Morning all.
Do four goals against the lowest ranked country in world football deserve such gushing over? Two of which were penalties I hasten to add. The way the British media are reacting to England’s 10-0 thrashing of San Marino is ridiculous in my opinion. Of course it was good to secure the victory needed to cement England’s place in next years World Cup competition but perspective please! Arsenal were on show in the game with Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and Aaron Ramsdale all in the starting eleven, the latter two for the first time. Smith Rowe and Saka grabbed a goal each. Both played well too by all accounts but again, it was San Marino, not Spain, France or Germany.
One has to wonder why San Marino are even in the competition in the first place as it does them no good whatsoever. Imagine how the players feel after such a result and it’s not a one off. In all the time they’ve been competing in the Euros or World Cup, they’ve won one fixture according to Wiki and concede an average of 4.2 goals a game.
Anyway, I’m pleased that’s it for England as far as this international break goes so Emile, Aaron and Bukayo can pack their bags and get back home to Arsenal. Gabriel, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Martin Odegaard, Nicolas Pepe, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Sambi Lokonga, Mo Elneny, Nuno Tavares and Flo Balogun all play their final fixture later today. If selected of course. That’s it then for international fixtures until after this season has come to an end. Thank goodness eh!
Injuries are mounting up for Liverpool according to reports in the media. Mane, Henderson, Robertson, Firmino, Jones, Milner and Keita are all doubts for the weekend. If none manage to recover by Saturday, Lady Luck could be on our side. Plus Egypt play later. Lol
Thomas Partey is the main concern for Arsenal at the moment but hopefully his tight groin will have recovered during this two week break.
According to a report from Calciomercato, Arsenal are one of a number of clubs interested in signing Dejan Kulusevski in January. The Juventus forward is one of a number of players rumoured to leave the Italian League leaders.
Another player Arsenal are being linked to is American Tyler Adams who plays club football for RB Leipzig. A defensive midfielder who can play fullback on either side as well as on the wings. Basically, he can play anywhere bar centre forward. He’s 22 years old so totally fits the route Mikel Arteta is taking Arsenal. He has a £32.25M get out clause in his contract according to reports in the media.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FvxGkqqdxWU
Not the tallest admittedly but he looks strong and his stats are good. 5/10 for flair? Who cares, a defensive midfielder needs to be strong, determined and have the ability to break down an opponent’s attack. I know YouTube could make the most average of player look good but this youngster is receiving rave reviews for both club and country.
Still, if Ainsley Maitland-Niles keeps his head down and plays well, Arsenal might not need to worry about signing another midfielder.
See you in the comments.
Very nice for our three to get a gentle work out at least Ramsdale had one although a few ( got there as quick as I could) robust late ankle taps for Saka and ESR a couple of feel good goals can only do their confidence good.
On the subject of which potentially the greatest benefit will be for Conte who has seen his misfiring captain centre forward get 7 goals in two pointless games and come back flying .
If FIFA wants to change the World Cup set up then it needs to introduce divisions across all of the different areas . I am sure that just as we have the San Marinos and Litchenstiens amongst others so do Africa and South America . As suggested we play too many games , let the lower clubs have their own tournaments and let the winners then meet the big boys . We know it makes sense but then we are not trousering fortunes in backhanders and TV contracts.
With regards to the Adams situation , there will be gradual rebuilding of the squad , probably a few will come in and some will go . If Kolasinac and Elneny leave they will be replaced and not necessarily from within and if Lacazette is off and Nketiah is determined to go , we will need a forward .
No doubt names will be thrown at the wall by the media and it’s down to us to work out whether they hold water.. Maybe not for January but definitely next season.
BTW Ramsey left some time ago. lol.
Ha ha Potter, he did. Darn autocorrect.
The rumours will get more and more as January approaches. I’d like to see AMN replace Elneny in the pecking order, although he probably already has, but it’s up to him if he wants to be the player MA turns to when our midfield suffers an injury. He certainly has the ability imo, it’s just whether or not he can be consistent.
So slow today , even the usual suspect are silent . But reading around other sites so they all are too .Probably the tedium of watching our youngsters playing a team that would just about make it on Hackney marshes has just taken the wind out of everybody and with our media gushing about it we are all just keeping our heads down.
Afternoon Rico and Potter,
Yes very quiet. I can offer a different perspective if you’d like to hear it. Not about two tiering system makes perfect sense (Gibraltar and Cyprus are another two). Maybe they could have there own second tier World Cup the leading teams gain entry to the next World Cup the Winner gets automatic qualification maybe.
So different perspective, so I watched the game from Dublin last night and I saw two points being made all through the game. The first was they were gushing about our players the squad and having so many much depth for each position they were incredibly praising of our young crop. The second was on Southgate, they were saying he needs to select less defenders in games (7 was mentioned in the Euros against the stronger teams) and they need to be braver and take have a go at teams otherwise we won’t win the World Cup. So in summary we have the players but play too defensively and need to be more attacking against the big boys. I thought they were fair comments.
Mig
Very slow Potter, but I’ll soldier on. Lol
Hi Mig, same old England really, defensive first, attacking second. Understandable with the British press always waiting with sharpened pencils.
‘evening all.
I don’t think we can take too much from yesterday’s match, San Marino were just not good enough to provide anything like a competitive game. There can be not much doubt that England were handed a very weak group and whilst we qualified with ease, we are going to face a much harder time in the finals. Good for Kane to get his four gifts, oops! I should have said goals, but if anyone thinks he’ll do that in the main event they will wait in vain.
Morning Rico and all
There are some positive we can take out of the last England match,
Not counting the score line.
It has given Arteta and Edu a good look at players who can play alongside ESR and Saka that we maybe able to pickup in a future transfer.
Morning Geoff, it’s been so quiet I’m having a couple of days off. Lol
Don’t blame you
Well earned and well deserved Rico.
Thanks you two.
However, there’s a new post up today.
One of the cup matches I enjoyed was against Reading at the Mad Stad. To witness such a crazy game was fun, although not for the first part…