henrycolvine.bsky.social
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Schedule clearly ludicrous, and understand players gripes. Less sympathy for managers. Ange irresponsible around for eg. MVdV + Romero given the obvious strain of calendar and style. Arteta also made questionable choices in squad building and (lack of) rotation over 3 seasons that are impacting now.
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For sure. But also think there’s a difference between the end of a cycle, where legs go, as with City now, and what Arsenal are going through where you’re almost burning out through the effort of chasing without reward. LFC probably experienced both over Klopp’s tenure.
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Thought solidarity payments had gone up? Not here to defend longstanding iniquities, but from a pure 24/25 v CL history point of view this doesn’t yet feel more egregious. May still do. But for Celtic, say, involved throughout + big knock out tie in Feb, must represent an improvement over the norm.
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ok. but the point here is the format is obviously different. if your contention is that this is the super league by stealth or even just designed to further cocoon the most wealthy/powerful than i'm not sure how that can be said for certain half way through the first edition.
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eh?is this hot take not a little premature? bayern, dortmund, madrid, city, ac milan, psg, and juve are not yet qualified for the round of 16.
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Not to dismiss injury, but clear Djokovic also good at turning problems to his advantage. Strategy I think was not to give Alcaraz anything emotionally or in terms of ability to counter strike from wide. Almost too passive at times (thought he’d gone full Murray early on), injury helped adjustment.
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Comparison to be made in how well ethos established, and Arteta particularly excellent at building structure. But also part of both jobs to do with a fortune of inheritance… last steps obviously the hardest, but think Arsenal should be concerned with Arteta’s clear desires on recruitment process.
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Would you sell him to Arsenal for that money?
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Van Dijk wanted the move throughout. If a player suddenly at the end of the process says he’s not sure, for whatever reason, of course your valuation and commitment to sign that player would also then change.
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Haven’t watched enough of Brighton to know, but anecdotally and the bits I have seen, is Pedro’s best work not all been done behind the striker/wide forwards?
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Arteta had a few choices to make with the enthusiastic, but naive, side that first challenged in 22/23 and, (empowered), basically chose a Mourinho 2012 template for beating Pep. The strategy and recruitment since then always risked this kind of suffocation. + at a time City falling off.
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This Arsenal regression was foreseeable and is entirely tied in with decisions the manager has made with impunity. Much closer to the decisions Houllier or Benitez made around transfers/style that led to drop offs, and without cups in the bank to compensate.
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Spurs had to take a leave it all out there approach, and that’s the style anyway. Not dissimilar to Klopp. Liverpool trying to manage 4 comps, but I think they can and have been disrupted in this way before. Problem for Spurs, as they’re finding, is it’s very hard to sustain over the course.
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Probably less precise in all areas. Fatigue? But also expectations raised v. reality of early months where these performances led to tight wins. + opponents probably have better idea how to attack us. + + discrepancy in this game in sense Spurs had to leave it all out there v. us “managing”.
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spurs basically going for the early knockout/realising their best chance of stopping us is legging us all over the pitch. and to be fair we've struggled at times with aggression/tempo. reminds me a bit of 1st half v. arsenal.
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Agree. But what I find odder, and perhaps the whole recruitment mess in microcosm, is that they’ve ended up with an obviously talented manager who’s prepared to dump any of the squad after 2 months. What was said at interview?
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Arteta’s course clearly set. Their football all about vice-like squeeze and control of speed of game/transition. Hence the 100s of millions on 6footers who can help dominate the middle. Any team would want Isak. Question should be would Arsenal be best choice for universally coveted striker?
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They’ve got these kind of performances against good opposition in years gone by, even in bad moments. The biggest sign of green shoots for an underperforming big club is the ability to start picking up regular points, proactively at home and v bottom 10 away.
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Salah can say almost whatever he wants because he’s playing at a consistently elite level. Marcus Rashford can’t say or do anything without the walls caving in, because he doesn’t. Brutal nature of it.
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And say what? The only way to navigate this smoothly in real time is perform. Covers a multitude of sins including the laconic style that occasionally looks like lack of effort, the Ballon d’Or and catwalk stuff that feeds into ideas that his head’s not in it, unforgivably.
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Pep, who gets widely criticised for “overthinking it” every time he tries something different in a big game and loses.
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Not one manager during previous eras got credit for pragmatism or adaptability if the results weren’t there. In fact there was a wave of tactical foreign managers in the 90s + 00s who were roundly ridiculed for rotating systems or players, even with relative success.
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Isn’t this what was said of ETH’s attempts to solve the dressing room? Think a rehash of “bad eggs” way of thinking not a good sign. Starting point, surely, must be finding nucleus you can work with, however small. No sign of it, + still talking about the personalities of international footballers.
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A similarity with this period Chelsea is the bad choices City have started making around good players. But also the expensively assembled academies churning out talent below that. City end up with KDB and Ake. Chelsea end up with Palmer and Lavia.
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More likely Madrid will feel that Trent can help unlock Mbappe in the way Pogba did for France. Think he would still be a right back in that scenario though. If Alonso is the next coach there, it makes less sense however, for both parties.
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Apart from that, that the debate is happening now is slightly odd given the game that was not lost in the final third.
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Given the choices and the heritage makes absolute sense for the 9 to be more of the foil. And Nunez, on the whole, has managed it better than I thought possible.
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Because, if, as you recognise, it’s a race all season, every week where the gap at the top changes is a twist. And apart from that the results last night hardly seismic. Arsenal have recently been to SJP with fewer injuries/less load and lost.
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Yeah, sorry, wasn’t clear … I was referring to your “first twist” post, which while not ridiculous, I found slightly disingenuous.
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His all round performance has been much better this season from a team perspective. Not great last night, but more in the conversation as an option than at the start of the season in my view. And I say that as a long term sceptic.
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“A race is all season.” So why ask the question? My two p worth: So far, on the whole, AFC do significantly less in the face of adversity - injuries/suspensions/load etc. - than the team that usually wins it. But, yeah, obviously, still all to play for.
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He’ll handle it like the politician he is. Coote will be fed to sharks, but internal review will mitigate his actions on account of stress. Then the abuse refs receive will be put front and centre as the barrier to best jurisdiction of game. Broadcasters on message; promised greater access.
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West Ham (A)
Man U (H)
Fulham (A)
An interesting little stress test in the next week, particularly if we can come out of ours relatively unscathed.
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What manager thinks should always be weighted in. Edwards and co probably believe they were largely proved right in their disputes with Klopp around Henderson/Gini particularly, and maybe Nunez etc. Tricky. As City are finding. Klopp left v. strong squad without same influence of “data” latterly.
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Is that not truer of City in this context? Win at Villa; as much Villa? Brighton as much Brighton etc. You’re probably right but I think it’s a bit the nature of the league this year. A lot of teams that can be good/bad from week to week (half to half) depending on circumstances.
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Haven’t been for years, but The Holly Bush in Hampstead used to be great over Christmas. Would hope it has retained both the fire and its charm.
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Not sure “defence” helpful here. More hybrid Klopp/Pep. Unlikely midfield functioning either as Klopp wanted last year or as Slot does now. More room eventually for Elliott type 8/10, if not him exactly, in a Slot midfield than in the Klopp midfields that actually won leagues imo.
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Nottingham Forest (H), second 8.
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In another decade or so everyone will realise that the c. 2002 message board was the highest form of social media and migrate back from whence they came.