otfgoon wrote:
Clichy was superb in 2007, he didn't get in the team of the year by accident. Everyone remembers Sagna that year but Clichy actually had more assists and despite the Birmingham brain fart was solid defensively too.
Our full backs bombed forward like crazy that season and we never seemed to suffer for it despite playing with only two centre mids, one of whome was Fabregas. Now we can have both Flamini and Arteta and yet when the full backs go forward they have no cover. Bizarrre.
I think people always make the mistake of only looking at the CMs, but the wide players are equally important without the ball IMO. Hleb and Rosciky were two of the best wide players without the ball in Europe at the time, and their subs were a RB (Eboue) and DM (diaby). Our wide players were better defensively and therefore provided better cover for our fullbacks than our current wide players do these days
And our ball retention ability was far better than it is now - a crucial factor too. Not many people appreciated Hleb, but he was a ball retention specialist - one of the very best I have ever seen! He often dropped deep during our build ups and helped us move the ball into dangerous forward areas. He was brilliant under pressure and was one of the best 2 footed passers around.
