Big Raddy's Pre-match
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Big Raddy's Pre-match
6h ago
Wins against Wolves and Chelsea and with the NLD looming on this week-end, it seems that we are in a good place to finish the season. Top 4 is more less secure and we may be able to aspire for more if we win our remaining games but let us not get too far ahead of ourselves…
Against Chelsea, we played a strong line up and watching this game, I was trying to think which players are just too good to omit from the first squad…I thought I d make a post out of it and ask you to create a top 8 based on the instructions above…so create your Top 8 away. Here is mine:
Raya (no choice) – White, Saliba ..read more
Big Raddy's Pre-match
1w ago
W\e are out of the FA Cup, out of the Champions League and Man City is likely to win the EPL. I think it is quite clear that our season now is more or less over, we just need to keep up our efforts to stay in the Top 3 of the league. Is our season disappointing? From a trophy perspective, yet. From our ability to compete and also from our overall team growth and improvements, this seasons is rather successful.
We now need
Another CB to add more steel to the defense, someone who would genuinely challenge Gabriel for his starting spot (Branthwaithe?…)
Timber back at LB
probably another CM/DM t ..read more
Big Raddy's Pre-match
3w ago
Drew against City – not bad
Beat Luton without being trouble – expected
Now, we are in the last leg of the season and key games are coming up in the EPL with 24 points to grab…I think we can maybe aim for 21 points and we must actually not lose more than 3 points because LFC and Man City won’t lose more than 3 points until the end of the season:
Brighton away
Villa at home
Wolves away
Chelsea at home
Tottenham away
Bournemouth at home
Utd away
Everton at home
Add the double confrontation with Bayern Munich in April and you could potentially say that the month of April is now the key month f ..read more
Big Raddy's Pre-match
1M ago
Maignan – Walker, Stones, Konate, T. Hernandez – Bellingham, Rice, Griezmann – Saka, Kane, Mbappe
Pickford – Trippier, Saliba, Upamecano, Trent – Foden, Tchouameni, Camavinga – Dembele, Giroud, Palmer (or Bowen)
I think these A and B teams would have a good chance at the Euro…
According to the bookies, England is the favourite to win the Euros closely followed by France and then there is Spain, Portugal followed by Croatia, Italy, Germany and Netherlands
Perfect quarter finals would be:
Spain – Portugal
England – Croatia
France – Italy
Germany – Netherlands
and then: Spain – England ; Franc ..read more
Big Raddy's Pre-match
1M ago
What a wonderful past 6 weeks:
Wins in the league against Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, West Ham, Burnley, Newcastle, Sheffield and Brentford. Some of these wins saw us record more than 3 goals – who said we needed a striker at Christmas?…
A hard fought qualification against Porto in the Champions League with Raya the hero, vindicating Arteta’s choice to put him as Nr. 1 GK at our club…
On top of that, our latest recruits Rice, Havertz and Raya have proven to be decisive in this period while last January recruit Trossard continues to impress.
Other players worth a mention ..read more
Big Raddy's Pre-match
2M ago
Well well well..Havertz is proving to be more decisive for us in 2024 and a key element of our squad on both defensive and attacking phases…Who would have thought I would write these words back in September 2023…? Trust Arteta and the process? Maybe it is a good idea…who knows?
Anyways, Havertz’ form, inputs and outputs have been good lately and now with Partey being close to return and ESR finally fit again, it begs the question…Do we bring back Partey as a starter? When will we give a chance to ESR to shine again? Keeping ESR out of the team is not going to help our cause in keeping him in ..read more
Big Raddy's Pre-match
2M ago
What we know for now:
Arteta prefers Raya to Ramsdale, which beats me but oh well…
Ben White is our starter at RB with Tomy being a more than able back-up
Saliba-Gabriel is our starting CB pair…I think we should get an upgrade on Gabs this summer…
Zinchenko, Timber fight for the LB spot and Kiwior is a back-up (but he is getting too many minutes for my liking…I think he is at best a back-up CB…but I would not mind shipping him out)
Rice and Odegaard are clear starters in midfield and the last spot is battled out between Havertz, Partey and Jorginho. We can even add Smith-Rowe here and let us ..read more
Big Raddy's Pre-match
2M ago
So we just beat Liverpool in a game that showcased our brilliant team defending (except for that silly own-goal). We kept Liverpool at bay and we managed to score on our chances, although we should have been up by at least 2 goals at half-time…
Our set-up was very solid with Havertz and Odegaard playign a crucial role in defensive phases and Martinelli and Saka playing a crucial role on offensive transitions. Ben White also had at an excellent game but the MOTM was clearly Jorginho who was able to dictate pace alongside signing-of-the-season D. Rice…
3-1 at home against Liverpool and now we a ..read more
Big Raddy's Pre-match
3M ago
After a slumpy and slightly worrying end of the first half of the EPL last year, we started this year with a bang…courtesy of set-pieces to unlock the game through Gabriel and then great counter-attacking efforts expertly concluded by Trossard and Martinelli. 5-0 at home against a sorry Crystal Palace and here are the talking points:
A) We are cementing our reputation as a lethal offensive set-pieces team.
B) Raya does not give me much confidence in terms of shot-stopping and he is losing confidence with his passing too, at least with his feet.
C) Saka seemed in good form and so did Odegaard ..read more
Big Raddy's Pre-match
4M ago
After qualifying for the next stage of the CL and still being in the mix for the title despite two undeserved losses to Newcastle and Villa (very similar losses by the way against teams that just set up to defend and scored on their rare opportunity…so annoying!), we are heading into the festive season full of cautious optimism. The next three months are crucial to our season – if we lose our ways in this period, by March, we will be out of all competitions and trophy hunts…
With the January transfer window opening, it seems that looking at a CF and eventually DM/CB/LB options may not be a bad ..read more