Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
Vermaelen is an excellent defend IN a crap defence.
There are things you simply associate with Arsenal, lack of tracking back, poor positioning, no system, everyone losing track of everyone, these are things Arteta, Vermaelen, Sagna,Ramsey never did but all do now, things that Song, Gibbs, Denilson, Diaby did from the start because they joined younger and essentially learnt to be that from Arsenal before they hit the team. There are now countless defenders, or midfielders who join at one level and quickly regress at Arsenal, one player would just be bad luck, two a coincidence, basically every defender, the problem isn't with the player but the club.
A great defender alone, is nothing in a poor system, with poor training, with 4-5 individuals playing on their own. There have at times been games where Verm has done some truly excellent things. IIRC it was against City that they broke beyond our defence embarrassingly easily, in one on ones, chasing that last man, getting in the tackle, he was insanely good, as a unit letting people pass in behind, he was terrible. One is talent, one is the "defence" as a unit. But for Verm we would have conceded a few more at least.
He thinks he's being clever leave him alone
On the Rooney subject he's not going anywhere, the idea we'd replace a 27 year old with a 29 with an iffy fitness record is ridiculous, all that's happened since RVP signed is we're no longer over reliant on Rooney and against Madrid (because we now have RVP) it was in the teams best interests that Rooney started on the bench rather than trying to shoehorn him into a position where someone else would have been able to do a better job.
Firstly you HAVE Rooney and RVP now, RVP was a replacement for Berbatov/Welbeck(in quality Berbatov but he wasn't really first team). If you sold Rooney you'd be buying a top player to replace him, RVP isn't Rooney's replacement.
Yeah, I don't rate Rooney as that good, I think there are clearly better wingers, there are better midfielders, and there are better strikers, one who is inbetween all 3, excels and none is simply not going to be the best option for any team. Utility players are great for squad rotation, covering for injuries and for helping out smaller squads at smaller teams, Utd should be looking for the best players in all positions, not one who isn't the best but can play in a few.
This is ignoring the fact that he was unfit to play at the start of the season, I forget if it was last year or the year before he started the season unfit to play, fat, and had to go to "rehab" in states, and he's only 25-27 through the period of simply not being particularly professional, thats not going to reverse, he's not going to get better now.
For 100k a week, sure, when you're paying him 200k + because he held you to ransom and Utd caved to give him the wage one of the single best players in the world deserves, he's not good value for money.
CAn you think of any other team for who the top paid player can EVER better serve the team by starting on the bench?
. You took our best player so only fair we get your best player in return
