Match Reaction Vs Newcastle away

[Niall_Quinn]

It's all well and good discussing these formations and how the players fit into them. The trouble is we have fewer and fewer players that actually execute. On the rare occasions Walcott beats his man he screws up the final ball. His outlay is Sagna who can't cross and prefers to slow the play and pass it backwards. On teh other side we have Arshavin who has forgotten how to beat his man. RvP spends more of his time dropping back or going wide to get the ball rather than pick up accurate supply from the midfield. The levels of carelessness in the final third from all players is hard to believe. Other teams don't suffer if because they get the ball in the box at the earliest opportunity and they also have men in the box when the ball arrives. We hardly ever do. We bought Chamakh for his aerial ability, he spends most of his time in the midfield. We had Bendtner playing on the wing FFS. We're totally overloaded with supposedly technical midfielders (even though they are actually very poor in the final third) when what we really need is one (probably two) decisive centre forwards who will get into the box and head, bash, poke, barge tumble the ball into the net. Of course we also need some players who could play the ball in the first place and that includes delivery from crosses and set pieces. We are lacking in all the aspects of the British game, instead we play a midfield possession game with no end product. Everyone can see it, our opposition, the fans, the media. Wenger must be able to see it too. Yet he does nothing about it and continues to buy players like Gervinho and Chamberlain. And the striker we need? A kid. What difference does the formation make when you don't have the players to exploit it?

[Darth Vela]

4-3-3 doesn't mean that the wing forwards have to stay out deep, they can move inwards if instructed to. Wenger obviously hasn't.

It's the best formation in the modern game as it has a little of everything, 3 players up front instead of two (when attacking) and 5 players in midfield instead of 4 (when defending, as the wing forwards should cut back).

The formation is fine, the quality of players playing in it isn't. We want our players to be 'congested' away from the penalty box as against us teams pack it, there's more space for our attackers to move in outside it.

Also at the people asking for Walcott to move up front, he still isn't good enough for that. Don't care about his footballing brain etc etc, his close control simply is too poor for him to be playing in the middle of four defenders. The position he has now is best for him (wing forward) as he starts outside where there's space and cuts in, he can make diagonal runs when Wilshere/whoever play balls for him to run onto.

We need to start playing him like Ljungberg, he should be more akin to that than someone like Owen/Defoe.

I guess it's not so much a massive formation change so much as just using someone who will stay centrally and make runs in behind when RvP drops deep, the best way of doing that is playing something closer to a striker instead of an AM, which would end up as more of a 4-4-2, given how fluid our formation can often be it could just be someone like Campbell or Theo drifting inside more, as you said, Wenger telling them to would be a start.

Essentially, someone with balls and a strikers instinct needs to play more games for us and have more time in the middle.

[Power n Glory]

4-3-3 doesn't mean that the wing forwards have to stay out deep, they can move inwards if instructed to. Wenger obviously hasn't.

It's the best formation in the modern game as it has a little of everything, 3 players up front instead of two (when attacking) and 5 players in midfield instead of 4 (when defending, as the wing forwards should cut back).

The formation is fine, the quality of players playing in it isn't. We want our players to be 'congested' away from the penalty box as against us teams pack it, there's more space for our attackers to move in outside it.

Also at the people asking for Walcott to move up front, he still isn't good enough for that. Don't care about his footballing brain etc etc, his close control simply is too poor for him to be playing in the middle of four defenders. The position he has now is best for him (wing forward) as he starts outside where there's space and cuts in, he can make diagonal runs when Wilshere/whoever play balls for him to run onto.

We need to start playing him like Ljungberg, he should be more akin to that than someone like Owen/Defoe.

Our players up front usually drift inwards and that makes things even more congested and narrow especially when you play players that always want the ball to feet instead of into space.

For Theo, I wouldn't play him as a central striker in a 4-3-3. He'd play ahead of Arshavin or RVP like how Rooney and Hernandez play and you'll see Rooney and Welbeck play the same way later today.

4-4-2 didn't workyeah back before because Wenger kept on playing Gilberto with Cesc. That's just stupid. Gilberto was far from the marauding engine type defensive midfielder and Cesc is slow, didn't have the lungs to get up and down the pitch and couldn't tackle. With those players gone and Wilshere, Ramsey and Song in the team, we have more steel in the middle. So he could play a Song Wilshere/Ramsey/Diaby combo.

It doesn't matter either way. It took Wenger an eternity to switch formations the first time round and he still couldn't play the right players in the correct position. Theo for starters, should always play on the left so he's always darting inwards on goal and ready to bang it with his right like Overmars and Henry.

[goonerholler]

My insightful observations.

Joey Barton is confused about the definition of a punch. What Gervinho did to him is a slap. What he did to that kid outside a McDonalds in Liverpool that landed him in jail, that's a punch.

We still have not found a way to channel frustration into an increased drive and effort to win the match. In both the Alex Song and Gervinho incidents, the anger our players felt could have been expressed much more effectively.

Finally, we would have the most intimidating central midfielder in the entire Premier League if they allowed Emmanuel Frimpong to play with his shirt off. Did you see his upper body? He must have spent his entire 9-months off in the weight room. Well done to him.

[Mr. Lahey]

typical shite from arsenal. thank god i left the pub at half time to go drink in the sun with half naked women and to watch the sheepdogs perform.

[Darth Vela]

My insightful observations.

Joey Barton is confused about the definition of a punch. What Gervinho did to him is a slap. What he did to that kid outside a McDonalds in Liverpool that landed him in jail, that's a punch.

We still have not found a way to channel frustration into an increased drive and effort to win the match. In both the Alex Song and Gervinho incidents, the anger our players felt could have been expressed much more effectively.

Finally, we would have the most intimidating central midfielder in the entire Premier League if they allowed Emmanuel Frimpong to play with his shirt off. Did you see his upper body? He must have spent his entire 9-months off in the weight room. Well done to him.

Pretty intimidating with his shirt on as well tbf, looking forward to seeing him in the next few games as I think he's pretty much made for the Premiership. Agree that we should channel our frustrations as well, someone needs to point out that if someone fouls you or gets in your face you go into the next tackle taking a smidgen of the ball first and then swipe the bastard, none of this pussy-footing slapping shit.

[hobson's choice]

Watch the game after I got home from work, wasn't nearly as bad as some were making it out to be, Positives, Gervinho looks a bright player, i'll credit his poor final product to first game nerves, was thinking too much out. Really wished he would've kept his cool, he's already looking like he's gonna be a most dangerous player, now he's out for 3 games.

Ramsey looked good in the first half, but not so well in the second, Arshavin and RVP were bad, RVP looked like his head was elsewhere for the whole game, messed up every opportunity he had. as for Arshavin he didn't do anything right. I thought Song had a good game, same goes for the backline and goalie.

We need another striker badly, creative mid too, Rosicky tried, but he was never that player anyways. All in all, some positives, but the weaknesses are glaring.

[Flavs]

I think there were more positives than negatives in this, we had a lot of players missing, a lot of backroom shit going on and were playing a team that somehow did a 4 goal comeback last year and have 2 of the biggest c*nts in the modern game oplaying fro them, and dont forget their manager is an old foe of Wenger as well.

Rosicky looked realy good in midfield IMO, plenty of bite and positive forward play. Arshavin is slim Gervinho looked a lot more settled in than i would havwe thought yet and should have had 2 penalties. Ramsey looked good and the defence, what little we saw of it, looked calmer with a keeper behind who shouts and commits himself and the Verm effect.

However, Alex song needs to man up, he is like a petulant child, Walcott is still a waste of space, Rvp still needs to just shoot rather than being fancy and our bench, for a top 4 team was a disgrace.

6/10 overall all things considered

[Flavs]

oh and one more thing, our "tactic" wont work if;

A: The centre forward is never near the goal
B: The inside forward from he opposite flank cant be bothered getting into the box.

FFS play 2 up front.

[Letters]

Very good defensively, horrible going forward, flat as a pancake.

Pretty much.
Depressingly similar to a lot of games last season, passed reasonably well, had most of the possession but never looked dangerous. No creative spark, too slow getting forward. Gervinho showed some promise but needs to add an end product.
Overall not a disasterous result, especially with Liverpool and Chelsea drawing too, but difficult to know where the goals will come from this season. Wilshere is the sort of player who can help us create chances so maybe we'll look better with him back.

Theo was shit during his cameo. Added nothing.