Match Reaction vs Mongs

[Power n Glory]

Years ago I remember being infuriated that Wenger had replaced Viera with Cesc. Cesc was talented but too young to take up the burden He would slow our play down so much, then what does Wenger do? Build the team around him. We went form having a powerful, mobile, box to box all rounder, complemented by a sitter in Gilberto to an young inexperienced AMF learning to play CMF and slowing our counters down, and with Gilberto being a sitter we now had sitters. Later on Cesc came good but it took a while when because wasn't ready for the role.

Then Wenger changed to a possession based style intead of our faster movement based attacking style, and here we are. Little movement, dribbling and penetration, just sideways and backwards passing.

I never understood that theory. Cesc plays like he has eyes at the back of his hand and can release an inch perfect pass that sets us off on attack in one move. Surely it's down to the players he's surrounded by and the opposition we face. Games vary. Just look at the contrast between our style in the Champs League when we reached the final to our actual league performance. We were restricted to counter attacks in the Champs League and it was pretty successful when you think of the goals we scored. None of this pinning teams back and trying to break them down, we were hitting teams on the break.

In the league, teams were scared to come out and play against us. They'd park the bus, restricted space between the lines and stay compact. You also have to consider the fact that we played with a 4-4-2 for a very long time whilst other Prem teams were playing 4-5-1 or 4-3-3. They always had an extra man in the middle that could press Cesc and Gilberto. Cesc able to evade tackles and pass it off without getting rushed and he'd make the right pass 9/10 times. But Gilberto struggled when pressed and couldn't get the ball from out under his feet or made hurried passes that put someone else under pressure. It was a major issue always have a 2 v 3 situation in the middle of the park and Wenger took too long to address the issue. We finally started playing great possession football and opening teams up when we played 4-3-3/4-5-1. But again, Wenger still cocked things up on squad selection. Playing guys like Nasri, Rosicky or Hleb on the flanks was one issue, but it's extreme when you see him persist with Eboue or Diaby on the flanks. Why? In fact, it took him an age to play Diaby deeper in the midfield like Vieria when he was actually fit. He kept playing him out wide or behind the striker.

Then we have Denilson....fuck knows what he was thinking with that one.

He needs to get his squad selection right and recognise when a certain combination of players won't work. We've always been a team that's held more possession than the opposition. He's from the school of Total Football and his philosophy hasn't changed. I think he's out of ideas and now it's just luck of the draw for us. When he won accolades years ago in this league, it was weaker and we had players light years ahead of the opposition. It's all changed now and he's really struggling.

[Ernesto]

I also think that this team knows it has more or les reached its target (top 4) and can afford to take things easily now. These players and manager only get going when their beloved trophy is in danger of slipping away. When Villa were good in 08/09, Wenger went out and bought Arshavin and gave a really good go to make sure we finished top 4. Last season, when we lost to Spuds and looked likely to miss out, the team suddently found their mojo and got there in the end.

I just think that they only get going if/when CL footy is in danger.

This is what I'm hoping. The examples of Villa in 08/09 and Spurs last season are very apt, because they were very good sides (didn't Villa record the record number of EPL away wins in a row in 08/09?) We did well to overhaul them.

In a roundabout way, with the right results, we could find that we are STILL in the title race once Wenger finds that CL football might be jeopardised and asks his players to put extra effort in for the next few big games.

Hope being the operative word

[milla]

That makes me sad. People have lost faith quickly and it's all so predictable. We should have bought in January but I also have no idea why we didn't turn up today. Wenger gave the players a two day rest!

People have lost faith for quite few years but they still coming back because they love the club. They have every right to have a go at Wenger and club's top hierarchy.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

People have lost faith for quite few years but they still coming back because they love the club. They have every right to have a go at Wenger and club's top hierarchy.

Da

[I am invisible]

Reading that we should've taken Liverpool to court over Suarez, he did have a £40m clause, the cunts played it out perfectly

John Henry has admitted that Suarez did have a £40m buyout clause but refused to sell him, gambling on Arsenal not taking them to court [AR]

Ffs, should've pressed harder , offered £50m and we'd have signed him.

I guess we can look forward to a week of apologies from all the ex Liverpool cronies then, who were slating us for the insulting / disrespectful / risible / disgraceful / classless / etc way we conducted our business last summer, with our offer of £40m and 1p? Which, as it turns out, was all we were obliged to offer...

[Niall_Quinn]

I guess we can look forward to a week of apologies from all the ex Liverpool cronies then, who were slating us for the insulting / disrespectful / risible / disgraceful / classless / etc way we conducted our business last summer, with our offer of £40m and 1p? Which, as it turns out, was all we were obliged to offer...

Very much doubt it, although as it turns out Henry has the least integrity of anyone concerned. Maybe that's why he shouted loudest.

[I am invisible]

Very much doubt it, although as it turns out Henry has the least integrity of anyone concerned. Maybe that's why he shouted loudest.

A part of me actually thinks good on him? I mean, players and agents are quick enough to ignore what's in these contracts when it suits them, so you have to say turn around is fair play. It's the way we were ridiculed and mocked by all and sundry that's irked me. Were things like the 'What are they smoking at the Emirates?' comment really necessary? Was all the faux-indignation really necessary? Was it necessary to make every slight detail of what was going on public and to make such a big bloody deal about it? And yet we're the ones who came out of it apparently lacking class and respect, even though we pretty much just kept our mouths shut throughout the whole debacle.

We've also had to endure a season's worth of question marks about our lack of ambition, our competence in the transfer market, and even accusations of professional negligence on the part of the manager for not signing a striker, when, as it happens, we'd actually done everything that was necessary to sign one of Europe's best? I'd say 90% of the anger and in-fighting i've seen amongst our fans this season has stemmed from this one issue. Why didn't we sign a striker in the summer? (Well, actually we did everything necessary to sign probably the best option we could have got.) Why didn't we sign one in January? (This issue should have been irrelevant.) Giroud isn't good enough to start for a club like ours, our back-up options aren't good enough either, and we have no one who can score against our main rivals. (Suarez would have been plenty good enough to start, and Giroud would have been fine as back-up.) We're running some players into the ground because we don't have anyone else to play in those positions. (An extra body would have gone some way to helping that, especially one who can play right across the front line.) Özil is going to waste without having a world class striker to aim for. (Problem solved.) We don't have enough pace in the attack and lack variety in our shape and tactics. (Again, we'd be well on the way to addressing those problems too.) Even shock results like Saturday's would be easier to absorb, if we'd been scoring for fun all season long, and had more points on the board?! Sure, there'd still be some justifiable ranting and raving, but it might have meant the difference between just venting your spleen and moving on, and demanding that the manager, the board, the owner and half the team are burned at the stake?

Anyway... rant over. I don't like getting this riled by football, and I don't particularly like directing any of this at Liverpool, who I don't actually mind, when there are far bigger a-holes in the game. I just wish Henry's little bluff hadn't come at our expense, because it really has caused a lot of grief for us...

[selassie]

A part of me actually thinks good on him? I mean, players and agents are quick enough to ignore what's in these contracts when it suits them, so you have to say turn around is fair play. It's the way we were ridiculed and mocked by all and sundry that's irked me. Were things like the 'What are they smoking at the Emirates?' comment really necessary? Was all the faux-indignation really necessary? Was it necessary to make every slight detail of what was going on public and to make such a big bloody deal about it? And yet we're the ones who came out of it apparently lacking class and respect, even though we pretty much just kept our mouths shut throughout the whole debacle.

We've also had to endure a season's worth of question marks about our lack of ambition, our competence in the transfer market, and even accusations of professional negligence on the part of the manager for not signing a striker, when, as it happens, we'd actually done everything that was necessary to sign one of Europe's best? I'd say 90% of the anger and in-fighting i've seen amongst our fans this season has stemmed from this one issue. Why didn't we sign a striker in the summer? (Well, actually we did everything necessary to sign probably the best option we could have got.) Why didn't we sign one in January? (This issue should have been irrelevant.) Giroud isn't good enough to start for a club like ours, our back-up options aren't good enough either, and we have no one who can score against our main rivals. (Suarez would have been plenty good enough to start, and Giroud would have been fine as back-up.) We're running some players into the ground because we don't have anyone else to play in those positions. (An extra body would have gone some way to helping that, especially one who can play right across the front line.) Özil is going to waste without having a world class striker to aim for. (Problem solved.) We don't have enough pace in the attack and lack variety in our shape and tactics. (Again, we'd be well on the way to addressing those problems too.) Even shock results like Saturday's would be easier to absorb, if we'd been scoring for fun all season long, and had more points on the board?! Sure, there'd still be some justifiable ranting and raving, but it might have meant the difference between just venting your spleen and moving on, and demanding that the manager, the board, the owner and half the team are burned at the stake?

Anyway... rant over. I don't like getting this riled by football, and I don't particularly like directing any of this at Liverpool, who I don't actually mind, when there are far bigger a-holes in the game. I just wish Henry's little bluff hadn't come at our expense, because it really has caused a lot of grief for us...

Admittedly now that the whole "Suarez" saga has come out we were just unfortunate/unlucky regarding it. Liverpool's screaming and posturing was obviously their way of deflecting attention away from themselves and putting it onto us and unfortunately it worked. Ultimately, we fell short because Suarez didn't try and force through the move, he choose to stay at Liverpool. It was pretty impressive of Liverpool to keep their star player, how comes they can convince their star player to stay without the offer of any European football yet we struggle to keep ours even though we regularly qualify for CL?

Despite all the above regarding the Suarez saga, it should not be an excuse not to strengthen the attack, if Suarez wasn't available then we should have sought other options. We had all of the Summer to buy an upgrade on Giroud, regardless of that Suarez situation, we really should have had some kind of contingency/back up plan to buy someone else.

Our inability to strengthen problem areas has become a major problem for me and highlights our lack of planning in regards to player recruitment. It has happended once too many times to be called an accident and I personally think a club of our stature needs to operate a lot more efficiently in the market.

I accept that purchasing a world class striker in the January Market was nigh on impossible, yet we go looking for "crocked" central midfielders? Why? What on earth is that all about? It wasn't even a position we needed strengthening in?

[I am invisible]

Admittedly now that the whole "Suarez" saga has come out we were just unfortunate/unlucky regarding it. Liverpool's screaming and posturing was obviously their way of deflecting attention away from themselves and putting it onto us and unfortunately it worked. Ultimately, we fell short because Suarez didn't try and force through the move, he choose to stay at Liverpool. It was pretty impressive of Liverpool to keep their star player, how comes they can convince their star player to stay without the offer of any European football yet we struggle to keep ours even though we regularly qualify for CL?

Despite all the above regarding the Suarez saga, it should not be an excuse not to strengthen the attack, if Suarez wasn't available then we should have sought other options. We had all of the Summer to buy an upgrade on Giroud, regardless of that Suarez situation, we really should have had some kind of contingency/back up plan to buy someone else.

Our inability to strengthen problem areas has become a major problem for me and highlights our lack of planning in regards to player recruitment. It has happended once too many times to be called an accident and I personally think a club of our stature needs to operate a lot more efficiently in the market.

I accept that purchasing a world class striker in the January Market was nigh on impossible, yet we go looking for "crocked" central midfielders? Why? What on earth is that all about? It wasn't even a position we needed strengthening in?

Ah mate, don't get me started on Kallstrom! That was just bizarre, and I suspect it'll be another one like Park where we never really know why the hell he was signed?

As far as excuses go for the lack of a striker signing though, I think the ones we're looking at here are actually perfectly valid? If we're accepting that it's nigh on impossible to get someone decent in in January, then that pretty much leaves us looking at what happened in the summer, and, from what I'm now reading, it sounds like we generally did the thing, but just got screwed over by third parties not doing their jobs properly (by which I mean Suarez's incompetent agent and legal team)? They way a lot of people now like to tell it is that we abandoned a sure thing in Higuain for a total gamble in Suarez, but the truth is it was actually the other way round: the Higuain negotiations were dragging on and on and on, Real kept moving the goal posts over price, there was more competition from other clubs, and the player himself wasn't even 100% convinced about joining us - IMO, we abandoned that for a surer thing in Suarez, who had a set release clause that we were willing to pay, where there was no other competition from other clubs, and where the player was willing to join. Add to that he was (and is) a better, more versatile player and PL ready, and I'm not sure what other choice people would have made n the club's place? I'd certainly have done the same thing (bearing in mind, that, at the time, we didn't know what we know now). Unfortunately, these two deals conspired to waste virtually our whole summer (and, IMO, the Higuain talks wasted as much of our time as Suarez), and left us almost no time to sort anything else out of an acceptable standard - granted, there's an argument to be made that maybe we should have signed any old striker as a stop-gap, but we tried that with Ba (OK, maybe that was a bad choice on our part). And, as one of the blogs put it, we kind of already have 'any old striker' in Bendtner and Sanogo - I really don't think that kind of signing would have helped much.

What there will be no excuse for is not having a new target / list of targets already lined up for this summer, for not doing our background research properly, and for not getting down to business the very second the window opens. That may be tough in a WC year, but we should be laying the ground work now, sounding out agents, players and clubs. And I agree that we need to become A LOT more efficient at how we operate in the market - this big-spending malarky may be relatively new to us, but we need to get to grips with it fast! Like, in-the-next-3-months fast...

[Dein-machine]

I'm not sure why anyone is so surprised by Sat - we see the same every year & we will do for every year Wumger is manager. On the field his only claim to fame in the last 9 years is our continued C.L. qualification. I'm afraid we need to miss out this year for the board to even think about getting rid of him or him doing the decent thing & walking. What's the use of qualifying, whatever money we make from it won't be spent on adding quality & the lack of quality will mean a last 16 exit anyway. Tactically he has lost the plot & is out of his league against top managers nowadays. The Sonogo chance at the end of the game sums up Arsenal. If you don't buy quality, you don't get quality. That miss & some of Girouds this year could mean millions of pounds of lost revenue - do we build this into the equation when Wumger won't spend the extra to get the likes of a Suarez.