Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2011/2012

I thought if he even looked at this type of weight he would be out for 6 months

emergingstar

I see song will be missing Chelsea, city, and Liverpool I think.

How can the ACN be on two years in a row, I'm guessing whatever progress gervinho will make will be fcuked once he goes there too

KCAccidental

KCAccidental wrote: »

we better get some good Adidas originals!

Ah that'll be sweet if we do.

greendom

emergingstar wrote: »

I see song will be missing Chelsea, city, and Liverpool I think.

How can the ACN be on two years in a row, I'm guessing whatever progress gervinho will make will be fcuked once he goes there too

Any chance of them not qualifying ? Cameroon didn't last season

belcarra

batistuta9 wrote: »

I think that is a misconception that he's being told to push on, he'd be told to get forward when he can , the same with the CB's

but that's just what he does to often, what vermaelen does too at times & none of them have the cop to sit there when most of the team are high up the pitch. that's why arsenal are caught with too many players out of position a lot of the time, none of them have the cop on to sit there

Song's a decent player but if he keeps going the way he is, he'll never be much better - a jack of all trades & master of none

Song was behind only Silva, Mata and Valencia in assists last season and was level with Walcott. He was actually ahead of Bale, Nasri and Nani.
So, maybe rather than putting him in the pigeon hole of the main DM, AW should be looking to firm up a partner beside him to share the defensive load. Arteta is very suitable for that role and that would allow cover for when Song does go roaming. I think last year it was all down to Song to be the DM, but whether by design or circumstance I'm not sure. I know most here will say design but I myself think maybe his instructions must have been less than clear.
This would also mean playing 4-2-3-1 rather than 4-3-3 which I think would suit our personnel better.

tayto lover

farna_boy wrote: »

Totally disagree. I think the only problem with regards Song is that he is being told to push on and go forward. If he were told to play just in front of the defence, we would probably have one of the best defences in the league.

Totally agree. If that was not the case then he would be dropped or fined for disobeying the manager's instructions.
He covers more ground than any other member of the team too. He is still only 24 and will improve a lot. I would play another DM with him, one who would be told to stay back. Coquelin might suit that role in time too.

KCAccidental

emergingstar wrote: »

I see song will be missing Chelsea, city, and Liverpool I think.

How can the ACN be on two years in a row, I'm guessing whatever progress gervinho will make will be fcuked once he goes there too

they are moving it so that it isn't staged the same years as the world cup and euro. the should have waited 3 years instead of having 2 in two years!

Cameroon should qualify, they only have to beat the Cape Verde Islands to get through.

Ivory Coast have a tricky tie against Senegal though, so we might get lucky!

Frisbee

Signing M'Vila wouldn't have made a huge difference. He would have just played the same role as Song and been given licence to get forward. If Song is asked to sit in front of the defence he will, and he's very very good there. However he's not, so we look so open.

batistuta9

tayto lover wrote: »

Totally agree. If that was not the case then he would be dropped or fined for disobeying the manager's instructions.
He covers more ground than any other member of the team too. He is still only 24 and will improve a lot. I would play another DM with him, one who would be told to stay back. Coquelin might suit that role in time too.

I suppose it's wenger telling walcott & gervinho to lose possession quite a bit too

There's nobody really to replace Song in that team tbh, wilshere's injured, the other lads are young/inexperienced/not ready

He's not a bad player at all just not that good either, but he's caught out of position a lot
why would wenger tell him to do this?

Song being always told by wenger to push on all the time & leave the team exposed is the second stupidest thing i've heard on here, the first being about not wanting to sign players that are obviously better that what's available & would improve the squad as "we don't need them for that position" or "have enough players there" something like that

not playing how the manager want's or expects you to play is hardy what can be called disobeying the managers instructions :pac:

gosplan

batistuta9 wrote: »

not playing how the manager want's or expects you to play is hardy what can be called disobeying the managers instructions :pac:

err, isn't that exactly what it is???

Frisbee

batistuta9 wrote: »

Song being always told by wenger to push on all the time & leave the team exposed is the second stupidest thing i've heard on here,

Do you really think Song would keep his place if Wenger was telling him not to pass the halfway line and he kept doing so?

Wenger has no issue with Song going forward.

AnCapaillMor

We so need another bert silva, nevermid the fancy passing, just do an ugly job well.

Frisbee

Frisbee wrote: »

Do you really think Song would keep his place if Wenger was telling him not to pass the halfway line and he kept doing so?

Wenger has no issue with Song going forward.

Is it so hard to believe that Wenger's philosophy gets everyone involved, so apart from the 2 CB's, everyone has license to roam?
We all know Wenger isn't the best at finding good defenders over the years, Silvestre, Cygan, Senderos, Squillachi, so maybe just maybe, defending isn't too high on his priority list. (ie attack as a form of defence).

gosplan

RVP 11 wrote: »

Is it so hard to believe that Wenger's philosophy gets everyone involved, so apart from the 2 CB's, everyone has license to roam?

FYP

Pepe LeFrits

Bartley's been promoted to the first team according to Arseblog. Pity he's not a full-back.

Marty McFly

Frisbee wrote: »

Do you really think Song would keep his place if Wenger was telling him not to pass the halfway line and he kept doing so?

Wenger has no issue with Song going forward.

Im not so sure about that, last season he had no alternative apart from two youngsters lacking any real experience, Do you not think if Wenger was truely happy with Song pushing up all the time he'd be looking for a DM this summer? I know all we've got so far is rumours but weve been linked with various DM's there has to be some truth that hes searching for one.

I do admit Arteta would make a very decent DM, but his passing is so good, he would have to be allowed to free roam a bit aswell, so a DM who will sit there is a necessity.

premierstone

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Bartley's been promoted to the first team according to Arseblog. Pity he's not a full-back footballer.

FYP based on what I seen of him with Busto FC.

wandatowell

I cant see Arsene buying an old type of DM who sits infront of his back 4 and breaks up play.

Song suits the current mold of DM'ers, pushing forward creating goals/assists with a little less emphsis on defending. It just the way football is going.

gosplan

wandatowell wrote: »

I cant see Arsene buying an old type of DM who sits infront of his back 4 and breaks up play.

Song suits the current mold of DM'ers, pushing forward creating goals/assists with a little less emphsis on defending. It just the way football is going.

Fully agree. Over the last two years, Wenger has clearly sought to have two DMF's who can get forward and cover each other. Fist Wilshire with Song and then Aretea with Song.

In essence, the Makelele role is a luxury that not too many teams can afford to have. It worked for Real because Makelele had such quality in front of him and it worked with Gilberto for us because he had such quality in front of him.

Reminds me of a Sol campbell goal, think this is the one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77XsFYMmGug

In the first half, Arsenal's defenders were allowed to have the ball while our attackers were man marked and we couldn't get anywhere.

At half time, Wenger clearly told the central defenders that they had to take advantage of the space they were being given. Loads of people slated the defence because Campbell strode that far without being tackled but their defenders were doing something that was working and if we didn't have defenders who could push forward, we couldn't have scored.


Put bluntly, it's not the hardest thing for a defence to nullify Walcott, Ramsey, Gervinho and Arteta.


All that said, I'd still like to see an out and out DMF come to Arsenal but we'd also have to have a razor sharp attack and all those poor pedestrian games the team has where Wenger describes us as flat would look even worse with someone like M'Vila - although the opposition mightn't score from their first and third shots on target!!!

belcarra

I saw an interesting stat last night.
The highest amount of goals scored by a losing team last season was 3 goals and that happened in 2 games - both vs Arsenal (Chelsea and Blackburn). That says something about the Gunners but not quite sure what it is...we play open entertaining football, or we concede too easily?!

AnCapaillMor

Petit and Vieira were the perfect partnership, you never saw both up near the box, 1 always stayed back, mostly it was petit. Bert just stayed back and went forward every now and then usually with vieira staying back.

As for that campbell goal, i remember that game well, was wondering where we'd get the goal\breakthrough from, campbell was the last person i'd expected it from.

Snakeblood

belcarra wrote: »

I saw an interesting stat last night.
The highest amount of goals scored by a losing team last season was 3 goals and that happened in 2 games - both vs Arsenal (Chelsea and Blackburn). That says something about the Gunners but not quite sure what it is...we play open entertaining football, or we concede too easily?!

Can't it be both? I started watching Arsenal because they got bummed by Man U early in the last season. It was exciting, but yeah, it was conceding to easily.

tayto lover

belcarra wrote: »

I saw an interesting stat last night.
The highest amount of goals scored by a losing team last season was 3 goals and that happened in 2 games - both vs Arsenal (Chelsea and Blackburn). That says something about the Gunners but not quite sure what it is...we play open entertaining football, or we concede too easily?!

The highest amount of goals we conceded came from our left side. When Gibbs & Santos were poor or injured and Verm was put there as a replacement. There was poor cover from the left side of midfield too obviously. I am hoping our LB players have their act together this season. I hope Podolski was bought to help rectify that threat too. I thought we might have bought a left back because if Podolski doesn't work then we could be in trouble there again.

HazDanz

If we go into the new season without a new DM we have learnt nothing from last season, it would be madness.

Just for rotation sake as Song needs a break some games. I remember over the Christmas period last season he just looked so tired from the sheer amount of games he had to play, it wasn't good.

I think have Song as our DM, but allow him to sit back most of the time and do his job. If we get stuck with 20 minutes to go just use City's tactic of brining on DeJong and allowing Yaya to float up front.

Who we bring on for us can depend on what we do during the rest of this transfer window. Song assisting RvP so much last season should not have been the case, that job is for someone else but the fact that whoever in the CAM position couldn't produce consistently ruined us going forward through the middle.

Get a decent CAM, allow Song to sit back instead of being a Hybrid DM and as a Unit through the centre we will be more solid.

We have simple problems that can be fixed this window it isn't a massive redevelopment of the team needed just a little bit of role development and making sure people stick to their job.

DenMan

We'll have Mertesacker back soon and raring to go. It will be like a new signing!

tayto lover

DenMan wrote: »

We'll have Mertesacker back soon and raring to go. It will be like a new signing!

AND Diaby, don't forget him.

Has anyone any word of Jack?

wandatowell

Just checking there, we conseeded 49 league goals last season. Feckin shocking! ( http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/league-table.html?season=2011-2012&month=MAY&timelineView=date&toDate=1314572399999&tableView=CURRENT_STANDINGS )

My wish for this season would be for us to become harder to score against

AnCapaillMor

wandatowell wrote: »

Just checking there, we conseeded 49 league goals last season. Feckin shocking! ( http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/league-table.html?season=2011-2012&month=MAY&timelineView=date&toDate=1314572399999&tableView=CURRENT_STANDINGS )

My wish for this season would be for us to become harder to score against

The ewood park game summed up our defense last year, we were 3-1 down and blackburn had 1 shot on target. Thats the stat of the season.

DenMan

Will Bartley go out on loan again to another club I wonder? Rangers will play in the third division next season. He is back training with Arsenal now I believe.

Snakeblood

DenMan wrote: »

Will Bartley go out on loan again to another club I wonder? Rangers will play in the third division next season. He is back training with Arsenal now I believe.

Bartley is on the first team now, I think.

KCAccidental

Snakeblood wrote: »

Bartley is on the first team now, I think.

more than likely he might get loaned out for a few months in January... injuries permitting :pac:

wandatowell

wandatowell wrote: »

Just checking there, we conseeded 49 league goals last season. Feckin shocking! ( http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/league-table.html?season=2011-2012&month=MAY&timelineView=date&toDate=1314572399999&tableView=CURRENT_STANDINGS )

My wish for this season would be for us to become harder to score against

Hard to do that with only 2 defenders (i know im exaggerating but still)

gnfnrhead

wandatowell wrote: »

Just checking there, we conseeded 49 league goals last season. Feckin shocking! ( http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/league-table.html?season=2011-2012&month=MAY&timelineView=date&toDate=1314572399999&tableView=CURRENT_STANDINGS )

My wish for this season would be for us to become harder to score against

I think we can all agree the United match was a freak result. Had that been a normal shoreline of 1 or 2 like it usually is, we'd be at the same level everyone else bar the top two where at. Chelsea, the champions of Europe, conceded 46. It's not "shocking" in any way. We were only a little worse off than most other teams in and around us. Everyone, bat the top two, conceded a lot of goals last season.

SDTimeout

If we sign M'Vila I think Song should progress further up the pitch. His performances from last season warrant him a chance imo.

We also have the coq as well.

Marty McFly

SDTimeout wrote: »

If we sign M'Vila I think Song should progress further up the pitch. His performances from last season warrant him a chance imo.

We also have the coq as well.

Now that I agree with as I said I do like Song just not as a DM unless thats all he's going to focus on.

But with everyday that passes i think the M'Vila deal looks less and less likely so much so now that I dont see it happening. We need to sort out the RVP situation quick and sort out the players coming in pre season is starting now they need time to adjust. Ill be seriously pissed if they do the same as last summer and its way to quiet at the momment.

SDTimeout

I'm a big fan of Twitter info, so that's why I'm believing that M'Vila isn't dead in the water.

Snakeblood

SDTimeout wrote: »

I'm a big fan of Twitter info, so that's why I'm believing that M'Vila isn't dead in the water.

I thought that's where the M'Vila deal info came in the first place. It's all rubbish until it happens.

NB I'll bet 4 million imaginary euros he signs.

iainconlon12

It's reported that we've started to show interest in Ganso. I had a wee look at him there and he's facking great!

Samich

Utd fan here. If Utd didn't win the league I'd prefer Arsenal to win it. Although if ye started being great again I'd prob change my mind.

Not sure about Podolski, he's never done anything for Germany whenever I've seen him.

Ye need an upgrade on left back too.

Song is a good player, but I don't think he's mean enough to be the more defensive of a 2 in midfield.

wandatowell

Twitter is pretty much ****e talk on an epic scale.

99% of it is bull



(trying to find that 1% is mighty craic though)

Samich

Samich wrote: »

Utd fan here. If Utd didn't win the league I'd prefer Arsenal to win it. Although if ye started being great again I'd prob change my mind.

Not sure about Podolski, he's never done anything for Germany whenever I've seen him.

Ye need an upgrade on left back too.

Song is a good player, but I don't think he's mean enough to be the more defensive of a 2 in midfield.

With the current squad a 433 would be my preference. I don't think we really need an upgrade at LB if either of them can get a decent run. It's lacking Mertesacker for periods of next season I'd be worried about.

Samich

Deleted User wrote: »

With the current squad a 433 would be my preference. I don't think we really need an upgrade at LB if either of them can get a decent run. It's lacking Mertesacker for periods of next season I'd be worried about.

Who'd be in there with Arteta and Song?

Podolski on left and Walcott on right?

What do you see Giroud doing?

Pepe LeFrits

The Ganso thing is complete bull. Mind you, I think all the M'Vila stuff is too.

batistuta9

tayto lover wrote: »

Totally agree. If that was not the case then he would be dropped or fined for disobeying the manager's instructions.

batistuta9 wrote: »

not playing how the manager want's or expects you to play is hardy what can be called disobeying the managers instructions :pac:

gosplan wrote: »

err, isn't that exactly what it is???

No not really, i'd call disobeying the managers instructions going out drinking/partying late, eating everything you like, taking longer off than allowed, talking to the press about stuff you're not supposed to, etc.

if you take your & tayto lover's view then surely every game not won, goal conceded, misplaced pass , etc. would be disobeying managers instructions - you get me

& imagine issuing fines for that, the board would love something like that, plenty of £

batistuta9

Frisbee wrote: »

Do you really think Song would keep his place if Wenger was telling him not to pass the halfway line and he kept doing so?

Wenger has no issue with Song going forward.

Yes i do, as i said earlier there was no one really to replace him

wenger mightn't have an issue with him going forward no, or the CB's either - as he likes that in them - but that's not what i'm saying about it, it's song & at times the CB's being caught out of position too often that's the problem. Do you think wenger likes that?

Riddle me this gentlemen, why exactly do you think we're being linked to a DM? and who do you think their likely to replace?

as for someone keeping their place in the team, after doing things they were hardy told to do, does the name Manuel Almunia mean anything to you?

batistuta9

belcarra wrote: »

I saw an interesting stat last night.
The highest amount of goals scored by a losing team last season was 3 goals and that happened in 2 games - both vs Arsenal (Chelsea and Blackburn). That says something about the Gunners but not quite sure what it is...we play open entertaining football, or we concede too easily?!

that'd be both involving arsenal

chelsea lost 5-3 to arsenal & arsenal lost 4-3 to blackburn

arsenal had the third best attack - 74 goals
& eight best defence - 49 goals conceded, far far too many.

iainconlon12

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

The Ganso thing is complete bull. Mind you, I think all the M'Vila stuff is too.

I'm still hopeful on M'vila.

Who knows about Ganso though? Verrrrrrry doubtful alright.

batistuta9

we'll get 17 year old M'Baye Niang & that 14 year old from birmingham who was selected for england u16's , and we'll like it

Samich

Samich wrote: »

Who'd be in there with Arteta and Song?

Podolski on left and Walcott on right?

What do you see Giroud doing?

Arteta, Song and Wilshere once he's up to speed. Oxlade-Chamberlain mainly to start the season, give him a run there rather than the wing.
Podolski-Giroud-Walcott would be first choice. I'd like to see Walcott playing through the middle up front when we need a plan B or if we're against a team holding the ball well.