Some notes on this week’s matches.
Of course I watched the Arsenal match on Saturday. It was notable for the Arsenal supporters singing the entire 90 minutes and the Bournemouth supporters not singing or cheering, or really doing much of anything. The Gooners at the match showed off an impressive array of songs, many of which are new or unique to Arsenal. The best of the bunch is the Saliba song, sung to the tune of Tequila by The Champs. One of the people I follow on twitter had suggested the idea a few days before the game and it didn’t seem to get any traction. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the away supporters listened to him or not, but I suspect that the idea was percolating in the collective unconscious.
Saliba also scored his debut goal on Saturday and a more cultured goal you will probably never see. He swept that ball into the net. That’s the only proper term for what happened there. He swept the ball in. Some folks caught Zinchenko’s reaction to the goal and it was priceless: he puts his hands on his head and falls to his knees!
One thing about Zinchenko that I’m sure you’ve all noticed is that he’s playing in a midfield role in possession. He drops into the middle of the park and often makes the long pass that Xhaka would have been making in the past. This frees Xhaka up to play higher up the pitch, where he was to assist Saliba on his goal.
Some outlets are saying Saliba completed 100% of his passes. FBREF (using Statsbomb data) has it at 99% (73/74). Which just goes to show you that stats are subjective! I’ve said it before and I guess I’ll say it again: humans watch the games, they decide (based on pre-agreed definitions, which they have made up) what is or isn’t an action and then they mark it down. So, what’s a pass? I think we all think we know what a pass is but think about a clearance for a second. Is a clearance a pass? When does it become a pass? See! It’s subjective. Was Jesus’s loss of control a pass for Odegaard? He was credited with an assist, but I wouldn’t have given that to him. Anyway, sorry to ruin stats for you!
Oh and hey, don’t even get me started on the fact that defensive stats are essentially meaningless. Well, they’re good for storytelling but that’s about all.
I watched the Marseille game with Nantes. Marseille looked terrible, until they put on Dimitri Payet. They play some super weird football now under the new coach Igor Tudor. No one seems to know what they are supposed to be doing. He’s got Guendouzi playing as a sort of #10 and he’s not even remotely built for it. His final ball is atrocious. I don’t even know how to explain it because he’s a midfielder and you’d think he could make passes but he seems to panic or something in the final phase of play and inevitably gets the pass wrong – behind the attacker, etc. He had Alexis Sanchez open multiple times and couldn’t get him the ball. It was weird to watch.
Nuno Tavares played in the game but had one of his games which we all hated to see. He has a tendency to just keep trying to dribble when he should turn around and make the safe pass. His touch is also very poor. I’ve said something similar about Ainsley Maitland-Niles and people seemed to ignore me or worse, say that it wasn’t true. Certain players just have bad touch and AMN and Nuno are two of them. I think that Wenger said that this is something you can’t work on after age 16 but I’d like to believe that it can be taught. It’s a skill after all. So, here’s to hoping he works on it. At the very least, I hope he stops trying to dribble into three players.
Atalanta got a 1-1 draw at home to last year’s champs AC Milan. It was a good game, hard fought with the crowd behind the home side the whole match. Malinovskyi scored a thunderbastard for Atalanta. The announcers kept saying he’s got the hardest shot in Serie A. I don’t even know how they measure such a thing.
AC Milan have a player named Rafael Leão who I admit I didn’t really watch much of last season but oh my god this guy has wheels. He blew the doors off Hateboer and Toloi time and again. At one point Hateboer had to put a reducer on him, which should have been a red card in my mind. Chelsea are reportedly after Leão and I can see why, he’s got the speed for the Premier League and with 11 goals and 10 assists last season (age 22) is a player who would bring huge quality to that team (he had 6 goals and 6 assists the prior season, in 21 full 90 equivalents).
I actually watched the Leeds-Chelsea match at the same time as the Atalanta match which means I kinda didn’t watch either game!
And yesterday I sort of watched the Man U-Liverpool game while knitting (I’m making a hat). Liverpool look tired, off the pace, and like they are missing Sadio Mane more and more every day. I had originally picked them to win the League but now I’m not so sure. I haven’t had a chance to watch Man City yet and see how Haaland is integrating. I’m not looking forward to it. I don’t really like watching them play football, if I’m honest. They are as boring and predictable as the new Game of Thrones.
Dr Gooner:
Google Translate tells me that “gratulálunk” is congratulations in Hungarian. Can I ask a silly question… which football (soccer) team will the young ‘un be supporting in time?
To the post… Zinch is quite the character, isnt he? And he’s absolute gold in interviews… smart and funny. Yes, I noticed that he played a good spell of the game in front of the 2 CBs.
Arsenal fans are great at coming up with terrible but fun and catchy songs, like the one for Patrick Vieira. The Saliba song is an earworm. We’re going to annoy a lot of fans. So be it!
Im glad that Saliba did try to switch the ball onto his favoured foot, and just went on instinct. What technique. Most CBs wouldve hit that into Row Q.
Hey thank you! Yes, you’re spot on… köszönöm szépen!
The little guy won’t have much choice, I’m afraid. The Arsenal indoctrination will begin from a young age and never let up.
Congratulations in all languages, Doc.
Enjoy all the best moments because, trust me, it’s over before you know it, and if you’re like me, you’ll be re-living them the rest of your days, even as the older version is rolling eyes.
Do teach the tequila song, and have a shot yourself.
Annoying typos 🙄
I meant “didnt” for Saliba switching onto his good peg, and I meant annoy “opposition home fans”.
On Liverpool. Their problem is injuries, not so much Mane’s absence (fine forward though he is). Mane and Salah clearly had some on-field chemistry issues that their sheer class and productivity disguised but couldnt quite hide. Sometimes it could look as if they didnt want to pass to each other. Players leave. It happens.
Jota is top drawer… one of my favourite forwards in the league. He was injured and unavailable yesterday. And Nunez was too easily baited into a red by a very canny Palace defender. The price is missing one of the games of his life. The EPL isnt the Portuguese league, son.
Liverpool have to move on some of the great servants… Milner and Henderson. It’s funny that Ox went there to watch his career die. That he cant displace Henderson after all this time, says a lot.
Do not form hard conclusions after 3 games. We were rock bottom at that point last season, and nearly made 4th. Klopp and co will be back.
I was re-watching some games from circa 2015 and Ox jumped off the screen. Such explosiveness, such a constant threat on the ball, much like what we are seeing from St. Maximin. It’s so frustrating that he never put it together. He’s still only 28 now! #WengerKnows
I think the injuries are what set him back.
“He’d not only torn his anterior cruciate ligament, but also ruptured his lateral collateral ligament too. His medial ligament was damaged, while his lateral hamstring tendon had been torn clean off the bone. It was, Massey told him, about as bad as it gets.”
He’s got another hamstring injury from this summer as he tried to make a comeback from the above.
https://archive.ph/LcjTz
Terribly sad.
Didnt know any of this.
Appreciate your sharing.
Liverpool kept his injuries quiet, intentionally, to give him the best chance of recovery. I worry about him, though, because he’s having more hamstring tears after the last surgery.
Credit to Liverpool for taking care of him, though.
Arsenal had the worst injury luck with midfielders in the 2010s. We had never ending injuries to Rosicky, Cazorla, Wilshere, and Diaby, all of whom were important first team players. Not only were they injured for a long time but they all ended their Arsenal careers because of the injuries as I recall. Ironically, Ramsey was the healthiest of the bunch but injury ate into his prime too. Now you’re telling me Ox is going through the same thing. Unbelievable.
The Saliba song has been pinched from B&HA who used it to serenade Bissouma, although I doubt if Spurs will continue with it now that we’re using it.
City look good but perhaps somewhat short of their undeniable best. I don’t trust their CB’s for various reasons and they’re experiencing some attrition between player exits and aging. Newcastle found a soft spot between Walker and Stones that other teams will try to look for too.
Newcastle have been impressive and nobody more so than Bruno Guimares. Too bad he got away from us.
Oh hey, sorry, just read that you had a baby! Congratulations!
Cheers, thanks!
Congratulations doc. Let’s hope the Arse continue to do well and win some silverware / enter and stay in CL / challenge for the title over the next few years. No matter how much you indoctrinate him, buy him shirts etc once he goes to school and all his mates support [City, Chelsea, god forbid Spuds (London team and English Kane factor doesn’t help)] you may find you are fighting peer pressure.
Re Newcastle, Bruno is class. I’m also a big fan of Callum Wilson, who has continual fitness issues but knows where the goal is. But despite their wealth they are not remotely an expensively assembled team. For me their relative success is 100% down to Eddie Howe who I have liked ever since I first saw Bournemouth play in the PL in 2015. Great manager, and another of those “if he were foreign” I suspect might be more highly appreciated.
Ps I am loving Arsenal’s start to this season. Joyful football and long may it continue
Hey, cheers!
I agree on Howe, probably the best British manager besides Potter.
I have been more interested and impressed with the job that Edu is doing. Little by little, the pieces are falling in place and the AON documentary showed me that he might work with Arteta to build The team, but the vision for the club is his. He has to deal with the clauses and legalities of the situations that Mikel sometimes creates.
This is not a jab at Mikel, but he has some short comings in the man managing aspect of his job. But just like everyone, he too is akin to Saliba, Viera, Ramsdale and etc, a signing by the club that is developing. I still have concerns, but I am now invested in his development as well.
Overall, having a technical director that can help build according to the wishes of a manager with an identity, while purchasing the kind of players who look like, if Arteta got sacked, they could adjust to different managers and their philosophies.
For now though, it is about enjoying Arsenal and waiting to see what this new team’s reaction to a loss or losses will be. How quick can they bounce back and what mentality will they push through with for an entire season.
Congrats on the baby doc.
City to win the title. They would’ve won it even without Haaland who gives them another dimension.
Teams playing high line defense against him will get punished by his speed and KDB pin point assists.
Mane is a huge loss for Pool and as I said many times before the base salary of 100 kpw he was on was a joke.
I rate him as highly as Salah.
Not sure how accurate this is but according to FBREF which sources info from Capology, Mane went from earning 5m a year to over 20m a year.
Congratulations on the little one, Doc!
Just watched that Malinovskyi strike – just WOW! Pretty sure that was well over 100mph, if they’d had a radar gun – he’s got a serious cannon in that left peg
“Oh and hey, don’t even get me started on the fact that defensive stats are essentially meaningless. Well, they’re good for storytelling but that’s about all.”
– 7 am Kickoff
“If I have to make a tackle, I’ve already made a mistake”
– Paulo Maldini (#3 AC Milan, forever my favorite player)
Congratulations, Doc!
let me the next to congratulate doc for the newest member of his family. kudos.
i have recently become what is known as an empty nester; hate to sound sexist but i believe a woman came up with that term. i took my youngest to college last week; from georgia to greeley colorado. as he transitions from a boy to a man, i’m super-excited for him. i don’t have the maternal bond no sadness or emptiness in my heart at all. i think bill is from colorado. greeley is just north of denver. i watched their womens team play kansas state…they’re not very good. enough of that weird stuff…..let’s talk about these gunners!
i’m thrilled at the start of the season. in my opinion, arsenal should make winning the league the goal. if they do, top 4 will take care of itself. you guys have heard me say that countless times. gabriel jesus is absolutely electrifying. i saw a youtube video on him from childhood earlier in the summer and it got me more excited than i was initially. he’s a baller.
i used to despise xhaka but i stopped criticizing him about 4 years ago; he’s gotten better every season. i’m not surprised to see him playing well. an aside, he’s the leader of the arsenal team. as the coach, i always had players huddle up before the game and then i gave the huddle to the captain. xhaka is the guy running his mouth in the huddle. he can’t be the official captain for obvious reasons but it comes natural to him.
saliba…..what can i say?
i’m a little less enthused about zinc as i still think tierney is the better defender. no doubt, the ukrainian is a good player but, at left back, i’d prefer the scot.
ramsdale was shaky against palace but has been good since.
shard, i’m glad you’re coming around to embracing odegaard. he really is special.
i hate to see pepe leaving. for you x-men fans, i call him weapon x. you don’t give away a weapon x. we’ll see. go gunners!
like tim, i haven’t watched the all or nothing series. personally, i’ve tried but i always fall asleep. i suppose i just don’t care that much for the drama. prophetically, arteta has proven himself to be a good tactician but a poor man manager; that was always my stance on him. we’ll see if he becomes a better manager in time.
the reality is the club have backed him at an unprecedented level. any manager would want the arsenal job the way the club have spent money and taken losses. it’s not sustainable. in fact, there’s a story, which i haven’t read, where uefa are supposed to investigate arsenal for violations of financial fair play. we’ll see if that’s legit. likewise, i’d like to see if arteta can win without spending a hundreds of millions of dollars while not making much on outgoing transfers. likewise, i’d like to see him manage big players. i’m not complaining but i’m saying that management is about efficiency and arsenal haven’t been efficient. we’ll see.
i think arsenal can challenge for the title if they’re managed well. it’s a good time to be a gooner.
Did you catch the Arsecast where Orbinho was talking about how they collect data? Basically two guys capturing everything by hand, I’d be amazed if nothing was missed or misinterpreted. He also mentioned a couple of automated data collection systems they run and I’m sure AI will take over eventually, we’ll have insane levels of granularity and bleeding edge metrics.
For now stats don’t tell you the whole story, but they do tell a story. The experience of watching the game in-stadium vs watching the game back on tv afterwards is very different, the disparity between how much you miss vs how much the cameras miss. Even knowing the result beforehand changes the perception dramatically.
Glom all those stories together and you have your narrative.
Regarding defensive stats and Saliba, one thing you can’t measure is his intimidation factor. I imagine a few strikers are going to try run him early in the game, get outpaced and flattened, and decide they’re better off facing off Gabriel instead. Thereafter he won’t accrue as many defensive counting stats as people try to avoid him.
Bournemouth went big against us and it feels like an increasing trend. Kieffer Moore is 6’5, Wolves want a guy who is 6’7! Big lads are coming back into fashion and it favours Saliba at starting CB more than it does Ben White.
One more thing, I propose a new position for Zinchenko called “8-back”.
And congrats to the doctor for the arrival of a new gooner.
I actually interviewed Orbinho for this blog about 10 years ago.
They take months to train the data collectors and it’s a hard job. They also have an analyst look at the data and correct certain things after the games. There are two xml files that they drop: one right after the games and one later which is the official one.
Josh, intrigued about your take on Xhaka’s new, more offensive role. Ich liebe es.