Quote Originally Posted by Dein-machine View Post
Have nothing to say about what we saw Sat other than to those who think that Wenger leaving may harm us - Get used to this shit, you've got it for another few years.
The problem for me started after the Invincible season & as some of those players started to leave. We had a blue-print, something that worked for us & cetainly worked in the P.L. However, like many others Wenger became infatuated with the new brand of passing football being shown by Barca. With a young Messi, Ronaldinho, Iniesta, Xavi etc, all of us started to watch C.L. highlights & Spanish football to watch the brilliance of Barca.
Wenger being a fan of the passing game felt this was the way forward, so we see the emphasis moved from power & physicality in midfield to small, nimble players.
However because of his transfer policies, we have only been able to buy poor replicas of the players above & the ONLY way the Barca plan can work is if you have absolute quality in all attacking positions. The difference in the footballing brain of a Xavi or Iniesta compared to those midfielders we've had in the past decade is huge. Only Fabregas would be in their bracket but obviously not close enough according to Barca.
With the possession we enjoy in most games, especially in & around the opponents area, the percentage of chances we create is very poor. Most opponents attacks are started by us losing possession in this area. We are simply not good enough to play "eye of the needle" football, we don't have the quality.
This emphasis on passing your opponents to death also leads to taking your defending for granted. You look at full backs who can bomb on & link up with play rather than full backs who can defend. If you have a team continually losing the ball due to passing errors or lack of movement then you will be prone to the counter attack, with defenders committed upfield - sound familiar!
The other issue is that the small nimble players can go missing in the winter months when even P.L pitches get boggy & the weather has a say.
Wenger wont be told that he doesn't have the ability to get a team playing like Barca, maybe he does, but not unless he buys quality & stops the bargain hunting. Even so, I'm not sure the Barca way would be such a success in English football - the power & pace of the Invincibles is what he should have tried to maintain.
I think we have about 7 or 8 of the 11 who are of the right physical/technical quality but we lack steel at CM and CB.

One of the major issues we have is the manager's reluctance to adapt, his lack of tactical nous and insistance on playing slow tippy tappy through the middle.