Something needs to change next season

JAzz · 13 Apr 2008 at 14:08

Fabregas also has racked up a fair few assists and some goals since he got injured in December but ask any Arsenal fan he will tell that he has been poor since then. I think about 12 of his 21 assists have come since then. Stats don't always give a true picture of what is going on.

I think we will have to agree to disagree if you think Gerrard has been consistent all season long.

As for Gallas you are basing your opinion about him based on one match, fair enough he throws a tantrum here or there but one thing you can not fault is his commitment. He is a winner and at Birmingham for us to make such a silly mistake so late on coupled with how Eduardo was injured pushed him over the edge. He was wrong to sit there and throw a tantrum but I'm not gonna use that against him to undo all the great work he has done as captain throughout the season. As for Chelsea he has come out and said he would never score an own goal like they were saying so I guess it is his word against Chelsea's right? He has also said in the future he will come out and say what really happened. Considering the amount of **** that has come out of the likes of Mourinho and Chelsea in the last few years I know who I'd trust more.

Goksly · 13 Apr 2008 at 20:49

Raymond Lin said:
a Striker that can get them goals no matter what. In the ilk of Henry and Drogba.

Drogba? Are you comparing someone who has probably less than 10 goals to his name this season to Henry? Pull the other one...

Yes we need a new top class striker, but I think our greatest downfall is the lack of a world class keeper and more importantly, solid defence. As stated above, we've always had one dodgy defender, but the likes of Cygan and Senderos cause goals against every game. Need to depend less on Cesc too.

wassap · 13 Apr 2008 at 21:56

Lol i love football, suddenly its all doom and gloom.Its not, Arsenal have been truly magnificent at times this season, they have been unlucky with injuries and the fact that one particular player,Ronaldo, has had quite possibily the best season any player could ever hope for,ever.

They do lack strength in depth, and they need a leader in the middle of the park, you have no one with balls, which means you have a mentally fragile, like it or not Jazz, Gerrard is Liverpool, he will drag that team kicking and screaming one, who at Arsenal can do that, no one.

You gotta blame the press for going over the top yet again earlier this season, raising expectations, and somehow they were the best thing since hovis.Its a team in transition, and for them to spend so much time at the top was a flipping achievement in itself.

Yas786 · 14 Apr 2008 at 00:48

LeaguePosition14 said:
Wenger purchased Eduardo to play on the left wing and as a fox in the box. It was starting to fall into place for him too.

Yep it was falling into place before he had that horrendous injury

...dunno but since that injury Arsenal have fallen to pieces and as much as i hate to say it...ive been embarrassed by their recent run of games. Fact of the matter is that we cannot defend a lead, we couldnt defend a lead against Liverpool twice and it cost us a place in the semi final...well along with a very biased Liverpool ref but regardless i just couldnt see us beating Liverpool in the end. Our results have shown that time and time again.

Senderos is one person that Wenger needs to get rid and soon as...why in gods name he keep faith with that bumbling idiot is beyond comprehension to me. Im beginning to think Wenger is slowly losing the plot with the players hes been picking...no way should Eboue be playing in the position that he is at the moment.

Fabregas has been playing out of his skin but seriously you cannot expect him to carry Arsenal. Adebayor cant hit a barn door at 5 paces if his life depended on it...sure hes had a pretty decent season but hes missed so many clear cut chances. RVP is always injured...he plays what??..20 games then goes out with an injury that keeps him out for months...perhaps its time Arsenal got shot of him as well and get someone who will play the majority of games and score for us. Gallas i cant complain about him...fair enough his reaction at the Brum game wasnt exactly what a captain should do but then if he hadnt done that...people would complain that he has no passion ffs :rolleyes:

. All in all i think making Gallas Captain was the right thing to do and Wenger should stick with him...the guy has commitment and passion.

Personally i still think we shoudl have hung onto Henry for another season despite what people may say. He was a proven goal scorer and made things happen...fact of the matter is that hes not doing so well at Barca is a clear indication of that. Perhaps hes getting past his prime but im pretty damn certain that had he stayed at Arsenal we would be in a much better position than we are at the moment.

Its not been a bad season i suppose..we have done really well considering people didnt rate our chances. I just happen to think that we hit a bad run when we least needed it and its cost us a lot of silverware...FA Cup, Carling Cup, CL championship and the Prem title.

The way we have been playing, if i was Wenger id be more worried about Liverpool beating us to 3rd

...thats how bad we have become...its a shame because i would have been happy if we got 2nd place but i cant see that happening unless Chelsea start dropping points from here on in.

Anyways those are my thoughts of Arsenal at the moment, extremely disappointed that we wotn get any silverware...adn i thought todays result was poor considering especially giving up that 2nd goal...how the hell or why the hell did none of the people in the wall jump to block it is beyond me. Its amazing how sloppy Arsenal have become recently. Wenger needs to sit down this summer and get rid of a few players because its one thing perservering with them but its another when they cant perform to the usual high Arsenal standards...plus im getting mighty fed up of us not winning anything yr in and yr out.

DanH84 · 14 Apr 2008 at 00:50

erm can we just skip back to the 4-1 drubbing you took the week before as the point where your season began to fall apart please

FrankJH · 14 Apr 2008 at 07:02

DanH84 said:
erm can we just skip back to the 4-1 drubbing you took the week before as the point where your season began to fall apart please

Do you mean the 4-0 in the FA Cup?

DanH84 · 14 Apr 2008 at 09:20

FrankJH said:
Do you mean the 4-0 in the FA Cup?

where did i get that 1 goal from? :eek:

yes i did.

CliffyG · 14 Apr 2008 at 10:57

Heard on the radio this morning that Wenger stated he was going to stick with his young team next season. Are 2 seasons of failure for those exact reasons not enough to prompt a change? I don't think anyone in their right mind thinks we can compete with our current squad so why can't he see that?

DanH84 · 14 Apr 2008 at 11:21

someone made a point last night which i thought was pretty good. on MOTD someone said Arsenals team cost 40m to put together whereas Uniteds was 120m so Wenger was doing a great job just to compete, but another point was maybe Wenger is scared of spending the money as it serves as an excuse, if he finishes 3rd or 4th with a cheap squad then he can be a great sticking to his principles and still competing with his big spending rivals. If however he goes and splashes some of that cash that you've had available for the last season or so what then if he still finishes 3rd or 4th? where's the excuse going to come from? the reason for failure would be turned on him and the team. One of the things i've noticed from Arsenal this season and again it has already been mentioned is that lately they don't so much seem to be fighting for the win as searching for an excuse as to why they didn't, and that does extend down from the manager.

Ripper · 14 Apr 2008 at 11:24

Wenger said some shocking things in the post match interviews. Basically that nobody (ref's etc) wanted them to win the league and that became apparant in March, and that the dressing room isn't stupid and they understand whats going on. Wonder if the FA will act? Doubtful.

I guess at this point he hadn't seen the replay of Adebayor playing volleyball.

BFCTom · 14 Apr 2008 at 11:31

DanH84 said:
someone made a point last night which i thought was pretty good. on MOTD someone said Arsenals team cost 40m to put together whereas Uniteds was 120m so Wenger was doing a great job just to compete, but another point was maybe Wenger is scared of spending the money as it serves as an excuse, if he finishes 3rd or 4th with a cheap squad then he can be a great sticking to his principles and still competing with his big spending rivals. If however he goes and splashes some of that cash that you've had available for the last season or so what then if he still finishes 3rd or 4th? where's the excuse going to come from? the reason for failure would be turned on him and the team. One of the things i've noticed from Arsenal this season and again it has already been mentioned is that lately they don't so much seem to be fighting for the win as searching for an excuse as to why they didn't, and that does extend down from the manager.

That is a really good point actually.

I suppose the same could be said about playing a weakened team in the Carling Cup. They have "done well" to get to a final and semi-final playing the kids, even though they didn't win it either time.

Weebull · 14 Apr 2008 at 13:20

CliffyG said:
Heard on the radio this morning that Wenger stated he was going to stick with his young team next season. Are 2 seasons of failure for those exact reasons not enough to prompt a change? I don't think anyone in their right mind thinks we can compete with our current squad so why can't he see that?

Erm, forgive me if I'm wrong, but haven't we been competing this season with the current squad? :confused:

Yes, we're out of the title race now, but there's only 4 bloody games left! Sure, we didn't take it down to the wire, but I'd say that's pretty much the definition of competing.

DanH84 · 14 Apr 2008 at 13:26

Weebull said:
Erm, forgive me if I'm wrong, but haven't we been competing this season with the current squad?

Yes, we're out of the title race now, but there's only 4 bloody games left! Sure, we didn't take it down to the wire, but I'd say that's pretty much the definition of competing.

thing is though, say you're crap until the end of the season and finish 15 points off the lead, is that competing? i don't know, can you compete for 3/4 of a season then give up? it's an odd one.

FrankJH · 14 Apr 2008 at 14:27

Weebull said:
Erm, forgive me if I'm wrong, but haven't we been competing this season with the current squad?

Yes, we're out of the title race now, but there's only 4 bloody games left! Sure, we didn't take it down to the wire, but I'd say that's pretty much the definition of competing.

What was the stat on MOTD yesterday - 9 points out of the last 12 games, that really isnt competing , surely you have to admit that?

Every team has a blip of one or two games (maybe five or so truelly bad performances over the season for one reason or another) but 9 out of 36 from a leading team is shocking

Even considering THE injury, an extra game on top of that due to shock at the extent of the injury, the team just hasnt performed in the last two months apart from the last three or four games (which you did incredibly well in and just very unlucky)

Weebull · 14 Apr 2008 at 17:21

I'm sorry, lets just check this again, were we on top of the table for a lot of the season or weren't we? Were we still in the title race until a few games ago? Did we play extremely well against Man Utd and Liverpool this week?

That's competing, current form or not.

Yes, things have gone horribly wrong in the last few weeks, but does that mean the same squad that got us into such a fantastic position in the first place is now utterly terrible and incompetent? Don't be a bloody idiot. I don't see how anyone can say we're a team that needs wholesale changes. It seems pretty obvious to me that the reason we've suffered is that our squad players simply aren't up to the standards of our first team, because they've been the difference between now and the beginning of the season (when our first team was all available). Nothing more.

Gooner14 · 14 Apr 2008 at 17:42

This team has lost 3 games this league season, and to be totally honest were robbed in 1 with an offisde goal, and deserved a draw in the other. With a bit of luck we would have been at least level with Utd.

What I don't get at the start of this season we were suppose to be finishing top 6, yet we play well, look unbeatable at times, and now all of the sudden it's change the team. Football fans are so fickle...

FrankJH · 14 Apr 2008 at 18:21

Weebull said:
I'm sorry, lets just check this again, were we on top of the table for a lot of the season or weren't we? Were we still in the title race until a few games ago? Did we play extremely well against Man Utd and Liverpool this week?

That's competing, current form or not.

.

You cant compete just for a few games (even in a run of twelve) that is papering over cracks

You have been mentally fragile for months - cant defend a lead to save your lives, yes you came back from 2 goals down against a relegation facing club, thats about all you have shown until the most recent 3 or four games

No one ever said Arsenal arent a good team, their 1st XI is incredibly good, - maybe a few of those should only be 2nd choice (Gallas to start with, not Captain material at all) - but thats all you have , a few people who deserve more games (Wilcott maybe)

Man Utd have about 8 2nd XI players who have all played at least a handful of games or suit certain styles that we dont play every week - Arsenal just dont have that , they only have one way of playing (that doesnt suit some opposition)

Current form is what counts - who are remembered in general , the beautiful players or the winners? Buy a striker who knows where the goal is, a more muscular midfielder and a couple of defenders (one to replace Gallas) and you would be more likely to compete for the full season

Its not the losing that has done you in (we have actually lost more games than you have) its the draws that have lost you the points - you have 6 more draws than we have imo , of course everyone wants to repeat what you managed several seasons ago and go completely unbeaten for a season (it would in fact be interesting to know how many players you had in that squad and what ratio of seasoned EPL players/ youthful players where present)

Any team that Arsenal put out (or Arsene for that matter) should never be aiming for "top 6" thats hogwash, even 4th would be a disappointment

Weebull · 14 Apr 2008 at 18:41

FrankJH said:
You cant compete just for a few games (even in a run of twelve) that is papering over cracks

We competed for several months! Not just a few games. It's the "few games" where we've been rubbish.

You have been mentally fragile for months - cant defend a lead to save your lives, yes you came back from 2 goals down against a relegation facing club, thats about all you have shown until the most recent 3 or four games

Mentally fragile my ****. The defence has been poor, end of. Gallas has been poor of late, and we've lacked shape since Sagna went out, because that's meant dragging Toure out to the right.

No one ever said Arsenal arent a good team, their 1st XI is incredibly good, - maybe a few of those should only be 2nd choice (Gallas to start with, not Captain material at all) - but thats all you have , a few people who deserve more games (Wilcott maybe)

That's largely what I said though. :confused:

I don't think we need any massive changes, just a few decent squad members so we're not relying on the likes of Eboue as backup any more.

Gooner14 · 14 Apr 2008 at 18:54

FrankJH said:
Any team that Arsenal put out (or Arsene for that matter) should never be aiming for "top 6" thats hogwash, even 4th would be a disappointment

Who said we were aiming for top 6? The media and other fans said we were finished and would fail to qualify for the Champions League.

FrankJH said:
Current form is what counts - who are remembered in general , the beautiful players or the winners? Buy a striker who knows where the goal is, a more muscular midfielder and a couple of defenders (one to replace Gallas) and you would be more likely to compete for the full season

We have a striker who has scored 20 league goals this season, Owen has never done this yet he is considered a great striker.

G|mp · 14 Apr 2008 at 19:08

LeaguePosition14 said:
This team has lost 3 games this league season, and to be totally honest were robbed in 1 with an offisde goal, and deserved a draw in the other. With a bit of luck we would have been at least level with Utd.

What I don't get at the start of this season we were suppose to be finishing top 6, yet we play well, look unbeatable at times, and now all of the sudden it's change the team. Football fans are so fickle...

http://soccerlens.com/right-result/