y va marquer wrote:

As for not reinforcing the squad in any way "no matter how bad things got" - things are not bad, what you guys are talking about is how bad you think things will get.
They might, but do people really think we can buy cover and back-up that matches the quality of those injured as well as buying a world class striker?

The problem is that we won't do either.

We don't have to make signings who match the quality of the players who were injured, and we don't have to replace players like for like. But we need certain traits that our current lot won't provide. We need players who can make vertical runs, stretch a defence and score goals. We need them wide or in midfield as much as we need one up front. For instance, you don't lose Walcott for the better part of 2014, in a team that was already struggling to finish off chances, and think that Gnabry is enough to see out the season.

Surely Harry must be by some car window by now

I hope wenger has some alternatives, would be depressing to go into the second half of the season with no striker bar Giroud.

Klaus wrote:
y va marquer wrote:

As for not reinforcing the squad in any way "no matter how bad things got" - things are not bad, what you guys are talking about is how bad you think things will get.
They might, but do people really think we can buy cover and back-up that matches the quality of those injured as well as buying a world class striker?

The problem is that we won't do either.

We don't have to make signings who match the quality of the players who were injured, and we don't have to replace players like for like. But we need certain traits that our current lot won't provide. We need players who can make vertical runs, stretch a defence and score goals. We need them wide or in midfield as much as we need one up front. For instance, you don't lose Walcott for the better part of 2014, in a team that was already struggling to finish off chances, and think that Gnabry is enough to see out the season.

I wasn't one of them, but when Walcott got injured quite a few said we'd replace his goals with goals from Santi, Wilshere and Podolski.
That has actually happened even though I was very skeptical about that being so.
Scoring goals has not been a problem since Theo's been out.
For me we've got to concentrate on what it is, and was, that has served us well this season - committed, spirited performances, efficiency with our chances and defending leads to grind out results.
A few weeks ago everyone was loving our not so great to watch but effective approach.
Now, and I reckon it's because they're watching City blow teams away, people are freaking out about how bad we are.
I genuinely have a hard time getting my head around that.

Not all of us though. I'm sure there's a kneejerk element because of how well City were doing. However there were many who felt that we lacked the ability to finish chances and kill off games, felt it was dangerous to rely so heavily on a central midfielder to provide the goals and reckoned it would get worse.

y va marquer wrote:
Klaus wrote:

The problem is that we won't do either.

We don't have to make signings who match the quality of the players who were injured, and we don't have to replace players like for like. But we need certain traits that our current lot won't provide. We need players who can make vertical runs, stretch a defence and score goals. We need them wide or in midfield as much as we need one up front. For instance, you don't lose Walcott for the better part of 2014, in a team that was already struggling to finish off chances, and think that Gnabry is enough to see out the season.

I wasn't one of them, but when Walcott got injured quite a few said we'd replace his goals with goals from Santi, Wilshere and Podolski.
That has actually happened even though I was very skeptical about that being so.
Scoring goals has not been a problem since Theo's been out.
For me we've got to concentrate on what it is, and was, that has served us well this season - committed, spirited performances, efficiency with our chances and defending leads to grind out results.
A few weeks ago everyone was loving our not so great to watch but effective approach.
Now, and I reckon it's because they're watching City blow teams away, people are freaking out about how bad we are.
I genuinely have a hard time getting my head around that.

i for one wasn't loving it. it's ok grinding out results if you feel there's another gear, but with the squad in the state it's in, i don't think we have another gear.

Klaus wrote:

Not all of us though. I'm sure there's a kneejerk element because of how well City were doing. However there were many who felt that we lacked the ability to finish chances and kill off games, felt it was dangerous to rely so heavily on a central midfielder to provide the goals and reckoned it would get worse.

How has it got worse though Klaus?
The injury list is bigger for sure but we're still winning games (except for Southampton).
I'm not saying the team's stellar by the way, we do need a couple of killer attackers.
I think I would rather wait til summer for them rather than sign squad fillers this window.

Anyway, maybe Wenger will stun us all again tomorrow 🙂

There's nobody we can sign in this window that'll give us that extra gear though. Could have been Walcott, but he got injured. And there's no point moaning about past mistakes. We've shown some serious ambition with the Ozil signing, and in terms of transfers it'll be the in the summer when we see if the club are prepared to back that up.

Between now and then, we've got a good team that I trust to scrap to the last game.

There are players we can sign who can give us that extra gear

I think so too, but I also think the point that we screwed this up in the summer and not in january is sound. It's just very, very disappointing to see the club sit on its hands again I suppose.

Reckon Saints would want more than that.

Wenger refusing to pay 37m for Draxler despite the board signing off on it according to reports. Well done Wenger, Draxler is a dud.