As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Irish Gooner wrote:At least Fabianksi has potential. He just needs more composure.
Manuel is in his peak and constantly lets us down in big games. And so far this season he has been an absolute disgrace.
The total irony is that twas Al who was saying we needed a good start! Pity he didnt heed his own advice.
If Arsene would take a look at the LOI there is two keepers in that League who I would confindently say is better than Almunia.
Murphy from Bohs?
So pissed off seeing Given yesterday knowing we could have easily had him.
Irish Gooner wrote:At least Fabianksi has potential. He just needs more composure.
Manuel is in his peak and constantly lets us down in big games. And so far this season he has been an absolute disgrace.
The total irony is that twas Al who was saying we needed a good start! Pity he didnt heed his own advice.
If Arsene would take a look at the LOI there is two keepers in that League who I would confindently say is better than Almunia.
Murphy from Bohs?
So pissed off seeing Given yesterday knowing we could have easily had him.
Yeah, he'll be in England after this season without doubt.
Trouble is, we need to sign four new players in January. In the real world that means one or two at most. So do we use one of those on a keeper or do we strengthen the defensive midfield and central attack so that Almunia is less employed and that we can score more at the other end (let's face it, we're never going to become great defensively overnight).
Forget Given he's gone and was never a great keeper anyway (but still an improvement). How bloody difficult do you think it would be to get Kirkland or Green here for under £10 million? Not very. We'll even throw in Flappy for free.
djhdjh wrote:Trouble is, we need to sign four new players in January. In the real world that means one or two at most. So do we use one of those on a keeper or do we strengthen the defensive midfield and central attack so that Almunia is less employed and that we can score more at the other end (let's face it, we're never going to become great defensively overnight).
Forget Given he's gone and was never a great keeper anyway (but still an improvement). How bloody difficult do you think it would be to get Kirkland or Green here for under £10 million? Not very. We'll even throw in Flappy for free.
So, in Wenger world that means NO signings come January...
Last edited by franksav63 on Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
EC3 wrote:Steve - That is a good point about his confidence being shot, as i have thought for sometime that there are a number of players who's confidence melts away very quickly. That is something a team such as Chelsea are much better at, maybe due to their experience.
The opposite to this argument maybe that the fans are turning very quickly on certain players.
I'm not saying the fans are not entitled, but it just doesn't help, that is an obvious consequence.
I actually thought we gave a very good performance at OT. Couldn't be bothered to watch yesterday's though, especially having that absolute vermin score.
I agree. However, I think Wenger is a big part of the problem here also. Whilst Ferguson is always bitter in defeat he seems able to get the team straight back up and the lost game at Burnley for example becomes a distant memory
Arsene seems to want to carry on for days, complaining that key incidents didn't go our way, money about international breaks etc etc. I think he creates a mindset that we are "hard done by" and I'm not sure that is good for the players.
I remember after the end of the 49ers run, he created this sense of burning injustice and we ended up slipping up big time. He needs to get this lot back on their feet....forget the ref's decisions, forget International breaks. Get some of the George Graham spirit back
Thats a very ineteresting point when you think about it.
DERRY GOONER wrote:almunia, along with eboue, denilson, song, diaby, bendtner, and 1 or 2 others are all pissing themselves every fecking nite, knowing they are getting away with our hard earned money
Spot on mate!!
We've got some world-class players (Fabregas, Arshavin) but around them are too many sub-standard players. Every time an important match comes around, one (or more) of these retards shows again and again that they haven't got the 2 or 3% extra that real Champions need.
At the CL semi last season 2 blokes next to me were arguing at half-time. One was saying "we can get 4 goals this half, just like we used to".
His mate shot him down in flames simply by saying "mate - we haven't got the players". It was true that night and it is still true today.
This clearly won't be popular but I'll defend Almunia - to some extent.
He's certainly had a nightmare start to the season and although I didn't see the game yesterday he was by all accounts at fault for their first goal.
However both Seaman and Lehman made crucial errors at the end of their time with us. Moreover both had a standout defence to shield them. Almunia does not have that luxury.
You could put Gordon Banks or Lev Yashin between our sticks and if we defend like we so often do, they'll be picking the ball out the net, just like Almunia.
It also doesn't help that Fabianski is clearly not ready to play top flight football - as Chelsea last season showed - and whether he ever will be, is an unknown point.
This isn't to say Almunia is blamless - far from it. But the keeper selection like the defender problem comes back to the man whose team this is - Msr. Wenger.
We can complain all we want about individual monkeys but while the Organ Grinder plays on as he currently is, we aiming at the wrong target.
Rob wrote:This clearly won't be popular but I'll defend Almunia - to some extent.
He's certainly had a nightmare start to the season and although I didn't see the game yesterday he was by all accounts at fault for their first goal.
However both Seaman and Lehman made crucial errors at the end of their time with us. Moreover both had a standout defence to shield them. Almunia does not have that luxury.
You could put Gordon Banks or Lev Yashin between our sticks and if we defend like we so often do, they'll be picking the ball out the net, just like Almunia.
It also doesn't help that Fabianski is clearly not ready to play top flight football - as Chelsea last season showed - and whether he ever will be, is an unknown point.
This isn't to say Almunia is blamless - far from it. But the keeper selection like the defender problem comes back to the man whose team this is - Msr. Wenger.
We can complain all we want about individual monkeys but while the Organ Grinder plays on as he currently is, we aiming at the wrong target.
Rob wrote:This clearly won't be popular but I'll defend Almunia - to some extent.
He's certainly had a nightmare start to the season and although I didn't see the game yesterday he was by all accounts at fault for their first goal.
However both Seaman and Lehman made crucial errors at the end of their time with us. Moreover both had a standout defence to shield them. Almunia does not have that luxury.
You could put Gordon Banks or Lev Yashin between our sticks and if we defend like we so often do, they'll be picking the ball out the net, just like Almunia.
It also doesn't help that Fabianski is clearly not ready to play top flight football - as Chelsea last season showed - and whether he ever will be, is an unknown point.
This isn't to say Almunia is blamless - far from it. But the keeper selection like the defender problem comes back to the man whose team this is - Msr. Wenger.
We can complain all we want about individual monkeys but while the Organ Grinder plays on as he currently is, we aiming at the wrong target.
I disagree - City only got 6 shots on target the whole game yet scored 4 - if your keeper cant save most of them 6 on targer ur fucked so I cant agree with your point.
You say both Seaman and Lehmann had good defences in front of them which is true but there shots/saves ratio would be far greater then Al's.
Rob wrote:This clearly won't be popular but I'll defend Almunia - to some extent.
He's certainly had a nightmare start to the season and although I didn't see the game yesterday he was by all accounts at fault for their first goal.
However both Seaman and Lehman made crucial errors at the end of their time with us. Moreover both had a standout defence to shield them. Almunia does not have that luxury.
You could put Gordon Banks or Lev Yashin between our sticks and if we defend like we so often do, they'll be picking the ball out the net, just like Almunia.
It also doesn't help that Fabianski is clearly not ready to play top flight football - as Chelsea last season showed - and whether he ever will be, is an unknown point.
This isn't to say Almunia is blamless - far from it. But the keeper selection like the defender problem comes back to the man whose team this is - Msr. Wenger.
We can complain all we want about individual monkeys but while the Organ Grinder plays on as he currently is, we aiming at the wrong target.
I hope that Alumunia's name is added here in the near future, although I do agree about the quality of the defences between then and now....
Number 5 wrote:
Is this more selective recall regarding Lehmann? He got dropped for two mistakes yes but he made a shit load in the previous years. Al's gotta go but it can't be till Jan at the earliest now.
Mad Jens was 1.000 times better than Al.
Here are my suggestions for January (at least give it a try, AW!)
I. Akinfeev [RUS] (CSKA Moscow)
S. Frey [FRA] (Fiorentina)
D. Benaglio [SUI] (Wolfsburg)
R. Adler [GER] (Leverkusen)
1. all of them better than Almunia
2. all of them younger than Almunia
3. all of them currently at clubs with less perspective than Arsenal
