"A Quiet Dressing Room" - Where are our leaders?

DRJosh

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this has baffled me since he arrived. He seems afraid to come out in practically every situation.
And the irony is that his performances continue to be riddled with schoolboy errors despite this new found conservatism
 

KeanoMagicHat

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So who are the leaders in Arsenals dressing room? Or Liverpools, City’s? It’s abit of a myth.
Van Dijk, Robertson and before that Henderson I suppose for Liverpool and Dias, De Bruyne and Rodri for Man City. Previously they had the likes of Kompany, neither team is short of the so-called leaders if you believe in that kind of thing.
 

Ish

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I remember last season at OT some banshee sat behind me giving Maguire shit all game and then at one point screaming "you're a shit captain!"

I'm not really sure what Bruno is doing better than Maguire other than coming off a much better season last year.

I was all for Bruno being captain, but he hasn't stepped up at all.
Aye, he's always showed his petulance especially when things aren't going well. Another reason for me would've been that his bottom level of performance is too low to be captain. I'd say your captain needs to be quite a consistent performer, leading by example. But that's probably just a silly notion on my part. After all, it's "only" a captains armband.
 

Shane88

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Our appointed leader is a 29 year old stroppy child who loses his shit at the first sign of a setback and gives bollockings to teammates for being unable to reach his shit passes.

Maguire's milquetoast "C'mon lads!" type of leadership was better than Bruno and his temper tantrums.
 

golden_blunder

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Picked up on this last night in the interview, but I see the press have latched onto it too.....

Christian Eriksen admits 'it was very quiet' in Man United dressing room after error-riddled defeat against Galatasaray... as midfielder rues 'wrong decisions' and 'bad luck' for slump | Daily Mail Online

What a damming indictment on the character of this team. Would it be a quiet dressing room with Robson, Keane, Ince, Bruce, Rio, Rooney or Schmeichel in there?

Where are the leaders?

Some home truths need to be told to these players.

Varane - Why are you 20 yards in front of Icardi for the third goal?
Casemiro - Why are you not tracking you man for the second? Why are you not retaining the ball? Why are you sliding into the back of a man in the box?
Rashford - Why are you not putting you laces through that one-on-one chance?
Bruno - Why can't you retain the ball? 27 giveaways last night.
Onana - Why are you thinking playing that pass?

Or is everyone scared because they are all highly paid, experienced and in the case of the ex Madrid players, highly decorated players?

Or is it because our so-called leaders, like the five mentioned above, are the ones that keep making mistakes?

Rio says it on his Five show and during punditry. Who is setting the standards at this club?
You missed the Swedish captain there or is he escaping criticism again
 

Sparky Rhiwabon

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I also wonder whether this is more typical these days, with footballers happy to sit with their earphones in
 

Duffer1953

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I noticed in the tunnel when the Teams were lined up there was too much laughing, joking, hugging opposition players etc. Take a look at the faces on Keane, Neville, Scholes etc waiting to take the pitch; pure concentration of the job ahead
 

garelo

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Picked up on this last night in the interview, but I see the press have latched onto it too.....

Christian Eriksen admits 'it was very quiet' in Man United dressing room after error-riddled defeat against Galatasaray... as midfielder rues 'wrong decisions' and 'bad luck' for slump | Daily Mail Online

What a damming indictment on the character of this team. Would it be a quiet dressing room with Robson, Keane, Ince, Bruce, Rio, Rooney or Schmeichel in there?

Where are the leaders?

Some home truths need to be told to these players.

Varane - Why are you 20 yards in front of Icardi for the third goal?
Casemiro - Why are you not tracking you man for the second? Why are you not retaining the ball? Why are you sliding into the back of a man in the box?
Rashford - Why are you not putting you laces through that one-on-one chance?
Bruno - Why can't you retain the ball? 27 giveaways last night.
Onana - Why are you thinking playing that pass?

Or is everyone scared because they are all highly paid, experienced and in the case of the ex Madrid players, highly decorated players?

Or is it because our so-called leaders, like the five mentioned above, are the ones that keep making mistakes?

Rio says it on his Five show and during punditry. Who is setting the standards at this club?
the 3rd goal was on amrabat alone. first he made risky pass that got intercepted, and you asked why varane was 20 yards away from Icardi, thats because our defenders (Varane, Linda, Dalot) were trying to play offside trap and guess who got Icardi onside? thats right, Amrabat. He got caught. Id suggest you to watch that goal again.
Anyway we bought Varane and Casemiro because they are most highly decorated footballers in football, we want their experience, calmness, and leadership so in a way you are right they should be the ones who lit the fire on our less experience players.
 

TheLord

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Maguire is the most influential leader in the squad, so that "bar" is bizarrely high to begin with!
 

gaffs

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the 3rd goal was on amrabat alone. first he made risky pass that got intercepted, and you asked why varane was 20 yards away from Icardi, thats because our defenders (Varane, Linda, Dalot) were trying to play offside trap and guess who got Icardi onside? thats right, Amrabat. He got caught. Id suggest you to watch that goal again.
Anyway we bought Varane and Casemiro because they are most highly decorated footballers in football, we want their experience, calmness, and leadership so in a way you are right they should be the ones who lit the fire on our less experience players.
"Id suggest you to watch that goal again"

Varane can't play offside when the left back is 15 yards behind....




Yes, it was a bad pass from Amrabat, but there is no effort from Varane to get back in line. Plus, there is a massive gap between he and Lindelof.

Rio said it post match on BT. He said there were defenders hanging about in the middle of the pitch and said they have to anticipate a ball coming right back.
 

garelo

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"Id suggest you to watch that goal again"

Varane can't play offside when the left back is 15 yards behind....




Yes, it was a bad pass from Amrabat, but there is no effort from Varane to get back in line. Plus, there is a massive gap between he and Lindelof.

Rio said it post match on BT. He said there were defenders hanging about in the middle of the pitch and said they have to anticipate a ball coming right back.
LOOK AT THE OTHER DEFENDERS POSITION! NOT ONLY VARANE, EVERYONE BUT AMRABAT TRIED TO PLAY OFFSIDE.

HERE LOOK AT 1:47 THE WHOLE SEQUENCE IS MUCH BETTER IN EXPLAINING WHY AMRABAT WAS THE SOLE CULPRIT OF THE 3RD GOAL.

 

Thom Merrilin

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LOOK AT THE OTHER DEFENDERS POSITION! NOT ONLY VARANE, EVERYONE BUT AMRABAT TRIED TO PLAY OFFSIDE.

HERE LOOK AT 1:47 THE WHOLE SEQUENCE IS MUCH BETTER IN EXPLAINING WHY AMRABAT WAS THE SOLE CULPRIT OF THE 3RD GOAL.

Never go full caps.
 

Bondi77

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If Harry was on the pitch he would have ripped into Onana and told him to wake the feck up!
 

pascell

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Doesn't help our captain is a big baby when he doesn't get decisions his own way by the ref. That and he doesn't lead by example as he gives away the ball so much, he can't then go into the dressing room and bollock players for making mistakes.

I've said for quite a few years now that our players shirk responsibility of their performances. When they're on the pitch, some of them keep trying the same thing even though it rarely comes off, none of them are learning from mistakes made.
 

Dans

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We don't have an effective leader - Bruno is too bolshy and can hardly be held up as an example, furthermore gives the ball away far too often - shit example, Varane is pretty much a mouse - he's no leader for me, Casemiro probably doesn't speak English so couldn't be considered a leader, despite 70% of the team probably being able to understand him, Eriksen is not exactly loud..........so who do we have? No one. Maguire wasn't the answer either.
 

Judas

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I noticed in the tunnel when the Teams were lined up there was too much laughing, joking, hugging opposition players etc. Take a look at the faces on Keane, Neville, Scholes etc waiting to take the pitch; pure concentration of the job ahead
That’s modern football and a problem far from being an issue exclusive to just us. It’s simply a different sport now, so much more money at the top level, it’s had a massive impact.
 

youngrell

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LOOK AT THE OTHER DEFENDERS POSITION! NOT ONLY VARANE, EVERYONE BUT AMRABAT TRIED TO PLAY OFFSIDE.

HERE LOOK AT 1:47 THE WHOLE SEQUENCE IS MUCH BETTER IN EXPLAINING WHY AMRABAT WAS THE SOLE CULPRIT OF THE 3RD GOAL.

There’s very little chance for Amrabat to get forward and play the offside trap there. His momentum from the long ball takes him back a yard or so and the header is almost immediate. The centre backs should definitely be anticipating the situation and dropping a little in that situation. Instead they actually move forward towards the ball.
There’s very little Amrabat can do, other than play a better pass of course.
 

youngrell

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I think it’s mostly a culmination of our failures for the last decade where standards have dropped dramatically. Whenever you read books or interviews from past players they all mention the standards set in training when they arrived at the club from players like Keane, Giggs, Scholes etc.
I think the last bastions of this were probably Rooney and Carrick. Once they left, there was nobody to carry the baton. None of it been helped by the mishmash managers and players recruited over that time.
 

SER19

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Watching beckham on the overlap now - yet another player who talks in truly glowing standards, with real admiration, for keane and his influence. You can't underestimate the power of a couple of real leaders in a team. My gut says we have too many players who think they are better than they are and I cant imagine some of our players giving a shit that casemiro has won 5 CLs and imagning they could learn anything from him.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Such a weird thread. He just said “a quiet dressing room” as shorthand for “we’re all gutted”. Reading far too much into a throwaway comment. It wouldn’t make any difference if they were all screaming at each other. Not that he would have told us if they were.

This is just yet another way to say we’ve a squad that isn’t fit for purpose, full of too many players with the wrong quality and/or mentality. We know this already. The comments from Eriksen don’t tell us anything new.
 

Pogue Mahone

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There’s very little chance for Amrabat to get forward and play the offside trap there. His momentum from the long ball takes him back a yard or so and the header is almost immediate. The centre backs should definitely be anticipating the situation and dropping a little in that situation. Instead they actually move forward towards the ball.
There’s very little Amrabat can do, other than play a better pass of course.
I thought Amrabat was to blame and ended up scrolling back and forward to see if he maybe could have stepped up a bit quicker. It’s impossible to be sure from that footage but there was a journalist in the stadium who is convinced his momentum meant he couldn’t step up. So that’s good enough for me. Varane and Lindelof should probably have stepped back with him.

On a side note, all that scrolling back and forth reveals that Hojlund had made a perfectly timed run in behind. If Ambrabat’s pass had been a foot or two higher and Sanchez couldn’t get a head on it then Hojlund was in. We’re so fecking cursed this season.
 

2 man midfield

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So who are the leaders in Arsenals dressing room? Or Liverpools, City’s? It’s abit of a myth.
City’s dressing room is full of them. They’ve got that aura of big personalities. United had it, Chelsea 05-10 had it, and city have it now.
 

youngrell

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I thought Amrabat was to blame and ended up scrolling back and forward to see if he maybe could have stepped up a bit quicker. It’s impossible to be sure from that footage but there was a journalist in the stadium who is convinced his momentum meant he couldn’t step up. So that’s good enough for me. Varane and Lindelof should probably have stepped back with him.

On a side note, all that scrolling back and forth reveals that Hojlund had made a perfectly timed run in behind. If Ambrabat’s pass had been a foot or two higher and Sanchez couldn’t get a head on it then Hojlund was in. We’re so fecking cursed this season.
There’s also the point that the header sails through the middle of our centre backs because they are so far apart, that should never really happen from an opponent centre back heading the ball. And it’s possible that even if Icardi was as deep as Lindelof and Varane he still gets in because Lindelof runs past the bleeding ball.
Amrabat can be blamed for the poor pass only IMO.
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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City’s dressing room is full of them. They’ve got that aura of big personalities. United had it, Chelsea 05-10 had it, and city have it now.
People only say that about winning teams, never before. Which begs the question do leaders win the trophies, or to players get labelled as leaders after winning the trophies. I don’t see many true leaders in that city team per se.
 

2 man midfield

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People only say that about winning teams, never before. Which begs the question do leaders win the trophies, or to players get labelled as leaders after winning the trophies. I don’t see many true leaders in that city team per se.
I think that’s probably correct yeah, it’s hard to be considered a winner before you win anything. There’s definitely an element of chicken or the egg about it as you say though.

I’d say De Bruyne, Haaland, Rodri, Ederson, Walker and Dias all have that aura, but they probably do lead more by example having been there and done it. I’m not one of those who thinks a leader needs to shout like Roy Keane. City don’t have many nutcases, but you know the highest standards are maintained by the spine of that team and Pep.
 

GueRed

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I don't know about in the dressing room and day to day at Carrington etc but I've been saying the last couple of years on the pitch at least from what I have seen apart from Maguire and Bruno the team is very quiet..I hate to go incel nerd type speak shit but from the outside it looks like we have a squad full of beta characters...

Roy Keane called it a while back this group doesnt have enough leaders.

Last year I had hopes Casemiro would be an 'alpha' and would be vocal and would lead/organise but like the highly decorated Varane on the pitch he has been quiet too.

Onana seems like a big character but he's still a newbie and at the moment he has to concentrate on his own form and settling in first before anything else....

We were really spoilt in the 90's especially with that 1994 Double winning team. Not only did we have some top players but the squad teemed full of strong personalities, captains/leaders.

iirc that 2008 squad had a few strong personalities too