Match reaction: PSG 1-1 Arsenal

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Too true, about Cavani, I have always felt he was massively overrated, admittedly he looked great at Napoli but since he's moved on from Seria A he's looked a lost cause. His goal was good last night but he misses so many chances, last night wasn't a first for him either.

I found Chris Waddle's commentary on BT Sport 2 pretty amusing, he said we as in Arsenal are one of the best teams in CL at passing

Has he not watched CL for a while? There are a dozen teams better than us at passing in CL IMO.

The only thing i'd say is that how many times would a player like Giroud worked himself into positions that Cavani made for himself, his finishing was gubbens for sure but he shrugged off koscielny with worrying ease at times.

[Letters]

Give young people a lot of money early on and there is no need to improve themselves, they've already made it.

Exactly.

[GP]

Eh? I didn't see that.

No one did because it didn't happen.

[Kano]

Exactly.

I think that's way too simplistic.

For the majority of footballers, it is a game they love playing. They are no different from a lot of men who grew up from boys thinking too much about it, spent too much time talking about and now they get to play it and get paid amazing money too. The love for the game comes from just enjoying it, not because we dream of wanting to get paid from it.

Of course, money ruins some kids ambitions and drive to want to succeed. But there are so many trying to get through that they will be replaced by hungrier people all the time. The real coasters over the years have soon been found out and dumped. Look at Bendtner or Frimpong as two easy examples.

The game is played at a ridiculous pace in the PL now and with the increase in counter-attacking football, defences sitting back, congested midfields and high tempo closing down, the game has become increasingly messy across the entire league. Arsenal look like a team with little coherence and have down for a while but we are far from alone in that. The standard of the league has dropped considerably not because players don't care, don't want to win or play well but because the way everyone sets up leans towards kick and rush football, with little or no time for technical ability to take prominice.

Can we relate to this players as we once did? Definitely not because of their wages and that has caused a rift between the two. The flip side is of course, that fans can digest much more info and interact with more players outside of the pitch far more than they ever could. I'm pretty sure that players of decades gone by would have not had a second thought at taking the money on offer today. I don't think the old school player was any better in that regard, rather that the opportunity just wasn't there for them to earn like this.

[Penguin]

To my knowledge, I think Football is just any other jobs . The only difference is it is very popular and anyone who does not even play it can make a comment .

in any job you are given instructions by the Hierarchy on how to do it and they will ask you to use your own initiative in certain circumstances and be able to work as a team.

I don't think in football players are robots and have to follow every single instruction to the letter even when it is not relevant.

What I believe is every manager gives instructions to his players but they can fail to apply them due to their own " limited" ability or the opponents have prevented them to do so .

I agree to an extent but when a manager builds 4 or 5 different teams over a decade, and every team makes the same mistakes and has the same weaknesses there's something wrong.

Either A) all of the players we've signed are idiots who can't follow the manager's instructions, B) The manager isn't giving them clear instructions and letting them 'work it out themselves', or C) the manager is giving them the wrong instructions.

Probably it's a mix of all three.

[selassie]

The only thing i'd say is that how many times would a player like Giroud worked himself into positions that Cavani made for himself, his finishing was gubbens for sure but he shrugged off koscielny with worrying ease at times.

Agreed, both Kos and Mustafi were poor last night, like you said they were getting shrugged off the ball easily and pulled all over the place, Cavani's opener was preventable, the marking/positioning from them both was absolutely atrocious.

[Alpha]

I agree to an extent but when a manager builds 4 or 5 different teams over a decade, and every team makes the same mistakes and has the same weaknesses there's something wrong.

Either A) all of the players we've signed are idiots who can't follow the manager's instructions, B) The manager isn't giving them clear instructions and letting them 'work it out themselves', or C) the manager is giving them the wrong instructions.

Probably it's a mix of all three.

I can see where you are coming from even though I do not agree with any of your 3 points raised above .

A) Are all players we 've signed during Wenger era idiots ? Not at all but some were more talented and intelligents than others .
B) is the manager not giving clear instructions to the players ? No really . Otherwise , we wouldn't be where we are now . We are not the best but not the worst either . Even Tottenham fans would love to be in our position .
C) is Wenger giving them wrong instructions ? I don't agree at all . Wenger is a world class manager underestimated by his own fans .


But my personal view is Wenger tends to sign the same kind of players : physically small , technically gifted but mentally weak . Many of them can not resist any pressure . That has been the downside of his management.
Recently , he has shown same change by putting some steel in his ingredients with the emergence of Coquelin and the introduction of Elneny and Xhaka .
Cech having enough experience and guile to ease off some pressure, let's hope we will see different results in the coming years .
'

[selassie]

To my knowledge, I think Football is just any other jobs . The only difference is it is very popular and anyone who does not even play it can make a comment .

in any job you are given instructions by the Hierarchy on how to do it and they will ask you to use your own initiative in certain circumstances and be able to work as a team.

I don't think in football players are robots and have to follow every single instruction to the letter even when it is not relevant.

What I believe is every manager gives instructions to his players but they can fail to apply them due to their own " limited" ability or the opponents have prevented them to do so .

Fair point, but in Football you play games against opponents who each have their own strengths and weaknesses. As a manager it is their job to COACH and prepare the team to face the opponent and to deploy the required tactics/instructions for each game to nullify the opponents strength and take advantage of their weakness. That is Wenger's job, he doesn't necessarily need to Micro manage the players but he needs to be seen to be showing some kind of tactical nous and to be installing tactical discipline into the team as a whole.

If he is giving the players instruction and they are not following it then they should be dropped.

It wouldn't be so bad if these kind of performances from the team and certain members in it were one offs but we regularly see what appear to be teams that go out there with no tactics or sense of structure. It's baffling.

[Özim]

Wenger all smug in his interview saying our CL experience got us the result, no pal luck got us the result, we didn't deserve it and were lucky their forwards had an off day.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Wenger all smug in his interview saying our CL experience got us the result, no pal luck got us the result, we didn't deserve it and were lucky their forwards had an off day.

It wasn't an off day, it's the reason why they haven't got beyond the quarter finals of the ucl