The Palace thread has some rather nasty, negative comments about this team which I thought were very unfair considering what they’ve achieved in recent months. It was an awful performance but I’m not sure this team is a bunch of bottle jobs at all.
Anyway, I’m braced for them lot down the road pipping us to 4th. Losing Tomi and now Partey/Tierney is a huge blow and even more reliance on youngsters is now needed with Tevares and Lokonga playing more. Looks difficult but let’s see where we finish.