Well, I’m feeling mighty deflated this morning.
This is the soundtrack to my day. I’m emotionally wounded, exhausted, and extremely distressed at the collapse of my country.
We took the lead, I was dreaming… then things got decidedly negative. Dan Burn coming on was ominous. This was no Rob Holding shutting down games from 4 years ago. Then O’Reilly for Declan? You knew it was over. NEVER take Declan off (secretly glad to be honest).
Tuchel bottled it with the subs, we invited pressure onto ourselves, we offered players like De Paul and Messi ample chances to find players in the box, and in the end… Messi did us, like he’s done so many teams in the past. Can’t knock his greatness. Check out this crazy data viz.
A World Cup semifinal cannot be sniffed at… but man, I’ve left that game feeling like we could have been a bit more aggressive after going a goal up. Very sad. But what can you do?
One of the amusing things about the World Cup is you can watch the captain of a club that finished 17th twice (Romero) in a row giving it the big one. Someone totally devoid of elite attributes, behaving like they’re on top of the game. You can also see someone from the same team line-up as fullback against Messi (and largely do quite well).
Point here… World Cup is not a good barometer for talent. It’s a world-class spectacle, but the performances don’t usually translate into the Premier League. Steering clear of hype players is a must. Unless that hype player is Morgan Rogers, who had a banger assist for Gordon last night. I am a little lost with Rogers, clearly, a very good player. But £120m worth of good player? I’m not clear on that. These players who are xG defiers worry me. The very best do it every year. But sometimes, the xG collapsers can be that because they play in teams that allow them to do that. Will Rogers be afforded that freedom at Arsenal? I love that he’s flexible in position… just hope this isn’t another flat signing built for power and control, and we get the slimmed-down version of him because he’s not in a team that allows him to run on the counter.
The first major signing of the summer appears to be Christo Tzolis. The Greek winger will join Arsenal for a lowly fee of £33m accoridng to David Orstein. Below is a bit of a data dump for members, along with a wonderful presentation to help you get to the bottom of what we’ve signed in the winger (bottom of the post).
