Another famous quote (attributed to Mark Twain, original source unknown) is that there are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics. I prefer to trust the evidence of my own eyes. We've watched probably every game under Maresca and the vast majority, bar a few outliers, of what he dishes up has been awful considering the talent at his disposal. The outliers need to be seen in context as well. Palmer going rogue to win the Conference league final and being unplayable in the destruction of PSG. There were a few games last December beating Villa & Spurs with the combo of Enzo, Lavia & Caicedo in midfield where I thought we looked like an outstanding side but then it lapsed again (probably Lavia got injured again). Based on what we see week in and week out , I can't accept the view that Maresca is a good manager.
Yes, we are joint top scores, but we have played five games at home and had an extremely fortuitous run of fixtures. We have scored 10 of our 17 goals against three of the bottom 4 teams, against 4 goals in three games against teams in the top half of the table.
We have taken 4 points in 4 games against top half opposition and two of those were courtesy of a late injury time winner against a woeful Liverpool side who have lost their last 4 in the league. We are flattering to deceive. Even the 9 points we have taken from the bottom 4 were fortuitous. We could easily have gone in 2 down against Forest. We had fortuitous VAR decision wipe out Fulham and Palace's goals and even the truly woeful Hammers were 1 up against us before doing their usual impression of the French during WW2 whenever they concede.
This despite the fact that the only top 6 team we have played is Sunderland, who outplayed us and deserved to win, the only convincing performance at The Bridge has come against a poor Liverpool team, whose 7th place at the moment is false, they are lucky not to be in the lower reaches of the league.
I won't accept fatigue as an excuse, when we played at home and have such a big squad, eight of those players had a week to recover. United and Forest away are the only times we have had to leave London in the league. We still have to play nine of the current top 10 away from home.
How can you say Maresca is not to blame. His substitutions against a United team whose morale was rock bottom were appalling. Against Brighton in the next game he made the same mistake again. His decision to take Josh off on Saturday was truly baffling.
As for blaming the goalkeeping situation, United apart Sanchez has been pretty solid this season, now he has finally abandoned forcing him to always play out from the back a season too late. Same with Josh coming in for Levi, we have nine Centre halves, if he cannot fit them in a system than that's poor management. He continues to play Enzo, who has disappeared this season and unbalances the midfield because he is a joke defensively. If he isn't fit give Santos a chance to establish himself. He continually plays Neto on the left, despite the fact that he is so much better on the right. In Cole's absence he has been reluctant to introduce Estavao earlier. He continues to play Gusto as an inverted midfielder or Gusto and James as midfielder, where under Poch Gusto's strength was his engine bombing up the touchline.
Sorry, Maresca has to take an awful lot of the blame for where we find ourselves and it is not just the Sunderland game. We are not operating in isolation, Arsenal and the other teams also have injuries, it is a fact of life, what matters is how you deal with them.
Excellent comment Mark! People really can’t seem to see that there is a coaching issue too that we have. Our best games have been when Palmer ignored Meresca’s ‘style of football’ or whenever we played a more direct style. Just mindlessly defending Meresca does not make anyone a bigger fan of the club.
I think there's a lot to agree here and balance that against this crisis culture that every club now has which tiktok and youtubers use to get more views.
I definitely think the club has Penders in mind for No.1 next year if all goes well at Strasbourg but any goalkeeper will struggle when the CBs are injured, not playing consistently and so on.
There's a lot to like and be positive about. Palmer has been missing most of the season which is a huge blow.
Despite Arsenal fans theory the league isnt won in October, and we've not even got to 10 games yet. After the international break its non-stop till we either get knocked out of the League or FA Cup or don't finish top 8 in the CL. Liverpool struggled last season in that period, as did Arsenal and Man City had a horrendous time last year caused by injuries and fitness.
We play way too many games as it is and when injuries happen the squad gets thinner. We have young players being blooded and others adjusting to the PL.
So realistically, we wont win the league , but we'll beat all the other top 6 teams, we'll lose unexpectedly in places, and we'll go deep in the CL. In fact, given i fancy the last 8 to be 4 English clubs plus Barca Real Madrid PSG and Bayern we'll have a bloody good chance all being well and fit.
That is the big question if we do the right thing in the transfer market these sporting directors seem to put us back and the start of a new season rather than move us forward
The SDs have made it clear as day they will not buy for the sake of it. Colwell getting injured like that was a huge blow but isolated if the other CBs stayed fit. The only player worth looking at was Guehi and he wants to go to Liverpool.
How is Delap going to help us against low blocks? His touch and link play are not top level, at Ipswich he was only dangerous when he had the space to run with the ball - which you obviously don't get against low blocks. He is the antithesis of the type of striker who will help against low blocks.
He can hold the ball up and compete in the air. He will also cause the two CBs to defend when we cross. That's how you can beat low blocks. We struggle when there isnt a plan B I.e. go long like we used to do with Drogba Morata Costa etc
His hold up play is poor due to his touch / technique. His link play and passing is nowhere near good enough. He is very good at carrying the ball, but that requires space.
Another famous quote (attributed to Mark Twain, original source unknown) is that there are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics. I prefer to trust the evidence of my own eyes. We've watched probably every game under Maresca and the vast majority, bar a few outliers, of what he dishes up has been awful considering the talent at his disposal. The outliers need to be seen in context as well. Palmer going rogue to win the Conference league final and being unplayable in the destruction of PSG. There were a few games last December beating Villa & Spurs with the combo of Enzo, Lavia & Caicedo in midfield where I thought we looked like an outstanding side but then it lapsed again (probably Lavia got injured again). Based on what we see week in and week out , I can't accept the view that Maresca is a good manager.
Spot on Christian !!!!
You are absolutely right ✅️
Yes, we are joint top scores, but we have played five games at home and had an extremely fortuitous run of fixtures. We have scored 10 of our 17 goals against three of the bottom 4 teams, against 4 goals in three games against teams in the top half of the table.
We have taken 4 points in 4 games against top half opposition and two of those were courtesy of a late injury time winner against a woeful Liverpool side who have lost their last 4 in the league. We are flattering to deceive. Even the 9 points we have taken from the bottom 4 were fortuitous. We could easily have gone in 2 down against Forest. We had fortuitous VAR decision wipe out Fulham and Palace's goals and even the truly woeful Hammers were 1 up against us before doing their usual impression of the French during WW2 whenever they concede.
This despite the fact that the only top 6 team we have played is Sunderland, who outplayed us and deserved to win, the only convincing performance at The Bridge has come against a poor Liverpool team, whose 7th place at the moment is false, they are lucky not to be in the lower reaches of the league.
I won't accept fatigue as an excuse, when we played at home and have such a big squad, eight of those players had a week to recover. United and Forest away are the only times we have had to leave London in the league. We still have to play nine of the current top 10 away from home.
How can you say Maresca is not to blame. His substitutions against a United team whose morale was rock bottom were appalling. Against Brighton in the next game he made the same mistake again. His decision to take Josh off on Saturday was truly baffling.
As for blaming the goalkeeping situation, United apart Sanchez has been pretty solid this season, now he has finally abandoned forcing him to always play out from the back a season too late. Same with Josh coming in for Levi, we have nine Centre halves, if he cannot fit them in a system than that's poor management. He continues to play Enzo, who has disappeared this season and unbalances the midfield because he is a joke defensively. If he isn't fit give Santos a chance to establish himself. He continually plays Neto on the left, despite the fact that he is so much better on the right. In Cole's absence he has been reluctant to introduce Estavao earlier. He continues to play Gusto as an inverted midfielder or Gusto and James as midfielder, where under Poch Gusto's strength was his engine bombing up the touchline.
Sorry, Maresca has to take an awful lot of the blame for where we find ourselves and it is not just the Sunderland game. We are not operating in isolation, Arsenal and the other teams also have injuries, it is a fact of life, what matters is how you deal with them.
Spot on.
Excellent comment Mark! People really can’t seem to see that there is a coaching issue too that we have. Our best games have been when Palmer ignored Meresca’s ‘style of football’ or whenever we played a more direct style. Just mindlessly defending Meresca does not make anyone a bigger fan of the club.
Great read that Mark.
Lots of good fair points.👍
thanks Darren
Like you, I dont think Maresca helps himself at all.
Even with the awful Tosin & Chalobah at the back, we are way too open.
If the centre backs were protected more and we were more solid, that would help.us massively
That for me is on him.
Finally! A level-headed reality check. Thank you!
I think there's a lot to agree here and balance that against this crisis culture that every club now has which tiktok and youtubers use to get more views.
I definitely think the club has Penders in mind for No.1 next year if all goes well at Strasbourg but any goalkeeper will struggle when the CBs are injured, not playing consistently and so on.
There's a lot to like and be positive about. Palmer has been missing most of the season which is a huge blow.
Despite Arsenal fans theory the league isnt won in October, and we've not even got to 10 games yet. After the international break its non-stop till we either get knocked out of the League or FA Cup or don't finish top 8 in the CL. Liverpool struggled last season in that period, as did Arsenal and Man City had a horrendous time last year caused by injuries and fitness.
We play way too many games as it is and when injuries happen the squad gets thinner. We have young players being blooded and others adjusting to the PL.
So realistically, we wont win the league , but we'll beat all the other top 6 teams, we'll lose unexpectedly in places, and we'll go deep in the CL. In fact, given i fancy the last 8 to be 4 English clubs plus Barca Real Madrid PSG and Bayern we'll have a bloody good chance all being well and fit.
That is the big question if we do the right thing in the transfer market these sporting directors seem to put us back and the start of a new season rather than move us forward
The SDs have made it clear as day they will not buy for the sake of it. Colwell getting injured like that was a huge blow but isolated if the other CBs stayed fit. The only player worth looking at was Guehi and he wants to go to Liverpool.
The reality is, they are doing what the ownership wants them to do. That’s vision whether we like it or not.
I was talking about the general recruitment of the past two summers has not made us a better team
How is Delap going to help us against low blocks? His touch and link play are not top level, at Ipswich he was only dangerous when he had the space to run with the ball - which you obviously don't get against low blocks. He is the antithesis of the type of striker who will help against low blocks.
He can hold the ball up and compete in the air. He will also cause the two CBs to defend when we cross. That's how you can beat low blocks. We struggle when there isnt a plan B I.e. go long like we used to do with Drogba Morata Costa etc
His hold up play is poor due to his touch / technique. His link play and passing is nowhere near good enough. He is very good at carrying the ball, but that requires space.
So sometimes I wonder why Maresca was such a fan of his?