Nasri created some wonderful chances from his off the ball running today, the same as earlier in the season. Only difference was that he missed today. When he DOESN´T make those runs he tends to be ineffective, but for me that is more of a coaching issue.

How has he been allowed NOT to make those runs in behind the opposition´s back 4 for God knows how long? Our wide players should havs a target like 7-8 of those runs EVERY HALF. Even if we choose not to deliver the ball the deep runs themselves creates so many opportunities elsewhere on the pitch.

Joke thread really. Nasri has been one of the bright things for us this season, even though he is still inconsistent and far from always plays to his strengths.

Nasri has been a lazy bugger for a while now. I've not been impressed with his effort levels in the last month or more.

I was never as enamoured with him as some of you were earlier in the season, I rate him as a very good player, but I don't think he's perfect for what we need on the flanks, and if he went for big money in the summer I genuinely wouldn't be devastated, and that's not based on today either.

Edited - went a bit ott.

One of many quality players we have who has totally bottled it. Like them all, don't really care if he stays or goes.

he's nowhere near pires level, but he's a good player now - better than he was last season for sure. he's just been disillusioned, i think, as he's not the blood and guts sort of player who never gives up. not many attacking players are.

His arrogance annoys me quite a lot. He thinks he's so damn good, and it's fine when he's banging in goals, but when he's ambling around in big games, strolling in times of adversity or of real importance, doing things in such a cocksure way, he really grates on me.

He'll probably be a far better player when he grows up, his quality is outstanding, without question. Right now he's just a cocky, immature kid who thinks he's God's gift to football, who folds like a pack of cards when the heat's really on him

his attitude really got on my tits last season, when he was useless on the pitch. i concede he's had more of an impact this year, but i hear where you're coming from, ricky. seems content to blame our failures on the other players instead of dragging us up out of trouble. too many guys passing the buck when it comes to responsibility.

What a silly thread.

The OP is A-M lobby material.

I should really stop now because I am going a bit over the top considering Nasri has been one of our better players this season, but there was an example of his attitude today when van Persie put him in goal, not the the one he volleyed straight at Jaaskerlainen, but the one he ran onto then hit far, far too quickly and didn't connect with it properly. He had the cheek to throw his arms in the air and have a go at Chamakh, in reality he completely messed the chance up and Chamakh had no chance of getting near the ball. I'm pretty sure it was a shot and not a cut back anyway.

Nasri has been okay this season, true he hasn't been as consistent as his early form suggested, but he's being played out of position with sometimes mediocre players by a tactically blind manager so I don't think he deserves much of the criticism levelled at him.

Out of position? He seemed to do just fine on the wing earlier in the season. He's just been poor, no one else is to blame but Samir.

Well if Cesc fucks off I'd be happy for him to move into the middle, err provided he doesn't fuck off too of course.

Biggus wrote:

Well if Cesc fucks off I'd be happy for him to move into the middle, err provided he doesn't fuck off too of course.

Not sure mate. I dont think hes a creative midfielder. What i hoped he'd be is our C. Ronaldo but hes too much of a coward and wants to be quicker and stronger version of Denilson.

Lot´s of shit being spouted here I must say!

Gus, if you think about it Nasri really isn´t all that good playing in the role that Cesc has. If you follow him when he plays/has played there you will see that there are plenty of situations where he just doesn´t see that a great pass is on. His vision is nowhere near the level of someone like Cesc or Jack. The other thing about Nasri when playing in the hole is that he tends to hold on to the ball in a manner that makes Diaby look like someone who releses the ball quickly.

The only thing really with Nasri is that he needs to be told, and deployed, to play to his strengths. He needs to make plenty of runs behind the back 4 - use his pace, he needs to be direct and take people on - using his close control, and he needs to be more selfish and finish when in good goalscoring positions - using his shooting ability.

Harsh stuff, he's not that bad.

He is great. Not just of the quality that I would expect at Arsenal, in this system, in that position. Look at it this way - Cesc is a couple of classes better than Nasri in that position and look how many cups that has brought us...

Yes Rex but there are ahem other factors at play, people seem to have very inflated expectations of exactly what we can do with this bunch.

Gus, I am certainly not saying that Cesc is irreplacable. It may even be a good idea for a new manager to sell him and use the money to bring in "his own" players. A little bit like what Inter did when they sold Zlatan.

If Wenger stays though, which frankly is the most likely scenario, then we will persist with this system. If THAT is the case - then Nasri is certainly a major step down from what Cesc can offer.

Well frankly Rex- IF Wenger stays and IF we persist with this system, I don't really see the point of discussing this player or that player would be better.....

What else is there?