Match Reaction vs Mongs

I think that if you go into a game with the menatlity of slowly slowly catchy monkey....it is hard to completely shift thinking in the course of a game whilst it is in progress. The opposite is also true where if you start a game gung-ho it can be difficult to suddenly switch to patience or the waiting game unless of course the team just incidentally gets tired out. The tactical shift is difficult mid game, not least because Wenger isn't a stand on the touchline shouty manager...... Well he screams at the 4th official but that isn't to change our tactical approach!

That is why there are a handful of managers of better clubs who make changes early and sometimes 2 subs at a time because of how difficult it is for a team to collectively change tack without any actual physical change happening. The subs coming on will be of a certain nature geared towards changing the tactical mindset and they will bellow out instructions to their team mates to ensure the tactical shift infiltrates the rest of the team. Wenger's first and most prominent instructions usually come at half time which is telling in itself.

Because Wenger favours energy and fitness levels over tactics in regards to his subs, his subs never impact games in quite the same way. When they do it is often simply because the fresh legs approach and/or the superior fitness levels of the team gets the better of the tiring opponents. The individual's he has at his disposal can also have a direct impact because of their specific skill set but it is quite hard the way we are set up as a team and organised for us to switch out tactics mid game for these reasons.

Charlie Adam banned for 3 games... Stoke appeal :lol:

worst part is, there were 2 incidents before that, that should have seen him get 2 yellows :-/ 3 of our 5 losses have come from bad refs now (and our draw vs Chelsea). If we have had proper refs in all our games, we would've been 1st now and city would be fighting for 4th spot... But i guess its still all Wengers fault :d

dem wefs

Are you seriously blaming the refs for us not being top right now or are you as I suspect, just kidding about?

We can blame Mike Dean though.

He's a fucking cunt.

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Originally Posted by selassie

Admittedly now that the whole "Suarez" saga has come out we were just unfortunate/unlucky regarding it. Liverpool's screaming and posturing was obviously their way of deflecting attention away from themselves and putting it onto us and unfortunately it worked. Ultimately, we fell short because Suarez didn't try and force through the move, he choose to stay at Liverpool. It was pretty impressive of Liverpool to keep their star player, how comes they can convince their star player to stay without the offer of any European football yet we struggle to keep ours even though we regularly qualify for CL?

Despite all the above regarding the Suarez saga, it should not be an excuse not to strengthen the attack, if Suarez wasn't available then we should have sought other options. We had all of the Summer to buy an upgrade on Giroud, regardless of that Suarez situation, we really should have had some kind of contingency/back up plan to buy someone else.

Our inability to strengthen problem areas has become a major problem for me and highlights our lack of planning in regards to player recruitment. It has happended once too many times to be called an accident and I personally think a club of our stature needs to operate a lot more efficiently in the market.

I accept that purchasing a world class striker in the January Market was nigh on impossible, yet we go looking for "crocked" central midfielders? Why? What on earth is that all about? It wasn't even a position we needed strengthening in?

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I agree with all this. Our twin concerns should be (1) Why Liverpool as they were in the Summer were sufficiently attractive a proposition for Suarez for him to stay with them over us, and (2) Why, having already fucked up over Higuain, we had no other proper targets.

Turns out the Suarez saga unfairly made us look like a laughing stock. However we made ourselves into a laughing casserole with Kallstrom.

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Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory

I think the message he conveys to the players is problematic. Shouldn't we be looking for more urgency when we look that flat? Shouldn't he be telling his players that? He advised them to stay patient and chance will come. That's probably the wrong message.

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Well we lost, so it's hard to argue otherwise.

7amkickoff wrote an excellent post in the aftermath of the Liverpool game:

http://www.7amkickoff.com/2014/give-up-on-life-pants/

Of particular relevance:

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It’s also incredible that this Arsenal team, who built their top of the table form by hitting the opposition quickly, jumping out to an early lead, and then parking le autobus, has now reverted to a team which boils slowly and has to play catch up. It’s not a perception, either, it’s real: Arsenal used to score early but have only scored in the first half of games twice in the last 11.

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Originally Posted by Blink 1nce Quince 2wice

Are you seriously blaming the refs for us not being top right now or are you as I suspect, just kidding about?

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Im just stating facts, if the very controversiel ref decisions that have been made against us in a couple of games and the one for example city have been getting for them in a couple of games, had been done properly, thats how it would be after you withdraw and add the few points.

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Originally Posted by IBK

I agree with all this. Our twin concerns should be (1) Why Liverpool as they were in the Summer were sufficiently attractive a proposition for Suarez for him to stay with them over us, and (2) Why, having already fucked up over Higuain, we had no other proper targets.

Turns out the Suarez saga unfairly made us look like a laughing stock. However we made ourselves into a laughing casserole with Kallstrom.

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1) Turns out that Suarez staying at Liverpool is similar to a prisoner with 10 years left on his stretch "deciding" to stay. If they won't let you out and you want to keep working then you have to stay. I don't really have a problem with Henry fucking a player over, about time. Should happen a lot more, like once a week. Put the little loves in their place. Hate his cowardice when he painted up the other parties concerned in a colour that applied solely to him though.

2) Higuain and Suarez were ambitious targets, nice to see. But both of these player's clubs did a lot of fucking around. Maybe we could handle a third and a fourth fuckabout.