Could not even use his brain to take out barton properly got sent off for some week head butt.
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I don't think we could play Gervinho anywhere else on the field for him to be more effective. He has pace and he's good at dribbling. That's it. His decision making is awful, delivery sloppy and finishing poor. He can play up front or in the centre because of his limitations. He was a winger at Lille as well, so it's his best position.
I see your point about delivering when in a good position and I'd say a player like Arshavin is hampered out on the wings. If he was playing in the hole, he'd deliver cutting through balls at a more frequent rate compared to Ramsey whose really struggling to deliver anything at the moment. Arshavin's assist ratio is excellent and on the left, your passing range is limited. You only have options to your right and nothing much else.
With Theo, he just has no business playing on the flanks. If you can't dribble, you have no business playing there. We' get a lot more out of him as a striker. But the formation talk is tiresome because Wenger will never try it.
No - not the only one. I think we need to by a proven striker (or two) with a proven track record of putting the ball in the net - who does something when he gets the ball in the box rather than wonder who to pass it to next, who does not panic and snatch at his shot.
This is the thing though. I've stuck by this lot through thick and thin....well, just thin, for the last few years. I've always thought we're capable. And I've never really thought we need much more than we've had. Quality back up maybe, but not much more.
The problem is, we haven't been producing; and if it gives the club, the fans and everyone a lift, to see an exciting big name player sign for us, then I'm all for it.
You're right with the positional thing. They're all capapble footballers. And I'm sure they score shitloads in training....but that's what it boils down to I guess. Our training involves training for matches we'd like them to be. Not training for matches that ARE going to be....94 mins on a pockmarked pitch in the north east, for example.
This is right. Let anyone here pick the starting line up and formation and it would make no difference. That's because our players can't do the basics. All year long we've been playing shit in the final third. Now that Sagna is back we're even worse. These players can't pass under pressure, they can't cross, they can't change the pace. Well maybe they can but they certainly haven't been doing it. Every time we win a corner, get a free kick, find space wide, look for a pass through the middle - you already know the outcome before the ball is kicked. Careless, sloppy, panicked garbage. With one exception, RvP. And now maybe Ox. (Wilshere is dead). The gulf in class between these natural footballers and the rest of the journeymen we have is immense. You can see it so clearly in everything they do. I watch teams like Stoke and Sunderland managing to take effective free kicks, cross, play simple passes and it's beyond belief we can't do the same. We can sure pass the shit out of the thing in midfield though. Square, square, square, back, square, wide, back to the middle, wide, square, back, forwards... oops. Boring. Most of these players don't deserve to be at the club and certainly don't deserve their eye watering salaries. Gervinho, like Walcott, is unforgivably stupid in the danger area. Pires he is not. Forget about bringing in one or two players to change this. We have been starved of investment year upon year and all that investment will have to be made up before we can field a decent team again. Teams like Man City have made the cost of that investment even greater, probably beyond our reach now. Is Wenger to blame for this? Yes. Is the board to blame? You bet your arse. And the players are to blame too. They all demand much for the service they provide but they don't deliver, in any sense of the word. Fuck them. I'm going to wait it out until they are all gone.
If Gervinho never scored again but created an assist per game id be happy with that. Goals arent everything, him and Theo should take some credit for the fact Van Persies been banging them in this season.