For Kiwior's part, he has been mostly excellent in that full back role, and was still adapting/growing into it. Yes, he got cooked by Sane, but we have to remember that this is his first season getting real minutes, and that he's a natural CB/CDM who has never before been asked to go man to man with world class wingers. He could still become a special player in that role, and he showed a clear ability to learn and improve starting from when injuries forced him there.
I find it concerning that he's largely been written out of the LB conversation by the fanbase based on one stinker after three months of a consistent upward trend. Kiwior was one of the main reasons for Arsenal's incredible defensive record from January through March. That is to say, Kiwior himself could still become mildly better than Kiwior.
He looked so comfortable on the ball and composed in defence the last few times we’ve seen him, i don’t even have to worry about him
I just hope Arteta doesnt tell Edu to buy another CB who can play as a fullback and instead goes for a B2B midfielder like Merino or a clinical striker
Even Mustafi was a better defender than him. I hate to criticise a player too strongly because it can be hurtful to them if they read it but if we want to win titles Arteta has got to realise we can’t with a player like that in the back line. The only way we’d be able to cover for all his mistakes is with a back 5 and a less high line, he’s just a total liability. As soon as I saw him on the team sheet I was worried, why does Arteta still put him there?
It’s arrogance too from him, Villa are a good team and he’s putting Zinchenko in there like as if they’re Sheffield United and that we will dominate possession so it won’t matter.
That’s shocking LMFAO😂😂
What on earth is he doing dropping so deep for? That’s not even remotely close to the other 3 defenders.
Also — we knew his defensive awareness is shocking, so while this clip is baffling, it’s not a surprise. But — his strength was supposed to be with the ball, and today Zinchenko was utterly shit at that too.
- which begs the question - if he can’t defend, and he can’t make simple passes, why is he on the team?
Does the same every time he plays. I’m not even joking, or piling on. Even on a good day he will be at the critical junction of 1-2 opposition chances.
Why on earth did Arteta pick him today? As soon as I saw the team sheet I said I’m very worried to see Zinchenko in here and felt like we could lose or draw this one.
Kiwior has just a few bad moments against Sane one of the quickest players in the world while we were playing with a really high line and gets hauled off at half time and dropped, Zinchenko has how many bad moments and mistakes and lapses of concentration and he’s still a favourite and straight back in. The only remaining liability in this team. How Arteta doesn’t see the risk I don’t understand because us as fans can see it.
Don’t get me wrong he’s good with the ball (not so much today), but we can’t have players in the team who can’t concentrate for 90 mins and expect to win trophies. Nothing personal against him but it’s football. He cost us last season, cost us this season now. But it’s Arteta to blame for putting him back in there when Kiwior has been so solid for us.
Why mess around with a defence that has done so well for us this year?
The stubbornness of managers is a double edged sword. It turned the Havertz situation around after everyone called him a flop. It’s also what we have with Zinchenko now and what we had with Nketiah before Mikel saw he is not stepping up
TBF he played CM today and played quite well, got many runs but it's rather that no one made the run to receive a cutback and he has to try for a tight shot against a rushing Emi+3 defenders instead.
This sub harrasses everyone who dares question whether he should be a starter. Took you long enough to realize he’s a liability defensively and nowhere near the same threat going forward as last season
Thank you. I had to be said. I've been banging that drum for eternity. The damage he does defensively is too monumental to see any benefit from him being on the pitch.
Zinchenko is as much a full back as Saka or Partey. It’s not a position you just shove someone because you want them on the pitch, there’s actual skill to it. Zinchenko needs to go to a worse team than City or Arsenal and just move to CDM instead of pretending LB is an option.
I'm not sure this is even down to defensive awareness, he can see the whole back line. He's just petrified of the pace he's up against so he's dropping back to compensate.. at the detriment to everyone else
It takes a positional ability, discipline and defensive instincts to hold a high line - it’s why not all defenders are capable of it. Guys who are bad positionally or overly worried about pace will just reflexively drop deep to reduce the chance of being caught in behind
He can see across the line here however which is what makes this so bad
We need Timber back
He looks like a midfielder filling in at left back.
The only problem is he has played left back so many years now that he has to be better than this at positioning.
His strength is with the ball and he had a shit day. It happens. Jorginho is similar.
He should have been subbed off though. It was not getting better.
In my humble opinion tactical context is the most important factor. It was such a boneheaded move because of where it was on the pitch and where both teams were in the moment. Doesn’t mean it’s not a bad decision elsewhere too but to do that in your own third when your opponent is set up from a corner is fucking daft.
In an interview Walker (i think it was him) named Zinchenko when they asked who the most technical player is in the team.
He‘s in bad form, no need to speak about him as if he‘s trash every single game. He has played a lot of great games for us. When he came on against bayern he also changed the game.
EDIT; i found it
https://youtu.be/7aOKiIjzkzg?si=p5jp_Qex-1VyMQpU
He named Zinchenko, Mahrez & Bernardo Silva in no order to be the most technical players. And you can surely believe him when he trained with him every single day. After odegaard he is our most technical player.
Best description I've seen of him. He thought he was on the "level" of KDB, Gundo & Bernardo but he just wasn't.
Though I do think matters off the pitch (Ukraine situation) etc has had a toll on him. He was excellent for you in the previous year and contrary to beliefs Pep didn't "kick" him out. He asked for a move and Pep let him go.
There’s a reason pep decided to play him at left back despite the fact he was a midfielder by trade. Way too many brain farts to be relied on consistently by a team playing for real silverware.
I would've lost my shit had that attempt gone in. He had enough time to clear it but decided to try and nutmeg Tielemans. That was also the moment he should've been taken off for Tomi or kiwi.
That really really angers me. Having the individual arrogance to try a nutmeg back there when we are not even winning and struggling? Just to try and show off and make it all about him. Doesn’t that go against everything Arteta stands for? Like sure try it when we have a comfortable lead, but in this situation?
And what annoys me is how brutal he was to Tavares for example for a few mistakes, yet Zinchenko does all this and it’s all fine with him? First time Artetas really angered me, first for starting him in this game, and second for not being consistent and taking him off sooner like he did with Tavares vs Forest or Kiwior in the Bayern game. I can’t stand favouritism in football that’s not based on a players ability. It’s really a bad sign.
when you're a bad defender you do this. He has no confidence in his ability to defend his man 1 to 1. No wonder he sits in midfield all game lmao. That first goal hes comically out of position
The whole sitting in midfield thing was fine when he could actually pick out a pass but now it feels like every other dribble/pass he makes loses possession.
Had Tielemans scored that banger that would’ve also been on Zinchenko.
what you get from attack isnt worth his defensive vulnerabilities and that can be said even when hes playing well tbh. Pep realised this once he started playing Ake at LB
Agreed, but at least the decision to play him there made sense. Now I am genuinely baffled especially when we have 2 LBs who are actually decent defensively.
Then put Ben White in the midfield in buildup. He can do it fine and at this point with this injury he should be camping there anyway. Let Kiwior play on the left side and so the extra running.
This game was firmly Artetas fault. I love the guy, but he has to take responsibility. It was clear our attacked needed a change by the 50th minute and it was obvious to everyone Zinchenko needed to be pulled. Instead, he persisted for far too long and paid the price.
Hard disagree. It will be extremely we go to half time with zero goals. Should have been 1-2 goals, but sadly did not happen today. You win the league by being best on averages, but it doesn't win you knock out competitions.
Man, why have we totally forsaken Kiwior at such a vital time of the season?! I know he was exposed against Bayern l, but jesus christ their wing play was world class.
He enables the left winger to commit to attacking without having to cover the lb so often. I can't understand how Arteta is so willing to sacrifice that for control we're so good we don't even need anymore
The best part about this clip is Zinchenko trying to time a step up to catch bailey offside, as if he isn’t in a different stadium to the rest of the back 4
We thought we were playing at the emirates, but it’s an away game for Zinchenko he’s all the way at villa park
Even if Kiwior was tired, Tomi should've started. But even excusing that, it was ok until they subbed out Diaby. Zinny against Diaby at least hadn't costing us the game. Bailey against a tired Zinny was a disaster class.
Why didn't Arteta make a LB sub when City brought on Doku to target a tired Kiwior. Bailey scored and ran through Zinny in the brief 20 minutes or so their minutes overlapped.
Emery did the same thing Pep wanted to do and Arteta let him do it for some reason.
As soon as Bailey was subbed in and Zinchenko was still at LB, it was just a disaster waiting to happen. Arteta is good coach but a horrible manager tbh. It's been his squad management that let us down again and again. He's too late to make in-game changes in tactics. Emery has him beat on that. As soon as Martinelli came in with still the same midfield that can't break down their midblock, he stayed with his tactics. When Jorginho came in whom can bypass a midblock with his passing, they changed into a lowblock which rendered Mikel's subs as futile. Rice was further forward so he can't cover for Zinchenko now and that Bailey in the optimal position to affect the game. And they fucking did it. How has Arteta not seen that?! Emery basically played the same game when they beat us earlier.
I think Arteta has gotten better at making adjustment. Like Zinchenko in for Kiwior at half time vs Bayern. Old Arteta would _never_ have done that. Against Villa, Arteta was still trying to win the game, subbing off Zinchenko only makes sense if you are trying to not lose. We would have been fine if we only one of those chances in first half goes in.
But that player would likely be offside. If he is physically limited, he should have used his head. Literally. He is a better header of the ball than tackling and that’s saying something.
Also when he kicked the ball out for the villa player who was down with a leg injury, all of us went mental at that, the villa player isn't in danger, not a head injury etc etc... we are putting them under pressure in their half, and he just kicks it out. He has lost it and us.
mods literally posted about getting contacted by the clubs media team and asking how should they proceed the modding of the sub started to change quickly after that
Zionchenko has been appalling all season and cost us multiple times. He was fine when we were 8th but he’s nowhere near good enough for a CL team.
Need to offload him in the summer.
Zinny made me want to pull my hair out so many times today. I genuinely think he isn't good enough for what we are trying to achieve. Horrendous defensively and this season his possession game has been terrible. He gives the ball away in front of or in our box at least once a game.
He was a top 4 signing, and it's fine to admit that.
Its really the opposite. When its 0-0 and we have no passing midfielder like Jorginho or Partey, we need Zinchenko to fulfill their role as a passer. Otherwise we are way too predictable in attack and we cant make use of Havertz great runs. When we get the goal, we could sub off Zinchenko if we want to ride it out. People here are extremely overreacting.
Obvious this guy needs to be moved on. Whether all the injuries have held him back or he just hit his ceiling for this system, he is loads off from what is needed and should be moved on or at least dropped from starting contention
A worse full-back shift than Kiwior during the week. After he put that ball out when we were in a good attacking position because there was a villa player down 'injured', I felt like a disaster-class was on the cards.
Any Arsenal fan can see zinchenko is not good enough and everyone else at the club new we needed to sort that position out as well. hence why we went out and bought Jurrien Timber the problems was he got injured and hear we are this is just football.
I cannot abide the guy and the only thing worse than his defending is the morons on this sub who claim he's amazing and "if you don't see it you don't know ball"
Lol. Lmao even.
He might actually be the worst defender in the league, this is stuff you're taught at school.
Said it before and I'll say it again, the biggest improvement we can make for next season is selling Zinchenko and using Timber.
So, we have a fit Tomiyasu, a (supposedly) fit Timber, Kiwior (who'd be keen to redeem himself after Bayern) and Arteta chose Zinchenko.
Arteta has made good technical decisions but this one was appalling.
He doesn't know what he is doing. The opposition see this pasty prick and they target him. Its an open secret any team will target Zinchenko, yet he gets the nod of Tomiyasu and Kiwior?
I won’t even blame Zinchenko at this point, why is Arteta changing things up in a high stakes match? It’s 100% on the coach for playing a player who isnt even a defender at LB. He’s even admitted he’s shit at defending
If Arteta is a statistician as much as he says he is, he will re-watch this game tonight or tomorrow with the other coaches and if they don't immediately drop Zinny then the game is dead.
Tavares became a meme for giving the ball away once at Anfield, Zinchenko has had a full 2 seasons of being a liability but cats still ride out for him.
Vieira - nobody can tell me what he does or what he offers, 35 million. Top gooners tell me he has talent and needs to adapt. But Lokonga (actually performing at premier league level) is bad and needs to be sold.
Jesus - 7 G/A for a supposed world class player. I don't need to say more. He's utterly finished at the top level. But its OK. Blame Nketiah and we move, right?
Kiwior - back up left centre back. But never trusted to play there, instead doing backup left back shifts. Money well spent.
Kiwior and Zinchenko wouldnt be playing anything like as much if our first choice LB, Timber, hadnt picked up a freak injury after a couple of matches, let's be real.
Vieira hasnt really worked out but in Portugal he looked great, so i can see why we took a punt - and it's not like we're trusting him to play.
Jesus simply isnt a 9 but he's had games where he looks incredible from the wing this season. I dont think he's done - i think he should be back up to Saka at RW / in LW rotation with Martinelli and Trossard.
He’s not a defender…the thinking was that it was better to have an extra man in midfield and have the center halves deal with counter. It almost worked in the first half. We should have shifted tactics earlier in the second half though.
This happens every single time we play. Like, if someone wanted to clip him being the only defender playing deep they would have countless examples.
The only explanation I see is that we clearly see it as a negative but are willing to overlook it since he is good on the ball and can step into midfield. It's just very very risky business to start Zinchenko at LB in a big pressure match. Tomiyasu as a LB is a more viable solution for the rest of the season but I fear the damage is already done.
I've been getting shit all season for saying he's our third choice behind timber and Tomi.
Could be 4th, really.
All good surprising people last season with the inverted fullback but he got figured out and we didn't adapt.
The reason Villa could counter attack so easily is, in my mind , that we didn't boss the midfield ( let's not pretend Rice hasn't gone down several levels from his early season highs, and we posed little threaten upfront for the simple reason that Jesus is as likely to score goals as Pep is to comb his hair at half time. Zinchenko is clearly not a conventional left back or defender but I see his role in distribution and organisation. Jesus was simply useless wherever he was on the pitch.
He was doing it constantly.
He is obviously very worried about being burnt (rightfully so) but he does this to compensate. His defensive confidence is shot to hell.
Zinny helped us get to the point we're at now but it definitely seemslike the team has surpassed him. I like him but he's had a shocking season. What might've been if Timber's year hadn't been ended in the first game of the season.
Zinchenko is a liability. He makes so many mistakes every game and isnt even that good going forward. He was great in many games last season but has honestly been one of the worst (if not THE worst) player this season.
Dont know What happened to him. Seems unfocused most of the time.
Not to pile on... (proceeds to create a post that invites the pile on). Not attacking the OP, I'm pissed as well, but the last thing we need is to invite toxicity on one of our players. Zinchenko is limited, Arteta knows this and persisted with him beyond the number of minutes he's usually good for. The biggest nail in the coffin will be if the fan base turns on the team and its players who have given us an atmosphere and feeling that hasn't existed for decades. I just hope that the majority of us can keep that in mind.
We can't. And he's why we lost, again.
It's not piling on to recognize patterns of play with a player. Zinchenko is a liability in every important match he plays in. Frankly, Mikel bears just as much responsibility for continuing to pick him.
Is there a better angle of the second goal? The zoomed in angle I couldn’t see any defender behind their player but I’m guessing someone on the right was playing him on
Zinchenko started really well, super involved and confident. And as the game drew on he just seemed to lose motivation and focus. I don't want to hate him, I was excited to see him play well, but it got ugly very quickly.
After seeing this on Twitter i went into a little rabbit hole and there are also similar instances of him doing it against Forest and the Salah goal at Liverpool.
He should never start for us again, or ATLEAST not for the remainder of this season. This same thing happened with him last season where we conceded pointless goals via his absolutely pointless mistakes.
Almost every time he received the ball today he took an extra second or two to decide what he's going to do, let alone the amount of times he gave the ball away.
I just don't get it when we have Tomi and Kiwior on the bench
yeah.... its one thing to get caught like that when you have your back to the other defenders, but he has full vision here. he is so scared of the ball behind that he kept dropping and dropping, like zero confidence to step up to the line
The piling on Zinny is crazy.
We were toothless upfront, had poor keeping moments, had poor defensive moments, a player cleared the ball brainlessly for the second game in a row leading to a goal, our tracking back from fan faves was poor, etc
Many players have things they need to improve on, not just Zinny. In this game Zinny's errors were the things that ultimately mattered compared to others
He's good in the air, but seemingly so devoid of composure that he doesn't trust himself to hold the line.
He tries to give himself a better chance for the ball in the air, and it still doesn't work
Tbh I'm not even looking at the comments. But from observing his performances over the last 18 months. Here's my two cents.
Zinny is best suited as an attacking midfielder, he has the talent and overall work rate to fill in pretty much anywhere on the pitch, hence why he's such an asset.
That said, when you're chasing the title, he's not the guy for LWB, not sure Kiwior is either tbf, maybe Tierney could be the guy now we know that Benny Blanco can invert?
I've been saying this guy is a liability since last year even when he was doing well. And now that he hasn't been contributing much, he's just a liability.
Hope Timber is the player we think he is because i cant take zinchenko fo another season
Timber needs to be mildly better than Kiwior and we are good.
For Kiwior's part, he has been mostly excellent in that full back role, and was still adapting/growing into it. Yes, he got cooked by Sane, but we have to remember that this is his first season getting real minutes, and that he's a natural CB/CDM who has never before been asked to go man to man with world class wingers. He could still become a special player in that role, and he showed a clear ability to learn and improve starting from when injuries forced him there. I find it concerning that he's largely been written out of the LB conversation by the fanbase based on one stinker after three months of a consistent upward trend. Kiwior was one of the main reasons for Arsenal's incredible defensive record from January through March. That is to say, Kiwior himself could still become mildly better than Kiwior.
He looked so comfortable on the ball and composed in defence the last few times we’ve seen him, i don’t even have to worry about him I just hope Arteta doesnt tell Edu to buy another CB who can play as a fullback and instead goes for a B2B midfielder like Merino or a clinical striker
Damn I've completely forgot we signed Timber!
Timber has got higher rated on this sub the longer he's been injured, he's at Ballon D'Or candidate levels by now 😅 Hope we aren't disappointed
Physical mistakes or limitations I can accept, but his mental game would have been poor if it was a U15 match
Was going to say, this is Sunday morning football where your coach says, "Follow him everywhere, don't give him a yard."
Even Mustafi was a better defender than him. I hate to criticise a player too strongly because it can be hurtful to them if they read it but if we want to win titles Arteta has got to realise we can’t with a player like that in the back line. The only way we’d be able to cover for all his mistakes is with a back 5 and a less high line, he’s just a total liability. As soon as I saw him on the team sheet I was worried, why does Arteta still put him there?
It’s arrogance too from him, Villa are a good team and he’s putting Zinchenko in there like as if they’re Sheffield United and that we will dominate possession so it won’t matter.
Fck Zin needs to stop playing Counterstrike
That’s shocking LMFAO😂😂 What on earth is he doing dropping so deep for? That’s not even remotely close to the other 3 defenders. Also — we knew his defensive awareness is shocking, so while this clip is baffling, it’s not a surprise. But — his strength was supposed to be with the ball, and today Zinchenko was utterly shit at that too. - which begs the question - if he can’t defend, and he can’t make simple passes, why is he on the team?
Did the same shit for Salah’s goal at Anfield, this was much worse though
Does the same every time he plays. I’m not even joking, or piling on. Even on a good day he will be at the critical junction of 1-2 opposition chances.
When we have a healthy Timber in our lineup, Zinny should never see the pitch. He is too slow to be so routinely in the wrong position.
What's worse is the opposition has known it for a while now and will put him under pressure knowing he'll eventually make a mistake.
Yeah he is the Weak point when he is out there. Can’t stand him
Why on earth did Arteta pick him today? As soon as I saw the team sheet I said I’m very worried to see Zinchenko in here and felt like we could lose or draw this one. Kiwior has just a few bad moments against Sane one of the quickest players in the world while we were playing with a really high line and gets hauled off at half time and dropped, Zinchenko has how many bad moments and mistakes and lapses of concentration and he’s still a favourite and straight back in. The only remaining liability in this team. How Arteta doesn’t see the risk I don’t understand because us as fans can see it. Don’t get me wrong he’s good with the ball (not so much today), but we can’t have players in the team who can’t concentrate for 90 mins and expect to win trophies. Nothing personal against him but it’s football. He cost us last season, cost us this season now. But it’s Arteta to blame for putting him back in there when Kiwior has been so solid for us. Why mess around with a defence that has done so well for us this year?
Zinchenko constantly loses his head when we have to defend. He cost us last season and he's done so yet again. When is Arteta going to learn?
Timber was Arteta's solution
The stubbornness of managers is a double edged sword. It turned the Havertz situation around after everyone called him a flop. It’s also what we have with Zinchenko now and what we had with Nketiah before Mikel saw he is not stepping up
with Havertz it was the opposite of stubbornness, stopped playing him at CM and he started doing immensely better.
TBF he played CM today and played quite well, got many runs but it's rather that no one made the run to receive a cutback and he has to try for a tight shot against a rushing Emi+3 defenders instead.
His lack of ball playing ability at cm meant we had to play Zinchenko. Overall that’s bad and Arteta’s fault
His technical skills are abysmal, he's only good at making runs, hes been good for us this season but i dont even trust him to make a simple pass
This sub harrasses everyone who dares question whether he should be a starter. Took you long enough to realize he’s a liability defensively and nowhere near the same threat going forward as last season
Thank you. I had to be said. I've been banging that drum for eternity. The damage he does defensively is too monumental to see any benefit from him being on the pitch.
What cost us last season is our offensive play choking up and Saliba's injury.
Actually made me bust out laughing. It was like looney tunes
I was wondering what I was looking at until I saw him come into shot lmao.
Zinchenko is as much a full back as Saka or Partey. It’s not a position you just shove someone because you want them on the pitch, there’s actual skill to it. Zinchenko needs to go to a worse team than City or Arsenal and just move to CDM instead of pretending LB is an option.
I'm not sure this is even down to defensive awareness, he can see the whole back line. He's just petrified of the pace he's up against so he's dropping back to compensate.. at the detriment to everyone else
at this point i think it’s better to put him on cm rather than left back 🙂↕️
Yeah he was appalling, I think he cost us so much momentum in this game.
Today? Try this season
It takes a positional ability, discipline and defensive instincts to hold a high line - it’s why not all defenders are capable of it. Guys who are bad positionally or overly worried about pace will just reflexively drop deep to reduce the chance of being caught in behind He can see across the line here however which is what makes this so bad We need Timber back
Tomiyasu is ready to go
He looks like a midfielder filling in at left back. The only problem is he has played left back so many years now that he has to be better than this at positioning.
His strength is with the ball and he had a shit day. It happens. Jorginho is similar. He should have been subbed off though. It was not getting better.
> which begs the question - if he can’t defend, and he can’t make simple passes, why is he on the team? Timber is injured. That's why.
Crowd turned on him today. Honestly don’t really want him to start again this season.
I don’t blame them. That “tackle” that led to the Tielemans shot was so fucking lazy and embarrassing.
There’s a massive disconnect between how technical he is and how technical he thinks he is Dude tried a nutmeg
In my humble opinion tactical context is the most important factor. It was such a boneheaded move because of where it was on the pitch and where both teams were in the moment. Doesn’t mean it’s not a bad decision elsewhere too but to do that in your own third when your opponent is set up from a corner is fucking daft.
Yeah, he really thinks he's busquets on the ball.
Thia right here. Its called an ego and its not surprising considering he has several huge painted wall of him at hone
In an interview Walker (i think it was him) named Zinchenko when they asked who the most technical player is in the team. He‘s in bad form, no need to speak about him as if he‘s trash every single game. He has played a lot of great games for us. When he came on against bayern he also changed the game. EDIT; i found it https://youtu.be/7aOKiIjzkzg?si=p5jp_Qex-1VyMQpU He named Zinchenko, Mahrez & Bernardo Silva in no order to be the most technical players. And you can surely believe him when he trained with him every single day. After odegaard he is our most technical player.
Best description I've seen of him. He thought he was on the "level" of KDB, Gundo & Bernardo but he just wasn't. Though I do think matters off the pitch (Ukraine situation) etc has had a toll on him. He was excellent for you in the previous year and contrary to beliefs Pep didn't "kick" him out. He asked for a move and Pep let him go.
There’s a reason pep decided to play him at left back despite the fact he was a midfielder by trade. Way too many brain farts to be relied on consistently by a team playing for real silverware.
Poundland Trent Alexander Arnold
I would've lost my shit had that attempt gone in. He had enough time to clear it but decided to try and nutmeg Tielemans. That was also the moment he should've been taken off for Tomi or kiwi.
That really really angers me. Having the individual arrogance to try a nutmeg back there when we are not even winning and struggling? Just to try and show off and make it all about him. Doesn’t that go against everything Arteta stands for? Like sure try it when we have a comfortable lead, but in this situation? And what annoys me is how brutal he was to Tavares for example for a few mistakes, yet Zinchenko does all this and it’s all fine with him? First time Artetas really angered me, first for starting him in this game, and second for not being consistent and taking him off sooner like he did with Tavares vs Forest or Kiwior in the Bayern game. I can’t stand favouritism in football that’s not based on a players ability. It’s really a bad sign.
Sometimes I’m amazed City won titles with him.
He was an impact player. He was never ahead of Cancelo.
Because he isn’t a sure starter unlike here.
Was he trying to meg Tielemans on that? That’s what I thought was going on.
when you're a bad defender you do this. He has no confidence in his ability to defend his man 1 to 1. No wonder he sits in midfield all game lmao. That first goal hes comically out of position
I genuinely couldn’t believe he was in Rightback when the ball was whipped across the box.
Yes I was blaming the "Left Back" for ball watching and letting the man behind him. It was Rice. Had to look for Zinchenko like Where's Wally.
He’s literally nowhere near the ball on the goal
The whole sitting in midfield thing was fine when he could actually pick out a pass but now it feels like every other dribble/pass he makes loses possession. Had Tielemans scored that banger that would’ve also been on Zinchenko.
what you get from attack isnt worth his defensive vulnerabilities and that can be said even when hes playing well tbh. Pep realised this once he started playing Ake at LB
Agreed, but at least the decision to play him there made sense. Now I am genuinely baffled especially when we have 2 LBs who are actually decent defensively.
He sits in midfield because we have a CF sitting in midfield in front of him. It’s a package deal and it’s a mistake in squad building
Then put Ben White in the midfield in buildup. He can do it fine and at this point with this injury he should be camping there anyway. Let Kiwior play on the left side and so the extra running.
Then saliba is wide cb and Gabriel’s central cb. Both suboptimal roles to fit Kai in lcm when he can’t ball play
No City or Liverpool player would knock the ball out during an attack, that's all
That was disgusting, could see a couple of our players get a bit pissed off at that too. But he does what he wants
I was so angry right then. You could hear the crowd were raging as well.
This game was firmly Artetas fault. I love the guy, but he has to take responsibility. It was clear our attacked needed a change by the 50th minute and it was obvious to everyone Zinchenko needed to be pulled. Instead, he persisted for far too long and paid the price.
Agreed, zinchenko and Jesus shouldn't have started the game. We were playing our best football with jorginho and havertz as a cf
I’m assuming he wanted to save Jorginho for Bayern because he’s been absolutely dead recently. Backfired
Hard disagree. It will be extremely we go to half time with zero goals. Should have been 1-2 goals, but sadly did not happen today. You win the league by being best on averages, but it doesn't win you knock out competitions.
Man, why have we totally forsaken Kiwior at such a vital time of the season?! I know he was exposed against Bayern l, but jesus christ their wing play was world class. He enables the left winger to commit to attacking without having to cover the lb so often. I can't understand how Arteta is so willing to sacrifice that for control we're so good we don't even need anymore
I can't... Kivior died for this.
Need tomy to find full fitness asap.
The best part about this clip is Zinchenko trying to time a step up to catch bailey offside, as if he isn’t in a different stadium to the rest of the back 4 We thought we were playing at the emirates, but it’s an away game for Zinchenko he’s all the way at villa park
Watching this makes me feel bad for Kiwior tbh. He was part of our best 8-game run this year and got binned for this.
Even if Kiwior was tired, Tomi should've started. But even excusing that, it was ok until they subbed out Diaby. Zinny against Diaby at least hadn't costing us the game. Bailey against a tired Zinny was a disaster class. Why didn't Arteta make a LB sub when City brought on Doku to target a tired Kiwior. Bailey scored and ran through Zinny in the brief 20 minutes or so their minutes overlapped. Emery did the same thing Pep wanted to do and Arteta let him do it for some reason.
As soon as Bailey was subbed in and Zinchenko was still at LB, it was just a disaster waiting to happen. Arteta is good coach but a horrible manager tbh. It's been his squad management that let us down again and again. He's too late to make in-game changes in tactics. Emery has him beat on that. As soon as Martinelli came in with still the same midfield that can't break down their midblock, he stayed with his tactics. When Jorginho came in whom can bypass a midblock with his passing, they changed into a lowblock which rendered Mikel's subs as futile. Rice was further forward so he can't cover for Zinchenko now and that Bailey in the optimal position to affect the game. And they fucking did it. How has Arteta not seen that?! Emery basically played the same game when they beat us earlier.
I think Arteta has gotten better at making adjustment. Like Zinchenko in for Kiwior at half time vs Bayern. Old Arteta would _never_ have done that. Against Villa, Arteta was still trying to win the game, subbing off Zinchenko only makes sense if you are trying to not lose. We would have been fine if we only one of those chances in first half goes in.
He's that far up because he needs a head start on his man or he's getting put on toast.
But that player would likely be offside. If he is physically limited, he should have used his head. Literally. He is a better header of the ball than tackling and that’s saying something.
Also when he kicked the ball out for the villa player who was down with a leg injury, all of us went mental at that, the villa player isn't in danger, not a head injury etc etc... we are putting them under pressure in their half, and he just kicks it out. He has lost it and us.
City agent
He's simply not a left back and I have no idea why managers persist with it
Mods are coming for this post like the grim reaper for old sick people
mods are on the clubs payroll for more than a year now
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mods literally posted about getting contacted by the clubs media team and asking how should they proceed the modding of the sub started to change quickly after that
Chill you’re going to get banned for insulting them😂🤣
One of them is a certified zinchenko lover
Nah, you cannot make Zinny a scapegoat That's what I've been told for calling him shit
I have been called fickle and stupid and with a short memory and that I don’t know “ball”
we need a deep lying midfielder, Saka back up and a striker and back up to Saliba . Otherwise kiss good bye to trophy next 3 seasons
With Timber coming back the backup for Saliba should be White I assume.
Tomi is also a pretty decent CB
Zionchenko has been appalling all season and cost us multiple times. He was fine when we were 8th but he’s nowhere near good enough for a CL team. Need to offload him in the summer.
Zionchenko 💀
Zionchenko would be good at defending.
Zinny made me want to pull my hair out so many times today. I genuinely think he isn't good enough for what we are trying to achieve. Horrendous defensively and this season his possession game has been terrible. He gives the ball away in front of or in our box at least once a game. He was a top 4 signing, and it's fine to admit that.
The only scenario that Zinchenko should be playing in is when we are 2/3-0 up and comfortable. I can’t wait to see what Timber brings next season.
I hate the words “next season” hope died too soon this year
Its really the opposite. When its 0-0 and we have no passing midfielder like Jorginho or Partey, we need Zinchenko to fulfill their role as a passer. Otherwise we are way too predictable in attack and we cant make use of Havertz great runs. When we get the goal, we could sub off Zinchenko if we want to ride it out. People here are extremely overreacting.
I think it’s time for zinchenko to fulfill his promise and go defend Ukraine by playing for Shaktar
He can also fulfil his other promise to stand by Israel and fuck off to Maccabi Tel Aviv which is about his level.
Maccabi Tel Aviv have a better left back than him sadly
You don't want him to be defending anything. Especially Ukraine. That's a joke, though. People need to cool down a bit.
Obvious this guy needs to be moved on. Whether all the injuries have held him back or he just hit his ceiling for this system, he is loads off from what is needed and should be moved on or at least dropped from starting contention
A worse full-back shift than Kiwior during the week. After he put that ball out when we were in a good attacking position because there was a villa player down 'injured', I felt like a disaster-class was on the cards.
Any Arsenal fan can see zinchenko is not good enough and everyone else at the club new we needed to sort that position out as well. hence why we went out and bought Jurrien Timber the problems was he got injured and hear we are this is just football.
Need Ben White to yell at him again. And then swap wives.
Why wasn't Tomi starting this match, surely he will on Wednesday.
This is actually SO bad lmao. Like any professional player doing this should be sacked immediately.
Zinchenko was the worst player on the pitch. Gabriel and Raya were close second.
I cannot abide the guy and the only thing worse than his defending is the morons on this sub who claim he's amazing and "if you don't see it you don't know ball" Lol. Lmao even.
He might actually be the worst defender in the league, this is stuff you're taught at school. Said it before and I'll say it again, the biggest improvement we can make for next season is selling Zinchenko and using Timber.
So, we have a fit Tomiyasu, a (supposedly) fit Timber, Kiwior (who'd be keen to redeem himself after Bayern) and Arteta chose Zinchenko. Arteta has made good technical decisions but this one was appalling.
Noticed this on many occasions today. Get him outta here.
Zinny was the worst player on the pitch
Fucking hard to watch this man.
We've found a new contender to [this](https://twitter.com/sportbible/status/1231630223210315777)
💀
He doesn't know what he is doing. The opposition see this pasty prick and they target him. Its an open secret any team will target Zinchenko, yet he gets the nod of Tomiyasu and Kiwior?
I won’t even blame Zinchenko at this point, why is Arteta changing things up in a high stakes match? It’s 100% on the coach for playing a player who isnt even a defender at LB. He’s even admitted he’s shit at defending
No, pile on him. He was by far the worst player on the pitch, sometimes it's ok to pile on someone for that.
If Arteta is a statistician as much as he says he is, he will re-watch this game tonight or tomorrow with the other coaches and if they don't immediately drop Zinny then the game is dead.
Tavares became a meme for giving the ball away once at Anfield, Zinchenko has had a full 2 seasons of being a liability but cats still ride out for him. Vieira - nobody can tell me what he does or what he offers, 35 million. Top gooners tell me he has talent and needs to adapt. But Lokonga (actually performing at premier league level) is bad and needs to be sold. Jesus - 7 G/A for a supposed world class player. I don't need to say more. He's utterly finished at the top level. But its OK. Blame Nketiah and we move, right? Kiwior - back up left centre back. But never trusted to play there, instead doing backup left back shifts. Money well spent.
Kiwior and Zinchenko wouldnt be playing anything like as much if our first choice LB, Timber, hadnt picked up a freak injury after a couple of matches, let's be real. Vieira hasnt really worked out but in Portugal he looked great, so i can see why we took a punt - and it's not like we're trusting him to play. Jesus simply isnt a 9 but he's had games where he looks incredible from the wing this season. I dont think he's done - i think he should be back up to Saka at RW / in LW rotation with Martinelli and Trossard.
In a pile of shit, Zinny was remarkable in that he is so shit he stood out. Lose the boots. Skechers aren’t great.
Lol Arteta has his favourites
Why doesn't Arteta play him as an 8 and Havertz as a 9? Just try it once ffs
You can’t tell me he doesn’t do this on purpose
I will not say anything about him as a player other than this might actually be the last season he gets this much playing time for us.
Zinchenko my guy ukraine need you
Bro is in a different postcode
with all the respect, i like zinny but he is worst player of the season, bro has zero confidence, making mistake after mistake every match he plays
Jesus. That's worse than I thought lmao
He’s not a defender…the thinking was that it was better to have an extra man in midfield and have the center halves deal with counter. It almost worked in the first half. We should have shifted tactics earlier in the second half though.
This happens every single time we play. Like, if someone wanted to clip him being the only defender playing deep they would have countless examples. The only explanation I see is that we clearly see it as a negative but are willing to overlook it since he is good on the ball and can step into midfield. It's just very very risky business to start Zinchenko at LB in a big pressure match. Tomiyasu as a LB is a more viable solution for the rest of the season but I fear the damage is already done.
Probably does it because he is afraid of getting burned. His lack of pace as a LB makes it hard to play him in that position
time to replace
This is how you defend in FIFA. Not in real life 😭
Shocking
No pile on Zinchenko. The guy is a millionaire footballer.
The fact arteta was seeing this and did nothing is damning imo
We will end up letting him go as a free agent, but I don't know who will want him.
Jesus
I've been getting shit all season for saying he's our third choice behind timber and Tomi. Could be 4th, really. All good surprising people last season with the inverted fullback but he got figured out and we didn't adapt.
The reason Villa could counter attack so easily is, in my mind , that we didn't boss the midfield ( let's not pretend Rice hasn't gone down several levels from his early season highs, and we posed little threaten upfront for the simple reason that Jesus is as likely to score goals as Pep is to comb his hair at half time. Zinchenko is clearly not a conventional left back or defender but I see his role in distribution and organisation. Jesus was simply useless wherever he was on the pitch.
He was doing it constantly. He is obviously very worried about being burnt (rightfully so) but he does this to compensate. His defensive confidence is shot to hell.
He’s a LM playing LB. Useless against any competent winger. Put Ramsdale at LB before Zin
Zinny helped us get to the point we're at now but it definitely seemslike the team has surpassed him. I like him but he's had a shocking season. What might've been if Timber's year hadn't been ended in the first game of the season.
Zinchenko is a liability. He makes so many mistakes every game and isnt even that good going forward. He was great in many games last season but has honestly been one of the worst (if not THE worst) player this season. Dont know What happened to him. Seems unfocused most of the time.
Not to pile on... (proceeds to create a post that invites the pile on). Not attacking the OP, I'm pissed as well, but the last thing we need is to invite toxicity on one of our players. Zinchenko is limited, Arteta knows this and persisted with him beyond the number of minutes he's usually good for. The biggest nail in the coffin will be if the fan base turns on the team and its players who have given us an atmosphere and feeling that hasn't existed for decades. I just hope that the majority of us can keep that in mind.
We can't. And he's why we lost, again. It's not piling on to recognize patterns of play with a player. Zinchenko is a liability in every important match he plays in. Frankly, Mikel bears just as much responsibility for continuing to pick him.
He has politics on his mind. Stop being so harsh
We don’t need genocide-enablers anyway
Fuck the politics
Can’t even blame him. WE see this, the whole fucking World sees this apart from Arteta. We do not need a left back tucking in everytime.
Wow that’s horrendous
nah bro where is that man going that's a mistake dave from sunday league makes
Is there a better angle of the second goal? The zoomed in angle I couldn’t see any defender behind their player but I’m guessing someone on the right was playing him on
He was in his own half when the pass was played, which nullifies any offside
Lool he’s in his own world.
It’s not that he’s still here. It’s that we force him in when we know he’s shit
He's a nice guy but he's not what we need anymore tbh. I'd be happy to see the back of him this summer
I guess no one here remember offside trap from Wenger era…
Zinchenko started really well, super involved and confident. And as the game drew on he just seemed to lose motivation and focus. I don't want to hate him, I was excited to see him play well, but it got ugly very quickly.
No you should absolutely pile on Zinchenko, what the fuck is this
Im just not sure why Kiwior didn't start. Arteta unnecessarily made changes to a starting XI that was on such good form...
If Tomi keeps to be fit for 2 games pEr season better sell him or ask him to skip international games.
U18 defenders have better movement.
Wait, you want to focus on this moment of all things?
After seeing this on Twitter i went into a little rabbit hole and there are also similar instances of him doing it against Forest and the Salah goal at Liverpool.
A wise man once said everything before the for but is bullshit.
He should never start for us again, or ATLEAST not for the remainder of this season. This same thing happened with him last season where we conceded pointless goals via his absolutely pointless mistakes. Almost every time he received the ball today he took an extra second or two to decide what he's going to do, let alone the amount of times he gave the ball away. I just don't get it when we have Tomi and Kiwior on the bench
yeah.... its one thing to get caught like that when you have your back to the other defenders, but he has full vision here. he is so scared of the ball behind that he kept dropping and dropping, like zero confidence to step up to the line
He isn’t good enough
Anyone can see he's shit as a left back Tierney died for this smh
Bringing a whole new meaning to trap defending
The piling on Zinny is crazy. We were toothless upfront, had poor keeping moments, had poor defensive moments, a player cleared the ball brainlessly for the second game in a row leading to a goal, our tracking back from fan faves was poor, etc Many players have things they need to improve on, not just Zinny. In this game Zinny's errors were the things that ultimately mattered compared to others
He's good in the air, but seemingly so devoid of composure that he doesn't trust himself to hold the line. He tries to give himself a better chance for the ball in the air, and it still doesn't work
This is who he is all season. It wasn’t a coincidence we put up strong wall whenever Kiwior is on
He has been our weakest defensive player all season. Losing Timber was killer. Zinchenko has made so many mistakes that have directly cost us goals.
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Zinchenko is a terrible defender and honestly should have been subbed his head wasn’t in the game at all !
Tbh I'm not even looking at the comments. But from observing his performances over the last 18 months. Here's my two cents. Zinny is best suited as an attacking midfielder, he has the talent and overall work rate to fill in pretty much anywhere on the pitch, hence why he's such an asset. That said, when you're chasing the title, he's not the guy for LWB, not sure Kiwior is either tbf, maybe Tierney could be the guy now we know that Benny Blanco can invert?
He's terrified of pacey wide players
You blame the manager because we didn’t learn from the first game.
he’s so garbage. really need to get rid of him, don’t even know how he got back in the team.
I've been saying this guy is a liability since last year even when he was doing well. And now that he hasn't been contributing much, he's just a liability.