It will happen regularly until Wenger gets his finger out of his arse and signs a world class GK and another decent CB...our defence is slowly getting worse and worse season by season and it will cost us the title again this season.
** Official ** Season 2010/2011 Pre-Season thread
- Thread starter Loki
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It will happen regularly until Wenger gets his finger out of his arse and signs a world class GK and another decent CB...our defence is slowly getting worse and worse season by season and it will cost us the title again this season.
Man of Honour
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While that may be the case most of the time, the goals scored today were virtually unstoppable for any keeper. Defence is where the problem is at the moment, Almunia is a decent keeper but the poor defence costs us way more then his occasional howlers.
Agree.
Caporegime
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Surely a Man City fan shouldn't be saying another team have had a poor pre season?
Caporegime
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In 20 games last year Almunia kept 10 clean sheets so I don't see how he is *that* terrible that he immediately needs to be replaced or we are all doomed. Fabianski is a different matter because he truly is woeful but I've never watched a game and thought to myself "Why the hell do we have Almunia?". He's made a few mistakes but then our team defensively has been error prone for a number of years, it's just unfortunate that he's the guy between the sticks and his mistakes unlike the defenders, don't lead to a shot on target or a chance to put someone else in, they lead to a goal.
He was excellent yesterday and I can't actually remember the last time he single handedly cost us a game, in fact I can't really remember him making that many mistakes at all. He was very vocal yesterday and commanded the box, the two Celtic goals were the handiwork of shoddy defending and the second goal which was about 4 yards out and hit quite aggressively he actually got a touch to it with his leg, the shot just had too much power though. He's a decent goalkeeper and I'm more concerned about the CB situation than the goalkeeper situation. If he got injured or gets "flu" that would be the time I start to worry because his back ups are all absolute clowns save for Sczesny who I haven't seen play yet.
Caporegime
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Why, is it impossible for two teams to have a poor pre season?
No but if your team has just had an absolutely terrible season then why would you point out another teams shortcomings? That would be like Sam Allardyce complaining about one of his players getting kicked off the park... Oh wait.
The problem I have with Almunia is that he makes silly, costly mistakes during our most important games. At 33, he's had at least a decade of experience and should be in his prime. If you had a choice of Almunia and Given (who are of similar ages), I would rather take Given.
Man of Honour
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Agreed, let's hope he remains injury free / doesn't suffer from a Ramsey.
The trouble with Almunia is he is the goalkeeping equivalent of a schizophrenic Pub dog. He'll be good as gold 90% of the time, and make some fantastic saves, but then lose it at any point randomly. I really rate his shotstopping ability I think it's right up there. The trouble is he marries that with really erratic positional sense, and dodginess whenever he has to deal with a cross or corner, flappy punching instead of catching.
The perfect case in point was the Barcelona game, first half he played absolutely out of skin, perhaps feeling he had a point to prove against his countrymen. He must have saved about 10 shots on target, some that looked in all the way. He ruined all of that good work early doors in the second half, by rushing out rashly, putting himself in no-mans-land and gifting Ibrahimovic the opportunity for a simple lob.
It's debatable whether this is an acceptable kind of trade-off, does the keeper 'earn' the right to be forgiven for mistakes if he makes a large number of other saves on shots you would perhaps expect to go in? Maybe so, I don't know, but I think he clearly has two problem areas of his game, and I would expect a keeper at a top club to be able to cope with all the various goalkeeping faculties proficiently. I don't think he's good enough to be our number 1 if we want to be challenging for the title.
The perfect case in point was the Barcelona game, first half he played absolutely out of skin, perhaps feeling he had a point to prove against his countrymen. He must have saved about 10 shots on target, some that looked in all the way. He ruined all of that good work early doors in the second half, by rushing out rashly, putting himself in no-mans-land and gifting Ibrahimovic the opportunity for a simple lob.
It's debatable whether this is an acceptable kind of trade-off, does the keeper 'earn' the right to be forgiven for mistakes if he makes a large number of other saves on shots you would perhaps expect to go in? Maybe so, I don't know, but I think he clearly has two problem areas of his game, and I would expect a keeper at a top club to be able to cope with all the various goalkeeping faculties proficiently. I don't think he's good enough to be our number 1 if we want to be challenging for the title.
Soldato
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We are only a few weeks from the start of he seaon. He is hardly going to say, no both my keepers are rubbish.
He has to big them up because both suffer from confidence issues. Especially with Almunia in the big games
I just hope he is played rather than wasted though. Such an awesome talent.
Me too, Wenger has said he'll integrate him this year. Remember he's only 18 and you can't risk playing them too early, he was put on a few times last season before he went to Bolton and was ineffectual and opposition teams found it way too easy to deal with him. Seems he learnt quickly at Bolton though and looks ready to be introduced
Stunning effort! Agreed he's going to be an immense player. Shame he's at Arsenal
Yeh he would be wasted at Utd
You have a terrible memory then
...he cost us the game last season when we played the Spuds at their home ground and also cost us the game when we played Utd at home last season. Hes not by any means terrible but he hasnt got the mental ability when it comes to the big games ie against Chelski and Utd for instance. He always seems to be prone to errors when the pressure is on him.Id keep him as a second GK but definitely not a number 1 as yet again he will cost us games when it matters the most...Flappy i would just get rid of, hes as useless as they come.
Caporegime
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You have a terrible memory then
Id keep him as a second GK but definitely not a number 1 as yet again he will cost us games when it matters the most...Flappy i would just get rid of, hes as useless as they come.
It wasn't his fault we lost against Spuds on their home ground. The volley was pretty good and he did his best to get near it, from what I remember he had just made a save previous to it and that's why the ball bounced out to Rose, fortunate, but a good shot from Rose nevertheless. We didn't offer anything going forward until the dying minutes of the game and even then we couldn't break them down, Spuds were just better on the day, just as we were better on the day earlier in the season. If we don't sign a new keeper this year it isn't the end of the world, we have a chance to win the league every year and the season just gone went all the way to the final month, Almunia isn't that bad, it's just that his mistakes stand out more because of the position he plays in.
I don't remember him being at fault against Utd or Chelski but then I don't remember those games fully so maybe you're right about them. All I remember is that useless clown Diaby heading the ball into the back of our own net.
Not quite as good as this one, but impressive nonetheless.
Not quite as good as this one, but impressive nonetheless.
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Not quite as good as this one, but impressive nonetheless.
Not quite as good as this one, but impressive nonetheless.