Our Rivals Squad next year - Arsenal

DDG
Rafael
Smalling
Jones
Shaw
Carrick
Ramsey
Di Maria
Rooney
Sanchez
RVP

Manager - LVG (Wenger would still probably lose every big game even with the team above)
 
-----------------------De Gea---------------------

-Rafael------Smalling------Koscielny-----Gibbs-

-----------------------Carrick---------------------
----Chamberlain---------------------Di Maria----

-----------------------Rooney---------------------

----------Van Persie-------------Sanchez--------
​

Keeper - No arguments here to be honest. De Gea has been in a class of his own his season bar a few mediocre games in August.

Right back - Both teams' first choice players have been in and out of the team. Rafael I feel is criminally under-rated by a lot of casual United observers and oppo fans who conflate him with his lack of discipline and tactical awareness in the past. But apart from one penalty against Leicester (very harsh) he has been stout at the back while still bombing forward when given the license. I'd take Valencia over Debuchy too.

Central defense - Smalling is arguably the best natural center half in either side. Even Wenger rates him highly, evidenced by the interest when he was at Fulham and rumors of a swap deal for Vermaelen in the summer. When fit, he's one of the most dominating defenders in the whole league with his immense physical skillset. Koscielny would be good central defensive partner for him, he makes up for a few things Smalling lacks - good awareness of spaces around him and consistent passing range.

Left back - Shaw is a brilliant talent (not sure we can call him that anymore on the back of almost 2 years of very good performances but he's still only 19) and if he fulfills his early promise, Luke will definitely be among the best leftbacks in Europe in 2-3 seasons. That said, Gibbs is a better, more refined and more experienced player as of now, and is no slouch either to be fair to him.

Midfield - Carrick plays the anchor role with Chamberlain and Di Maria flanking him. This is a bit unbalanced but Rooney could drop in and swap with either player. Ramsey has been a bit of a disappointment to be fair. I though he'd reprise his scary good late 2012/13 to pre-injury 2013/2014 form. Wilshere same. Chamberlain has been very impressive and has shown the ability to play in central midfield. No arguments wrt Di Maria. This is his best position. I'm inclined to include one of Herrera or Fellaini though...

Forwards - Rooney at the tip of the diamond. Robin as the primary striker with Sanchez drifting in behind him. Plenty of dynamism, pace and creative ability with the quartet of him, Wayne, Chamberlain and Di Maria.

12th man - Danny Welbeck. :p
 
Surprised to see Debuchy ahead of Rafael in a few line ups. Always found him a bit rash and defensively lacking. Guess many here would say the same about Rafael but I honestly don't think he's worse than Debuchy defensively and is better than him as an attacking threat. Rafael at his best is easily better than Debuchy and I'm assuming we are going by players ability. Even on the basis of form, Rafael has been very good this season in the games that he played.


De Gea
Rafael Koscielny Smalling Gibbs
Carrick
Rooney Ramsey
Sanchez van Persie di Maria​

Ramsey on the basis of his ability and not his form thus far this season. Gibbs is better than Shaw as of now esp when it comes to attacking but Shaw will overtake him soon enough. Shame injuries robbed Gibbs from fully fulfilling his early promise. Still young though and has room for improvement.

Don't really rate Mertesacker and the rest of the picks are fairly self explanatory.
 
Arsenal fans in here seriously think their starting xi is better than ours despite the fact that we have performed better than them this season? Be honest, from our squad you'd take Rooney, RvP, Falcao, Di Maria, Januzaj, Blind, Carrick, Smalling, Shaw, De Gea. At least. You could do with any of those players.
 
Rykker_4united said:
Arsenal fans in here seriously think their starting xi is better than ours despite the fact that we have performed better than them this season?
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Performed is probably stretching it, both teams have been pretty average this season. Biggest difference has been last few matches you've had a world class keeper win you matches whereas we don't.
 
Rykker_4united said:
Arsenal fans in here seriously think their starting xi is better than ours despite the fact that we have performed better than them this season? Be honest, from our squad you'd take Rooney, RvP, Falcao, Di Maria, Januzaj, Blind, Carrick, Smalling, Shaw, De Gea. At least. You could do with any of those players.
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If they were honest they would swap their manager as well.

Yes I went there!!!!
 
Rykker_4united said:
Arsenal fans in here seriously think their starting xi is better than ours despite the fact that we have performed better than them this season? Be honest, from our squad you'd take Rooney, RvP, Falcao, Di Maria, Januzaj, Blind, Carrick, Smalling, Shaw, De Gea. At least. You could do with any of those players.
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Why would we want Januzaj? Shaw would be depth. Carrick would be depth.
 
If we're comparing squads my initial line-up would be this

De Gea
Rafael Mertesacker Koscienly Gibbs
Chamberlain Carrick
Sanchez Cazorla Di Maria
Rooney

but depending on formation and form as well as personal opinion it is a squad where there could be a lot of variations in the line-up without one being clearly stronger than the other. I think everyone has to include De Gea, Koscienly, Sanchez, Di Maria and Rooney but other than them the positions are up for grabs.
 
I'm surprised so many people are picking Debuchy. I know Rafael has his flaws but they are mainly to do with his injury record rather than ability. Debuchy wasn't that highly rated at Newcastle, his reputation declined there as he was very highly rated in France for the national team and Lille but he didn't quite maintain the same performance and was defensively suspect so I was surprised when Arsenal went for him.
 
Eboue said:
Why would we want Januzaj? Shaw would be depth. Carrick would be depth.
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To be fair, your midfield bar Wilshere when he was fit, has not done much at all. Ramsey, apart from scoring that ridiculously good goal, has done very little this season. Flamini and Arteta are both a level (or two) below Carrick and Ox would not play the same role as Carrick. I reckon he would definitely be a starter for you lot.

From Arsenal, I'd take Sanchez, a fit Wilshere (though Arsenal would probably want one of them too), Koscielny, Gibbs and maybe Ramsey if he started to show last year's form again.
 
HabeasC said:
To be fair, your midfield bar Wilshere when he was fit, has not done much at all. Ramsey, apart from scoring that ridiculously good goal, has done very little this season. Flamini and Arteta are both a level (or two) below Carrick and Ox would not play the same role as Carrick. I reckon he would definitely be a starter for you lot.

From Arsenal, I'd take Sanchez, a fit Wilshere (though Arsenal would probably want one of them too), Koscielny, Gibbs and maybe Ramsey if he started to show last year's form again.
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I'd rather have Blind than 33 year old Carrick. So while I think both of them would start over Flamini and Arteta, Carrick would be depth.
 
Eboue said:
Why would we want Januzaj? Shaw would be depth. Carrick would be depth.
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Carrick would be a first team player, as he's comfortably better than Arteta and Flamini. Shaw and Gibbs is pretty 50/50 so fair enough and Januzaj is a good, young prodigy, but would come nowhere near Arsenal's first eleven currently.
 
Glanville95 said:
Carrick would be a first team player, as he's comfortably better than Arteta and Flamini. Shaw and Gibbs is pretty 50/50 so fair enough and Januzaj is a good, young prodigy, but would come nowhere near Arsenal's first eleven currently.
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He is better, I agree. But I don't know that he's better than Blind at this stage in his career.
 
Eboue said:
I'd rather have Blind than 33 year old Carrick. So while I think both of them would start over Flamini and Arteta, Carrick would be depth.
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Oh, so he would be depth for Blind? Thought we were only comparing to Arsenal players.
 
Eboue said:
He is better, I agree. But I don't know that he's better than Blind at this stage in his career.
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At his best I think Carrick is better, but whether he can sustain that level of form at his age remains to be seen. There's not really much between the two, with both having very similar skillsets, but Carrick controls a midfield and protects the defence to a different level to Blind IMO.
 
Only Arsenal player id want is Sanchez. Rest are a bunch of bottlers.
 
DDG

Debuchy
Smalling
Koscielny
Gibbs (just......based on the fact that Shaw hasn't played much)

Sanchez
Ramsey
Carrick
Di Maria
Oxlade

Rooney
 
Eboue said:
Seeing fans of a club that finished out of Europe entirely mock the fa cup and compare it to a preseason friendly is both pathetic and hilarious. Unless it's just "banter", in which case it's just a waste of time because the extent of any wumming I do in the football forums is to say Man Utd. If you're looking for that go tag Barney or Dumbstar.
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I am offended.
 
Notice a pattern in these types of threads where if the majority is from one team, the remaining closer calls go the under represented team.
Take Rojo for example. Take a poll of any international fan on He v Gibbs and Rojo would come out on top. Gibbs hasn't the credentials nor performances v the top teams to warrant a place. LB is still Rojos best position, and you could throw Blind in there due to his and Rojos WC performances.
Koscielny? Is his body of work really better than Evans? Their defence has been shocking and leaderless for a really long time, and he's playing beside a World Cup winner. Would you pick him over a fit Jones?
And why 3 in midfield to accommodate Chambers? Is he more important to have in the side than RVP?

DDG

Rafael Smalling Evans Rojo

Carrick Ramsey

Sanchez. Rooney. Di Maria

RVP

Saying that, if you're playing two sitters then Blind would be more suited than Ramsey, but I am a Ramsey fan.
 
cyberman said:
Im struggling to think of a top player he's kept quiet for 90 mins. It's not like he's a young player neither.
Both defences need work, but a arsenal need a lot more
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Koscielny has anchored a defense that has given up less goals than Manchester United's two years running, the same defense that Evans is basically third choice in. Come on.
 
Eboue said:
Koscielny has anchored a defense that has given up less goals than Manchester United's two years running, the same defense that Evans is basically third choice in. Come on.
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Arsenal have had a midfield that was 100x better than ours over the last two years. I'd even say for 3 years now, our defence has had to over compensate for a midfield that let the opposition have a free run v them every time they pick up the ball.
If you swapped the two around I don't think Arsenal would have been any worse.
Take Drogba for example. Evans always upped his game v him, kept Ibra in his pocket in the San Siro. His performance v Spain for Northern Ireland. I'm sure there's many more but that's off the top of my head. My point is that I can't think of any for Kosceilny, and it's not like Evans has been playing at such a low ebb v the lower sides that it evens it up.
 
cyberman said:
Is his body of work really better than Evans? Their defence has been shocking and leaderless for a really long time, and he's playing beside a World Cup winner. Would you pick him over a fit Jones?
.
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Yes and yes. Comfortably so as well.
 
Eboue said:
Koscielny has anchored a defense that has given up less goals than Manchester United's two years running, the same defense that Evans is basically third choice in. Come on.
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He's also given away more penalties than any other defender in the PL since he's been at Arsenal.
 
cyberman said:
Arsenal have had a midfield that was 100x better than ours over the last two years. I'd even say for 3 years now, our defence has had to over compensate for a midfield that let the opposition have a free run v them every time they pick up the ball.
If you swapped the two around I don't think Arsenal would have been any worse.
Take Drogba for example. Evans always upped his game v him, kept Ibra in his pocket in the San Siro. His performance v Spain for Northern Ireland. I'm sure there's many more but that's off the top of my head. My point is that I can't think of any for Kosceilny, and it's not like Evans has been playing at such a low ebb v the lower sides that it evens it up.
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I don't agree about the midfields. Carrick provided better protection than anyone in Arsenal's midfield for a number of years. Evans also played with the likes of Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra. I just don't see a good argument that Evans is even close to as good as Koscielny who was fantastic two years ago and good last year.
 
cyberman said:
Im struggling to think of a top player he's kept quiet for 90 mins. It's not like he's a young player neither.
Both defences need work, but a arsenal need a lot more
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He was excellent against Barca in 2011 and for France against Spain at the Euro's. On occasion he still looks like there's a mistake in him though.
 
cyberman said:
Notice a pattern in these types of threads where if the majority is from one team, the remaining closer calls go the under represented team.
Take Rojo for example. Take a poll of any international fan on He v Gibbs and Rojo would come out on top. Gibbs hasn't the credentials nor performances v the top teams to warrant a place. LB is still Rojos best position, and you could throw Blind in there due to his and Rojos WC performances.
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Rojo's been playing in Portugal and Russia, Gibbs in England. World Cup was a few games, and Rojo was ok.
 
Eboue said:
He's not helped by Mertesacker being so slow or the midfield doing little tracking back or the higher line we play.
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Agree to a certain degree although I do think he's a poor tackler(The foul on hazard this season was very poor) but overall I don't think there's a massive difference between United's defenders and Koscielny(I think United's defenders have a higher potential level but then again it's only ever been potential which is hardly something to shout about).
 
Sweet Square said:
Agree to a certain degree although I do think he's a poor tackler(The foul on hazard this season was very poor) but overall I don't think there's a massive difference between United's defenders and Koscielny(I think United's defenders have a higher potential level but then again it's only ever been potential which is hardly something to shout about).
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Hazard dived as usual. He also got to that position by diving to get Chambers booked earlier, which meant Calum couldn't put in the challenge to allow Kozza to clean up.
 
JazzG said:
Performed is probably stretching it, both teams have been pretty average this season. Biggest difference has been last few matches you've had a world class keeper win you matches whereas we don't.
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The theory that we have gone 8-2-1 in our last 11 just because of De Gea is laughable.
 
peterstorey said:
Hazard dived as usual. He also got to that position by diving to get Chambers booked earlier, which meant Calum couldn't put in the challenge to allow Kozza to clean up.
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I hate Chelsea and Mou as much as the next person but it was a clear foul. Koscielny just stuck a leg out,it was piss poor.
 
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