January Transfers -- Speculation & Shit?

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Tipy Tappy is not the problem its not having the players to do it ala Barca. Barca don't play fast counter Attacking, their not boring to watch. Problem is when you have mediocre players you can't play tipy tapy it won't work. and even so 3-4 years ago the stuff we played was ok, best in the country we were told. Just when you loose players and don't replace them the footie gets worse.

Im sorry but just because Aw says pass pass, does not mean some of these players can't use their brains and try something diffrent when needed.

I mean yesterday we did seem to lump the ball up a few times.

[jelgoon]

I heard that the board have accepted that we need a striker and have decided to splash the cash at last by bidding up to £50 million for Falcao in the transfer window.Kroenke will invest his own money to fund the player's wages. Exciting times ahead next year. Failing that, we are linked to an exciting 16 year old prospect playing for Barnet.

[fakeyank]

Tipy Tappy is not the problem its not having the players to do it ala Barca. Barca don't play fast counter Attacking, their not boring to watch. Problem is when you have mediocre players you can't play tipy tapy it won't work. and even so 3-4 years ago the stuff we played was ok, best in the country we were told. Just when you loose players and don't replace them the footie gets worse.

Im sorry but just because Aw says pass pass, does not mean some of these players can't use their brains and try something diffrent when needed.

I mean yesterday we did seem to lump the ball up a few times.

When you dont have players for tippy tappy, why even play it? Play to your players strengths! That is the most basic thing a football manager should know. And if I am a player and my retarded manager says pass pass, I will pass pass... AW coaches the directness out of players! I watch teams like Utd, City, Spurs, Madrid in awe... quick football and the aim is to score.. not fuck around the whole pitch achieving fuck all.

[Power n Glory]

When you dont have players for tippy tappy, why even play it? Play to your players strengths! That is the most basic thing a football manager should know. And if I am a player and my retarded manager says pass pass, I will pass pass... AW coaches the directness out of players! I watch teams like Utd, City, Spurs, Madrid in awe... quick football and the aim is to score.. not fuck around the whole pitch achieving fuck all.

Exactly. I was having the same discussion with my Chelsea mate yesterday. He believes that Di Matteo's success has proven how irrelevant managers are and it's all about having a great line up of players. If you have a superstar squad, the manager doesn't matter. But I disagree with that otherwise AVB and past Chelsea managers would have been successful too. I also pointed to Real Madrid in the Galatico days and we also have City under Mark Hughes.

It helps to have great players but it doesn't guarantee success. In AVB cases, he was trying to play champaign football with a high defensive line with that old and stiff Chelsea team. They weren't built to play that style and didn't have the right sort of players. AVB was trying to force a philosophy and style on to the wrong group of players. When Roberto Di Matteo took over, he scrapped all that and played to their strengths and went back to the basics which wasn't pretty. Now that he has the right sort or players, he's changed the style and the football is much prettier because he's able to do that now.

What pisses me off about Wenger is that he priortises philosophy and style over player strenghth and adaptability. He'll pick a 4-3-3 and play the same style regardless of the opposition and players we have available. That is why so many of our teams look toothless because he forces the style. Short and quick passing is always on the menu regardless. We don't have a bad squad and we should be able to make use of their individual strengths but we don't because Wenger always sets the team up to comply with his blinkered philosophy. He has no problem playing people out of position and doesn't even care how others are set to play against us. That's too much confidence in your own system and disregards the strengths of our players as well. It's pretty arrogant.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

You both make Valid and good points ans i can;t disagree with any.

@ FY

I watch teams like Utd, City, Spurs, Madrid in awe... quick football and the aim is to score.. not fuck around the whole pitch achieving fuck all.

Obviously its our aim to score, we want to win games and thinking we go out just to play pretty stuff its silly. Simple truth is those teams you mention have the quality to play that fast football we don't.

When we keep selling our best players and don't replace them it don't matter what system we play, we will always look terrible. We can't play 442 we don't have the players for that, 4411 maybe we could but i don't think we have the quality for that, so right now we can play 433 until we bring in better players.

No one seem to care about this Tippy Tappy football a few seasons ago i bet you were one of the ones who enjoyed it and where happy we played the best footie in the country.

He believes that Di Matteo's success has proven how irrelevant managers are and it's all about having a great line up of players. If you have a superstar squad, the manager doesn't matter. But I disagree with that otherwise AVB and past Chelsea managers would have been successful too. I also pointed to Real Madrid in the Galatico days and we also have City under Mark Hughes.

@PNG

Yes you need a good manager to managed a superstar squad, Which is where th likes of Jose etc come in, but the reason why chavs have done well is because they have players who are smart enough to make quick decisions regardless of what way they have been told by the manager. Problem with ours because they are beeen told to pass its all they do, the likes of henry etc uesed their brains and thats why they were good.

[Niall_Quinn]

Obviously its our aim to score

I'm not convinced it is, at least not for the 90 minute duration of the match. Seems to me much of our game is about wearing out the other team with pass, pass, pass, and then picking up the pace (or attempting to) later. Wenger is big on stats, yards run, efficiency. There's no spontaneity in our game, it is mechanical. Like a wannabe German machine but built from Chinese parts unfortunately. Our players just aren't as good as many make out. They may be able to score the odd flashy goal or pull the odd trick but they break down at the key moment, both mentally and in terms of the intelligent application of talent. Can't cross, can't shoot, can't head the ball, can't do any of the basic stuff with enough of that fabled efficiency to keep the other team under genuine pressure. For the opposition it must be like being battered by a feather duster. Irritating but hardly damaging. We give teams confidence by our style of play.

Dempsey, Drogba, some hard bastard in the middle, we could have brought plenty in to add that bit of steel where it is vitally needed - and we could have bought a number of reliable keepers over the past couple of seasons too. But there was probably some sort of statistical calculation that made Mannone and Giroud and Chamakh and Gervinho and Ramsey and Diaby and even the likes of Walcott theoretically suitable to do a job. Practically though we all see the reality. Pansies with big mouths, grand gestures but no consistent end product and over 38 games it's the consistency that will pay and the lack of it that will cost.

We should resort to hoofing the ball, we'd lose most of the possession in the final third as a result but we already do that. At least hoofing it would wake the opposition defenders up, right now they can read the newspaper and have a coffee while still batting away our forwards like irritating flies. Still, selling possibly the world's best striker and replacing him with a one season wonder from the lower leagues was never going to improve things. But even Giroud might get some joy if only we could "resort" to the style of play other teams find so successful, if only occasionally.

It's embarrassing to lose to Norwich, really embarrassing. But the worst bit is it's not unexpected and we'll lose a few more like this too. Having lazy, complacent, pampered, self important cocks on the pitch really doesn't help our cause. Even if Wenger is fucking them up with his stupid patterns and statistics they still should be able to pass a ball in the final third or put in a cross. What the fuck is wrong with them and why aren't they embarrassed about it along with the fans? They'll be in the papers next week telling everyone how we can win the title, just as they were before the Norwich fiasco. Cocks who don't do their job, that's what they are.

[Fist of Lehmann]

Dicking around with my stream at about the 55 minute mark caused it to die, but apparently we actually managed a shot on target in the second half.

I am chosing to think of this as 'like a trophy'.

[Niall_Quinn]

Dicking around with my stream at about the 55 minute mark caused it to die, but apparently we actually managed a shot on target in the second half.

I am chosing to think of this as 'like a trophy'.

Norwich are not capable of financial doping so therefore they must have been "well organised defensively." If it's not rich blokes buying up the best players it's the little clubs refusing to let us play the way we want.

[Fist of Lehmann]

Norwich are not capable of financial doping so therefore they must have been "well organised defensively." If it's not rich blokes buying up the best players it's the little clubs refusing to let us play the way we want.

You mean we didn't want to play like we couldn't be arsed?

[Niall_Quinn]

You mean we didn't want to play like we couldn't be arsed?

It may have appeared that way but a lot of the blame must fall on Norwich for playing defensively, apart from when they were playing offensively and particularly when we were trying to play offensively. If they had defended a lot less I believe we would have had a lot more success in the final third.