Well, well, well.
Here we are again picking the bones out of another toothless performence in the CL knockout stages.
How can we score 11 goals in two games and not have a single shot against Porto?
I am not going to score the players because it would be one's and two's, at best.
I am really not sure if we will turn this around at the Emirates. At least away goals no longer count double, that would have killed us.
Its the hope that kills you
It was a careless defeat but I think we were in control throughout and a 0-0 would have been about right. Neither defence was really pulled apart. Sometimes wonder goals and flukes can happen, it was just a shame we didn’t really give them anything to think about because we know we’re capable of much better.
It’s only half time and the job is very much doable. Hopefully we get an early goal to settle the nerves in the second leg, though my PTSD is also telling me we will dominate the game but fluff our chances…
Anyway, on to more pressing matters and that’s breaking down Newcastle this weekend who will come and park the bus.
Yeah I’m more annoyed about the careless conceding of a goal right at last knockings rather than the overall performance. You could argue that Galeno should have scored in the first half….then again I’d say he was unlucky with the first shot and the second shot came back to him so quickly he had no time to control it.
I don’t think that amounts to Porto deserving to win the game, they deserved to win in so far that they scored and we didn’t but this stuff about them being streetwise and us being naive which the media is running with is bollocks. And they wouldn’t have run with it, had Galeno not scored.
We were a bit wasteful and in the days of the away goal rule I’d have been frustrated for us not to have scored there, but it didn’t matter. In reality not much has changed, we still need to win at the Emirates to go through
Actually, I think we got schooled by a horrible bunch of shithousers, aided and abetted by a ref who bought almost every bit of bollox from Porto.Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
Their late goal wasn't the result of any tactical brilliance on Porto's part, but it was sure as hell naive from us. Nothing in the preceding 90+3 suggested that we were going to get through their defence and score (did we even have a shot on goal), and while I'd agree that we largely retained control of the game it was naive for us to risk losing possession at the death. 0-0 would have been a fair result and preventing them from scoring at home would have been a creditable result for our team that was sub-par all night. Porto and the crowd were looking for a grandstand finish - and we served it up to them on a platter.
But IMO Porto were very good at executing a game plan based around nullifying our set piece threat (by feigning fouls); isolating our wingers; breaking up play (albeit assisted by our profligacy and lack of zip in completing passes); and generally taking very few risks when playing out from the back. I think that this was savvy on their part, and contributed to us looking strangely flat.
I think that maybe another contributor was fatigue - and as I've said before, this can be mental as well as physical. While I have no particular issue with our starting line up, I think that the manager's failure to change anything after 60 - when a clear pattern had emerged, was a mistake. I don't think that we would have run any significant risk in subbing off Trossard or Martinelli - who were anonymous and ineffective respectively - as well as bringing on Jorghino earlier. This would at least have given the opposition something new to think about. As it was they looked comfortable - and were able simply to carry on doing their effective blunting job.
This game showed that we still have a turgid; stale performance in us. I'm not getting too despondent about this - it happens. But I am now more fearful for Saturday after a very short rest - and we have a job to score 2 or more against this lot at home next week.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
I'd give our team a mix of 5s and 6s, a lot of huff and puff but we were really off our game
Rice in particular completely lost his cool, getting booked for a really dumb tackle a few minutes in and proceeding to misplace passes and mess up almost eveything he did, bar - to be fair - a very good interception in front of our goal
The goal was a catalogue of errors from a side who looked far more at sea in this game than they should, Saka, Rice, Odegaard and others have played a lot of internationals but no-one looked up to deailng with the occasion - it doesn't bode well for our hopes of progressing much further in this competition
No-one did particularly well and it's a worry ahead of the Newcastle game, partly through lack of squad options it will probably be more or less the same starting XI and Howe will be telling his players to really get amongst us right from the off
I dunno, take away the ref and the shithousing and we are still left with a team that had decent opportunities from
Set pieces…if actually any of them had been on target or gone in but were chalked off for a foul I can see how that would have made a difference.
They did enough to put us off our stride and prevent us from winning, but ultimately we did enough to limit their chances apart from when we dithered from wanting too much time on the ball.
All their tactics would have come to nothing if not for the fact that we decided not to just hold onto the ball in the final minute of the game.
Not sure about this. We were favourites for this tie, and their tactics nullified our threat. I think they did so for our set pieces also, but even if this wasn't the case, reducing a team like Arsenal to set pieces for any goal threat speaks to effective tactics for me. Shithousing and preventing any cohesion going forwards is a game plan - and let's remember they created the only chances from open play in this game - and playing on the break was also part of their game plan. If we see the 2 legs as two halves of a game, then they would have been the happier team even had it remained at 0-0 as it should have done, so I don't think we can say their tactics would have come to nothing. We are an inexperienced team and manager in the CL, and I think this showed. I hope the manager has an answer for the return leg.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
I reckon we should employ a tried and tested Manager for just European games
Arteta can have that week off and leave it to say, Anceleotti as a part time CL coach!
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