So, the summer transfer window is proving to be as frustrating as finding a closed pistachio nut in your nut bowl. For once, I think most of the Gooner faithful appear united in what we need… a centre midfielder of beast like proportions and a centre back who has good defending at the top of his C.V…
The subject of my ramblings today is strengthening through weakening. Are Arsenal banking on a weaker top 4 to compete next year?
So far this summer we’ve watched Chelsea grow another year older without really recruiting anybody that special. I’ve read about the white Ronaldinho… Jerk-off… and to be honest, I reckon he is overrated. Arshavin is the only Russian who is allowed to set the Premiership alight this season and that is a fact… Pirlo is too old to be trying his luck in the Premiership. His signing reminds me of the Deco signing last summer. Fat Frank is single and ripping up the club scene and Drogba is very injury prone these days. Having a coach without Premiership experience can be as much of a gamble as having a player without it.
Manchester United have lost a winger who they could bank on scoring 40 goals and grabbing ten assists… they’ve replaced him with players of poor calibre if you ask me. Sure, Owen could score a few… I don’t think his signing was as poor as many people made out… Obertan would get me about as excited as a day pass to the library and Valencia has never impressed me.
Liverpool have just lost a superb player in Alonso and Mascharano is making all the right noises if you are a fan of the other top four clubs. Replacing him with an injury prone Aquiliani doesn’t really impress me. Stevie G and Fernando Torres are superb players, but keeping them fit is a harder task than breaking into that pistachio nut I was talking about earlier.
Then we have Arsenal… we’ve let Adebayor, Toure, Senderos (Nice to see Arsenal.com first to let us know as usual) and possibly Eboue move all in one summer. That’s 132 starting appearances disappearing off our books in a month, if that isn’t a shock to the system I don’t know what is. My problem with the sale of the said players isn’t so much to do with them leaving, more to do with a comment Wenger made about Real Madrid,
‘In my opinion, to recruit more than three players in a transfer window, as Real plan, is taking a technical risk.’
If recruiting 3 players is a technical risk, surely selling 3 players who all put more than 30 overall appearances is an even bigger risk. Especially if you don’t replace them…
This leads me to believe that perhaps Arsene has looked at the other top 4 teams, seen that they’ve been weakened and decided that the odds on his gamble will be a little better this year? It’s not the strong getting stronger for once… it’s the weak. Will this mean that the Premiership sees the most unpredictable campaign in its short history? Quite possibly. Does it make the thought of us not signing any more players that little bit more irksome… most definitely.
This summer shouldn’t be the time for taking another massive gamble on a season in the hope it all comes good… this should be the summer we strike while our enemies are wounded, build on our weaknesses and train harder on our strengths. If we do that, this could be our season… our chance to assert dominance on the Premiership and maybe Europe… our chance to wrestle the mantle of prettiest footballing side away from Barcelona… our chance to put Arsenal FC back on the map!
I think our season rests on the decisions the coach is going to make this week. He’s got £50million to gamble with… here’s hoping he’s going to twist… not stick.
Update: Since writing this last night, the rumour that we’re after Kalou has reemerged. Whilst the obvious thing for me to do would be to curse him as a poor player… I wont. He’s not a world beater, but I’ve got a few Chav mates who rate him and I think he’d definitely offer us something with regards to flexibility, skill and workrate. Chamakh looks the more talented of the two… I can’t help but think maybe we’re moving for Kalou to force the French club into selling… I still find it odd that we’re chasing a right sided attacker with the options we have… but I suppose if Eboue is off, it makes sense experience wise.
So… plenty to mull over today Grovers!
See you in the comments!
Why smith?! what difference would a DM have made?! A Dm’s job is to stop the opposition from playing, and Chelsea weren’t allowed to play. No DM could have magically stopped Silvestre and Fabianski from individual fuck ups that put us out of the competition….
A DM would not have made the difference in that match, a lack of injuries to key defensive players, or more depth defensively would have.
About Denilson/Song the important question in the end is not how good/poor they were last year. Given their age and progress rate, how good can they be this season?
As Paulinho says if we start playing our attacking game again then defensive prowesses won’t matter as much and one of Denilson/Song might reach the required quality soon enough.
I’d still rather someone better came in Matt, if at all possible. I think we could certainly win the league with Denilson or Song in the team, but they’re be as you say of the required quality. If possible it would be great for someone to come in who would really add something to the side, rather than just being good enough to do their job adequately.
Hopeless Says:
August 4, 2009 at 09:41
Is Kalou better than RVP/Eduardo/Arshavin/Bendtner?
No – So why sign him.
————————–
i think kalou is better than RVP and nik currently … plus he has never really got going at the chev’s because of all the competition
but arsene is never wrong .. so i respect
his talent judgment ..
ok he was wrong about ade .. but he also has a fair % of getting things right , track record wise .. id certainly like to see someone added ..
does it matter who ?
providing they can compete at the top level .
kalou has played quality minutes for the chev’s even thou he has never really got a big break .
you have to remember wenger is looking for talent that will explode , not players that already have done so …
The FA CUP used to be the Arsenal Cup…id like for us to start that again.
matt- RE paulinho
paulinho has always made sense , arsenal are an attack minded team …
the way wenger has molded this team in the past is the way he should continue to do so ..
too many plonkers are vomiting out the defensive frailties that wenger pointed out start of last season .. but the truth be known if you want this team to turn into the chev’s and play for boring 1 – nil results with a clean sheet record then maybe we should buy 30 more defenders … YES …
but people who really know our team should smack themselves over the head for not realizing arsenal is a flamboyant attacking team , well at least we were until our midfield went tits up last season.
and now everyone blames the defense due to poor
ball retention in the midfield .
Kalou is a good squad player imo, he’s not good enough for Chelsea’s first team but how on earth he is better than RVP beats me.
RVP needs the right players around him to be effective ..
thats why for the dutch they play 4-3-3
robin needs players to feed off ..
he likes to pass off to get into a position to shoot ..
and until he can get a few 1 -2′s going with his strike partners i feel kalou still has the edge on him . as kalou is more direct ..
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2571828/Its-official-Arsenal-are-shrinking.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=Football
The 1 good article released by the Sun every 365 days!
Also, we’re supposedly had a 5.5 million pound bid turned down for this chap:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Fazio
The article was in the Sun, but it does seem like a Wenger “out of the blue” signing. Plays CB and CDM and a starter for the 3rd best team in Spain.
better than rvp ethan?! That’s simply ridiculous!!
Ethan it wasn’t JUST bad ball retention, defensively individuals are weaker than they’ve been before. The ball retention or lack of last season compared to when Hleb, Rosicky, and Cesc were flying was a massive contributor, but it wasn’t the only thing that cost us.
We were an attack minded team in every year we’ve won the league under Wenger, but the team has also been strong defensively, and it simply isn’t now
Haha Kalou better than RVP. Tell that to the Chelsea fans and they’ll gladly trade
pat
that makes sense , sign a DM/CD
a 2 in one …
it definitely sounds like wengers style signing..
Ethan VP is one of the best forwards in Europe, Kalou is a good premiership player who would be a good squad player, it’s just ridiculous to claim Kalou has the edge over vp, but fair enough everyone’s entitled to their own opinion!!
How’s that a good article Pat?! I wouldn’t mind Fazio, seen him a couple of times and he’s been ok, think he might have made his debut against us?? Dunno how quick he is though.
I reckon Barcelona is another ‘flamboyant attacking’ team and they’re doing petty well being an attacking team does not necessaryly means you have to be shit at the back this is what our team is laking we’re so much offensive minded i sometimes wonder if at all Wenger trains his team about any thing other than attack attack don’t get of wrong it’s a good thing but at least buy a holding midfielder to stop opposition from giving our shit defence a hard time
Fazio isn’t a DM though, we’d be signing him as a centre back, he’s a DM as Senderos or Kompany are DMs
Though it says fazio doesn’t want to leave so even if there was any truth in it it’s dead in the water! Ah well. Next two days, a DM and a centre back, and i’ll be a happy bunny
Solomon Kalou to Arsenal YES. Better than VP? Hell No.
I don’t want an Argentinean CB. They’re usually shit in the PL, or just shit in general.
Demichelis, Heinze(also LB), Colocionni, etc
6ft 5…hes one tall fecker.
Heinze was very good in the premiership I thought Pat, what other centre backs have we had other than colocinni??! Still, not gonna happen, probably just a Sun made up rumour to try and attack us!
come on now…heinze was quality till his injury.
Yeah David – I remember he played against us in the champs league, was his debut or one of his first few matches, cos i remember sitting there reading about him in the program thinking we could take the piss out of him, 6’5″ novice trying to deal with quick pass and move etc, he did ok though if i remember rightly
ha just checked now, we won that game 3-0 actually
We’ve become so marginalzied as a selling club now with little or no ambition that we have to get class players by going the “double ure wages” route.
Not his debut, his 4th match. Still remember thinking he wasn’t too bad. Ah well
A
your blind .. pure and simple !
we lost too to many games to average teams last season .
too many draws .. and not enough goals to put games to bed ..
our midfield didn’t create or retain the ball , and we never dominated any games initially..
and that was shown in our table position come the end of the season ..
why do you think RVP plays wide for the dutch ?
so he can make space – pass off and get into position to shoot.
that is when he is deadly ..
A youve been wrong on just about everything so
when you disagree with me , i feel more than on the right track
the only problem i have with kalou is the ACN .
and that is the only reason i would be against wenger signing Salomon kalou..
Juventude are winning away. 1-0 Zezinho
a good 2 in one signing is Yaya Toure.
huh david, where on earth did that come from?! We’re still a very attractive proposition for any footballer, unless his ambition is money, who on earth’s wages would we need to double?!
We should just offer 20-23 million pounds for Yaya Toure. It looks like Pep doesn’t really rate him as one of his best players. They really want to buy Mascherano as well.
ethan if you find a single other person who agrees with you that kalou is better than vp fair enough, i think you’ll struggle! Even David who’s a massive kalou fan i believe said hell no!
It’s like saying you’d rather have Darren Bent than Fernando Torres, simply ridiculous!
He plays wide right for Holland because they play a different system to us, pretty simple!
Last season we had trouble scoring goals before Arshavin arrived, when Cesc was out. We ALSO had trouble holding onto leads, and it wasn’t just ball retention!
You can’t hold onto the ball for 90 minutes, we didn’t dominate possession as much this season, and that put more pressure on the defence, but that’s as much to do with the fact that we couldn’t win the ball back off the opposition, as an inability to keep it when we had it.
Just downloaded the season review. Not sure if I should watch it and bring back the awful memories!
A
what makes you think there will be a signing in 2 days
Pat
thats exactly what im saying and we would improve yaya’s wages as well….Barca would be happy to sell…imo
David, Wenger said he’ll make all the signings this week, if he does make any signings.
I seriously doubt it though. He’s going to wait till the very end and miss out on someone by 200k
because wenger said transfers would be finished by the end of pre season david, and the team fly out on thursday or friday for valencia, so it’s this week or never! Though I might have to listen to the interview again see if he specified whether before or after tha valencia game
A
Ethan it wasn’t JUST bad ball retention, defensively individuals are weaker than they’ve been before.
—————————————
rubbish !
if your midfield is weak and cannot retain the ball , your going to expose the defense . MORE OFTEN – and for last season it happened ON just about every occasion ..
JD did a great job , and gallas showed what a great player he was when tested ..
so what part of weaker did they display ?
they were tested A HELL of a LOT more last season .. watch some games if you have trouble remembering !!!!!!!!!!!!
its more of a case that the opposing team built up pressure thru-out the game and wore our defense down .
last season we were ineffective at getting forward ( or why else would we have sold ade)
and we lost 2 HUGE players that were key to our success the previous season in (hleb,flamini)
both our strikers on the last game of the season ade-RVP had 9 goals in the EPL …
woeful …
Alright im not a massive Kalou fan…i do think his numbers speak volumes for itself especially since he comes off the bench….he’d be a regular first teamer imo…and if he doesnt make the grade we can use walcott in a way we always use him….
when the opposition tires.
Pat that is one fine article, Ethan i can’t beleive you’re saying this Kalou has nothing over RVP he will be a good addition but hell no to the RVP debate.
well lets just hope we sign kalou
so i can prove you all wrong
AGAIN …
because RVP cant hit the side of a barn from a spot kick any more ..
he needs creative players around him or he is useless and ineffective .. he has been struggling last season to even get into a position to score ..
and for the past 2 seasons he didnt even play FFS !
so i dont know where the fuck your getting your info from ..
JD is class yes. Gallas is class yes. Kalou would be good yes….Better than VP when VP single handedly saved our skins in the month of January time and time again..against everton, chelsea, liverpool…eeerrr…hard to see it.
ethan we were less effective last season going forward, AND ineffective in winning the ball back as well, therefore the defence was put under much more pressure. JD was shocking imo, as was Silvestre. If our first choice defence had been fit all season i’m certain we would have won either the fa cup or the champs league, if not both.
If Kalou was signed I don’t think he’d be a first teamer, neither will theo this season imo.
JD performed admirably A
hard to think of one thing he did/does wrong
lol ethan you’ve never been right or proved anyone wrong about ANYTHING! You just live high up in the clouds and believe you do!
So a squad player from Chelsea, is better than our player of the season………. oooooookkk
who didn’t even play for the past two seasons?
GS ..
he was level with ade down the bottom of the EPL scorers last game of the season on 9 !
9 from 38 games ..
and thats supposed to be good ???
RVP is 26 and supposedly in his prime …
KALOU is an excellent winger , and on par with RVP as a striker.. he also can operate better alone than RVP ..
and for me being a good winger makes him far more versatile !
therefore better …
I can remember a hell of a lot David, in actual fact he hasn’t played 90 minutes for us without at least one massive lapse in concentration that could have cost us a goal, although he was very lucky and often got away with it, though not always.
He’s someone who’s superb for 88 minutes, then just has one moment of madness, or two, and it can cost you a goal, or two, out of nowhere.
oh A , im not even going to answer that !
yes RVP player of the season with 11 goals in 38 games , only 2 better than ade (who was sold)
hahahahahahahahaha
A , i was right about wenger interest in nungchucks to start with !
of which you went quiet for days after ..
FUNNY THAT @!
ethan you mean 11 in 28 games….
I’ve never gone quiet on here ethan?! When I’m on the internet I’m always here!
Yeah you were right about Chamakh, but then you claim that EVERY rumour is true, so if we were ever genuinly interested in a player you’d claim it was a magical insight from you!
A Says:
August 5, 2009 at 02:55
He’s someone who’s superb for 88 minutes, then just has one moment of madness, or two, and it can cost you a goal, or two, out of nowhere.
======================================
You can say the same about Fabianski….doubly so…but why is JD shite and fab pushin for no 1?
11 goals and 10 assists in 24 starts, 4 subs, so he contributed 21 goals in 28 league appearances!
But of course a bit part player from chelsea, who contributed 6 goals and 4 assists in 17 starts, 10 subs, and who has a far inferior all round game, is better. that’s 10 goals contributed in 27 appearances
I know which one I, and every single other football fan who’s seen both play (including his brother, Bonaventure) would choose!
I don’t think he is as much anymore David, he was, but came into the team and made those mistakes. I expected him to be humber one by now, but his rushes of blood have prevented that from happening. Both players are young and both could get that out of their games though.
I’m iffy as to whether JD ever will, because he’s incredibly stupid both on and off the pitch. Same with Diaby, I don’t see him ever fulfilling his potential. Fabianski is a very intelligent bloke though, so I could see him ironing out the faults in his game.
dave
in past seasons have you ever seen our defense work so hard ?
defend corners so regularly ?
JD was great so was gallas ..
big Al not so much, with no jens pressure , but
over all we spent a lot more time off the ball than any other season ive seen under wengers reign ! our possession was in the toilet last season ..
and its pretty obvious we didnt have the skills to dominate the center like previous seasons ..
or get forward as much …. (due to ade)
any defender would struggle against constant attacks ..
being a defender is a shitty job …
you can defend for 89 minutes like a legend , and fuck up for 1 minute .. and thats the minute the fans will remember
FACT …
‘A’ is one such fan …
it doesnt help when you listen to the herd
of cattle (fans) who preach what wenger said a season or 2 ago , that we need a big log defender ..
wenger has moved on from that theory ..
or he would have purchased a defender in his prime , not tomas V who still isnt top class yet …
A: How do you get IQ ratings from players? That’s pushing stats a bit too far don’t you think?
Now seriously: what leads you to “JD is incredibly stupid both on and off the pitch” ?
Lol
We’ve only seen JD in full this season and in bits last season how are you sure he is such an unintelligent player A? There is no evidence of that…especially off the pitch?
Diaby i might agree with you…he is such an enigma….on his day he is unplayable…I still think he will excel as a Secondary striker if he can stay fit….but based on ability? Diaby and JD are above Fabianski imo.
ethan that’s the minute that matters! The single most important attribute in a defender is concentration, it doesn’t matter how many spectacular last ditch challenges and blocks someone makes, if they turn off just once in a game, and it gifts the opposition a goalscoring opportunity, then they’ve had a bad game, and JD does it a minimum of once EVERY game.
Some players can get that out of their game, as Ferdinand did, some fail, as Bramble did, I’m iffy which path JD will manage to follow, probably somewhere in between the two, but I don’t see him having the intelligence to ever be a top defender, and in 12 months we’re going to need a top defender to partner vermaelen when gallas goes.
We don’t know whether Vermaelen is top class yet, I expect everyone to be raving about him being as good as Vidic by xmas!
Ethan its just pointless i’m not a big RVP fan he looses stupid chances and often hits the bar but i could remember some games he helped us through last reason you can’t compare your season’s best player with a bench warmer from Chelsea why are the mancs after him and not after ‘Kalou’ as a replacement for ronaldo i mean its just there for you to see and arguing is just pointless
With JD on the pitch you can just see from some of his decision making, which at times is so ridiculous you literally can’t understand why he did it. He appears to have very little understanding of football, or defensive instinct.
Off the pitch he’s done a hell of a lot of interviews recently in which he’s come across as far from intelligent to put it politely! Same with diaby in interviews. I know English isn’t their first language, but you can still get a guage of how bright someone is, or not
@Pat
Before I retire just wanted to give kudos to that Sun article. Sentiments i echo entirely. The make up of team at present requires that we need height and strength. This is why Wenger put in a bid for Melo and not Mutuidi who is a player I like a lot. Defour another fine player but they are both small.
@Ethan 02:45 you are sso very right our play was breaking down far too often in the final third.
Also you have a point on Kalou v RVP although RVP is more likely to come up with something out of nothing.
And to make it 3 out 3 Chamakh would be an excellent signing at 6m quid who has exemplary first touch and control which will improve our ball retention in the final third. Furthermore he is lethal in the air. I really do hope we can do this deal
@Pat
Before I retire just wanted to give kudos to that Sun article. Sentiments i echo entirely. The make up of team at present requires that we need height and strength. This is why Wenger put in a bid for Melo and not Mutuidi who is a player I like a lot. Defour another fine player but they are both small.
@Ethan 02:45 you are sso very right our play was breaking down far too often in the final third.
Also you have a point on Kalou v RVP although RVP is more likely to come up with something out of nothing.
And to make it 3 out 3 Chamakh would be an excellent signing at 6m quid who has exemplary first touch and control which will improve our ball retention in the final third. Furthermore he is lethal in the air. I really do hope we can do this deal.. good night all…!
henry morris we’ve got no idea if wenger has put in a bit for matuidi, or whether he’ll sign. I still think he’s a possibility.
Diaby is 23, he has to clean up his act and he knows it. That’s probably why he spent his summer trying to build more muscles. If he has another off season it will be his last one at Arsenal. Now that we have plenty of exciting youngsters coming up the ranks AW will be ruthless with the players that won’t cut it.
A
yes well i cant remember RVP scoring this season from the wing either ….
in fact if it wasnt for the last game of the season 2 goal SCORE FEST … he would have been
equal with ade on scoring , and ade played less games than RVP …
sorry your stats lie again ….
kalou doesnt need to play as a striker for the chev’s they have 2 very capable strikers to do that ..
in fact anelka was the EPL high scorer ..
its a bit harder to share goals about when you have 2 big fish like that demanding the final pass .. and your on the wing !
rvp needs a good partner to be affective ..
kalou doesnt ..
kalou is a far better winger ..
kalou is more direct …
only thing i hate about kalou is he will go missing at the ACN …
that is the only reason i wouldnt want him to join , but he is quality ..
and as for ‘i claim every article was true’ pray tell what other article did i say was true ??
more like you claim every article is bullshit and believe nothing …
sorry ethan, but vp can make something for himself out of nothing. Kalou needs people to create chances for him, and to work the ball behind the defence for him to run onto – you’ve got it the wrong way round! vp can do it all himself, kalou needs help….
kalou is just a slightly more developed version of theo, but i wouldn’t mind him as he’d add depth to the squad.
Huntelaar you said was true ethan, that’s the most recent
A
Kalou has 12 goals and 10 assists over all…thats coming from a guy that comes off the bench regularly….how is that not someone who would be a first teamer?
Ethan…
I agree our ball retention has suffered alot because we lose out on stupid players like Denilson or clueless players like walcott…Im not sure Van P has much to do with it…although…you might have a point in the sense that when he was played upfront by himself he lost the possession 90% of the time when playing against the likes of Vidic/Terry etc…which is where you and I obviously disagree with Ade…being that he was/is the best targetman we had at AFC…however our ball retention will significantly improve with players like Jack, Merida, Cesc, and Arshavin playing…and I for one am so fecking happy that Merida and Cesc are playing together….we throw in Kalou who is fast and powerful in that makes and can place a thru ball and a cool finish every now and then and there are good times forever to come at AFC
“i will be looking at all the options we have during the week, and then we will close. I believe we have quite a strong squad now, but if we can add one or two players then we will do it, but no more.”
That’s the quote I was looking for.
Though next questions was “are you saying you’ll finish transfers by the starts of the season”, and wenger said “yes” – “so once the season starts you won’t be looking to bring anyone else in” – “no, unless we have a big accident with a player, no”
So it looks like this week or nothing!
A Says:
August 5, 2009 at 03:14
With JD on the pitch you can just see from some of his decision making, which at times is so ridiculous you literally can’t understand why he did it. He appears to have very little understanding of football, or defensive instinct.
—————————–
Youre going to have to give instances of this A…as far as i know…JD’s only “iffy” moment was the own goal against chelsea which was not particularly his fualt…i cant think of anything else he’s guilty of…he’s not afraid to get into the tackle sometimes he gets caught out but so does gallas…and especially Toure….about the English language thing….thas a bit strong A….he might just be a young chap thats all.
David he wouldn’t be a first teamer because of his style of play. VP is the main man, Wenger would never drop him, and likewise Arshavin. I’d expect Eduardo to make up the final of the front three, but after him the likes of Bendtner, Theo, Vela, and Kalou (if we signed him) would all share appearances on an almost equal level. As you said Kalou did alot from the bench, he’s a good impact sub rather than a regular starter.
There was a period where he gave away one penalty, and should have given away two more in the space of about 5 games David, one with a really weird handball, where he went to head the ball unchallenged, and for no apparent reason had his right arm next to his head and the ball missed his head hit his arm, and a trip! He gave away the free kick that west brom scored from with an absolutely ridiculous challenge on the edge of the box, against liverpool he completely misjudged the long ball that keane scored from, so by the time he’d started sprinting keane was long gone despite the fact he should beat keane every time in a race.
Those are just off the top of my head, but with research could go into a lot more
I don’t think our priority should be a CD in fact it should be a good defensive minded midfielder, we had the same sets of defenders two seasons ago as we had last season and we challenged for the title just because of the simple fact that we had flamini having a good DMF will actually make a shit defence look good Imo
oh yeah, and his challenge against city to give them that penalty was absolutely ridiculous as well. He just plays well for 90 minutes, then does CRAZY things. Those are just the ones that cost us. I watched every game in full last season, and there was only one game that he didn’t make a really bad error in, and it was in a game where the opposition barely attacked, i can’t remember who exactly, though if he could do that regularly then awesome, but I have big doubts over him.
If Eduardo is fit ofcoarse he should start ahead of Kalou…but this is Arsenal FC…im expecting a major injury to somebodi…it almost always happns….its the norm now…so Depth in squad is the way to go….
Also i agree about the JD thing that he commits stupid fouls outside the box…but that imo is due to lack of proper games…and ive seen ‘fouls’ like that commited by Vidic that are never called but once its Arsenal….blown up….The handball thing is inexcusable…and the long ball thing is inexperience…but one thing is clear….JD started getting better as the games went on which was one of the reasons why Toure was grumbling he wanted to leave in January.
A
concentration… if you want to talk about concentration then apply the same process to our midfield , who made the wrong pass or coughed up the ball , putting the opposition on a counter ,
which happened so often last season …
our wingers are too far up field and our defense isnt in position , and have to scramble back ….
concentration isnt exclusive to defenders only ..
and if RVP had better concentration he would have scored more this season …
if our midfield had some concentration and better players more importantly , the defense wouldn’t have been tested half as much …
ethan it isn’t the same though as the midfield, you look for different attributes in offensive and defensive players….
The defence, and goalkeeper, are the last line of prevention against the opposition, therefore any mistake they make is costly, so concentration is an absolute necessity for a good defender.
With offensive players it’s the opposite, it doesn’t matter if a player isn’t concentrating on the game for 88 minutes, if he just produces two bits of magic to provide two goals then he’s done his job.
You’re looking at things the wrong way, we should still want good defenders, and defensive players. Previously we’ve been so good going forward that we’ve made players like flamini look much better than they really are.
It isn’t now that the defence are under more pressure than they should be, or than other defences throughout the prem and Europe, but just that they aren’t under much much less pressure than everyone else as they were previously.
Even then things like set pieces and long balls over the top have nothing to do with being under pressure, that’s just an inability to defend as a team in set pieces, and individual defenders not being good enough with long balls.
A. – seriously here, with the criticism of JD you’re bordering on the sort of overly critical analysis some people on here like to use when they’re in one of their snide moods commenting on players they don’t like.
The handball thing is from the Wigan game in the Carling Cup at 3-0 up, with the 3rd coming from a great throughball from Djourou for Vela.
He’s barely had any run in the side and has been expected to not only adjust but make up for the shortcomings of the rest of the side defensively when we’ve been in poor form.
Forget how he looks, how hard would it be for anyone to point to instances with Senderos in a simlar fashion ?!
We’ll see regarding JD David, I’ve never said there’s no way he could sort out the errors, but just that I’m unsure as to whether he will, as he doesn’t seem to have that intelligence. I’d rather someone else came in now to be introduced gradually, who will partner Vermaelen from next season, than JD or Song take over. I actually like the idea of Song as a centre back more than JD, could see him doing a kolo and out of nowhere being through in there and performing superbly!
Keyser I don’t dislike JD at all, I just don’t feel comfortable with him in the side currently. I’m not fussed about his great throughballs etc, or great challenges!
In a centre back the be all and end all is concentration, if you lose concentration just once in 90 minutes, then you’ve failed as a defender imo! JD is someone who has only once last season managed to play 90 minutes without making a potentially goal costing mistake.
I’m not saying he’s shit, i’m not saying I dislike him, and I’m not saying if he had a long run in the team he wouldn’t potentially sort that out. All I’m saying is that he won’t be getting a long run in the team, and we need someone who could come straight into the side and not make those kinds of errors that cost us goals and points.
Speaking of Song. What was with that slide against Rangers the other day? If that wasn’t stupid i don’t know what is. All our defenders are like that too, just panic and react without thinking
A
Song is slow. In a high line he will get murdered. JD is fairly quick…you could see his pace and his last minute tackle on display against Rangers….and both of them will hopefully be good…the reason why i rate JD highly is cuz he’s good in the air…he’s fast…he’s a great tackler….the other things u mentioned would come in time….if he had as many oppurtunities as Denilson or Song i bet hed be class by now.
We’ll see David, I hope you’re right. JD is also just someone I never see as being potentially one of the best centre backs in the world, and that’s the sort of player I want there.
A. – For one it’s your opinion and while I respect it, it’s odd when you talk so glowingly about Senderos who was just as prone with that lapse in concentration.
All players make mistakes, it doesn’t matter who the defender is they all will, the be all and end all is how costly each one is and whether or not the team is good enough to cover for them or not put the plyer in the position in the first place.
ideally we want class players in every position not just CB…
But ultimately we will settle for people who can get along and do their job adequately and tidily.
Honest Bill – He slipped, I don’t think it’s too bad considering he was asked to slip back at half time and the team was chopped and changed.
Keyser. I know he slipped, but he had no business going for that ball in the first place. Anyone could tell he wasn’t gonna get there. I think Song is a pretty good Midfielder, but i have yet to be convinced he is a good CB.
He wasn’t though Keyser, that’s the point. He certainly went through runs of form, especially when he first came into the team, but he ironed out those mistakes. People just forget about all the nothingy games he did, because the nature of his game wasn’t spectacular, he was under the radar largely.
Senderos made mistakes in alot of games, but had alot of games he didn’t make mistakes in, which people forgot about, because his positional play was more important than his pace, so he wasn’t doing last ditch challenges all the time.
JD had literally one game last season he didn’t make a big mistake in, and that worries me. But because of the nature of him, he’s pacy rather than a thinking defender, he did alot of last ditch spectacular tackles, so people rate him because that made him stand out more.
The other difference between senderos and jd for me is that senderos is incredibly intelligent, so i could see him overcoming the mistakes, but I don’t see JD having the intelligence either on or off the pitch to do that.
I disagree with your second paragraph, as a defender there are ALWAYS going to be situations where you’re the last line of defence, and as such no teammate can cover a mistake you make, be it one on one with someone and fouling them in the box, handballing in the area, misjudging a long ball so the forward has a clear run on goal, doing a back pass that falls short etc etc. There are many situations that defenders will always get into, and nothing you can do can prevent the player from being there in the first place, nor cover for the mistake
It’s the same with Kalou, playing for Chelsea and scoring those goals is completely different to what he’ll be expected to do with us.
Chelsea have a rigid formation which relies on the majority of it’s players being efficient and disciplined. There’s not much thought that goes into ait at all, at least not from him.
I agree David, every position, and I see us as having young players in every position who will be world class, apart from centre back.
Honest Bill – I’m not saying he’s perfect or even going to be a good centre back, just think we got caught out as a team that day, he would’ve had trouble catching him anyway, but got back to help out in the end.
I dunno Bill, at the end of the 07/08 season Song had a few faultless and very impressive games at centre back, and one or two last season
As I was scanning through this I’m pretty sure I saw some demented talk of Kalou being better than Van Persie. Dear God, the things I’ve heard over the past four days is enough to put me into a coma.
Keyser. Yeah i agree. I’m just saying that a panic like that in a pre-season game, is not a great sign. If he did that in the PL against a good player, it may not have been so forgivable. He is still learning though.
Still for me, Centre backs are rarely good until they are much older and much more experienced. We should be sending all these young lads out to earn their stripes with other teams.
lol it’s ok Angelos, it’s only Ethan who said that (and we know he’s nuts)
Angelos, I see you have not met Ethan before
Nope…but it seems I just got a fast-track Honest Bill.
A
The Center back position is worrying but have faith…I am ever the optimist…(except when it comes to Thomas Bendtner)…Wenger seems to be solving the CB position with signing 50 of them in the youth league to see who will eliminate who out to make it at Arsenal….Seems as all the kids who are in the CF position Sanchez Watt seems to have beat the likes of Jay Simpson, G.Sunu, Bazarite, Rui Fonte, Rhys Murphy…
By the way a quick word on Watt…he’s an all round striker…very impressed with the kid…highly efficient in the goal scoring department…wins the ball (as he did for Jacks 3rd goal) and is deceptively quick.
Watt seemed very useful against Barnett too
I wouldn’t go so far as beaten the likes of Sunu, Barazite, Murphy, but yeah he’s come on leaps and bounds David. He wouldn’t have even been first choice with everyone fit in the youths last year, and I wrote him off completely as someone who didn’t have a hope of making it, but he’s really improved and has something about him, it’s gonna be fun seeing what he can do in the reserves this year.
Still think the likes of Murphy certainly, and probably Sunu will go on to be better players, and Barazite but not as a forward, but Watt certainly has a chance of making a career with us now.
He is lightning too.
Fonte has returned to Sporting though, and I reckon Simpson could be on his way out, omitted from the reserve squad today but no talk of an injury.
Have any of you guys created a fantasy team yet? It’s not something I usually get into but gave it a shot this season.
are we going to sign anyone or what?
Yeah I have Angelos, reckon i’ll change it before the start of the season though. What’s your team?
Yeaa
Green
Richards Hangeland Vidic Clichy
Lennon Alonso Mascherano Arshavin
Vela Torres
Subs- Dunne, Robinson, Dempsey
Jaaskelainen
Jagielka O’Shea Agger Figueroa
Kuyt Cahill Ireland Arshavin
Eduardo Defoe
The budget completely screwed with my head.
What did you scrounge up A?
yeah luke, tomorrow – wait and see!
angelos im
howard
johnson hangeland vermaelen zhirkov
jiminez cahill mikel arshavin
bendtner tevez
Green
Richards Hangeland Vidic Clichy
Lennon Mascherano Alonso Arshavin
Vela Torres
Really A!? God Im more excited than a kid on christmas eve. Wenger…please dont let us down. Get some depth. Get some class. We have the money. LEts do it. Lets show everyone Arsenal is the fucking greatest club on the planet
Bendtner?? lol
Zhirkov’s a good call because he’ll usually be deployed in midfield and probably get you a shedload of points.
ha well i’m just speculating there, don’t get too excited!! next two days though is when it’s gonna happen, and I can’t see a dm not coming in
A. You’ve pointed out the different pressures they faced, and it’s true because Senderos would just not be left one on one with Keane if we could help it because Gallas would be dropping deeper in anticipation.
It doesn’t neccesarily mean Senderos positioning sense was a lot better he still had to work at it as much as Djourou will have to.
Both he and Senderos are different sorts of defenders, I don’t think Senderos was especially intelligent, it’s football at the end of the day and he consistently hit a menatal block when he faced his limitations and couldn’t think of a way of getting around them, still doesn’t explain losing Hyppia on a corner.
Thats what the last paragraph was about, there’s only sOo much a team or a player can do, and in those instances when no-one can help, is when you see the real intellgence come out, Djourou still has to exhaust his chances while Senderos struck out in the end, unless he stays, whereby he’ll have had a hell of a lot more chances than you’ve given Djourou.
thats what im hoping angelos, though he costs alot for a defender
I reckon he’ll sign Chamakh and nobody else
Also, a clean sheet can make a defender’s performance look good even when it wasn’t
It’s like with Watt, ow highly would you have rated his intelligence before his performances in the Youth Cup and so on ? He’s far more intelligent than I’m sure many gave him credit for.
I wouldn’t mind Chamkah all he needs is a good touch as long as he can bring the physical side of the game we currently lack in some areas.
I wouldn’t take Wenger’s words as gospel. Players will most likely be brought in after our trip to Sevilla. If I’ve learned anything it’s that Wenger will say whatever’s in his best interest at that moment in time.
I take it Arshavin’s your captain A.
and by sevilla i mean Valencia.
Man, transfer season makes me crazy. I want signings, football, and results.
have to disagree keyser, senderos would have been one on one with keane in exactly the same way. One defender is always right, ones left, you can’t change the whole time depending on whether the ball is on the right or left side of the pitch. You can’t have someone drop deep either to cover, because then you keep everyone onside. Whether it was Senderos or JD playing nothing would have been any different in terms of the rest of the team, senderos would just have reacted quicker, but keane would probably have still gotten in! Just as we didn’t choose for silvestre to be one on one with drogba in the fa cup final, you really can’t plan for those situations, you just need players who have the pace, and instinct/intelligence to sniff out the danger.
Gotta disagree about senderos, he was an incredibly intelligent defender, too intelligent in fact, that he over-analysed everything, and didn’t have the blind confidence/arrogance that most footballers do, and as a result he was constantly thinking too much and it fucked him up.
Senderos came through in 04/05, and had a number of exceptional games, not least being one of the stars of the fa cup final, the following season he was exceptional in us getting to the champs league final, and had loads of very impressive and faultless games.
JD has had three seasons in which he played more than Senderos did in that first season, but not yet got close to reaching the heights Senderos managed at times in his first season. That’s why I rate Senderos, and not JD
The real problem with Senderos was that he doubted himself to an almost unhealthy level. He was a decent defender with limitations that tortured him.
in 06/07 JD started just one league game less than senderos did in the 05/06 season when he got 19 starts. It’s a myth that Senderos has gotten all these chances more than JD
Honest Bill – About it being pre-season, thats it for me, right now it’s hard for me to judge any single player because we haven’t fully seen where Wenger’s going with this team. and all the players we have coming through.
Oh yeah A, Senderos was better than JD, no doubt. The problem is that mentality plays a big role in football, and Senderos’ is questionable.
Yeah arshavin’s my captain angelos.
keyser – i still don’t think of watt as that intelligent! Always seemed a level below the other kids, and showed it in a couple of moments in the emirates cup. Something he can work on though, and certainly not unintelligent football wise.
Keyser. Yeah i agree mate. I’m not just trying to judge Song, I’m making an observation about the whole team’s tendency to collectively panic under pressure. And not just in Pre-season, but all through the last season, and at the business end of the season before
A. This is partly it, we can discuss this as much as we want, but it’s not finite and nowhere near a fair comparison, when you look at it, it brings up several different points of view. We can talk of games started, but then how many consecutively and who else was in the teams with them.
Teams do adjust, players who have been playing long enough together just won’t get themselves in those positions, we citicise Denilson and compare him to Gilberto, but then put Denilson in the Invincbles, or the Chelsea team now when comparing him to Mikel.
Football’s a pretty simple game and when you talk of one player being incredibly intelligent and the other touching the depths of sheer stupidity it just doesn’t wash, maybe thats what irks me.
He might have over-analysed but thats because of his physical limitations, does that mean Djourou thinks less ? Not necessarily and Senderos for all his thinking couldn’t overcome his problems.
It’s like the Champions League thing, look at the midfield we had and how we played, look at the players we had, Ssenderos played well, but he didn’t somehow lift the team from the floor and singlehandedly drag us through not even close.
I like both players, both have obvious limitations and ones yet to be found out, I cut JD more slack because we’ve seen how far Senderos can go with it all unless he’s leanr’t something new in Italy.
A. – Isn’t it all football wise, soo many different ways to gauge intelligence, but on the pitch simple things like the way he finished against Liverpool in the Youth Cup and the fact that he kept his head up long enough to see Arshavin’s run against Barnet, or how he gave the Rangers defender a wide berth so he could swing his body round enough to cut the ball back, many would have just fouled him.
Honest Bill – It’s cool I understand. I wanted us just like the season before to keep as many of the team together as we could, because some of that panic I feel is down to confidence and the fact that in recent years we just haven’t been able to keep the core of the team together for long enough.
The teams around us have and it seems to give them that extra edge when their up against it all.
Yeah Intelligence off the pitch means very little, and it’s not really fair to make assumptions about any player on the basis of a post match interview, particularly when they are speaking a foreign language.
Only their ‘footballing brain’ is important to Arsenal. And that can be developed. Some players have it naturally, but it can be learned.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neven_Suboti%C4%87
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Fazio
One of these def joining.
Thank God he’s addressing the necessary!!
AW must feel silly right now.
He refused to pay 16m for a player last season who’s just joined Real (apparently) for 30m.
Nice to see that wenger is attempting to sort out the height issue.A DM is more important though
He is?
Apparently Honest…
That’s two 6″ plus defenders we been linked with in the past couple days…
But are the links official or is it just paper talk?
No smoke without fire si?
GOOD MORNING!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/moroccan-international-chamakh-signs-for-arsenal
PLUS…..
http://www.thelondonpaper.com/thelondonpaper/sport/football/tottenham-fans-are-the-best-in-london-says-virgin-money
http://www.imscouting.com/global_news_item.aspx?id=2744
Zezinho’s goal from today is on that site. Quality
Iceman. In that case i expect De Rossi and Ribery to sign sometime this week
Honest..
Those would be unrealistic links.
These make more sense.
They’re both young and unheard of….just how Wenger likes them.
True enough i suppose. But Journos know what we are expecting. They would not be above catering their stories to us.
As far as i’m concerned, the only player we are officially linked with is Chamakh
Bill, for Wenger to speak about Paddy, I’d say we’re officially linked with him
Morning all…..
How many games did you say Senderos put in for us last season?? The guy was loaned to Milan all of last year so he hasnt been a squad member, meanwhile Djorou who was also loaned out returned in January so we have exactly the same amount of defenders for the start of this season as last with Vermaelen set to replace Kolo and it seems Wenger is looking at adding a defender as well.
Some truth in this piece:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2571828/Its-official-Arsenal-are-shrinking.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=Football
And now we have even lost our best player at heading the ball at both ends of the pitch – Adebayor! There was a reason he came all the way back to defend corners! His ability to get his head on the ball!
HB
i agree on Chamakh, i also think the dzecko or whatever his name was, was a REAL link also . that lad had the stats wenger admires when it comes to getting in a POTENTIAL top signing …
very dudu’esque….
plus there was a lot of noise coming from him to move …
BENNO ,
i think you also need to weigh in heavily that wenger stated once they have gone as a rule they dont come back either ..
i dont buy into the viera rumors currently although A probably thinks i would …
Our first 5 games of the season:
Everton (A) – I think we’ll lose this game. Everton will out muscle and out run us in the middle of the park.
Portsmouth (H) – We’ll win this game.
Man Utd (A) – We’ll lose to Utd for sure. Their hard workers like Carrick, Fletcher, Park, Rooney and Evra will put our ‘babies’ to shame.
Man City (A) – Can see us getting nothing more than a draw here. City will be pumped for this game.
Wigan (H) – We’ll win this game but it will be tough.
That’s 7 points from a potential 15. Not good enough. Really hope I am wrong of course!
Tony…
Got up on the wrong side again?
Fuck me, one positive thing though….I have never seen us so low on this list before!! Fucking Diaby!!
Great site, by the way!
http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php
iceman – ha ha, no just waking up to early. I have this recurring nightmare that we field some tiny little dwarf fellow in our first game of the year and he has to play against some Belgian monster with big hair and we get stuffed!