Match Reaction Marseille Away

The biggest job Wenger's gonna have this year is stopping this team from getting too carried away with itself - I'm loving the new fight and effort from everyone, but there's still weaknesses in the side to be exploited, and the potential for a few frantic moments, if we're not careful. Counter-attacking is a great fit for us right now - it compensates for some of our defensive frailties by virtue of getting men back in numbers, quickly, and we have some great options to take advantage going the other way too, when we win the ball back. My concern is that we could also quite easily get sucked back into that high-pressing, tippy-tappy, Barca-lite game, if we get too pleased with ourselves, and I'm not sure we're ready for that yet? Signing Özil is a really encouraging sign for the future, but I think we may need a couple more players of that quality before we can really play that way effectively...

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Originally Posted by BOBN

Walcott will get 30+ goals if hes found his shooting boots. A runner of his sort is absolutely key and its a shame Wenger didnt add another. Hes the only real cutting edge of the team right now.

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Every game, he's getting in the right places and having a number of clear goal-scoring chances - he just seems to be picking the wrong option each time when it comes to pulling the trigger? I don't know whether that's encouraging or not, to be honest? On the one hand, you think that he's doing the hard bit, and needs very little to change to start turning those saves and misses into goals - maybe nothing more than confidence? But on the other, the longer the run of spurned chances goes on, the more the nagging doubts start to creep in. Let's hope that goal last night is enough to make the difference...

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Originally Posted by I am invisible

Every game, he's getting in the right places and having a number of clear goal-scoring chances - he just seems to be picking the wrong option each time when it comes to pulling the trigger? I don't know whether that's encouraging or not, to be honest? On the one hand, you think that he's doing the hard bit, and needs very little to change to start turning those saves and misses into goals - maybe nothing more than confidence? But on the other, the longer the run of spurned chances goes on, the more the nagging doubts start to creep in. Let's hope that goal last night is enough to make the difference...

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Its encouraging but it would have been nice to have the option of a striker who can run away from the ball from time to time to share the burden.

Should have got Balotelli in Jan when he was considered a reject. That would have been classic Wenger :banghead:

Thats why i thought we should have gone for Di maria. Him and Theo runing at FBs with Ozil, jack and Cazorla feeding them.. tasty shit.

at the moment we dont have anyone else who looks to go in behind and use his speed but it would be nice to have Pod back soon.

Whens Podolski coming back?

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Originally Posted by AFC Leveller

Thats why i thought we should have gone for Di maria. Him and Theo runing at FBs with Ozil, jack and Cazorla feeding them.. tasty shit.

at the moment we dont have anyone else who looks to go in behind and use his speed but it would be nice to have Pod back soon.

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And Cazorla - not as much of an obvious goal-scorer as Theo or the Pod, but I reckon we could see more goals from both him and Özil when they're both playing in the same side (only one needs to be creating at any given time, so it might just give the other a little more freedom to get on the end of things)?

I was well up for Di Maria, but now I quite like the look of that German lad, Draxler - not quite as proven at this point, but he has a certain direct, marauding style that I like, and I suspect he might have more of an eye for a goal?

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Originally Posted by fakeyank

Whens Podolski coming back?

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Nov/Dec I think.

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Originally Posted by BOBN

Its encouraging but it would have been nice to have the option of a striker who can run away from the ball from time to time to share the burden.

Should have got Balotelli in Jan when he was considered a reject. That would have been classic Wenger :banghead:

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Stick him on the list of players we could/should have signed...

3 points all important last night, we didn't play well but agree with Rambo's comments after regarding the pitch - not conducive to our quick passing game.
However again & again I cannot understand our substitutions. At 1-0 Marseille bring on a lively player who will double-up on Gibbs & give us problems. AW puts on Monreal to limit the threat & is keen to hold on to our 1-0 lead - I have no issues with that.
But why on earth would he take off Walcott? - I am not a great Walcott fan & I think he's having a poor season but late on when the opponents are tired there is no better player to have on to nick a goal on counter attack. If Marseille had equalised I think our midfield would have dropped to protect the point which would have left a tired looking Giroud upfront on his own. With Walcott on, I still would have fancied us getting another if it went 1-1.
Then however we go 2-0 up with very little time left, bearing in mind we have NO spare strikers & an important league game in 4 days time why the hell did he leave Giroud on the pitch. The guy looked shattered, he was hardly going to get much service as we were now defending our lead & playing keep ball. Why not give Chubba a run out, he's raw, lively & would have gained fantastic experience. Instead we leave a knackered Giroud on, who quite easily could have picked up an injury late on.
Substitutions should be made with the bigger picture in mind, not just to protect a 1 goal lead because sometimes you still concede & then you are fucked.

I struggled to understand the Theo substitution as well.