Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [30th - 31st August 2014]

I hate Lennon and would prefer not to see him on telly again.

There are some amazingly erudite and intelligent foreign pundits. Get them in.
 
Somnambulist said:
No more than everyone else, and those in front of him weren't getting into a good positions, making runs or staying onside. Attacking play is just not clicking at all so far, not helped by the fact we've only looked like we know what we're doing when Giroud has been on. Get the chequebook out Arsenal FFS.
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Sanchez made a few runs which were completely ignored while Ozil made a simple 5 yard sideways pass to Flamini instead but we were poor on the whole I suppose. That's the tenth consecutive game where Ozil has failed to make an assist apparently, not meaning to pick on him or anything but you'd expect more from someone who cost upwards of £40m.
 
Managed to miss todays game - I'm guessing thats not a bad thing? Is Wenger still denying there is a striker crisis?
 
We've looked crap when Giroud has played, we just played him less and he happened to come on when Everton were tired, the game was changing regardless of him being on. We've played as we did today loads of times with Giroud playing.

Ozil is playing exactly like anyone with any perspective saw him play at Real, the odd very good game, exceptionally rarely a brilliant game, mostly anonymous unless others happen to do all the work.

Sanchez is a fairly one dimensional player but like others(Walcott) think they are brilliant. You get the best out of them when you really don't give him(or Walcott) much choice about what they do next. Pass in behind the box for them to shoot with the first touch, or in behind so that basically they get a clear run at goal without thinking about doing anything complex. He's good at that but when we recognise what he's good at and play him into those situations we can effectively use him.

That De Laet beat him so often, both defensively and offensively was a joke. De Laet was good but if Sanchez is £30mil and gets 150-200k a week(I actually cant' remember how much anyone said he was getting wage wise) needs to be massively better than what he's showing.

Yeah, he got a tap in but was very poor otherwise, same in the game midweek. We were even worse today because the only stand out performer from midweek was Wilshere. The number of times there was no intelligent play on the edge of the box, no real penetration.

Ramsey has been god awful this season, his passing is woeful, the number of insanely simple passes he messes up is embarrassing. Debuchy was dire in the first half, improved for the second half but not massively. Flamini didn't impose himself defensively and their counter attacks seem to pass him by far far too often.

If Ulloa hadn't screwed up his best chances we'd have lost, deservedly, because we're playing boring, predictable slow as hell football and choosing the wrong players to do it. Sanchez is someone useful on the counter but of exceptionally limited use in slow build up play.

Podolski looked like Wenger hadn't given him a single minute before today... I wonder why. Campbell's inventiveness and directness would have helped but didn't get off the bench.

Stupidly late changes, again, the wrong changes, again. Ox, again, no end product, lots of pace, lots of energy, produces almost nothing though.

I don't know why we are moving towards a slow holding possession tika taka style when we don't have the players for it and we look bad when we're doing it. You buy Sanchez to attack on the break. He was in the team to offer another option to Barca, a huge portion of his goals came on the end of counter attacks, so we spend £30mil on him and play even further towards a style that doesn't suit a player like him. We slow down the play and create less passing opportunities for Ozil.

Real Madrid are the most counter attacking/direct style of team amongst the top Euro teams, Ozil made passes because with Ronaldo, Di Maria, Benzema they had huge pace and power and ran at teams. it causes their defenders to back off and get in a muddle and opened up gaps everywhere.

Ozil/Sanchez are players you would want in that Real pure speed/counter attacking style, yet we bought them to play in the complete opposite type of system which suits neither player at all. £72million and £300-400k a week on two players to play in completely the wrong system... madness.
 
JohnnyG said:
Chelsea have beaten Burnley and Leicester so far with a freak result at Everton thrown in.
Why anyone thinks they're unstoppable is beyond me.
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He didn't say you were unstoppable, he said got no hope of competing at the top with Chelsea, as in Arsenal haven't. I agree with him, as their squad stands they have no hope of competing at the top with you. City will and Liverpool might though.

It's easy to see though a City Chelsea fight for the title and Liverpool Arsenal for 3rd and 4th. I bet by the end of the season united fans have a different attitude to the Europa league :p
 
TNA said:
WengerOUT?





:p
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:p

always, the fundamental things he gets wrong are so bad, which I don't mind directly. It's that the main things he gets wrong, like rotation, crap subs, and playing his favourites over better players that he doesn't like for whatever reason, he hasn't improved one thing in a decade.

His player judging ability has gone out of the window since the Fabregas/Pires days. The finding a gem and getting the most out of them is long since gone. He's been buying 10-15mil players for 6-7 years and screwing up frequently.

Wilshere being rested for a game isn't a bad thing, but picking Ozil/Sanchez/Cazorla in the same game, again, when they looked crap together with no good interplay between them. Ignoring Campbell and Podolski to this point, refusing to buy a striker, sticking by Sanogo and refusing to see how inept and limited Giroud is, refusing to see that Gibbs is both a sicknote and utterly rubbish to go with it. 30mil on a left back and striker instead of Sanchez would have done so so much more for the team.
 
drunkenmaster said:
:p

always, the fundamental things he gets wrong are so bad, which I don't mind directly. It's that the main things he gets wrong, like rotation, crap subs, and playing his favourites over better players that he doesn't like for whatever reason, he hasn't improved one thing in a decade.

His player judging ability has gone out of the window since the Fabregas/Pires days. The finding a gem and getting the most out of them is long since gone. He's been buying 10-15mil players for 6-7 years and screwing up frequently.

Wilshere being rested for a game isn't a bad thing, but picking Ozil/Sanchez/Cazorla in the same game, again, when they looked crap together with no good interplay between them. Ignoring Campbell and Podolski to this point, refusing to buy a striker, sticking by Sanogo and refusing to see how inept and limited Giroud is, refusing to see that Gibbs is both a sicknote and utterly rubbish to go with it. 30mil on a left back and striker instead of Sanchez would have done so so much more for the team.
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You do have a point. I wish he had started off with Podolski and Campbell today and put on Sanchez after 65 minutes or something if needed.

I hope those two start for FA Cup and League Cup at least. They need games badly.
 
TNA said:
You do have a point. I wish he had started off with Podolski and Campbell today and put on Sanchez after 65 minutes or something if needed.

I hope those two start for FA Cup and League Cup at least. They need games badly.
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I wouldn't have started Podolski as things stood today, I would however have given him game time already so he wasn't basically playing his first game almost since the end of last season, he played about 55minutes in the world cup, hasn't played a second since then but that was Wenger's choice. Had he already been used and Campbell been used more than he has then I would have started both.

But ultimately the team is now heavily lopsided. We have guys who you want to be on the end of a pass in the box to shoot, you have the guys who stand still in space that others making runs make for him to make those passes. We have very few guys who can burst 5-50 yards with the ball then make a killer pass to one of the finishers. Wilshere is the only guy doing this so far this season. Ox drives with the ball but has no end product at all. Campbell is another guy who would drive with the ball and do something with it rather than waste the chance... so we don't play him.


If Wenger wants to build a Barca style possession team that doesn't focus on breaking at all, then buy players built for that. Ozil who hates to be pressured is not the guy, Fabregas who will spin away from pressure is the guy. Sanchez is the alternative guy in the Barca squad for when that isn't working but he really does play exceptionally similar to Walcott except he does try to run at defenders a hell of a lot more and he's better in general, but his actual quality in final ball/crossing/passing is poor and he frequently ends up in a dead end then passing backwards or losing it.

The way this team is set up if you were going to rest Wilshere, which is a good thing, you needed to replace those driving runs(the only positive from the first 3 games) with someone else who can provide similar, we didn't. In fact what we needed was another player to add to the runs that Wilshere made, we needed more of that and less of this stand around waiting BS. So we wanted Wilshere and Campbell playing then a third player to bring on for Wilshere.

The weakness is also a problem Cazorla was an utter ***** today, there was one time near the end someone actually bumped into him properly and I literally said out loud "that's what a foul is you *****". He flopped over like such a girl all game long, Ozil did it multiple times, Ramsey goes down fairly soft, Sanchez is a diver. Everyone doesn't need to be strong but you need more fight and some strength from more than just FLamini.

Cazorla/Ozil are just too girly in general, Caz is hardly a slight build yet offers zero fight, Ozil is relatively thin but not that small.

We can't play such a limited side, lacking so many qualities and expect to play well.

Somnambulist said:
That Gareth Bale's a bit handy. Madrid 2-0 up and coasting.
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Although somehow it's 1-2 now, Real should be like 5-0 up already and Sociedad, wow have they started this season badly. They've actually started the last 3 seasons poorly, 1 win in the first 8 last year, 3 wins in the first 10 the year before when they ended up 4th after being brilliant. They aren't fast starters but also have the issue of several players out injured, Vela and a few others are only just getting fit now, missing preseason and they are really key to making the team tick.

Bravo is also completely brilliant as a keeper and will be a massive massive miss this season.

EDIT:- lol Real, how is this game 2-2.... nuts. Sociedad disgustingly awful at the back, and only had a few chances.
 
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TNA said:
You do have a point. I wish he had started off with Podolski and Campbell today and put on Sanchez after 65 minutes or something if needed.

I hope those two start for FA Cup and League Cup at least. They need games badly.
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Podolski is pants up front. I'd like to see Campbell get a run, but he gives the same problem when played up top as Sanchez - he needs to be alongside someone. You really need somebody better than Sanogo to replace Giroud.

If, as rumoured, he's available, Negredo would be a stonking signing for you.


Edit: Loving these classic highlights on MOTD - Bergkamp is still my favourite player ever in the PL. He wasn't flash, but did everything perfectly.
 
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