https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztqxfVr5LtE
Interesting video and the comparison of the Invincibles. What the heck happened? Used to score goals in 5 passes now it takes us 500 to score 1.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztqxfVr5LtE
Interesting video and the comparison of the Invincibles. What the heck happened? Used to score goals in 5 passes now it takes us 500 to score 1.
Barcelona happened. Then WUMger thought he would abandon his own blueprint for success and (poorly) imitate theirs.
I'll keep saying it - we have no cunts in the team. Almost zero cynicism.
Get that back into the spine of the first eleven and you'll see a massive difference.
Every successful team has their fair share, we used to. It's no surprise that since they left, we haven't won the league. We used to have players opposing teams loved to hate. Now? Not really. Just written off as skilful technicians.
The biggest problem was that the essential pub ethic that is so essential to winning the PL wasn't passed on by the Invincibles as it was to them by the back four of old. They all shipped out of the club too quickly and so there was no continuation of that ethic. Wenger was never going to instil it, that had to from the players but Wenger clearly didn't value it highly enough. That has been one of his biggest mistakes, especially when he leaves his players to their own devices to much.
I don't see how that would make a big difference. We'd kick people more, get more bookings and give away freekicks but what happens when we can't defend the set piece? We'd still be that same tippy tappy team with no purpose going forward but just a bit dirtier. It wouldn't solve our problem imo. What brings it home for me is when Henry said that we'd be in the opponents box with a goalscoring opportunity in 3 to 4 passes. Always looking to play the ball forward. That's a million miles away from the way we're playing now. We need to get that back. Quick bursts of attacks instead of working through gears and trying to build momentum in our attacks.
On the defensive side, we are better and wouldn't say we need cynicism. We just need everyone to have that defending as unit mentality which is what we saw last season. We scored some good counter attacking goals like the old days when we focused more on our defensive shape but now it looks like we're back to the old tippy tappy, squeeze the opponents in their box style.
You don't think that Invincibles side had that in spades? Look at Chelsea, Man City or Man U. All have had and currently have horrible players that have the right mentality for this game. It's naive to think otherwise. Wenger has brainwashed even those fans that want him out into thinking his approach is the right way. It will never work in this league. It can't. It is too raw and aggressive to be played completely the right way. To be a winner you have to be cynical too, able to play dirty - sometimes more obviously than not - but without it you'll be a flash in the pan. The old guard at this club were English scrotes, who understand the horrible side of the game and that was taken on by physically strong players who had flair. Once they left, so did that cynicism and any hint of real success that came with it. Get in guys with the right mentality and physique in places, get rid of speed merchants we play on the wing that 'do a job' and get some specialists who can do the job properly and suddenly things change. Every single title winning side has a few scrotes (as we clearly used to) combined with some flair and proper width. Wenger has even convinced people that Ox, Theo, Welbeck and co are sufficient because they are fast. Absolute rubbish. All those players want to play in the middle and even the managers longer term plan is to play then centrally. He's turning our first eleven into a learning centre, so players can learn their trade in other positions and all the while the team suffers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
Defensively we are only better by our previously low standards. Again I'll keep repeating, our 'improvement' was built off the back of the lesser teams. Look at the results against the top 8 last season and let's discuss how much we improved when it really mattered. Last season the perception was that Citeh had a awful season, yet they still only conceded a few more goals than us. The English media is full of bullshit cliches but some of them are actually true and if someone like Keown says we need a leader in our back line, then given his experience, I'd sit up and listen. Kompany, Vidic, Terry - all massive wankers but the type of player that would instantly improve our defence, if we can look beyond our bias for a second. Fergie'd teams were full of horrible cynical shits but they knew how to play too (well bar the latter years). Why do you think he included Fletcher in title winning squads? For his technical ability? No, because he knew he had bundles of energy and acres of cynicism.
This change can only take place once Wenger leaves and a new mentality is hopefully installed. Until then, we will have to swallow the slow side-to-side football that has taken hold of this team. Ship out the dead wood in the starting eleven and squad and we have to start again. Look at the state of the games played in this league, it has slowly descended into park football season on season, glossed over by billions being spent and flashy presentation. Either we eventually get with it or forget talking about the title ever again.n
You have rose tinted glasses on when you think back to the Invincibles. Sure we played some great, direct passing football but those boys also knew when to disrupt a game, put in a foul, stick up for their team mates and become just as thuggish as the stadium crowd that bays them on.
You do realise the Invincible squad won the Fair Play Award, right? Being tough and able to win a tackle is one thing but we don't need cynicism.
Emirates stadium happened, and Wenger got promoted to a bank manager happened.
And to do realise cynicism isn't just being an out and out thug right? It's being far smarter than that. It's almost laughable to believe that a successful team doesn't need this in their skill set. Some might dress it up as gamesmanship but it's essentially the same thing. We haven't had that intelligence in our side for at least a decade.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
What's laughable is how much your overstating it's importance. Facts are facts and that team played cleaner than the sort of teams you describe. Gilberto Silva was probably the neatest cleanest tackling DM, Sol and Kolo we're tough but clean tackling as well. It's not about cynicism. It's not essential to win a title. Good tackling and a strong work rate is important. Players able to handle the physical side is important.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kano
It boils down to one question. If we signed a cynical player in the transfer window, would that make us title contenders?
HSee this is the problem. You keep reverting back to it being dirty. That's your misconception you can't get past. But it also proves my point. People didn't hate Vieira, Edu, Lehmann, Parlour, Bergkamp and his flying elbows and Lauren out of pure jealousy. They were hated like rivals fans now dislike the pricks in the Chelsea, City and (old) Utd teams. Fans will scream out how unfair it is they get away with certain things, exactly the same type of cynical approach we used to employ alongside the better side of our game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
Gamesmanship (we'll call it that now as it might help you) is made up of far more than just sticking your boot in. Playing that card doesn't turn you into Stoke, that is just pure desperation. It comes down to mentality, one of knowing when to do the smaller, uglier things in a game that allows everything else to flourish. I can't think of a team, or a champion in any sport who doesn't understand how important that element is to their game. And no, one player is not going to change the direction of the club. That will only happen when the manager leaves and we can get rid of the deadwood in this squad. It is going to take far more than just one player to change the route we've fallen upon for so long.
And how does that help if you can't score a goal? Or you can't break down a stubborn defence? It doesn't. We're missing more than just a few cynical players and most on here would fancy our title chances a lot more if we had a world class striker on board that could score 30 goals over one or two cynical players. You could swap Kos and Merts for Terry and Kompany and I'd still say we'd struggle on attack and scoring goals.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kano
You can be one of the most infuriating people to debate with PnG. Read my first post. The point where I said we need some physicality and proper width from players that understand that position. The repeated point I’ve made about the manager leaving and taking his frustrating footballing style with him? Read the posts PnG, read them. Don’t just find a point and open up a reply based solely on a couple of sentences. I’d understand if you were replying to multiple posters but it’s just me for crying out loud. Nowhere have I said that cynicism is going to win us a title by itself. It will help significantly because it will make us more competitive but that won’t rectify the tactical issues. I’ll repeat: We need a new manager, 3-5 new players and an entirely new mentality at the club.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
I'm not sure how sensible it is to compare us to The Invincibles. I remember at the time thinking "this is as good as it gets" and realising that almost certainly I'd never see an Arsenal side that good again.
The other thing that happened of course is the billionaires sicking their beaks in, inflating the market and hoovering up a lot of the best talent. And other sides getting wise to our training method and scouting in other countries, we're not fitter than other teams any more and we're not able to cherry pick foreign talent before it's on other team's radar any more.
Tippy tappy players are cheap. Clubs churn out small, pass merchants like Fabregas by the boatload these days. Its easy. Teaching technical players to play *a two touch passing game is all mental, theory, its all about limiting their ambition on the ball and getting them to find pockets of space. You can do it in the classroom. The transfer market accepts this. If we sold Wilshere and Cazorla tomorrow big deal, just go to Eastern Europe and find two Modric types for £12m each.
Also if you overload your team with these types of players people will say you play good football no matter what happens, even if you dont. The ego of Wenger loves this fact, plus the cheapness and interchangability (helpful when you know you cant hold on to players).
Technical players with genuine athletic ability/physical gifts or flair. These are rare, any mug in an academy cant produce these with clipboard. In fact academies/Europe cant produce flair players which is why Barca had to import their strikeforce. The market doesn't take any risks with these. Looking like the new Ronaldinho, Suarez, Messi? That'll be £50m please.
Any guy that looks like hes an athlete with technical ability? Rare. *The market doesn't hang around waiting to see if they will live up to the potential. Walcott at 16? £12m. Pogba? £80m. Martial? £36m. Sterling? £50m Barkley £50m.
Why look for the new Vieira when you can just get Fabregas who has equal technical ability, they can pretty much both run a game right? Wrong. A Fabregas can only run a game on a good day, when protected, in Autumn, when the other team doesnt have the antidote. Fergie put in his book how to stop new Arsenal, "I used to think we had to kick them up in the air because they had better players but then realised you just had to stay compact, stand off, intercept passes, hit on the break". There is no antidote for Yaya Toure, apart from denying him a birthday cake.
tl,dr: Wenger thought he could wing it with tippy tappy players because they are cheap and interchangeable.
Very sensible. That's the standard we set ourselves. We are way below it because the manager has been fucking up for 10 years. It's not entirely his fault. He was handed the task of keeping the team at least semi-successful while a bunch of old farts engineered a 10,000% return on their investment. The whole purpose of the club got bent towards that goal rather than the goal on the pitch.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
The money thing is a smokescreen. That's not what prevents us picking up the top talent. Wenger introduced the English cave managers to scouting methods that went beyond staring into backyards with binoculars. Now everyone is doing it. Vieira and Henry were players their respective clubs didn't want to keep. Wenger also introduced a whole new set of rules for being a professional footballer and players at Arsenal thrived when they hadn't been able to make the breakthrough elsewhere. Again, everyone is now doing it.
Wenger used to be a bloody genius. He's not now. He's a stubborn old goat. Probably made cynical by the outrageous bastards who looted the club and handed it over to the miserly yank.
Everyone is way below it...
Absolutely right we need a couple of bastards in the team. Vidal, Vidal, fucking, fucking Vidal - how the fuck did we pass that one up? Scandal.
Bastards don't need to go around punching out the opposition. They just need to make the opposition believe they'll get a smack in the mouth if they step out of line. Vieira had games one in the tunnel, that's why it was such a big deal when he used to meet the one guy who would stand up to him - Roy Keane.
Bastards can ensure Alexis doesn't get kicked every 2 mins, as is currently the case. The likes of Vieira and Keown made it their personal business to hold grudges and hand out payback. Teams were afraid of us. We could beat them in a fist fight and we could beat them at technical football. It was a beautiful balance. Now we are the most unbalanced team in the league.
Coquelin is developing into a bastard. Which is why we should have bought cover for him because no way is he going to remain suspension free this season.
You said "one" :haha:
:cool:
Why do you always look everywhere bar home? Who cares what everyone else is doing? Provided we are the very best we can be we'll take on all-comers, won't we?Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Same manager. Part of being a legendary manager is staying at the top when the environment changes around you. Ferguson managed it. His final title win was miraculous, he literally shovelled a pile of shite to the finish line, despite the Russian oligarchs. The excuses people make for Wenger don't stack up. He made his decisions and they were the wrong decisions. He did the opposite of Ferguson, he took something good and turned it to shit.
How immatureQuote:
Originally Posted by Letters
It's frustrating because I don't agree with you and break it down to the simplest point. I've read your pots. We could have Kompany, Terry, and Fletcher....it doesn't solve our problems or increase our chances of winning a title again. It's that simple. You say the lack of cynicism is our biggest problem and essential to winning the PL. I disagree. I think your overemphasizing the importance of cynicism because I believe a superstar striker would enhance our chances by a great deal and without having the cynical player your talking about. I don't believe we're 4 players away from winning the league.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kano
Also, just be careful with how you word things if you don't want me to get the wrong end of the stick.
Quote:
You have rose tinted glasses on when you think back to the Invincibles. Sure we played some great, direct passing football but those boys also knew when to disrupt a game, put in a foul, stick up for their team mates and become just as thuggish as the stadium crowd that bays them on.
Quote:
Why do you think he included Fletcher in title winning squads? For his technical ability? No, because he knew he had bundles of energy and acres of cynicism.
Was I wrong to point out that the Invincibles won the Fair Play award? It's just a fact. They were tough, they could hold their own and had a physical presence but it's different to what your describing. It's not essential to every title winning team and I think you've overcooked the importance.Quote:
To be a winner you have to be cynical too, able to play dirty - sometimes more obviously than not - but without it you'll be a flash in the pan. The old guard at this club were English scrotes, who understand the horrible side of the game and that was taken on by physically strong players who had flair.
I think that's where your going wrong. Football has changed but our style has totally changed as well. The pace up front has gone. Instead of an Anelka or Henry, we're bringing in team player strikers like Chamakh, Giroud and Sanogo. Players that help play the percentage passes instead of attacking space and getting forward quickly. As Theirry said, it used to take 4 passes to get into our opponents box. We'd win the ball back and then we'd break on a team. That doesn't happen now. We play the slow build up game. We have too many players that play the percentage passes instead of taking on a player and taking the initiative.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
I agree. Wenger's not at that level, but I don't think anyone else is either. Comparing anyone to Ferguson is like comparing a striker to Henry. They will come up short but that doesn't mean they're no good.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Despite his flaws Wenger's not the idiot some on here make him out to be either.
He's not an idiot but he does some very idiotic things, and then does them again repeatedly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
I couldn’t have been more clearer than repeating the same points in each post - you just haven't been paying close enough attention to them enough to incorporate the full context. Again, nowhere have I stated it is the most important element. It is a crucial aspect that will improve our chances but I have repeatedly gone on to quality that point further, along with the other elements need to improve our team. It’s all there in black and erm, grey.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
And yes you are wrong to point out the Fair Play league because still, incredibly, you are reverting the conversation back to fouls. Cynicism/Gamesmanship isn’t merely about that. Being regarded as a bastard by opposing fans incorporates far more. I think we all know, or should do, that the teams of old weren't summed up by the Invincibles. We regularly picked up a steam of red and yellow cards throughout the entire period we were contesting the title for a 7/8 years. It is no coincidence that the attitude of the team was remarkably different to the one we have now, technical skills are not enough in this league. And again, just to repeat for the tenth time, that does not make it the most important aspect but one of many and it doesn’t mean you have to be Stoke to win the league.
And yes, at least 3/4 new players are needed. We have no wingers - a few guys that can run fast won’t cut it. They all want to play as striker or central midfield. They are just ‘doing a job’ not players who really know how to make the most of space, technically proficient enough to beat a man constantly, cross the ball, cut inside, drop back/push forward at the right times. We have a DM who hasn’t even played a full season of football yet, he needs help and someone else to learn from. We of course need striker. We need a stronger, better defender than we have because what we have isn’t good enough right now. We haven’t improved enough defensively to the point of making them comparably good enough to the better sides at the top, our defensive stats from last season show that clearly, all that happened is we stopped the absolute carnage that happened on a number of occasions in 13/14. We managed to look good against the mid to poor teams in the league, our poor return of points from the top 8 for the last two seasons shows that. There was no progression last year beyond winning a cup, which has no impact on our performances in the league.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
What happened was that the dipshits that are paid to run the game managed to mess the offside rule up to such an extent that everyone simply stopped playing the offside trap and high lines, and started to sit a lot deeper when defending. Football is pretty much all about attacking space, and that one moved changed where all the space was: in that first part of Wenger's Arsenal career, all the space was behind defensive lines, and the game was dominated by pacey forwards and wide men who could ruthlessly exploit it; since that offside rule change, all the space has shifted to the middle of the park, as the 2 opposing defences retreated further towards their own areas, and as a result we've seen teams sacrificing an attacker for an extra midfielder, with more emphasis placed on powerful, lone-CF types, who can hold their own in a packed area, and goal-scoring central midfielders, like Lampard and Gerrard.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Unfortunately, we were particularly slow in reacting to that change. We carried on plugging away with our high line and 4 pacey forwards (possibly because we enjoyed the most success with that style of play?) long after everyone else had switched to 451s / 433s, and it played right into our opponents' hands. Not only did we add to the problem of there being no space to work with in the final third, because we ended up pressing all our players deeper and deeper into the opponents half, trying to lay seige to packed areas (this is where all the extra touches started to creep into our game, as we were left probing for openings that weren't there), but we also ended up being the only team in the league who were still playing a high line and leaving acres of space in our own final third (or half!) to exploit, so we were easy pickings for counter-attacks.
Barcelona undoubtedly compounded the problem a few years later, by being so bloody good at that tippy-tappy crap, and making everyone want to emulate it, but IMO it was all that 'interfering with play' nonsense that did the most damage...
Yes, you have. I'm paying very close attention. Are you? I don't know what you're reading, but when you say things like the below....Quote:
Originally Posted by Kano
That's your first post in the thread about this topic. Nothing taken out of context and the emphasis is cynicism. When use terms like 'massive difference', 'biggest problem' and 'essential to winning the PL', what do you expect? What message are you trying to convey. I don't know if it's just me but that whole message is focused on getting that back into our game. Mentions nothing of tactics, getting a goal scorer, being more organised, nothing.Quote:
I'll keep saying it - we have no cunts in the team. Almost zero cynicism.
Get that back into the spine of the first eleven and you'll see a massive difference.
Every successful team has their fair share, we used to. It's no surprise that since they left, we haven't won the league. We used to have players opposing teams loved to hate. Now? Not really. Just written off as skilful technicians.
The biggest problem was that the essential pub ethic that is so essential to winning the PL wasn't passed on by the Invincibles as it was to them by the back four of old. They all shipped out of the club too quickly and so there was no continuation of that ethic. Wenger was never going to instil it, that had to from the players but Wenger clearly didn't value it highly enough. That has been one of his biggest mistakes, especially when he leaves his players to their own devices to much.
Second post....
Quote:
You don't think that Invincibles side had that in spades? Look at Chelsea, Man City or Man U. All have had and currently have horrible players that have the right mentality for this game. It's naive to think otherwise. Wenger has brainwashed even those fans that want him out into thinking his approach is the right way. It will never work in this league. It can't. It is too raw and aggressive to be played completely the right way. To be a winner you have to be cynical too, able to play dirty - sometimes more obviously than not - but without it you'll be a flash in the pan. The old guard at this club were English scrotes, who understand the horrible side of the game and that was taken on by physically strong players who had flair. Once they left, so did that cynicism and any hint of real success that came with it.
Now this is the first and only time you mention proper width in your post but overall the emphasis on how other title winning teams have 'scrotes' in their team and since we've gotten rid of that mentality, we've won nothing. Again, overplaying the importance.Quote:
Every single title winning side has a few scrotes (as we clearly used to) combined with some flair and proper width.
This is all very long winded but you really can't accuse me of not reading your posts properly when you overemphasize one element of the game we lack. I break it down simply by asking if we added Terry, Kompany and Fletcher to our squad, would it everything flow from their and make us title contenders? No. It's not just a case of combing technical flair players with the cynical. Ok, now your saying it's not the most important aspect but read your posts again.Quote:
It comes down to mentality, one of knowing when to do the smaller, uglier things in a game that allows everything else to flourish. I can't think of a team, or a champion in any sport who doesn't understand how important that element is to their game. And no, one player is not going to change the direction of the club. That will only happen when the manager leaves and we can get rid of the deadwood in this squad. It is going to take far more than just one player to change the route we've fallen upon for so long.
Yes, I agree with you on that. Henry said the arrival of Cesc changed the mentality as well and he's probably right. It's a combination of it all. But the question is how do we sort this problem out? Can we go back to our old way of playing? The thing I noticed more about the start of last season was the focus we had on defending deeper, holding our shape and counter attacking. Remember there was a period where we were happy to let our opponents have the ball or maybe it was the lack of cohesion in the middle that gave that impression. But as we grow more efficient with our passing and try to play in our opponents half, we have no space to work with. It's the tippy tappy crap. What's worse, even in games where there was space in the final third like in the Liverpool game, we're not looking to break on the team and attack the space behind. Maybe that's down to the wrong players being on the pitch but that probing for an opening style we have needs to go.Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
Exactly. Tiring. instead of responding to the argument you are just trying to pick holes in adjectives and part-quoting comments out of context. You do this all the time PnG and I'm not the only it wears thin on. I've said all I can on the subject. Make of it as you wish. Which you will of course.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
Stop whinging and crying for help. I've taken nothing out of context. It's a simple disagreement and I've responded to your argument completely and disagree.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kano
:handbags:
Anyhoo surely thread should be renamed "Invisbles vrs Invisibles #Wengerstealingaliving"?
"I did not zee any top top quality zignings az I was looking down some ow you say "bint's" top."
Agreed - there was a mentality in those teams that did not put up with any BS from other teams but could dish it out themselves. GN and JC highlighted it in the video, those Arsenal teams had other teams scared in the tunnel before the game because they knew they were in for a fight, GN "it was never fun to play games against Arsenal". Im a believer in the psychological aspect of sport and I do believe that this does influence the outcome of matches.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kano
I certainly prefer watching that more open, counter-attacking game, but I guess the inherent problem with it is that it only really works as long as the other team are actually prepared to attack if you let them have the ball. What happens when the other team turn up with the same gameplan though? Does it still work? I think this is where we tend to get suckered back into that tippy-tappy, probing, passing stuff - when you're charging the fans as much as we are, you simply can't justify letting the game descend into a turgid mexican stand-off, and it's usually us that ends up having to make the first move because of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
I'm not sure what the answer is, to be honest mate - maybe there isn't one? As you say, pick the right players for the right game, make sure you have some decent variety on the bench if you get it wrong, and then see where the game takes you...
The whole period when we were challenging for titles regularly featured games where we'd pick up yellows and a stack of red cards - I think over two thirds of the sending offs we collected under Wenger were by players who who were in those teams. It is no coincidence that since our overall discipline improved, our general performance levels have dropped. As you said, there was a fear about playing our old teams, not just because of their ability but because they knew they would impose themselves physically on their opponents too. But you don't just gain the rep of being a bastard by just being a thug, there is a lot more that goes into the dark arts of managing a game and undermining the opposition.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Lahey
Very true. The opposition need to be willing to attack in order to be counter attacked. But over the past couple of seasons, teams are a lot braver and willing to attack us. I'm thinking of teams like Swansea, Everton and Southampton. Not in all cases of course, but in such cases where teams park the bus, we shouldn't be so obsessed with keeping possession. If they've been preparing all week without the ball, let's put the onus on them to keep possession for periods and see how comfortable they are on the ball. We may be able to capitalise off their mistakes and sloppy passing. All depends if . we can get the energy levels up and team willing to defend as a unit and press. We'll see what the season brings but we have to try something new.Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
We had better players (don't care what anyone says but almost all of those players were better than what we have, either as a unit or individually), we had much more aggresion in the team, we had better goalscorers and had more winners who fought for every ball (just look at our workrate compared to now) and we played much better football (more inventive, less predictable and generally less boring to watch).
Night and day for me, one was a world class team the other is a wannabe world class team who's egoes are massaged by Wenger, bar 2-3 players none of the guys we have today would even get in the squad.
Four or five players for me (and that's in the first team)
Would take Cech over Lehmann
Koscielny over Toure
Ozil (wouldn't take him over Bergkamp but probably couldn't play 4-4-2 now days)
Sanchez over Ljungberg
Bellerin over Lauren
Coquelin would get in the squad
Gabriel miles better than Pascal Cygan
A lot of players in our squad better than Edu
Walcott and Ox for me better than Reyes
The unbeaten side we have a magnificent first eleven but actually the squad depth wasn't brilliant
What made them great was that the team was the optimum sum of it's parts. Partnerships all over the pitch and teamwork in abundance, all of them were warriors.
The depth wasn't brilliant but we had reliable players like Wiltord, Kanu and Edu who could seamlessly slot in.
Don't forget the Romford Pele too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
I would have Lauren ahead of Bellerin too. Keown was around the squad as well. You also knew the best 11 so they could build understandings. They were fast and strong and skilful. The best team to have played in the Premier League ever.
I'd agree with that to an extent, it was the cohesiveness of the well oiled machine rather than just individual brilliance that made that side (although we did have brilliant individuals).Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Henry summed it up on MNF, it's something I have felt for a while and have said on here but Fabregas was the game changer and even now we seem to set up in a way that was originally geared to accommodate him.
What we had before hand was far more direct, win the ball back in defence, run one, two Maybe three passes and then in on goal. Lightning thrust counter attack....players in support overlapping it was hard to defend against....one second you've won a corner and ten seconds later you're picking the ball out of your own net.