The price of failure

[clockender1]

so the question is, how does a pussy survive in the Bundesliga and Jerry national team ?

[northbank123]

Fair point Sammy - but aside from maybe being more physical PL is still miles ahead of Bundesliga in terms of quality despite recent CL performances. Plus European refs never let players get away with as much as English refs - Kevin Davies would not have had a football career in another country.

And regarding the international point I think players are targeted less. Of course teams try to implement other tactical weaknesses but it's not like in the PL where if a high-profile player is struggling then it'll be in the papers and discussed by the pundits week in week out and every single manager will try and exploit them. Besides, 80% of the sides you come up against as a first seed are shite - you may play 1-3 competitive games in a 2-year qualifying period.

As I said, all this is also mitigated by the fact that his weaknesses are protected in an organised defence.

[DB10GOONER]

so the question is, how does a pussy survive in the Bundesliga and Jerry national team ?

I would venture that the Bundesliga is not as physical as the PL or as technical, and Interlull games are so over-reffed there is no real physicality to them at all anymore.

[jrthgooner]

The Bundesliga is far more technical than ever before and as such players like Mertersacker have been shipped out of it by their clubs based on the fact they could not and would not survive in it surely?

Although it is Giroud's first season i for one do not see him ever being a 25 goal a season man as he is very poor with his feet and also has no pace to run away from defenders, He might bully weaker centre backs from lesser teams (as has been the case this year) but when we have played a top 6 side I struggle to remember when he did anything positive

[Yankee_Gooner_Dandee]

sorry but the bundesliga is far ahead of the prem currently. just look at the top clubs. shalke dominated us. dortmund dominated man city. and bayern would surely wipe the floor with united.

[skizz_b]

how the hell did such a shit player get over 80 caps for Germany?

because he played as part of a well drilled, organised defence before.

[clockender1]

sorry but the bundesliga is far ahead of the prem currently. just look at the top clubs. shalke dominated us. dortmund dominated man city. and bayern would surely wipe the floor with united.

German ECL final this year

[armchair]

how the hell did such a shit player get over 80 caps for Germany?

because he played as part of a well drilled, organised defence before.

Gotta agree with this.
I rate Kos highly and firmly believe that if our defense was properly coached he'd turn into a truly world class defender.
But as it stands now, with zero defensive coaching, no tactics, our whole defense is a total shambles. They dont know when to fall back, step up. Then we have the zonal shit.
Its really is a crime not doing defensive drills. And doing them until you vomit.

I also rate Chezza but again as many has said he needs someone to learn from and compete with.

We've often posted how Wenger has "ruined" players, well he really is ruining our whole defense.

[SteveO 35]

Did Mertestatue really cost 10 million pounds?

Great signing Wenker!

You change your mind like the wind. I remember you were all over Mertesacker when we signed him.

Wasn't we all though? Arsenal buying a German international defender? Quality, Just what we need...Or so we thought...

how the hell did such a shit player get over 80 caps for Germany?

Some people of course ignored the bland international caps stat (63 caps Emile Heskey - any takers?) and saw a paceless donkey completely unsuitable for PL football and without 10 world class Germans around him to disguise the fact.

We need to sign £20m ready made defenders because Monsieur Handbrake couldn't mould a defence if his life depended upon it

[Barriecuda]

I don't personally have a whole lot of gripes about the valuation of many of these players. I just feel they're under-utilized and underperforming relative to their ability.

We have seen glimpses of absolute class from all of them at one point or another, but those glimpses are too far and few in between. They're all capable of a lot, but for whatever reason we're not seeing it often.