Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [17th - 19th September 2011]
- Thread starter red11
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Wait until you get a couple of injuries
Boro are doing very well but their squad is pretty thin and not lacking in real quality, first team playing very well though. Probably the hardest opposition you've came up against today apart from Leeds but the ref decided that game
My other halves family all Boro supporters so I can't go a day without hearing someone piping up about them.
Arsene Wenger:
''on concerns about Arsenal’s defending...
You cannot say you are not worried when you see the performance we put in today''
''When you are 2-1 in front against Blackburn and you know that you are solid defensively, we will score goals. ''
Now ...the first part, urm, I hope it was the first half he was referring to.
''on concerns about Arsenal’s defending...
You cannot say you are not worried when you see the performance we put in today''
''When you are 2-1 in front against Blackburn and you know that you are solid defensively, we will score goals. ''
Now ...the first part, urm, I hope it was the first half he was referring to.
LOL nothing like an old fool who likes to talk in riddles...for gods sake Wenger just say it like it is ie we suck defensively...simple as that really.
Honestly its no wonder Wenger is fast becoming a joke of a manager....i dont think hes suited to managing Arsenal anymore as sad as that is to admit...think its time he moved upstairs and let someone else come in and have a go and while we are at it...sack the current coaching squad because they clearly arent doing their job ie defensive coach and also our physio's as well because i reckon their treatment of our injured players is having a determental effect on their comebacks ie Wilshere out for 6 weeks at least and same with Vermaelen as well.
Now im off to watch Barca, a team that can score at will play...at least they play attractive football but their end product always ends up with goals.
I completely agree with you. Arsenal should have signed Jags or Cahill at the start of the window and just put down a marker like man utd did.
Oh well at least I can bet on overs in most of the games so when my team is losing I'm getting paid lol!
Soldato
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Sometimes you just pay the money and get the player. Wenger doesnt seem to do that.
We bought Smalling and Jones ahead of schedule simply because Arsenal were "sniffing round" them. I thought £10m for Smalling was crazy money but the manager wanted him and look at his quality a year on. Jones i always thought looked quality but again Arsenal could have stolen a march if they had paid the cash.
Even £30m for Ferdinand and £25m for Rooney is not expensive if you look at the years of service given rather than chopping and changing lesser players for lesser money.
Caporegime
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Our defending has been woeful for a long time and today you could see that communication was a huge part of it. I never saw anyone telling anyone else what to do, I don't think Santos or Mertesacker even speak English and I'm guessing Sagna and Koscielny talk in French anyway. It's not good.
Tbh im now starting to think that theres a rift between the Arsenal board and Wenger...Wenger has said he will splash £30mill+ on a player and i kinda believe him but i think its the wages that are the stumbling block for us and thats why we are getting such useless players. With teams like City, Chelsea and Utd paying 6 figures for their top players, is it any wonder that these world class players are ignoring Arsenal to go to Chelsea, City and Utd...prime example Juan Mata who we were linked with during the summer...FFS he went to Chelsea as soon as they showed an interest...why the hell couldnt Wenger or Arsenal board have signed him first before Chelsea made their interest known. Personally i dont blame the lad for going there as theres more chance of him winning a trophy there than at Arsenal currently. Same with Fabregas, we should have sold him at the start of the summer and then go about replacing him, we didnt and now look at us??...doesnt help that Wilshere and Vermaelen , 2 of our best players are out for a few mths with injuries. In the end Wenger signed 4 players who arent really world class...Arteta whos almost 30 and Benayoun...both of them decent utility players but hardly world class then he goes and signs a big lumbering jack of a man Mertesacker, who is a bit slow lets be honest.
We should have signed Cahill and Samba and a few other players but our meandering in the transfer window has cost us big time...instead of going forward, we are going backwards and fast.
The problem is that RVP is captain and just like Fabregas was made captain for us...its not the right move and Wenger did it so he could keep Fab and now RVP longer at the club....not taking anything away from the both of them but i dont think the captaincy did them any favours, in fact i felt its affected their game somewhat...i just want RVP to start banging in the goals but i dont think hes captain material.
Tell me someone what is the point of having a captain who doesnt show any passion ie starts raging, shouting at players to get their heads on etc etc??.
Wenger should have made Vermaelen captain altho hes hardly ever fit but maybe if we had signed Cahill this summer, made him captain and let him run the defence and if anyone had an issue with that...then thats their problem.
But we desperately need a captain who is going to lay the law down and net be afraid to get in the faces of our players and tell them to buck up their game.
Soldato
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The guys you need wouldnt break a wage structure with a £100k ceiling.
HOWEVER
The most telling thing about the transfer window was the fact that Arteta took a wage CUT of between £10k and £20k a week (depending on what you read) to go from skint Everton to cash-rich Arsenal.
Theres something not right there.
You have a huge number of average players who are round about the £50k-£60k mark who probably deserve to be on half that and its cost you the chance to put new signings on the £80k-£90k mark that the market dictates they probably deserve while keeping the overall wages budget running ok.
Soldato
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Im not sure any modern player really thinks the captains armband is a reason to stay at a club.
It can be symbolic in many ways but do you think Vieira or Adams would have been any different if they were or werent captains?
Roy Keane would still put your nuts in a vice at Man Utd whether he had an armband or not.
Arsenal just need that TYPE of player.
Caporegime
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I agree with what you're saying regarding the captaincy, but tbh who would you make Arsenal captain now?
Vermaelen is injury prone and is still quite new to the club. The rest are either recent signings, too young or just ****
Vermaelen is injury prone and is still quite new to the club. The rest are either recent signings, too young or just ****
Soldato
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And thats the problem.
Its not about who you make captain, its about getting some players who will go on the pitch and noise it up a bit.
I will get pelters but in the last wee while the likes of Joey Barton and Scott Parker have moved clubs. Why are Arsenal above that type of player? They arent.
Yes, Joey Barton has been a wrong 'un but read Tony Adams book, he was a complete **** for the first half of his career yet he motivated and shook up teams on a regular basis.
Caporegime
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We are above a player like Barton, he was an absolute **** today in his game, went down like a girl if he was touched in any way, decided to try and mock the keeper by mouthing/showing 3-0 on his fingers near the end of a game. Tried to get in a fight with Henry, then at the whistle went over to shake his hand but instead was being a **** and tried to get in another fight.
He's scum, nothing more or less, Parker seems as decent as any other player, but he's a quality player, he's not a thug, he's nothing like Barton, and had I been manager at Arsenal there isn't a chance in hell he'd have not ended up at Arsenal, complete joke as he's exactly who we need.
Wages, Wengers spending 50mil more last year than when we left Highbury, we had a 3-4 players on/around/just over 100k a week back then, and we have that now, the extra 50mil is in massively overpaying vastly inferior players in the rest of our squad.
Without wanting to get all football manager-y, mostly because I have barely played it but, 115mil a year in wages, I highly doubt the owners give a monkeys if that 115mil is spent on 30 players on higher wages, or 60 players on lower wages. I've said for a long time, look at our ridiculous wage bill, look at how many players we pay really high wages, we've always had a truly huge squad, of which most never play, we've got Lansbury, Randall types on way to much to not be playing, and for years.
If we ditched all the pos players, we'd have plenty of spare cash to play a few better players.
As for Mata, its quite simple, he went to a club that wasn't in freefall, and ones that acted like they seriously wanted him. Arsenal, offering low, peeing around, showing interest, putting in offers but giving up easily. Chelsea wanted him, they went out, offered, got it sorted in a few days, Arsenal spent 2 months chasing a player half heartedly. If we'd signed him on the first day of the transfer window, he'd be an Arsenal player right now.
I really don't know how many more times it can be said, the problem is, the crap defence, and the problems have been obvious for YEARS today its not that we were crap in defence, its that there wasn't a single iota of a sign of improvement. There wasn't a system still, they didn't stop going forwards, no one took charge and, you see it in every other team, lead CB puts his arms out and yells at everyone to get in line, nothing. There isn't any hint of change, and there hasn't been for years. The defensive lack of any organisation is shocking with no sign of a single thing being done about it.
Mertesacker, we bring him in then move to a system where he makes one zone, so the opposition instantly just avoids that zone and doesn't put the ball in there, his height instantly wiped out. Genius, it took them 10 minutes to figure that out and Arsenal 90 minutes + to ignore it and do nothing about it. Mertesacker stood idly in the middle of the box while the ball went really deep, or anywhere ne wasn't. A Terry, Samba, Cahill, Vidic, the ball comes in and they fight to meet that ball first ahead of anyone else. The ball comes into Arsenal's box, the opposition are all moving, Arsenal just wait and see what happens. Arteta marking Yakubu is laughable to start with, but when the ball goes out and everyone moves away from their striker standing two yards from our goal, Arteta moves 2 yards, gets ball side or Yakubu, no goal, but he ran off for no reason.
He's scum, nothing more or less, Parker seems as decent as any other player, but he's a quality player, he's not a thug, he's nothing like Barton, and had I been manager at Arsenal there isn't a chance in hell he'd have not ended up at Arsenal, complete joke as he's exactly who we need.
Wages, Wengers spending 50mil more last year than when we left Highbury, we had a 3-4 players on/around/just over 100k a week back then, and we have that now, the extra 50mil is in massively overpaying vastly inferior players in the rest of our squad.
Without wanting to get all football manager-y, mostly because I have barely played it but, 115mil a year in wages, I highly doubt the owners give a monkeys if that 115mil is spent on 30 players on higher wages, or 60 players on lower wages. I've said for a long time, look at our ridiculous wage bill, look at how many players we pay really high wages, we've always had a truly huge squad, of which most never play, we've got Lansbury, Randall types on way to much to not be playing, and for years.
If we ditched all the pos players, we'd have plenty of spare cash to play a few better players.
As for Mata, its quite simple, he went to a club that wasn't in freefall, and ones that acted like they seriously wanted him. Arsenal, offering low, peeing around, showing interest, putting in offers but giving up easily. Chelsea wanted him, they went out, offered, got it sorted in a few days, Arsenal spent 2 months chasing a player half heartedly. If we'd signed him on the first day of the transfer window, he'd be an Arsenal player right now.
I really don't know how many more times it can be said, the problem is, the crap defence, and the problems have been obvious for YEARS today its not that we were crap in defence, its that there wasn't a single iota of a sign of improvement. There wasn't a system still, they didn't stop going forwards, no one took charge and, you see it in every other team, lead CB puts his arms out and yells at everyone to get in line, nothing. There isn't any hint of change, and there hasn't been for years. The defensive lack of any organisation is shocking with no sign of a single thing being done about it.
Mertesacker, we bring him in then move to a system where he makes one zone, so the opposition instantly just avoids that zone and doesn't put the ball in there, his height instantly wiped out. Genius, it took them 10 minutes to figure that out and Arsenal 90 minutes + to ignore it and do nothing about it. Mertesacker stood idly in the middle of the box while the ball went really deep, or anywhere ne wasn't. A Terry, Samba, Cahill, Vidic, the ball comes in and they fight to meet that ball first ahead of anyone else. The ball comes into Arsenal's box, the opposition are all moving, Arsenal just wait and see what happens. Arteta marking Yakubu is laughable to start with, but when the ball goes out and everyone moves away from their striker standing two yards from our goal, Arteta moves 2 yards, gets ball side or Yakubu, no goal, but he ran off for no reason.
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You sure?
Anyways, could do with a Chelsea win or draw tomorrow.
A repeat of last seasons performance with the added Aguero magic should see us top come Monday.
Soldato
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Tony Adams and Paul Merson.
I dont need to recount the stories of their horrific behaviour.
In terms of on-pitch performance Joey Barton would do you good.
I had to put my glasses on to read that essay!
You could've simply said "We were crap" and have done with it DM, no amount of dissection/explanation from you is going to improve what is happening at Arsenal, it seems you repeat your essay style every weekend with the same stuff. Just save time & join in with the laughter and move on!
You could've simply said "We were crap" and have done with it DM, no amount of dissection/explanation from you is going to improve what is happening at Arsenal, it seems you repeat your essay style every weekend with the same stuff. Just save time & join in with the laughter and move on!
Soldato
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I had to put my glasses on to read that essay!
You could've simply said "We were crap" and have done with it DM, no amount of dissection/explanation from you is going to improve what is happening at Arsenal, it seems you repeat your essay style every weekend with the same stuff. Just save time & join in with the laughter and move on!
I actually like the fact that he is prepared to put in the time to say what he says, whether i agree or not. He knows he will get pelters but he does it anyway.
Ive already had a warning about a reply i made to one of his posts but he is a passionate Arsenal fan. It doesnt have to be right or wrong.
However he is becoming more "right" with each passing day......