Arsenal Rant.

Against Birmingham we had the following players out:

Campbell
Toure
Eboue
Lauren
Cole
Clichy
Gilbert
Cygan

That is 8 defenders out, so that is our whole first choice back 4 and 3 of the backups for those 4 players out at one time. So unless I'm horribly mistake I don't recall Man utd, R.Madrid or Milan having so many defenders out at one time.

I didn't say that was our problem, I said low confidence was and having so many players out at one time was just making things worse.

BoomAM said:
Lol.
Its funny to see how with no extra injuries that its slowly migrated from 4th, to 6th to 8th.
Blown out of proportion anyone? :p
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Let's look at our Left backs

1st - Cole
2nd - Clichy
3rd - Toure
4th - Lauren
5th - Garry
6th - Eboue
7th - Flamini

I make it 7th myself but I might be missing a player or two out.
 
How can playing a central midfielder as a left back not strike you as something crazy like 8th choice? We'd be playing a central or right-sided defender there at the very least if we had a spare one, but guess what? We don't.
 
Viera was one of the few irreplacables, and now you cant find anything anywhere near his level. You need to accept that Arsenal for the time being are in a transition and it will be a while before you guys are back up to our standard.

Id shudder what would happen to us if we lost Super Frank and JT, those two are also irreplacable.
 
Jazz said:
Let's look at our Left backs
1st - Cole
2nd - Clichy
3rd - Cygan
4th - Toure
5th - Lauren
6th - Eboue
7th - Senderos
8th - Flamini
9th - Larrson
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Is the order in which has been played this season, so in fact starting against Bolton was our 9th Choice Left back. Of course Hoyte would be about 3, but he isn't an option currently. Ryan Garry hasn't been fit for years :(

It's the fact that so many of our attacks have come down the left for so many years. I've also noticed for some reason Henry is rarely on the left, I have no idea why.
 
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Some of those players listed arnt even proper LBs. They're people who have been drafted in due to having too many personel in other positions.
Talk about inflating the numbers.

Case Example:
If i used your logic i could say that Milan have spent most of the season thus far with the following injured in the LB position: Kalazde, Maldini, Stam, Cafu, Simic, Jankulovski & Costacurta.
But, as not all of them are true LBs, its inflated numbers. As that would be cut down to 3 players (Kaladze, Maldini, Jankulovski).

Im not entirely sure of the exact positions of some of the Arsenal players you've listed. But i know that a few of them arnt even defenders, and a few more usually play in different defensive positions. So to make things 'fair', why dont you list ACTUAL LBs that have been/are injured? ;)
 
I think your missing our point. They are LB's because they have had to be, they have all played at LB at some point this season. 2 aren't even defenders, they are playing there because there was only 1 player from that list who was available.
 
Anyway, it's definitely a pity since I really enjoy the United-Gooner rivalry, thrown up some cracking matches over the year. I hope we can both get our squads back to the standards of a few years back. How's that for positive mentality? :)
 
Gooner14 said:
I think your missing our point. They are LB's because they have had to be, they have all played at LB at some point this season. 2 aren't even defenders, they are playing there because there was only 1 player from that list who was available.
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Its not missing any point. Its poking holes into yours. ;)
Your claimed that you were on your 6,7,8th choice LBs, when some of them arnt even LBs. My point is that your really on your 3rd or so LB, and your playing other players there.
 
BoomAM said:
Its not missing any point. Its poking holes into yours. ;)
Your claimed that you were on your 6,7,8th choice LBs, when some of them arnt even LBs. My point is that your really on your 3rd or so LB, and your playing other players there.
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You're wrong.

They are all footballers they are catagorised by their best playing position.

Flamini is the 8th choice for that position as stated above. Thus he is our 8th choice LB.

Henry is our first choice Striker but he could also be our 4th choice GK for all it matters.
 
I don't understand how it's so hard to grasp. Who would we play at left-back if we had a fully fit squad? Cole right? So that makes him first choice left-back, obviously.

Who would we play if Cole was injured? Clichy, our second choice left-back.

Who do we play when both Cole and Clichy are injured? Cygan, because we've loaned out Hoyte, who would probably be next on that list, so he's now our third choice for that position.

Who do we play when Cole, Clichy and Cygan are all injured? Do you see where I'm going here?

I can see what you're saying BoomAM, but given the choice between playing, say Lauren or Flamini at left-back, I imagine you would (like most people) choose Lauren, because he's a full-back, and thus slightly more likely to play well there, even if it isn't his natural position. Thus, Flamini is a lower choice than Lauren to play there. Continue to extrapolate that out, and you can see why we say we're down to out 8th choice at LB.

Our point is, if you asked any Arsenal fan to list all of the players they'd put at left-back in order, a central midfielder like Flamini would be miles down there. Every single one of the players on that list has been moved out of the LB position, not to make room for a more deserving player, but because they've either been injured (Cole, Clichy, Cygan, Lauren), been abducted to Africa (Kolo, Eboue), or have had to move back to the middle of defence to plug all the holes there (Senderos).
 
Oh FGS, stop trying to justify a statement that mis-represents a bad situation for the club.
The FACT of the matter is that you are not on your 8th choice or whatever LB. You're simply at the point where your using players that arnt LBs in the LB position.
Which, in the negative opinions that are being vented, if you stop to think about it, sounds worse: 'we've ran out of LBs so we're having to play players out of position...'. :p
 
BoomAM said:
Its not missing any point. Its poking holes into yours. ;)
Your claimed that you were on your 6,7,8th choice LBs, when some of them arnt even LBs. My point is that your really on your 3rd or so LB, and your playing other players there.
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Thats right. Wenger is playing a midfielder at left back for fun. If all those players were fit, Flamini would be 8th best in that position. Thus if the 7 above him aren't able to play which they were not, he has to play at LB.

I thought it was fairly easy to understand. :confused:
 
Argh.

If we got Clichy back for the Madrid game (fingers crossed!), or Hoyte mysteriously reappeared from loan, none of us would start saying we're playing our 10th choice at LB, because that's not what we're saying. "8th choice" isn't simply saying that Wenger has played 8 different players in that position this season, it's because each change in LB has been forced upon us, and he's had to chose a "worse" player (in terms of ability to play at LB) to play there.
 
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