What happened to all those people saying Walcott is crap? Seem to have piped down a bit
Seriously wish he was at Spurs, we're more desperate for a striker than a teenage virgin is for boob. I have no idea who this Dempsey chap is, but he's certainly not the guy who scored 20 odd goals for Fulham!
On the plus side, Holtby changed the game when he came on. Dembele is a beast in the middle, but he doesn't unlock teams through his passing whilst Parker seems to get altitude sickness when he gets anywhere into the opposition half ever since he left West Ham. Lewis in just 20 minutes looked lively, operated in the pockets of space and picked out plenty of lovely angled passes. Reminds me of the Croatian magician with his range of passes and technical ability.
Here's hoping he settles in quickly and builds on a promising first appearance!
Walcott was complete crap, that's why. Only way he really did anything last season was when he was set up by van Persie or when on the counter attack.
Holtby is a good player but from what I've seen of him he has a bit to prove before he can be considered a proper long-term successor to Modric. I didn't see the Spurs game but he does address something missing in your line-up as you say so could be an important player. I really like that midfield, Great ball-winning ability, very mobile, lots of bite and individually all are great players. Dembele especially is just a gem and looks even better than he did at Fulham.
Dempsey has improved recently and so has Sig but I agree they aren't quite Spurs quality.
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Good decision to play Carragher today. I feel Liverpool need a vocal defender at the back just to get the others into place and keep them on their toes. We saw in the second half how they just dropped their shoulders and stopped pressing, even with Carragher in the team. It would have been much worse without him. It would be preferred if that vocal defender was one of Agger or Skrtel, but it isn't. Suarez was world class today. Absolutely brilliant. Wisdom was just plain awful. I don't think he played a single pass that wasn't backwards to Pepe Reina. He isn't a right back. I don't know how many more matches he needs to play before Rodgers realizes it. Henderson's industry was once again superb. He probably should have scored in the first half, but overall, he had a good game. Lucas had an off-game today; Wilshere and Cazorla just seemed to breeze past him. I thought Downing didn't get at Santos enough in the second half. Kept drifting into the middle, instead of trying to get to the byline, and basically gave Santos a free pass.
Arsenal's defence. Wow, they are plain awful, but I didn't need this match to make that conclusion. Szczesny was horrendous as well.
Suarez I felt was a bit isolated for parts of the game especially second half. Wisdom isn't a right back but there isn't much of a choice is there when you have two full-backs out, perhaps a new reserve left back is needed. He should be out now with Enrique and Johnson back together. Henderson has impressed me recently, yesterday he was superb and his goal against Norwich was artistry.
Giroud was playing well but I was a bit puzzled too that Walcott wasn't given a chance through the middle to go at Carragher when he was better than Giroud on the day, could've won us the match. Then again Wenger isn't one to advocate many tactical changes during a match. Wilshere and Cazorla tend to breeze past a lot of DMs in this league, Wilshere more so than Cazorla.
I was surprised it wasn't Sturridge or Suarez going against Santos. He is so poor, I'm not sure what happened as he was OK last season. Passes it back whenever he goes forward. Looks to be somewhat in position to defend but then gets passed easily anyway. Should be his last game for us in the PL with Monreal coming in and thank god. Even with Downing not taking full advantage Santos still managed to mess up, he was at fault for the second goal.
Arsenal's defence are just plain overrated, perhaps since individually they are decent players but together they don't work, very error-prone. Gibbs has been good this season both defensively and attacking, but we didn't see much. Sagna used to be the best RB in the league, but now he isn't close tbh, he has been poor for the last couple of months in everything and one of our worst players. Mertesacker is probably the most solid of the centre halves but still manages to mess up a lot due to his lack of pace. Vermaelen in just painful most of the time and doesn't deserve to be captain. Koscielny is average as well, though perhaps slightly better than Vermaelen.