*** Weekend Football - 14th / 15th ***

I'm surprised Milner has got as much praise as he has... he had many opportunities to deliver the ball to the strikers, but failed on many occasions. I think I saw him put in one half-decent cross in the entire match.
 
I think they need new players to be honest. I don't think any manager could have done anything with the squad that Burley had in-front of him.
 
daz said:
I don't think any manager could have done anything with the squad that Burley had in-front of him.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Look at McLeish's last starting 11 versus Burley's first and last...

(Info pinched from elsewhere)
Manager: McLeish (vs Italy)
Gordon
Naysmith Weir McManus Hutton
Brown Hartley Ferguson Fletcher McCulloch
McFadden

Manager: Burley (vs Macedonia)
Gordon
Naysmith McManus Caldwell Alexander
Brown Hartley Fletcher Robson McFadden
Miller

Manager: Burley (vs Netherlands)
Marshall
Whittaker McManus Weir Hutton
Naismith Brown Fletcher Hartley Maloney
Miller
Click to expand...

Not much difference in terms of quality. Smith and McLeish nearly got us out of a much tougher group, and I believe if McLeish had stayed on we'd have made the playoffs this time around.
 
Regarding Eduardo he needs to deliver. ~£10m striker, and now no Adebayor/RvP/Bendtner to keep him out the team. Anything less than solid performances will be unacceptable, irrespective of fitness concerns.

I believe he is capable of it and if Arsenal are serious about winning trophies this season then his time has come.

I'd like to see this sort of lineup in the next couple of games:

...................Almunia
Sagna.....Gallas...Verminator...Gibbs
Rosicky....Fabregas.....Song....Nasri
..................Arshavin
..................Eduardo

Obviously Rosicknote/Nasri/Arshavin will rotate a bit. Against Chelsea though I can see Wenger going for something more cautious in midfield i.e. going for Diaby over one of those 3.
 
jmc777 said:
I disagree. Look at McLeish's last starting 11 versus Burley's first and last...

(Info pinched from elsewhere)


Not much difference in terms of quality. Smith and McLeish nearly got us out of a much tougher group, and I believe if McLeish had stayed on we'd have made the playoffs this time around.
Click to expand...

I don't know. You look at the lack of success of Rangers and Celtic in Europe, and then there are very few Scottish players playing at their best for their teams in the Premiership at the moment.... it's not hard to see a correlation between the fortunes of the players in their domestic leagues and in Europe and their international performances.

Perhaps a change will give the players a kick up the backside. I still think Burley is a good manager - I'd have him back at Ipswich in a heartbeat!
 
Thought Strachan would have been in the running had he not been appointed Boro boss recently. Good pedigree as a player, moderately successful in England (leading Saints into Europe) and experience of top level management north of the border.
 
HangTime said:
Regarding Eduardo he needs to deliver. ~£10m striker, and now no Adebayor/RvP/Bendtner to keep him out the team. Anything less than solid performances will be unacceptable, irrespective of fitness concerns.

I believe he is capable of it and if Arsenal are serious about winning trophies this season then his time has come.

I'd like to see this sort of lineup in the next couple of games:

...................Almunia
Sagna.....Gallas...Verminator...Gibbs
Rosicky....Fabregas.....Song....Nasri
..................Arshavin
..................Eduardo

Obviously Rosicknote/Nasri/Arshavin will rotate a bit. Against Chelsea though I can see Wenger going for something more cautious in midfield i.e. going for Diaby over one of those 3.
Click to expand...

Looks like Diaby's pulled out for France's next game so probably won't be around for the weekend, maybe longer. I'd think against Chelski we'll see 4-5-1 again, with Eboue slipped in at right wing maybe. Though its hard to call as Denilson will supposedly be fit after the international break. I can see Wenger playing him against Sunderland or Liege, but I doubt you'd start a non match fit, hasn't played in months Denilson in such a Crunch match. I think we'll see Nasri, Fabregas and Song in the middle, with Arshavin on the left, Eboue on the right and Eduardo on his own upfront.

I'm mostly worried about how much Wenger will now push Eduardo, will he sub him, keep him safe and reduce risk of injury, or will Eduardo go from barely playing to playing best part of 90 mins in the next 3-4 games, in which case I can see him picking up another niggling overtraining type injury.

We've got plenty of potential for dropped points, away at Sunderland, home to liege and Chelsea, away at City, home to stoke then 3 away games on the trot to Olympiaco's, Liverpool and Burnley. With basically one fit striker, lots of traveling a significant improvement in quality of teams we're facing compared to the past month or two.

Then Jan is a grueling cup month finsishing with Villa and Utd, and starting Feb with Chelsea and Liverpool. While RVP/Arsenal are saying 6 weeks before he's back, that seems fairly optimistic, in terms of 2-3 months more optimistic than most people who get a similar injury.

This is ignoring the fact that Eduardo, Theo and Bendtner don't really suit being lone strikers, aswell as the fact all 3 are very injury prone. I'm not particularly optimistic at all.
 
Gibbs looked very promising in midfield pre-season 2 years ago. I think realistically though Wenger has taken a look at it and swapped him and Traore over, with the latter being viewed as a potential prospect on the wing now following some shaky displays at FB early in his career.

I suspect in the first game Pearce probably looked at the resources he had available and decided that was the best fit.

I'd imagine if Gibbs is out at the weekend, Silvestre will take his place. Although I'm sure Wenger seems him mainly as cover at CB nowadays due to his style of play, so maybe Traore will be drafted in.
 
Aye I saw that too - will hopefully return for Chelsea.

Quite annoyed that he couldn't get Leige and Sunderland under his belt in preparation but c'est la vie I suppose..

Just trying to ignore the fact we've another set of fixtures tonight. Dreading that Cesc would return after playing in a stupid pointless moneymaking for FIFA fixture.
 
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