Originally Posted by
Globalgunner
The subs had everything to do with it because football is as much about mentality as it is tactics and physicality. Ozil is a ball retention master, even when you think he is tired his mastery of the ball makes him the person you want in the other teams half to receive a long punt from the defence. He was not tired yesterday and the look on his face at being subbed tells everything.
If you are under pressure the last think to do is to cram into your own half and hope for the best. If you are going to defend for the last 10 mins, then you better be dammed good at it. We are patently not and our defensive performance all game had been ropey talk less of in the last 10 mins facing a barrage of attcks.
Pool were losing and the sight of our best player coming off only served to galvanise them back into action. You defend best with tactics not bodies. What did Arteta do for the 10 mins or so he was on except back us into our own box.
I have always wondered why managers order teams back into the box when they lose a player to a red card. What I would do is keep my fastest player on the half way line and tell my players to punt the ball up to him each opportunity they get. What this does is force the other team to keep at least 2 players in their own half instead of cramming the entire play into our own half. Basically this eves up the game as they need 2 players to take care of 1.
Wenger thinks he knows tactics, he patently doesn't because his 1 trick keeps getting rolled over almost every time he deploys it. He was happy at getting the point yesterday because basically he had prepared to get beat.
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