Ramsey was okay. Nothing special. Ox though, he managed to stink it up almost every time he had the ball.

I worry about his future here.

I thought Ramsey was very poor. Will take him a very long time to regain some form if his current first touch is anything to go by.

Can't wait until we get a manager who actually gives out instructions. Ramsey at times was the first man pressing whereas Özil was somewhere playing right in front of Monreal ffs.

jones wrote:

I thought Ramsey was very poor.

:john:

Ramsey was ok, Xhaka was poor. But my main issue with them is their lack of agility, they never seem to be able to pick the ball up from defence and turn and run forwards. They always just pass it back or sidewards, it's the same issue with Giroud. It slows our entire game.

Not surprised that you disagree He couldn't control a ball or pass it over five yards in the first half and while he got better in the second he was too far up the pitch way too often.

You can scroll through the thread for a test and see if my opinion is really that outlandish, although those posts are probably all by Ramsey Haters and don't really count.

He was poor in the first half but good in the 2nd when there were loads of space for him to exploit. He made a lot of runs into the box and gave Swansea some problems with an extra man to mark.

Don't think Xhaka was all that poor either overall. He started badly and that stupid header to Kos was a big mistake, seems to be one a game from him at least, but overall he was ok. Not great but did his job.

The whole team doesn't seem to start well, it isn't about a player or two. It seems we are so concerned with not conceding first we lose all urgency when going forward. It all stems from the manager.

Ramsey is again playing a his lowest technical level. However, he covers an insane amount of ground and very quickly too. If he doesn't get injured again, I think he will get much better with games. Xhaka is the one I am worried about.

Xhaka came to this league six months ago, he's also almost two years younger than Ramsey. He'll come good.

Ramsey on the other hand is at the club for nine years and still has little positional discipline. He's great when he's in form but given his injury troubles and his total loss of anything resembling form when he gets injured means we're bound to endure performances like these regularly, I'm a lot more worried about his mid-term future than about Xhaka's

Wonder if our slow starts are a consequence of instructions to conserve energy for later in the game?

We are very similar to Man City at the mo

I too thought Ramsey and Xhaka were woeful first half. Second half was much better by both of them.

Ramsey really is brainless at times

I'm beginning to wonder if brainlessness isn't something Wenger looks for in a player. Would explain the amount of stupid shit we see by our players every game.

Rohit wrote:

Ramsey is again playing a his lowest technical level. However, he covers an insane amount of ground and very quickly too. If he doesn't get injured again, I think he will get better with games. Xhaka is the one I am worried about.

Exactly how I see it. In the first when space was limited he looked well off as his poor first touch negated any potential for playing an incisive ball forward because he's lose the time and space necessary.

He got better as the game went on mainly because fewer passes were played to him so he could concentrate on joining attacks with his great stamina and late runs. Which is useful in a team of players that far too often come to the ball.

Swansea were woeful. We won this in third gear. First and second are broken pending repairs.

Nah, this IS our first gear. We manage to use some NOS for a couple of months every season, but ultimately we're just a Fiat.

So anyone else think Sanchez's attitude stunk a little yesterday? I can just about put up with this grumpy act (really dislike the way he's tearing into guys like Iwobi) but his work rate and enthusiasm were visibly down in my opinion.

MistaT wrote:

Rohit wrote:

Ramsey is again playing a his lowest technical level. However, he covers an insane amount of ground and very quickly too. If he doesn't get injured again, I think he will get  better with games. Xhaka is the one I am worried about.

Exactly how I see it. In the first when space was limited he looked well off as his poor first touch negated any potential for playing an incisive ball forward because he's lose the time and space necessary.

He got better as the game went on mainly because fewer passes were played to him so he could concentrate on joining attacks with his great stamina and late runs. Which is useful in a team of players that far too often come to the ball.

Exactly. Maybe he was crap on the ball, but he still gives us part of what we need in that position with his running. You can't have two central midfielders that never make a forward run. We created dangerous overlaps on many occasions because of Ramsey's movement. I would keep playing him and if he doesn't improve we need to replace him with a similar type of a higher quality. I never want to see a player like Coquelin in that position again. This defensive solidity myth is horseshit too because we have never looked worse defensively than with Coq and Xhaka in central midfield.