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.
VforVictory wrote:What troubled me today, and has troubled me for a bit, is not so much the actual individual players.
We have not had the big bucks to get a team of top level players, we all know some of them are below par, and that we had a lot of injuries.
What really troubled me was two main things:
1.) The way we can put out a goalkeeper and team who are clearly not trained properly in how to act at set pieces.
That is the fault of the coaching staff.
That is not down to big bucks.
That is a matter of getting in Keown or Dixon as defensive coach on £250,000 a year for five days a week. Four days with the first team, and perhaps a day working with the reserves too.
2.) The formation and substitutions were not designed to get the best out of the players available.
That is Wenger's fault.
Why was Diaby so deep? He is not good enough, yet if he plays at least have him further forward where he can run with the ball towards the penalty area, which he is not bad at.
Why have Vela wide? What does he contribute?
Why not bring Walcott in to the middle with Van Persie? At least Walcott was running at them, he might be small compared to Samba but his pace could have caused Samba to foul him and give away free kicks in vital areas.
Why sub Eboue? He was working his socks off? Was he injured and we were not told?
Rant over.
Agreed - I think we'll find that Blackburn's defensive line up cost the best part of fuck all but in Samba and Givet they have players who can defend under pressure. It's not all about big bucks as you rightly say. No one wants us to be the new Citeh or Real Madrid but some basic organisation and tactical nous would be a start.
And to add to your list why was Nasri spending the last 20 minutes inside his own half to collect the ball and why was Sol Campbell the only player capable of breaking out into a sprint in the opponents half of the field
I am so depressed.
I never expected winning the League with that team. But there was a time I saw progress. 1 point out of the last 4 matches shows that the team is weak, there is not enough quality in the squad.
Players like Almunia, Fabianski, Diaby, Silvestre, Denilson, Vela, Rosicky, Eduardo should be on offer. Wenger must spend or he should go.
sycicsid wrote:I really think the rules are different in the EPL than in the rest of the world. The tactics Blackburn use every corner is just against the rules.
The first goal: the Blackburn players is holding Fabianski with his harm so he can not run properly. ALWAYS A FOUL. Look it up in the rule and instruction book.
Second goal: the same thing. The blackburn players just push their opponents so they can not play the ball. ALWAYS A FOUL.
The strange thing is the ref in the first half hour was giving those fouls like the rule book tell he should do. And suddenly he stops and let them do whatever they want.
For the rest, yes we played bad. We had 2 starting players from our best 11 left. No team can overcome this.
samba did not touch flapiwankerski FACT he used his shoulder to nudge campbell who was blocking flappi
Actually if you watched it you would see that Dunn was being marked by Ccampbell and backed into him pushing Campbell into Fabianski
tinpot lane wrote:No at all surprised. Knew we would put in another abject performance. Nothing has changed in 2 weeks whatsoever. More inept defending yet again. The inability to make the opposition keeper work. I really am starting to lose interest at all. Don't even enjoy watching us play anymore.
With 3rd not guaranteed, today was still important. At 1-1 why was Silvestre laughing when he nearly scored an own goal??? I didn't see him laughing when they scored the winner from the resulting corner.
slevinlacey wrote:With 3rd not guaranteed, today was still important. At 1-1 why was Silvestre laughing when he nearly scored an own goal??? I didn't see him laughing when they scored the winner from the resulting corner.
Can you imagine Silvestre ever doing that while at Ushtd with Fungus waiting for him in the dressing room?
slevinlacey wrote:With 3rd not guaranteed, today was still important. At 1-1 why was Silvestre laughing when he nearly scored an own goal??? I didn't see him laughing when they scored the winner from the resulting corner.
Can you imagine Silvestre ever doing that while at Ushtd with Fungus waiting for him in the dressing room?
That behaviour was disgusting, you could understand if you were 4 up, or we were champions but that's not the case. There are quite a few players who do not deserve new contracts but for me he is number one on that list. I hope he will after Fulham never be seen in an Arsenal shirt again, considering his experience you'd expect some leadership qualities.
I didn't want to post last night because I was just genuinely upset with the way we had performed.
I only listened to the game on the radio, so I can't make the best of judgements but these are my thoughts :
Time and time again, I heard the following commentary : Arsenal keep making these sideways passes, which is allowing Blackburn to get back into defence and reorganise. I always remember us being a team who used to counter as quick as anyone in the Premier League
Diaby in the Centre Circle, passes the ball to Campbell who brings it forward. WTF??? Surely this is the wrong way round
Arsenal can feel unlucky with that tackle/yellow card considering some of the tackles Blackburn have been making.This is beginning to really get on my tits. If teams want to press and tough tackle us...fine. But at least be fair. If you are going to let one team tackle, you have to apply the same rule to the other team
