With a Premier League encounter with Man City looming on Sunday, as well as a host of injuries to deal with, it looks as if Arsenal will be fielding a young side against Standard Liege in the Europa League on Thursday evening.
The Gunners will be without Kieran Tierney, who look set to miss three months with a shoulder injury; Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, Dani Ceballos, Granit Xhaka, and other senior players who wouldn’t have played anyway.
We’re in a strong position, and qualification for the knock-out stages is basically assured barring a disaster in Liege, but Freddie Ljungberg has faith in his young charges.
Speaking about the squad he has at his disposal, the Swede said, “We have a few injuries and we’ve played a lot of games lately and we have another game again on Sunday.
“But I think we’ve brought enough, we’ve brought a lot of firepower here and we have some younger players that have as well played earlier in the group stages.
“It’s not just now, they’ve been playing the whole time so it’s a big game and we’re here to get a good result and we have a lot of respect for the opponent.”
And on the injuries, with City looming, he continued, “Of course, it’s not good.
“We got one in the warm-up at West Ham and then another full back in the game. But it’s just one of those freak things.
“One is to the head and one is a shoulder in a tackle. You can’t do much about it, but of course it puts a strain on the squad.
“But that’s how it is.”
Good news at last.
We also have the leaky defense, inexperienced decision making and the lack of focus.
…its like a ship of the line with lots of guns but a hole below the water line, an inexperienced crew…no captain, the quartermaster’s taken over and an even bigger ship coming over against her the horizon.
You been watching too much “Black Sails” Santi?
Careful, you may get keel-hauled!
One could hope..
I’m not sure I could stand the inevitable 4,000 word essay on barnacles that would result.
Cheeky cannon pun, if that’s not manager material I don’t know what is.
My teams for the next 2 games would be:
Standard Liege:
Martinez
Saka – Luiz – Mavropanos – Medley
Willock – Guendouzi
Burton
Smith-Rowe – Lacazette – Nelson
Man City:
Leno
AMN – Chambers – Sokratis – Kolasinac
Torreira – Guendouzi
Özil
Pepe – Aubameyang – Martinelli
I don’t give a crap if we top our group and if we score 1 Liege would have to score 7 to kick us out so this team should be more than capable to avoid that and we could rest our complete starting 11 (exept Douzi) for the City game.
If any team could concede 7 to Standard Liege, then it’s definitely us….
They owe us a 7-0 beating from years ago ?
Good calls.. although don’t we have any better backup options for full-back? Did Bola make the trip?
Forgot about him. If he travelled I’d pick him over Medley. Saka played a lot at full back at youth level so he should be able to do a job there against an opposition we completely trashed in the first tie.
I just wouldn’t risk playing AMN or especially Kolasinac. Kola was not 100% fit anyway on Monday, that’s why he wasn’t even on the bench prior to Hector‘s injury. So it would be madness to play him 3 times in a week in my eyes.
be great to fuck up city. how i loathe them and all that they now stand for.
This is a great opportunity for the young gunners to put pressure on the first team.
Injuries and poor performances should render all positions in the first team up for grabs (bar 1)