Does Ange ball bang - or a load of Flange? (A match thread)

Specifically at Left Back.

I had 1 or 2 pre-Christmas moments of 'should we have sold Elanga?'. Obviously it worked out well that we didn't and it wasn't a financial problem that we didn't. He isn't irreplaceable, though we haven't replaced him yet - or changed the way we play to remove that from the equation (hardly surprising).
Might also be missing his set piece delivery - and I remember being surprised when he took over taking corners last season.

Gibbs White was largely pants for the last 10 games of last season.
Very much liked Elanga
Jota Silva hmmmm

Defended really rather badly for Wet Ham's goal and Fester's equaliser last season. Can't remember if he was CB in a 4 or 5 though for both of those.
Did feel a bit sorry for him though today at LB. Honestly. Although he still did some stupid - such as letting that long ball bounce. And I still haven't watched the 2nd goal back to see if how badly / slowly he tracked Gyokeres.

Would seem harsh to criticise anyone other than the full back stood 20 yards deeper than the rest of the back four.

There are still 2 center backs to cover one forward.

You don't sell a proven top player because he's having a poor run of form, you manage him better. I imagine that a very attack minded manager like Ange will be a big fan of Morgan, and vice versa.

Absent our best ball playing defender and down a midfielder with Sangare choosing to take the afternoon off, it's not really surprising that Morgan spent a lot of the match running around looking for a pass that never came.

Totally, but he was seen as largely disappointing rather than total write-off, I think. When we went to 3 centre backs to shut games down he did look imperious.

I'm one of the folk who thinks we've overall upgraded on Elanga, but we'll only really see it in a new system.
And I'm a Sangaré fan who also thinks Luiz is the better player, so I'm a pile of superficial inconsistencies.

Wasn't that Rick Wakeman's difficult second album? Or possibly Yes with Jon Anderson.

I think there's quite a bit of concern if you zoom out a bit. What's our record over the last 10-15 league games? It must be pretty poor. There's a lot of change happening at the same time too, against a backdrop of increased games. A mate of mine thinks we might get relegated. That seems a bit far fetched for me, but things can quickly spiral. Lose against Burnley next week and the Sunderland game will be huge for Ange already.

I'm not sure what the last two months of the previous season have to do with where we are now given we've got a new manager and 13 new players.

Yeah but it makes things sound worse.

Well Anderson was fantastic. Morgan was non Existent. Chris got no service yet almost scored. Were we meant to be pressing? I am confused. I said that this looked like a game for our Ryan. He probably would have had more time to wind up some of their players. Bakwa looks a talent and can really pass. Sangare doesn’t seem able to. We looked anemic going forward. Kalibueno looks busy but was so isolated.

Also ref was shit. Kali-fury pants could have been send off for two yellow card offenses. Taiwo would have been better playing. Arsenal don’t like it up em. I would really like to see Cunha playing on Wednesday

The team will be different. .

But please please please for the love of god don’t play Morato as a full back ever again.

Pretty terrible really and the third goal with the shortest man on the pitch heading in was kind of embarrassing…

I think N’Doye will come good. I also think Bakwa is going to be a star. I would like to see Jesus and Taiwo play up front together on weds. Go on Ange you useless cunt. Do it!!!!!

Chicago: Wanting some goals.

My concern is that he has plateaued. He's still making the same mistakes he made 2 years ago. Poor judgement on when to do a simple thing. Still struggles to find space in the press. If anything, he needs to be calm and do less. Not sure Ange is the man to instill a zen state. Oh, add in poor finishing as well. He could be brilliant and certainly needs to be a lot better with greater regularity.

@Psychobel is normally way off with most of his opinions on football ( 😛 ), but on this occasion I am pretty much in agreement. I don't think he's going to get much better in terms of 'levels'. His poor finishing is one of the key reasons. Though if we sold him we'd have to pay similar to replace him. He also seems to like it here. So I'm in the keep camp, purely on the devil we know basis. He's good. He gets in our team most weeks. But I don't expect we'll ever make a great profit on him.