Martinez must adapt

[N.S.N.O.]

people can defend Martinez all they like today, but truth is playing Robles (when we had already lost jageilka) was a massive mistake, and one he could have atoned for at half time but his ego wouldn't allow it (you could tell our players were nervous with him in goal).....there is no excuse for not playing your strongest team in a 1/4 final against that kind of opposition!!!!.....
and its not the only big mistake this season...not replacing jelavic & heitinga in January was madness, and its cost us today, and against Liverpool, spurs & Chelsea....stones is simply not ready for big games yet (alcaraz was a joke signing)....and we're now dependent on lukaku upfront....

don't understand either why he waited till the game was lost today to bring deulofeu on, considering how big an impact he made in the league game at arsenal..

 

[Aberblue]

Ozil =big money
Giroud =big money

That's the difference, you can post all you want about Roberto wanting to win, and you can blame Joe in goal, but today, more than ever, proved the fact that we will always have to rely on freak results, it's horrible, it's horrible to accept the fact, but once you do, this whole weight on our shoulders becomes a little easier to bear

I have admitting it
It proper hurts
But it's true

I said from the start that today was always going to be an uphill struggle and that Arsenal were firm favorites. To win, we'd need us to be at or near our best and for them to have an off day. Clearly neither was the case today.

I'm not blaming Robles for any of the goals, but with our captain and best central defender injured it was a very unwise decision to leave Howard out. Robles seems to prefer punching the ball to catching it which can't inspire confidence in the defence. As for Baines' decision to put the ball out of play when Arteta wasn't injured, to me, that was the moment we lost the game.

 

[irishtony1878]

Can't help but feel Roberto has gone a little more defensive, either that or we have been found out.
What has happened to Coleman's surging runs into the opposition half, the 2 fullbacks were our main attacking threat.
We have nothing to lose now, we should just take the brakes off and attack teams to death, sooner win 7-6 than play out a 0-0 or 1-0.

 

[BUBSY77]

We had chances, and to be fair, if we are 1st pick out of the pot getting the home draw, it may well have been a different discussion we are having tonight

But let's be honest, we celebrated the away draw at the Emirates like it was a win, but, if we are brutally honest, have we hit those 'heights' since ?

I hate being so negative, but my gut tells me we were on a hiding to nothing today, and it was apparent after 5 mins that we were never really in the game.

 

[Khalekan]

I'm not blaming Robles for any of the goals, but with our captain and best central defender injured it was a very unwise decision to leave Howard out. Robles seems to prefer punching the ball to catching it which can't inspire confidence in the defence. As for Baines' decision to put the ball out of play when Arteta wasn't injured, to me, that was the moment we lost the game.

Great post.

We were doing all right up to that first goal.....to which no blame could be attached to Joel Robles.

But for the next twenty minutes they battered us because he had spread a lack of confidence throughout the defence like a virus with his unsafe handling.

That was almost a quarter of the game we were on the back foot because of him.

I couldn't for the life of me understand, before the kick off, why we went with the strongest team available to us, save the most important position.....goalkeeper.

As for Baines, although I thought it decent of him at the time, he should never have done that after the ref waved play on.

And thinking back, he did exactly the same at Goodison last season in the Wigan cup tie.

Stopped a very promising attack when one of their players was down injured but was actually off the pitch.

 

[orly]

Great post.

We were doing all right up to that first goal.....to which no blame could be attached to Joel Robles.

But for the next twenty minutes they battered us because he had spresd a lack of confidence throughout the defence like a virus with his unsashe handling.

That was almost a quarter of the game we were on the back foot because of him.

I couldn't for the life of me understand, before the kick off, why we went with the strongest team available to us, save the most important position.....goalkeeper.

As for Baines, although I thought it decent of him at the time, he should never have done that after the ref waved play on.

And thinking back, he did exactly the same at Goodison last season in the Wigan cup tie.

Stopped a very promising attack when one of their players was down injured but was actually off the pitch.

I agree with the sentiment but Baines just seems a sound bloke - he probably can't help himself doing the decent thing.

The have a look at Carragher in the FA cup final vs West Ham after one of their players put it out for an injury - carragher screams to box them in rather than kick it back as fair play dictates, and two seconds later gerrard scores. I ll settle for slightly misplaced magnanimity than the filth of a man like carragher

 

[N.S.N.O.]

. As for Baines' decision to put the ball out of play when Arteta wasn't injured, to me, that was the moment we lost the game.

important point that.....absolutely no way man Utd, Chelsea, man City, Liverpool would have kicked the ball out there, absolutely no chance arsenal would have kicked the ball out for us....simple reason for it, they all want to win trophies, not friends....baines can think about that when he's watching the cup final on tv......

 

[mawders]

A great game of football if truth be told... for the neutral..

From our point of view, we gave it a good go but we really didn't need to be so expansive. Arsenal did not want a replay, we really should have been a bit more savvy at 1-1 and play out for the draw.

Season is just about deflated as a New Year's Eve balloon at Easter.

The club does not seem to be built on the soundest of foundations either if our future transfer activity is using loan deals that Martinez seems to like.

I suppose this must be merged with the countless other threads that are concerned for the club's ambition.

Everton will get 7th again this season, but at least it is without Moyes. So some crumbs of comfort.

So I am about to come with one of those annoying football cliches. If we win our 2 games in hand, we are fifth. I think we would all have taken that in summer. Just need to win those games now.

 

[N.S.N.O.]

I agree with the sentiment but Baines just seems a sound bloke - he probably can't help himself doing the decent thing.

The have a look at Carragher in the FA cup final vs West Ham after one of their players put it out for an injury - carragher screams to box them in rather than kick it back as fair play dictates, and two seconds later gerrard scores. I ll settle for slightly misplaced magnanimity than the filth of a man like carragher

there's a happy medium, and we need to find that....arteta wasn't even hurt, he knew he was caught out and he overplayed his knock (its a tactic encouraged by Wenger)...

 

[toffeejack]

there's a happy medium, and we need to find that....arteta wasn't even hurt, he knew he was caught out and he overplayed his knock (its a tactic encouraged by Wenger)...

was thinking this, arteta was a bit of a fanny when he first came here and a tad snidey, our club taught it out of him and he moves there and he's back to his old ways. wish someone at the top would encourage our bloddy stance tbh, it would be good for the future of the sport and not just from a spectacle perspective.

 

[ronnie38]

Ozil =big money
Giroud =big money

That's the difference, you can post all you want about Roberto wanting to win, and you can blame Joe in goal, but today, more than ever, proved the fact that we will always have to rely on freak results, it's horrible, it's horrible to accept the fact, but once you do, this whole weight on our shoulders becomes a little easier to bear

I hate admitting it
It proper hurts
But it's true

Welcome to the real world, get ready to be called Kopite if you don't tow the party line and say how unlucky we are even though we have the best team and play the best football.

 

[Cadbury13]

I said from the start that today was always going to be an uphill struggle and that Arsenal were firm favorites. To win, we'd need us to be at or near our best and for them to have an off day. Clearly neither was the case today.

I'm not blaming Robles for any of the goals, but with our captain and best central defender injured it was a very unwise decision to leave Howard out. Robles seems to prefer punching the ball to catching it which can't inspire confidence in the defence. As for Baines' decision to put the ball out of play when Arteta wasn't injured, to me, that was the moment we lost the game.

Spot on, but then most knew that not starting Howard was ridiculous. Hopefully Roberto scraps this silly policy next season, at least against premier league opposition.

 

[Blades]

was thinking this, arteta was a bit of a fanny when he first came here and a tad snidey, our club taught it out of him and he moves there and he's back to his old ways. wish someone at the top would encourage our bloddy stance tbh, it would be good for the future of the sport and not just from a spectacle perspective.

and this is why we never win anything. we need to be more ruthless and use some gamesmanship at times.

 

[Groucho]

Martinez does not play for draws and I am glad about that.
We are in the month of March in his first season and we are feeling deflated about it...thats a sign that he has done a good job IMO.
Whilst Kenwright is at the helm RM will continue to use the loan system for the very reason you know.

We have to take today on the chin and do as RM does....look for the positives

Spot on

 

[nsno-chris]

He needs to encourage players to shoot on sight a bit more, and move the ball a bit quicker in the final 3rd.

You could see how Wenger changed his gameplan today compared to the game in November, he had his wingers doubling back all the time to reduce our space. As soon as we took the ball they had at least 8 men behind the ball