Arsenal FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 10/11

amacachi

Galvasean wrote: »

Actually just watched the highlights and looked up stats. I take it back. WTF was that ref smoking? Not giving an obvious penalty/red card for Dunne's missed tackle and disallowing Chamakh's perfectly good goal. Inability to implement the offside trap notwithstanding, we definitely should have won taht game.

TBH I felt yesterday that it was hard to criticise the players. They created chances and took enough chances, not sure what else one can expect of them. After the first 20 minutes anyway. :pac: People are going on about how most of them looked disinterested but I'm struggling to think of a player yesterday (other than Arshavin obviously :pac: ) who didn't look like he was putting plenty in.

enfant terrible

KaiserGunner wrote: »

My problem or worry of going back to 442 is that we will most likely have less possession than we have now and that doesnt bode well for the defensive side of our game because when Arsenal dont have the ball the defensive weakness of the whole team gets shown up.

I might be talking rubbish but I wouldn't mind us having less possession and having team's push forward against us and get back to our counter attacking game of old.

Would make a change from us attacking two set out banks of four, losing possession and being hit on the counter.

I can remember fans of other teams telling me they used to be scared of attacking Arsenal because if you lost possession we would be bearing down on their exposed goal in seconds.

gosplan

enfant terrible wrote: »

I might be talking rubbish but I wouldn't mind us having less possession and having team's push forward against us and get back to our counter attacking game of old.

Would make a change from us attacking two set out banks of four, losing possession and being hit on the counter.

Scoring first rather than conceding first would make a huge difference in this regard.

I know that's a smartass answer but we rarely force teams to come out and attack us these days.

There's a well used blueprint for how to beat Arsenal and Wenger needs to do something about it. The more I think about it the more I think we should shelve the 4-3-3 unless Fabregas stays and comes back to form - it's just not incisive enough the way we play it.

fursttimer wrote:

People comment that 30M + players won't bring us success.

I hear ya. I'd be curious to see the list of players Fergie has broken the british transfer record for - Keane, Rooney and Ferdinand off the top of my head. Lifers!

gosplan

enfant terrible wrote: »

I can remember fans of other teams telling me they used to be scared of attacking Arsenal because if you lost possession we would be bearing down on their exposed goal in seconds.

I used to work with a guy whose brother played RB in the premiership. He said that looking up and seeing Cole, Pires and Henry all running your way was terrifying.

SDTimeout

I think it was Xpyro who said this a while ago, buying a 40567435938million pound center back will not fix it if we still play the way style of defending with them in the team.

Watching Stoke up till they conceeded on saturday, their back 4 was rigid and their midfield fell back in line too. No space to get in and it was a scramble that got City the goal.

We play too high a defensive line imo when we don't have overly fast defenders to get back ( Squillaci where he has been caught out this season ). Same with Kos , great ball playing defender but can be caught sometimes.

the untitled user

SDTimeout wrote: »

I think it was Xpyro who said this a while ago, buying a 40567435938million pound center back will not fix it if we still play the way style of defending with them in the team.

Watching Stoke up till they conceeded on saturday, their back 4 was rigid and their midfield fell back in line too. No space to get in and it was a scramble that got City the goal.

We play too high a defensive line imo when we don't have overly fast defenders to get back ( Squillaci where he has been caught out this season ). Same with Kos , great ball playing defender but can be caught sometimes.

Agree, not to mention our fullbacks tend to be very wide, too high up the pitch to effectively stop crosses and offer little support to the CBs in the box, particularly Clichy.

yahoo_moe

SDTimeout wrote: »

Watching Stoke up till they conceeded on saturday, their back 4 was rigid and their midfield fell back in line too.

They have a very disciplined shape alright but in fairness, they essentially play four CBs across the back. Even with Arsenal playing a 4-4-2, that wouldn't really be an option. Most teams won't come onto us enough to warrant having that little attacking threat from the full-backs. Our full backs don't offer a huge threat with their crossing but space-wise and pressure-wise, at least they perform some of the job we need them to.

KeithAFC wrote: »

Watching this Arsenal team and Wenger on the sidelines. We don't see anything tactical at all, never mind actually using tactics to win games.

Some of what you say is fair enough and can't be argued with but I do think most fans underestimate this side of things. We can't possibly know enough about tactics at that level and I'd imagine that Wenger's approach in this regard is "Well, I've spent a week (and longer) setting up the team in what I see is the best way possible - I'm not going to feck around with that until absolutely necessary" (i.e. when he does his patented '4 strikes on the pitch in no particular positions' move if we're losing). Playing Bendtner on the wing is baffling, as are other things that he does, but I don't for a second buy the notion that changing things on the pitch every time is the answer.

I've never played sport at that level but I do know, even from playing at a much lower level, that making changes to shape/tactics/etc. during a match need preparation to make them worthwhile. Otherwise they're just confusing. However, this is where I think we'll agree - Arsenal haven't had any real alternative to how we play since adopting the 4-3-3. Chamakh was supposed to provide that and Bendtner did it at times last year but no one player is the answer, especially when the overall shape stays the same (e.g. using Bendtner as impact sub but playing him on the wing).

SDTimeout

They only seem to run down the line and allow the ball to be passed across the box. I miss seeing Cole darting on a successful overlap into the box and receiving the ball in open space at speed

Dick Burns

after a fustrating season this is one the best pieces of news this year

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/wenger-keen-on-parker-2648439.html

i think wenger realises parker has the leadership and mental strength to win arsenal the title,hes the type of player we are missing and badly need

id have him beside whilsire and drop song,song was terrible on sunday and if you look at his performances al year he is no way a title winning DM,alot people have said he played well this year but ive watched him closely this year and he was bad,against man utd in old trafford he was embarrassing,on sunday he didnt even try to win the ball off young for the second goal

Pepe LeFrits

Parker at that price would be a good start to the summer.

cremeegg

gosplan wrote: »

Can't wait for this season to be over.

It's gone as wrong as it's ever gone for Arsne but he deserves a chance to make it right. Next season will either be his most refreshing or his last.

ya. same statement for last 6 years.

PHB

Parker at that price would be a great start. A natural leader, will go into the team, add a bit of steel in the middle, is used to the fight, and has the technical ability to play with the Arsenal team. All in all, a very good signing.

Frisbee

Looking at the teams who could well go down there's a number of players we could pick up cheap that would add to the squad. Parker, N'Zogbia and Johnson would be three players that if they're club goes down (Parker aside) we could acquire for a relatively small fee and would certainly add to the squad. N'Zogbia would immediately be a step up on Bendtner on the wing at least.

MaxPower89

Frisbee wrote: »

Looking at the teams who could well go down there's a number of players we could pick up cheap that would add to the squad. Parker, N'Zogbia and Johnson would be three players that if they're club goes down (Parker aside) we could acquire for a relatively small fee and would certainly add to the squad. N'Zogbia would immediately be a step up on Bendtner on the wing at least.

Roger Johnson of Birmingham? Not sure how good he is really. Doesnt look that great from what I've seen. I'd prefer Samba.

Frisbee

MaxPower89 wrote: »

Roger Johnson of Birmingham? Not sure how good he is really. Doesnt look that great from what I've seen. I'd prefer Samba.

As a squad option he'd be better than Squillaci, has Premiership experience and a never say die attitude. Look at his performance in the Carling Cup Final against us. Without his usual defensive partner beside him he managed to keep us from getting another goal despite playing most of the second half on one leg.

He's not the answer to all our problems, but as a back up centre back we could do a hell of a lot worse and, imo, he's better than Samba.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

I'd be happy enough with 2/3 solid signings the likes of the above (Parker, N'zogbia, Samba etc.) but then I think we'd still need one 'marquee' signing like Benzema or whoever to tide the supporters over.

Parker is an excellent player and could add a lot to the team but I wouldn't call him an out and out DM, not any more so than Song at least.

Johnson is a good player and we'd do well to replace Squillachi with him or Samba I reckon. That way I think we'd have 4 good reasonably dependable CB's (for a little while at least).

MaxPower89

Frisbee wrote: »

As a squad option he'd be better than Squillaci, has Premiership experience and a never say die attitude. Look at his performance in the Carling Cup Final against us. Without his usual defensive partner beside him he managed to keep us from getting another goal despite playing most of the second half on one leg.

He's not the answer to all our problems, but as a back up centre back we could do a hell of a lot worse and, imo, he's better than Samba.

He would be better than Squillaci for sure, but thats no great achievement.

For me Samba is faster, more athletic, more of a threat at set pieces, better with ball at feet too. Just an all round better player.

4 centre halves of Vermaelen, Samba, Djourou and Koscielny would be a very solid base.

Roaster

Am I the only one that thinks N'zogbia is overrated. He gets the odd cracking goal but goes missing an awful lot...........remind you of anyone?

MaxPower89

Roaster wrote: »

Am I the only one that thinks N'zogbia is overrated. He gets the odd cracking goal but goes missing an awful lot...........remind you of anyone?

I have to disagree with you there. 9 goals and 7 assists playing for a very poor Wigan side is good going. With better players you would have to imagine he could be very good for Arsenal.

He has a sweet left foot, and from what I've seen he doesnt take any cr*p, as in he isnt a wimp, which can only be a good thing. He seems to be direct too, and wont hapily pass it laterly across midfield for 10 minutes.

Dick Burns

wat ever he is i think we sud be looking at players higher standard then soon to be relegated wigan

fair enough valencia and palacios decent players as is n'gzobia

but really if we wanna move forward we have to look at the worlds best not the best of wigan

MaxPower89

Dick Burns wrote: »

wat ever he is i think we sud be looking at players higher standard then soon to be relegated wigan

fair enough valencia and palacios decent players as is n'gzobia

but really if we wanna move forward we have to look at the worlds best not the best of wigan

We signed a worlds best player in Arshavin and that didnt really work, and N'zogbia is a far better player.

As long as they are quality players, I'm not pushed where they come from tbh. I wouldnt like to see a player sign for Liverpool or the likes and have a storming season while we are stuck with a world class player who is trying to get used to the premierleague.

Im not saying N'zogbia is the answer, but if we can get a few good cheap players from relegated teams, I dont see why we shouldnt.

yahoo_moe

Roaster wrote: »

Am I the only one that thinks N'zogbia is overrated. He gets the odd cracking goal but goes missing an awful lot...........remind you of anyone?

I wouldn't be convinced either. I can't really comment on his consistency as I haven't watched Wigan over 90 minutes enough times this year but attitude-wise, I'd be very wary. If we thought Diarra was stroppy...

I think talking about someone like Johnson brings up an interesting question - what kind of player can we expect to sign as a squad player? I'm not saying Johnson would be expecting to walk into a top PL team but I could see him going to a Bolton-type club as a starter maybe. I know first XIs aren't really as widespread now but it's a tricky sell to get someone if they suspect they'll be fourth choice.

Souless

Well it's great to see it looks like we'll be playing in the qualifying round for the Champions League next year! Urgh watching us the last couple of months has been so f*cking depressing 4 losses in the last 5 games and the 1 win was against Man U. We've now gotta hope that Bolton at least manage a draw against Man City in the Reebok and that we miraculously pull the finger out and finish the season with a win in Craven Cottage. :mad:

Agree with the general consensus on here that we need to buy a number of players and clear out a lot of the deadwood and also can't wait for this season to be over, to go out of 4 competitions in the space of a few weeks has been soul destroying!

Mezcita

Roaster wrote: »

Am I the only one that thinks N'zogbia is overrated. He gets the odd cracking goal but goes missing an awful lot...........remind you of anyone?

You obviously don't play fantasty football. Total legend.

Galvasean

Hope there's truth to these Parker rumours.
When does the transfer window open? hopefully we will get our signings in quickly as opposed to dicking about until the final hour.

Fursttimer

Galvasean wrote: »

When does the transfer window open?

Last day of the season (Sunday 22nd May)

Dick Burns

so we went from top to 4th????????

if that was any other manager der wud be serious talk about their future

cud anyone imagine wat wud happen if we got knocked out in the champions league qualifying!!!!

AnCapaillMor

Dick Burns wrote: »

cud anyone imagine wat wud happen if we got knocked out in the champions league qualifying!!!!

Several thousand spuds fan would hail the beginning of the apocalypse as it couldn't get any better?

Frisbee

Teams we can possibly get in the Qualifying Round:

Benfica
Dynamo Kyiv
FC Twente
Standard Liege
Rubin Kazan
Swiss super League Runners Up
Turkish Super League Runners Up
Greek League Playoff Winners
Danish League Runners up
Romanian League Runners Up


tbh, if we can't beat any of them, we don't deserve to be in the Group Stages. Benfica would be an obvious worry but we should have enough to beat them.

Pepe LeFrits

Did you compile that list yourself? Nice work anyway.

Hopefully it'll reduce the OMG BAYERN NOOOOO hysterics!

Smegball

Frisbee wrote: »

Teams we can possibly get in the Qualifying Round:

Benfica
Dynamo Kyiv
FC Twente
Standard Liege
Rubin Kazan
Swiss super League Runners Up
Turkish Super League Runners Up
Greek League Playoff Winners
Danish League Runners up
Romanian League Runners Up


tbh, if we can't beat any of them, we don't deserve to be in the Group Stages. Benfica would be an obvious worrk but we should have enough to beat them.

Rubin Kazan would be damn tough. Tricky opposition and volatile stadium to play in.

eZe^

Rubin are pretty handy, they would have knocked out Barca in 09/10 if the group stage ties were a K.O format.

AnCapaillMor

Thank god we're playing them in the summer if we do get them, anything in eastern europe after spetember goes generally bad for us.

Mr. Guappa

Frisbee wrote: »

Teams we can possibly get in the Qualifying Round:

Benfica
Dynamo Kyiv
FC Twente
Standard Liege
Rubin Kazan
Swiss super League Runners Up
Turkish Super League Runners Up
Greek League Playoff Winners
Danish League Runners up
Romanian League Runners Up


tbh, if we can't beat any of them, we don't deserve to be in the Group Stages. Benfica would be an obvious worry but we should have enough to beat them.

IIRC correctly from Spurs' qualifier last year, from a pot of 10 teams they seeded 5. Assuming it's the same set-up this year then yourselves, Benfica, Twente and Rubin should be seeded and avoid each other. Still these ties are tricky as we found out against Young Boys!

Frisbee

Mr. Guappa wrote: »

IIRC correctly from Spurs' qualifier last year, from a pot of 10 teams they seeded 5. Assuming it's the same set-up this year then yourselves, Benfica, Twente and Rubin should be seeded and avoid each other. Still these ties are tricky as we found out against Young Boys!

Nope those ten teams I've listed above play each other in round three.

Then the winners of those 5 games go into Round 4 where we are seeded along with Bayern, Villareal, 4th. in Serie A and 3rd. Ligue 1.

So realistically we only have a chance of meeting 5 of those above teams, but as of yet, no idea which 5 so I listed them all.

PHB

It's kinda nuts. This season, I've considered Arsenal the greatest threat to United. I think they've come closest to winning the league. And yet somehow they are going to end up 4th. Weird.

Pepe LeFrits

PHB wrote: »

It's kinda nuts. This season, I've considered Arsenal the greatest threat to United. I think they've come closest to winning the league. And yet somehow they are going to end up 4th. Weird.

Relegation form since losing to Birmingham, there you go! Actual relegation form in terms of points picked up.

Even by our usual standards this collapse has been epic. It's putting real pressure on Wenger now - demonstrations outside the ground and real unrest inside the ground.

Frisbee

PHB wrote: »

It's kinda nuts. This season, I've considered Arsenal the greatest threat to United. I think they've come closest to winning the league. And yet somehow they are going to end up 4th. Weird.

Unfortunately I can't even think of it as weird.

Even when we were right behind United and Chelsea a good bit back I always felt there was a better chance of us finishing third that first. Once February hits you can't trust this team of players to beat anyone.

Galvasean

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Several thousand spuds fan would hail the beginning of the apocalypse as it couldn't get any better?

I've noticed a lot of them reveling in our lack of success, while ignoring the fact that their appearance in the champion's League was little more than a holiday.

premierstone

Galvasean wrote: »

I've noticed a lot of them reveling in our lack of success, while ignoring the fact that their appearance in the champion's League was little more than a holiday.

It is the duty of a smaller club to become more fascinated with its rivals struggles than to reflect on their own misgivings and shur havent they the bestest manager in the world in arry, at least thats what they said on Sky??

yahoo_moe

Frisbee wrote: »

Then the winners of those 5 games go into Round 4 where we are seeded along with Bayern, Villareal, 4th. in Serie A and 3rd. Ligue 1.

Don't think so - did you use the coefficients of the leagues? Seedings seem to be done by club, not country, so while we're guaranteed to be seeded, 4th in Serie A won't be seeded and 3rd in Ligue 1 may not be, depending on who finishes there.

So we could end up against Udinese, Lazio, Marseilles or PSG, for instance.

yahoo_moe

premierstone wrote: »

It is the duty of a smaller club to become more fascinated with its rivals struggles

I'm not sure we're in any position to be triumphalist...

greendom

yahoo_moe wrote: »

I'm not sure we're in any position to be triumphalist...

A pretty miserable end to the season for North London as a whole tbh... except for Barnet of course

gebbel

Depressing end to the season. I can't see things getting better to be honest without major reform and new world class players brought in. If not I would predict we won't get past the qualifying stage of Champions league. Wenger is on a slippery slope now and next season will probably be his last.

I hope I'm wrong by the way.

Frisbee

Pool move for Hazard

shano_88

Frisbee wrote: »

Pool move for Hazard

:(:(

Paleface

Frisbee wrote: »

Pool move for Hazard

£20 mil is out of Arsenal's range I would imagine. :mad:

Fursttimer

We already have Samir Nasri.

Frisbee

Fursttimer wrote: »

We already have Samir Nasri.

And?

If we maintained that logic we'd only have 11 players.

'Ah but sure we've already got two centre backs! What could we possibly need a third for?'

Fursttimer

Frisbee wrote: »

And?

If we maintained that logic we'd only have 11 players.

'Ah but sure we've already got two centre backs! What could we possibly need a third for?'

Logic? I didn't mention any logic. You appear to though. But, please, don't include me with it.

Hazard plays the exact role Nasri does. Nasri is a far better talent than Hazard. We have alternative back-up for Nasri. Arshavin on the left wing, Walcott on the right wing and Ramsey in centre midfield. These are the three positions Nasri operates in.