Pre-season Football 2011/2012 Season

Robert1986 said:
When was the last time Arsenal held on to the lead?
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1841?

Ruddy awful wall, 4 guys all spread apart as the shot came in, this is what bugs me. I don't care about the result or the fitness in preseason, I want to see some slight HINT of a change that suggests Wenger has highlighted a problem and wants to fix it.

IE in tough games RVP as a lone striker has worked insanely badly, I want to go 4-4-2, but I wanted to at least see us practice 4-4-2 as an alternative, nope. We keep giving up leads in the second half, so, when you're playing two defensive teams either half, why not, for the morale effect, play the strongest team in the second half, rather than the other way around?

What about buying a CB early because we desparately need one, no. What about sorting out a new setup for defensive set pieces, nope, what about taking individual players and working on their biggest weakness... nope.

Its not the result, or the mistakes, its the complete lack of any sign we're trying to improve in the problematic area's, same plan, same training, same problems, same arrogance/ignorance/stubborness.

I mean, Liverpool have looked woeful in half their games, but the change is obvious and it takes time for players to gel, especially when they aren't palying their best anyway, they were crap, theres a reason. Why are Arsenal playing badly, why haven't we done anything.

We think Cesc is going, buy a replacement, buy him early, the fact we won't spend probably makes Barca think we're desparate for money, and desparate to accept so we can buy a replacement. So buy a replacement, buy him early, make out we have loads of money(even if we don't), and make Barca think we're sorted so aren't desparate.

The players aren't confident, and don't know whats going on, the players would get a boost by getting a real CB early in the transfer window(and there were more available).

The whole thing is a joke.
 
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Somnambulist said:
I seriously worry we won't even be able to beat Udinese. All those tough fixtures in the first couple of weeks as well... ah well at least if this season is even worse than previous ones something drastic will have to be done.
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Drastic at this point is getting a new manager or changing the philosophy of the club. Their younger players aren't cutting it.
 
Are Arsenal fielding a B team or are they just still on summer break? they're making Benfica look like Barcelona. :p

EDIT: Finally some Arsenal pressure with 3mins remaining.
 
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Might as well put it here since its also a friendly

England Squad

'Keepers
Hart, Green, Stockdale

Defenders
A.Cole, Baines, Terry, Ferdinand, Jagielka, Lescott, Cahill, Walker, Richards

Midfielders
Barry, Carrick, Lampard, Downing, A.Johnson, Milner, Parker, Wilshere, A.Young

Strikers
Carroll, Crouch, Rooney, Welbeck
 
Alpherah said:
Might as well put it here since its also a friendly

England Squad

'Keepers
Hart, Green, Stockdale

Defenders
A.Cole, Baines, Terry, Ferdinand, Jagielka, Lescott, Cahill, Walker, Richards

Midfielders
Barry, Carrick, Lampard, Downing, A.Johnson, Milner, Parker, Wilshere, A.Young

Strikers
Carroll, Crouch, Rooney, Welbeck
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That squad looks awesomely average.
 
mmj_uk said:
Are Arsenal fielding a B team or are they just still on summer break? they're making Benfica look like Barcelona. :p

EDIT: Finally some Arsenal pressure with 3mins remaining.
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We played a much stronger team in the first half and changed 3/4 of them in the 2nd half to younger players, Benfica did the opposite and put most of their A team on for this half.
 
Somnambulist said:
This is the first time I've even really watched a lot of the pre-season games. Perhaps we're useless every year at this stage and I just never bothered to check.
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I think the tactics are completely wrong, there's too much emphasis on playing tippy tappy football with triangles and keeping the ball on the ground. If it's played effectively then it's amazing to watch, but for the majority of the time we don't play it effectively, we end up passing it around the edge of the box for prolonged periods, before trying a pass into the box that gets easily cleared, or we end up passing it back to the halfway line.

What we need is a bit more pace and a completely different formation. We don't have the right players for a 4-5-1 and it's so frustrating watching us try and play a system that is for the most part ineffective.
 
Somnambulist said:
This is the first time I've even really watched a lot of the pre-season games. Perhaps we're useless every year at this stage and I just never bothered to check.
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No, worst preseason in a long long time. Normally preseason is awesome, with Wilshire, Ramsey, Jet, Bendtner, Eboue, Vela, Eduardo all playing awesomely, then never getting games.

Been that way for 3-4 years, Vela has looked just awesome every single preseason, yet can't get a game for us, Wilshire looked epic 2 seasons ago, and we ignored him for 6 months then loaned him out, Bolton showed he was instantly completely ready, and preseason showed he was ready for Arsenal the whole season. Jet was great last preseason, got no chances, at all, same old same old.

We normally win a lot and play great football in preseason, then drop half the guys who played great for no apparent reason.
 
K1LLSW1TCH said:
I think the tactics are completely wrong, there's too much emphasis on playing tippy tappy football with triangles and keeping the ball on the ground. If it's played effectively then it's amazing to watch, but for the majority of the time we don't play it effectively, we end up passing it around the edge of the box for prolonged periods, before trying a pass into the box that gets easily cleared, or we end up passing it back to the halfway line.

What we need is a bit more pace and a completely different formation. We don't have the right players for a 4-5-1 and it's so frustrating watching us try and play a system that is for the most part ineffective.
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Well the goal came because we got Gibbs on the overlap properly, we had Arshavin near the edge of the box, and we had about 3 players in the box with RVP dropping slightly deeper in the box than normal.

We frequently today, and for the past couple years, have one guy on the wing, and one guy in the box, with the other winger no where to be seen, little to no support from midfield and no real threat/pace danger for the defence to deal with. We knock it long to Gervinho, and what should happen is, if Gervinho gets way up the right wing, the left winger has to break his neck to get in towards the far post, RVP goes near post, Wilshire runs into the box, and someone arrives to the edge of the box. Thats how "old" Arsenal used to play.

Today it would be Gervinho, Sagna comes up behind him, RVP's in the box, and everyone else is miles away.

I know, talking up Bendtner again, RVP's goal against Barca Bendtner killed himself getting to the far post, which opened up Valdes for the shot. Theo in the 60-70mins he had, never does that. Good players make runs even if they won't get the ball, because it creates space in the box, Bendtner, Eboue, Arshavin, Wilshire, Ramsey, Cesc. Bad players only make runs when they think they might get the ball, Theo, Nasri, etc, etc. it makes a HUGE difference.


Frimpong's passing was attrocious today, he won the ball, a few times well, a few times with fouls and his pass to release an attack, was terrible every time, not even hard passes.

We attack as individuals, and we defend as individuals, which is why we suck. We used to defend as a team, and attack as a team, people go on about the great way Arsenal play, most of what we do now is sideways passing.

Even RVP you look at old vids of him, his freekicks were insanely good, his passing was unbelievable, he'd frequently shoot from absurd angles. He's still good, but he's not the same player at all, largely because of the way the team plays rather than he's worse(though he is a bit, can't hit a freekick to save his life now). Old Arsenal video's, from 2000-2006, the quality is so so superior to the previous few years its laughable.
 
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Bendtner is someone who I really rate and it seems like he's being practically forced out while Wenger perseveres with Chamakh who I think is a worse version of Bendtner. It's the same with Vela, very impressive movement in and around the box, good passer, blisteringly fast, not afraid to take a man on, great at finishing also but then never ever given a chance.
 
I just watched the last part of the second half but Benfica passed the ball through the Arsenal defence almost at will.

I also watched the second half of the game against Koln (cologne? Not sure.) a couple of weeks ago and it was exactly the same.

I cant imagine a scenario where a decent PL team wont score againt that defence.
 
I confess to taking a small amount of perverted pleasure from seeing things be so bad before a competitive ball has even been kicked. The camel may have an impossibly, obdurately strong back, but it definitely feels like it's starting to give. Just a few more straws...
 
Somnambulist said:
I confess to taking a small amount of perverted pleasure from seeing things be so bad before a competitive ball has even been kicked. The camel may have an impossibly, obdurately strong back, but it definitely feels like it's starting to give. Just a few more straws...
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I heard similar a year ago.

Arsenal will ALWAYS be strong enough under Wenger to be there or there abouts. The truth is that "there abouts" will be the reality, another team will be "there".
 
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