Klaus wrote:

Get rid of the domestic cup burden as soon as possible. Make proper signings in January to give the squad a boost.

I felt so burdened when we won those 2 FA Cups recently. :hat:

Think we're far better prepped this year with some solid depth in almost every position. My concern is how this team will react to Giroud being reintroduced, and whether that may lead to a drop in performance. I'm skeptical Alexis will make it a full season as our starting CF and if he wavers/gets injured I don't see Walcott reclaiming the CF position.

Be interesting to see if Welbeck can (ever) come back and be more of an "one for one" replacement for Sanchez.

Also, I bring up this concern despite my belief that Giroud will be an important part of this season. I'm hopeful that him getting a proper early season rest will spare him a mid/late season lull.

bottling is a wenger characteristic so you can't prevent it as long as he's the manager.

Start killing off weak teams early on in matches so we can sub off key players like we did between 2002 and 2004, rather than overplaying them or having to rest them completely.

Don't rush players back from injuries.
Don't abuse the good nature of players who have more energy than they have resilience, like Ramsey.
Rotate the strikers. Perez, Walcott and Giroud must be used regularly before Sanchez burns out.
Acknowledge when our defence has form issues (eg Monreal being in a bit of a trough, or if one of Kos and Mustafi were to get injured) and protect accordingly.
Convincingly top our CL group.
Change things up tactically when the squad is nearing exhaustion during and after the Christmas period.
Never allow any particular match or string of matches to assume too much importance.

Shady wrote:

Start killing off weak teams early on in matches so we can sub off key players like we did between 2002 and 2004, rather than overplaying them or having to rest them completely.

It's harder these days even the lesser teams have players with real quality.

Burnwinter wrote:

Don't rush players back from injuries.
Don't abuse the good nature of players who have more energy than they have resilience, like Ramsey.
Rotate the strikers. Perez, Walcott and Giroud must be used regularly before Sanchez burns out.
Acknowledge when our defence has form issues (eg Monreal being in a bit of a trough, or if one of Kos and Mustafi were to get injured) and protect accordingly.
Convincingly top our CL group.
Change things up tactically when the squad is nearing exhaustion during and after the Christmas period.
Never allow any particular match or string of matches to assume too much importance.

Big time you could see sanchez was playing injured against burnley but perez and giroud were unavailable so we didn't have much choice.

Yep. When Sánchez gets in a position where he's too fatigued to play at his best, and we record a few poor results while he's on the pitch, he'll become resentful like he did last year. Wenger's got to give him a break before that happens, because he really bitterly dislikes the experience of losing.

speedy wrote:

Shady wrote:

Start killing off weak teams early on in matches so we can sub off key players like we did between 2002 and 2004, rather than overplaying them or having to rest them completely.

It's harder these days even the lesser teams have players with real quality.

I agree,  but we give ourselves a better chance by  starting games with a quicker tempo. 

Shady wrote:

speedy wrote:

It's harder these days even the lesser teams have players with real quality.

I agree,  but we give ourselves a better chance by  starting games with a quicker tempo. 

I was chatting to a lad who played for west ham yesterday and he was saying he hated big team talks. He just wanted headphones in. If you get to jacked up at the start you're low on energy after 20 minutes.

It can go both ways.

I tend towards Eminem's pov on this one. We have to out work the "working class" teams from the very beginning. This I think is what managers mean when they say you have to earn the right to play your brand of football.

With our experience in midfield we can dictate the pace of the game after the initial salvo. Before they know it we could've scored one or two and the entire dynamic of the game changes in our favor : sit back, counterattack, kill em.

Meatwad wrote:

bottling is a wenger characteristic so you can't prevent it as long as he's the manager.

I've seen nothing to suggest that we won't be facing our usual annus horriblis come Feb/March when the fixtures start piling up. It won't be as bad as previous years gone by because we simply have a better squad but I don't see Wenger deviating massively from old habits to prevent another slump. The injury curse has actually worked in our favour this time because it's forced us into the market and allowed us to build good depth. I know we were pursuing him for sometime but I would question whether we would've been so desperate to push through a deal for Mustafi had Gabriel and Mertesacker not picked up injuires. Similar situation with Elneny.

November is the month we have real problems, it always has been.

General wrote:

Meatwad wrote:

bottling is a wenger characteristic so you can't prevent it as long as he's the manager.

I've seen nothing to suggest that we won't be facing our usual annus horriblis come Feb/March when the fixtures start piling up. It won't be as bad as previous years gone by because we simply have a better squad but I don't see Wenger deviating massively from old habits to prevent another slump. The injury curse has actually worked in our favour this time because it's forced us into the market and allowed us to build good depth. I know we were pursuing him for sometime but I would question whether we would've been so desperate to push through a deal for Mustafi had Gabriel and Mertesacker not picked up injuires. Similar situation with Elneny.

What old habits are these? Our biggest problems in the past have been mainly a squad that is too small and inexperienced as well as a lack of quality in crucial positions. 

We can use a bit more quality, but the squad is about the right size now, and even more importantly, the first team looks to have balance as well. If we do experience a slump, it shouldn't be as catastrophic or costly as it has been in previous seasons.

I don't think it is down just to mentality like people make it out. The biggest reason behind our declines is down to injuries and tiredness. Our players are usually burned out by then and our performances start to suffer. For once we have a big squad this season and we have to make use of it. Players like Ramsey, Ox, Per, Holding, Xhaka, Lucas, Gibbs might not have played much so far this season but we will need to make sure they get a good few games in to help us rotate. If we keep going like this players like Ozil, Alexis, Theo and Cazorla will be finished by then.

flobaba wrote:

General wrote:

I've seen nothing to suggest that we won't be facing our usual annus horriblis come Feb/March when the fixtures start piling up. It won't be as bad as previous years gone by because we simply have a better squad but I don't see Wenger deviating massively from old habits to prevent another slump. The injury curse has actually worked in our favour this time because it's forced us into the market and allowed us to build good depth. I know we were pursuing him for sometime but I would question whether we would've been so desperate to push through a deal for Mustafi had Gabriel and Mertesacker not picked up injuires. Similar situation with Elneny.

What old habits are these? Our biggest problems in the past have been mainly a squad that is too small and inexperienced as well as a lack of quality in crucial positions. 

We can use a bit more quality, but the squad is about the right size now, and even more importantly, the first team looks to have balance as well. If we do experience a slump, it shouldn't be as catastrophic or costly as it has been in previous seasons.

The predictable 70mins substitutions, poor match preparation and generally doing the same thing and expecting a different result. There were times towards the end of last season when Wenger didn't pick players on merit and if he does it again this season we are doomed. It had nothing to do with injuries or inexperience. He was guilty of showing favouritism at times and it cost us. I've already said the slump won't be as bad this time around as we have a better squad which will look after itself by default when the going gets tough. I just don't trust Wenger to show the pragmatism required to shorten any slump let alone win the title.

JazzG wrote:

I don't think it is down just to mentality like people make it out. The biggest reason behind our declines is down to injuries and tiredness. Our players are usually burned out by then and our performances start to suffer. For once we have a big squad this season and we have to make use of it. Players like Ramsey, Ox, Per, Holding, Xhaka, Lucas, Gibbs might not have played much so far this season but we will need to make sure they get a good few games in to help us rotate. If we keep going like this players like Ozil, Alexis, Theo and Cazorla will be finished by then.

The tiredness and injuires excuses did not apply when we lost to Swansea after they'd rested several of their first team players and pretty much gave up getting anything from the game until we decided to get generous. Wenger made some bizarre substitutions and coupled with some erratic finishing from Giroud, the game run away from us. Same issues in the United away game too and it was possibly one of the worst United teams we've faced away.

It's taken a lot of fan pressure to finally have a squad deep enough to last the whole season but at some point Wenger would have to show that he still has what it takes to stop the team from capitulating. Our decent start has helped quiten the critics but let's not get carried away because we will need to answer them at some point.

General wrote:

flobaba wrote:

What old habits are these? Our biggest problems in the past have been mainly a squad that is too small and inexperienced as well as a lack of quality in crucial positions. 

We can use a bit more quality, but the squad is about the right size now, and even more importantly, the first team looks to have balance as well. If we do experience a slump, it shouldn't be as catastrophic or costly as it has been in previous seasons.

The predictable 70mins substitutions, poor match preparation and generally doing the same thing and expecting a different result. There were times towards the end of last season when Wenger didn't pick players on merit and if he does it again this season we are doomed. It had nothing to do with injuries or inexperience. He was guilty of showing favouritism at times and it cost us. I've already said the slump won't be as bad this time around as we have a better squad which will look after itself by default when the going gets tough. I just don't trust Wenger to show the pragmatism required to shorten any slump let alone win the title.

Yeah agree with this. We have our first choice XI fit for majority of the 2nd half of the season and yet we dropped stupid points game after game.

There was already plenty of chances to make rotations and rest players, he hasn't yet.

Wenger is getting us to play quite well at the moment. Our movement is quite outstanding some of the times.

He needs to start using the squad more though. Sanchez was visibly suffering from an international football hangover. He has to trust some players more, even if we are missing Giroud and Ramsey.