** Weekend Football Thread ** *spoilers*
- Thread starter Tummy
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Vela got a goal, the third, didn't he?
Caporegime
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posted at half time, he somewhat wasted a good chance, delayed a little to long and let a very very good block come in but it was such a good move, think it was Eboue again with a great overlap and cutback. Was a shame he hadn't scored then.
Song was even more horrific in the second than the first. Same as at central mid he steps up WAY to high and takes himself out of the play. Time and time again in the second half they simply gave the ball to someone 10 yards up from Song, he'd rush out miss a tackle and they played it in the space behind him. if it wasn't for Crouch/Utaka and Kanu being utter pants they could have won that game frankly. Song is pitiful in defence, he has no self control, can't tackle won very few headers, was weak, poor everything. If we have to play him in defence against Man U we lose, its as simple as that.
Even a crappy Pompie manager and team managed to look at footage and see the incredibly obvious weakness and went out with a team entirely focused on drawing song out, Man U will have watched the game, will see the same thing and will do the same thing midweek, except they can finish.
Eboue was great today, Djourou wasn't great but not bad, some good tackling and had to put up with a non existant Song alongside him, Sagna was better again. Ramsey was very very assured like early season(after his crappy Cardiff performances without a single pass right in either game), Theo looked useless, Vela, Arshavin, Bendtner all had great movement, a lot of interchangability which we need against Man U. Denilson played semi alright, still no tracking back defensively and still far to many awful passes up the field.
I still don't know how we haven't tried Eboue at DM, if we get Gibbs back for the Utd game we need to not be playing Diaby, Song, Denilson or Ade to win.
EDIT:_ Bishoff looked quality when he came on, won a very weird amount of the ball, is far far faster than I thought he was, closed down very well, got back, made a lot of good tackles along with a couple of fouls but his passing was in general very good. Merida has seriously needed games for experience for ages, we got him the year after Cesc I think and was rated as highly as him, but our idea of blooding our youngsters is so many injuries we have no choice(Gibbs) or Cesc in for the same reason was simply soooo good he couldn't be dropped. We tried some of these players 2 years ago for a game here or there, one two games very early season then nothing for 6 months. You look at Utd and Evans, Rafael, Welbeck, Gibson have had loads more appearances than our "youth" players.
Had they gotten real appearances more than twice a year for the past 3 years they might be decent enough by now for backup/more rotation or hell, might be pushing first team.
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Caporegime
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Jesus!
What a game that must have been.
What a game that must have been.
Wigan let me down for £202 on an 8 fold
I never bet on Wigan, one of my bogey teams. Them, along with Liverpool, Arsenal, Rangers and Celtic.
Caporegime
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He's generally always that good, he just needs to be in the thinking mind of "who to play in behind" rather than "oh goody, i'm playing lone striker, lets see if I can hold on to it while Tevez fouls 3 people before trying to get up the pitch".
He's been superb for your past 2-3 games, absolutely superb and the difference, less Tevez and more having a proper striker STAY ahead of him. He's been playing his position and he looks one of your best players and one of the best in the league. Fergie seems to finally have realised that and is choosing a far more effective team for him, and for Rooney/Ronaldo too who have been on fire for the past 3-4 games aswell.
No, its not, Tevez has 3 goals and 3 assists, and has played not a huge amount less than Berbatov. The numbers(before today) were something like Berbatov had 3 times the assists, 3 times the goals and only 1/3 more time on the pitch, meaning he's well over, well well over twice as effective as Tevez this year.
Tevez never looks a threat, and made countless errors infront of goal today, he looked like a joke today, again. If I had to pick the least consistant, least likely to score player on the Utd team out of anyone above the defence, it would be Tevez(excluding the youth players and the like). Even Fletcher and Park seem like more of a goal threat than Tevez to me.
I'd be very surprised to see Fergie buy him, if he did anything over 5 mil would be a complete joke. As a gooner I'd happily see you guys ***** 25mil on him, but that would be pure insanity on a striker who can't score or offer a real threat.
ON checking Park has same assists, same time and one less goal than Tevez, yet Park is constantly battered on this forum by Man U fans for not scoring and not doing enough. Fletcher has actually scored 3 aswell, even Vidic has outscored Tevez.
Even more laughable is people saying Ronaldo's not been good enough this year, 17 league goals, Rooney the second highest with 12, only one less assist than rooney aswell.
Caporegime
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How much DO they pay or did the pay FOR Arshavin. The latter is likely 15mil including performance bonus's like number of apperances, cups or goals in the next year or two. Seems to be the way Arsenal work deals and judging by the negotiations taking some time its very unlikely to be a flat out fee of 15mil upfront, at a guess, 12mil with a few mil down to extra's, which judging by his start means we'll pay the full 15mil.
His weekly take home I have no idea about, but I would be surprised if less than 50k and more than 75k a week. Only have 1-2 people on 80k or more a week(Ade and Gallas probably our two highest paid with the former being a joke getting 80k a week).
It was a good game, more evidence that Real Madrid simply have to many non existant players against good opposition. Gago, Higuan, Ramos, heinze were all abysmal, Raul was silent all night but had no service. I think Diarra and Robben were actually very good, but Diarra had Gago screwing up most of his good work and no matter who Robben beat on the wing he had no support as everyone just ran into the box leaving him triple marked, he still did very well but useless team around him.
The ease at which Barca simply played around Ramos and Heinze was hilarious, they weren't "that" good, those two fullbacks are just truly useless. Like the 5th goal, Heinze decided to "step up" against Messi even though he could easily have run towards the ball and probably got a block in, he's just retarded. Ramos made mistake after mistake after mistake. No matter who you have as your CB's when your fullbacks make so many mistakes you have no chance of stopping a good attack.
Them the manager made the classic mistake, strikers for defenders, which still left the ball going through Gago in midfield who just gave it away time and time again. Had they taken off Higuan and Gago for people who could hold onto the ball and not give it away with every pass they might have gotten back in, especially at 2-3. Taking off Ramos might have worked but they moved their only capable midfielder to Right back so they lost even more of the ball in central mid and it got even worse.
Pique's finish was very smart though, Canavaro and Cassilas moved off the line as they expected the pass to Messi, Pique's turn/shot in one was brilliant thinking and a difficult finish due to his body position and turning.
Man U were mad to let him go.
Yeah sorry meant 'pay for.' Seems like its going to be an amazing deal. I'm looking forward to watching Arsenal next season, always had a soft spot for Wenger and he seems to be building a top team.
He is such a top class professional and i have very high regards for him.
I also think he is a phenomenal player, such a shame we've had to wait until he's 28 to witness his talent.
People go on about Messi and Ronaldo but I'm more impreseed with Arsharvin from what I've seen. He was so good in the Euro's as well and got ALL 3 asists today.
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