Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [21st - 24th September 2012]
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Team v Liverpool on Sunday;
---------------Lindegaard---------------
Valencia---Evans---Ferdinand---Buttner
----------------Fletcher----------------
--------Powell------------Anderson--------
Welbeck--------Hernandez--------Giggs
Subs: Johnson, Wooton, M.Keane, Veseli, Brady, Cole, Petrucci
Why not?
---------------Lindegaard---------------
Valencia---Evans---Ferdinand---Buttner
----------------Fletcher----------------
--------Powell------------Anderson--------
Welbeck--------Hernandez--------Giggs
Subs: Johnson, Wooton, M.Keane, Veseli, Brady, Cole, Petrucci
Why not?
Caporegime
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I think he'll be a useful player to have on the pitch but with Wenger seemingly reluctant to give Chamakh games I think it'd be risky playing Podolski and Giroud at the same time very often. I think we should start with Podolski up front, Chamberlain on the right and Gervinho on the left with license to roam. He's been decent for us lately and hopefully he'll maintain that level, him, Arteta, Podolski and Cazorla could create some real problems for City. It's gonna be a cracking match whatever happens.
He just looks so lacking of confidence at the moment. I don't think a big pressure game like the one on sunday will help. Even his assist in the champs league was mis-control. He does look very slow too. Once he finds the net i'm hopeful he'll improve from Chamakh levels.
Caporegime
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I think he'll be a useful player to have on the pitch but with Wenger seemingly reluctant to give Chamakh games I think it'd be risky playing Podolski and Giroud at the same time very often. I think we should start with Podolski up front, Chamberlain on the right and Gervinho on the left with license to roam. He's been decent for us lately and hopefully he'll maintain that level, him, Arteta, Podolski and Cazorla could create some real problems for City. It's gonna be a cracking match whatever happens.
Gervinho is much better centrally, when playing on the wing he spends too long running into blind alleys and producing little else. He's fast and his movement isn't too bad like in the past couple games he should pop up with goals with the chances being put on a plate for him.
Like Theo given too much time on the ball he ends up doing nothing, given 2 steps then a chance to shoot he likely will, some will go in.
Podolski is genuinely an excellent footballer, his output since he joined has been fantastic, he's immensely better than Gervinho/Walcott/other options defensively, works hard, and his interplay is brilliant. He'll create attacks between him and Cazorla/Arteta/AOC.
If Gervinho could be relied on to play the wing and actually produce a final ball I'd prefer Podolski upfront as he's great infront of goal, but currently our best option is Gervinho upfront(well I'd go Arshavin left and Podolski upfront but looks like Wenger is set to bench him till he agrees to leave).
Gervinho was completely gash however until playing a team we thrashed 6-1, it should be noted that when we've beaten the likes of Blackburn by 6 goals that the worse team members tend to get a few goals. Theo will be terrible against everyone all year but managed a hattrick against Blackburn.
Considering we had a year of utter uselessness, but still a few goals and assists, i think it might want more than two games against the worst opposition we'll face in either competition before branding Gervinho a good player
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Not really sure what to think about Chelsea on Saturday, I am hopeful of a point but Chelsea's new attacking players will cause Stoke endless problems. Can't see us getting anything but another point to make it 5 draws out of 5 would be brilliant!
Caporegime
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Considering we had a year of utter uselessness, but still a few goals and assists, i think it might want more than two games against the worst opposition we'll face in either competition before branding Gervinho a good player
Don't put me in the camp of branding players good or bad after one or two performances. I said he has been decent for us lately which is different from me saying he's a good player full stop.
Although I'm not a big fan of Walcott I'd say he tends to step up more in the bigger games than score past weaker teams when we are a few goals up, though I think the stats on that would be interesting. We should have tried to get rid of him in the summer though and if nobody wants him in January I'd just let him leave for nothing, 90% of the time he doesn't have the quality to play for a top 4 club.
In regard to Podolski/Gervinho I agree that Gervinho can't be relied upon to produce performances from the wing but with Poldi starting as a striker and Gervinho on the left the two of them can interchange quite nicely.
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I think the Man UTD Liverpool game will be poor.
Both teams not great on form, or confidence, so I think it will be a dreary game for the most part, and perhaps get a bit better in the latter stages.
As for Arsenal, I think they will do Man City, and it will be interesting to see how their newly formed solidity in defence holds up.
Looking forward to that game far more than the UTD game.
Both teams not great on form, or confidence, so I think it will be a dreary game for the most part, and perhaps get a bit better in the latter stages.
As for Arsenal, I think they will do Man City, and it will be interesting to see how their newly formed solidity in defence holds up.
Looking forward to that game far more than the UTD game.
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Personally I think both games will be poor, I can see United winning 1-0 or drawing 1-1 but I can see Arsenal struggling to score past Man City and vice versa.
Arsenal do seem to have improved defensively this year!
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A real test for us, hopefully see us actually make an effort to put in a really good performance for the first time this season, at the moment we've been doing the bare minimum (and sometimes not even that) excusing a second half collapse from Wigan.
Caporegime
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Don't put me in the camp of branding players good or bad after one or two performances. I said he has been decent for us lately which is different from me saying he's a good player full stop.
Although I'm not a big fan of Walcott I'd say he tends to step up more in the bigger games than score past weaker teams when we are a few goals up, though I think the stats on that would be interesting. We should have tried to get rid of him in the summer though and if nobody wants him in January I'd just let him leave for nothing, 90% of the time he doesn't have the quality to play for a top 4 club.
In regard to Podolski/Gervinho I agree that Gervinho can't be relied upon to produce performances from the wing but with Poldi starting as a striker and Gervinho on the left the two of them can interchange quite nicely.
I actually didn't really mean you, just in general if a player has 2 good games with a full season being crap before that most fans somehow decide a player is great. This was seen with the Diaby reaction to a single game against Liverpool(in which he wasn't particularly good, he merely didn't completely screw up) and people suddenly talking about him being a great player... a whole game later and he's the worst player on the pitch by such a massive margin its hilarious.
Anyhow Walcott last year, he got a goal against Utd, Chelsea and two against Spurs, people can believe these were great goals or situational. Utd were looking to hit double figures and had given up defending, under AVB Chelsea were horrendous defensively in that game and Spurs horrendous in their game also. The telling thing is he was useless in the majority of each game. Anyway explain those aside we've got, goals, Utd, Chelsea, Swansea, 2x Spurs, Villa, QPR, Wolves.
Assists, Bolton, Norwich, Fulham, Wigan, 3x Blackburn, Newcastle. That is the most telling, it really doesn't matter who you play, anyone can get a tap in against anyone, assisting suggests(but doesn't prove) that you were a bit more involved and creative and he did it by and large against the worst teams in the league.
Only one of his goals came in a game Arsenal scored less than 3, against QPR, and we lost that game anyway. Even when he does well, 2 goals or the 3 assists, none were crucial to winning the game as the winning margin was larger than he helped with.
Meh, I do care about goals and assists, but I care more about being good for as much of the 90 minutes as you can. Walcott plays a stats game, rather than actually try to run the ball down the wing he often just looks like he can't be arsed and gets a nice safe passing stat increase by passing it somewhere safe and backwards. Podolski gets the ball and his first thought is, can I get it up the field by running or passing, Theo's is.... whats the least amount of work I can do in this situation in general. Podoski has in each performance so far put in a full shift, attacked any time possible, defended when required, kept possession brilliantly. Every part of his game is top notch and every minute he was on the pitch he was playing well.
Walcott might get a goal but he'll not be helping the team for the other 89 minutes. Why have Arsenal looked better without Song and Walcott playing this season..... why did we look better without Diaby.... the answers should be obvious. When we have the ball, we use it better, when we don't have the ball we're so massively superior to how we were last year its a joke. Having two wingers who can help defend and a central midfield that knows how to play.
I don't think our defence, as in the back four, has improve one iota, Gibbs/Mert still can't defend and Jenks, I like him but he's still inexperienced and mistake prone. The improvement has come from the midfield pressuring the ball, making it harder to take clean shots, to make clean passes. Santi has been very good as well closing people further up the field.
Sturridge is still out with a hamstring but Oscar is fit.
I hope he gets another start as it's an absolute delight watching him & Hazard play together, Mata's had a rest now so if those 3 start it will be bliss.
Having said that, Moses needs a game so he might start up front somewhere.
There's so many options with the squad now it's difficult to predict who'll start really (apart from Cech & Torres) and plenty of people need game time so it could be something like this -
Cech
Cesar - Cahill - Luiz - Bertrand
Romeu - Ramires
Mata - Oscar - Hazard
Torres
Might even rest Hazard, God knows really.
I hope he gets another start as it's an absolute delight watching him & Hazard play together, Mata's had a rest now so if those 3 start it will be bliss.
Having said that, Moses needs a game so he might start up front somewhere.
There's so many options with the squad now it's difficult to predict who'll start really (apart from Cech & Torres) and plenty of people need game time so it could be something like this -
Cech
Cesar - Cahill - Luiz - Bertrand
Romeu - Ramires
Mata - Oscar - Hazard
Torres
Might even rest Hazard, God knows really.
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