Arsenal v Schalke, CL - Wednesday 24 Oct, 19h45: Page 23 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Arsenal v Schalke, CL - Wednesday 24 Oct, 19h45

ludovicvanzis

CBs were fine.

I thought Santos and Gervinho were the worst players on the pitch. Nothing came off for Gervinho and Santos was a mess. A fat mess.

Coquelin is a bag of energy but not quite good enough yesterday.

Podolski's unorthodox wing play is costing us. Mostly beacuse the fullback behind him is just as unorthodox.

Ramsey, Cazorla and Arteta were ok for me.

We had 9 players out yesterday? That's too much. And the problem is that it's not a coincidence. That's pretty much the state we're in every year. We had a midfielder that could play all year without getting injured and we sold him without replacing him. Brilliant. We sell the fit ones and keep the fragile ones.

asajoseph

I'm not sure what's 'unorthodox' about Podolski?

RonBurgundy

asajoseph wrote:
I'm not sure what's 'unorthodox' about Podolski?

I'm guessing he means he's not a typical winger with pace/trickery/looking to beat his man on the outside and whip crosses in. He likes to drift inside.

Mirth

Not sure, he's more likely to whip in a cross than any winger we've had previously.

sabret00the

There were two defining moments for Gervinho last night. One was that when the going got tough, he moved out wide and started sliding balls in to nobody. Second was that he gets through on goal and lacked the balls to go for goal. You cannot build anything around the gutless.

RonBurgundy

General Mirth wrote:
Not sure, he's more likely to whip in a cross than any winger we've had previously.

Fair point. He's certainly more 'orthodox' than Arshavin, Benayoun, Hleb, Rosicky, Diaby and most of the others Wenger has tried out there over the years.

Edit: In fact, when was the last time we played a left-footed player on the left? Reyes?

ludovicvanzis

All of those apart from Diaby are more traditional options out wide.

Podolski doesn't even just drift inside. He literally walks into midfield and steps on Arteta's and Cazorla's toes.

He's not like Valencia but he's not one of those AM's playing wide either (like Hleb, Rosicky etc). Looking at his skillset you'd play him upfront but he doesn't know where to run so he's not very good up there.

Basically, he's not a dribbler or a supremely gifted pass merchant. He's just a weird counter-attacking player.

Mirth

I think he's a more effective dribbler than any of the others bar Arshavin, there have been plenty of instances this season when he's picked the ball up and run straight at goal, with players bouncing off him.

Posting the stats out there to indicate that I haven't just picked up on a few isolated incidents:

Completing an impressive 85% of his passes and creating 13 chances while successfully beating his man 69% of the time

- F365

Clrnc

Re analysed the match a little.

Ramsey was indeed rubbish. Provided no width, did nothing but waste balls.

Podolski had absolutely zero impact as well. Honestly he has been anonymous in 80% of his game time this season. When 2 of our wideman does nothing and everything is tasked for Cazorla to create, he is overburdened and our attacking threat is easily nulified. Not to mention we have Gervinho who worked superbly hard and ran down all channels but was terribly unsuccessful, either because he was having poor touches, stupid brainfarts or nobody supporting him at all. Not entirely his fault but you get the idea.

Defence wise, Vermaelen was a little shaky, Santos was teribly unfit and had no help. Jenkinson was fine, Merte was solid. Think its fair to say Mert has been our best defender this season followed by Jenk and then Gibbs.

Coquelin was decent, Arteta was decent, Cazorla was overburned.

ludovicvanzis

@GM Those stats tell us that he's safe in possession. It's doesn't really have much to do with what I said.

Mirth

You said he's not a dribbler, I disagree.

ludovicvanzis

You provided a stat for how successful his dribbles are, not for how many he actually attempts.

Mirth

.... I did say that the stats were there to back up what I said and not the other way around

Anyway he's plays like a striker on the wing. I didn't necessary think that's a bad thing

ludovicvanzis

Nope, you said..

General Mirth wrote:
Posting the stats out there to indicate that I haven't just picked up on a few isolated incidents:

Which is not true. The stats don't indicate that you haven't picked up on a few isolated incidents.

What I meant by dribbler is someone that attempts to go past people all the time. Even when they're not having much success. People like Chamberlain and Gervinho.

Qwiss

There was a point last night when we got going on the break and we had 3 or 4 players all attacking running from our half and then just as the guy with the ball was about to cross everyone stopped outside the box. Any other team would have all just ran into the box waiting for the cross. The the cross comes in and no one is there. And you'll hear a lot of complaining that our players cant cross but we could have a peak Beckham in there and he wouldn't pick out whatever isolated unfortunate we manage to have in the box on his own. The whole system, coaching, set up is wrong. We've bought more direct players but we're asking to play like Hleb.

Biggus

Thats right Qs, they all hang back waiting for the sideways possession pass (whatever the fuck they propose to do with it I don't know), this is exactly the sort of damage I mean when I talk about the repair work a new manager would have to do.
We would not only be jettisoning Wenger but nealy a whole decade of his moribund football philosophy would have to be rooted out of the club too.

invisibleman18

Worst thing for me was when they showed the late closeup of Kroenke and Hill-Wood sitting together looking like they couldn't give the slightest fuck. And it's pretty clear that they don't. Hill-Wood was clearly telling Kroenke the profit we make from the game despite the loss. He couldn't give a fart as long as we're in profit and his bank balance is healthy. I am utterly ashamed of myself that I was one of those celebrating the day he became the majority shareholder. I really believed that we now had a wealthy owner who would start investing in the team. Instead things have only got worse since then. The likes of Chelsea and Man City have owners who want to win the Champions League. We have an owner who goes to 1 game a season when he has to be in town for the AGM, couldn't name 1 player in the squad and couldn't give the slightest fuck as long as we're in profit.

Biggus

You were a Kroenke man were you Invis?
I must say I find that news perturbing, I know I was in the minority when I questioned fans headlong rush to embrace him (before he revealed himself) and also questioned their demonisation of Usmanov.
Having Hill wood say that he doesn't want "your sort" around the club seems to me to be an instant passport to respectability.

Burnwinter

There was no headlong rush to embrace Kroenke—lesser of two evils is all. In fact most of the arguing revolved around just who was less evil as I recall.

y va marquer

Seems that in general the supporters at the AGM directed their anger towards Gazidis and Kroenke.
An uncomfortable day for all of them - apparently doddery PHW got caught mumbling something about the dissenters into a microphone.
They'll adapt their PR accordingly no doubt.

« Previous Page Next Page »