Arsenal vs. Barcelona Tuesday 745PM: Page 7 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Arsenal vs. Barcelona Tuesday 745PM

SimplyThePest

Anyone reckon Welbeck might be a better shout on the right than Walcott or Ox? Better work rate, maybe a bit more nous defensively and leave the other two to potentially come on later...

Biggus

This tie was lost last year the moment Wenger decided to play Ospina instead of Cech.

SimplyThePest

Haha, turn it up, Biggus, we haven't even played them yet!

Biggus

I've seen this film before.

invisibleman18

It's not like Ospina is some Muppet like some of our other recent keepers either. He had a good season last season and just lost his place because the opportunity to get the best in the league came our way. He was promised some and it was reasonable to expect him to be good enough for that game. Mistakes happen sometimes unfortunately and that one couldn't have been predicted. Cech also made one in his first game of the season that cost us the match. He didn't mean to drop the ball and it also didn't happen because he's shit. Having been a keeper yourself you'd understand that.

invisibleman18

It's likely we'll lose but that won't be because Ospina played one game.

Biggus

He played two Invis before Wenger learned his lesson and thats why we're here, and he was also poor against Hull.
Its not that hes a terrible goalie per se (but he is weak in the air) but you should know that its not like an outfield position, you don't get as fatigued but you do need more constancy- One does not simply change goalkeepers without a very good reason.

Klaus

SimplyThePest wrote:
Anyone reckon Welbeck might be a better shout on the right than Walcott or Ox? Better work rate, maybe a bit more nous defensively and leave the other two to potentially come on later...

I think it will be too soon though. He just made his first start in almost 12 months. We're better off introducing him and Theo later on in the game when Barca are getting tired. Start Ox for this one. Let him work them tender first.

mdgoonah41

welbeck is definitely the best option, but yeah, i cant see him starting again this soon after missing almost a year.

if we're going to get something from this, i really think we need to play a flat 3 in the middle (coq, ramsey, elneny)

banduan

Barca have at times been shown to be vulnerable to the ol hoof-ball to the big bloke. It's very likely Giroud at point.

Clrnc

invisibleman18 wrote:
It's not like Ospina is some Muppet like some of our other recent keepers either. He had a good season last season and just lost his place because the opportunity to get the best in the league came our way. He was promised some and it was reasonable to expect him to be good enough for that game. Mistakes happen sometimes unfortunately and that one couldn't have been predicted. Cech also made one in his first game of the season that cost us the match. He didn't mean to drop the ball and it also didn't happen because he's shit. Having been a keeper yourself you'd understand that.

Well said, Ospina is far too underrated here. Too many nonsensical blame attached to him.

General

Ospina is an average to decent keeper at best and sooner or later will be discarded like the Almunias and Manones before him. Anyway we have Cech now. I think he's past his peak but he's a damn better sight than anything we've had for the past 10years. Needs to do his best impression of Bob Wilson tonight.

Savz

mdgoonah41 wrote:
welbeck is definitely the best option, but yeah, i cant see him starting again this soon after missing almost a year.

if we're going to get something from this, i really think we need to play a flat 3 in the middle (coq, ramsey, elneny)

Welbeck was such a thorn to Real Madrid when United played them at the Berneabeu couple years back.

Clrnc

Yep, if we are brave we will start Welbeck. To stop Barcelona, we need stop their supply source, Busquets. Welbeck completely stopped Xabi from playing in that 2 leg. Whenever Busquets suffer, Barcelona suffer.

It's the case when they lost 4-1 to Celta. Busquets got man marked completely and Celta pressed him intensely whenever he got the ball. His passing completion was shockingly below 80 (his usual was 90+). Similarly, Atletico and Malaga did the same and they only lost narrowly at Camp Nou.

Segway

Hmm interesting Clarence. Can't see Wenger coming up with that tactic though. When has he ever set his team to man mark a specific player?

Irishgunner

I have very vague memories of Freddie doing it a few times back in 05/06, he was often the spare man in our 4-5-1.

Savz

FUCK I'M EXCITED.

Messi Neymar Suarez lol going to be one hell of a game.

In all seriousness, if we somehow manage to stop them three we've got a chance.

There's no way they'll go a full 90 minutes and not score at least one. So when we get our opportunities in front of goal, which we will get, then we have to be deadly and finish.

I'd play Theo for this, against the big teams on the big occasions he is capable of scoring.

Sanchez left, Giroud through the middle, Theo right.

FEBravo

Both Theo and Welbz are tempting on the right. The latter gives you work rate and height for set pieces, where we can definitely score (with Giroud, etc) while the former gives you pace on the counter and tendency to show up in big games. Since Welbeck is just getting back, guess we start with theo

Savz

We've played Barca 7 times.

We've won once, drew once and lost four times.

Barca have scored 17 times.

We've scored 10 times.

Clrnc

Segway wrote:
Hmm interesting Clarence. Can't see Wenger coming up with that tactic though. When has he ever set his team to man mark a specific player?

I don't remember any specific matches he did that but it's not unthinkable. You don't have to literally man mark him, you just have to press and Welbeck is mobile enough. Wenger started him at OT last year to do that exactly and it worked to perfection as United kept panicking and losing the ball to his pressing.

Barcelona don't really have another outlet who is as effective as Busquets from the back. It's reminiscent to how we played in 11/12 when Arteta was our sole pivot. I remember Fergie using Rooney to mark him completely and we couldn't even string 2 passes at OT.

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