EPL: Arsenal v Liverpool- 24/08/15, 20:00. [SS1]

[BobP]

Wele is the answer.

 

[Maxim]

He's playing next to Coq because they work well together. I can only assume Wenger doesn't think Ramsey and Coq do as well. I think we'll see Arteta and Ramsey in CM for some games, or for the first few minutes until Arteta gets hurt anyway.

Maybe Jack and Coq would work but I don't know about that, and Jack is always hurt as well. Ideally we get someone who can play alongside Ramsey in CM who is more reliable fitness wise and younger/quicker than Arteta. That would give us two different pairings at least.

The thing is Ramsey and Coq haven't even had the chance to build a partnership at all.

They looked ok against Chelsea and were the partnership when we battered West Ham at the tail end of last season.

But after 45 mins against West ham this season they were split never to be brought together again. Think we've shown tonight that it wasn't their partnership in midfield that was necessarily the issue.

Dare I say it, the first half v West Ham was miles better than the first half today. The first half today hurt my eyes.

 

[Pat Rice]

Ramsey is perfect alongside an Arteta type player who can keep the ball under pressure even when isolated by his partner. Ramsey made a lot of forward runs and left Arteta isolated but even then Arteta rarely gave away possession.

Ramsey alongside Coquelin would be a disaster in a game like this. Coquelin would struggle badly in possession in that sort of set up.

Completely agree with those who can't believe we haven't signed a DM who can control a game to challenge Coquelin.

So where does Ramsey go? He isn't good enough to move Coq out of the middle to accommodate and he isn't productive out wide to deserve a spot over Ox.

Why can't Ramsey learn not to drive forward at the wrong moments and leave the CM exposed? He is more than capable of becoming very well rounded alongside Coq.

Just seems we are hell bent on making an attacking midfielder of him.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

I want Wilshere back.

 

[Artisan]

Yeah Wilshere's always played well out wide. Actually has the ability to beat a man too. Something Ramsey lacks. Seems to be in better goal scoring form than Ramsey too.

I've been bigging up Walcott for a while, saying he's a good option for us up top, but he was non existent today. Really really really worried about our ST options.

Out of all our other attackers I think Sanchez is the only one who can substitute for Giroud. Unlike Walcott and Welbeck he actually has a semblance of hold up play, he is willing to drop deep and help out with the build up play as well, not just waiting outwide for chances to come to him.

Thanks to this summer, and giving Walcott 140k a week to sit on the bench we are stuck between a rock and hard place really.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

The thing is Ramsey and Coq haven't even had the chance to build a partnership at all.

They looked ok against Chelsea and were the partnership when we battered West Ham at the tail end of last season.

But after 45 mins against West ham this season they were split never to be brought together again. Think we've shown tonight that it wasn't their partnership in midfield that was necessarily the issue.

Dare I say it, the first half v West Ham was miles better than the first half today. The first half today hurt my eyes.

Maybe. But I think the bulk of our issues in that first half came from an inability to play out of the back properly. Once we sorted that out I thought we were fine and dominated the mid.

Don't get me wrong though, I would love if Coq and Ramsey could work together.

 

[RandyMarsh]

Ramsey and Coq can work. And it has worked previously.

My biggest worry though is Ramsey's positional discipline. Now that he's pretty much a striker, he's even more hungry to get forward all the time and score goals.

The longer he plays out on the right wing, the less likely we are to see him get back to his best in the centre i reckon.

This striker mentality he has now is going to be very hard to shake.

 

[Hunta]

I want Wilshere back.

I want him starting in midfield, the others have had their chance, I miss his dribbling past 4 midfielders, hard man antics and ****ing brilliance.

 

[Wilshere10]

Not happy at all tbh. Sloppy passing, lack of urgency and desire. Cech and Coquelin deserve credit.

Disgusted by our start to the season personally. Defence has been all over the place, struggling to score goals. Not much positives this season

 

[RandyMarsh]

Coq-Wilshere
Ox- Özil- Alexis
Giroud

Very nice team. Shame we're only going to see it if both Ramsey and Cazorla are injured though.

 

[Artisan]

Our best season in the league since our stadium move was the 07-08 one, wasn't it? Ramsey and Coquelin can form a similar partnership to Cesc and Flamini. They have similar characteristics in some ways. Ramsey is obviously not as good as Cesc, but Coq is much better than Flamini.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

I want him starting in midfield, the others have had their chance, I miss his dribbling past 4 midfielders, hard man antics and ****ing brilliance.

Probably our third most penetrative player after Ox and Sanchez. The guy skips past players, and frees up space for others. He's got passion too, bleeds Arsenal.

BRING BACK JACK.

 

[Hunta]

Probably our third most penetrative player after Ox and Sanchez. The guy skips past players, and frees up space for others. He's got passion too, bleeds Arsenal.

BRING BACK JACK.

 

[Giroud]

So where does Ramsey go? He isn't good enough to move Coq out of the middle to accommodate and he isn't productive out wide to deserve a spot over Ox.

Why can't Ramsey learn not to drive forward at the wrong moments and leave the CM exposed? He is more than capable of becoming very well rounded alongside Coq.

Just seems we are hell bent on making an attacking midfielder of him.

Ramsey was excellent in a more defensive role in 2012/13 but we saw how devastating he is going forward the following season. Forcing him to go back to a defensive game would be a waste of his talent.

What we should be doing is looking for a DM who is excellent on the ball to partner Ramsey in midfield and phase Cazorla out of the starting 11. Cazorla can then be rotated in the CM and AM roles and will get plenty of game time when injuries hit and who knows, he could displace Özil on form I rate Cazorla extremely highly and I think he was our 2nd best player last season but Ramsey is an exceptional talent and should really be in his best position. Top clubs have players like Cazorla in reserve anyway.

 

[Artisan]

Probably our third most penetrative player after Ox and Sanchez. The guy skips past players, and frees up space for others. He's got passion too, bleeds Arsenal.

BRING BACK JACK.

He's really thee only one of our only players with a penchant for flair isn't he? Rosicky is another one.

 

[Maxim]

Ramsey and Coq can work. And it has worked previously.

My biggest worry though is Ramsey's positional discipline. Now that he's pretty much a striker, he's even more hungry to get forward all the time and score goals.

The longer he plays out on the right wing, the less likely we are to see him get back to his best in the centre i reckon.

This striker mentality he has now is going to be very hard to shake.

I think Ramseys positional discipline issues have been blown out of all proportion. He has played with just Santi in midfield quite a few times now when we are chasing a goal and we haven't looked in any serious danger even when throwing absolutely everything forward vs West Ham and Liverpool today. He played in CM with Coq v Chelsea and we were fine.

He just provides too much to our forward play AND defensively to leave him out. He was our most threatening player by an absolute mile today, all our best chances came through him.

 

[Gunngstar]

It's been like this for nearly 2 years. His penalties cover up how **** he is at scoring goals. I don't like turning on him but what does he offer us that we're not getting from Özil?

Lets see cute boy Özil play as a CM from now and we can then compare, Özil being moved slightly to the left of his so called No10 position makes all his groupies cry and filled with excuses. How many goals / assists, solid and match winning performances has Özil given us since moving here. Let's compare that to Cazorla.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

He's really thee only one of our only players with a penchant for flair isn't he? Rosicky is another one.

Yeah, Rozza is someone who can travel with the ball well. It's frustrating, we have the tools but they're rarely available/we never use them.

 

[RandyMarsh]

Jesus, look at our next 5 games. We're f*cked man. City are going to be storming ahead. Only one supposedly easy game in this list, but atm our home form is so bad that we can't expect anything really.

Newcastle (a)
Stoke (h)
Chelsea (a)
Leicester (a)
Man Utd (h)

 

[progman07]

Ramsey on the wing worked though, he was probably our best attacker. He scored a legit goal, created couple of good chances. Again we should have won this game, by more than couple of goals at that. The formation wasn't the problem. It's the personnel.

Is personnel the issue though? We have great talents, arguably Sanchez-Özil-Cazorla-Ramsey is better than the equivalents Liverpool and West Ham have.

Until Ox came on, we did not have a right wing. We often had 5-6 players on our left side trying to out-pass Liverpool in very tight areas, rather than stretching the pitch. We also could not capitalise on the space behind their defense in the first half.

For me it seems like this bunch of players could achieve more with a different approach (starting with rotation according to form and opponent).