Time for a serious rethink

northerngooner · Post by **northerngooner** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:45 pm

Well after witnessing what can only be described as a total shambles at Bramhall Lane maybe it is time Messrs Wenger and Dein reconsider their positions on transfer window signings.

Yet again we have been outbattled by a team that is willing to do little else than chase and harrass for 90 minutes in the hope that they get a chance to pinch a goal.

When are we going to learn that you have to earn the right to play by scrapping and battling before attempting to play any sort of "champagne" football.

It is time for some of the ego's on the pitch to realise that the fans won't always put up with this type of show.

Chelski have proved recently that if you do not have sufficient quality cover in your squad then you will get punished as seen by the absence of John Terry and Petr Cech recently.

Clichy and Senderos both need to take a good hard look at themselves and as for Aliadiere, he simply isn't good enough.

We are currently committing the cardinal sin especially across the back four of constantly playing the ball back into the same hole from where it came making it easy for the opposition to close down and make life difficlut, how many times have we seen Clichy get caught trying to turn a man 30 yards from goal by the touchline because someone has given him a ball back that he has just played. All this comes from lack of movement and belief elsewhere on the pitch.

We certainly missed Adebayor and Djourou today but that is only the surface of the problem, our midfield is too lightweight and to slow at distributing the ball when they recieve it. The premiership doesn't allow you to have enough time on the ball to do what you want. Viera was a class act at shielding the ball from an oncoming opponent and riding the tackle then to turn away into the space left behind and start a break, neither Cesc or Gilberto seem capable of mirroring this.

We play too slowly at the moment allowing teams to build two rows of four or five in front of us making it difficult to break through, if the first two or three passes are made quickly teams tend to be cut open, i hate to say it but take a look at Man Utd so far this season, under the cosh at places like Wigan but able to break extremely quickly and punish them.

Mr Wenger, faith is fine but blind faith is irresponsible. We urgently need a world class midfielder who can dictate the flow of a game especially against the so called more physical sides. Act now before it becomes yet another scramble for fourth place.

clockender1 · Post by **clockender1** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:23 pm

i can't agree northern,

we worked hard, scrapped and battled hard, but simply lacked a cutting edge today. we matched them man for man and we put together one or two good moves i thought and had we had a decent finisher we would of had them.

I agree though aliadere and baptista were not sharp enough and lacking in confidence, and we not only missed adebayor but we also missed hleb, freddie and cesc ( for 60 minutes) a lot. theo would have caused their back four some pretty serious problems too.

and the pitch was pretty stodgy and bumpy mostly preventing our one touch passing game working even if we had the skill on the pitch to execute it.

I am gutted we lost, but we can't legislate for three strikers to be injured as well as two each of our midfield and back four. even chelski would struggle on that.

this was an off day, but promise was shown away both at watford and wigan so i'm keeping the faith with this squad.

and at least chelski drew and the spuds lost

goonermc · Post by **goonermc** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:31 pm

That was F###ing abysmal, i'm fed up to the back teeth of getting turned over by shit teams who just want it more than us, no f###ing excuses, something has got to be done. I love Arsene and what he's done for our Club and i want him to stay forever, but he has to pull his head out of his arse and wake up. It's not often Ferguson's right, but he's right in saying you can't be in transition forever. Pretty football's great and i think this team would win the title in Spain, Italy or France but Arsene has to realise we're in bloody England and all this fancydan shit may be pleasing on the eye but it don't cut the mustard on a freezing december saturday in Sheffield. We NEED to buy in january or else i can't see anything improving. Charlton on Tuesday, 1-1 draw anyone?.

legend10 · Post by **legend10** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 11:03 am

YOUR RIGHT MATE AND I BET CHARLTON SCORE FIRST

idafc · Post by **idafc** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 1:17 pm

How did Baptista do? I was stuck at an airport all day, yesterday, and missed the chance to see his golden opportunity to wow the gooners. All indications I'd seen from previous performances suggest that Madrid's having a right laugh at our expense. The lad's not a beast, he's just fat.

goonermc · Post by **goonermc** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:32 pm

idafc, the less said about the beast(yeah,right)the better. He was abysmal along with the rest of the 'team'

worthing gooner · Post by **worthing gooner** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:45 pm

Baptista and Alliadiare will need time in the middle to get "Up to speed". However, Arsene has left this a little too late to have blooded these two into the arsenal mould. A battler in the middle of the park may change things for us ( and a bit more clinical finishing would help ). Depressing, Yes, but the team are still growing, just give the boys all the suppot and the worm will turn for a push up the table..
AFC
C'mon

lisa_gooner · Post by **lisa_gooner** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 2:59 am

The thing that diasppointed me the most against Sheff U was the obvious lack of ambition and commitment-even before kick-off. I saw the starting eleven and thought-HUH?

Aliadiere is not a starting player in my book and I thought the team was very thin on the ground. We always seem to play shit against shit clubs this season, which is a sin in an an aspiring silva-ware winning team.
'scuse the pun.

exiled in notts · Post by **exiled in notts** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 1:31 pm

I'd agree with the majority of the replies on this. I was unfortunate enough to be at the game on Saturday and we were useless. I know we had a lot of first choice players out, but that only underlines the lack of genuine quality once you get past the first 11 and a few others. Aliadiere and Baptista were particularly unimpressive.

What also wound me up was the lack of tactical nous. When you know that you'll be playing away from home against a team managed by Neil Warnock in the rain on a gluepot of a pitch, surely you know that you'll get nowhere trying to play silky, one-touch football, but that's what we persisted in doing. OK, so we didn't have an Adebayore to hoof it up to, but getting a few bodies in the box might've been an idea.

In a way I can understand why the team didn't go to applaud the travelling support at the end. In their position, after that performance, I wouldn't have dared to do it either.

clockender1 · Post by **clockender1** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 8:47 pm

goonermc wrote: Charlton on Tuesday, 1-1 draw anyone?.

nah, we'll be two up by half time......................

seriously tho', i'm glad hleb, Cesc and TH are back. it sounds like we are all over them, but I hope they haven't rushed TH back too soon.

C1

norn irish red · Post by **norn irish red** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:43 pm

brought a smile to my face to see wee justie score 2nite,nice to see wot it means to an arsenal fan scorin for arsenal.Hope he grows into theteam now

goonermc · Post by **goonermc** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:10 am

clockender, it felt great to be proved wrong mate. I was speaking to a senior steward tonight and he believes that the temporary flag ban is now over, can anyone confirm this?. 4-0 TO THE ARSENAL. PARDEW, PARDEW WHAT'S THE SCORE.

clockender1 · Post by **clockender1** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:26 am

were there many flags out ? i didn't see more than one on the goal highlights .

nice to see chelski drop more points again tonight. they keep on like this and we will be challenging them for second.

Post by **Dicko** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:31 pm

Only a handful over the edge of the tiers. A Gosport Gooners one with three colours to it! Black White & Red if my memory serves me correctly was one. I saw some being waved in the East Lower when we scored.

Trevheff · Post by **Trevheff** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:40 pm

Ok so we beat Charlton 4-0, but Clockenders comments post Sheff Utd are 100% correct. Forget the conditions! The conditions were fine at Man City, West Ham, Bolton and Fulham but were still awful in those games too. Having a poor game and making mistakes are not criminal but making the same mistakes time and time again is criminal. There is no improvemnet away from home from last season. Remember are away trips to Man City, Bolton, Blackburn, Villa, Liverpool, Everton last season? (I'm bound to have missed some). It's the same again this season, same individual errors, same lack of physical presence, same inexperience an dteh same petulence and moanin from certain players when we get it stuck up us. Gael Clichy - you are employed as a defender. Once you can do that then start playing your pretty football - there is nothing wrong with row X from time to time. Mr Eboue please read my previous comment directed at Mr Clichy (Does anyone know if we have a dedicated defensive coach?? If not we need one. If we do, why are constant errors not being remedied?).

We all love Arsene, I'm no different. But he can't keep using the excuse that we lacked experience when he continues to buy kids and doesn't back it up with 'older heads'. And if the older heads come from a foreign league they tend to take at least half a season to adapt. He knows this, he's an intelligent man so why doesn't he act? We don't need to break the bank and spend tens of millions. Just get 1 or 2 experienced players who are a bit more physical to help the kids out for a season or two. They don't have to be world class, just effective and experienced. "We are the Arsenal - Why buy anything less than world class?" I hear you ask. Because I think we'll get more out of Cesc, RVP. Rosicky, Hleb, Walcott and the likes if they had a helping hand.

Time for a serious rethink

Time for a serious rethink

justin hoyte