Song played most if not all of his reserve career and his first carling cup year at CB so he knows this position. Its not unusual to him hence not a great achievement that he had a decent game there.Swale_Gooner1985 wrote:Playing half the game out of his usual position against the best team in the world, i thought he was excellent, thats my opinion!
he was not at fault for the first goal, he pushed Ibrahimovic out wide doing his job and then Almunia made it really easy for him by rushing out giving him something to shoot at!
BARCA GAME THREAD
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GunnerDude
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euphoricone
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One word defines arsenals entire first half performance. Nerves. Why? Youngsters overwhelmed by the enormous occasion, and what a comeback! I must say i am proud of these players, every one and them. Denilson, Almunia and Walcott.
We beat porto 5-0 without cesc, i dont think we will lose our way at the camp but i cant be sure. I would be happy for it to go to penalties
We beat porto 5-0 without cesc, i dont think we will lose our way at the camp but i cant be sure. I would be happy for it to go to penalties
finally found time to get on here post match! Well in lads, cracking comeback and, despite the way barca played first half, it was deserved just for hanging in there and refusing to be turned over by europes best side. Without fabregas the second leg will be hard but no puyol or pique for them means that, just maybe, its do-able.
Play with the same heart over at the nou camp and you'll have a chance. Hope all the gooners going out there have a class day or two, a lot of drink and come back safe and happy.
Best of luck to you
Play with the same heart over at the nou camp and you'll have a chance. Hope all the gooners going out there have a class day or two, a lot of drink and come back safe and happy.
Best of luck to you
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I Hate Hleb
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If they get nervous in front of nearly 60,000 home fans supporting and willing them on, how the hell are they going to cope with 85,000 opposition fans baying at them in the return?euphoricone wrote:One word defines arsenals entire first half performance. Nerves. Why? Youngsters overwhelmed by the enormous occasion, and what a comeback! I must say i am proud of these players, every one and them. Denilson, Almunia and Walcott.
We beat porto 5-0 without cesc, i dont think we will lose our way at the camp but i cant be sure. I would be happy for it to go to penalties
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I Hate Hleb
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I spent most of the game at the Grove hiding behind my seat, at least in the Nou Camp i can see the planes landing easier than whats happening on the pitch, might not be so scary ?safcftm wrote: . Hope all the gooners going out there have a class day or two, a lot of drink and come back safe and happy.
Best of luck to you
Then again in the last 5 games at home barcelona have failled to beat an English team. maybe just maybe
I can understand why neutrals would have found the game so exciting but with my obvious bias I found the first hour one of the most soul destroying experiences since Don Howe decided that Paul Mariner made an excellent back-up centre half.
Did anyone actually enjoy the most embarrassingly one-sided affair ever witnessed at the Soulless Bowl ? At one point in the first half we might as well have raised our caps and rolled our the red carpet in admiration of the Catalans. Can you imagine Petit, Vieira and Adams sitting back in total awestruck admiration of our visitors. If Ibrahimovic did not suffer from Bendtneritis when presented with one-on-one sitters we would be sat here now looking at one of the worst home defeats in CL history.
And for the Almunia slaters.......where we would be now if the Polish clown or the Italian Imposter had been between the sticks. And for anyone attempting to even dare to blame him for the first goal......watch the centre halves one more time and ask yourself what he should have done. Stood on the line and wait for it to be rolled in ??
Fair play to Walcott......still a headless chicken but at least he showed a complete lack of fear when he came on. And Denilson definitely improved things too - credit where it is due. My mate Abou did not have the best of times but in his defence it was clear that Cesc could not move freely and the whole midfield were completely over-run.
Never thought I would say these words but Theo must play. The Catalans shit their pants when he ran directly at them and without their first choice centre halves, he has to be given a go.
No chance of it happening of course. Wenger will wait will we're two down......
Did anyone actually enjoy the most embarrassingly one-sided affair ever witnessed at the Soulless Bowl ? At one point in the first half we might as well have raised our caps and rolled our the red carpet in admiration of the Catalans. Can you imagine Petit, Vieira and Adams sitting back in total awestruck admiration of our visitors. If Ibrahimovic did not suffer from Bendtneritis when presented with one-on-one sitters we would be sat here now looking at one of the worst home defeats in CL history.
And for the Almunia slaters.......where we would be now if the Polish clown or the Italian Imposter had been between the sticks. And for anyone attempting to even dare to blame him for the first goal......watch the centre halves one more time and ask yourself what he should have done. Stood on the line and wait for it to be rolled in ??
Fair play to Walcott......still a headless chicken but at least he showed a complete lack of fear when he came on. And Denilson definitely improved things too - credit where it is due. My mate Abou did not have the best of times but in his defence it was clear that Cesc could not move freely and the whole midfield were completely over-run.
Never thought I would say these words but Theo must play. The Catalans shit their pants when he ran directly at them and without their first choice centre halves, he has to be given a go.
No chance of it happening of course. Wenger will wait will we're two down......
I have watched the first half twice again since Wed night and the first 20 mins from Barca were good but we made it easy for them. Song who I thought during the game was struggling was great he just had no support from Diaby or Fabregas he was trying to close down and tackle the whole of the Barca midfield by himself. When Eboue came on he had somebody else on the pitch helping control the Barca midfield, Diaby and Fabregas were still not helping much.
We did not know if we should go out wide and cover the player or stay narrow during the first 20 mins and we were going backwards and forwards trying to do both and were caught in no-mans land most of the time but then we decided to stay narrow and this gave the barca midfield less room down the middle.
Once we got this sorted out we came back into the game more. I will get around to watching the 2nd half again over the weekend
We did not know if we should go out wide and cover the player or stay narrow during the first 20 mins and we were going backwards and forwards trying to do both and were caught in no-mans land most of the time but then we decided to stay narrow and this gave the barca midfield less room down the middle.
Once we got this sorted out we came back into the game more. I will get around to watching the 2nd half again over the weekend
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euphoricone
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marcengels
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Song did not push him out wide - watch it again!...he wasn't close enough to Ibrahimovich to do that. The ball over the top was wideish already and the stiker just followed it.GunnerDude wrote:Song played most if not all of his reserve career and his first carling cup year at CB so he knows this position. Its not unusual to him hence not a great achievement that he had a decent game there.Swale_Gooner1985 wrote:Playing half the game out of his usual position against the best team in the world, i thought he was excellent, thats my opinion!
he was not at fault for the first goal, he pushed Ibrahimovic out wide doing his job and then Almunia made it really easy for him by rushing out giving him something to shoot at!
Song's positioning and Almunia's rash dart from the goal were to blame for the goal.
Song was playing out of position which is hard, but he made some mistakes. There's no harm in saying so.
How can Almunia be blamed for that goal - dear me
Watching the statues at centre half abandon Ibrahimovic for both goals what was he supposed to do. Stay glued to the line and wait for it to be rolled past him ?
The defending was schoolboy stuff. We have all grown to love Song but lets at least be honest - that was a ragged display at centre half. Still Arsene knows that we don't need any reinforcements there so who am I to question it ?
Watching the statues at centre half abandon Ibrahimovic for both goals what was he supposed to do. Stay glued to the line and wait for it to be rolled past him ?
The defending was schoolboy stuff. We have all grown to love Song but lets at least be honest - that was a ragged display at centre half. Still Arsene knows that we don't need any reinforcements there so who am I to question it ?
What he was supposed to do would be either come for the ball whole heartedly or stay back. What he actually did, and I had a perfect view of it, was stop start stop start turn and watch. Had he raced hell for leather from the start he'd probably have got there. Had he stayed on his line the shot would have had to have been a peach inside the far corner to beat him.SteveO 35 wrote:How can Almunia be blamed for that goal - dear me
Watching the statues at centre half abandon Ibrahimovic for both goals what was he supposed to do. Stay glued to the line and wait for it to be rolled past him ?
The defending was schoolboy stuff. We have all grown to love Song but lets at least be honest - that was a ragged display at centre half. Still Arsene knows that we don't need any reinforcements there so who am I to question it ?
Are you sure you're not thinking of the second goal?
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marcengels
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Yep, the guy didn't yet have control and would have had to scored an outstanding goal to beat Almunia (no, reallyNumber 5 wrote:What he was supposed to do would be either come for the ball whole heartedly or stay back. What he actually did, and I had a perfect view of it, was stop start stop start turn and watch. Had he raced hell for leather from the start he'd probably have got there. Had he stayed on his line the shot would have had to have been a peach inside the far corner to beat him.SteveO 35 wrote:How can Almunia be blamed for that goal - dear me
Watching the statues at centre half abandon Ibrahimovic for both goals what was he supposed to do. Stay glued to the line and wait for it to be rolled past him ?
The defending was schoolboy stuff. We have all grown to love Song but lets at least be honest - that was a ragged display at centre half. Still Arsene knows that we don't need any reinforcements there so who am I to question it ?
Are you sure you're not thinking of the second goal?
). Maybe Steve is thinking of the second goal, I can't find any other explanation.
