i was thinking more along the lines of positioning. cesc and nasri often positioned themselves close to rvp, allowing them to get some quick 1-2s going.

the midfielders and wingers were spread out too thin yesterday and there isn't enough "coordinated" movement. players aren't really helping players out.

Kel Varnsen wrote:

i agree that rvp looks very isolated up front. without nasri and cesc in the side (and wilshere), he has to do things on his own. he got away a few times yesterday and was unlucky not to score a goal.

but what can you do. arshavin, theo, gervinho, ramsey etc offers fuck all atm.

maybe you're talkin about gervinho's unavailability due to his suspension but he certainly offers assists when he's playing

Lex Chambers wrote:

Kel Varnsen wrote:

i agree that rvp looks very isolated up front. without nasri and cesc in the side (and wilshere), he has to do things on his own. he got away a few times yesterday and was unlucky not to score a goal.

but what can you do. arshavin, theo, gervinho, ramsey etc offers fuck all atm.

maybe you're talkin about gervinho's unavailability due to his suspension but he certainly offers assists when he's playing

Hasn't really so far. Considering the positions he's been able to get himself in, his return's been pretty poor. But then, his decision making always was awful.

yep but with the amount of times he gets in those positions he'll walk away with a lot of assists at the end of the season. if we are to ever destroy teams again it'll be on a day when nearly everthing gervinho tries comes off

We've seen Gervinho about one league game all season. Hard to make a call on him.

And very knee-jerk thread about RVP. Too early for what? We know he can play forward, he's been playing this position for more than a year for both club and country. He's streaky but so is Rooney. Problem is so too are Theo and Shava. We just need non-streaky players- I'm hoping both Park and Gervinho are such.

We're making far too many assessments of a team bereft of Wilshire, Song and Gervinho right now.

The title was tongue-in-cheek, based on the "Ramsey - too early?" title.

This is Capi's thread, you're not allowed to make observations.
Get your own thread.

Like it or no, Wenger at this current point seems to have given the wrong man the captaincy. Robin says all the right things, but he's unable to convert those pretty sounding syllables to performances. His game is at least at present falling to bits under the weight of the captaincy and it's a shame. That said, a few people are saying that Robin builds form as the season goes on. At this point for me though, I feel as though he's being utilised wrong and the captaincy is killing him.

Van Persie's game is not "falling to bits". He's not a typical number 9, and you saw with Holland in the last World Cup that unless he gets a specific kind of service he struggles to effect games. Plus, he's a lone forward in a team that's playing rubbish.

Captaincy's got nothing to do with it.

I'm not sure that without Cesc right up with him, and with our current wide options, that Robin is going to cut it up front this season. Physically he's not giving us enough. Hopefully Gervinho coming into the team helps, but I'm worried.

On the captaincy thing, Robin has always said that he doesn't react well to pressure, that he chokes. It's not going to help him this season, that's for sure.

Last season people got very carried away because RVPs form was exceptional. He's not as good as he looked last season and he's obviously not as bad as he looks this season.

The idea that he's not getting any service is absolute bullshit though, he's had his fair share of service. if you need Cesc Fabregas teeing you up 15 times a game for you to score goals then you simply aren't very good.

The biggest problem we have in the front line at the moment is that Robin just stands there. He needs to start working alot harder, that really is the only way to get out of a bad run of form. Gervinho is coming back and he needs Robin to be taking up positions in and around the box for those square balls he loves to put in.

I really wish we had another more out and out striker to play ahead of Robin though. A real poacher like Bent or Hernandez. Could Theo be that?

There were plenty of games last season where he would put in a pretty poor all round performance but gloss over it with a goal. Even last year during his 'hot streak' he always looked better imo when we were chasing the game and he dropped a bit deeper with another striker ahead of him.

He is getting service and support. It's just crap and limited.

You either get service or you don't, if its "rubbish service" then its not coming to him, but it is coming to him. He's being given the ball in and around the box and he's not doing enough with it at the moment. When you are playing as a striker at the top level you have to make the most of the opportunities you get.

He's not really getting that much of the ball. None of our forwards are. Just watch United and Chelsea and see how many touches their strikers are getting. Robin is not getting that involved. We are also have that movement problem in the team, Robin included, that limits our ability to create chances. These fools stand around looking at the guy with the ball as though they are ball-boys or paying fans.
It's true he has to step up, demand the ball more, finish better, and defend more as well; but he's nowhere near being our biggest problem