Liverpool vs Arsenal 9th April 2023 player rating and match summary

[mandela8]

Also, I think this was the poorest I have seen Saka in ages.

He was utterly useless in the first half, but what got to me most was his lack of tracking back and helping out

Well, praise the fuckin Lord. Someone else has seen it.

Hopefully now you have, you'll notice it regularly because I can assure you, this may have been the first time you've noticed it but it's all the fuckin time.

I have never, ever, seen a player absolved of scrutiny the way Saka is. He was a disgrace again yesterday, directly responsible for their first as he just mosied around not tracking his runner, yet people are on here giving him a 7

The blind favoritism is mental.

Saka, Xhaka and White were utterly appalling yesterday. Zinchenko too in the second half. Holding was fine. Great I'm the first half but dipped in the second. Ramsdale, Partey and Martinelli were excellent. Gabriel was ok but at fault for their first too.

Worst of all was Arteta though. Taking Odegaard and Jesus off on 79 minutes was ridiculous and it was inevitable they'd score. Despite their dominance they didn't look that dangerous (other than a soft penalty) but that last 10 minutes, when we gave up any intention of retaining the ball/giving an outlet was embarrassing.

How can you expect the players to stand up and be counted when the manager so blatantly bottles it?

[HCZ_Reborn]

Well, praise the fuckin Lord. Someone else has seen it.

Hopefully now you have, you'll notice it regularly because I can assure you, this may have been the first time you've noticed it but it's all the fuckin time.

I have never, ever, seen a player absolved of scrutiny the way Saka is. He was a disgrace again yesterday, directly responsible for their first as he just mosied around not tracking his runner, yet people are on here giving him a 7

The blind favoritism is mental.

Saka, Xhaka and White were utterly appalling yesterday. Zinchenko too in the second half. Holding was fine. Great I'm the first half but dipped in the second. Ramsdale, Partey and Martinelli were excellent. Gabriel was ok but at fault for their first too.

Worst of all was Arteta though. Taking Odegaard and Jesus off on 79 minutes was ridiculous and it was inevitable they'd score. Despite their dominance they didn't look that dangerous (other than a soft penalty) but that last 10 minutes, when we gave up any intention of retaining the ball/giving an outlet was embarrassing.

How can you expect the players to stand up and be counted when the manager so blatantly bottles it?

Football writers, pundits, fans all rate Saka highly but one Scottish bell end contrarian doesn’t rate him so that makes the difference.

[Chippy]

Football writers, pundits, fans all rate Saka highly but one Scottish bell end contrarian doesn’t rate him so that makes the difference.

[Mac76]

He's right in what he says about most of the other players though and also about Arteta bottling it

[HCZ_Reborn]

He's right in what he says about most of the other players though and also about Arteta bottling it

That’s why I only referenced the Saka thing. A lot of the time his comments are usually reasonable but he’s got a hate boner for Saka which is patently ridiculous. The thing is he accuses us of bias, but the thing is if I think Saka hasn’t played well I will say so and there are times where he doesn’t play well. But more often than not there isn’t a player out there who torments left backs more than him….if you were being ultra critical he often tries to wait too long to get the ball on his favoured foot but some of the goals he scores and the way he’s menaced defences….whilst everyone is entitled to an opinion it’s a fucking stupid one.
Martinelli is probably my favourite Arsenal player presently and I’d say he has far more of a tendency to go missing in games than Saka does.

[Mac76]

Yeah that's something we can agree on Martinelli is brilliant though reliant on Xhaka and Zin to give him the ball

[IBK]

Yeah that's something we can agree on Martinelli is brilliant though reliant on Xhaka and Zin to give him the ball

Isn't that what MF are supposed to do?

[Mac76]

Isn't that what MF are supposed to do?

Yes but the trouble is they don't always...

[Niall_Quinn]

As people know I tend to try to be moderate on here and I have been one of Xhaka's biggest supporters.

But I was disappointed with that result/performance yesterday and I still am now. We were absolutely in control at 0-2 up and we had Liverpool on the ropes. What did we do? - We showed that we lack the maturity to play our game and ignore the shit-housery and absolutely played into their hands. I would have thought that the game last season showed exactly what you don't do at Anfield. You don't give them and their crowd anything to lift their game. What does Xhaka do? He riles the crowd up - for nothing - and the result was their first goal, just before half time.

The second half was a disaster class from our team and manager. All composure went and we simply invited them onto our shaky defence. I'm not going to single Holding out, but he is our 4th choice CB for a reason and was playing with a LB who can't defend and a RB who was giving us a Manure style performance after (an admittedly soft) yellow card. I felt their second goal was inevitable, and they should have beaten us by 2 goals but for a world class keeper performance from Ramsdale.

We had little or no outlet - I can't remember so many attacking pases going astray - and we lacked the composure to profit from 2 or 3 gilt-edged chances to score another. Our mindset was negative, and we switched to survival mode - something epitomosed by Arteta's decision to put on that Herman Munster looking guy in place of Odegard - one of our best ball retainers - at a time when our MF seemed as though it had disappeared anyway. Zin should have been subbed long before he gifted them their second.

I get that Anfield is a difficult place to go to, but we were in total control FFS and we fucked it up. This was not a performance (for 50 minutes) that suggests we have what it takes to prevent Citeh from winning the title, and the doubts about our team's ability to cope with real pressure loom large. If ever a point felt like a loss it was this game, for me. I have lost faith that we will take the title and that feels depressing this morning.

I agree the Xhaka moment was a turning point, but would add the crowd had more influence on the ref than anything else. That ref was shit scared of the crowd. Arnold should have seen red for repeated offences as should that brick shithouse of a centre back that went through more tackles studs up than I've seen in a while. But the ref was never going to apply the rules evenly at Anfield because that hasn't happened in five decades and wasn't going to start in this match. Xhaka was kicked up and down the pitch with zero consequences for the offenders and eventually he snapped. He shouldn't have. But it's understandable. Liverpool got back into the game by applying tactics that require the ref to play along, and he did. Good for them, it worked out. You could also say Xhaka was the only guy out there who was prepared to fight fire with fire, silly on this occasion because it was Anfield, but it will be needed in the run-in - from all the players, not just one of them.

Like Partey and Odegard for instance. If you want to find the main fault behind the toothless second half then you don't need further. Partey is a master at marking dead space, busy doing nothing. And no matter how difficult the task, he'll always find the back pass. Odegard thinks he's a better player than he actually is and it was fortune his dog shit contribution didn't wreck one of the goals. These two need to get stuck in, like Xhaka, and start pulling their weight. Right now they are both taking a free ride and in the process wasting two players who can genuinely turn a game, Saka and Martinelli. The latter has improved so much since I saw him at the start of the season. A better midfield could take advantage.

Xhaka is the best in there at the moment. But true, he's also a liability from time to time. But far from being the only one.