Howay

Fair enough, I see the comparison a lot which is what I find absurd but get the context you mean.

The issue is his strengths have to come at the detriment of our system, we haven’t got the quality throughout the side to accommodate a player that doesn’t help the press. Pressing from the front and turnovers high up the pitch has been our bread and butter all season, this is something Murphy is good at which is why I highlighted him - if everyone was fit I’d play Gordon there but I’m anticipating Willock is out. ASM does create a lot of these stats, but what is the quality like on these? As when we watch the games he’s not putting in high quality crosses that give his teammates a good chance at the ball, or setting up brilliant shooting chances. His main issue for me is that he doesn’t do enough of that, he often beats a man or two which is the difference he has over many but rather than utilize that advantage created and set up a team mate he continues his run and it ends up fizzling out. It seems like he generates quantity rather than quality.

Can we all also stop making comparisons of him with Robert, Ben Arfa, etc he’s done nothing to deserve those comparisons he’s more like Traore from Wolves.

We shouldn’t change the approach that has got us to a final and 4th place to try and get more out of a player that has always been what he is. Our main issue for me is we aren’t playing the aggressive style that’s got us here, our performances have lacked bite as our lot look nervous to risk missing the final. ASM isn’t the difference maker he’s made out to be tbh, our fans look for anything as proof he is just as CT is doing with his involvement at the weekend - he deserves credit for his hand in the goal but the goal was made by Longstaffs fantastic run. Even Fish saying “beat a couple of players, turn on a sixpence, and drop a perfect cross on a strikers head” I think implying this is something ASM does? It’s something he’s done maybe once in his years in our team. His recent goal involvements have come when he is doing what he’s meant to do in the system. We shouldn’t change all we have been doing to try and accommodate a bloke that doesn’t have the impact he’s made out by some, losing a player from our press isn’t something we can do and it’ll impact our overall performances negatively. Murphy is the better option, he’s direct and while he spoons chances it’s not like ASM isn’t also fucking hopeless at finishing, Murphy also plays the way we need a player in that position to play and helps our press.

If we’re depending on him we’ve already lost tbh.

Arsenal fans are a tragic bunch

Possibly the cup final? We’re usually an aggressive team who battle and go in for every loose ball, but recently that’s ground to a halt and maybe it’s fear of injury ahead of the final.

Our lot didn’t want that. 2 months back we’d have been all over them like a rash bullying them, but today we waited for turnovers and looked completely flat. It’ll be like this until Bruno is back. We needed to buy central midfielders tbh.

Burn has been on the pints before this one.

That free kick. Fuck off back to the championship you bunch of helmets.

Aye, absolutely bottled the challenge then realized how it looked so stayed down. Classic ASM.

Burn has lost the plot a bit today why did he throw it into Schar neck height?

How can the ref take a bloke who is slapping the floor in fake pain serious? fucking hell man

This ref is making an already flat game fucking brutal

Hope Isegrim is seeing all these ASM crosses

Aye, to be fair Burn has been really good there defensively and Targett has looked ropey whenever he’s been given a chance this season (albeit he’s not had loads). I’d maybe sub Targett on for him but I don’t want Burn dropped by any stretch yet.

ASM needs to be taught to lift his head before he crosses like, just boots it in.

What the fuck was burn doing there?

Agree to disagree I suppose. I don’t see how a draw is seen as an egregious result from that half, we were poor and I gave Bournemouth credit but at the same time I don’t think they particularly deserved to be ahead - a draw to me was a fair reflection of the half.

Think that’s giving them a lot of credit. It was a decent counter attacking performance but I don’t think they particularly deserved to be in the lead, same shots and shots on target for both teams, similar sloppiness on the ball imo.

His crossing is shocking, he played a neck height ball to Gordon who was at the back post before . He deserves credit for the lead up to the goal but he was parp for most the game (along with everyone else), including a nightmare of a back pass to Botman that could have been a real issue at one point.

I’ll add I don’t think Bournemouth deserved to be ahead, so while we were poor I think a draw is a fair result for that half. Hopefully we wake up a bit now and ramp up the intensity.

Good interplay from Gordon and ASM to create that goal from nowt. Thank fuck for that

We look so flat, every ball or pass catches us by surprise and no urgency. It’s weird considering what we’ve been like for most the rest of the season.

Btw, this is already a good example of how absurd the whole “time waster” tag we’ve been given is, Bournemouth have already spent maybe 1 minute out of 3 on two throw ins and a goal kick everyone is at it ffs.