SKD

Anyone who blames Gabbiadini being off the boil for our lack of threat in front of goal is an absolute clown. The poor blokes presses the back 4, no one is there to help him. Makes very good runs off the ball getting behind the defence, we decide to pass it sidewards. The only service he gets are long hopeful balls then has no one around him. He's not gone backwards in terms of ability, we have as a team. At 1 point today he collected the ball on the edge of our box ffs. I feel sorry for him and can really sense his frustration. We have absolutely no pace on the counter at all. We either seem to be too defensive or too attacking, no inbetween. I'm sure Claude is a good manager, he's just not suited to the Premier Leauge. Slipping towards relegation next season if this continues.

Agree however why did he not change formation? We created **** all, he put on 3 strikers and played 2 of them out wide. Its progress though, I suppose.

Keep him I suspect. They way they've banged on and celebrated Saturday's result, it's like he's won them the champions League... not the bottom division of English football with a wage structure that would dwarf most of those in the league above

Agree - it always seems to get them top 4 or higher... I wonder if it'll happen again this year? Personally, I reckon it will.

Personally, I see Hoj as the Morgan replacement we never got in Clasie. He's still very young, he'll improve. Don't think he's good enough going forward to play in that no10 role.

We could well be next year.....

Chuck Hojbjerg in there and spend the money on a Davis upgrade to play (Sigurdsson, please Les, pay whatever it takes) in front of them.

I wouldn't read too much into this... I assumed it was due to the fact the knew Puel would do a speech so didn't want to send people to sleep with a 2nd and didn't have the time to fit in a Kreuger one as well.

Yellow/Blue? Given the demand, I would imagine we will see the white EFL cup kit in some capacity, wouldn't even mind that being our home kit!

It would be an awful decision to not replace him. Agree McQueen is a perfect no2, but Targett, especially coming back from a serious injury, would be a massive risk. I'd be looking at Tierney from Celtic, but I suspect he'll have bigger suitors than us.

Entire reign, was more pointing out that if it wasn't for injury/lack of players, it is unlikely that McQueen and Stephens would have been selected. As I said, credit to Puel for taking a risk on Sims (it's a shame he's only played 7 times), hopefully he pulls a few more like him out the bag next season and they aren't drafted in due to injury or what not as they've all shown they've generally got what it takes.

Is it? I've excluded cup / European games as it is always likely that you'll see younger players introduced as first team players are generally rested. Under Koeman Matt Targett (21) - 20 appearances. Jake Hesketh (21) - 2 appearances Harry Reed (who?) - 10 appearances Under Puel Sam Mcqueen(22) - 13 appearances this season, done very very well, but in all likelihood, wouldn't have got a look in if it wasn't for an injury to Targett and Bertrand. Stephens 23 - 14 appearances this season, again done very well, but again, wouldn't have got a look in if it wasn't for Fonte going and VVD injury. Sims 20 - 7 appearances this season. Looked lively, have to give Puel credit for this one. Reed - 3 appearances. Fallen off the face of the earth. In reality, i'd say it's a pretty even record of giving young players a chance, in the PL anyway. The only one you can really credit Puel for taking a gamble on is Sims, the rest were drafted in due to injury and we had no other option.

I got my hopes up when I saw the notification from SSN flash up, thought it was too good to be true.. investigate a little further and it turns out it was. May as well had just said we want to keep him, but if the player wants to go and we get a bid that matches our valuation then he will be free to leave. We've heard all this 'long contract' 'we want to keep the player' nonsense before.

That confirms it. The bloke has lost the plot

We had 4 shots (according to sky, I can only remember 1 tbh) 0 of which were on target. It's easy to say if we had been better at counter attacking, however the way we set up made that very difficult for the players to do so. Could the same not be said about Liverpool, if Milner hadn't missed a penalty or if Forster had pulled off a great save they would have won..? Ultimately I'm not saying we should have gone and all out attack Liverpool, but to me it looked like we had no intention what so ever to try and get a goal. In fact it looked like the players were so afraid of being out of position (maybe instructed by the manager) that the felt it would be wrong to try and push forward. I'm all for playing on the counter, in fact I'd say it's probably the most effective tactic (look at Leciester) but you have to offer some sort of attacking threat, which we didn't. If we were scrapping for our lives then I could accept that we would set up for a 0-0 and hope to nick one, but we have very little to play for. Why not at least try and have a go, even if it is on the counter.

Again, no one has said it isn't... the performance on the other hand (offensively)...

Rubbish. Whilst long is probably better at running the channels, worth mentioning that Gabbi is no slouch and has a yard of pace himself, he would not be able to hold up the long hopeful balls we've provided to Gabbi for the past couple of weeks. If we're going for 1 up front it needs to be Gabbi or Austin. Long needs to play with someone else and other than apply pressure to the back 4 (pretty hard to do alone) he would offer very little else, if we play the way we did yesterday. Long plays on the shoulder of the last defender, pretty pointless if you're going to lump 40 yard balls to him as it'll be easy to defend. I agree with playing them both. With Arsenals CB pairing, I think they could both cause havoc, given the right service. 3-4-3 would suit us down to the ground IMO, with the front 3 given the freedom to roam. With attacking full backs it would drag AOC and Sanchez into positions they don't want to be as we'd over run out wide if they don't track back. Time to be brave, Claude a home game with nothing to lose... ------------------Forster-------------------- -------Caceres--Stephens--Yoshida-------- Cedric------------------------------Bertrand --------------Romeu--Davis---------------- Gabbi--------------------------------Boufal ------------------Long-----------------------

The fact that you've said Long currently offers more than Gabbi would suggest not. Gabbi is struggling because he's given no help, Long looks better because he comes on and runs the channels when the defenders are tired. Long needs 10 chances to put 1 away, we won't get that with Arsenal. Just swapping them 2 around is not the answer to our offensive issues.

This is exactly how we played under Koeman. The difference being, when we attacked we had 2 players around Pelle (Yes one of those was Mane, but we set up in a completely different way. Give Boufal the ball in the final 3rd and he can be as good / effective as Mane, IMO). Currently we have 10 men parked on the edge of our box, with all the play in front of us, which is very good from a defensive point of view, but it makes it very difficult to counter. If feel for Gabbi, he get absolutely no help and you can sense him getting very frustrated (especially if he keeps getting taken off on 65 minutes). For me, i'd like to see the back 4 push up 5/10 yrds and have the front 3 applying pressure to the ball, higher up the pitch. We've got 2 of the best attacking full backs in the leauge, IMO, who can provide the width when we have possession of the ball get the forward 2/3 in and around Gabbi.

They don't watch us week in week out. I'm sure if they did, it'd be a different story.

This is a football forum, people are discussing football. I don't think anyone is complaining (not that I've seen) about getting a point, more the way we went about it. A point in itself is a great result, however I think the performance pretty much summed up why Puel has so many doubters.

Pretty much agree with this but You also have to consider if the players are happy / want the manager to continue...of which a number don't. Im all against player power, but when so many of the first team (starting 11) want out then you have to question do you lose your best players or manager? For me, I'd say you change manager rather than half the squad. Overall, i think if you combine all 3 and the factor in the fans unhappiness with him, he has to go. On paper it will look a strange decision, but personally I would say it's justified.

He doesn't have an opinion, just criticises those that do..

I agree, setting up so negatively is a risky plan, and takes a bit (a lot) of luck, which generally we've had the 4 times we've played them this season. If Milner puts the penalty away, or Forster doesn't make a few fantastic saves, we lose and Puel gets criticised for an offensively shambolic display (4 shots, 0 on target is poor, no matter who you're playing). But credit where credit is due, Puel set up to draw and that's what we got. Hopefully we offer a bit more offensively on Wednesday as I cannot see us getting the same luck we've had in our games against Liverpool and also I can't see Arsenal being as bad as Liverpool were today.

Bit of a nothing game for us really. All we're playing for is 8th and with this being a game in hand, it's not the end of the world if we lose, as will be expected. Puel needs to get fans (not all, but a lot) on side, so essentially with this being a game where we have nothing to lose, it's the perfect time to put in a performance both defensively and in the final 3rd. Arsenal have it all to play for and generally finish the season strong. 0-2