I disagree on Mertesacker...he's a quality defender. The player from your list who's been holding back the team most is Giroud and it's kinda looking like the other players like Ozil and Ramsey don't trust him anymore. I could tell from a game I saw where he was wide open and Ramsey chose to turn back play the ball elsewhere. Compare that to when you had players like Henry in the team where the confidence from the midfield was there to know that 9/10, he would score or create a clear chance to. Wenger needs to fix that.
Our Rivals Squad next year - Arsenal
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
I disagree on Mertesacker...he's a quality defender. The player from your list who's been holding back the team most is Giroud and it's kinda looking like the other players like Ozil and Ramsey don't trust him anymore. I could tell from a game I saw where he was wide open and Ramsey chose to turn back play the ball elsewhere. Compare that to when you had players like Henry in the team where the confidence from the midfield was there to know that 9/10, he would score or create a clear chance to. Wenger needs to fix that.
He is a quality defender individually, but as a team we have to compensate too much to have him in the team. We can't play our favoured high line anymore because of his lack of pace which means the entire team drops deeper and that invites pressure on us. Giroud doesn't hold up the ball that well to begin with so then our midfield is under pressure. Usually our midfielders (bar Arteta) are pushed too far up the pitch along with the full backs so it becomes Koscielny-Mertesacker and Arteta trying to defend a counter attack on their own. Mertesacker is a very intelligent player and usually makes sure his lack of pace doesn't get exposed but the above situation usually leads to someone making a last ditch tackle. I alluded to it earlier but the fact that our defence usually stays deep and our midfielders push up, means that their is a lot of empty space in the midfield for the opposition.
Benching Mertesacker and bringing in someone else would allow us to get back to our usual pressing game. Its about weighing up the pros and cons for me and I just think that we can achieve more as a team if Mertesacker was benched. I feel the same way about Rooney and Man Utd, quality player but should be dropped for the benefit of the rest of the team.
Agreed on Giroud, our players actually put their head in their hands when he misses a chance. Said this before somewhere but the only reason Sanogo is getting so many chances is because of how awful Giroud has been at times. Does anyone think Wenger would have benched any of Van Persie/Adebayor/Eduardo/ Thierry Henry/Wiltord for a game against Bayern Munich in the Champions league for a youth striker who's never scored a senior goal for the club?
Think Ozil will be particularly happy about Welbeck's arrival.
The Koscielny Mertesacker understanding is the crux of our defensive solidarity. You drop Mert you risk Laurent's reliability.
Arteta's the real problem.
Arteta's the real problem.
I do think if we were in for Sokratis or Nastasic like the media says then we were probably looking for our eventual replacement for Mertesacker. I don't think he is a bad defender, his reading of the game is excellent but his lack of pace means we sometimes can't sit as high as we would probably like to. He is a good character on and off the pitch though, very important squad member.
Debuchy reportedly out for 2 months.
With Gibbs back I suspect we'll see Chambers playing RB, with Bellerin maybe as back up, and Monreal as third CB. Not ideal.
As soon as you saw Debuchy land you knew it wasn't good. Shame for him.
He had played well up to that point too.
Arsenals ridiculous decision not to strengthen defence this summer may yet come to haunt them. They have 6 senior defenders in the squad, only two of whom are centre backs by trade. (Unless you count Bellerin, who has 9 senior appearances, 8 on loan at Watford, 1 as a 95th minute sub appearance 2 years ago).
They have literally not one backup centre back. I mean Chambers was previously their first choice backup, and he has 25 senior appearances before this season, all at full back.
Now they've lost their right back for three months, which presumably means Chambers goes there, leaving them with even fewer options. Plus Koscielny & Mertersacker had heavy seasons last year (46 & 52 appearances) and both played a summer tournament. That can only increase the chances of a minor injury causing problems.
Arsenal are on thin ice. Basically they need Chambers, Koscielny and Mertersacker to be able to play nearly all of the next 25 games in a row without getting injured or needing a rest.
What everyone thought it would happened actually happened. An injury to a defender and we are with kids on the bench to cover.
Not good enough to fight for the title.
Not good enough to fight for the title.
The Arsenal Capitulation came earlier this year?
Its just frightening that Ramsey is just 23.
And before lst season's effort Arsenal fans didn't rate him. I know United fans were bitter he chose Arsenal so took the p*ss, but he is probably one of the best British midfielders. I rate him higher than Wilshire, Lallana, Cleverly, Henderson and Co.
Recall Jenkinson as he can cover CB and RB and that will have to do until January.
Also no official word that Debuchy is out for 3 months. Some say 2 some say 3, I'll wait for word from the club.
Sanogo and Giroud are both out injured at the moment so Welbeck is looking like a great piece of business. Monreal (back) is out as well now along with Chambers (ill). So currently we have 3 fit senior defenders, Koscielny, Mertesacker and Gibbs.
There is no capitulation by the way, its September, even if we have a bad run there is still a lot left in the season. Far too much hyperbole and doomsday predictions going around at the moment.
Arsenal's injury record is as dire as United's,maybe even worse.
I think Arsenal seem to have the same players out all the time, e.g. Walcott, Wilshire, Vermaelen (when he was there), RVP (when he was there) but they have a lot of players that never tend to get injured. I think you are right, United have the same, a few regulars, e.g. Jones, Smalling, Evans, Rafael, Nani (when he was here), but because we had a larger squad with more depth we didn't suffer as much. I would worry if I was an Arsenal fan and they had serious injuries to their back line.
Wenger just looks a man that's well out of ideas. He has repeatedly failed to address the obvious shortcomings of the team so the stagnation seems to be continuing rather than anything else.
Werent' we (fans and the media, specifically the London media) just talking about Arsenal finally perfecting the squad to mount a title challenge? How can we be going back to the 'shortcomings' questions?
I can recall literally no one calling this the perfect squad to mount a title challenge. We've been asking for another CB and a DM all summer otherwise it'd be another season of aiming for 4th again.
I've definitely not been part of that group so i cant actually answer that.
Indeed. This is why I have faith in LVG. He is one of the few managers around that has won stuff over a long time period. Wenger seems to be part of a long list of managers that just end up fading away.
Said it earlier in this thread not signing a DM and CB was criminal and it is already starting to sting. We are short on numbers at the back and Arteta/Flamini are not good enough.
More than enough to get keep us in the Top 4 but that is all really.
I'd love to know who has said that or whether you've just made that up for your post?
More than enough to get keep us in the Top 4 but that is all really.
I'd love to know who has said that or whether you've just made that up for your post?
In that case the London media has blown smoke up Arsene's, erm, arse again and made him believe his own hype. There was no questioning of areas that needed strengthening. All they did was buy Sanchez and suddenly that was it for the papers: They were great again. I know, I've had to put up with it all summer living in London and picking up free papers twice a day.
Rumour has it that Wilshere's turned his ankle tonight.
In that case the London media has blown smoke up Arsene's, erm, arse again and made him believe his own hype. There was no questioning of areas that needed strengthening. All they did was buy Sanchez and suddenly that was it for the papers: They were great again. I know, I've had to put up with it all summer living in London and picking up free papers twice a day.
I'd love to know what papers you've been reading but I can't remember one saying our signings will allow us to mount a title challenge.
Even I'm getting pissed off with him after hearing how great he was going to be, he needs to get over these fecking injuries and quickly or he'll end up floating down the same drain as Cleverley.
They were only doing this early on in the window when we signed Sanchez, Debuchy and Chambers in quick succession. The assumption was we'd sign a CF, DM and CB.In that case the London media has blown smoke up Arsene's, erm, arse again and made him believe his own hype. There was no questioning of areas that needed strengthening. All they did was buy Sanchez and suddenly that was it for the papers: They were great again. I know, I've had to put up with it all summer living in London and picking up free papers twice a day.
Looking forward to the next Tuesday Club, at it's best when Arsenal get completely outplayed.
Was Flamini injured? Didn't even make the bench tonight, but they could have done with him playing next to Arteta when it was obvious he was being completely overrun in the centre by Dortmund. After we lost Roy Keane we played 3 in the middle in the big games in Europe because we knew that however good Carrick was, we hadn't replaced him. Arsenal could do with doing the same given some of the pastings they've had off the big teams in recent years.
I think with Ozil it's got to the stage where you either play him as a '10' or not at all because it was another poor showing from him. Chamberlain must be wondering what he has to do to start, that 42 million price tag might have something to do with it.
Was Flamini injured? Didn't even make the bench tonight, but they could have done with him playing next to Arteta when it was obvious he was being completely overrun in the centre by Dortmund. After we lost Roy Keane we played 3 in the middle in the big games in Europe because we knew that however good Carrick was, we hadn't replaced him. Arsenal could do with doing the same given some of the pastings they've had off the big teams in recent years.
I think with Ozil it's got to the stage where you either play him as a '10' or not at all because it was another poor showing from him. Chamberlain must be wondering what he has to do to start, that 42 million price tag might have something to do with it.
In that case the London media has blown smoke up Arsene's, erm, arse again and made him believe his own hype. There was no questioning of areas that needed strengthening. All they did was buy Sanchez and suddenly that was it for the papers: They were great again. I know, I've had to put up with it all summer living in London and picking up free papers twice a day.
Only a madman plays Arteta at DM in the Champions League. It's clear as day that they needed one and playing 4-1-4-1 isn't the way to go.
I dare them to defend as badly as that against us. Dortmund absolutely tore them apart.
Ramsey doesn't look like he's dominating games like he was last season.
Arsenal's front 6 was non-existent until Dortmund eased up near the end. Wenger's tactics and game management are weird. Arsenal gave away so much space in midfield for Dortmund to run into.
Nice display from that Bellerín kid. Pretty good european debut considering the opposition and that he is only 19...
did he not have a poor season season before last too? yoyo form.
Arsenal were always gonna lose tonight, wouldn't look too much into the game.
He was good for the second half of that season. I don't think the new formation Wenger is trying brings out the best of Ramsey. Or any of their players for that matter.
Playing Arteta in the defensive midfield role away to Dourtmand is one of the strangest decisions i have seen from a top manager.
He was poor in both games vs Dortmund last year, even in the game he scored in.
Any idea how long Ramsey is out for?.