Pundits discuss who has the biggest responsibility to shoulder for Europa League loss, Aubameyang or Luiz?
Last night Europa League game was a shocker for Arsenal and apart from the actual loss and the abject disappointment that comes with it there is another downside of such a defeat and that is the amount of ammunition it gives pundits to dissect the team once again.
I do not blame the pundits at all for the way they are piling on, this was a self-inflicted defeat and the club, manager and players will have to take it on the chin. They have no one to blame other than themselves.
And that is the subject of this video from ESPN. Who was directly to blame for the embarrassing exit from the Europa League at the hands of Olympiacos?
This video comes courtesy of ESPN UK
Tho I didnt see the match I was expecting a result like this as if you’ve watched football long enough you know it happens every team.
We got a bit over confident and thought we just turn up but now it’s out of the way for awhile as it will happen again soon enough but now Arteta will see who has what it takes to get us back to were we should be.
To be fair, bar Saka, Mustafi, and Auba, everyone was poor…even Arteta.
If I had to pinpoint a specific reason/person, then it has to Xhaka. Olympiakos defended very well, making it hard to create anything given how many they had behind the ball. What compounded matters was Xhaka’s sloppy, slow play. Midfield is key for any team when trying to dictate the tempo, and as always, his slow play ruined us. He kept blasting passes into his teammates, so they had next to no chance controlling his passes, which killed attacks, but it’s his slow motion football that really finished us!
Long gone are the days of Cesc, and Santi, onetouch football, that quickly breaks through the lines. Xhaka gets the ball, takes 2/3 touches or just hovers over it for what seems an entirety, before finally passing! By which point the opposition have had the time to all reset behind the ball. It’s so frustrating!
In isolation, it’s completely unfair to only blame Xhaka for this crushing defeat, but his slow play defines our tempo from game to game.
The boss himself is to take the fall for very poor decision especially as regards substitution