CL: Borusia Dortmund Match Thread

[Blade]

dosen't he look a bit like 'The Beast"?.

[M-50]

Benayoun was woeful in my opinion. Gave the ball away on every occasion and his positioning was dreadful. 31-year-old with an average football career. He is not good enough to play for us in midfield in the Champions League. Please p*ss off back to chelski

Then you clearly have no concept of what makes a good performance

I must be reading your blog too much

[richpye]

Gervinho looks tricky and his movement with the ball is excellent. However he kept running down dead ends and losing the ball. On two opportunities though, his never give up attitude created two chances, one was saved well and the other fluffed a bit. In the past Hleb (seems to be a similar player) would have just given up and we would have lost the ball.

Please explain this for an old man - how the fcuk was his movement with the ball excellent if you say that he kept running down dead ends losing the ball ?? Fact is that he has zero awareness to the point that he makes theo look intelligent and that is saying something There are a lot of reasons that merit giving a new signing time to settle especially when moving into a new league such as communication, understanding team-mates positioning, pace of the game etc........what you cannot defend or make allowances for is a poor 1st touch and a lack of intelligence on the pitch and gervinho def falls into that 2nd grouping

What I meant is that he has very quick feet, and used them to beat defenders even in close quarters. It meant instead of our usual play breaking down at the edge of the penalty area, he was able to break into the box even when he had 3 or 4 men around him and on two occasions he could (and maybe should) have scored.
The dead end comment is the fact that excepting those two occasions he kept trying to do the same thing but getting lost, which was not good. I feel that he adds something different and against teams that come to sit back and defend he may give us a creative option to break this down. Not excellent but still a decent addition

[richpye]

dosen't he look a bit like 'The Beast"?.

I thought Santos did when he came on. Looks like he could be a good one

[Its Up 4 Grabs Now]

In Gervinho's defence, if your forehead was pregnant you'd probably find it difficult to lift your head up too. And on a few of those occasions in the 2nd half when he ran down dead ends he had next to no option to pass to and 3 or 4 players surrounding him. They were very good at closing us down in packs (bit like Barca) and we were abysmal in terms of our movement and showing for the ball to provide an outlet. If 3 players are closing down the man in possession surely it stands to reason that we should have at least 2 players in space? Yet the number of times you could barely see another red shirt in shot when the man on the ball was under pressure was unreal. There's no denying all bar 1 or 2 ran their bollocks off last night, so it wasn't through lack of effort - we've just got a few too many lacking fairly basic intelligence.

[goonersid]

Gervinho looks tricky and his movement with the ball is excellent. However he kept running down dead ends and losing the ball. On two opportunities though, his never give up attitude created two chances, one was saved well and the other fluffed a bit. In the past Hleb (seems to be a similar player) would have just given up and we would have lost the ball.

Please explain this for an old man - how the fcuk was his movement with the ball excellent if you say that he kept running down dead ends losing the ball ?? Fact is that he has zero awareness to the point that he makes theo look intelligent and that is saying something There are a lot of reasons that merit giving a new signing time to settle especially when moving into a new league such as communication, understanding team-mates positioning, pace of the game etc........what you cannot defend or make allowances for is a poor 1st touch and a lack of intelligence on the pitch and gervinho def falls into that 2nd grouping

What I meant is that he has very quick feet, and used them to beat defenders even in close quarters. It meant instead of our usual play breaking down at the edge of the penalty area, he was able to break into the box even when he had 3 or 4 men around him and on two occasions he could (and maybe should) have scored.
The dead end comment is the fact that excepting those two occasions he kept trying to do the same thing but getting lost, which was not good. I feel that he adds something different and against teams that come to sit back and defend he may give us a creative option to break this down. Not excellent but still a decent addition

Maybe he would be more suited to fucking tap, cos he is beginning to look like another Wenger dudd.
I know it's early days, but he looks to have learned the game from the same book as Theo.

[DB10GOONER]

sloppy goal (not the finish, but our part in it) so late on.

Shut up.

How? I don't even think that was a Free kick. Even if it was, Song was fantastic second half.

He was tracking across with his man, standard enough, no outright threat, the oppo guy is going sideways. Song lunges, he made contact, it WAS a foul, he's given away a free kick within range of our goal.

Now, I don't know if you (or Song for that matter) are quite aware of this but we are fucking piss weak at defending set pieces when the oppo get their players into our box. The very second he gave away that free kick, I thought "Christ, they will score here."

Sure enough, in it swings, we half clear it and bang, a goal. Now in fairness to the guy that hit it, it was a brilliant strike and we cannot blame any of our players really that it went in.

BUT why were we pushed back into our own box defending a set piece so late in the game? Because Song (once again) gave away a needless free kick by lunging in instead of just tracking the player across the pitch. At that stage of the game we need players to act responsibly and intelligently, not lunge in, giving the oppo a chance to get their players into our box en masse.

I really cannot explain it any more clearly than that.

For the record, I think Song fought well to win a good few tackles last night but again he makes very basic errors - like just hoofing the hard won ball away to the oppo and lunging in when there is no need to. He is NOT a top DM and in the modern game you will struggle to win anything without a top DM in your side.

Song is average. No more, no less. Is average good enough for The Arsenal? I don't think so.

[DB10GOONER]

Gervinho looks tricky and his movement with the ball is excellent. However he kept running down dead ends and losing the ball. On two opportunities though, his never give up attitude created two chances, one was saved well and the other fluffed a bit. In the past Hleb (seems to be a similar player) would have just given up and we would have lost the ball.

Please explain this for an old man - how the fcuk was his movement with the ball excellent if you say that he kept running down dead ends losing the ball ?? Fact is that he has zero awareness to the point that he makes theo look intelligent and that is saying something There are a lot of reasons that merit giving a new signing time to settle especially when moving into a new league such as communication, understanding team-mates positioning, pace of the game etc........what you cannot defend or make allowances for is a poor 1st touch and a lack of intelligence on the pitch and gervinho def falls into that 2nd grouping

Have to agree with alot of what augie says here. Gervinho's lack of awareness and apparent lack of footballing intelligence is worrying. It's early days yet and we can hope he can improve but he was utter utter shite last night. Awful.

[arseofacrow]

Good trip.

Too many Arsenal fans around the Alter Markt, but you can't have everything.

[DB10GOONER]

Good trip.

Too many Arsenal fans around the Alter Markt, but you can't have everything.

roly...?

[Its Up 4 Grabs Now]

Gervinho looks tricky and his movement with the ball is excellent. However he kept running down dead ends and losing the ball. On two opportunities though, his never give up attitude created two chances, one was saved well and the other fluffed a bit. In the past Hleb (seems to be a similar player) would have just given up and we would have lost the ball.

Please explain this for an old man - how the fcuk was his movement with the ball excellent if you say that he kept running down dead ends losing the ball ?? Fact is that he has zero awareness to the point that he makes theo look intelligent and that is saying something There are a lot of reasons that merit giving a new signing time to settle especially when moving into a new league such as communication, understanding team-mates positioning, pace of the game etc........what you cannot defend or make allowances for is a poor 1st touch and a lack of intelligence on the pitch and gervinho def falls into that 2nd grouping

Have to agree with alot of what augie says here. Gervinho's lack of awareness and apparent lack of footballing intelligence is worrying. It's early days yet and we can hope he can improve but he was utter utter shite last night. Awful.

If anything I think he'll be a bit like Barndoor - capable of doing something good one minute, then absolutely shocking the next. With a lifetime supply of brain fart moments in between. Then if he ever comes good for half a season his head will swell even bigger & off he'll fuck to greener pastures, before ending up in Turkey 2 seasons later.

[worthing gooner]

Just got back from Germany and front to back thats an awesome place to go and watch football.
The Arsenal dodged a bullet last night after they opened us up at will but hung in there when it was on top and should and put the second away it would have been robbery. With new players gelling together we will creak sometimes but light is at the end of the tunnel.
The trip, blinding.
Train travel all in on your match ticket even from as far away as Dusseldorf.
Plenty of drinking stands outside the ground to have a couple of quick scoops.
Great stadium with what seemed like every fan yelling their lungs out for 90 minutes. I have never experienced anything close to that in all my trips.
Speed of light taxi's to get you away from the ground.
A must go if we get German oppo again.

[arseofacrow]

Good trip.

Too many Arsenal fans around the Alter Markt, but you can't have everything.

roly...?

...irish pub loving, lager-loving, brainless morons..

[Its Up 4 Grabs Now]

Good trip.

Too many Arsenal fans around the Alter Markt, but you can't have everything.

roly...?

Hmmm...."Alter Markt" .... ... subliminal message there "arseofacrow"?

[DB10GOONER]

Good trip.

Too many Arsenal fans around the Alter Markt, but you can't have everything.

roly...?

...irish pub loving, lager-loving, brainless morons..

Ah... roly.