The Unpopular Opinion Thread

[freeglennhelder2]

So you're condoning simulation/diving/ cheating?

I'm not for diving at all despite Gary Neville condoning it as "smart play" and accepting as part of game as he states. Officials need to be tougher and with assistance of VAR in handing out yellow cards to the offenders.

Same with time wasters, and I am glad we have punished the likes of Villa and Bournemouth for it on the score board with late goals.

Last game of the season, need a goal to win the title. Saka is clean through in the opposition pen area & a defender barges him. Now, if he goes down it's almost a certain pen, but in all honesty, he could really stay on his feet even though he would now be at a disadvantage.

What should he do?

 

[Mitch]

Last game of the season, need a goal to win the title. Saka is clean through in the opposition pen area & a defender barges him. Now, if he goes down it's almost a certain pen, but in all honesty, he could really stay on his feet even though he would now be at a disadvantage.

What should he do?

Stay on his feet. I don't condone cheating.

 

[freeglennhelder2]

Stay on his feet. I don't condone cheating.

Surely, as a bare minimum, we should smart play/simulate/sh*thouse to the average level of a Premiership side, if we are the single exponent of the 100% fair play ethos then that puts us at a major disadvantage throughout the course of a season?

 

[MartiSaka]

Last game of the season, need a goal to win the title. Saka is clean through in the opposition pen area & a defender barges him. Now, if he goes down it's almost a certain pen, but in all honesty, he could really stay on his feet even though he would now be at a disadvantage.

What should he do?

Even saka who is a nice, moral young lad knows you have to go down; if the barge puts him at a large disadvantage of scoring, I think he has a right to go down anyway

 

[RunTheTrap]

1. Jesus is extremely overrated on here by some. He’s a very good striker but he is not world class or a transformative signing like Zinchenko or Saliba. He’s in the similar profile as Laca but obviously superior.

We need another striker. Trossard should be our backup CF, and Jesus should be a backup winger for Saka/Martinelli.

 

[Let's play Aubamawang]

Unpopular opinions:
1. Nelson should get more game time so Arteta can fairly decide whether or not to persuade him to stay.
2. Now there's only a slim chance of winning the league, I'm expecting us to capitulate again and fail to win any of our remaining games.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Only Man City have a better midfield than Arsenal in the Premier League.

 

[SA Gunner]

Unpopular opinions:
1. Nelson should get more game time so Arteta can fairly decide whether or not to persuade him to stay.
2. Now there's only a slim chance of winning the league, I'm expecting us to capitulate again and fail to win any of our remaining games.

Why would we captiulate when there is a slim chance at winning the league? Doesnt less pressure, and being already qualified for the CL relieve the pressure from these players and they can play with freedom again?

Here's my unpopular opinion.... We are going to win all our remaining games now.

 

[2Smokeyy]

This wasn’t as bad as they’re suggesting it is.

All of those players were just at different stages of their careers.

 

[chessygoal]

We are a flat-track bully. Our tactic is not sustainable at the highest level and we are going to get spanked next year in CL if Arteta doesn't tweak it.
I love the way we play, it should remain our plan a, but we need a plan b against better teams. Zinchenko brings a lot to the table, but he causes a lot of troubles defensively too. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing him moved to Xhaka's role and having a LB/CB like Lisandro Martinez coming in.

 

[RunTheTrap]

Only Man City have a better midfield than Arsenal in the Premier League.

Agreed. Our midfield has been fantastic for 90% of the season. They have dominated games just as well as City has. I think the last A few poor games have ruined the perception of Xhaka and Partey.

 

[Rasmi]

We are a flat-track bully. Our tactic is not sustainable at the highest level and we are going to get spanked next year in CL if Arteta doesn't tweak it.
I love the way we play, it should remain our plan a, but we need a plan b against better teams. Zinchenko brings a lot to the table, but he causes a lot of troubles defensively too. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing him moved to Xhaka's role and having a LB/CB like Lisandro Martinez coming in.

Fully agree and I think next season will be wake up call. It will tell us a lot about Arteta who I don’t think is top level

 

[SA Gunner]

We are a flat-track bully. Our tactic is not sustainable at the highest level and we are going to get spanked next year in CL if Arteta doesn't tweak it.
I love the way we play, it should remain our plan a, but we need a plan b against better teams. Zinchenko brings a lot to the table, but he causes a lot of troubles defensively too. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing him moved to Xhaka's role and having a LB/CB like Lisandro Martinez coming in.

Here's a brief breakdown on the aspects of our game, dont be fooled by what the media tells you. They dont want to look closer at what we are doing.

And by the way... we are not a "flat track bully". We are the only big team who has not lost to Liverpool this season for example. In fact, we should have taken 6 points from our two fixtures played, completely dominating them at Anfield for 40 minutes, and keeping them at bay for 65 minutes. There are other examples like that in the league this season. Brighton away, Fulham away, Brentford away, Palace away, to name a few highlights.

Build up short to create space behind

We build up short in five-six-seven different ways, which we interchange automatically all game. Depending on how the opposition press us, we can go short and get behind them like Brighton do, or we can go over them straight into midfield. The keeper also plays a role in our build up, depending on what the opposition is doing.

Kicking long and pushing up to squeezing the opposition

We push our players up in attack and start this by kicking long. We then hold the ball and pin the opposition back for large periods, and pressure cook them, either into making a mistake or being pulled apart by our passing and movement around the ball. Further to this, we attack in a 325 shape (our three lines), then it becomes a 226/46 and when we are really going for it it becomes a 127/37.

Deep block defence with counter attacks at the turnover

We sit back in a tight, well co-ordinated low block, and use the counter attack as our attacking strategy. This defensive shape is an initial 442, but can also become a 541 and a 631 depending on what the opposition is trying to do in attack.

The use of the dead ball

We make use of set piece routines like free kicks, corners and long throws to attack goal.

Where our game is lacking

The two areas where we are still lacking is superior physicality in every aspect of our first team, aerial dominance upfront, and quality depth to allow us to play all our various attacking systems at the same level. We didnt have a Haaland against City away, and Newcastle at home for example.


Now teams cannot cope with us in open play, so they want to minimise as many of our options as possible, hence their chief strategy to sit back, forcing us to push up and squeeze them. So we cannot build from deep and create space, or counter attack, and dead ball situations are few and far between. This is where the "one dimension" likely comes from.

We fix this "one dimension" by adding more skilled depth, physicality and height to our team and game, across all phases. So when teams sit back, we can go long and straight to their last line and attack them there, instead of trying to break them down as we currently do.

Only City do more than us as a team in the league. Liverpool and Brighton are next up behind us, but they do not have as much variety to their game as we do. Sp**s, United and Newcastle are largely one trick ponies at this stage. Chelsea I do not watch much.

 

[RunTheTrap]

The dual 8/10 system is flawed, and something we should not be looking to replicate. I want two proper midfielders so if we get overran in midfield, we can form a double pivot.

 

[Let's play Aubamawang]

Why would we captiulate when there is a slim chance at winning the league? Doesnt less pressure, and being already qualified for the CL relieve the pressure from these players and they can play with freedom again?

Here's my unpopular opinion.... We are going to win all our remaining games now.

I would love us to win out. I'm simply going by the way they reacted to a bad result last year. Short of a City implosion, which seems rather unlikely, there's not a lot left to play for besides pride, but if they had any of that they wouldn't lose 7-2 on aggregate to City.

 

[NZgunner]

I didn't realise just how far behind we've been falling behind financially

while we're ranked 10th in the world, we're behind Man U, Man City Liverpool, Chelsea and Sp**s, ****ing Sp**s

this is by both Deloitte and Forbes

 

[Macho]

I didn't realise just how far behind we've been falling behind financially

while we're ranked 10th in the world, we're behind Man U, Man City Liverpool, Chelsea and Sp**s, ****ing Sp**s

this is by both Deloitte and Forbes

View attachment 15692

View attachment 15693

Yeah I saw this the other day wasn’t too surprised though.

 

[NZgunner]

We desperately need the UCL

the 24 point gap over Sp**s this season is massive, but it's been their 1 and 2 point gaps over us in the last 5 years that have led to this

 

[db10_therza]

Here's a brief breakdown on the aspects of our game, dont be fooled by what the media tells you. They dont want to look closer at what we are doing.

And by the way... we are not a "flat track bully". We are the only big team who has not lost to Liverpool this season for example. In fact, we should have taken 6 points from our two fixtures played, completely dominating them at Anfield for 40 minutes, and keeping them at bay for 65 minutes. There are other examples like that in the league this season. Brighton away, Fulham away, Brentford away, Palace away, to name a few highlights.

Build up short to create space behind

We build up short in five-six-seven different ways, which we interchange automatically all game. Depending on how the opposition press us, we can go short and get behind them like Brighton do, or we can go over them straight into midfield. The keeper also plays a role in our build up, depending on what the opposition is doing.

Kicking long and pushing up to squeezing the opposition

We push our players up in attack and start this by kicking long. We then hold the ball and pin the opposition back for large periods, and pressure cook them, either into making a mistake or being pulled apart by our passing and movement around the ball. Further to this, we attack in a 325 shape (our three lines), then it becomes a 226/46 and when we are really going for it it becomes a 127/37.

Deep block defence with counter attacks at the turnover

We sit back in a tight, well co-ordinated low block, and use the counter attack as our attacking strategy. This defensive shape is an initial 442, but can also become a 541 and a 631 depending on what the opposition is trying to do in attack.

The use of the dead ball

We make use of set piece routines like free kicks, corners and long throws to attack goal.

Where our game is lacking

The two areas where we are still lacking is superior physicality in every aspect of our first team, aerial dominance upfront, and quality depth to allow us to play all our various attacking systems at the same level. We didnt have a Haaland against City away, and Newcastle at home for example.


Now teams cannot cope with us in open play, so they want to minimise as many of our options as possible, hence their chief strategy to sit back, forcing us to push up and squeeze them. So we cannot build from deep and create space, or counter attack, and dead ball situations are few and far between. This is where the "one dimension" likely comes from.

We fix this "one dimension" by adding more skilled depth, physicality and height to our team and game, across all phases. So when teams sit back, we can go long and straight to their last line and attack them there, instead of trying to break them down as we currently do.

Only City do more than us as a team in the league. Liverpool and Brighton are next up behind us, but they do not have as much variety to their game as we do. Sp**s, United and Newcastle are largely one trick ponies at this stage. Chelsea I do not watch much.

You're pretty spot on from a tactical point of view. There's more to top level football than that though...

We need to up our ability to deliver in high pressure / high stakes games. This goes beyond the players/manager. One could argue it's almost become institutionalised at the club since that fateful evening in 06. I saw a patented @farzad4daarse rant about Arteta needing a shrink etc. He actually has a point -> there's a lot of value that a high performance psychologist can add. We're a young team with a young manager that frankly have a large weight of expectation on their shoulders. And we've seen both collective and individual **** ups in high stakes situations from the manager down to the players. Some of these will hopefully right themselves as they all learn and mature. But to reach the pinnacle of the sport you leave no stone unturned. Shrinks included. If anyone here doesn't know about AC Milan's "Mind Room" in the 90s I'd recommend a quick google.

I guess what I'm trying to say is... my unpopular opinion is that I think @farzad4daarse is right (!?!). Top that...

(My even more unpopular opinion is that there's certain players that turn up in big games, and we don't really have many/any of them. Yet...)

 

[MartiSaka]

You're pretty spot on from a tactical point of view. There's more to top level football than that though...

We need to up our ability to deliver in high pressure / high stakes games. This goes beyond the players/manager. One could argue it's almost become institutionalised at the club since that fateful evening in 06. I saw a patented @farzad4daarse rant about Arteta needing a shrink etc. He actually has a point -> there's a lot of value that a high performance psychologist can add. We're a young team with a young manager that frankly have a large weight of expectation on their shoulders. And we've seen both collective and individual **** ups in high stakes situations from the manager down to the players. Some of these will hopefully right themselves as they all learn and mature. But to reach the pinnacle of the sport you leave no stone unturned. Shrinks included. If anyone here doesn't know about AC Milan's "Mind Room" in the 90s I'd recommend a quick google.

I guess what I'm trying to say is... my unpopular opinion is that I think @farzad4daarse is right (!?!). Top that...

(My even more unpopular opinion is that there's certain players that turn up in big games, and we don't really have many/any of them. Yet...)

I anssumed all PL clubs would have a sports psychologist on staff or coming in semi-regularly.