Match Reaction Vs. West Bromwich Albion

[Coney]

It would take £50-60mill to buy him.

DAMN!

Yes, but he's worth 80. Maybe if I throw in this gourd?

[Syn]

Francesc is brilliant very good player. In contrast to the diving, poncy Cesc you might've seen playing for Barca yesterday, he showed in 09/10 that he was a fighter and didn't shy away from a battle. He has goals in him and a shitload of assists and is almost the complete midfielder. But we did a lot to make sure that we built the team around him. That meant playing to his strengths and avoiding the one weakness he did have...which is he doesn't have an engine - the ability to sprint back and forwards for 90 mins. The thing about a possession style and not recklessly committing men forward is that you make the opposition work, but you don't break a sweat. The thing about playing a counter-attacking style is that if you're not an athlete, you're going to struggle to chase opponents back after Walcott runs into the defender. You saw Ramsey sprinting forward in the 92nd minute vs. Chelsea for Robin's 5th goal...that is Wilshere or Ramsey, but it's not Fabregas. Fabregas is obviously a much better player but his strengths didn't translate into the type of style the rest of the team needed us to play.

On the other hand, I think Nasri fucking off is a massive loss. Playing him in the centre could've turned him into some sort of Messi-lite. He's that talented imo.

Also agree with PnG that fullbacks that aren't totally shit at attacking has also made a massive difference.

Goes without saying that this style of football, work ethic etc. has to continue over a much larger period than 8 or so games for it to count as evidence that we have changed.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Yes, Man City will be a big challenge with the attacking options be interesting to see how our defence copes with them.

Anyway we're doing the job at the moment and playing catchup well enough, not getting any closer to Man City but then we're not going to win the title so I guess it doesn't matter too much.

You can see we aree playing without pressure tbh, we know where we stand and we know what we have to do. 4th is the target. For once Spurs can have all the pressure tbh, im happy with the way we are. like you say lets not get too carried away because with this team anything can happen lol.

id like to see us be a bit more ambitious in the cups we can win tbh.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Cesc in the current squad would be decent. It's the change of full backs and wingers that have really changed things around. We've got more movement ahead of us. When he was in the squad with Henry and co, he was fine. We had players with pace, but then we lost that and brought in too many slow players and too many central mids that don't attack directly.

Nah he'd the same imo. i think Nasri in the Cesc role would have been excellent and the movement would have been faster and better. Hopefully we get Hazard or Gotze.

[Syn]

Nah he'd the same imo. i think Nasri in the Cesc role would have been excellent and the movement would have been faster and better. Hopefully we get Hazard or Gotze.

Don't get the fuss about Hazard but saw Goatse.cx for the first time when we played Dortmund in the CL this season....there were a few Dortmund players that were brilliant; he was one of them. They seem a very good side.

[Cripps_orig]

Hopefully we get Hazard or Gotze.

Get both

[Power n Glory]

Nah he'd the same imo. i think Nasri in the Cesc role would have been excellent and the movement would have been faster and better. Hopefully we get Hazard or Gotze.

Cesc playing where Arteta is playing would be perfect. That's the old Cesc role. Always felt we played him too far ahead up field in his last few seasons. When he was young playing deeper in the 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 he was miles better. The days when Hleb would play ahead of him in the hole. That's what Wenger should have done while Cesc and Nasri were still here. It never happend.

[Master Splinter]

Fabregas is playing almost as a second striker for Barcelona and Spain too.

He doesn't have the defensive nous or the engine to play deeper, hence all his managers utilising his lock-picking, finishing and general all-round incisive attacking game to it's fullest.

[Power n Glory]

He plays there because they have Xavi and Iniesta.

In his season playing alongside Flamini, he was up and down the pitch putting in tackles. As he's grown, he's gotten faster and his off the ball movement and runs have improved. It's why he's playing up front for Barca. But if Wenger had played him in a deeper role, he'd still be very effective and would have improved his defensive game. He started to develop a real nasty slide tackle but we we saw less of that as he was pushed further forward.

He's a CM and his best days for us were years before when he was sitting deeper. That's when we played some of our best football.

[milla]

He plays there because they have Xavi and Iniesta.

In his season playing alongside Flamini, he was up and down the pitch putting in tackles. As he's grown, he's gotten faster and his off the ball movement and runs have improved. It's why he's playing up front for Barca. But if Wenger had played him in a deeper role, he'd still be very effective and would have improved his defensive game. He started to develop a real nasty slide tackle but we we saw less of that as he was pushed further forward.

He's a CM and his best days for us were years before when he was sitting deeper. That's when we played some of our best football.

Fabregas is a second striker at Barcelona, at least that's how they see him. In his early days playing for Barca youth, Fabregas (together with Messi) was scoring goals for fun.