The Arsenal Thread XIX

Original post by Pete_91

**** it let's just do our talking on the pitch, when we start winning loads of silverware again people will have no argument to make against us.

you can start with the FA cup.
once you get that, you can look ahead for greater things.
we both need to get winning the domestic cups - one of us should win the FA or League cup next year please; can't have city taking everything :tongue:

on the note of the FA cup, are you getting nervous or are you confident of a victory over hull?
i think you'll win easily; their two biggest attacking threats are cup tied (i think)
basically the signings that saved their season won't be against your defence.
nice one

Reply 2642

Original post by Luke_Mckeown

i agree - i didn't rate him a few years back, but his development (especially this season) has been tremendous!

i wish we had a centre back partnership like yours.

your big problem is the lack of pace of mertesacker
koscielny isn't slow by any means, but he isn't really fast either
plus, if mertesacker gets caught against a player like sterling for instance, that is big trouble - a faster CB would be beneficial, however your defence seems to work fine anyway atm, except in the big games for some reason.

Wenger's awful high line, and the full back's awful positioning, and Arteta's awful ability.

Reply 2643

Original post by manchesterunited15

Wenger's awful high line, and the full back's awful positioning, and Arteta's awful ability.

a high line seems like tactic suicide with mertesacker in your defence.
they are excellent aerially and it is hard to play through them, so a deep line is probably the best option

sometimes wenger baffles me.

Reply 2644

Original post by Luke_Mckeown

a high line seems like tactic suicide with mertesacker in your defence.
they are excellent aerially and it is hard to play through them, so a deep line is probably the best option

sometimes wenger baffles me.

He's either lost his touch or he's ridiculously stubborn to the extent that he'd rather lose than change his ways

Reply 2645

Original post by Luke_Mckeown

a high line seems like tactic suicide with mertesacker in your defence.
they are excellent aerially and it is hard to play through them, so a deep line is probably the best option

sometimes wenger baffles me.

Should play Vermaelen and Koscielny if you want to play a high line yeah, but the high line stuff wasn't such a terrible idea on paper. No pace in the team means we really needed to control possession in your half and try to pass our way through, so that necessitates pushing up. We did that at the Emirates and won at a canter a few months earlier. We did the same thing vs Bayern for 30m and did it very effectively too.Obviously it was a disaster, but I cant see what else we could have done with the personnel issues.

Mertesacker and Koscielny in a backs to wall situation are absolutely unbelievable. Good luck trying to cross into the box or try to dribble past Kosc in a tight area Especially when Sagna pushes in and basically becomes a 3rd CB. Wenger should have parked the bus at Anfield, but I think he'd prefer to lose 5-1 again than do that tbh

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2646

Original post by manchesterunited15

He's either lost his touch or he's ridiculously stubborn to the extent that he'd rather lose than change his ways

exactly - i've always rated him though

he seems to constantly make mistakes, but he always comes through in the end
he defies logic sometimes...

Reply 2647

Original post by Zürich

Wenger should have parked the bus at Anfield, but I think he'd prefer to lose 5-1 again than do that tbh

Stubborn like I said. That's terrible management tbh

Reply 2648

Original post by Zürich

Should play Vermaelen and Koscielny if you want to play a high line yeah, but the high line stuff wasn't such a terrible idea on paper. No pace in the team means we really needed to control possession in your half and try to pass our way through, so that necessitates pushing up. We did the same thing vs Bayern for 30m and did it very effectively too.Obviously it was a disaster, but I cant see what else we could have done with the personnel issues.

Mertesacker and Koscielny in a backs to wall situation are absolutely unbelievable. Good luck trying to cross into the box or try to dribble past Kosc in a tight area Especially when Sagna pushes in and basically becomes a 3rd centre park. Wenger should have parked the bus at Anfield, but I think he'd prefer to lose 5-1 again than do that tbh

sometimes it works very well
however it either works well or turns in to a complete disaster (i.e: 5-1)
you were very impressive against bayern, but terrible against us; it's a shame really.

basically, exactly what chelsea do, however you don't do it for 89 minutes of a match...
our problem is that we don't have defenders with special skills
skrtel is good at scoring, but he isn't exceptional at anything else defensively

we don't have a powerhouse who can head everything away, or a brick wall that can block everything
we just have bumbling idiots at times

our attackers must feel like they're in high school P.E, leaving all the rubbish kids in defence and looking back in horror.

Reply 2649

Original post by manchesterunited15

Stubborn like I said. That's terrible management tbh

Nobody's perfect.

Jose cant even manage his world class midfielders into creating any chances over 90m :rolleyes:

so it's all swings and roundabouts really.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2650

Original post by Zürich

Nobody's perfect.

Jose cant even manage his world class midfielders into creating any chances over 90m :rolleyes:

so it's all swings and roundabouts really.

But if Wenger knows that a tactic is not the most likely to win the game, why would he play it? That's different from simply not being a very good attacking coach like in Mourinho's case.

Reply 2651

Original post by manchesterunited15

But if Wenger knows that a tactic is not the most likely to win the game, why would he play it? That's different from simply not being a very good attacking coach like in Mourinho's case.

Wenger responded in an interview to that question with ''We have to play to our strengths, and my strength as a coach is to attack''

If we'd parked the bus we didn't have an outlet really. Zero pace as I say so you'd have Giroud up front doing **** all, needed to get our CAMs close to him. And we did beat LFC at home 2-0 with similar tactics and did them in the FA the following week too when we were offensive until we went 2-0 up. So as I say, it's not as crazy on paper. Had Walcott, Ramsey played the game would have been somewhat different too I believe.

Disclaimer: Severe Arsene Wenger apologist :colondollar:

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2652

Original post by Zürich

And we did beat LFC at home 2-0 with similar tactics and did them in the FA the following week too when we were offensive until we went 2-0 up. So as I say, it's not as crazy on paper. Had Walcott, Ramsey played the game would have been somewhat different too I believe.

Disclaimer: Severe Arsene Wenger apologist :colondollar:

on paper, you have had the beating of us this year annoyingly.

however that FA cup match was just unfair.
not trying to sound too bitter, but you were gifted the win there.

however you definitely outclassed us at the emirates in the league - one of the few matches this year where a team has simply been better than us everywhere in a game; annoying, but easier to take than a loss against chelsea and their bus.

the 5-1 at anfield made me feel a little better though i guess

Reply 2653

Original post by Luke_Mckeown

on paper, you have had the beating of us this year annoyingly.

however that FA cup match was just unfair.
not trying to sound too bitter, but you were gifted the win there.

Cant disagree here, messy goal from a set piece and then just hit you after the restart whilst you should have a pen and Fabianski was in octopus mode :colondollar:

Feels good man.

Reply 2654

Original post by Zürich

Cant disagree here, messy goal from a set piece and then just hit you after the restart whilst you should have a pen and Fabianski was in octopus mode :colondollar:

Feels good man.

i won't take anything away from you; you had 2 real chances and you scored them both.
that is the reason you won.

couldn't believe we lost that match though
howard webb has some kind of vendetta against us.

not to mention flappyhandski.
see, i can do it too... :wink:

Reply 2655

sevchenko

15

Original post by Luke_Mckeown

i agree - i didn't rate him a few years back, but his development (especially this season) has been tremendous!

i wish we had a centre back partnership like yours.

your big problem is the lack of pace of mertesacker
koscielny isn't slow by any means, but he isn't really fast either
plus, if mertesacker gets caught against a player like sterling for instance, that is big trouble - a faster CB would be beneficial, however your defence seems to work fine anyway atm, except in the big games for some reason.

Honestly can you name me name a "fast defender"

Yes we all know Mert "lacks pace" but his intelligent positioning and superb tackling compensates for this. He's ability to pre-empt the passage of play and act accordingly in defence excellent. Don't you think every manager knows Mert's pace is a potential weakness to exploit? Arsenal don't allow Mert to get exposed. It's all about simple effective covering and constant communication between the back five and Arteta.

The reason why the Arsenal CB partnership is so successful is because Mert and Kos compliment each other so well and Arsenal as a team defend quite well. Kos uses his acceleration to close down the advancing players and at the same time Mert moves to cover the space Kos has left open. If a player get's past Kos it's guaranteed he ain't getting past Mert and if he gets past Mert he has Chesney to deal with.

Even in 1 on 1 situations Mert's basic defence instincts kicks in. He denies the attacker space to dribble the ball into forcing the attacker to go left and right in search of space. All the while the team is tracking back to help.

Reply 2656

shawn_o1

21

Yeah, I just realised "APC" is actually "ARS" in Cyrillic script

Reply 2657