OUR MIDFIELD

dvbrisgooner1 · Post by **dvbrisgooner1** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 7:50 pm

Signing Alonso will not help our situation as he can not play alongside Fabregas. Who would do the tackling? Who would protect the back four? There is only one candidate that is "available" and that is Gareth Barry - but we won't sign him will we? After all, he has no sell-on value!

dvbrisgooner1 · Post by **dvbrisgooner1** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 8:04 pm

I've just remembered!!!! We are saved my friends!

AMAURY BISCHOFF should be fit around October - we have NOTHING to worry about!

Post by **QuartzGooner** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 9:18 pm

dvbrisgooner1 wrote:Signing Alonso will not help our situation as he can not play alongside Fabregas. Who would do the tackling? Who would protect the back four? There is only one candidate that is "available" and that is Gareth Barry - but we won't sign him will we? After all, he has no sell-on value!

If we sign Alonso, then we will likely play 4-5-1 with Alonso and Cesc in the middle and one of Djourou/Song/Toure/Gallas behind them shielding the defence.

If we play 4-4-2 with Alonso and Cesc in the middle of midfield, we might as well give up.

Magic Hat · Post by **Magic Hat** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:54 am

dvbrisgooner1 wrote:Signing Alonso will not help our situation as he can not play alongside Fabregas. Who would do the tackling? Who would protect the back four? There is only one candidate that is "available" and that is Gareth Barry - but we won't sign him will we? After all, he has no sell-on value!

or because if he performs like he did against the Czech's, Stoke and Croatia, we might as well put in Eboue at dm? Arsene isn't going to say (right now) "we don't have the cash" or "I think Barry is a useless dm" so think resale value is just an excuse

We do need a ball winning midfielder desperately though that wasn't the cause, for me, of our defeat to Fulham.

gus ceasar is a legend · Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:56 am

QuartzGooner wrote:
dvbrisgooner1 wrote:Signing Alonso will not help our situation as he can not play alongside Fabregas. Who would do the tackling? Who would protect the back four? There is only one candidate that is "available" and that is Gareth Barry - but we won't sign him will we? After all, he has no sell-on value!

If we sign Alonso, then we will likely play 4-5-1 with Alonso and Cesc in the middle and one of Djourou/Song/Toure/Gallas behind them shielding the defence.

If we play 4-4-2 with Alonso and Cesc in the middle of midfield, we might as well give up.

No we will not!

Why will we all of a sudden change our whole style of play overnight? We have never played with anyone in the "Makelele" position so why would we now?

Magic Hat · Post by **Magic Hat** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:25 am

Gilberto did a few times and Eboue did against WBA so we have done it under Arsene.

gus ceasar is a legend · Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:29 am

Magic Hat wrote:Gilberto did a few times and Eboue did against WBA so we have done it under Arsene.

No, one of the midfielders sits slightly deeper than the other but they are not a spare man in the way Makelele was!

Magic Hat · Post by **Magic Hat** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:30 am

Eboue was on top of his centrebacks and Gilberto could be miles behind the other midfielders

gus ceasar is a legend · Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:33 am

I am not even going to bother arguing!

Wenger ghas said himselfthat we do not play that way and recently commented that Djourou can play that role but his chances in midfield would be very limited with us as we do not play that system.

So don't argue with me about it, tell Arsene that we do in fact play with a "Makelele" and he just hasn't noticed!

Magic Hat · Post by **Magic Hat** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:41 am

It is amazing what Arsene doesn't notice sometimes. Like that foul by his player

Post by **QuartzGooner** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:20 pm

gus ceasar is a legend wrote:
QuartzGooner wrote:
dvbrisgooner1 wrote:Signing Alonso will not help our situation as he can not play alongside Fabregas. Who would do the tackling? Who would protect the back four? There is only one candidate that is "available" and that is Gareth Barry - but we won't sign him will we? After all, he has no sell-on value!

If we sign Alonso, then we will likely play 4-5-1 with Alonso and Cesc in the middle and one of Djourou/Song/Toure/Gallas behind them shielding the defence.

If we play 4-4-2 with Alonso and Cesc in the middle of midfield, we might as well give up.

No we will not!

Why will we all of a sudden change our whole style of play overnight? We have never played with anyone in the "Makelele" position so why would we now?

Why would we change?

A 4-4-2 central midfield pairing of Cesc, and one of Denilson/Diaby/Eboue/Ramsey is far from able to match those of Liverpool, Chelsea or Man Utd.

Chelsea would destroy us in midfield.

Our best option might be pairing Cesc with Coquelin!

I do not know if we will change.

But the players in our squad as it stands make me hope we will change for the sake of our season.

Galasso · Post by **Galasso** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:13 pm

Magic Hat wrote:I'm sure the African Cup of Nations would love to hear how bad he is there. I think he will play well there if we give him a try again

Well, I think one needs to make a distinction between international/european football and premier league football.

As with the case of Senderos, who acquits himself well against european and international opposition but struggles with the higher pace of English football, Song looks flat-footed and laboured, one of the reasons he struggled and was moved into central defence. If the boss moves him into central defence that tells me something.

He is just not at the level we require and this oft quoting of his name just underlines how stretched our (quality) resources are in this department.

Magic Hat · Post by **Magic Hat** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:00 pm

He does look slow at times (come to think of it, maybe Huddlestone would thrive abroad?) but I think he has what it takes to be a good option for us at dm. I'm uncomfortable with him at centreback as he looks like Gilberto did when used at cb, a midfielder filling a hole