Freddie Ljungberg kept faith with Arsenal’s youngsters in his first game in charge as interim head coach at Arsenal.
While the Swede apologised to Reiss Nelson for not including him in the matchday squad at Norwich, he did find room to play Joe Willock in the centre of midfield and brought on Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli in the closing stages.
After the 2-2 draw at Carrow Road, Willock, who worked with Ljungberg when he was in charge of the club’s under-15s and under-23s, shed light on what the 42-year-old had said to his players prior to kick-off.
“We know collectively we need to improve with whatever manager comes in,” he told Sky Sports.
“Freddie is a brilliant manager, we believe in him and we’re working hard to try and improve.
“As a team, as a club, we weren’t doing the badge justice. We have to try to do that. He said the most important thing is to play, to play with happiness and get the pride in the badge back and work to win.”
Ljungberg sprung a surprise with his first team selection, handing Shkodran Mustafi his first Premier League appearance of the season. The Swede was eager to underline that everyone at the club will get a fresh start under him, even the German who was told in the summer he was surplus to requirements.
“I haven’t had a word with the players but for me that’s how it works,” Freddie told his post-game press conference.
“I have been here for three months and last year I was the manager of the under-23s and I saw every game for the first team so I have an opinion about how we can play and what players to use.
“I try to see things like that, everybody has a fair chance and what I see in training and in games is what I will judge them on.”
Mustafi should have fucked his chances of ever playing in the Prem again. Simply awful.
I actually think Luiz was far worse than Mustafi.
For the first goal Mustafi sprinted back to cover Luiz, who inexplicably decided to stand off Pukki and let him shoot rather than close him down.
For the second goal Xhaka (or whomever was playing in our shambles of a midfield) should’ve tracked Cantwell’s late run into the box.
Everyone give it a rest with the Mustafi stuff. I know he’s an easy target but blaming the usual whipping boy does us no favors.
I would start holding next to Mustafi for the next game.
Mustafi was himself – awful as usual. Luiz was also bad but they can both be bad at the same time, right? We only give Luiz a bit of leverage as he is newer in the team and I am at least excited to see him here, while Mustafi spent all credits.
He can f*ck off wherever just not near Arsenal.
Agree that Xhaka was partially culpable for the second and was massively bailed out by Leno in the second half. But Mustafi was very shaky too, there was one moment that summed up his game in the second half where Pukki sent him to the shops with a simple turn. We’ve put him in the transfer window for a while and there have been no takers, that should really tell you everything you need to know.
Xhaka was not really late for the 2nd goal. He was the only one who actually came back. If anyone Willock didn’t track back. Guendouzi should showed more awareness because the ball was in the left side and Cantwell was more dangerous than Mclean. Also there were already Kolasinac and Luiz. But the main fault was from Luiz who was completely out of the positon in the first place. I mean who knows what was he doing there.
Well, this is how Luiz play and have played for many years. Some teams are buying CB’s like van Dijk , Laporte and Maguire. And we buy CB’s like Squillaci, Gabriel and Luiz…
Agreed- I’m usually the first person to have a pop at Mustafi but I thought he was alright-ish on Saturday; surprised me how much the blog today was on his case. I’ve given up moaning about our CBs- any one of Luiz, Sokratis and Mustafi are a disaster waiting to happen, so what’s the point in discussing the merits of one against the other. I can’t help but think there’s more to this Torreira situation- surely there’s no justification for not playing him unless he’s poor in training or- as I suspect- he’s mentally left the club already.
Did you even watch the game? Mustafi and Kola was easily our best defenders. Chambers was terrible and Luiz was not much better. Then again Chambers is English so he gets away with it. I am bored with this Mustafi hating¡
Before the end, Chambers was almost practically praying for Norwich not to attack from his end. He has completely ran out of gas and anticipative ideas by then. He must be thanking his stars by the time the final whistle sounded. They should be mentally and physically ready/prepared to defend the Arsenal badge on field of play. Most of them aren’t ready yet for the big battles.
That’s what happens when a CB is played at RB
While I do not support the opinion that our fan base is toxic, I must accept that it is not without base. Chambers had started doing well in CB and in partnership with Holding, when the club decided to loan him (and then played Xhaka there, how stupid was that?). He played as a DM there and comes back and was made to wait as we had bought Luiz and then played out of position. Now, the fans are after him! While I like Bellerin, I think it’s time we stopped relying on him (if not move away), his injuries… Read more »
Absolutely. The Sooner most of the guys in the dressing room leave the better. It is reaching a point where it seems the players are deliberately sabotaging this great club
I agree, it was always going to be difficult for Emery once we started the process of trying to get Ozil, Mustafi and Kolasinac out the door, but then failed to do so. Once you get those cliches inside a dressing room, it’s always going to be difficult for a manager, no manager has survived after losing the dressing room. Next time we go for a squad cull, we need to ensure we succeed. Our squad is lacking in quality, and is full of flaky characters. The next set of players we invest in, we need to get it right.… Read more »
I’ve been this guy’s biggest fan the whole season. This just shows more reasons why he should be out there starting games in the EPL. An Arsenal player that finally realises why they do the job they do – THE FANS! fans pay the TV subscriptions, (most costly) tickets, merch, all of it…all the revenue is generated by the fans. Sure there are always some knob fans of EVERY team, but you want to bring things together this is EXACTLY the talk that is needed (some wins will help too), but enough of this begging for fans support from players.… Read more »
Respectfully disagree. Willock was awful on Sunday. Just awful. Out of position, giving the ball away/bad passes. He may’ve tracked back, but had zero effect. IF he’s supposed to be a box-2-box, he’s got a long way to do. Young Aaron Ramsey, even at his worst, was less lost at sea than this player. He needs to play cup games and U-23. He’s nowhere near a Premier league player. (Nor, for that matter is Saka.) Great that JW is prattling on about the badge, shirt, etc. But hows about playing better instead of cheap talk, there young man. FL has… Read more »
So you’d rather send an extremely promising young player that has had an outstanding season this year that is preaching positivity and pride in playing for the Arsenal back to the bench for guys that have proven for many years now they can’t improve our midfield and have zero pride in anything except their bank accounts?? I’ll take a gamble on the youth (Douzi, Willock and Torreira) until we get someone else in ACTUALLY worth playing instead and help bring them through with some leeway for learning and mistakes.
How about just calming the fuck down for a moment?
Prior to the first goal Willock lost the ball and was reluctant in tracking the ball misplaced by him, even an arsenal player behind him ran past him in an effort to help the defence, these guys need a coach that won’t tolerate their nonchalant attitude in games.
Exactly.
I saw that too (even more than once). And I remember checking my head and asking myself how a still young athlete/player like him (who’s Arsenal to the core) can track/fight back after losing the ball to an opponent. Some others, even when they misplace a pass can’t be bordered to fight and recover it (examples Ganduizy and even Saka after coming on). They need a no nonsense coach to coach out this mediocrity mentality out of them or push out those who resist the obvious needed changes. It was so irritating to observe that from some of them (especially… Read more »
That Ganduizy is some player, right up there with Gwendoozy, Gendozi, Geunduozy and even Matteo Guendouzi.
He lost the ball in the final third. He wasn’t sprinting back because there were literally 5 our man against Pukki. And before that only Mclean who Guendouzi just watched him instead of pressing him (guendouzi knew there was only Pukki behind him and 3 of our players).
That guy (the only one) who ran past him was Chambers. He is a defender of course he had to go back. But he wasn’t exactly sprinting either. He was jogging in similiar pace than Willock just in different direction.
So you sit him down and show him the video and teach him to fix that part of his game. And you keep giving him chances and opportunities. He most certainly has shown a propensity to chase back this season, but sure he can definitely improve in areas – like concentrating the whole game and working our the space on the pitch to exploit. Dropping him is not the answer, especially for someone like Xhaka who is a complete turnstile in the middle of the park and has 2.5 years of data of errors costing us in midfield. Torreira-Douzi-Willock Get… Read more »
Get off Mustafi’s back. How many goals we’ve conceded have been Luiz’s fault? He’s supposed to be Fucking experienced to but has been a disaster. Maybe pair Mustafi with someone better and I guarantee he’ll make less mistake than Luiz.
Mustafi is a disaster waiting to happen, partner won’t help there.
People love to forget who was actually Holding’s partner last season.
Just goes to show how good Holding was
Mustafi Luiz and Sokratis are the same shit in a different package, the sooner were shot of the lot of them the better.
Especially you, Joe. With you and Xhaka we had 9.5 players on the pitch, you were 0 and Xhaka 0.5 which is progress on his part.
And when being subbed you were slow to leave, unacceptable.
Jesus mate have a word with yourself. Willock is a 20 yr old Arsenal lad that has come through the ranks and for the most part has been a revelation this season. Yes he had a bad game but he’s playing in an completely dysfunctional team. He needs strong players around him to guide him and bollock him when necessary so he can learn, but instead he has Guendouzi(also young and learning) and fucking Xhaka (I agree on that point).
Yes, all true. But let’s be honest; he’s rubbish at the moment. Back to the youth set up with this youngster. He’s half-baked and needs time. That’s not to say he’s crap. Its effing irresponsible for FL to throw players like Willock and Saka on in games like this when they are clearly not ready. Its not experience, its just damaging their confidence. And we lose more points. Had very high hopes for this match. Perhaps foolishly. Blogs was right though, there was overall improvement from the dross Emery was giving us. Everyone keep in mind though: This was freaking… Read more »
I think Chambers was worse.
Everything wrong with our fanbase in one comment. Joe’s an academy graduate in his first season of first team football (for any club), asked to play in the engine room of a side with no direction or distinct playing style. He’s done remarkably well.
The last home game a guy behind me was screaming at Saka, claiming he’s ‘not good enough’ for Arsenal. Saka is the youngest player to start a Premier League game this season.
Our youngsters are never going to break through if we keep treating them like this.
So disappointed with Willock yesterday. I’m his huge supporter, but every time he loses the ball, he just slowly jogged back with no urgency. Even Ozil tracked back more than him.
I know he’ll come good one day. But for now, for more solidity in the important midfield area, I would rather have just one between him & Guen to start, not both at the same time.
It was do irritating and got me so pissed off. Him and Guen were most doing that. And How Guen seems to like to give the opponents too much space to pass or shoot near our goal area, instead of closing them down to limit their options still baffles me up to today. Does it mean that the coaches don’t see that and correct him or that he simply finds it difficult to do otherwise? I mean, for the life of me, that should have been corrected out of him by now. And when he does attempt to close down… Read more »
I’d like to see a back 4 of Bellerin,-Chambers Holding-Tierney . A midfield of Torreira, Guendouzi, then Ozil, then Pepe and Laca, and Auba up front. Chambers can not handle fullback, he has no pace, but he’s solid as a CB where his lack of pace does not hurt him. Luiz has been terrible, Mustafi doesn’t require an explanation, and Sokratis makes too many positional mistakes. Not thrilled with Torreira – Guendouzi because they are both small and not muscular enough to be a physical force in midfield. Xhaka could satisfy that but has been too inconsistent. Overall, I’d probably… Read more »
Find it strange that Pepe, Xhaka and Mustafi who cost the best part of £140 million are either on the bench or not up to standard. We say we can’t spend lots of money but what we do spend seems to be wasted. Something surely needs to improve in the recruitment process.
Too right. The young man still has a steep learning curve (lost the ball too easily several times in particular high up for the first goal) but you can’t complain about his effort. Freddy looks like he prefers both Guendouzi and Willock for their energy slightly higher in front of Granit in a deeper role dictating point of attack. But it does mean a lot more space needs to be covered tracking back if their initial closing down when the ball is lost in our attack is not successful. And yesterday, we also suffered from less pace on the right… Read more »
I get the impression that Arsenal train and forget the basics. F.i. Using the side of the field to kick the ball out rather than directly up the middle when under pressure and need to stop the opposition’s advance. Quick passing, dont hold the ball too long inviting a challenge. Arsenal is starting to be deceitfull lately(because skill is gone? because this is how PL is?) Torreria falls down too much, Gwendouzi keeps the ball too long and loses it, Xhaka, well is Xhaka. There seems to be no organisation. Well let me rephrase that. We play well for a… Read more »