Match Reaction v Barca (home) 15/16

[Globalgunner]

Yes. Good summary. I really don't feel that angry towards the team or Wenger for last night. What we needed against the best team in the world was a 100% flawless display - but that is an almost impossible feat to achieve in any game. Merts played well - apart from his mistake, but if we are objective how many CB's have games where they don't put a foot wrong - the difference is that they don't have Messi waiting to capitalise. Flamini didn't mean to give away the pen. We all know he's a loose cannon - but he was retained for cover and to a degree its not his fault that he is being used as a 'go to' guy lately.

Up front we are misfiring - but I don't buy simply that all our forward players are off form. Barca missed a few chances of their own, but these are forgotten when you win. What concerns me more is how ponderous we are in the build up; and how lacking in composure we are in front of goal. This looks to me like players trying too hard - and not finding the rhythm and understanding required. This particularly applied to Sanchez last night - whose biggest flaw in my view is trying to take on too much and do too much himself.

Yes - we can rail against Wenger for not bringing in a better striker - but for me that's a debate for elsewhere. Last night's results showed simply the difference between us and a world class team.

And why is it that we dont have a world class team?

Too poor to afford it: Nope
Team in wrong location to attract players: Nope
Too small a stadium for big events: Nope

The answer is simple except for those too besotted with mediocrity or too afraid to fall behind 4th place:
PS. It is going to happen soon anyways.

[IBK]

Giroud wouldn’t be starting if he played under Pep or Klopp. He’s 29 and doesn’t have the feet or agility to score in tight spaces. Under a long ball coach that plays a direct style, he’d fair better. Most of his chances, best chances come when the ball is whipped in or looped in high. We saw that yesterday where he forced a good save. No idea what he was thinking yesterday with that other opportunity. It can’t be all down to the coaching. Put Sanchez, Ramsey, Welbeck, Walcott, Campbell, Ox in that situation, they’d be going for goal. They’d miss by a country mile but if the ball is on their preferred foot in that situation they’re looking for goal.

It boils down to intelligence, confidence and the mentality of the player in the final third. In the first two thirds of the game I believe we coach the tippy tappy stuff. When probing away and looking to create an opportunity, yes, I believe Wenger prefer we stay calm, keep possession and look for the ball. But when in the danger zone your instinct to sense a goal scoring opportunity should take over. It’s like an idiot still looking for the pass when the goal is open and the keeper is nowhere to be found. The players should be intelligent enough to break away from the coached philosophy. Use some damn initiative when it’s that blatant. They’re footballers not programmed robots.

On the flipside, you have cases where Wenger is encouraging players to go for goal. Take Ozil as an example, a player reluctant to shoot. He’s set him a goal target and wants him to go for goal more. With Theo, he’s said he needs to be more aggressive when going forward. I think Ox was set a goal target too. I’ll defend Wenger on this one. I think we sometimes try to hog possession and don’t go for long range punts enough but I also think he has bought players that can’t shoot or are very low on confidence in front of goal.

For once I'm not so sure I agree with you on this. I think Giroud has excellent feet and reactions for a big striker. His size means that he is not the most maneuverable in tight situations, but I think its a bit harsh to blame the player for this. I do feel that he is coached to lay off the ball for others, and to pick up one two's - and I would agree that his decision making last night reflected perhaps being wedded too much to this approach.

Striking wise I feel that our problem is that 90% of the time we deny ourselves any space in which to create proper chances. I've said before that our build up play compresses so many bodies in front of the opposition's goal that snatched chances or otherwise, it is almost impossible to score. We look impatient in the final third, and it hugely frustrates me to see so many of our final passes go astray - its almost as though there is no telepathy between the ball carriers and those whose job it is to make runs...unless its a piece of genius from Ozil, or Cazorla's on the pitch. This team looks unbalanced, and IMHO this is why scoring is being made to look so difficult.

[IBK]

And why is it that we dont have a world class team?

Too poor to afford it: Nope
Team in wrong location to attract players: Nope
Too small a stadium for big events: Nope

The answer is simple except for those too besotted with mediocrity or too afraid to fall behind 4th place:
PS. It is going to happen soon anyways.

Oh don't get me wrong - I feel that we are hindered by a manager in thrall to his own principles; and an owner/board wedded to making money most efficiently rather than winning things. But in terms of where we actually are and an analysis of last night's game wishful thinking is for another day.

[KSE Comedy Club]

Yep, Wenger doesn't have the right personnel to execute this over-complicated system he insists on trying to implement.

He needs better players in many of the keys positions.

The sad thing is we were beaten before a ball was kicked last night IMO, knowing full well that we had severe question marks hanging over the spine of the team, we were worried about Merts, worried about Central Midfield and worried about Giroud. Wenger will get nowhere if he doesn't upgrade certain positions and sort out his recruitment policy.

It honestly feels like he's trying to compete with one hand tied behind his back, it's ridiculous.

Whilst I agree with you about the transfer policy, it doesn't change the glaringly obvious fact that under a better manager we could have won last night quite easily.

Put out that team with Fergie or someone or pep, etc in charge and the result is completely different.

Whatever it is Wengers vision of what the players should be doing and how the game should be played is now, after 12 years, irrelevant and nothing more than a pipe dream.

It's like trying to finish a puzzle with parts from a different jigsaw and waiting for them to fit and make the picture look good, and when it fails, finding bits from another jigsaw and hoping for the same thing.

Never going to happen. Time to move on and try someone / something new.

[IBK]

Whilst I agree with you about the transfer policy, it doesn't change the glaringly obvious fact that under a better manager we could have won last night quite easily.

Put out that team with Fergie or someone or pep, etc in charge and the result is completely different.

Whatever it is Wengers vision of what the players should be doing and how the game should be played is now, after 12 years, irrelevant and nothing more than a pipe dream.

It's like trying to finish a puzzle with parts from a different jigsaw and waiting for them to fit and make the picture look good, and when it fails, finding bits from another jigsaw and hoping for the same thing.

Never going to happen. Time to move on and try someone / something new.

Really? I'm not sure that a different manager would have prevented the individual mistakes that led to Barca scoring - or put the ball in the net for us. Personally, I was quite surprised how effective Wenger's tactics were for the most part last night - both in terms of defending against their frightening strike force and creating chances.

[Kano]

Yes. Good summary. I really don't feel that angry towards the team or Wenger for last night. What we needed against the best team in the world was a 100% flawless display - but that is an almost impossible feat to achieve in any game. Merts played well - apart from his mistake, but if we are objective how many CB's have games where they don't put a foot wrong - the difference is that they don't have Messi waiting to capitalise. Flamini didn't mean to give away the pen. We all know he's a loose cannon - but he was retained for cover and to a degree its not his fault that he is being used as a 'go to' guy lately.

Up front we are misfiring - but I don't buy simply that all our forward players are off form. Barca missed a few chances of their own, but these are forgotten when you win. What concerns me more is how ponderous we are in the build up; and how lacking in composure we are in front of goal. This looks to me like players trying too hard - and not finding the rhythm and understanding required. This particularly applied to Sanchez last night - whose biggest flaw in my view is trying to take on too much and do too much himself.

Yes - we can rail against Wenger for not bringing in a better striker - but for me that's a debate for elsewhere. Last night's results showed simply the difference between us and a world class team.

The thing we’ve always been able to rely upon, even across the past ten years, has been a Wenger team that can score goals consistently. Even with the exact same squad last season, we were doing better than this. It is a mystery why now we’ve become so disastrous in-front of goal. Losing both Santi and Le Coq affected the cohesiveness of our midfield, something we haven’t got back since November.

Yet the chances are still being created but ultimately wasted. We used to have goals from midfield if the strikers weren’t firing – now we aren’t. Sanchez also needs to think about a different approach to his forward game. Everything he receives on the left is shifted onto his right, which defences in the Prem and Europe know, which is just as big a reason why he has been ineffective since his return from injury.

[KSE Comedy Club]

Really? I'm not sure that a different manager would have prevented the individual mistakes that led to Barca scoring - or put the ball in the net for us. Personally, I was quite surprised how effective Wenger's tactics were for the most part last night - both in terms of defending against their frightening strike force and creating chances.

Their frightening strike force really wasn't all that frightening for the first 70 mins.

And yes, really, it would be different.

We would More than likely have a more aggressive approach to winning, more desire to win, better training with set pieces and attacking options, a stronger & more drilled defence (even though they were pretty good tbf) and none of the useless sideways tippy tappy shit when we get to the 18 yard box.

That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure other people can fill in some more of the blanks with this.

A new direction is needed, has been for years and years.

[Letters]

And why is it that we dont have a world class team?

Too poor to afford it: Nope
Team in wrong location to attract players: Nope
Too small a stadium for big events: Nope

The answer is simple except for those too besotted with mediocrity or too afraid to fall behind 4th place:

There isn't a team in England who can live with Barca despite other teams spending significantly more than us on their squads.

PS. It is going to happen soon anyways.

So people have been saying for the last 5 years...

[IBK]

The thing we’ve always been able to rely upon, even across the past ten years, has been a Wenger team that can score goals consistently. Even with the exact same squad last season, we were doing better than this. It is a mystery why now we’ve become so disastrous in-front of goal. Losing both Santi and Le Coq affected the cohesiveness of our midfield, something we haven’t got back since November.

Yet the chances are still being created but ultimately wasted. We used to have goals from midfield if the strikers weren’t firing – now we aren’t. Sanchez also needs to think about a different approach to his forward game. Everything he receives on the left is shifted onto his right, which defences in the Prem and Europe know, which is just as big a reason why he has been ineffective since his return from injury.

Yes - but we were scoring far more freely earlier in the season. I don't know if this is reflected in the stats, but so many of our chances ATM seem to be snatched opportunities inside and around the opposition's box - and for sure we don't have a goal poacher in the team. How many times does the opposition's goalkeeper seem to have an outstanding game - meaning that we may have a lot of shots but they are saveable. For me there are 2 issues. First, we are undoubtedly unbalanced without Cazorla in MF - and its a bit of a worry that our midfield has seemed like a constant experiment for much of the past 5 years - and that no other player seems to be able to replicate what Santi does. Second (and undoubtedly related) is our transition from MF forwards. This is either ponderous (if we retain the ball) or hurried, and we end up simply conceding possession in the final third.


Barca last night was an object lesson in how to control a game. Their attempts to find an opening were easily dealt with by us in the first half, so in the second half they concentrated on keeping possession, and waiting for that one opening that would bring the opportunity. Unlike us, they were very patient, and generally waited for a clear opportunity to pass to a player with some space before attempting anything. When we try the same, so often there is no real opportunity on for the forward player, or we else get the pass wrong.


So maybe our players are low on confidence/composure, but for me, our system and its execution is the main problem.

[IBK]

Their frightening strike force really wasn't all that frightening for the first 70 mins.

And yes, really, it would be different.

We would More than likely have a more aggressive approach to winning, more desire to win, better training with set pieces and attacking options, a stronger & more drilled defence (even though they were pretty good tbf) and none of the useless sideways tippy tappy shit when we get to the 18 yard box.

That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure other people can fill in some more of the blanks with this.

A new direction is needed, has been for years and years.

The frightening strike force was not frightening because we dealt with it - and I think that our manager and players deserve some credit for that. I don't think that a more aggressive approach would have worked either - it would have left us more exposed and more than likely brought a conceded goal sooner. I am with you in relation to the criticisms of our approach - that has been our undoing several times this season. But last night was simply down to a couple of defensive errors for which we were punished, and one or two instances of profligate finishing - not the team set up, tactics or system.