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oliveradams.bsky.social
Clock End šŸŽŸļø šŸ”“āšŖļø, general sports fanatic, doctor šŸ‘ØšŸ»ā€āš•ļø. Here for sports chat/news, interesting facts and less insane propaganda šŸ¦šŸ‘ŽšŸ» (Views my own)
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Tbh it doesnā€™t really matter as we were dire throughout irrespective of the red card. I think thatā€™s the more worrying/overarching problem
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Iā€™d say itā€™s orange and if the on field decision was yellow, especially away from home, you just know thereā€™s not a snowballā€™s chance in hell that becomes a red. You think if we were at Anfield and it happened to us that would be upgraded?
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Is the bigger problem not that we play somewhat miserable football? And if we donā€™t win playing it then it truly is miserableā€¦
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I disagree that itā€™s a clear goal scoring opportunity and a clear and obvious error. Everything is a goal scoring opportunity if you shoot every time youā€™re in possession.
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šŸ’ŖšŸ» letā€™s go!
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Goodly evening gents, Whilst itā€™s early days, do you think Nwaneri is playing himself into ā€˜must startā€™ territory even with a fully fit squad? Far from being a rotation option for Saka, does the future hold a place for both of them in a starting XI? #arsecastextra
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I like your thinking! Galaxy brain šŸ¤Æ
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Youā€™re suggesting the plan was to deploy Merino as an emergency striker all along? šŸ¤”
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I envisage something like that. Just have to lean into positions where we do have players available!
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I just think weā€™ll have to change to a 352 at some point. Canā€™t play Trossard/Nwaneri/Sterling every game and donā€™t think KT/Zinny will offer enough on the flanks for what we need. Something like below with KT/Zinny as further rotation. Just have to lean into where we do have players!
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Presume itā€™ll be Trossard though I wouldnā€™t mind seeing Nwaneri there for more running power in behind. Just not sure if heā€™ll get crowded out a bit per his cameos at R8. Think weā€™ll have to see some KT/zinny on the wings or maybe a change to 352
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Morning gents, a lot of debate about the ā€˜rightā€™ player not being available in the Jan window a) What do you think constituted the ā€˜rightā€™ player in January? b) Do we need to be more bullish as a club to generate availability or is ā€˜Iā€™m sure they tried and the club knows bestā€™ a reasonable view?
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Weā€™re getting to the point where Dowman might get minutes. Exciting and terrifying!
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Letā€™s take a look at it from another angle. Oh yeah, Salibaā€™s gotta be stronger there. Heā€™s tried to buy a free kick and Michael Oliver hasnā€™t fallen for it. Arsenal once again showing their glass chin, a soft touch, bottle jobs!
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As a doctor I tend to agree knee ligament injuries arenā€™t predictableā€¦ more asking whether his resurgence into a usable force was predictable. But I think weā€™re at an impasse in terms of the overall view on things, I hope youā€™re right about our ability to cope but worry weā€™ll be sad in March.
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His resurgence was well timed and very welcome - heā€™s one of my favourite players and to my mind one of the most talented in the squad when fit physically and mentally. That said, was it something we could have predicted/relied upon?
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If we zoom out a bit on this I think thatā€™s the problem overall. Weā€™ve had two windows to obtain some sort of non-critical dependence on Havertz and have failed. Never mind a ceiling raiser itā€™s just a tough idea to reconcile with.
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Time will tell - I hope we can handle it. Iā€™m not angry we havenā€™t signed anyone per se, I just have a real concern that we have left ourselves very vulnerable if our cursed season continues on its current injury and suspension trajectory
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See I think thatā€™s perhaps where we disagree. I didnā€™t even necessarily think we needed someone to ā€˜make an impactā€™ at this point. We needed injury and rotation cover to take minutes off our knackered players. We have 5 players for 3 positions which include a 17 yr old and a potential busted flush.
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Well for me I think it goes back to the original point I was asking - is the perfect being the enemy of the good? Were our criteria too stringent for what we looked for vs. what you could argue we needed via a loan cover move? I donā€™t know - but thereā€™s a lot of football til Saka comes back, I worry
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But this goes back to the original point of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good no? What was ā€˜the askā€™ so to speak? As I said I canā€™t know what was looked at, but objectively donā€™t you find it hard to believe absolutely no one was available as ā€˜project buyā€™, ā€˜proven buyā€™ or ā€˜loan coverā€™?
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I accept that the specific examples of players who have been signed may not have worked, but itā€™s a struggle to believe that across the whole of world football there wasnā€™t a loan +\- option deal to be made for a usable injury cover and rotation player across our frontline.
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Well thatā€™s why a loan +\- option was the right move for me. Itā€™s mutually beneficial, provides depth but no hard feelings if it doesnā€™t work out right? Surely an auxiliary forward to take minutes off Havertz if weā€™re up and cruising in a home fixture just made sense even without an injury?
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I suppose I look at Villa and, to an extent, Sp*rs - theyā€™re not perfect signings and something of a punt. But as a loan theyā€™re basically zero risk and provide cover in case of emergency. Itā€™s up to the club to sell the vision of ā€˜if youā€™re good enough youā€™ll play and you might win something.ā€™
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Iā€™m not saying Rashford or Asensio was specifically an option for us but these are pretty good examples of the sort of player we should have been looking at in my opinion if not a signing. A no/low risk loan move saying ā€˜if youā€™re good enough youā€™ll play and you might win a PL/CL to boot.ā€™
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Itā€™s been said before but I think with attacking signings we are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. Trossard was the exception and to be honest exactly what we needed this window. I canā€™t know the ins and outs of what we tried but weā€™re going to look very silly if we get an injury up top.
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Respectfully disagree - Trossard was a very good January signing and we needed something along those lines this window. If a Newcastle goon crunches into someone along our front line on Wednesday weā€™re going to have a lot of egg on our face about not bringing anyone in.
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I do agree itā€™s hard though, and there are mechanics/considerations that Iā€™m not even aware of about doing these transfers or loans. Iā€™m just disappointed we havenā€™t safeguarded our season in some way.
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I think the difference there though is Utd are in disarray and wanted a potential world class starting striker for the future. We needed a Trossard-esque signing this window in my opinion and itā€™s maddening to think our season possibly blows up with 1 significant injury.