Random Arsenal Shit (When it's not worth starting a thread)

[LDG]

Agree with all of that.

Funny. The invincibles, whilst superb individual players in their own right, kept it very very simple. There was none of that pass-pass shit. It was get the ball down. Move it quickly. Move it forwards. Work the space and take your chances.

[Marc Overmars]

The difference with them was that they were athletes. Pretty much everyone in the team was solid as fuck and could run all day long.

[LDG]

Yeah, it's weird.

All of our best players were fucking beasts. And then WUMget decided it would be good to have all midgets.

Fuckin nutter.

[Kano]

Yeah, it's weird.

All of our best players were fucking beasts. And then WUMget decided it would be good to have all midgets.

Fuckin nutter.

It comes down to evolving the team and it’s style of play. The only problem was he fucked it up.

If he had complimented the squad around the 07/08 with more buff than guff, we probably wouldn’t be here now.

[LDG]

It comes down to evolving the team and it’s style of play. The only problem was he fucked it up.

If he had complimented the squad around the 07/08 with more buff than guff, we probably wouldn’t be here now.

Agreed.

[BOBN]

It comes down to evolving the team and it’s style of play. The only problem was he fucked it up.

If he had complimented the squad around the 07/08 with more buff than guff, we probably wouldn’t be here now.

07/08 was a good enough side to win most titles. It would win the league this year. Problem is they came up against the most talented united side you could imagine.

no we are worse in every single position bar none. biggest drop off is the central midfield (remember it was mainly adebayor up front and he was good but not a real great, pretty comparable to giroud actually) fabregas-flamini vs wilshere-arteta-carzola. Flamini did the physical work of two men and fabregas did the creative work of 10 wilsheres.

[Syn]

If you have 6 players in your midfield and attack whose close-control is brilliant and they're clever, then you're sorted. It's as simple as that. The poncy little tricks and dribbles never used to come out 10 years ago, because there was trust. You knew as a player that you can slam the ball forward to your teammate whose in an awkward position, you don't hesitate or slow things down and look for another option because you know that you have a margin of error. Not every pass 10 years ago was pin-point accurate through the eye of a needle. The control was. Even if it came at pace, an awkward height, closely guarded by opponents, you knew your teammate would find a way out and play a sensible (and that's all it was) ball. The speed of passing is so underrated but I guess it's only appreciated in quality teams like Barcelona. What's the point of slamming the ball at someone who's never going to be able to control it.

When you have no faith in your teammates to control a quick pass, that's when you start looking for another option for a player who's less guarded. And if you don't have players who are clever enough to always move around, find some space and be available, then you need more time and you need more touches to find someone. And then everything's slower.

[Power n Glory]

If you mean I ignore the inadequacies of the team as a whole by slaughtering them after each inadequate performance then fair enough. In fact I probably go overboard with the criticism because it pisses me off so much when we play badly. Yes, everyone wants the team to play better, and the manager to manage better too of course. Surely a good place to start would be to find the biggest problems and correct those. In terms of players Wenger has already acted by replacing our biggest liability Santos. But he seems blind when it comes to certain other players.

If you at least get rid of the weakest links and replace with better and stronger options it gives a good base on which to address the other problem you have highlighted. Arteta hasn't been great this year but at least he can pass a ball, albeit negatively and too slowly of late. Put better players around him and maybe he'll improve. Cazorla may drift out of games, again put better players around him. Look for the improvement and replace him too if it doesn't come. Replace them all if need be but start with the players who actually cause damage rather than advantage when they are on the pitch.

For me the prime suspects are Ramsey, Diaby and Walcott. I know they can sometimes do positive things but I want to see players who have a better first touch, who can pass consistently and who don't lack some of the fundamental skills that are essential at the level we want to play at (allegedly). Others will disagree of course but you can't ignore the number of times the play breaks down around these players. And when the play breaks down everything else goes to hell too. Just by doing the simple stuff to a competent level we could take some of the strain off that creaky defence. Or link the midfield, particularly in dangerous situations. But watching the ball bounce off Giroud or Walcott when the simple pass and move is open, watching Diaby and Ramsey slow it all down to then give the ball away or sent it back into defence, it's infuriating and it disrupts our game.

You look at other teams, shit teams like Wigan yesterday. They are very, very ordinary but at least their players can pass five yards without giving it away. Why can very ordinary players do these simple things while superstars (in their own minds) on 80K or 100K fuck it up week after week? That can't be allowed in a serious football team surely? We missed a big chance to be shot of Walcott (although it doesn't seem anyone wanted him) and we should have been rid of Diaby years ago. We could have had better players in on the money we would have saved. We went through the whole saga with Chamakh too. The unrealistic hopes that flew in the face of the reality. We're now in the even more ludicrous situation of having a wandering winger/ striker who can't control a ball. Regardless of the runs the kid makes the chances of him actually doing something with the ball if it reached him are negligible. We see it every week and frankly this silliness about him playing in the centre needs to be knocked on the head fast and we need to get a real striker on the books this summer. Okay keep Walcott but get him back to school where he can learn the basics. Get rid of Ramsey and Diaby though.

Getting rid of Ramsey and Diaby won’t solve the fact that we can’t control the middle of the park with our passing or protect the back four. I hear what you’re saying to an extent and there are some players I want to get rid of but our problems are deeper than a few fringe players. Arteta is a weak link and shouldn’t be playing as a DM. He’s too easy to mark out of a game and our CB’s shouldn’t be making more passes than him in game. That’s scandalous. But me saying that doesn’t mean I excuse the shower of shit we see from our defence and goalkeeper week in week out. I don’t believe a new DM will help improve our defending and I can’t make excuses for that department failing to do what they’re paid for. Lumping so much blame on Theo and Giroud ignores the fact that our midfield aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

We don’t even play tippy tap no more. The midfield trio don’t work in a unit in the same way you’d see Barca work. Or any other team like Juve or Milan. I hardly see a flurry of pass exchanges between Wilshere, Cazorla and Arteta. There is no give and go moves between them, they lack understanding of where each other should be or anticipate what each should be doing, it’s a horrible mess when you compare the way Cesc , Song and co used to have the opposition chasing shadows. Remember that 1 nil victor against Utd where they couldn’t get near us? That’s a distant memory and we’re nowhere near close to playing at that level. We’re not even anywhere close to playing the boring tippy tappy crap where we saw endless sideways passing with the opposition pinned on their own half for the majority of the game. This is a different problem and we’re struggling to hold on to the ball and it has a lot to do with the fact that the midfield trio have no understanding of how to play together. It’s not working and they’re struggling to find each other. Our wing backs and defenders are having to move the ball up field a lot. Losing Song and Cesc has been a huge blow and I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t look anywhere near as bad if we had those two in this current squad.

[Letters]

All of our best players were fucking beasts. And then WUMget decided it would be good to have all midgets.

[Ollie the Optimist]

am seeing ramsey's name pop up as a deadwood player etc, but am i the only one who thinks that since january he has improved massively and has been one of better performers recently?