Lukas Podolski Thread

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Originally Posted by Grimandi's Perm

Invented the Kitten Stomper as well.

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:lol:

Quite concerning really how he's already felt the need to publically state his preference to play up front.

The team is a bit of a ramshackle operation really, Wenget is a stubborn fuck to persist with this formation and expect every player to take to it.

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

Quite concerning really how he's already felt the need to publically state his preference to play up front.

The team is a bit of a ramshackle operation really, Wenget is a stubborn fuck to persist with this formation and expect every player to take to it.

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Not surprising, really, given that on the left he's a bit of a non-entity.

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Originally Posted by IBK

Not surprising, really, given that on the left he's a bit of a non-entity.

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Very few players have the ability to change games on their own. And as such, require other players to create space or play them in.

Wenger's teams are all built to play as a team, with little emphasis on the "superstar" factor. Ok, we've had a fair few game changers throughout the years, but the common denominator of players leaving a la Nasri, Adebayor, Helb etc etc is that they never looked as good for other teams as they did for us.

Basically, the team play and movement, and balance of the side makes the whole team look good, and individuals look better than they are.

Podolski is not Pires / Henry / RVP. He doesn't change things himself. What he does is work hard, and finish clinically. Make intellegent runs and do his job. He is an excellent player, but like many other players, he needs support in order to get the best out of him.

He is lacking the promising partnership he had with Gibbs. He is most dangerous coming inside off the left, to link with Cazorla, with Gibbs providing natural width, thereby creating space to play in. Santos plays the channel, right in the same area that Podolski operates, leaving us exposed down the left, as well as squeezing Cazorla and Podolski. Hence why you see Cazorla trying to find the space out wide, where he is less effective.

All in all, the balance (like last year when we had no fullbacks) has vanished. The play is squeezed, and we're vunerable down the left side.

And the moral? We don't have good enough back up players in the team. We're reliant on a good first eleven, gambling and trusting on other very good, but injury prone players as the back up, and hooing we don't have to use too many of our "second string" who are unreliable, inferior players (when called upon for a sustained period).

We lack quality in depth. And we lack a few players who can change games by themselves.

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Originally Posted by LDG

Very few players have the ability to change games on their own. And as such, require other players to create space or play them in.

Wenger's teams are all built to play as a team, with little emphasis on the "superstar" factor. Ok, we've had a fair few game changers throughout the years, but the common denominator of players leaving a la Nasri, Adebayor, Helb etc etc is that they never looked as good for other teams as they did for us.

Basically, the team play and movement, and balance of the side makes the whole team look good, and individuals look better than they are.

Podolski is not Pires / Henry / RVP. He doesn't change things himself. What he does is work hard, and finish clinically. Make intellegent runs and do his job. He is an excellent player, but like many other players, he needs support in order to get the best out of him.

He is lacking the promising partnership he had with Gibbs. He is most dangerous coming inside off the left, to link with Cazorla, with Gibbs providing natural width, thereby creating space to play in. Santos plays the channel, right in the same area that Podolski operates, leaving us exposed down the left, as well as squeezing Cazorla and Podolski. Hence why you see Cazorla trying to find the space out wide, where he is less effective.

All in all, the balance (like last year when we had no fullbacks) has vanished. The play is squeezed, and we're vunerable down the left side.

And the moral? We don't have good enough back up players in the team. We're reliant on a good first eleven, gambling and trusting on other very good, but injury prone players as the back up, and hooing we don't have to use too many of our "second string" who are unreliable, inferior players (when called upon for a sustained period).

We lack quality in depth. And we lack a few players who can change games by themselves.

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I understand all that - and if I had bothered to elaborate, I would have said that Podolski, like so many other Wenger players is effectively playing outside his natural position - which is a forward - maybe not an out and out front man, but a withdrawn striker. I agre with you that his partnership with Gibbs was allowing him to overlap/come inside but as you rightly say his effectiveness in that position is dependent upon Gibbs being fit - which he often isn't.

Without that specific pairing, Podolski is being asked to be a workhorse, to no real effect. And this is happening all over the pitch. While Wenger insists on putting square pegs in round holes, the team looks unbalanced and disjointed. Like our performances, which once in a blue moon can be astonishing, Wenger's blueprint relies upon all of his first choice players being fit and on form. I mean the basic team set up is reliant on a fit Diaby to work as it should - how ridiculous is that!!???

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Originally Posted by IBK

I understand all that - and if I had bothered to elaborate, I would have said that Podolski, like so many other Wenger players is effectively playing outside his natural position - which is a forward - maybe not an out and out front man, but a withdrawn striker. I agre with you that his partnership with Gibbs was allowing him to overlap/come inside but as you rightly say his effectiveness in that position is dependent upon Gibbs being fit - which he often isn't.

Without that specific pairing, Podolski is being asked to be a workhorse, to no real effect. And this is happening all over the pitch. While Wenger insists on putting square pegs in round holes, the team looks unbalanced and disjointed. Like our performances, which once in a blue moon can be astonishing, Wenger's blueprint relies upon all of his first choice players being fit and on form. I mean the basic team set up is reliant on a fit Diaby to work as it should - how ridiculous is that!!???

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I hear ya bruv!

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Santos plays the channel

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By that I assume you mean he jogs around the half way line casually observing the huge hole he has left at the back? Fucking awful non-player and anyone within 100 yards of him is going to look a bad player. Fucking, fucking terrible player, Just fucking terrible. He's awful. Total shit. Certainly a panic buy, he induces panic everywhere on the pitch. Basically a really poor player, fucking dreadful, a joke. Shit.

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

By that I assume you mean he jogs around the half way line casually observing the huge hole he has left at the back? Fucking awful non-player and anyone within 100 yards of him is going to look a bad player. Fucking, fucking terrible player, Just fucking terrible. He's awful. Total shit. Certainly a panic buy, he induces panic everywhere on the pitch. Basically a really poor player, fucking dreadful, a joke. Shit.

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He is like that player that was recommended to Souness who promptly released him one hour into his first practice.

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Harsh on Ali Dia comparing him to Santos.

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Originally Posted by GB.

He is like that player that was recommended to Souness who promptly released him one hour into his first practice.

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Except he's not like him because we passed on the opportunity to release him 5 minutes into his first practice. Wenger is so stubborn.