What went wrong against Liverpool?
Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal squad walked away defeated by Liverpool in Philadelphia last night in our last game of the American pre-season tour. There’s were some promising moments throughout the match, but we seemed to lack the hunger and cohesiveness that was needed to beat what, frankly, wasn’t an unstoppable or star studded Liverpool side, which for me, has shown a lot of our weakness’s and a lot to improve on. Here’s a rundown of what I think went wrong.
Firstly, I hate blaming individual players and calling them out too much, especially when it’s a friendly game, but two players who I personally think need to sell this summer, just weren’t good enough and that’s Zinchenko and Jesus. Zinchenko made multiple mistakes and was caught out far too easily with Salah for the first goal, not being able to catch him for pace at all and put Gabriel in a bad position because he couldn’t keep up, not only that but he gave the ball away in some dangerous positions and just doesn’t look like the reliable Zinchenko we used to see week in week out.
Jesus for me wasn’t good enough either, he had chances he should have finished, and he lacked that energy that he used to ooze of. On a good day, he can be unstoppable, but he’s lost that edge about him that once made him one of the best strikers in the premier league and although I love him, Kai Havertz was incredible last season and I think the fact that he was the only scorer speaks for itself and I think if he doesn’t play at centre forward this season it would be a mistake.
For me, we were just wasteful of chances and this goes for most of the team, in the first half we looked lost and Liverpool took advantage of that and saw our weakness’s. Kiwior was playing at centre back and of course that’s not his natural position and I don’t blame him for being caught out a few times but the midfield were also getting run through and Liverpool were slicing through us. We had plenty of opportunities but couldn’t make them count.
We were punished on the counter attack and I think it was a good match for Arteta to analyse for the upcoming season, it should teach us a few valuable lessons and gives Arteta a lot of decisions to make regarding who will be playing consistent first team football this season.
What’s your thoughts Gooners?
