COC Reaction v Sheffield Wednesday

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LDG

Wenger "They are not ready to play this level"

Which suggests we don't have enough depth in squad. Which makes it even more odd that we didn't bring in more outfield players in the summer.

Not too bothered about losing a competition from our schedule, but the worry for me is the blatant disregard for preparation in team selection, and rookie mistakes. Theo didn't warm up??? What the fuck is that all about. If you don't care too much for the competition, it's not going to bother you unduly if you let one of your key players warm up for 5 minutes. Very unprofessional all round really.

Whilst it may not be a big competition, the prep and will to win should be apparent in every match. You can't select them. You have to put 100% every time. Fucking pissed off tbf.

Still, as one twitterer put it:

League Cup: Knock Spurs out; fuck it off.

---

Agreed. Doesn't matter about the competition. Wenger spent the whole week claiming we needed to be "humble" and to remain focused. So what was this shit? These are all players hoping to play at the top level of the game. Some of them already do. Performances like this are totally unacceptable. Not the result, that can happen, but the PERFORMANCE. Wenger has never appreciated momentum doesn't give a shit about where, when or who - every match is there as an opportunity. Even if we came out of that losing we should have been able to say hey, we have a good bunch of lads there of we need them (which we probably will). Lack of preparation, disrespecting the competition and the opponent, all that has left us with is fear should we ever need to dip into the reserves. This was a blown opportunity and it's Wenger's fault. Praise was heaped on him for last week's performances, and rightly so, now it's fair he gets criticised for the pile of shit he served up last night.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Munchies

Seeing quite a few people say that Chambers at £16m is probably Wenger's worst signing :lol:

Is he that bad?

---

He's showing no signs of improvement, 16m IMO is a fair bit of money for a CB, you are paying for potential quality, he's not even showing signs of that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Munchies

Seeing quite a few people say that Chambers at £16m is probably Wenger's worst signing :lol:

Is he that bad?

---

Prepared to give him time because he rarely plays but he's got to be showing more really to suggest he can be a long term option for us, 16m was of course overpriced but half of that is the English player tax. Time will tell whether we get value from him or not.

I don't care for the result or the team selection. When I saw the midfield line up and Giroud, I just knew we weren't going to create chances for him. I'm more so concerned about the injuries. I could see Ox stretching seconds before kick off and then he pulls his hamstring. That suggests to me that we didn't spend enough time warming up or he didn't at least. Plus we lost Walcott and reports say Wenger cut his warm up short to throw him on. Silly decision to use him as a sub because the team lacked balance with that sub and he went off injured as well.

We just have to wait to hear what happens. Hope it's not too bad but that's 3 players we've had go out early in the game with muscle strain injuries. It's got to be down to poor preparation.

Meh.

Although I'm slightly irritated we got a thumping, we should have had enough to give them a game.
And the injuries are a kick in the pants, hopefully nothing too serious.

Couple of tricky games coming up, need to pick up and get a bit of momentum going again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gooner23

I agree we had to rest our key players but disappointing that some of the back ups were so poor. I know its difficult with lack of playing time and a lot of inexperienced youngsters in the mix, but just how poor are the likes of Debuchy and Gibbs looking? No where near challenging Bellerin and Monreal on that showing. Giroud looked like a guy that had been told not to get injured (which thankfully he didn't). I cant understand how Chambers has regressed so badly since he came to us. Young players have ups and downs, but he looks further away than ever from being a first teamer.

---

It was a mixed bag but that backline have no excuses. They've all played together before. Giroud hardly touched the ball and Campbell might as well pack his bags. We had more experienced players on the pitch than kids and I think Wenger needs to have a serious word with them. The kids weren't up to par but they weren't helped.

It was more like our 3rd or 4th XI out there so it's a bit harsh criticising our squad depth. No team can have 30 or so world class talents on their books.

I mean whilst the result ultimately doesn't matter and the lack of cohesion in creating any sort of attacking move shouldn't be a worry, what should be concerning are the individual defensive mistakes made by often senior pros which led to their goals - those were inexcusable whatever level you're playing against. Whilst we would have understandably struggled to create a goal last night, we shouldn't be gifting Sheffield Wednesday goals and making life easier for them. We should have parked the bus and let Sheffield Wednesday come on to us - that just comes to tactical naievity from Wenger and the management team.

As MS pointed out last night, the injury situation is untenable and back to being the usual ridiculous situation. Fact is that injuries do occur but the problem is that our capable backups such as Jack, Welbeck and Rosicky are all perm-crocks at the moment which is putting more strain on the first team players as they have to play more games and when they don't you get results like last night.

I mean what the fuck up is Welbeck? I don't remember him being a crock at United. He comes here, has a slight injury at the end of last season which was at the time only meant to be a few weeks and now nearly six months later, he's still out.

Whatever happens at the end of the season with regards to our title challenge, we can't go another season carrying so many injury crocks in our squad. It's not fair on the other players and that sadly means getting rid of Jack if a decent bid comes in.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Munchies

Seeing quite a few people say that Chambers at £16m is probably Wenger's worst signing :lol:

Is he that bad?

---

He's been abject for us so far in any competitive game.

Though to be fair, he's still incredibly young in terms of defender years. Kosicienly at his age was struggling in the French third division and now look at him.

If comes down to having the right attitude and willingness to learn which he seems to have.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LDG

Wenger "They are not ready to play this level"

Which suggests we don't have enough depth in squad. Which makes it even more odd that we didn't bring in more outfield players in the summer.

Not too bothered about losing a competition from our schedule, but the worry for me is the blatant disregard for preparation in team selection, and rookie mistakes. Theo didn't warm up??? What the fuck is that all about. If you don't care too much for the competition, it's not going to bother you unduly if you let one of your key players warm up for 5 minutes. Very unprofessional all round really.

Whilst it may not be a big competition, the prep and will to win should be apparent in every match. You can't select them. You have to put 100% every time. Fucking pissed off tbf.

Still, as one twitterer put it:

League Cup: Knock Spurs out; fuck it off.

---

Re the Theo thing, I missed what happened as only saw some of the match. From what I heard at half time, he had to come off cold from the bench once Ox pulled up. That is often the case for early injuries, in that no-one expects them, the sub has to strip down and get on asap. Nearly all players in that circumstance do not then go off injured themselves 10 minutes later, I mean, how much running could Theo have really done in that period on the pitch anwyay? Walcott is just an accident waiting to happen, this is just his yearly break on the med table.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kano

Re the Theo thing, I missed what happened as only saw some of the match. From what I heard at half time, he had to come off cold from the bench once Ox pulled up. That is often the case for early injuries, in that no-one expects them, the sub has to strip down and get on asap. Nearly all players in that circumstance do not then go off injured themselves 10 minutes later, I mean, how much running could Theo have really done in that period on the pitch anwyay? Walcott is just an accident waiting to happen, this is just his yearly break on the med table.

---

You've been beating with this Theo injury prone story but ignoring the bigger picture. Bringing on a player from cold and using a senior player at that is a silly risk to take. But besides that fact, we've got 3 players out with muscle strains and all sustained in the first half. This is the 5th time in a row Ramsey has gone out with some sort of muscle strain injury, mainly hamstring since 2013/14 season. Why?

Ox hasn't been with the club long and he's already spent 359 days out injured. He hasn't played through a season without a lengthy lay off. Ozil has racked up more injuries for us in his entire playing career. He's not an injury prone player but I'd put money on him having some sort of muscle strain before the New Year. It's something to do with the club. There is no way we should be losing two players like that within 10 minutes.