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.
northbank123 wrote:In his (dreadful) BBC Sport column Rio Ferdinand seemed extremely proud that the senior players made it as hard as possible for young players to come through at United, particularly in Scholes "kicking the living daylights" out of Paul Pogba on the training pitch every day.
As much as I despair at the seemingly sheltered environment around our players letting Scholes literally kick his way back into the side probably wasn't a wise long-term approach to solving their CM problem.
I read that as him kicking Pogba as a way of toughening him up, apparently he was supposed to say nothing about it so he could earn the "respect" of Jar-Jar Binks and his mates.
In a nutshell it shows everything that is wrong with English football. What is even worse is that he has phrased that in a way that suggests it's completely normal and we should be impressed, good old Scholesy eh? You see this shit up and down the country every week in Sunday league, it's the level of football intellect of my barber writ large. According to him all we needed to win the World Cup was more midfield cloggers to "leave their studs in." Not a single other major footballing nation approaches the game this way or if they do it doesn't become the be-all. Fuck off to the UFC. And as I have to explain to nearly every middle aged man I meet, I literally could not give less of a fuck about how football was in the 70s.
It also confirms what those of us with eyes knew about Paul Scholes from day 1 - he is a massive, massive *word censored*.
Lots of good players and teams came out of the 70's mate.
Sure Ferdinand's a but he's just reflecting what went on at a club that won the lot - again and again. Must be something rght about that.
rodders999 wrote:BFG, Kos and Giroud all dropped. Suddenly not so much Arsenal interest in the game coming up.
Boateng in instead, maybe a worry about Germany's tendency to play a high line and the BFG's lack of pace? NO arguments on Giroud being benched but very hash on Kos IMO.
rodders999 wrote:BFG, Kos and Giroud all dropped. Suddenly not so much Arsenal interest in the game coming up.
Boateng in instead, maybe a worry about Germany's tendency to play a high line and the BFG's lack of pace? NO arguments on Giroud being benched but very hash on Kos IMO.
Didn't Koscielny only play the last game(s) because of injury? Starting Sakho ahead of him is moronic. To my mind Koscielny is likely to excel in a match where the opposition have a lot of attacking possession and spend most of the game trying to probe through and exploit gaps.
Not convinced about the BFG decision too - he looked out of sorts against Algeria but then so did the rest of the defence. Germany's problem was that they were committing the midfield forward expecting to zip the ball around in the final third and Algeria were robbing them and moving it forward quickly. There was either going to be a huge gap between the midfield and defence or keeper and defence. Same thing won't happen with France, they won't be quite as dominant possession and territory and also they don't really have electric pace to get in behind.
1-0 Germany. Absolutely fucking pathetic from Varane, kid needs to hit the weights big time because Hummels was holding him at arms' length for that goal. It was a great header but the chance of him sticking that in from there with any decent challenge is tiny.
Pity as France were looking really good, I'm worried a Germany goal could suck the life out of this game. If they manage to get hold of the ball they will strangle this game, come on France.
rodders999 wrote:BFG, Kos and Giroud all dropped. Suddenly not so much Arsenal interest in the game coming up.
Truth is that even our so called top players are mainly second string. Arsenal may have the most players in the last 8, but hardly any of them are automatic first choices. Apart from BFG - whose lack of pace was always going to be exposed by the better teams - Campbell and Ozil are the 2 that always get picked: the former hasn't played for us and has yet to prove he'll be able to produce on the highest level; the latter is not in the highest class because he doesn't dominate games/take them by the scruff of the neck like most superstars, happier to pass it on rather than be determined to try and do something by himself.
topgoon wrote:They may not be first choice but no one picks Sakho over Kos when you've seen him on action.
And I would say the same re picking boateng ahead of BFG - the whole german backline was torn apart in the last game, but I lost count of how many times BFG covered for boating. Am glad that lahm is back at full back again - I cannot understand the *****-a-thon over his performances in midfield - he is the best full back in the world (probably) so play him there especially when you consider how many quality midfielders they have
Considering the performances of those we are linked with, I'd say they are pretty much as expected - khedira as bang average as I have always maintained, whilst griezman has been anonymous imo
Have to say though, that ozil has been absolute dogshite yet again - the thing about silky players like ozil, is that when they are not on their game, they look fcuking lazy and the more I look at ozil the more I want AFC to sell him
I thought France gave a pretty decent account of themselves. They were quite confident in the ball, defensively worked hard all over the pitch and weren't really troubled by the Germans too much at the back. Unfortunately you just can't afford to give away a goal like that scrawny bastard at the back did, and they just lack that clinical edge up front. Valbuena was pretty lively but spurned good positions with a rogue touch or poor decision, Matuidi was industrious but never looked like finding a team-mate with a cut-back/cross and although Benzema had some good moments he's just not sharp enough to create half a yard of space and rifle home like Suarez, Messi, van Persie, etc. Germany didn't really have to push on after going 1-0 up and although they weren't hugely impressive Neuer was rarely troubled.
I have to echo the above posts that Khedira looked really poor - I know he's been out this season but he just doesn't look suited to that role to me. It seemed like Schweinsteiger was the one in the right place making tackles, cutting out passes and picking up loose balls. Ozil again was completely peripheral, I was surprised to say the least at the decision to play Klose from the start in this game.
but he's just reflecting what went on at a club that won the lot - again and again. Must be something rght about that.
