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EPL: Arsenal v West Ham - 9/8/15, 13:30 - SS1

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My_Two_Cents

Active Member
[QUOTE="BobP, post: 3825238, member: 90411"

The diamond is an absolute ***** to play against, remember Dortmund having similar sorts of problems to us against Juventus. It's even a ***** formation to go against on FM, just overloads the middle defensively and offensively, overwhelming your centre backs.[/QUOTE]

It is if you insist on forcing your play through the middle, quite easy to exploit if you keep stretching them out wide. But, Wenger and his stubborness comes back to bite us again
 

BobP

Memri Fan
I ****ing jinxed **** as well with my post about our improved mentality.

The players looked half asleep going into the first game of the season, which is outrageous. Almost like they need regular wake up calls to maintain performance levels.

However, that simply won't cut it if you're aiming for the title.
 

The_Playmaker

Established Member
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I ****ing jinxed **** as well with my post about our improved mentality.

The players looked half asleep going into the first game of the season, which is outrageous. Almost like they need regular wake up calls to maintain performance levels.

However, that simply won't cut it if you're aiming for the title.

That sums it up for me. There are actually threads dedicated to some sort of explanation for the defeat. Tactical reasons and blame on personnel seem to be the main ones, but personally they are all moot. Plain and simple, we were at home, we have the better players regardless of the positions they were playing in and we should have been fully capable of winning the match especially with the confidence and squad stability there currently is.

However for me it just comes down to the mental side if the game and season after season it just seems that this team doesn't have it to win a league competetion. They can win cups but they just aren't focused enough to learn from their lessons and maintain ruthless consistency. How many players came out before the start of the season talking about the need to start strong. They clearly know they need to, so why the lackluster performance? The lack of energy and effort. It's the first game of the season. Have they not been looking forward to actually playing a competitive match for the past month?

We will see the same thing this season. We will bounce back, probably win 10 on the bounce before we see another dip in performance and the same pattern reoccurring. Hopefully I am wrong, but they just don't seem to have that will to win consistently. Too quick to self destruct and incapable of solving problems. The only thing this team has above everyone else is cohesion. When it clicks, when the players are all on the same wavelength we are devastating. However when that isn't the case, it's like watching a completely different group of players. It's only one game, but if you can't get up for the first game of the season at home that doesn't really bode well.
 

General

Established Member
We have to go through the middle by default because there is no pace, especially on the left wing. There's an article on the BBC website on the average position of Arsenal players. It's shocking actually. Ramsey, Özil and Cazorla were continually guilty of clogging the middle. I think this lack of width coupled with the striker situation cost us second place last season.
 

Big Poppa

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Country: USA

Player:Saliba
One thing that really pissed me off about the game today I suppose were the substitutions. I don't like seeing Coq get subbed off just because we're losing no matter how bad he's playing.

West Ham could have hit us for 3 or 4 on the counter if they had their wits about them. The most valuable thing when you're facing a bus-parking team is space. Cramming all our attacking players into a line was never going to work.

I would have subbed on Alexis and Theo as well but taken off say Giroud and Cazorla. Stuck Theo up front, and told Alexis and Ox to stretch the defence and get room for the full-backs.

Debuchy and Coq had bad games but the team shape went to pot the minute they came off.

Wenger makes this decision on a regular basis when trying to rescue games. His default move. Swap all your defensive minded players for attackers and hope for the best. Go as far back as the FA Cup semi final against Man U in our invincibles season when we were 1-0 down. We ended the match with 4 strikers and no midfield.

Yesterday he took off Coquelin and Debuchy for two forwards, meaning that everytime the ball was loose or West Ham were in possession, we had nobody capable of wrestling it from them to feed the attack. They could remain compact and defend fairly comfortably.
 

Big Poppa

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Country: USA

Player:Saliba
Hate to admit it but I think Danny Murphy's write up on the bbc was pretty accurate on our tactical failure today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33843425

Surprisingly good read. I'd feel a lot more assured if I heard Wenger say something like "We were too congested in the number 10 position and failed to retain width" as opposed to "We were not convincing" or "We lacked our usual sharpness in the final third".

I really don't know whether it's just something he chooses not to discuss in public or if he thinks football is all physical and mental?
 

Big Poppa

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Country: USA

Player:Saliba
Liked that mesut fighted during the game today, ran the pitch back to harass the runner, and screamed at the team. Feels like his kind of angry shouts at the team doesn't inspire though. Doesn't have that capitan aura.

He doesn't know how to be aggressive. He got pocketed by a 16 year old making his debut.
 

Big Poppa

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Country: USA

Player:Saliba
it's like he is stuck in two minds all game. "I'm a wing. I'm a mid. I'm a wing. I'm a mid. I'm a wing. I'm a... Oh look my fullback is unprotected"

This is where you need leadership and communication on the pitch.
 

albakos

Arséne Wenger: "I will miss you"
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Country: Kosova

Player:Saka
Coquelin and Ox played the entire West Ham team onside.

With such a high line of defending a set piece you're always looking for trouble

kouyate.jpg
 

stiiphunn

Established Member
I think this loss hurts a lot more than it should because we all know how consistent we need to be if we want to win the title. Losses like the one of yesterday is already an indication that we may not have what it takes to be consistent over the course of the season. I'm sure we'll go on a winning run, and I'm sure we'll end up in the top 4, but if we want to win the title we cannot afford to lose games like this.
 

Cruisio

Established Member
It was Wenger messing about with the balance of the team which led to our poor start last season and ultimately cost us.

Isn't this what pre-season is for? Isn't this what past seasons are for? To learn from these mistakes.

You can't have a forward line of Cazorla, Özil, Ox and Giroud, that's 0 penetration and football is very easy to play against when it's all in front of you.

Get Cazorla back in the middle, only play Ramsey if he's starting from the wings and get some pace and penetration back in that forward line. Do it now or we're in for the same old s**t
 

Big Poppa

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Player:Saliba
Haven't even seen a reply of their second goal, turned over when I saw Cech crawling along trying to stop it.

At the risk of trivialising your actual point, why on earth would you change the change the channel with nearly an entire half of football still to play?
 

General

Established Member
Ramsey is crap on the wings why do you want to send him back there? Our lack of outlet on the left is exacerbated by the fact that Walcot's new contract probably includes a condition that he plays upfront. It's going to be a season long issue. Clearly it's a question of balance but I agree we should've won this game regardless and we are clutching at straws here.
 

DJ_Markstar

Based and Artetapilled

Player:Martinelli
We have to go through the middle by default because there is no pace, especially on the left wing. There's an article on the BBC website on the average position of Arsenal players. It's shocking actually. Ramsey, Özil and Cazorla were continually guilty of clogging the middle. I think this lack of width coupled with the striker situation cost us second place last season.

Average position is a red herring. A player can spend 45 mins on the left and 45 mins on the right and appear to have been in the centre the whole time.

It's also worth noting that slick 1-2s require players to be close enough to each other to perform them, so "clogging the middle" becomes "performing slick 1-2s" when we win the game.
 

Rain Dance

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It was Wenger messing about with the balance of the team which led to our poor start last season and ultimately cost us.

Isn't this what pre-season is for? Isn't this what past seasons are for? To learn from these mistakes.

You can't have a forward line of Cazorla, Özil, Ox and Giroud, that's 0 penetration and football is very easy to play against when it's all in front of you.

Get Cazorla back in the middle, only play Ramsey if he's starting from the wings and get some pace and penetration back in that forward line. Do it now or we're in for the same old s**t

Long time no see, great post as always
 
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