Country: Australia
Yup spot on , sooner or later you hit the wall .
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Premier League 2016/17 season
- Thread starter Aevi
- Start date
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Country: Australia
Yup spot on , sooner or later you hit the wall .
blaise
Well-Known Member
I like the season so far, even feel a bit optimistic for December, like the schedule.
Think we have three parts of the team underperfoming lately and if we want the title we will have to have those positions performing at least average or above average. You dont need 11 wc players, 2, 3 are enough and we have those which was probably the hardest thing to achieve without overpaying or offering them straight trophies so I have to say wow to the manager for that.
First I d say there is big hole at LB and we need to fix that, if not in January then we need to lay some grounds to get the player we want in the summer. That position should be easy to fix as I think both players can easily find new clubs. It is just a matter who we want to keep. Gibbs wiil never be anything but average and thats when he is in form, othervise a liability. Hopefully Nacho rediscovered some form on the bench beacuse when he hits it his peak is somewhere closer to above average and that would be really useful now without Santi in long run.
Biggest hole is again in the centre of the park and I am not that optimistic for that part this season. We have four players there who vary from squad players to average-above average. At the moment I only rate Coq average-above average and even he dipped in form. Elnenny is just a squaddie which is not a bad thing, you always need them, but it is a bit of shame if we cant do anything more with him and his engine. Xhaka unfortunately is not ready yet to take Santi role, he should be by the end of the season, we can only hope he gets there as soon as possible. I always trust Arsène when he splashes the cash.
And then we have Ramsey who I personally like a lot as a player but Arsenal is slightly becoming hostage of Ramsey. He is a liability if you want to play possesion. He is at his best when you give the ball away and try to press the other team like we tried with PSG. Now we cant play that always. Xhaka is not Arteta and by the looks of it, he wont be that anytime soon, question if ever. Arteta was just perfect positionally and would hide Ramseys disastrous positioning.
So you ve got player with a big ego who you spoiled as one of first names on the team sheet but who can realistically only sometimes contribute extra for the team, not just be a passenger in the game. And if you sell him you have to sell him to another team who play like us, City for example or abroad, othervise he will haunt us for years. He would thrive in some defensive setups in league.
and at the end wingers are the positions I d say there is most room for the improvements from the inside of the team. We dont have wc winger anymore with Alexis as CF but we are still interesting there. Iwobi is future member of 1st 11 for years to come, but in his age drops of form are normal. Walcott is great option to have from the bench or in 1st 11 when on form. So basically it all comes down to Ox. Is he the future wc or we have to move on from him. Hopefully we will know more by the end of the season. If Ox hits it then I d say there is no need to bring a player, since we ve got Asano coming and some other, othervise I d go for a finished player, we have too many projects and squaddies there. It is time for somebody to explode there and repay all of the Wenger faith during the years. I did not include Welbeck and Perez there. Welbeck can be useful at times but he is a squaddie at that position and Perez, well ,hope he shines anywhere on the pitch.
Hopefully some of these players will get to another level and give us that extra bit title push which we will desperately need in goals and assists. Sanchez and Özil cant do it by themselves. It is always about the supporting cast.
Think we have three parts of the team underperfoming lately and if we want the title we will have to have those positions performing at least average or above average. You dont need 11 wc players, 2, 3 are enough and we have those which was probably the hardest thing to achieve without overpaying or offering them straight trophies so I have to say wow to the manager for that.
First I d say there is big hole at LB and we need to fix that, if not in January then we need to lay some grounds to get the player we want in the summer. That position should be easy to fix as I think both players can easily find new clubs. It is just a matter who we want to keep. Gibbs wiil never be anything but average and thats when he is in form, othervise a liability. Hopefully Nacho rediscovered some form on the bench beacuse when he hits it his peak is somewhere closer to above average and that would be really useful now without Santi in long run.
Biggest hole is again in the centre of the park and I am not that optimistic for that part this season. We have four players there who vary from squad players to average-above average. At the moment I only rate Coq average-above average and even he dipped in form. Elnenny is just a squaddie which is not a bad thing, you always need them, but it is a bit of shame if we cant do anything more with him and his engine. Xhaka unfortunately is not ready yet to take Santi role, he should be by the end of the season, we can only hope he gets there as soon as possible. I always trust Arsène when he splashes the cash.
And then we have Ramsey who I personally like a lot as a player but Arsenal is slightly becoming hostage of Ramsey. He is a liability if you want to play possesion. He is at his best when you give the ball away and try to press the other team like we tried with PSG. Now we cant play that always. Xhaka is not Arteta and by the looks of it, he wont be that anytime soon, question if ever. Arteta was just perfect positionally and would hide Ramseys disastrous positioning.
So you ve got player with a big ego who you spoiled as one of first names on the team sheet but who can realistically only sometimes contribute extra for the team, not just be a passenger in the game. And if you sell him you have to sell him to another team who play like us, City for example or abroad, othervise he will haunt us for years. He would thrive in some defensive setups in league.
and at the end wingers are the positions I d say there is most room for the improvements from the inside of the team. We dont have wc winger anymore with Alexis as CF but we are still interesting there. Iwobi is future member of 1st 11 for years to come, but in his age drops of form are normal. Walcott is great option to have from the bench or in 1st 11 when on form. So basically it all comes down to Ox. Is he the future wc or we have to move on from him. Hopefully we will know more by the end of the season. If Ox hits it then I d say there is no need to bring a player, since we ve got Asano coming and some other, othervise I d go for a finished player, we have too many projects and squaddies there. It is time for somebody to explode there and repay all of the Wenger faith during the years. I did not include Welbeck and Perez there. Welbeck can be useful at times but he is a squaddie at that position and Perez, well ,hope he shines anywhere on the pitch.
Hopefully some of these players will get to another level and give us that extra bit title push which we will desperately need in goals and assists. Sanchez and Özil cant do it by themselves. It is always about the supporting cast.
SYS
Active Member
remains
Well-Known Member
7/9 points out of the next 3 games would be acceptable. 9/9 would be a huge statement.
I think everyone here would bite your hand off for WWD in our next three. I don't care if Aguero and Fernandinho are both suspended, Man City away will still be tough. They have plenty of options.
It doesn't look like we will get any closer to Chelsea in the near future. Their run of games until Jan 5 is much easier than ours from what I can tell. Lack of Europe is really helping them.
It doesn't look like we will get any closer to Chelsea in the near future. Their run of games until Jan 5 is much easier than ours from what I can tell. Lack of Europe is really helping them.
Walter White
Active Member
Please remind that fixtures means very little in this league. Wouldnt surprise much if Pullis pulled out a draw in da Bridge. Everyone will drop points and Chelsea is due to them you dont win 8 in a row and get away with it. Im sure teams will start figuring out Chelsea system as they have done with Liverpool recently.
RUS arsenal
Established Member
I disagree, as I mentioned earlier, 3 or their next 4 opponents play a style that can hurt Chelsea. As long as these teams stay true to themselves and don't try to park the bus, at least 2 of them should get some sort of result I figure.
Country: Canada
You rate Coq higher than Xhaka? What are you smoking there son?
Since Xhaka returned as a starter at CM - we've won
3-1 vs Bournemouth
5-1 vs West Ham; and
4-1 vs Basel
That is not a coincidence - his deep to high midfield passing short and long is a serious weapon which has jet fueled our transition play. He might not have all of the attributes of Cazorla but he definitely gives us a similar type of thrust forward and the results speak for themselves.
Country: Saudi Arabia
Manage to get past Stoke, Everton & City with all 9 points stands us in good stead of remaining within distance of Chelsea.
After these 3 fixtures we face West Brom, Palace, Bournemouth again, Swansea, Burnley then Watford.
If we actually avoid that most Arsenal like vice, complacency & have all our less than stellar performers somehow pulling their weight, we can go into the subsequent match at Stamford Bridge level with Chelsea with the chance to leapfrog them.
Make no mistake with Guardiola prideful and too stubborn to make the necessary changes to both formation/personnel to adapt & Klopp believing he can outpress teams at will, Chelsea remain our major obstacle to that elusive 14th title.
blaise
Well-Known Member
You should probably read again with more understanding, currently I rate Coq more than Xhaka(not much more), but I expect Xhaka by the end of the season to become as influential as Santi. But now when you move Coq out of first team, we are fragile against decent teams, Xhaka far from his level in defense at the moment, he probably will never be good in defence as Coq, but should be able to do better as he gets more and more used to the pace of the league.
say yes
forum master baiter
Everton are unbeaten at home this year and Koeman always has our number. City away is one of the games that you expect to lose.
7/9 would be much more than acceptable.
Country: Canada
I read and understood your post perfectly. My point still stands.
You remove Xhaka out of the team and you get the dogshit we served up against United and PSG so that argument works both ways. Also Xhaka is far superior to Cazorla defensively (both in tackles and interceptions) so I'm not sure what we're missing in that department.
Agreed Xhaka isn't as good as Coq defensively but not many players are. We had Coquelin for the majority of last season and yet we still finished 10 points off the Champions (as usual), yet the absence of a player who can make those passes between the lines (Cazorla) is what killed our season.
Country: England
Player:Saliba
In one injury session he missed some of November, all of December and January. Squawka stats said he played 22 out of 38 games.
If we reasonably assume he had a couple of games getting back to match fitness, it seems fair to say he missed about half the season as a fully fit squad player.
say yes
forum master baiter
For an intelligent guy you really don't do much fact checking.
Coquelin played 26. Missed 10 games with injury. Wasn't picked for 2 others. That's what squawka says too so really not sure where you're pulling that number from.
Even if you allow him a couple of games to get his fitness up that's less than 1/3 of the PL season.
Country: England
Player:Saliba
Thanks mate, don't think you've ever given me a compliment before.
Yeah, I couldn't get that Titan Fall 2 advert off, must have hit 2014/15. He played 4 more games.
SYS
Active Member
Sir Bump
Unhealthy obsession with Aaron Ramsey
If my calcs are right, we are 8 points better against last years results against same teams
Notorious Big
Drunka In Friend Zone
As the season goes on,it's clear that Chelsea will be our toughest opponent in title race.City will probably have some games like against Leciester,where they'll switch off and they have to play a lot of tough matches now.I also rated Liverpool to be just behind Chelsea,but somehow they lack that quality and they aren't great in defence.But for Chelsea is a different story.
