Arsenal thread 2011/12

[Daveth]

Why oh why have they put the sponsor on the Henry statue... what happens when they switch sponsors? :O

It looks more like Theo Walcott.

 

[alky313]

That sponsor was the one they had while Henry was playing with them.

 

[pudge]

Why oh why have they put the sponsor on the Henry statue... what happens when they switch sponsors? :O

Erm.. they already have?

 

[Arshavin23]

Re: Arsenal lose Andre Santos

Santos is a brilliant attacker. The position he plays is really defender in name only. In Brazil they call it "lateral" which is basically a winger that comes from deep and links with the front 3.

What he gives up in defensive solidity we gain in attacking strength. Wenger managed to fit him into the starting lineup very well, and it's a shame he got his injury when he did. Everytime he got the ball he would always look towards the net.

That may be the case, but defenders not being able to defend has been one of the reasons why Arsenal don't win anything any more.

We defend much better now. The emphasis is more "defend as a team" than a traditional back 5. When Vermaelen goes forward, Song drops back to cover space, and if Song is too far forward, Arteta has already dropped back to cover both of them. If you look at our record after the transfer window closed, our defence is better than it has been in almost a decade.

It's just that we have had a lot of ground to cover. We went from 17th place to 5th, and if we win this weekend while Chelsea loses, we nick 4th from them. Our resurgence isn't because of Robin Van Persie -- we've never really had problems scoring goals. It's 100% due to our new defensive approach.

Clichy was a great player for us but regressed badly after 2007. He was with the club since he was 15 and practically came up through our youth system. Learned from the likes of Ashley Cole, Van Bronckhorst, and Sylvinho. Every gooner I know only says nice things about him. He needed a change of environment and it was his decision to leave. Still, I guess we're better now because it forced Wenger to look at the back 4 and make some changes.

 

[MC ID]

Re: Arsenal lose Andre Santos

Santos is a brilliant attacker. The position he plays is really defender in name only. In Brazil they call it "lateral" which is basically a winger that comes from deep and links with the front 3.

What he gives up in defensive solidity we gain in attacking strength. Wenger managed to fit him into the starting lineup very well, and it's a shame he got his injury when he did. Everytime he got the ball he would always look towards the net.

That may be the case, but defenders not being able to defend has been one of the reasons why Arsenal don't win anything any more.

We defend much better now. The emphasis is more "defend as a team" than a traditional back 5. When Vermaelen goes forward, Song drops back to cover space, and if Song is too far forward, Arteta has already dropped back to cover both of them. If you look at our record after the transfer window closed, our defence is better than it has been in almost a decade.

It's just that we have had a lot of ground to cover. We went from 17th place to 5th, and if we win this weekend while Chelsea loses, we nick 4th from them. Our resurgence isn't because of Robin Van Persie -- we've never really had problems scoring goals. It's 100% due to our new defensive approach.

Clichy was a great player for us but regressed badly after 2007. He was with the club since he was 15 and practically came up through our youth system. Learned from the likes of Ashley Cole, Van Bronckhorst, and Sylvinho. Every gooner I know only says nice things about him. He needed a change of environment and it was his decision to leave. Still, I guess we're better now because it forced Wenger to look at the back 4 and make some changes.

If you don't mind answering a couple of questions for me, out of general interest?

1, How do you think the top of the league will look at the end of the season, do think you will certainly be in the top four or forsee a fight? Who do you think will drop out of the champions league spot?

2, Who/what would you want to see added to your squad in jan?

I'm always interested by different fans views and I do reckon Arsenal will do well if they can play without RVP, right now I don't see any other source of goals.

 

[Sleeping_Easy]

Why oh why have they put the sponsor on the Henry statue... what happens when they switch sponsors? :O

I'd be kind of disappointed with this statue if i was an arsenal fan. It looks hardly anything like Henry and as has already been said it has the sponsor on it.

 

[Arshavin23]

Re: Arsenal lose Andre Santos

If you don't mind answering a couple of questions for me, out of general interest?

1, How do you think the top of the league will look at the end of the season, do think you will certainly be in the top four or forsee a fight? Who do you think will drop out of the champions league spot?

2, Who/what would you want to see added to your squad in jan?

I'm always interested by different fans views and I do reckon Arsenal will do well if they can play without RVP, right now I don't see any other source of goals.

1. City will comfortably win the league, while there will be a scrap for 2nd through 4th. United have lost Vidic (conceded 19 goals in 13 games without him, only conceded 3 when he played same amount of games), Chelsea is a mess, and Arsenal lost too much ground early on. If I had to guess it would probably be Tottenham at a distant 2nd, maybe 10 points off 1st. I'm confident we'll get 3rd or 4th, depending on if we can keep our consistent run going. Liverpool will be 6th or 7th. Without Lucas they're a car without an engine.

2. The missing piece of the puzzle is a striker. We need someone like Podolski to take some of the burden off RVP's shoulders. If not Podolski, then Damaio or Soldado. Basically, Wenger has to spend some money for once. When RVP gets injured we'll need someone who can pick up the slack right away, or rotate with him while he's fit to keep him off the treatment table for as long as possible.

 

[alky313]

Re: Arsenal lose Andre Santos

Santos is a brilliant attacker. The position he plays is really defender in name only. In Brazil they call it "lateral" which is basically a winger that comes from deep and links with the front 3.

What he gives up in defensive solidity we gain in attacking strength. Wenger managed to fit him into the starting lineup very well, and it's a shame he got his injury when he did. Everytime he got the ball he would always look towards the net.

That may be the case, but defenders not being able to defend has been one of the reasons why Arsenal don't win anything any more.

We defend much better now. The emphasis is more "defend as a team" than a traditional back 5. When Vermaelen goes forward, Song drops back to cover space, and if Song is too far forward, Arteta has already dropped back to cover both of them. If you look at our record after the transfer window closed, our defence is better than it has been in almost a decade.

It's just that we have had a lot of ground to cover. We went from 17th place to 5th, and if we win this weekend while Chelsea loses, we nick 4th from them. Our resurgence isn't because of Robin Van Persie -- we've never really had problems scoring goals. It's 100% due to our new defensive approach.

Clichy was a great player for us but regressed badly after 2007. He was with the club since he was 15 and practically came up through our youth system. Learned from the likes of Ashley Cole, Van Bronckhorst, and Sylvinho. Every gooner I know only says nice things about him. He needed a change of environment and it was his decision to leave. Still, I guess we're better now because it forced Wenger to look at the back 4 and make some changes.

You defend a lot more; better I'm not so convinced. Wenger has seen that he does not have the type of attacking players to hold possession for extended amounts of time. Arsenal pack their midfield a lot more, Walcott's biggest bright spot has been his worth ethic on defence. But I'm not buying that youre "better". This is a team that has regressed ten-fold since their last trophy win. Sure you've purchased 2 defenders and a few attacking players. But Arsenal didn't replace the quality they lost.

The biggest critique I would have is that Arsenal had just a few missing pieces last year. One or two the year before... But now their miles away from being a title contender, regardless of City's strength.

 

[MCC]

That statue is embarrassing as it looks nothing like Henry! I`d have sent it back and told them to do a proper job!

 

[TTS]

Re: Arsenal lose Andre Santos

Na. Santos is much better than Gibbs and has been a revelation for us this season.

Santos for Clichy is one area where we strengthened the team well. Santos is more complete and his distribution from the back adds a new dimension to the team.

Clichy was useless going forward for us.

Absolute horseshit. I've watched a lot of Arsenal games this season (quite a few of them live at the Emirates) and Santos is absolutely terrible. He drops off when he should get tight, and he gets tight when he should drop off. He has zero defensive positional awareness, doesn't know when to bomb forward and when to stay deep, and gets exposed needlessly at least twice a game either from lunging in recklessly or just from going missing completely.

Your opinion on this matter suggests to me that you only ever watch the player who has the ball when you watch football.

Sounds like your just repeating what these clueless commentators say. Santos defensively is solid. He averages the most tackles in the league and apart from the Chelsea game he hasn't put a foot wrong defensively. He's an intelligent and proactive defender. His anticipation is immense and he reads the game very well.

He averages a lot of tackles per game because he dives in all the time. When it comes off it looks great, but it's extremely risky. You almost NEVER see top fullbacks try to win the ball, early, at the feet of wingers; they usher them outside or inside using their body shape, depending on the winger's strengths. Santos, however, just goes for it. It works maybe 70% of the time. This might sound ok, but it's actually not, when you consider that in that remaining 30%, the winger skips past the tackle and has a free run at your exposed centre back.

Anticipatory tackles are important (Kompany is the master, or at least he was last season) but hardly wise when you're a fullback with no cover. I cringe everytime he tries it, and even more so when the Emirates faithful applaud it.

'He hasn't put a foot wrong defensively'.

I don't think we can continue this discussion.