29 Wed UEFA Champions League A Manchester United 19:45

[ricky1985]

- Walcott had by far our best chance of the night. When he tried that little chip through ball to Ade - HE HAD TO GO FOR GOAL! HAD TO!!! He had Ferdinand in all kinds of trouble, and if he had drove towards goal he was in one-on-one, but he chose the easy option. Very poor from Theo.

I haven't had the chance to see it on the tele, but it looked to me as if he had Ferdinand on the back foot, and all it took was a simple touch out of his feet, and he was through. Can't believe he decided to try and pass it.

I also think that United gave it away far more cheaply than we did. We just had nothing creative, or that bit of magic in the final third to break through them.

It was terrible mate. Ferdinand was in a world of trouble, because he didn't know whether to try and prevent the path to goal for Walcott or hold his position and block the pass to Ade. Walcott disgraced himself there frankly. The ball was on his right foot, all he had to do was push it 3 yards forward and he was one-on-one with Van Der Sar.

It was symptomatic of his night.....He was overcome by nerves, and as a team we had too many like that.

 

[ricky1985]

Rooney doubled-up with Evra on Walcott and I am very surprised Wenger didn't move Walcott over to the left. Ronaldo wouldn't have helped out O'shea.

first of all, great breakdown. agree with almost all of it. i thought this point was a good one. the only reason it might not have worked, though, is that diaby is not a right-sided player and occupying rooney and evra with walcott helps to negate their threat offensively. of course, there's no problem if nasri was on the wing like he was supposed to be.

Interesting point, didn't really think of that. I suppose Walcott's prescence negated Evra's threat. Evra did become a bit more prominent offensively once Bendtner came on.

 

[Nela]

- For some very strange reason Nasri was by far the deepest of our two centre midfielders. Song was pressing like a mad man up the pitch and Nasri was the one sitting/holding. Crazy decision from Wenger.
- Fabregas was absolutely diabolical, he should never, ever play 'in the hole' ever again. He had no chance of succeeding. Crazy decision from Wenger. I'm convinced it's because Cesc still isn't properly fit.

Ricky, I haven't had a chance to rewatch the game yet, but I've noticed before that whenever we have a poor game, it always looks worse live then when you rewatch and analyze. Maybe it's because the emotional aspect of watching it the first time makes it hard to think rationally.

Re: Central Midfield.
It's not susprising that Nasri played deepest IMO. Like I said in the Song thread, Song is great at doing his work higher up the field, but he doesn't really play as a holding player. Even in all the games he's played really well in, he does his defensive work so high up the pitch that there's always a ton of space behind him. Yesterday, Wenger gave Nasri the role to play as the more disciplined CM, before it's been Denilson. Not sure what to do about this issue. Does Song have the positional discipline to sit, or will asking him to do so take away from his game and the strides he's made? Not sure, honestly.

But it makes it very risky to go 4-4-2. At the same time I never want to see Cesc in the hole again. I've been saying since the Euros that he is not comfortable in that position. The only solution I see is 4-3-3, like United played yesterday. With a positionally disciplined CM sitting and Cesc and Song playing next to each other more box to box. However, I'm sick of experimenting with new formations.

 

[Alfonso]

Do you rekon our 2012 side (roughly the time this team should 'mature' and when we are supposed to destroy everthing in front of us) will be as good as this current Utd side?

 

[ibby]

Having watched the game again, Adebayor deserves to get shot (not really, just a big telling off).

 

[the dawn raids]

Do you rekon our 2012 side (roughly the time this team should 'mature' and when we are supposed to destroy everthing in front of us) will be as good as this current Utd side?

the bigger question is will we even have half this squad around in 2012; with current policies in regards to player contratcs/relations theres no way in hell that happens.

 

[flobaba]

Having watched the game again, Adebayor deserves to get shot (not really, just a big telling off).

yup. One of the few times i'll agree with ibby. His first touch and hold up play and heading ability were all simply non-existent.

 

[Clrnc]

Yes, Ade was extremely poor last night. Gave away balls needlessly, miscontrolled, and was EXTREMELY LAZY

 

[sabret00the]

Gibbs was immense (for his career mark).

huh? Clichy could've been proud of that performance.

 

[ricky1985]

Walcott needs to start playing upfront or on the left. There were so many occasions that Ade had the ball in dangerous situations, facing up Ferdinand, with room in behind, and he didn't have the ability to exploit it. All Walcott can really do on the right is go down the line because he doesn't really have much of a left foot. Put him on the left and he can cut in and drive at the defense. The same applies if he was playing upfront.

 

[General]

Without Cesc picking out his runs, Theo is rendered ineffective. This was the case in the second half when he kept dropping deeper and deeper to seek the ball. He made one darting run where I think Ade or Diaby had the opportunity to pick him out but simply dwelled on the ball and the opportunity was missed. No other player optimizes his threat like Cesc. Like others have said, we would've been better off pitching him against O'shyte. Then again we saw the same issue against Roma when he was having no joy against Riise and would've been better off against the other fullback already on a yellow.

I still cannot believe what a big ****ing mess Wenger made of things yesterday. Almost every match report I've read today points the finger at his alien tactics. Arseblog summed it perfectly.

The main problem as I saw it though was the deployment of Cesc in the support striker role. My thinking on this is very ****ing simple: Cesc is our best central midfield player by a long, long way. Therefore play him in central midfield.I just think playing all the players out of position weakens us. Cesc is not a support striker, Diaby is not a wide midfielder, Nasri is not a central midfielder, Adebayor is not a strik ... oh. But play the three central midfielders in central midfield, Barcelona style. Let Nasri on the left and Walcott on the right push on a bit and support the striker.

 

[nazo]

Walcott needs to start running off the ball better. Someone with his pace should be utilizing that and not jogging around like a child in a park.

 

[Alfonso]

Let go of this game lads, its finished. Lets look forwards not backwards.

 

[hackajack]

Yeah 24 hours now. RIP.

 

[graham_ka]

Took us 30 minutes to get the butterflys out and realize that manure isn't all that they're cracked up to be. We can play and possess with these guys just need to find that killer instinct. Playing at home and with another striker will help that cause.

 

[arsenalfc0719]

Fabregas playing in the hole, has got to stop. He is a CM, thats were he should play.

Nasri playing as a DM has got to stop as well, he was even playing behind Song for large periods of the game. Its ridiculous.

Fabregas and Song in midfield. Its as easy as that.

Diaby, I can't even begin to stress how useless he is. He's supposed to be playing as a left winger but he keeps on coming towards the middle when we have the ball. For ****s sake Diaby. What a joke. Gave the ball away on every chance, as usual, is sloppy as hell and breaks down our play. He shouldn't be starting games that aren't Carling Cup.

Midfield should ahve been Walcott-Song-Fabregas-Nasri with two strikers upfront. Poor tactics from Arsène yesterday, once more.

Almunia was brilliant, thanks to him we are still alive here. Lets hope we can put in at least a decent performance in the Emirates, I can't see us passing to the final, not a chance, but I would like us to at least put up a fight.

 

[Zico]

The theory that Adebayor is responsible for the goal should be put to bed. Toure starts out on O'Shea. When the ball moves to the other side of the box, Adebayor (who was marking nobody at this point) runs out to pick up Ferdinand and Toure just goes forward and loses track of O'Shea.

I don't think Adebayor had a great game, but those Adebayor haters trying to pin the goal on him need to give up the idea that he lost his man.

 

[ricky1985]

Couldn't diagree more with that mate, sorry.

Firstly Toure was marking O'shea, but you'll notice when Carrick goes to cross the ball, Tevez is completely free on the six-yard line. Toure sees this and moves quickly to get goal side of him. He simply had no choice he couldn't risk Carrick's cross making it's way to Tevez, who would have had a free shot from so close in.

If Adebayor had anything about him he would have noticed Toure running over to Tevez and held his position at the near post (which became the far post in the second phase of play and was where O'shea scored from). Instead he jogged slowly and aimlessly forward, perhaps anticipating a counter-attack, and in no way was he even aware that Ferdinand was a threat, nor did he do anything to prevent him becoming one.

It wasn't just Adebayor - Ferdinand came up for one corner all night long, and not dealing with that was where the real error occured. We had planned to mark O'Shea with Toure, Ronaldo with Song, Carrick with Diaby, and Vidic with Silvestre. It was obviously a pre-planned tactic, and then inexplicably Ferdinand came up for the first corner, and we didn't have the intelligence, awareness or flexibility to adapt our system to make sure he was marked. That lack of individual repsonsibility, which is a curse of ours btw, meant Diaby ended up trying to mark Carrick and Ferdinand at the back post, when Abou jumped with Rio and they both missed it, Carrick was completely free on the back post. The rest was a collection of instant decisions made instinctively, Toure to the near post to thwart Tevez, Ade and his attacking instincts sensing a counter.

Like I said the real ****-up happened before the corner was even taken.

 

[Zico]

Watch the video. Adebayor does not look like a man trying to start a counter attack.

 

[ricky1985]

To be honest I'm being kind to him, trying to explain why he jogged aimlessly and slowly towards the edge of our box, when he was contributing nothing positive from a defensive perspective when doing so. He certainly wasn't trying to get to ferdinand like you are saying.

I can only think he maybe thought there was a slight chance we could counter once Ferdinand and Diaby missed the ball.