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:lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve French
That's fair enough. And my conclusion from that is while Wenger may not be perfect he's not as inept as some on here make out. You don't finish top 4 every year and win all the trophies we have under him by luck or by not being any good. We do need to start thinking about a post-Wenger Arsenal if only because of his age but we have to be careful about it. Some managers may do a better job for us, far more wouldn't.
#BumblingIdiotQuote:
Originally Posted by Letters
You have to question what the man is thinking when you look at the situation we're already in with our defenders. Debuchy out for two months, Monreal and Chamabers might be out for the Dortmund game...it's negligence.
You can also tell that the players haven't had a proper pre season preparation. We played fewer pre season games than our rivals and it shows on the pitch. The fitness levels aren't right and we seem so unorganised defensively compared to the start of last season where we were keeping clean sheets. Forget conceding in every game, we're conceding goals on every first shot our opponents get on target.
Wenger has to really put a shift in this season. The progress we made last season could be undone in one summer. We signed some good players, but neglected key areas and it's showing. All the posters piping up early in the summer over the signings need to take this sort of thing into consideration when he's getting hammered on here. He doesn't help himself.
When you say progress in last season? Is that solely based on the FA Cup win? Or is it because we had the most clean sheets? If thats the case, we were also hammered away from home by all the top teams. The FA cup makes me think we made progress from a mentality standpoint, but Wigan and Pompey also won the FA Cup. Other than the game against City this weekend, I have not seen ONE thing we have done that makes me think our style or standard of football is better and where we can say that we look like title contenders.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
Are we playing better attacking football? Is our defense better? Is our man management better? The answer to these questions to me is a No and for that, I am not surprised. Wenger really missed the boat with signing a replacement for Tommy V and Sagna. Even now, it is a no brainer to bring in some free agent(s) 'just to get bodies in'. We have absolutely nobody to play in defense other than the 4 thats playing.
Chambers a doubt :haha:
So we now have 3 first team defenders available for Dortmund :haha: :haha:
Wenger is holding us back.
No other manager would go into a season so underprepared.
Would you say we regressed last season if you compare it to the season before? Besides the hammerings we took to our main rivals, we looked defensively organised and had a CB pairing that worked together and were dependable. We haven't had that since the Campbell and Toure combination. The football wasn't pretty but we grinded out results and it looked as if we had a solid defence. I'm not discounting the hammerings we took, I think that was more of mental issue, but regardless, I'd hope the experience would have had us prepared this season. But that's been taken out of our hands with poor planning and not buying defensive cover where needed.Quote:
Originally Posted by fakeyank
It doesn't matter about other teams winning the FA Cup. The fact is we won it. We're a team that bottled a League Cup Final against a relegated team. The fact that we turned around a 2 goal deficit to win in extra time without the need for penalties is a sign of progress regardless of opposition. You have to give some credit where it's due.
I didn't say we've made progress THIS season. In fact, it looks like we could have gone backwards in some weird way. As said, I thought we made progress last season but it looks like it could have already been undone. I thought it was going to be hard enough to challenge for the title this year. Top 4 may even be a struggle if Liverpool and Utd get their act together. The last thing we need is to be having this internal battle with our fitness and Wenger is the worst for managing this sort of thing. He'll overplay players, won't make subs, bad team selection and destroy the confidence of a young player....we've seen it all before and I think we could be heading for that sort of season. We're on a uphill battle already and the season hasn't really even kicked off.
I dont think we have regressed. I think we are/have been at the same level since 08. We have shown improvement in grinding out wins but along with that progress, our football keeps regressing to eye gorging standards. So, we have a + and then with that comes a -. And thats why I say, we are the same level.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
If you take the FA Cup final out of the way, we didnt show any real progress in my opinion. I do however think we had a tremendous amount of goodwill around the club.. something that had been missing around our club forever! We signed players early and looked set to challenge.. and then things just stopped! We didnt sign the players required and have again gone gambling on crocks (Diaby, Gibbs, Walcott).
I know people are talking about free agents but a aren't these players no one else wants.
Wenger wanted to spend but the board wouldn't give him money :haha:
I wouldn't say we're at 08 level. We definitely haven't been at the same consistent level. When Cesc and Nasri level, it knocked us back a peg in terms of creativity and the way we'd dominate teams. Then RVP left and we're even further back in the striking department. I'd say we were below 08 levels because weren't even challenging for the title. Last season was the first time in ages we looked like we possibly could win the league. We dropped off a peg and now it's now starting to look like we're one or two players shorts where a couple of seasons back you'd know we had no hope in hell for the title.Quote:
Originally Posted by fakeyank
Our attacking fluidity wasn't there last season, the goals weren't there but it was the first time in years we built a functioning defence.