Borussia Dortmund
2 v 0 Arsenal
First of all,
there's no excuses and few positives to take from this game. That 2-
0 gap may as well be a million light-years in terms of the energetic,
effective football gulf.
Wenger-boy or
Klopp-ite? I guess I'm a Klopp-ite.
Before kick-off the
news wasn't good, but foreseeable. If your squad is overloaded with
attacking midfielders, they're all almost guaranteed to get through
the season (and, probably, the next three seasons, as long as the
surfeit persists) unscathed. Wherever the shortage is, if you let one
develop, that's where the injury build-up will occur. We're light in
the defence department, so that's where the treatment table is
busiest with the EC broken footballer mountain.
Hector Belerin came
in for Chambers, out with tonsillitis. There we are paying the price
for what we didn't do in the summer:
Szczesny
Bellerin Mertesaker Koscielny Gibbs
Arteta
Sanchez Wilshire Ramsey Ozil
Welbeck
Jurgen Klopp seems
impossible not to like, unless you have an aversion to the big,
happy, loud, energetic blokes that cause havoc in trinket shops with
narrow aisles. He's like one of those huge, affectionate dogs who
knock tables over with their wagging tails. I was going to insert a
load of pictures and comments contrasting the two managers, but
there's no need for too many words. Klopp doesn't smile a lot, he
laughs, proper and loud, incessantly, he was in a branded hoodie and
tracksuit bottoms. Wenger's starting to look like the economics
graduate he is. Wenger smiles rarely, and prefers the “got one over
you, there” smirk. Klopp's blue-collar team made Wenger's white
collar bunch look very second rate.
There's a good panel
on Sky. Souness talks sense. Merse can be hilarious and is Arsenal
through and through. Shame about old big-nose Hamman, but there you
go.
The computer's on
beside the screen I'm watching the game on, and some cock is tweeting
on about the Sweaties' independence vote, just before kick off.
That's why political debate's impossible. These are the sort of
people you have to deal with.
The positives? Good
goalkeeping. Gibbo played well. Wilshire was energetic and willing,
and Welbeck got into decent positions and had some chances. Not much
other than that. Bellerin did ok, Kos was ok too. Other than that
there were a lot of stinkers, but stinkers brought about by a team
looking to press hard, and high, and intelligently, and to keep that
intensity up for the full ninety. Most technically gifted players
like a little bit of space to show their skills in. Denied those
millimetres they start to look very ordinary. Very ordinary indeed up
against a big, strong, determined, organised, motivated and fit as
anything team prepared to make life difficult for their opponents
every inch of the way.
There were just the
twenty two players out there, but it seemed as if we have about seven
of them, and they had the other fifteen. I blame the nondescript blue
kit, up against the highly visible bright yellow. Why weren't we in
red and white anyway?
The goals came just
before and just after half time, and there could've been many more,
all going in at our end.
Hoodie 2
Suit 0
The economist has
got some thinking to do.
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