Back from the match

[Alan Partridge]

Always defended Marcus distribution and I still don't think it's that bad but today it was pretty awful. Loads went out or just straight through to Lehmann, he's got to do a bit better than that, especially when it's so hard to keep the ball against a side like that.

[Millsy]

I must say Hahneman just boots the ball downfield a bit to often where as Lehmann was picking out the man in space and hitting a good ball to them.

Good call. - Stack does this a lot if other appearances of his are anything to go by.

Hahnemann needs to sort this out. Doyle and Lita/Long is really not going to win a high ball against a centre back pairing including Traore/Terry type players who control the air, and even better with the smaller players like ours.

I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways

I totally agree that lumping the ball straight down the middle with Doyle and Lita trying compete with huge centre halves is only going to have limited success at best.

However, surely it's clear that we've been trying to counter this by Marcus placing some his kicks closer to the touchline.

This means that there is much less room for error and some these kicks are bound to go out of play.

IMHO, Marcus' distribution remains better than most and we couldn't afford to buy anyone with a better all round game.

True,

Like I've always said I normally wouldn't stick up with anyone with the stars and stripes tattooed onto them, and I've been a vociferous criticiser of Hahneman's positioning in the past BUT apart from today what has he done wrong this season? Infact even today everyone was making blunders and playing rubbish.

Hahneman is an integral part of one of the best defensive units in our history and one of the best defensive units in the country - humbling Chelsea, Man Utd and the whole of the Championship last season.

So Hahneman can't be that bad.

Today was just a blip, and not just for Hahneman but for the whole team. A blip caused by having to face of of the world's best sides on top form against an injury depleted Reading.

Let's not start looking for scapegoats.

Each and every one of these boys is a hero. (De La Cruz has yet to prove himself though)

[Alan Partridge]

Good call. - Stack does this a lot if other appearances of his are anything to go by.

Hahnemann needs to sort this out. Doyle and Lita/Long is really not going to win a high ball against a centre back pairing including Traore/Terry type players who control the air, and even better with the smaller players like ours.

I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways

I totally agree that lumping the ball straight down the middle with Doyle and Lita trying compete with huge centre halves is only going to have limited success at best.

However, surely it's clear that we've been trying to counter this by Marcus placing some his kicks closer to the touchline.

This means that there is much less room for error and some these kicks are bound to go out of play.

IMHO, Marcus' distribution remains better than most and we couldn't afford to buy anyone with a better all round game.

True,

Like I've always said I normally wouldn't stick up with anyone with the stars and stripes tattooed onto them, and I've been a vociferous criticiser of Hahneman's positioning in the past BUT apart from today what has he done wrong this season? Infact even today everyone was making blunders and playing rubbish.

Hahneman is an integral part of one of the best defensive units in our history and one of the best defensive units in the country - humbling Chelsea, Man Utd and the whole of the Championship last season.

So Hahneman can't be that bad.

Today was just a blip, and not just for Hahneman but for the whole team. A blip caused by having to face of of the world's best sides on top form against an injury depleted Reading.

Let's not start looking for scapegoats.

Each and every one of these boys is a hero. (De La Cruz has yet to prove himself though)

Don't think anyone is blaming Hahnemann just saying one or two things in his game aren't up to his usual standards.

Playing Devil's Advocate

Middlesbrough 2nd goal
Sheffield United goal

Would put down as keeper error's and at times he's not been as safe as he was last season.

[Woodcote Royal]

Sometimes there is no NEED for him to do this though. A simple pass out to Shorey will do, who can pick out a better pass, maybe take on a couple.

Also many of his kicks go straight out. I hardly (if ever) see an opposition keeper mis-kick it.

And how am I wanting it both ways

What I'm saying is that he's not mis-kicking as such but aiming for a point close to the touchline, which requires only a marginal degree of error for the ball to go out of play.

I believe he's rarely aiming for the centre when he kicks out of play .

[M Brook]

Anyway, let's just be pleased to have got those horrible fixtures out of the way. Three and a half nasty fixtures that might have given us no points but we've nicked 4. And, we're going through an injury crisis.

[Alan Partridge]

Anyway, let's just be pleased to have got those horrible fixtures out of the way. Three and a half nasty fixtures that might have given us no points but we've nicked 4. And, we're going through an injury crisis.

Still more to come!! Pompey and Liverpool away followed by Spurs is hardly friendly!

Wednesday nght could be a big gmae also for 1 or 2 players, good performances there and there could be a space for them in the 1st team soon!

[PREMIERSHIP_ROYAL]

Arsenal are class, throughly deserved win and fair play to them.

Can hahnemann actuall make some saves for a change? There has been a question mark over him in recent weeks, id like to give stack a chance now. Hopefully if he does well wednesday, might keep his place for pompey.

ANOTHER STUPID SUGGESTION, WE'RE ALREADY MISSING A STRIKER AND A DEFENDER FROM THE FIRST TEAM AND NOW YOU'RE SUGGESTING WE DROP OUR NUMBER 1 KEEPER?
YOU THINK STACK COULD HAVE DONE ANY BETTER WITH SOME OF THOSE SHOTS?
IF HE COULD WOULDNT HE ALREADY BE IN THE FIRST TEAM?
TRY THINKING THINGS THROUGH ABIT NEXT TIME

[FORZA READING]

oster and little just looked pretty damn amazing today

any way i was feeling a bit sad after the game but Palermo have beaten milan 2-0 so im really happy now

[Sharpy]

Arsenal = different gravy

[Apocalypse Now]

Arsenal are class, throughly deserved win and fair play to them.

Can hahnemann actuall make some saves for a change? There has been a question mark over him in recent weeks, id like to give stack a chance now. Hopefully if he does well wednesday, might keep his place for pompey.

ANOTHER STUPID SUGGESTION, WE'RE ALREADY MISSING A STRIKER AND A DEFENDER FROM THE FIRST TEAM AND NOW YOU'RE SUGGESTING WE DROP OUR NUMBER 1 KEEPER?
YOU THINK STACK COULD HAVE DONE ANY BETTER WITH SOME OF THOSE SHOTS?
IF HE COULD WOULDNT HE ALREADY BE IN THE FIRST TEAM?
TRY THINKING THINGS THROUGH ABIT NEXT TIME

Turn the capslock of you oxf*rd spastic.
Whilst I don't throughly agree with finerain, marcus has made plenty of errors this season and stack should be nearing first team.

[ScottishRoyal]

This isn't a gut reaction to the defeat, I think its been the case for a while now. His communication is woryring( sonko viduka) today again when henry was lurking, jsut a couple of moments. At least last season he made some decent saves regularly to make up for the other parts of his game, but he's not been doing that this season, bar one or two instances. His hoofs down the pitch put us stright on the back foot and its got to stop.

TBH the same could be said for the whole team today, passing was poor and lacking direction. I lost count of the number of times a defender had the ball with others around and cut out the midfield by lumping it up to Doyle.

[notloyalenuffroyal]

I have a theory on Marcus' distribution.

I think it might be a Coppell tactic. Bang it down field aiming for the wings. If we get a flick or control it - great. If we don't - well at least the opposition have to build from beyond the halfway line and we are able to regroup and get men behind the ball.

Give a team like Arsenal the ball in the middle of the park then they are more dangerous.

Probably a load of old rubbish and Marcus is just a bit cr*p, but he is more than welcome to use my theory as an excuse!

[Blue Heart]

Arsenal did what they did effortlessly, they did not break into a sweat or even move into second gear, they didn't have to.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Arsenal did what they did effortlessly, they did not break into a sweat or even move into second gear, they didn't have to.

no surprises.....(apart from two at the start of the game) they were playing the same team that played in the championship last season.


Leagues apart...but still worthy of their team places

[Woodcote Royal]

Arsenal are class, throughly deserved win and fair play to them.

Can hahnemann actuall make some saves for a change? There has been a question mark over him in recent weeks, id like to give stack a chance now. Hopefully if he does well wednesday, might keep his place for pompey.

ANOTHER STUPID SUGGESTION, WE'RE ALREADY MISSING A STRIKER AND A DEFENDER FROM THE FIRST TEAM AND NOW YOU'RE SUGGESTING WE DROP OUR NUMBER 1 KEEPER?
YOU THINK STACK COULD HAVE DONE ANY BETTER WITH SOME OF THOSE SHOTS?
IF HE COULD WOULDNT HE ALREADY BE IN THE FIRST TEAM?
TRY THINKING THINGS THROUGH ABIT NEXT TIME

Turn the capslock of you oxf*rd spastic.
Whilst I don't throughly agree with finerain, marcus has made plenty of errors this season and stack should be nearing first team.

What has Stack done to merit a place in the first team?

PS. It will need to be something pretty specatular for him to have the remotest chance of unseating Marcus at this time

[Apocalypse Now]

ANOTHER STUPID SUGGESTION, WE'RE ALREADY MISSING A STRIKER AND A DEFENDER FROM THE FIRST TEAM AND NOW YOU'RE SUGGESTING WE DROP OUR NUMBER 1 KEEPER?
YOU THINK STACK COULD HAVE DONE ANY BETTER WITH SOME OF THOSE SHOTS?
IF HE COULD WOULDNT HE ALREADY BE IN THE FIRST TEAM?
TRY THINKING THINGS THROUGH ABIT NEXT TIME

Turn the capslock of you oxf*rd spastic.
Whilst I don't throughly agree with finerain, marcus has made plenty of errors this season and stack should be nearing first team.

What has Stack done to merit a place in the first team?/quote]

Kept his mouth shit despite probably never playing a league game for us. When he's come in during the cups he's done fine, looks a solid goalkeeper, and has far better distribution.

[Woodcote Royal]

Stack is no closer now than he's ever been to taking Hahnemann's place.

If he was that good in the cup games and Marcus was as poor as you think he is, Stack wouldn't still be warming the bench.

[Uke]

Marcus knows full well what his failings are

Unfortunately to go 1-0 down so quick and then keep you head up while Arsenal ran the defence ragged isn't exactly easy.

Rather than Marcus being at fault I think we really were shown how much we miss Murty and Kitson.

More telling aws that Lita never got a run, except to warm up after Doyle got a knock.

Also "Theo Walcott - You're having a laugh"

[Belter!]

Can hahnemann actuall make some saves for a change?

What are you on about, he didn't have much chance with any of the Arsenal goals and he did pull off a few saves, he didn't have a chance with the OG vs Chelsea and he did well against West Ham

Kept his mouth shit despite probably never playing a league game for us. When he's come in during the cups he's done fine, looks a solid goalkeeper, and has far better distribution.

Please tell me that you're trying to be funny.
He has no control of his area, He flaps at about 7/10 crosses

In his last 6 games for us hes conceded 3vs Darlington (obviously not inc. penaltys) 3vs West Brom and he was truely poor in the home leg of that game. 3 more vs Brum and also the 3 against Arsenal
So thats 12 goals in 6 games Find me 6 consecutive games where Marcus has conceded 12...

Also, our defence has a reputation for being one of the best in the country (before Arsenal anywhy), we've seen before that when one player is taken out of it it falters because the players aren't used to each other, even when Gunnarsson comes in we look a little shaky, even though he's played at the back with the others quite often.

Stack will not get in the side unless Marcus gets sent off or injured, he's simply not good enough all round, and his distribution is not greatly better than Marcus'.

[Rich@Eaststand]

Please tell me that you're trying to be funny.
He has no control of his area, He flaps at about 7/10 crosses

To be fair, they are hardly Marcus's strong points are they?!