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.
[quote="g88ner"]Underrated, overrated. What a load of old bollocks. There's not even a consensus on this forum, so who gives a shit what people who don't watch him every week think.
I don't overrated him, and Sid certainly doesn't.... so who does? and does it really matter?
He's just a talented young player fighting his way back from long term injury and clearly struggling. Bit like Ramsey last season. People need to be more patient and understanding
The boy, and that's all he is, is an unbelievable talent. He had a poor game and scored, you cant ask for anymore.
he performed well in the second half, wenger hasnt learned with ramsey, stop flogging him down the flanks, we have the perfect player for him to learn from in one of the deeper roles in flamini so use his experience to guide him through this tough period with an hour here and there and sub appearances.
Only watched the second half so might have missed the worst part of his performance but he looked good in the part I saw, obviously getting a goal helps but he also played a cracking ball in for Giroud and generally popped up in a few good positions, West Brom didn't seem to know who to put on him. Not an amazing performance by any means but it certainly wasn't bad in the second half.
safcftm wrote:Only watched the second half so might have missed the worst part of his performance but he looked good in the part I saw, obviously getting a goal helps but he also played a cracking ball in for Giroud and generally popped up in a few good positions, West Brom didn't seem to know who to put on him. Not an amazing performance by any means but it certainly wasn't bad in the second half.
He was pipe in the 1st half but did improve and he got the goal, so fair play.
I don't understand why after our best performance in years on Tuesday playing without Wilshere starting Wenger puts him back in the team today,i know rosicky and arteta weren't quite at the races on Tuesday but we were so much better balanced hence the awesome display,but today with wilshere we looked shite,i know jacks out on the wing but he doesn't deserve a start at the mo.todays goal only made up for all the fark ups he made,i think with the same starting 11 from Tuesday we might have seen a higher tempo display today,but wtf do I know
markyp wrote:I don't understand why after our best performance in years on Tuesday playing without Wilshere starting Wenger puts him back in the team today,i know rosicky and arteta weren't quite at the races on Tuesday but we were so much better balanced hence the awesome display,but today with wilshere we looked shite,i know jacks out on the wing but he doesn't deserve a start at the mo.todays goal only made up for all the fark ups he made,i think with the same starting 11 from Tuesday we might have seen a higher tempo display today,but wtf do I know
Wanger's kind of damned if he does, damned if he doesn't though. As we've seen over numerous seasons he has a habit of running us into the ground so he has to alter the team to a degree.
Which is why his decision not to buy another striker (Sanogo doesn't count) was inexplicable.
Think he needed the goal to keep him on the pitch one way or another!
Can only hope that the goal will be a bit of a turning point for him - it's a pity that he can't recharge his batteries over international fortnight and get back to basics on a quiet training pitch.
We can argue until the cows come home about being under-rated/over-rated, getting over an injury, too arrogant, needs a rest or whatever but the bottom line is that the guy will never be the player he should be if he is marooned out on the fcuking wing For me today highlighted the absolute shambles our transfer operations system is and how little planning goes into it - yes we signed a quality world class player in ozil but squeezing another small playmaker into a squad already full of them makes absolutely no sense to any fcuker We have a system that employs ramsey (THE most in form midfielder in the league right now), wilshere (THE best English midfield prospect in the country bar none) and Ozil (THE most creative number 10 in European football) as wingers and then we wonder why all or some of them are not playing to the required level ?
augie wrote:We can argue until the cows come home about being under-rated/over-rated, getting over an injury, too arrogant, needs a rest or whatever but the bottom line is that the guy will never be the player he should be if he is marooned out on the fcuking wing For me today highlighted the absolute shambles our transfer operations system is and how little planning goes into it - yes we signed a quality world class player in ozil but squeezing another small playmaker into a squad already full of them makes absolutely no sense to any fcuker We have a system that employs ramsey (THE most in form midfielder in the league right now), wilshere (THE best English midfield prospect in the country bar none) and Ozil (THE most creative number 10 in European football) as wingers and then we wonder why all or some of them are not playing to the required level ?
That's not by design though, Augie, and you know that full well.
It's because we're decimated by injuries. We're only playing Ramsey and Jack (and sometimes Ozil) wide because our FOUR/FIVE first choice wide players (Theo, Cazorla, Podolski & Ox are all injured, and Rosicky is only just back this week).
If anything we should be thankful that even with such a crazy amount of injuries in wide areas, we're still able to field a decent team that wins games.
augie wrote:We can argue until the cows come home about being under-rated/over-rated, getting over an injury, too arrogant, needs a rest or whatever but the bottom line is that the guy will never be the player he should be if he is marooned out on the fcuking wing For me today highlighted the absolute shambles our transfer operations system is and how little planning goes into it - yes we signed a quality world class player in ozil but squeezing another small playmaker into a squad already full of them makes absolutely no sense to any fcuker We have a system that employs ramsey (THE most in form midfielder in the league right now), wilshere (THE best English midfield prospect in the country bar none) and Ozil (THE most creative number 10 in European football) as wingers and then we wonder why all or some of them are not playing to the required level ?
That's not by design though, Augie, and you know that full well.
It's because we're decimated by injuries. We're only playing Ramsey and Jack (and sometimes Ozil) wide because our FOUR/FIVE first choice wide players (Theo, Cazorla, Podolski & Ox are all injured, and Rosicky is only just back this week).
If anything we should be thankful that even with such a crazy amount of injuries in wide areas, we're still able to field a decent team that wins games.
G88ner, last season we played ramsey and rosicky out wide and neither are wingers and how can any of us ever forget the memories of the worlds greatest Danish striker playing as a winger ? With wenker he is to little creative midfielders, what GG was to big centre backs ie he accumulates them with a vengence Does he have any concept of what is required to play as a winger ? He mustn't have or else he would stop playing naturally central midfielders out there and instead he would buy players specifically for those positions surely ?
augie wrote:
G88ner, last season we played ramsey and rosicky out wide and neither are wingers and how can any of us ever forget the memories of the worlds greatest Danish striker playing as a winger ? With wenker he is to little creative midfielders, what GG was to big centre backs ie he accumulates them with a vengence Does he have any concept of what is required to play as a winger ? He mustn't have or else he would stop playing naturally central midfielders out there and instead he would buy players specifically for those positions surely ?
In previous seasons, yes - Ramsey and Bendtner out wide (and Eduardo) was ridiculous.
This season, I'm okay with it. I think it's Theo's best position, and suits Camberlain as well at this point in his career.
Admittedly, Cazorla and Rosicky (and Ozil) are naturally central players, but so were Freddie and Pires, and I think they do very well out wide for us. As does Podolski when he's fit and firing.
I think Ozil will have the freedom to roam, so won't often be fixed to the wing. Then again, neither is Cazorla.
I think we're strong in attacking midfield and central midfield. Look painfully thin up front though. Crazy.
augie wrote:We can argue until the cows come home about being under-rated/over-rated, getting over an injury, too arrogant, needs a rest or whatever but the bottom line is that the guy will never be the player he should be if he is marooned out on the fcuking wing For me today highlighted the absolute shambles our transfer operations system is and how little planning goes into it - yes we signed a quality world class player in ozil but squeezing another small playmaker into a squad already full of them makes absolutely no sense to any fcuker We have a system that employs ramsey (THE most in form midfielder in the league right now), wilshere (THE best English midfield prospect in the country bar none) and Ozil (THE most creative number 10 in European football) as wingers and then we wonder why all or some of them are not playing to the required level ?
That's not by design though, Augie, and you know that full well.
It's because we're decimated by injuries. We're only playing Ramsey and Jack (and sometimes Ozil) wide because our FOUR/FIVE first choice wide players (Theo, Cazorla, Podolski & Ox are all injured, and Rosicky is only just back this week).
If anything we should be thankful that even with such a crazy amount of injuries in wide areas, we're still able to field a decent team that wins games.
Even the players you've named don't all fit into the wide slots in our formation. Cazorla is versatile and can impress just about anywhere on a football pitch but produced his best football playing centrally, Walcott is no threat whatsoever if he's getting on the ball 40 yards out on the touchline and Podolski is wasted babysitting Gibbs and getting chalk on his boots. Our use of wide players is an ongoing shambles imo.
What I liked about the performance at Swansea was even though we did have midfielders playing out of position we were far more fluid and didn't then banish those in the wide slots to the touchline all game.
And although it would be absurd to blame Wenger entirely for holding back Ramsey is it a surprise that his improvement has come when he's been getting a prolonged run in his favoured position and not being played as a no 10, holding midfielder and wide man?
swimmer1 wrote:What do you all think of Jack smoking ciggys personally I think he is a silly boy needs to act like a profesional then maybe his form will come back .
His career is going the same way as Joe Cole will never live up to the hype.
If you think about it, smoking doesn't come easy, so this is far from the first time he's smoked. He was probably smoking while out on injury. Doesn't help his heath and if you know how Wenger is over this, you won't be surprised to see Jack not starting for a while because of it.
If he hadnt smoked as a kid he would have been over 6 foot
Wish he had "manned up" though, FFS holding a fag for a bet
It will be interesting to see how he plays for England in the matches coming up.
For me today highlighted the absolute shambles our transfer operations system is and how little planning goes into it - yes we signed a quality world class player in ozil but squeezing another small playmaker into a squad already full of them makes absolutely no sense to any fcuker 
