CL: Borusia Dortmund Match Thread

[Rosie_titters]

For what it's worth, I thought Yossi was outstanding tonight... will be one of the quietest most successful, and pretty surprising bits of business we've done in ages...

On a different point, our players seem to be slipping over more and more often... have we stopped wearing studs, or are some of the slips the cowards way out of taking responsibility?

if he keeps it up he will become a fans fav, supporters love to see a player who puts in a shift and looks like he is trying

in the same mould as Kuyt at liverpool and Park at Man Utd

[rigsby]

Song was brilliant second half, he was everywhere in defence. That tackle on Goetze was first rate as well. If only he did that every game he'ld be brilliant.

Everyone stepped up second half, bar Theo though he was slightly isolated out there. Kos was flinging himself everywhere, but think that was due to Song actually doing his job, unlike the first half when they were cutting through our midfield.

All in all good result, good goal for them, but tbh it had to be like that as I really didn't see them carving us up in the second half.

[Gunnersaurus]

The good thing is that we look like we can defend now, give Mertersacker time to get used to the team and he will improve the backline.

Arteta and Benayoun also showed a willingness to do the ugly work which often only Jack wanted to do last year, let's be happy that the defensive side looks to be improving, the goals will come with confidence.

[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

[aw]

For what it's worth, I thought Yossi was outstanding tonight... will be one of the quietest most successful, and pretty surprising bits of business we've done in ages

Well, he was much better than Denilson!

[TeeCee]

Decent result but I don't think that will be our hardest away game, I think Marseille will be more difficult. I predicted a win tonight and honestly thought we would get it.

Have to say I thought Benny was very poor all game. Poor passing all through it. Our midfield in General was poor although Song was much better 2nd half. We gave the ball away so much all game. Not good enough, we were unlucky with the goal but lucky that Barrios wasn't playing, we'd have lost if he was.

[rigsby]

Thing that Benny does though is work hard. The amount of times he covered back was refreshing to watch.And he'ld stick his head in, or go in for a tackle, we've so badly lacked that. Maybe not the best game going forward but who was bar RVP?

[Wengerball]

Credit where its due to the guys on the park who have earned us a very respectable point at a tough away ground.

I thought we actually defended really well after a shakey opening 15 mins but I just felt trouble brewing when we started to sit back and drop even deeper at the 75 min mark.

For once (and it was refreshing to see) it looked like the 11 men on the park had a bit of pride and fight about them.
I still believe that we have an average team but its amazing how work rate can turn an average player into a good player on the night.
Benayoun was much better than I thought he would be so hats off to the guy but Walcott must be dropped ASAP.
Walcott is not of the required quality in my opinion though I did think Gervinho showed promise- if only he would stop looking at the floor!

Those that cry bottle job- it was a cracking goal they scored and you could line up the Invincibles team on the goal line and it would still have gone in. If Gibbs or Kos had given the ball away in front of our own goal and they had run into score then by all means I would moan and complain about it but it was a good goal and sometimes you cant do anything about it.

A point was the most we deserved from the game in my opinion but you dont always get what you deserve so was pleased with a positive result.

Shit have I just written something positive


PS I thought Goetze played pretty well particularly in the first half- he looks a real talent with that sort of passing.


SIGN HIM UP

[Jumpers For Goalposts]

Its annoying because that would have been a great result if we'd hung on for the win....but Dortmund deserved a point.

Demun mate - every one of your posts has got the word IF in it. If we'd won 5-0 it would have been a great result - trouble is we didn't though did we??

Dortmund played well but we're making a habit of bottling games like that aren't we??

What makes you think we bottled it?

It's not just tonight though is it mate??

We've made a habit out of losing or drawing games that we should be winning. How many times have you seen us dominate and come away with 1 point or nothing at all?? It may have been a 1 in a million strike but we're always shooting ourselves in the foot once we've got our noses in front.

I grew up watching an Arsenal team that could close out tight games but we've totally lost that ability and there'll be no more silverware until we get it back.

[psychoangus]

Its annoying because that would have been a great result if we'd hung on for the win....but Dortmund deserved a point.

Demun mate - every one of your posts has got the word IF in it. If we'd won 5-0 it would have been a great result - trouble is we didn't though did we??

Dortmund played well but we're making a habit of bottling games like that aren't we??

What makes you think we bottled it?

It's not just tonight though is it mate??

We've made a habit out of losing or drawing games that we should be winning. How many times have you seen us dominate and come away with 1 point or nothing at all?? It may have been a 1 in a million strike but we're always shooting ourselves in the foot once we've got our noses in front.

I grew up watching an Arsenal team that could close out tight games but we've totally lost that ability and there'll be no more silverware until we get it back.

I agree we've done that in some games in the past, but we didn't dominate tonight and nor should we have won that. Dortmund looked class and any team in Europe would've done exceptionally well to dominate them in their own park.

A win tonight would've been sheer robbery for us.

[rigsby]

Tbh mate I thought this was EXACTLY like an old Arsenal performance. Remember Copenhagen '94?

Sure we were 1 nil up, but it was nobody's thought that goal went in.

[MK Gould]

I thought it was an excellent rear guard performance of the old school. Loved it!

Fully expected us to lose this one - on paper our toughest in the group - but for all the Dortmund pressure I never thought we looked in trouble which is amazing for a defence that conceded 8 in our last away game.

Class goal for the equaliser but still consider it a point gained rather than two dropped.

Also thought Arteta looked class. Bit disappointed with Benayoun especially the number of times he got caught in possession around the half way line.

Things definitely looking up though - especially with Ramsey, Wilshere and Vermaelen to come back.

[LDB]

Good result all things considered - would have settled for a point before kick off.

Its always disappointing to concede so late but the goal was a worldy and deserved... at least we didnt surrender it meekly like we usually do.

Hopefully the last two gritty if largely uninspiring results can begin to rebuild the shattered confidence of the players. The fight starts again at blackburn and they're going to have to maintain it for a whole season if we're to have a shot at 4th/a pot.

[MegaGooner]

I thought it was an excellent rear guard performance of the old school. Loved it!

Fully expected us to lose this one - on paper our toughest in the group - but for all the Dortmund pressure I never thought we looked in trouble which is amazing for a defence that conceded 8 in our last away game.

Class goal for the equaliser but still consider it a point gained rather than two dropped.

Also thought Arteta looked class. Bit disappointed with Benayoun especially the number of times he got caught in possession around the half way line.

Things definitely looking up though - especially with Ramsey, Wilshere and Vermaelen to come back.

+1

I thought I was the only one that thought Benayoun was pathetic this evening, but him and Song picked up their game in the second half.

I also suspect that Dortmund did their homework on Mertesacker, as they made some quick 1-2 passes around him in the first half, when Kos was at his worse and didn't cover for him. They were much better in the second half though.

Here's hoping it's just "growing pains" as our team starts to gel......I hope it's sooner rather than later

[Number 5]

Really I would have thought our better performances this year would come in Europe against all but the 4-5 big boys out there.

It is worrying to see how easily Dortmund cut through our defense time and time again in the first half, especially the 60 yard hoof that beat our backline all ends up. That was fucking disgraceful.

So it would appear domestically and abroad we are going to continue to perform poorly and present an alarmingly high ratio of chances presented to the oppostion.

What I am trying to say is that for all the Walcott bashing going on at the moment, we have far more pressing matters to attend to than the right side of the front 3.

The midfield 3 are shockingly bad in their ability (lack of) to keep decent posession of the ball, their ability (lack of) to create clear chance for the forwards.

The back 4 (first half) are giving away chances on some sort of buy one get one free scheme.

1-11 they all seem to be afraid of the ball these days.

These area's are much more pressing and need to be addressed way ahead of what Walcott does or doesn't do on the wing. If we had a team playing well, looking solid, bringing home the bacon fair enough. Bomb him out, he is very very poor for 85 minutes of most games. But we don't have that and our other really serious problem need to be fixed first.