Santi Cazorla: My Friend, Is Adios, No?

[GDeep™]

Something was seriously wrong, Santi was useless in the North London Derby we were losing by a goal at HT.

Even Wenger said "Santi wasn't at the races", " was perfectly fine, but got a little dizzy when he went back out".

 

[Furious]

He was feeling dizzy after the Spuds made a fool of him yet again tbh. Why else would he start if he wasn't ready?

They targeted him just like in the away game last season, and it worked. Good tactics by Spuds as he's key to our build up play.

 

[Trilly]

He gets turned on a lot because he shouldn't be playing in CM. It works well most of the time but our midfield is quite capable of being overrun.

Yet Santi has to play in central midfield because we need at least one distributor there. We have a very good central midfielder in Ramsey but we can't even play him there as Wenger doesn't want to replace Arteta for whatever reason.

It's no coincidence that Sp**s have dominated us the last three/four times we've played.

 

[Gooner Zig]

He was feeling dizzy after the Spuds made a fool of him yet again tbh. Why else would he start if he wasn't ready?

They targeted him just like in the away game last season, and it worked. Good tactics by Spuds as he's key to our build up play.

Who else was there? Arteta? Flamini? Rather a 30% Cazorla

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Can't wait for Wilshere to be back and become understudy of Caz... We need two players of those quality to play in this position!

 

[Aevi]

Can't wait for Wilshere to be back and become understudy of Caz... We need two players of those quality to play in this position!

I rate Wilshere so highly... such quality when fit, it is such a shame he has an injury ravaged career.

 

[Bagels]

I think Wilshere's absence is most sorely missed against teams that press hard in the midfield... his ability to burst through the lines is essential in countering a high pressure tactic. Once he breaks through the initial pressure there is a ton of space for the team to work with. I've been hard on him in the past and he has a ways to go, but I do think he can turn into a top player if he can stay fit. Problem is ankle injuries are more often than not recurring (as we can already tell), doing in my ankles essentially ruined my footballing "career"

 

[logic DC]

cazorla is a great player but he was also awful against bayern his ball rotation which is normally good was lacking I think he is going through a bad patch atm but in saying that I feel we need to be planning fairly quickly for the future in that role, cazorla is not athletic and he is not a xavi and we don't have a sergio to carry him nor a barca type team to hide his weaknesses when pressured like he was by bayern and to a lesser extent Sp**s (aware he developed a bug as the game progressed). if jack is not ready we should be looking at koke and other younger quality CM

 

[SA Gunner]

I dont think its just got to do with his fatigue, its a situation whereby if pressured enough he suffers.

Perhaps he was tired, but we should mark Sp**s and see how he does against them next time. Him, and the rest of the team will be subjected to the same treatment over there, and their reaction will confirm the debates we having right now.

We could probably wait for the next team who would employ that style against us, as well, but lets do an apples vs apples test.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

Wilsh will take the CM role sooner rather than later;

I ****ing love this guy so much. GET FIT AND STAY FIT FFS.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Love Santi but whoever says the penalty miss was unlucky has got their heads buried in the sand. He choked - End of story.

 

[Penn_]

Would of liked a few more of our players to get them away from Cazorla, Giroud was the only one with a brain.

Meanwhile, Campbell the small time drip was busy high fiving Alexis.

 

[GOONER1991]

Choked on the penalty, but c'est la vie, it happens. I'm far from a fan of his in midfield, however we are going to need him to really step it up with Coquelin being out.

I've advocated a pairing of Ramsey and Cazorla previously, and hopefully we'll get time to see what comes of it. They played together in preseason against Everton, and this looked very promising. Cazorla sat deep and was playing as a true deep-lying playmaker. I believe Walcott scored off a good ball from deep from Cazorla. It must be noted though, we had Wilshere then, who allowed us to overload the midfield - similar to what Ramsey does from the right. It's only preseason, but there's something there to work with; unfortunately Wenger scrapped it after 45mins against West Ham.

Unfortunately, I expect Wenger to go for a Cazorla/Flamini pairing, which would be counter productive as Flamini currently plays as a less talented Ramsey (we've seen him get forward a lot this season).

 

[A_G]

Love Santi but whoever says the penalty miss was unlucky has got their heads buried in the sand. He choked - End of story.

You're giving the West Brom players too much credit.

 

[Aevi]

Honestly, I had no confidence when Caz stepped up to take the pen. The mentality was obviously shared, pressure is a *****. That is not so say that he deserves no blame though, keeping calm is a big part of the game.

 

[Nyctophobia]

Not making excuses for him, should always score from a penalty, but him slipping has little do to with his ability, that's just pure bad luck.

 

[celestis]

Santi was feeling like ****. People ignore what they want when it suits.

When was the last time Wenger subbed a player he sees as massively important to the way he wants us to play, at HT?

Yup that was the biggest indication he was ill . Also Santi is the last reason we struggle in the NLD . I seem to remember a certain Danny Welbeck being caught in possession over and over . I guarantee you guys right now when Jack , Santi and Aaron are fit there won't be any struggle with the press talk .

 

[bojed]

That was Santi's first missed PK for us, no?

 

[Bagels]

Not making excuses for him, should always score from a penalty, but him slipping has little do to with his ability, that's just pure bad luck.

Cleats will be chewed up like that throughout a match inevitably. I remember when I used to play I would have to bang off dried clumps of mud and grass from my cleats after every game. The picture does not really mean anything. He really did **** up that penalty pretty bad, had a terrible feeling just watching him during the run up. Missed penalties do happen though, this one just happened to be in a crucial moment. I remember Arteta a few seasons ago getting absolutely robbed around the 90th minute against Fulham, missed penalties are always depressing.... sigh....

 

[ArsenesNO1Fan]

He slipped, it happens