Ashley Williams (Solid link): Page 9 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Ashley Williams (Solid link)

Bold Tone

Compared to Barca's, all of our players are bog standard (4th place in the Premier League). See Cesc for reference.
Now, if Ashley Williams is also bog standard ...

Tactics

asajoseph wrote:
I can't really understand the Barça move, given that every time he played against them they were far too fast passing the ball around him in midfield.

That said, I feel that most of his problems in a 'holding' capacity last season were due to him having to push forward and provide creativity in an otherwise entirely turgid midfield and attack, that simply wasn't able to create chances. Again, not the only thing, just a big part of it.

In 08/09 & 09/10 in particular, I thought he played excellently in a much more withdrawn role than he ended up in by 2012.

This is what most people ignore, they seem to judge him as a box to box midfielder.

What's weird, Wenger talks about the importance of having holding midfielders who are strong in the air in England(see the video Captain posted), yet he chose to sell the only reliable one we had scrachtes head

Iloveyouarsenewenger

I think, Barca took Song is as a back up centre back.

After the success of Mascherano in that role, they wanted another PL defensive midfielder who has better passing ability than your average centre back. Since, Song had played at centre back before, they thought that he'd be a good fit.

Ricky1985

That's precisely my opinion, too.

Alex Song playing in midfield for Barcelona was never going to happen. He's nowhere near good enough. He had a few good qualities, but I don't miss his lazy, clumsy tackling, his standard 17 touches before he released even the most basic pass and his constant attempts to chip a through ball to his Dutch mate. He was nothing special at all.

Clrnc

qs! wrote:
Replace Diaby or Coquelin with Song and you'd see serious improvement too.

Don't get me wrong, I rate Song. But we seriously haven't struggled without him. Diaby and Coq was adequate, I don't think Song would have added alot more, which is what Asa is saying. Diaby in particular was quite good till the Chelsea home game where he got injured and we were fucked totally.

If the reports about his attitude is true, good riddance tbf. On hindsight now its looking like its a great rid from us.

Bold Tone

Has anyone ever posted a credible source regarding this "supposed" attitude thing?
Serious question btw

Captain

Nope.

Iloveyouarsenewenger

Let's not kid ourselves. Song would have solved our issue with Arteta back up as well as central defense back up. He was a useful player for us and was a stand out player in his last campaign.

Timbob

We barely needed Arteta or central defence back up last season though.

lorddulaarsenal

Daily mail linking us to Steven Taylor now

Iloveyouarsenewenger

Timothy wrote:
We barely needed Arteta or central defence back up last season though.

We were plain lucky in the first case and we went out early in all cup competitions which ensured that there was only one match where two of our three defenders were unavailable after Djourou had been loaned.

asajoseph

I don't think Diaby was that good this season, FWIW - had a couple of decent games, but most of the time he was pretty poor. And that's coming from someone who's been branded a Diaby fanboy in the past.

Rex

Regardless of our different opinions on Diaby I think it is pointless talking about him as anything anymore since he is barely ever available.

Qwiss

Clrnc wrote:
qs! wrote:
Replace Diaby or Coquelin with Song and you'd see serious improvement too.

Don't get me wrong, I rate Song. But we seriously haven't struggled without him. Diaby and Coq was adequate, I don't think Song would have added alot more, which is what Asa is saying. Diaby in particular was quite good till the Chelsea home game where he got injured and we were fucked totally.

If the reports about his attitude is true, good riddance tbf. On hindsight now its looking like its a great rid from us.

Well I don't think Diaby was adequate too often. In fact if you take away that great Liverpool performance I don't think anyone would consider him to have been even close to adequate before his injury. If anything that injury was a massive stroke of luck for us as it meant Wenger had to start playing Ramsey in his best position.

Clrnc

I think it was more of Wilshere and Arteta injury in January that meant he had to play Ramsey there. Even after Diaby got injured Ramsey didn't play there.

Nela

This has been quiet for a while now.

Today The Telegraph posted this article.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/10136742/Ashley-Williams-ready-to-tell-Swansea-City-he-wants-to-move-to-Arsenal.html

Burnwinter

"Arsène Wenger may be waiting to see whether Laurent Koscielny intends to stay at the Emirates Stadium"

Uhhh :o

Also just reading back over the absurd anti-Song posts above. "Alex Song playing for Barcelona in midfield was never going to happen"? He was brought in to replace Keita and made a comparable number of appearances.

No one, ever, as far as I'm aware, claimed he would displace any of Xavi, Iniesta, or Busquets from their first choice lineup, nor was it plausible.

Should not have been let go, and it wasn't his attitude but his agent's that caused ructions. Weak use of resources from Wenger.

Qwiss

http://www.football365.com/arsenal/8819099/Arsenal-step-up-Williams-hunt-

Slightly suspicious of that TV injury too.

marv3llous

Definately just putting 1+1 together there. I doubt Wenger would ever pay £10m for a 29 year old defender who will have no resale value after his contract.

And i know, he did pay £10m for Arteta but he was a player he really, really needed as a starter.

asajoseph

Think Ashley Williams is overrated.

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