VILLA AWAY

[augie]

Augie I agree. Good but not good enough is exactly what I think. To be fair I don't really get why some people on here seem to hate him that much as he's not worse than players like Gervinho, Santos, Chamakh and some more.

He is miles better than those clowns and his failures rarely if ever come from a lack of effort which is something that is often overlooked - I have always said that I will never turn against a guy if I feel that he is giving all he can for the team but the problem nowadays is that we don't have enough quality players to carry those players that have the commitment but not quite got the ability and Rambo suffers for that

[Its Up 4 Grabs Now]

Augie I agree. Good but not good enough is exactly what I think. To be fair I don't really get why some people on here seem to hate him that much as he's not worse than players like Gervinho, Santos, Chamakh and some more.

He is miles better than those clowns and his failures rarely if ever come from a lack of effort which is something that is often overlooked - I have always said that I will never turn against a guy if I feel that he is giving all he can for the team but the problem nowadays is that we don't have enough quality players to carry those players that have the commitment but not quite got the ability and Rambo suffers for that

Cant totally agree on the effort front. There's plenty of times Ramsey looks lazy, whether that's failing to track a runner, or the aforementioned give it to someone else and my job's done attitude and so on. To be fair at other times he does genuinely run about a lot, but he certainly doesn't fall into the category of player whose dedication and commitment outweighs their lack of quality when it comes to criticism. Santos, Gervinho and Chamakh are all varying degrees of abominable shite but none of them played today. Ramsey did. And he was abominably shite.

I think we're more in agreement than otherwise regarding Ramsey though so I'll leave it at that.

[clockender1]

see this is another reason Ramsay pisses me off, not only is he slow sideway passing and laboured he tries these awful flicks that NEVER come off . from today :

[QuartzGooner]

In defence of Ramsey, I do not think he is a deep central midfielder.

His position is where Cazorla plays.

That said, I think a loan spell in January is urgently needed.

He rarely plays as a deep lying midfielder though. And he doesn't possess the vision or guile to play the Cazorla role. As far as unlocking defences Ramsey's more like a drunk struggling to fumble his key into his front door.

I could just about accept a loan in January rather than selling him outright though. I did think he had genuine potential but I struggle to remember what I ever saw in him now. He seems a nice enough bloke but as a footballer he just doesn't cut the mustard for us.

Seems to me to play there more often than not, even as a sub?

He is a different style to Cazorla, but my impression of Ramsey's game is that his strength is making 10 - 20 metre power runs into the penalty area and playing one-twos which result in a decent pass to the striker.

Of course he has been poor this season apart from the City game but it is how I see Ramsey.

Could be I've just misunderstood what you meant by "deep-lying midfielder." In my eyes when he's played centrally this season he's invariably been the link midfielder of the 3 - not as deep as Arteta, not as advanced as Santi. Same role as Jack, or Diaby before that, albeit they're all different players. I cant recall too many times he's consistently played in the striker with good through-balls (with the possible exception of 1 spell around the time of the 5-3 at Chelsea last season) and I dont think his "power runs" are anywhere near effective enough to justify playing him as the spearhead of our midfield ahead of far better options in our squad.

That is what I meant, yes, he plays next to Arteta or instead of Arteta (i.e. Newcastle at home last season when Arteta got injured).

I do not think his final ball is good enough to be a starter, but nonetheless think he is most effective in the Cazorla position than any other he plays in.

On current form Ramsey would struggle to make the bench if I was boss, and if one of the three first choice midfielders was out (plus Diaby who is usually out) then my first choice replacement would be Coquelin, with Wilshere moved into Cazorla's position if Cazorla is the one out.

Rosicky was very good in the Cazorla position last season, but has yet to be fit this season.

[donaldo]

I agree 100% with the comment that Ramsey clogs up the space on occasions but I will also add that we have very few (if any) players that make as many off the ball forward runs as Ramsey does so his movement after he gives a pass might be poor but all round movement is quite good. I will also slightly disagree with the comment that he kills the tempo of our game - for me we rarely play with tempo anymore whether Ramsey is playing or not as our CIC has decided that there is no place for pace in football anymore, so to blame Rambo for that is harsh and unfair

I agree augie

I think Ramsey's problem is he hasnt lived up to the high expectations of him as we got him because he turned down Utd.And we will never know how things would have turned out but for that fateful day at Stoke.But Walcott got an easy ride for 5 years when he has failed to reach his so called potential.

Ramsey is a squad player at best and our usless manager playing him out wide doesnt help but there are lots of other players at the club much worse than him.Gervinho today was worse than a park player

If Ramsey doesnt improve this season i would sell him which would be best for both sides but i have been saying the same about Diaby for the last 3 seasons and he is still at the club

[goonersid]

Ramsey playing = Shit team performance, his affect on the whole team makes him more of a handicap then Denilson ever was, the guy is absolutely fucking pish.

[northbank123]

Answering a question with "How many games have you managed?" just sums him up. He's embarrassing and a fucking disgrace. Also apparently JW10 didn't come on because we didn't really need him. I've never known anybody who thinks they're exempt from criticism, especially where it's so blatantly due. If you actually listen to the 7 mins it's actually unbelievable how much contempt he shows the fans in the face of perfectly legitimate questions from the media about his decisions and treatment of the fans.

Think the comments regarding Ramsey are fair. He's just not good enough, plain and simple. The guy doesn't have an attitude problem, he does his best but is just a way off the standard required. Poor decision-making and a lack of ability shouldn't be taken as a lack of effort.

[MK Gould]

Ramsey at least has youth on his side. He is only 21. And I still remember him bossing the game against England that time. Whether he is being played out of position I don't know, but there is obviously some serious talent tucked away there and still time for us to benefit from it.

Gervinho, Arshavin, Santos, Chamakh though....????

[richpye]

Ramsey at least has youth on his side. He is only 21. And I still remember him bossing the game against England that time. Whether he is being played out of position I don't know, but there is obviously some serious talent tucked away there and still time for us to benefit from it.

Gervinho, Arshavin, Santos, Chamakh though....????

£240k per week on those 4. And until we complete this clear out completely (And I don't mean on loan), we can never truly replace and rebuild our squad players

[I Hate Hleb]

Surprise surprise. Another game started by Ramsey, another game we do not get 3 points in which we looked slow to attack and struggled to put anything together in midfield. IT'S NOT A COINCIDENCE. IT'S NOT A COINCIDENCE. IT'S NOT A COINCIDENCE. IT'S NOT A COINCIDENCE.

It's bad enough that Ramsey just looks like a poor player but he seems to have a dismal effect on all those around him too – without making any excuses for their own failings. All fluency and tempo goes out the window when Ramsey's around. He's like that 1 friend everyone has that always brings everyone down with their woe is me attitude, the 1 *word censored* that kills the party dead in his tracks just by walking through the door. The footballing equivalent of Eeyore.

On the ball he's bad enough - slow, laboured passing. But off the ball his movement and positioning are even worse. The number of times he gives the ball to someone & immediately stops as if his job is done instead of offering the man on the ball an option or buying him some space beggars belief. The rest of the time he stands 5, 10 yards from the guy in possession clogging up the space without offering a constructive option. Has anyone regularly sucked the life out of that many footballers since Graeme Le Saux retired? I wanted him to make it but he's had enough chances now. We should really be looking to cut our losses in January.

[SteveO 35]

I watched it with the full family of Gooners last night - my old man (one of the chief Block 2 AKB's), wife (born in Islington so would make stage 1 of HighburyJD's superfan criteria) and two sons (one born in the Midlands - shame on him, he'll never be a superfan)

A breakthrough moment - the old man who I haven't heard mutter a single word of discontent actually uttered the words "it could be time for a change, you know". I washed out my ears, asked him for clarity on what he said, and yep he confirmed it. Progress indeed.

As for the game - I'm sure its all been covered but ranks up there with the home performances against Schalke and the away defeats at Norwich and ManUre, and there will be many many more days like this to endure under this owner and manager. The team look what they are - good enough to challenge for the mini 'B League' title i.e. up there with anyone outside the top 3 when they click, bad enough to get beaten by anyone in the division when they don't. For once in his life Mark Lawrenson actually offered up one single sentence which I thought was correct when asked the difference between us and the big clubs "Arsenal don't win when they don't play well" - and that's the truth, because where as United, City and Chelsea have 4 or 5 players all capable of winning a tight game out of nothing, we chose to cash in on our one player and now sit there praying that Cazorla will dribble past 3 players and stick it in the top corner. When that doesn't happen, we don't win

United have been behind so many times this season but when you're front four is Van Judas, Rooney, Hernandez and Welbeck, and you have direct, pacy wide players like Valencia and Nani in reserve, you will always be able to make up for 70 minutes of dross, with a 20 minute spell where you blow the other team out of the game

Luckily for us, the overrated PL still contains another 16 very ordinary or shite teams so bizarrely the virtual trophy is still up for grabs

[Herd]

Slap up meal for two at Rules.

Rules used to be my favorite restaurant ever until they refurbished it in the mid 80's .
My boss used to have a standing reservation there at the table prince Bertie and Lilly langtry sat at complete with side .
Haven't been back since they poisoned me with a dodgy Oyster.

Saturday there were a lot of Old School Herd there so it's not surprising he got the bird ,but his comments afterwards are no worse than his normal drivel .
He's always been very distant to the fans but I would agree he's getting backed up in interviews by reporters who scent blood !

[storrmin571]

Love Herds war stories. Always a bit of humour there.

[DB10GOONER]

Appalling performance.

Forehead has now actually lost the basic ability to control the ball when passed to him. He has no idea where to run, when to run, cannot cross, cannot pick out a decent pass and shoots like a ten year old girl. Please, can someone tell me how he is being paid a fortune to be a footballer? Please? I'm fuckered if I can figure it out...

Thought Giroud did ok, won a few in the air, and ran for everything but we just seemed to lack that final killer ball to put him in. Cazorla passed some lovely balls around the midfield and out wide, but the recipients always seemed to then back track and lay off another sideways ball rather than pushing forward at pace. Ox looks slightly off form or maybe just tired. Arteta worked hard like always but we needed that bit of magic that Wilshere can bring to spark the midfield.

Defence was a bit better at times. Mert fired in one brilliant tackle and Chesney made a great save onto the crossbar. Kos tried on a couple of occasions to charge out through the middle and lead us up the park but most of our midfielders just seemed to stare at him and didn’t know whether to follow or hold.

I’m afraid I’ve just given up on Rambo. He has been pants for 2 years now. He doesn’t do the simple things, he can’t do the complicated things and the constant stupid flicks and backheels NEVER work for him. He is NOT good enough to be playing at a top PL club.

Arshavin (bar one nice bit of skill on the edge of the box) offered his usual nothing when he came on.

Wenger’s post match comments were a disgrace. The ignorance and arrogance he displayed was shameful. This is a man that feels he doesn’t (and more importantly feels he SHOULDN’T) have to answer to anyone. We basically have a dictator that is failing at his job year after year.

I’m sorry, but anyone that honestly thinks that Arsene Wenger still knows best is a sheep.

[mikeyb772001]

Slap up meal for two at Rules.

Rules used to be my favorite restaurant ever until they refurbished it in the mid 80's .
My boss used to have a standing reservation there at the table prince Bertie and Lilly langtry sat at complete with side .
Haven't been back since they poisoned me with a dodgy Oyster.

Saturday there were a lot of Old School Herd there so it's not surprising he got the bird ,but his comments afterwards are no worse than his normal drivel .
He's always been very distant to the fans but I would agree he's getting backed up in interviews by reporters who scent blood !

yep. Was a lot of old faces around, train home was a laugh. The old boys really dont like wenger that much haha