My theory on preseason matches results for any club means a maximum of 10% to a club’s outlook for that upcoming season. Literally can’t be worth more than that, anybody that thinks it means more than that is respectfully a complete moron. I don’t care if Arsenal strutted into a preseason friendly in Sydney, Australia and beat up on Man City in a 5-1 demolition because we all know damn well when the game matters in the Premier League they’d still cook us and dominate us in every way. But do I prefer it if Arsenal won their preseason matches, sure but by no means do I care or have a eeling that the result will mean anything in the future.
The ONLY thing that matters in a preseason match (I am giving all of this advice for free so you can thank me later) :
- TO LOOK AT HOW THE MANAGER LINES UP AND SUBSTITUTES PLAYERS
The only thing that matters is how managers line up in these matches, especially the ones where a big club is playing another big club. The players don’t have to necessarily be starting together but look at who comes on at halftime, look a who the managers teams up together and that is what you cane expect to see when the season starts. Let’s take one of the the best teams and manager in the world in Liverpool and Klopp in their friendly against United to prove how right I am:
Outside of Diaz, Alisson, and maybe Henderson, Klopp went with a lineup of players looking to get into the manager’s plans for the upcoming season. Now let’s see who Klopp subbed in at halftime:
More likely than not, this is the lineup Klopp will go into the season with as his starting XI with Darwin Nunez leading the Liverpool line.
ARSENAL IMPLICATIONS: Arsenal went on and beat a disappointing Everton 2-0 in Baltimore, Maryland yesterday. Everton just weirdly sat back in back 5 and looked steadfast on not getting broken up by Arsenal which probably stems from our 5-1 shellacking of them at the end of last season. But I don’t care about the result or the performance for that matter, what is more worrying is our lineup that started against Everton:
Do you notice any differences to the lineups that choked away Champions League? yeah, that’s right cause there isn’t any. Barring injuries to Tomiyasu, Tierney, Ramsdale, and Ben White, this is most likely our starting XI going into the upcoming season. Absolutely underwhelming to say the least as not much looks different than the squad that choked away the Champions League. Having Thomas Partey in our midfield changes everything but the players around him haven’t changed besides Gabi Jesus. Gabi Jesus has gotten off to a blistering start for us with 3 goals in two games which is cool to see but I’d be just as good if he didn’t record one brace in our first two games. In our positions that are in dire need of upgrades which is Xhaka, Martinelli, and backup RB (Tomiyasu is never healthy at this point), we have no links to transfers whatsoever in those spots which is worrying. Also add in the fact that we have sold pretty much no one for any value just adds to the mess that is Arsenal Football Club as Arsenal most likely are in the position of not being able to add players to the squad without getting rid of dead weight. What a fucking shit show with the season starting in less than a month. Get the toaster and bath ready fellas, we might be in for a long season.