Invincibles vs Current Squad MNF Video

[Injury Time]

Anyhoo surely thread should be renamed "Invisbles vrs Invisibles #Wengerstealingaliving"?
"I did not zee any top top quality zignings az I was looking down some ow you say "bint's" top."

[Mr. Lahey]

I'll keep saying it - we have no cunts in the team. Almost zero cynicism.

Get that back into the spine of the first eleven and you'll see a massive difference.

Every successful team has their fair share, we used to. It's no surprise that since they left, we haven't won the league. We used to have players opposing teams loved to hate. Now? Not really. Just written off as skilful technicians.

The biggest problem was that the essential pub ethic that is so essential to winning the PL wasn't passed on by the Invincibles as it was to them by the back four of old. They all shipped out of the club too quickly and so there was no continuation of that ethic. Wenger was never going to instil it, that had to from the players but Wenger clearly didn't value it highly enough. That has been one of his biggest mistakes, especially when he leaves his players to their own devices to much.

Agreed - there was a mentality in those teams that did not put up with any BS from other teams but could dish it out themselves. GN and JC highlighted it in the video, those Arsenal teams had other teams scared in the tunnel before the game because they knew they were in for a fight, GN "it was never fun to play games against Arsenal". Im a believer in the psychological aspect of sport and I do believe that this does influence the outcome of matches.

[I am invisible]

Yes, I agree with you on that. Henry said the arrival of Cesc changed the mentality as well and he's probably right. It's a combination of it all. But the question is how do we sort this problem out? Can we go back to our old way of playing? The thing I noticed more about the start of last season was the focus we had on defending deeper, holding our shape and counter attacking. Remember there was a period where we were happy to let our opponents have the ball or maybe it was the lack of cohesion in the middle that gave that impression. But as we grow more efficient with our passing and try to play in our opponents half, we have no space to work with. It's the tippy tappy crap. What's worse, even in games where there was space in the final third like in the Liverpool game, we're not looking to break on the team and attack the space behind. Maybe that's down to the wrong players being on the pitch but that probing for an opening style we have needs to go.

I certainly prefer watching that more open, counter-attacking game, but I guess the inherent problem with it is that it only really works as long as the other team are actually prepared to attack if you let them have the ball. What happens when the other team turn up with the same gameplan though? Does it still work? I think this is where we tend to get suckered back into that tippy-tappy, probing, passing stuff - when you're charging the fans as much as we are, you simply can't justify letting the game descend into a turgid mexican stand-off, and it's usually us that ends up having to make the first move because of it.

I'm not sure what the answer is, to be honest mate - maybe there isn't one? As you say, pick the right players for the right game, make sure you have some decent variety on the bench if you get it wrong, and then see where the game takes you...

[Kano]

Agreed - there was a mentality in those teams that did not put up with any BS from other teams but could dish it out themselves. GN and JC highlighted it in the video, those Arsenal teams had other teams scared in the tunnel before the game because they knew they were in for a fight, GN "it was never fun to play games against Arsenal". Im a believer in the psychological aspect of sport and I do believe that this does influence the outcome of matches.

The whole period when we were challenging for titles regularly featured games where we'd pick up yellows and a stack of red cards - I think over two thirds of the sending offs we collected under Wenger were by players who who were in those teams. It is no coincidence that since our overall discipline improved, our general performance levels have dropped. As you said, there was a fear about playing our old teams, not just because of their ability but because they knew they would impose themselves physically on their opponents too. But you don't just gain the rep of being a bastard by just being a thug, there is a lot more that goes into the dark arts of managing a game and undermining the opposition.

[Power n Glory]

I certainly prefer watching that more open, counter-attacking game, but I guess the inherent problem with it is that it only really works as long as the other team are actually prepared to attack if you let them have the ball. What happens when the other team turn up with the same gameplan though? Does it still work? I think this is where we tend to get suckered back into that tippy-tappy, probing, passing stuff - when you're charging the fans as much as we are, you simply can't justify letting the game descend into a turgid mexican stand-off, and it's usually us that ends up having to make the first move because of it.

I'm not sure what the answer is, to be honest mate - maybe there isn't one? As you say, pick the right players for the right game, make sure you have some decent variety on the bench if you get it wrong, and then see where the game takes you...

Very true. The opposition need to be willing to attack in order to be counter attacked. But over the past couple of seasons, teams are a lot braver and willing to attack us. I'm thinking of teams like Swansea, Everton and Southampton. Not in all cases of course, but in such cases where teams park the bus, we shouldn't be so obsessed with keeping possession. If they've been preparing all week without the ball, let's put the onus on them to keep possession for periods and see how comfortable they are on the ball. We may be able to capitalise off their mistakes and sloppy passing. All depends if . we can get the energy levels up and team willing to defend as a unit and press. We'll see what the season brings but we have to try something new.

[Özim]

We had better players (don't care what anyone says but almost all of those players were better than what we have, either as a unit or individually), we had much more aggresion in the team, we had better goalscorers and had more winners who fought for every ball (just look at our workrate compared to now) and we played much better football (more inventive, less predictable and generally less boring to watch).

Night and day for me, one was a world class team the other is a wannabe world class team who's egoes are massaged by Wenger, bar 2-3 players none of the guys we have today would even get in the squad.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Four or five players for me (and that's in the first team)

Would take Cech over Lehmann
Koscielny over Toure
Ozil (wouldn't take him over Bergkamp but probably couldn't play 4-4-2 now days)
Sanchez over Ljungberg
Bellerin over Lauren

Coquelin would get in the squad
Gabriel miles better than Pascal Cygan
A lot of players in our squad better than Edu
Walcott and Ox for me better than Reyes


The unbeaten side we have a magnificent first eleven but actually the squad depth wasn't brilliant

[Marc Overmars]

What made them great was that the team was the optimum sum of it's parts. Partnerships all over the pitch and teamwork in abundance, all of them were warriors.

The depth wasn't brilliant but we had reliable players like Wiltord, Kanu and Edu who could seamlessly slot in.

[Bumble]

What made them great was that the team was the optimum sum of it's parts. Partnerships all over the pitch and teamwork in abundance, all of them were warriors.

The depth wasn't brilliant but we had reliable players like Wiltord, Kanu and Edu who could seamlessly slot in.

Don't forget the Romford Pele too.

I would have Lauren ahead of Bellerin too. Keown was around the squad as well. You also knew the best 11 so they could build understandings. They were fast and strong and skilful. The best team to have played in the Premier League ever.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

What made them great was that the team was the optimum sum of it's parts. Partnerships all over the pitch and teamwork in abundance, all of them were warriors.

The depth wasn't brilliant but we had reliable players like Wiltord, Kanu and Edu who could seamlessly slot in.

I'd agree with that to an extent, it was the cohesiveness of the well oiled machine rather than just individual brilliance that made that side (although we did have brilliant individuals).

Henry summed it up on MNF, it's something I have felt for a while and have said on here but Fabregas was the game changer and even now we seem to set up in a way that was originally geared to accommodate him.

What we had before hand was far more direct, win the ball back in defence, run one, two Maybe three passes and then in on goal. Lightning thrust counter attack....players in support overlapping it was hard to defend against....one second you've won a corner and ten seconds later you're picking the ball out of your own net.