Arsenal Thread 2014/15

[City_Sean]

Arsenal have no steel, but startlingly no plan b, if they cant pass through a team they lack an alternative to breaking them down.

There should only be one way of breaking a team down and that's passing through them, or going round them, and Arsenal's wide play is as good as City's.

I think they fall short because their squad is very unbalanced in key positions and therefore exposed to injury. And they've lacked a defensive midfield for a decade. Wenger doesn't seem to think it's necessary yet he had three of the best in Vieira, Petit and Gilberto.

Khedira could be available on a free this summer which would certainly be interesting, he's the type of player that Arsensl desperately need.

 

[Paladin]

There should only be one way of breaking a team down and that's passing through them, or going round them, and Arsenal's wide play is as good as City's.

That's two ways.

 

[crazyg]

There should only be one way of breaking a team down and that's passing through them, or going round them, and Arsenal's wide play is as good as City's.

That's two ways.

What is this? The Spanish Inquisition?

 

[pikku]

Wenger was bit rude and frustrated in that interview after the match with Hull,seemed clueless and the answers he gave were so dumb and it had no relation whatsoever with the questions that were asked to him.If i was an arsenal fan i would be ripping my hair out hearing Wenger spout that rubbish.But since i am not i hope the arsenal board has no intentions to sack him anytime soon.

 

[Ronuja]

We're a bit shit at the moment. There's no getting around it.

Are injuries an excuse or is there more to it?

There's more to it. Our injury situation is bad, as others have mentioned, United and Liverpool have a lot as well. Still when you look at the Arsenal injury curse, with so many out for such long periods, and the frequency of injuries you can't put it all down to bad luck. Whether it's training methods, the composition of our pitch, or the way we play, or more likely a combination of these and other factors, are players get injured more often and for longer periods of time than other teams. Wenger acknowledged this and promised an investigation, even appointing a flashy new head of fitness over the summer, but so far if anything the situation on the injury front has only gotten worse, if anything.

Of course part of the reason why we have so many injuries is because players are over-played. This because we simply didn't buy the players we needed. Wenger admitted as much in the AGM when he said they tried and failed to bring in a defender after letting Vermalen go. Now that just seems like gross negligence on the part of the manager and the scouting department. Personally I feel like we're well enough stocked in the attacking department after signing Welbeck, we have a surfeit of midfielders, though we need better than Flamini if we ever want to challenge, and in defense we desperately need one more centerback, if not two.

But the players we needed weren't signed, so Wenger had to overplay the ones he did have, resulting in injuries, which meant further overplaying of players, and further injuries and the cycle goes on. We currently have six defenders for those four positions, including 19-year old Bellerin who had his first Premier League start this weekend. It's outrageous.

The team is terribly unbalanced, in favor of the attack, but even there the chemistry just has not developed yet. With new players and a new system, especially with the instinctive decisions required in our way of playing you expect that will take some time. But because both Giroud and Sanogo are out long-term injured there is no plan B to revert to when it's not working, like when Wenger brought on Sanogo and effectively turned to a 4-4-2 quite successfully in the FA cup final. The lack of the ability to change up the attack, combined with our previously shaky and now without Koscielny positively crippled defense will doubtless cost points.

Wenger always seems to want to over-perform, to succeed with less than what any sane person would think would be required. His vision is perrenially mid to long-term and if you let yourself you can almost share that vision of a pacy, creative, artistic team that wins while playing beautifully. The problem is he never does enough to produce in the short term, so fans feel like they're seeing the same movie again and again, which gets tiresome. You've got to keep putting the DVD in again, keep hoping. Who knows, maybe we'll somehow retain the FA cup. With Wenger it's always, 'we'll probably be amazing 2-3 years from now'.

 

[Bilboblue]

Fuck Wenger, I despise that twat with a passion.

After the way the gooners have been towards us lately, I think it is hilarious to see them suffering too.

 

[superseiyan]

Sanchez not happy with the teams performance despite their last-minute win:
<a class="postlink" href="http://metro.co.uk/2014/10/23/alexis-sanchez-was-absolutely-furious-with-his-arsenal-team-mates-despite-anderlecht-victory-4917771/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://metro.co.uk/2014/10/23/alexis-sa ... y-4917771/</a>

Good--for a club like Arsenal, they shouldn't be acting like they've won the UCL after squeaking it out after being dominated and battered by Anderlecht.

 

[the god Gerry Gow]

There should only be one way of breaking a team down and that's passing through them, or going round them, and Arsenal's wide play is as good as City's.

That's two ways.

What is this? The Spanish Inquisition?

Wow that post was unexpected

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

People can analyse Arsenal's tactics and playing personnel all they want. The answer to their deficiencies as a squad is very simple: they haven't got the stomach for the fight.

 

[bluechampion7891]

Alexis Sanchez...what an awesome player. Brace today, and only because of work rate work rate. Boy could we have done with him, hopefully he'll realize he is playing in a side incapable of winning and moves on to a better team like some former "gonners"