qs! wrote:

Gerrard and Lampard will both struggle with the WC schedule, especially Lamps. Wilshere has to start for England really. They just don't have anyone else in midfield who can do what he does. Against the top teams Gerrard and Lampard are wanting these days. Carrick is good but he's not going to change games.

I'd imagine that they'll physically be pretty decimated after this PL season, Gerrard in particular.
I can't see how they could be relied upon for the demands of the group stages in the WC.
I've said it before - once Wilshere's ankle issues are sorted he'll first choice for any midfield.

y va marquer wrote:

once Wilshere's ankle issues are sorted he'll first choice for any midfield.

No way.

Volante wrote:

y va marquer wrote:

once Wilshere's ankle issues are sorted he'll first choice for any midfield.

No way.

Way

A fully fit Wilshere wouldn't even be guaranteed a place in Arsenal's midfield, not to mention Bayern/Juve/Barca/Madrid/City/Spain/Germany/Brazil/etc.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

y va marquer wrote:

Way

You prefer him to ramsey then y?

It's not a matter of preferring one over the other.
I've always thought the two of them were diamond midfielders.
If Wilshere is allowed the time to recover properly he will become a real force.
It's frustrating to see the stop start seasons that he's had, they've held him back so much.

He has the basics to become one, think he needs to relax and enjoy his football more though.
Strikes me as the type of character that overthinks his game.

He's got a deadly cross too.

It's difficult to get a handle on the level of performances we can expect when Wilshere is truly playing without any worries. Mainly because it has been so long since we've seen him play fluently. Even without being on the sidelines, his play is so stop-start. When he started playing in the first team he had that bite/zip/whateveryouwanttocallit about his play. Wenger keeps calling it "the little burst". Skipping past a challenge and driving forward which was pretty much what caught everyone's attention is now so laboured. He's only 21 so he has time, but meanwhile we're just going to have to wait to see if he can turn and move quicker. And if he can't, we'll have to see how he adapts his game.

I noted that the people around me laughed loud at Giroud when he came on tonight.
Not quite sure whether it was out of affection, or whether they actually see him as a bit of a joke player.

Wenger will shoehorn Wilshere into the midfield somehow. There's no way he'd leave him out.

qs! wrote:

Rayman wrote:

Wilshere looks massively out of form.

No he doesn't. The papers seem to agree with you but he's been in decent form for us over the last while.

Our best player in october in my opinion. He was pretty hit and miss before that though.

Wenger isn't going to leave Walcott/Podolski on the bench to accommodate Wilshere. At least I hope he won't. Arteta loses out in the long run.

Wenger would have no problem leaving Podolski on the bench.
He did so for majority of last season.

y va marquer wrote:

Wenger would have no problem leaving Podolski on the bench.
He did so for majority of last season.

Yes, but he's going to have to leave out both Podolski and Walcott to get Wilshere in a fully fit Arsenal XI. Cazorla is a guaranteed starter, as is Ramsey.

I think there's a good chance he might. I think those two will need a month or two to really get going anyway, and by then we might have signed a real striker who somewhat negates the need of putting a second one on the wing. I have to say, I really liked how fluid we were with Wilshere in a wide role. He brought out another dimension in our passing game. It's been lacking in all the games he's missed lately.

Our two best midfield performances this season occurred without Wilshere on the pitch. Walcott is a 20 goal, 10 assist per season player. I wouldn't leave him out to play two players (Cazorla/Wilshere/Rosicky) who rape Özil's space.

otfgoon wrote:

2002 was awful, though that might largely be down to the games being on at 7am in the morning over here.

Aww didums welcome to our world, I suppose you'd prefer all world cups to be played in 35C heat as was the case in USA 94 so the European viewers can enjoy the games after work?
Fair play to the Yanks though it was a good tournament.
74 was the first one I remember, 98 was special for me though because it's the only one I've been to.

I don't think that's how Wenger sees it.

Ibrahimovic: "A World Cup without me is not worth to watch, so no need to wait for that"

Klaus wrote:

I don't think that's how Wenger sees it.

We'll find out very soon.

some brilliant passing (and awful defending, it must be said) in POR v SWE:

cant let a midfielder have space and time pick out a forward pass. CBs too far apart. LB fell asleep against cronaldo - has he not heard of him? all that space was begging for the run and pass.

CB way too late to pressure - again, too much time to get a pass off, and cronaldo runs into the space that the CB vacated

sick slide rule pass, perfectly weighted, but again, cant give midfielders space and time to play whatever pass they want.

all goals scored in transition. except the 3rd goal, when sweden were chasing, the swedes still had sufficient numbers back, but good players will punish you if you give them space and time.

Ronaldo is such a fucking fine player, though - taking into account offside he really does time each one of those runs perfectly, and then does the absolute maximum with his finishes.

Yeah, he's an unstoppable machine. I think Messi is primed for a big WC though, he's going to peak at the right time in 2014.

I'm just hypnotised watching those gifs. It's like someone landing trick shots at pool, every moving object feels inevitable and coordinated in advance by the higher power of geometry.

Hamren should be watching those goals and thinking, was it really worth it to go gung ho with 20 minutes left and you are leading 2-1? They were in the ascendancy too at that time

Portugal scored first in the game, not Sweden. They kept carving them up all game too. Look at the first gif kami posted and compare it to the other two. Spot the difference? Me neither. Ronaldo wasn't afforded more space to exploit later on. Sweden is just a shit football team with a mediocre manager and no game plan. The only player that would start for an upper table Premier League team scored two goals today. The rest of them aimed bullet passes at his knees for the entire game and failed to understand the offside rule.

Clrnc wrote:

They were in the ascendancy too at that time

No, they were still out. Tied on aggregate but Portugal had the away goal.

23 degrees and not a cloud in sight, beautiful evening in Wellington for football. Looking forward to hopefully a good game in a very rare international match against a big football nation in NZ. Additional temporary seating makes it a 37,000 sellout and the largest ever football crowd in NZ, although whether everyone turns up with it begin 5-1 after the first lefg remains to be seen.

A lot is being said about Ronaldo, but what about Moutinho? To create three chances like that (as Burnsy says, hypnotic geometry) in one game is just remarkable. He was given too much space. Once those passes are released, there is little the defense can do

Moutinho is a terrific passer, especially if given a little time and space. Really glad Spuds didn't manage to pull off signing him; he is exactly the type of player they need in their midfield.

invisibleman18 wrote:

23 degrees and not a cloud in sight, beautiful evening in Wellington for football. Looking forward to hopefully a good game in a very rare international match against a big football nation in NZ. Additional temporary seating makes it a 37,000 sellout and the largest ever football crowd in NZ, although whether everyone turns up with it begin 5-1 after the first lefg remains to be seen.

Keep hope invis. One of these days someone will reply to your NZ national team related posts with genuine interest.

Not today though.

Wasn't too fussed about anyone replying with interest, but this is the thread for discussing the world cup playoffs so it fit. Anyway, was a decent game and finished 4-2 to Mexico which really flattered NZ. Mexico quickly raced to a 3-0 lead and could easily have scored every time they got the ball but then basically stopped playing as there was no need at 8-1 up on aggregate. NZ grabbed a couple of goals with a late flurry to lift the crowd and then Mexico decided they better try again so it didn't end up a draw on the night so scored another.

Volante wrote:

Walcott is a 20 goal, 10 assist per season player. I wouldn't leave him out to play two players (Cazorla/Wilshere/Rosicky) who rape Özil's space.

Agreed.

Clrnc wrote:

Klaus wrote:

Our best player in october in my opinion. He was pretty hit and miss before that though.

No way.unless we can find space to accomodate wilshere as one of the 2 central mid he shouldn't replace any of the starters yet. He should only be challenging ramseys place

Same, I'd only want him playing in CM, coming in for Ramsey when needed.

Ronaldo is amazing <3

invisibleman18 wrote:

Wasn't too fussed about anyone replying with interest, but this is the thread for discussing the world cup playoffs so it fit. Anyway, was a decent game and finished 4-2 to Mexico which really flattered NZ. Mexico quickly raced to a 3-0 lead and could easily have scored every time they got the ball but then basically stopped playing as there was no need at 8-1 up on aggregate. NZ grabbed a couple of goals with a late flurry to lift the crowd and then Mexico decided they better try again so it didn't end up a draw on the night so scored another.

Eh! I was interested I watched the entire match, Mexico with only their domestic players are in an entirely different class. They played like a training match though, otherwise it might easily reach double figures.

NZ was unlucky in the sense that they met an opponent who should have been the strongest of their region. Had it not been Graham Zuzi, you guys might be playing Panama or Honduras, which are very winnable games. Or had it been like 4 years ago when you guys draw the asian region, Jordan/Uzbek would be very beatable especially the former.

Superb skill from Super Mario.

My "not going to the world cup" XI. Some seriously talented players who'll be absent.

--------------------Cech
Piszczek---Ivanovic---Agger---Alaba
Kuba------Ramsey----Hamsik-----Bale
--------Lewandowski----Ibra

Honorable mentions to Vidic, Subotic, Turan, Mkhitaryan, TGSTEL.

TGSTEL is the big miss here. Even Gervais will be there, for fek's sakes