Arsenal vs Newcastle United - 17:30 PM ESPN 29/12/2012

[MaestroCesc]

I thought Kos and Verms were good. First goal was a stupid challenege from Sagna. And the other two were from poor marking from Gibbs. Kos was winning almost every aerial ball.

Gibbs would be the last defender to get blamed for the second goal.
Firstly, Sagna got passed by very easily. Obertan shouldn't have got so much space.
Secondly, if Koscielny defends the first post, you make sure that nothing pass by that first post, especially not over the ground. What was he doing there? Just watching the ball pass by.

At last, Wilshere should have followed Marveaux as Gibbs had to come inside to cover Ba.

For the third goal, Sagna can be blamed as much as Gibbs. What was he doing when Marveaux was giving the cross. He was yards off Marveaux so he could stop, turn and cross the ball.

Sagna was to blame for first two, but for third you cannot blame him. Look at the replay if he closed down Marveaux, then Marveaux would have played it through to their guy on the wing who would have had alot of space to run into the box and cross/shoot so Sagna covered that player, instead our midfielder should have closed him down.

Find it stupid that there is no mention of Jack in the first goal. You can blame Gibbs, Sagna etc for all the overs yet Jack for the first was by far the worst. Alot of you are very hypocritical, you call Nasri a coward but when Jack does the same thing you turn a blind eye... It was very stupid from him and i thought he was pretty poor overall, his assist for 4th goal was good but it was mainly caused by Perch who was the worst player on the pitch

 

[The Sleeper]

Alot of you are very hypocritical, you call Nasri a coward but when Jack does the same thing you turn a blind eye... It was very stupid from him

Yes.

The difference with Nasri is that Jack will never do it again, now that it's happened to him. He'll leave his face there for a thunderbolt shot to hit, if necessary, from now on.

Or at least, that's how I read his character.

 

[mavelous]

T_P i agree with most of you points except Cazorla.. I actually support them pressing in a line, it just geometrically reduces the distance required of them had they been positioned vertically in a 4-4-1-1..

x - x - x - x

x - x - x - x

- - x - -

- - x - - this setup, if cazorla is behind walcott, is best suited for a deep sitting compact defence where caz man marks opposition DM and only walcott runs after the ball. notice that walcott will have to cover the entire width (across as in from lb to rb). as opposed to this

x - x - x - x

x - x - x - x

- - x - x - - this positioning allows our front to cover only half the distance while alternating on the man-marking duty. if balls is passed to rcb Perch it's walcott's duty to close down the ball while Cazorla needs to occupy space between oppos cb's. ideally walcott's forces a long kick from Perch under pressure. at the least perch will pass to RB simpson whose only option is to go long or back to keeper (if our entire pressing unit does the job properly. that's the idea, cornering opposition into one side and squeezing space as much as possible). (opposite is true, if ball goes to the other CB/FB, cazorla makes the dart from his closer position, instead of walcott covering the entire pitch.)

cazorla in this case is ready to intercept a pass to Coloccini or the LB Santon. Since the ball is close to touchline, our entire team should shift allowing us to compress space. this is where we went wrong, cazorla wasn't supported enough by his 2 CM's and the wingers in squeezing space. To make a 4-4-2 pressing work efficiently, we probably needed to push our lines much higher, allowing cazorla and walcott to work in tandem to force long-kicks from newcastle backline/GK. but the entire team need to be compact and work in unison to eliminate the numerical disadvantage with cazorla high up. i believe it can be done if arteta/wilshere take turns to push up and mark on of the DM's, usually tiote. and if the ball is at RB or RCB, our winger on far side (AOC) should be able to mark two players tucking in - Biligamarana and Santon.

Like you say, there are different factors affecting one team's choice of pressing intensity and defensive line (positioning of). i don't necessarily agree that Newcastle are bad in keeping the ball, but with enough pressure any team is susceptible, and definitely a jaded newcastle above-average players at best. teams sit deep if they want to avoid conceding, by pressing only in their own half. if they want to win the ball back sooner, they'll go higher. in this case, we gave them far too much time and space in their third, while (criminally) failing to close down or stop them in our own half.

 

[Glovegun]

I think this was a far more comprehensive victory than it has been made to sound. Had Walcott had any sort of awareness we would've been about three up by half-time. Chamberlain and Podolski were both terrific.

I'd also dispute the suggestion that Ba bullied either Vermaelen or Koscielny. What he does is hold the ball up very intelligently and then goes down at the slightest touch to win his team a bit of time and the chance to get up the pitch. Was doing it all day long.

The only problem was Gibbs. I've defended him a lot this season, I think he is the long-term solution at left-back, but to go to sleep twice at the back post wasn't good enough. Had he not done that we'd be looking at a real pasting because Newcastle did nothing going forward. However, it's also clear to me that without Mertesacker there is no communication back there. I like Koscielny but he must be the quietest centre-half around, the guy never, ever opens his mouth and he needs to start doing so. When he's in there, communication between the centre-backs, the goalkeeper and the full-backs seems to break down completely. The Carling Cup final is a prime example.

 

[mistaT]

Loved seeing Ox so central for his goal.

Boy needs to get in front of goal more because he's got a cannon.

 

[jerome2158]

my real concern was our left side, defensively.

The marveaux goal, specifically. Perhaps it was a one-off thing, and we'll never have to worry about it again this season. But the fact that he was so completely wide open, and just about none of our players even realized he was there. Gibbs I noticed seemed torn between being in the middle marking Ba (I think) and going out wide, and even stepped out wide before stepping back in.

I struggle to blame gibbs because leaving Ba unmarked, centrally 3 yards in front of goal is ****. The real concern is he had to be in the middle in the first place. Shouldn't someone have dropped back and taken up that position, allowing gibbs to return to the wing? Were we just caught with our backs to them?

Like I said, maybe it was a one off. But it doesn't inspire confidence when your defence leaves a striker wide open in plenty of space at the back post.

 

[eye4goal]

Gibbs didn't have to be in the middle when Ba scored. Cisse was marked by Vermaelen and Koscielny, so Ba was his man. He made the same error twice really, but the Marveaux goal was more of a 4 vs 4 situation. Sagna got beat too easily, and Koscielny could have done better to close the cross.