Graffito

O The explanations seem to be; height, protecting the right flank when Mane plays there, and flexibility to go three at the back, none of which reasons are justified, in my opinion, by Yoshida's performances at right back. Having seen the highlights on Motd, Mane could/should have given Yoshida an option wide before he lost possession leading to the first goal. If he had done so, Yoshida would have played it down the line but it was still a crass error by Yoshida. For the killer third, Yoshida got sucked in to the centre and left the **** a free shot at goal. Arguably, JWP should have tracked back his man, who Yoshida went to pick up, but that man wasn't his responsibility. He should have covered Kolarov. Bigger picture. I couldn't make this one but went last season and City were the best side against us that I saw all last season. Despite the injuries they are still a good side, which they should be with the money they pay, so bin it and move on.

Let's bin City and beat these *****.

He could do that via a substitution. Using up a sub to do it would be less risky than starting him at right back.

Has Koeman ever explained why he plays Yoshida at right back?

"You won't see a better goal than that this season." You won't see a better goal than that any season.

O We lost a match.

I'm sorry to say they have an excellent coach.

http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/24264 Not sure about the validity of these stats and they are a little old but this caught my eye: "But take a moment and look at the team he favoured most… Stoke. That really is a big bias in their favour"

Yesterday morning BT showed a table of where teams would be were games to have finished at half time and Saints were joint top with Man Utd and Watford.

Maybe I'm misremembering but I thought he was booked for booting the ball goalwards after the ref pulled him up. If so, a bit of discretion, or dare I say common sense, would have been in order with it being that late in the game. With Saints losing and time running out Pelle was wasting our time and nobody elses. On the other hand, Mason allowed Stoke to time waste throughout the second half.

Is a ref allowed to use discretion in those situations? After all, Pelle was wasting Saints' time.

Poor as Saints were I think Stoke aren't being given enough credit here. Think back, they had several chances and if they could finish they'd have beaten us by more, and would have deserved it. What I didn't like was how they were into Pelle's back every time the ball was played up to him which totally disrupted the focal point of our attacks. But then its up to the kn@b mason to penalise it.

I don't get these arguments at all, any of them. Even the final comment "we also scored one because he was so late to the area and wasn't picked up", reads like a criticism or an accidental consequence of alleged slowness to get in the box.

He scored against Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea. Don't recall a goal against Arsenal but think he might have got one for Liverpool against them.

Agree totally. Some right fkin jokers on here.

Is Crook closer to Juve than most?

Or maybe Manu and Leicester are better than they were last year?

This is why they conceded 6 to Everton. I'd add special mention as well of Van Aahnholt in that regard. I can see a bore draw. Allardyce surely won't allow a repeat.

Bites yer willy.

Watch the rivalry rachet up if they beat us.

The crowd creates atmosphere. Music destroys it.

Deeper squad than last season so 6th.

Generally, I thought we were good and worth a point. Pleased with Clasie. Think he'll be good for us. I noticed how calm Stecklenberg is. That's invaluable to any defence. Contrast with last week. Couple of random observations. A lot of southern accents in Liverpool shirts on the journey to ground and back from the City Centre. Also, the ground was virtually full 10 minutes before ko, unlike SMS.

This, as proven with his tenure at SFC.

K If they press then we'll have to deal with it better than we did against Leicester. Stecklenberg back is a plus in that respect as the ball will be going back to him a good deal and he's obviously more accurate with his kicking than KD. Schneiderlin's a big miss in these situations. Nothing we can do about it. I think Klopp will press. He'll have seen the Leicester game. He didn't press against Rubin whatever they're called, which conserves energy for taking on us. Hope they tire and we get them second half.