Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2017 *Warnings see OP-updated 09/05/17*

Hyzepher

While I was watching the semi final on BT sports they were discussing the new formation with the 3 CBs. When it was used against Middlesbrough I immediately thought that AW was trying this out as he wanted to use it against City - getting the players used to it before the semi final.

This seemed to go way above the heads of the analysts on BT Sport who kept on about AW "persisting" with a formation that had little impact against Middlesbrough the game before. They just wouldn't shut up about it and it was distracting. They didn't even try to offer up any real analysis to back up their "opinion". Just blurted it out and assumed everyone would take it as wisdom.

I also thought it was interesting that they had a referee on to give analysis but then spent most of the time telling him that he was wrong in his opinion - for the most part I thought he gave some real insight into the thinking of referees and why they do things. But again it seems that they only had him on so they could "share" their superior intellect as ex-players

emmetlego

Hyzepher wrote: »

While I was watching the semi final on BT sports they were discussing the new formation with the 3 CBs. When it was used against Middlesbrough I immediately thought that AW was trying this out as he wanted to use it against City - getting the players used to it before the semi final.

This seemed to go way above the heads of the analysts on BT Sport who kept on about AW "persisting" with a formation that had little impact against Middlesbrough the game before. They just wouldn't shut up about it and it was distracting. They didn't even try to offer up any real analysis to back up their "opinion". Just blurted it out and assumed everyone would take it as wisdom.

I also thought it was interesting that they had a referee on to give analysis but then spent most of the time telling him that he was wrong in his opinion - for the most part I thought he gave some real insight into the thinking of referees and why they do things. But again it seems that they only had him on so they could "share" their superior intellect as ex-players

Most ex-player pundits are like peacocks flaring their plumage at each other! It's comical at times. I suppose they are just trying to rule the roost (excuse all the bird analogy)

It was the first thing that struck me when he went wingers vs Middlesborough, that it was a trial for the semi. Maybe we're just too unimportant to have a valid opinion!

Quazzie

Do ye think is (finally) a plan B, or is it the new plan A?

keano_afc

Hyzepher wrote: »

While I was watching the semi final on BT sports they were discussing the new formation with the 3 CBs. When it was used against Middlesbrough I immediately thought that AW was trying this out as he wanted to use it against City - getting the players used to it before the semi final.

This seemed to go way above the heads of the analysts on BT Sport who kept on about AW "persisting" with a formation that had little impact against Middlesbrough the game before. They just wouldn't shut up about it and it was distracting. They didn't even try to offer up any real analysis to back up their "opinion". Just blurted it out and assumed everyone would take it as wisdom.

I also thought it was interesting that they had a referee on to give analysis but then spent most of the time telling him that he was wrong in his opinion - for the most part I thought he gave some real insight into the thinking of referees and why they do things. But again it seems that they only had him on so they could "share" their superior intellect as ex-players

Long division is way above the heads of the pundits on BT. Also, pet hate of mine, but I absolutely detest when pundits and commentators start calling each other by nicknames. "Motty" "Lawro" "Fletch" "Garth Crooks". You're on national television, not propping up the bar at the Crown with your mates.

Colonialboy

Well done Arsene , the players and the fans.
It doesnt change my views, but I am delighted for everyone involved and Ive no problem in congratulating all those with oppossing views to my own regarding Wenger, on another great day for Arsenal FC. I give ye this one.
Im looking forward to the final and watching with my kids enjoying one of those memorable big days.

So whats the history on Wengers use of 3-4-3.
Was it driven by player availability or was it a tactical masterstroke.
We have all seen Wenger put out unusual team formations, but in my opinion Wenger only altered the team formation cos he wanted to accomodate some star returning from injury or accomodate one of his French love childs in the team, so he invariably messed with the setup.

But this is different , this really looks like Wenger has identified a 3-4-3 formation that maximises the teams strength and negates the opposition.
This is very rare , I mean adapting his tactics to strenghten the team, as oppossed to adapting his tactics cos he found a French 18 year old who knows the offside rule and so he wants him in the team.

Who knows time will tell.

Coincidentally Im currently reading Peps biography, talks of how he came to favour 3-4-3 when managing Barca B team and brought it with him to manage Barca first team in 2009 as his favoured setup for winning football. Look where it got him 14 trophys in 4 years.
Also Peps work ethic is standing out. His demand that everyone give 100% on the field, he will allow you to make mistakes as long as he is sure you are working your socks off. Very interesting to be reading this book as Arsenal continue their roller coaster.

Colonialboy

Colonialboy wrote: »

Well done Arsene , the players and the fans.
It doesnt change my views, but I am delighted for everyone involved and Ive no problem in congratulating all those with oppossing views to my own regarding Wenger, on another great day for Arsenal FC. I give ye this one.
Im looking forward to the final and watching with my kids enjoying one of those memorable big days.

So whats the history on Wengers use of 3-4-3.
Was it driven by player availability or was it a tactical masterstroke.
We have all seen Wenger put out unusual team formations, but in my opinion Wenger only altered the team formation cos he wanted to accomodate some star returning from injury or accomodate one of his French love childs in the team, so he invariably messed with the setup.

But this is different , this really looks like Wenger has identified a 3-4-3 formation that maximises the teams strength and negates the opposition.
This is very rare , I mean adapting his tactics to strenghten the team, as oppossed to adapting his tactics cos he found a French 18 year old who knows the offside rule and so he wants him in the team.

Who knows time will tell.

Coincidentally Im currently reading Peps biography, talks of how he came to favour 3-4-3 when managing Barca B team and brought it with him to manage Barca first team in 2009 as his favoured setup for winning football. Look where it got him 14 trophys in 4 years.
Also Peps work ethic is standing out. His demand that everyone give 100% on the field, he will allow you to make mistakes as long as he is sure you are working your socks off. Very interesting to be reading this book as Arsenal continue their roller coaster.

It's way too early to say if the 3-4-3 is a success or not. City had a legal goal disallowed, fairly decent penalty shout not given, hit the upright and hit the crossbar. Could have been a very different result if things didn't go our way.

Will still be interesting to see how things pan out if we stick with it. The players must have gained some confidence, and they will no doubt be buying into the new system due to the positive results.

I don't think Giroud is working in a front 3 at all, maybe Welbeck will get the start tomorrow night.

Skylinehead

I hear Lucas Perez is back in training....would like to see him up front in this system.

domrush

Skylinehead wrote: »

I hear Lucas Perez is back in training....would like to see him up front in this system.

Would love that. Whoever's up top needs to stretch the defence with runs so Ozil and Sanchez have some space to work in. Not gonna happen with a static Giroud.

brianregan09

I think Giroud will be off in the summer anyway , He's hardly happy coming off the bench all season and when he's come off it he's not been great either, I reckon he will go to Marseille in the summer

pudzey101

brianregan09 wrote: »

I think Giroud will be off in the summer anyway , He's hardly happy coming off the bench all season and when he's come off it he's not been great either, I reckon he will go to Marseille in the summer

rumor has it we are swapping him for Monacos Mbappe :pac::pac:

agree though Giroud has fallin behind , much rather Welbecks work rate and determination when played

wandatowell

Don't think Giroud was ever good enough. He'd quite a few fantastic goals but was far too streaky. Also his lack of pace was laughable.

There's better players floating around Europe that would add more to the team.

Not surprising who the top 2 most injured premier league players are over the last 6 years

http://m.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/who-is-the-premier-leagues-most-injured-player-35652717.html

emmetlego

wandatowell wrote: »

Don't think Giroud was ever good enough. He'd quite a few fantastic goals but was far too streaky. Also his lack of pace was laughable.

There's better players floating around Europe that would add more to the team.

Yeah, but if the person who is no longer here, who adored him, and saw all these posts of general agreement, we'd all still be fighting!

Amazing, despite the run of even ****tier results, we're all doing much better! Well done Boards mods!

Arghus

I like Giroud, he's a good striker and has a good scoring rate, but I also think he's just not good enough to be the main man firing in goal after goal that could spearhead a consistent challenge for a league title. He's not clinical, isn't quick enough and his game lacks other dimensions. I also think for a massive dude he's not the bravest of players, but having said that I think he's done his best over the years for Arsenal. If it was at all possible I'd keep him around - he'd be the ideal man to turn to if your better striker wasn't having any luck, but if he has to go to make way for an improvement then au revoir Oliver et merci.

brianregan09

When we bought him intially I think in the same summer as Podolski and Cazorla it was initially to compliment RVP but of course he was then sold just before the start of the season

I like Giroud too to be honest but he's not good enough on his own anyway, that's why he works out great with France because he has Grizemann up there with him

I worry Giroud best years are right now.
We really need a reliable top man up front on who can spearhead the team.
If we had a 20+ goal a season striker in front of Sanchez and Ozil, we would be top 2 every season.
We all know it's hard to get the right man, but a club like Arsenal shouldn't find it that difficult if they really WANT one.

gitzy16v

Arghus wrote: »

I like Giroud, he's a good striker and has a good scoring rate, but I also think he's just not good enough to be the main man firing in goal after goal that could spearhead a consistent challenge for a league title. He's not clinical, isn't quick enough and his game lacks other dimensions. I also think for a massive dude he's not the bravest of players, but having said that I think he's done his best over the years for Arsenal. If it was at all possible I'd keep him around - he'd be the ideal man to turn to if your better striker wasn't having any luck, but if he has to go to make way for an improvement then au revoir Oliver et merci.

100%

Maybe it should go in the unpopular opinions thread but someone like Lukaku id be thinking was much the same as Olivier...Giroud would be good(great) for an Everton or West Ham(he'd look a world beater IMO)...Like him but just not quite good enough.

Arghus

gitzy16v wrote: »

100%

Maybe it should go in the unpopular opinions thread but someone like Lukaku id be thinking was much the same as Olivier...Giroud would be good(great) for an Everton or West Ham(he'd look a world beater IMO)...Like him but just not quite good enough.

I think if Arsenal had someone like Lukaku up front for the last couple of seasons he'd have bagged 30 plus goals in each year. He's far from the finished article, but Ozil and Sanchez and the gang would have put so many chances right on his toe that he couldn't miss. You can put a ball on Giroud's toe with the goal gaping and he can still miss.

gitzy16v

Arghus wrote: »

I think if Arsenal had someone like Lukaku up front for the last couple of seasons he'd have bagged 30 plus goals in each year. He's far from the finished article, but Ozil and Sanchez and the gang would have put so many chances right on his toe that he couldn't miss. You can put a ball on Giroud's toe with the goal gaping and he can still miss.

Do you know what?...Id agree,I just feel Lukaku is a young Giroud and wont be any better the older he gets.
Maybe he'd be miles better but Im unconvinced because of his stint at Chelsea.

gitzy16v

gitzy16v wrote: »

Do you know what?...Id agree,I just feel Lukaku is a young Giroud and wont be any better the older he gets.
Maybe he'd be miles better but Im unconvinced because of his stint at Chelsea.

Ronaldo is my yardstick in assessing players to improve,he was one of the best in the world at Utd...then became one of the 2 best players in the world at Madrid.
If we can sell a lad along to those kind of teams and they become 1 of the best,Id be happy for the player.
Nobody is poaching our players anymore?
They dont look good?
20M for Giroud Marseilles say,no more......I want least 30 for him.
What could we get that would be better than Giroud for 20M?
Im not seeing it,keep him id say.

emmetlego

I actually think Giroud is a great finisher, it's his mobility is the big issue. Brings nothing to a fluid forward line!

farna_boy

I think if Giroud got to his 100 goals he might leave.

I was thinking about it during the week and I just don't think we play to Giroud's strengths anymore and I don't think we have for a few seasons.

There was a while there that Giroud was scoring a good few goals by running to the front post and slotting them in but I don't think I've seen him receive a pass like that in a few seasons. It also seems to be ages since he scored a header or consistently received good crosses he could get his head on to in a match.

I suppose the danger is that we have no one to replace his off the bench impact at the moment, and as Glitzy said, how much would we have to pay to replace that? Perez may be that person but he hasn't been given that chance yet. As for Welbeck, although I do actually like him, he does offer something different and his work rate is admirable, his end product still leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm not sure if Giroud would be happy to sit on the bench or not but after his comments about Suarez when he was supposed to join, it seems that he would value the competition and seemed to almost be begging Wenger to sign him at the time. So if we did sign someone like Suarez, Giroud may be happy to sit on the bench and play as an impact sub, something he has done quite well this year, but I just don't think he would be happy to sit on the bench to see Welbeck or Walcott play ahead of him.

wandatowell

Arghus wrote: »

...... but having said that I think he's done his best over the years for Arsenal.

Spot on. Can't fault for not doing his best.

wandatowell

gitzy16v wrote: »

20M for Giroud Marseilles say,no more......I want least 30 for him.
What could we get that would be better than Giroud for 20M?

But it's 20m on top of the WARCHEST.

greendom

wandatowell wrote: »

Spot on. Can't fault for not doing his best.

Certainly worth the 12 million outlay, a real bargain in fact. I think it's already been mentioned but the team rarely played to his strengths, even so his strike rate is not to be sniffed at, his hold up play is excellent and he's always played a vital role in defending corners and free kicks.

The Red Lad

I'm a fan of Giroud and he still has a good bit to offer but if we are to move onto the next level I think we should cash in for 20/25 million as long as its spent with a replacement. Lukaku or Morata ideally both would prob be 40/50 million plus (especially lukaku) I can't see us getting mbappe,dybala etc so no point in mentioning them. Wenger is staying so we all need to just accept it no matter how much it boils are blood and the chances of him doing a complete clear out and spending 200 million is slim to none best we can hope for in my eyes for summer business is Ozil and Sanchez staying put (slim),bringing in a proper cdm Rabiot of PSG for example,good cb if we are to continue playing 3 at the back think Holding isn't ready yet and Gabriel is useless not letting one good game against City last week fool me (Keane of Burnley or Van Djak of Southampton) possibly. Would like to see Dembele of Celtic with us too think he would shine big time if given time , There was talks of Tierney of Celtic coming too but unlikely now that we have agreed to buy some Bosnian lb not even going to pretend I know him.
Here's hoping it's a busy Summer for us this year but like every year we will be quite and panic buy in the last few weeks of the window settling for players and paying over price.

Game tonight is huge need a win and nothing less,Morgan a loss for the Champions but they will still be difficult going with a 2-1 to us with Sanchez bagging one if not two and Vardy scoring against us just because Vardy...

farna_boy

Is Giroud still our primary striker though?

We need to sign a top class primary striker and keep one of Welbeck or Giroud to be an impact sub or plan B. The danger of selling Giroud (or Welbeck for that matter) is that we won't actually sign a new striker so then we are worse off than this year.

Unless we need to sell someone for the squad rules, why can't we keep all our current squad and just add in more players?

I think we need to start looking for a replacement for Cazorla though and I would also be in favour of signing a top class right winger but I'm not optimistic any of that will happen.

domrush

RB Leipzig, Benfica and Seville for preseason. Would have liked to play some bigger clubs.

Quazzie

domrush wrote: »

RB Leipzig, Benfica and Seville for preseason. Would have liked to play some bigger clubs.

They're probably saying the same

wawaman

domrush wrote: »

RB Leipzig, Benfica and Seville for preseason. Would have liked to play some bigger clubs.

we are playing Bayern Munich and Chelsea

djan

Might be an unpopular opinion, but back to the Giroud point.

I genuinely think that he is vastly underrated once you view him as a strike partner kind if player and not a solo spearhead forward. He is an extremely I tell identify player that blossoms with a mobile player with him all Griezmann. Remember when Giroud played up front with Podolski for a few games years back and the goals flew in as Giroud set them up for him to finish. Put Giroud up in a pivot with Sanchez and I think you'd see him creating lots of chances for Sanchez, who is a better finisher to convert. Have been saying this for years. I think the bigger issues is that we have very few people in the squad able of shooting properly, nevermind scoring!

wandatowell

Are we not on the telly tonight?

KaiserGunner

wandatowell wrote: »

Are we not on the telly tonight?

No not on Uk or Irish tv. We originally were scheduled to be on sky sports a few weeks ago, but were relegated for the Palace and Spurs game.

AdamD

Can we stop saying Giroud looks great with Griezzman? The average team France play in Internationals is League 1/Championship level at best.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/857289686167035904

A few changes. Sticking with 3 at the back....Or is it 5 at the back? :pac:

pudzey101

33Cech
24Bellerín
5Gabriel
6Koscielny
18Monreal
29Xhaka
34Coquelin
14Walcott
11Özil
3Gibbs
7Sánchez

Substitutes

8Ramsey
12Giroud
15Oxlade-Chamberlain
17Iwobi
23Welbeck
26Martinez
35Elneny

KaiserGunner

I don't really like Coquelin playing in that team, it's a bit overkill with all the defensive players there. I'd rather see El Neny instead of Coquelin as he will add a bit more when we have the ball.
Changes were expected I suppose with the North London Derby on Sunday. Will be interesting to see how Walcott will fare in this formation, as it didn't seem to suit Giroud the past couple of matches.

Rekop dog

Fancy Arsenal to pick up 19/21 points from remaining fixtures and make top 4 as usual. After Spurs the run in is very kind, facing United after Vigo away is a big turn of luck.

Ol' Donie

Coquelin AND Gibbs?

Ah, come on.

(Still oddly confident, mind you)

wandatowell

Hoping we don't pick up an injury to CB tonight. Really like midweek evening kickoffs.

2-1 Arsenal.

batistuta9

Some amount of empty seats

Bellerin's hairstyle didn't last for long

That the Leicester fans singing "We want you to stay"?

Quazzie

Great reaction save from Cech to keep us in it.

Skylinehead

NBC co commentator, not sure who he is, but my ears are bleeding from the ****e he's spouting

Skylinehead

Skylinehead wrote: »

NBC co commentator, not sure who he is, but my ears are bleeding from the ****e he's spouting

It's classic, going on about why Walcott shouldn't be playing and Giroud should be on as he'd be better standing there like a statue. Has he not watched Giroud in the last couple of matches?

Quazzie

A blind man could see Sanchez was offside there. Between that and constantly giving the ball away, he's not having a great game.

Dire stuff lads.

Quazzie

Sanchez literally turned, looked up, and passed it straight to a leicester player. I really can't understand how he couldn't see that it was gonna end up the way it did.

lertsnim

Unlucky Alexis.