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

6-6.

Chicago: Aiming high.

Wondering whether he'll go to three at the back to solve the full back and Milenkovic issues.

Believe Bakwa has played rwb and we have options - Cunha, Abbott or Savona at rcb.

We'll lose anyway. 4-1.

If I was Ange, given the West Ham game, and that a fair few players have been away on international duty, I'd be putting into the starting eleven the guys I've actually had a few days to work with. So that means a start for Hutchinson, McAtee, maybe Jesus and Kalimuendo too. Anderson, MGW and Wood can come on for the last 30 if we're still in the game.

I've no idea what to do about the defence. I guess Neco has been back in Nottm a day or two already? So think I'd go back four of Neco, Milenkoivic, Murillo and whomever out of Savona and Cunha he prefers. I realise Milenkovic will only just be back, but not sure we trust anyone else enough at this time to step in.

Has Sangare been away? If Douglas Luiz is fit, he goes in too.

He started on Wednesday, I think. And most of the internationals would have been on site Thursday, even if not in full training.

No chance he plays arsenal without anyone who's been away.

I find it hard to believe that a new manager wanting to get off to a good start at his new club would watch the last game we played and then willingly select Sangare.

Sangare has the same stylistic problem that Freuler did. Languidly strolling around the pitch making the odd good read and then gently laying the ball off to a teammate with the luxury of time and space may work on the continent and in a preseason game played at 2/3 speed, but against Premier League opposition it's at best unimpactful, and at worst an absolute disaster of giveaways and missed opportunity. He's nowhere near the 18, for me.

I shall be some combination of excited and optimistic until Arsenal score.
2-1 to them, with our late consolation dangling the ultimately futile carrot of hope whilst ruining my double Arsenal fantasy clean sheet.

He was really good against Brentford and Palace, then had a stinker against West Ham (who didn't). He's good. Luiz may be better though (I don't really know).

This game is perfectly set up for a certain Mr. Ryan Yates. you heard it here first...

Chicago: Midfield grafter.

No he wasn't. Again, this is the same thing that happened with Freuler. People talked about how he was really good and you just didn't see the things he did and the importance of them to the team's effectiveness and how you just don't understand football if you didn't see it, but the reality is that like Freuler, Sangare never actually does anything that positively impacts our performance. His best games are "completed lots of simple passes and didn't do anything to hurt us".

Compare and contrast with Dominguez or Yates. Sangare may be a better player technically than either of them, and his style may be easier on the eye, but both of them are far more effective than him because they're both far more dynamic, far more aggressive, and far more progressive.

Sangare is not a Premier League player.

Edit: just to add a little bit of data, sketchy though I confess it is, the BBC player ratings for those games in which you think Sangare was "really good":

Brentford - 7.59 (ahead of only Yates, Silva and Jesus, all of whom came on as subs)
Palace - 6.14 (ahead of only Hutchinson and Kalimuendo, both of whom came on as subs)

And you appear to be setting out your usual high horse of just how much better your understanding of the game is than others'. An ability to read the game and position oneself effectively to either pick off the intended pass, or force the opponent into a lower percentage or negative play, is pretty much table stakes for a #6 in the Premier League. I'm not saying that Sangare isn't a good player, or that he doesn't do a lot of things well. I'm saying that his game is unsuited to the Premier League, and that we have multiple players who are more effective in that role.

I said it about Freuler, and you gave similar responses, and I was right then as well.

Nottingham Forest boss Ange Postecoglou on injuries: "We have a clean bill of health apart from Aina. He had a problem with the national team. The rest of the boys, today is the first day I've had my eyes on them and they're all fine. Zinchenko is the only one who isn't fine."

Oh good. We've hired a moron.

Does that mean Dominguez is fit?

I’m still struggling with this thread title