Quote Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn View Post
When was the last time an Arsenal team was equipped to defend a lead? We haven't been doing that since the days of Adams and Co, and even then we often had to score a few to ensure the win. Defending leads is important, no doubt. Scoring goals is even more important though. You're giving Arshavin and Theo a free ride here, claiming it's okay for them to play a few minutes out of the 90 and disappear for the rest because provided they get a goal between them or set one up it should then fall to the defence to hold the lead. Well yes, that's the defence's job but wouldn't it make it easier for them if Theo and Arshavin could play for 90 minutes and maybe make or score a couple of goals?

Arshavin is supposed to be one of the world's talents. Theo a bright up and coming England star (how many years now?) Suppose the formation is wrong, suppose the tactics stink. None of that explains the inefficiencies of these two players when they eventually make it into advantageous positions in the opposition's third. It's their poor decision making, their lack of care and consistency that costs us. Not just them, others are guilty too. But they repeatedly stand out.

The defence is decimated by injuries. Whether this is a legitimate excuse or not is debatable. Should we really have three lefts backs and three right backs in the squad? Can we afford that in terms of a limited number of places on the roster? We could argue about it all day long, but what's Theo's and Arshavin's excuse? They are first team players, they aren't injured, they get repeated chances to perform. Where are they?

We can crucify Ramsey, moan about Arteta, say they can't control the middle like we used to. But they do actually perform their job at least some of the time, they do win the possession, they do distribute the ball. Who are they giving it to though? For me that's the big problem.

It's pretty damn sad when a totally inexperienced kid from the lower leagues can come in and be more effective than Walcott on the wing. Move Theo into the centre and here's what you get:

Theo

As usual.

Where we are at the moment is either relying on van Persie to score twice in every game or for the defence to keep a clean sheet every match. That's because other players aren't contributing or they are contributing way too little. I'm fine with changing the formation and the tactics. No problem with that and I even agree Wenger is one dimensional. But that's the nature of the team we have. We are supposed to be relying on talent and intelligence on the pitch. Our whole game used to be keep the ball, move it, wear the opponent down and out. Score more goals than them. We have a team that's (supposedly) geared towards that style of play. But the quality has dropped alarmingly through lack of investment and theft of the resources by the board. If Wenger was wrong to hold on to the money the cunts on the board were sure as hell wrong to stick it all in their pockets and do a runner. If you want to play various formations and variable tactics then perhaps we need a new manager, but we need a new team too don't forget.
If you look at the losses against Fulham and Swansea, you'd see that we gave away the ball constantly in the middle of the park and couldn't win it back. That is why we lost. For me, Arshavin and Theo like RVP are attacking players. They can be quiet for 40 minutes but have one second where they produce that one pass or shot that changes the game. That's what has been happening for a while now. We've struggled through games but been able to win because we haven't been dominated by the opposition. The two games where we've been outplayed recently have resulted in losses and us conceding goals. I'm not excusing them, just saying it's the sort of position where a lack of quality in the final third means we draw more games or win by a very small margin. If the midfield can't control the game, it reduces the amount of chances our attackers get to create chances and if we have guys on the field that need 4 or 5 opportunities to play in a great ball, then we're in trouble if they're only 2 or 3 chances a game. It's a knock on affect. Henry wasn't always a super clinical striker but you could trust us to always dominate possession and get those chances. It's the same for Adebayor. You can get away with it if you have a strong midfield always controlling the game. I'm not saying it's the way to go, just the way it is.

These guys have been here for a long time and it's bad management from Wenger to keep playing them if they can't produce. It also annoys me because we're talking about two players that are playing out of position. This isn't something new. Wenger played Eboue on the wings for a season until the guy was booed off the field. He played Diaby on the flanks and it took him ages to play the guy in the centre, his natural position. Why is he making the same sort of decisions? Gervinho had a rep for being sloppy in the final third but we went for him anyway. That's Wenger's call.