Arsenal vs Swansea Ratings Thread

[outlaw_member]

I do partly agree, we're constantly looking at how the other players can do better to protect Walcott, which says it all. Either Wenger changes it up, or ships him out.

 

[celestis]

Well Joel Campbell is coming back next year and he operates off both flanks . Had an assist on debut for lorient .

 

[outlaw_member]

By the way, Eye4Goal, the fullbacks are just as important as the midfielder's in advancing the play from deep. They do indeed play a supportive attacking role like the midfielder's do, or atleast they should, but both are equally important in moving the ball forward to the attackers. If the front three are constantly having to drop deep to collect, it means that the the CM's and FB's aren't doing a good job of advancing play.

 

[McIntyre]

@Floating

Dude, I'm not saying that a captain automatically makes a team better. I'm saying that having a defined leader makes a difference in certain situations.

To suggest that having an inspiring captain never has any effect on a team's performance is frankly ridiculous. If that United/Bolton game had been a bit tighter and they needed a bit of encouragement to get over the finishing line I guarantee they'd get more of it from Ferdinand or Rooney than Evra. And the other players would be more likely to respond to it.

But, more importantly, a defined sense of order in a team leads to a more cohesive unit. The whole "everybody is a leader" idea is fine in principle but often entirely impractical in practice, leading to crossed wires, buck passing, egos clashing and confusion.

Of course players can be leaders without the armband, but others need a reassuring presence who inspires confidence.

Let's say Emmanuel Frimpong gets a bit hot-headed and the ref calls him and the captain over for a word. How is having any old random player who just happens to have ended up with the armband talking to him going to help?

Or if we have another leg-breaking incident, do you want a respected member of the squad offering encouragement and reassurance or do you want a weak-willed flake wearing the armband and 10 other supposed leaders all trying to talk over one another and offering mixed messages?

Of course the armband doesn't automatically lead to a better team. And other players can be leaders (you'd always hope to have a number of strong characters in a squad). But in many instances it's quite obvious that a defined sense of order and leadership leads to a more functional unit. Pretty much every element of life works better when everybody knows their role. And that includes sport.

 

[ricky1985]

Ricky, I couldn't disagree more with your ratings. How can you give Ramsey 7 and Arshavin just 5? Frimpong higher than Arshavin too? Come on.

Arteta - 7. Similar to Ramsey really. Started well, showed all the class he has, and played 3 or 4 very good piercing, forward passes. Tired badly in the last 25-30 minutes though - I guess Everton players aren't as fit as our players, because he looked like the pace of our game hit him hard.

Not sure about that. In Arteta's first interview for Arsenal he said at Everton training they do "a lot more running" than at Arsenal, or something to that effect.

Lots more running, or training without a ball - which is what Arteta said - doesn't equate to being fitter though does it?

To be honest I missed Arshavin's goal because of the crappy stream I was watching on, and other than a few flashes of brilliance, I thought it was the usual sloppy performances we usually see from him.

Frimpong was okay I thought, a few poor passes and touches here and there, but I thought he ran hard, tackled well and did a fairly decent job.

 

[outlaw_member]

We'll end up wasting Frimpong's ball winning abilities, if we aren't smarter on the counter. People have always wanted us to counter more over the years, but those situations were limited largely because we were so good at monopolising the ball. Now that those situations have increased, I've realised that we're actually so very poor on the break. So many bad decisions being made all round.

 

[AFC-Phil]

Walcott's problems down the right are also further exacerbated by Sagna. The fact that the latter can't carry the ball forward means that he routinely activates Walcott much deeper on the pitch. Sagna is incapable of advancing the play down his side without involving a forward pass to Walcott, so the latter has to constantly drop deep to collect the ball off him, which obviously places him in situations which you don't want to see him in. I think it was Patrick who criticised Walcott's decision to carry the ball, but someone has to do it. We can't have both Sagna and Walcott on the same side, both of whom can't dribble for toffee, as it then places even greater emphasis on passing and movement.

I know it's an isolated incident, but I remember Sagna picking the ball up to the left of our box (In the 90+ minute of a CL qualifier/group stage game in his first season and one of his first games) and he drove the length of the pitch before he squared the ball to Hleb in the opposition's box. Hleb trickled the ball into the far corner with his left foot. He actually did had another driving run in the 07/08 season where he dribbled with the ball from the half way line before he hit the byline and cut the ball back for Adebayor to score. (It was the game Eduardo scored an overhead kick in a 4-1? away win at Eastlands)

My point is - Sagna has the ability to advance with the ball via dribbling in the 07/08 season, but since then he's lost his way. He had the confidence and ability to do it, but he's been pulled away from doing it.

 

[McIntyre]

We'll end up wasting Frimpong's ball winning abilities, if we aren't smarter on the counter. People have always wanted us to counter more over the years, but those situations were limited largely because we were so good at monopolising the ball. Now that those situations have increased, I've realised that we're actually so very poor on the break. So many bad decisions being made all round.

I agree. There's a lack of killer instinct. A lack of know-how. Players not making the right runs. Players not playing the right passes. And players whose lack of confidence, or engrained possession-centric ideology, makes them turn back to retain possession, or not attempt the killer pass that'd finish the move.

We seem to be totally lacking in any well-drilled approach.

You can bet that United and Chelsea go through 3 on 2, 4 on 2 and other overload exercises to train both sections of the team to deal with breaks and counters. Do we do these drills? I wonder. Because the way we counter and the way we defend counters doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason.

 

[AFC-Phil]

Seeing us struggle at counterattacking is no surprise.

Cesc was involved with a goal/assist/pre assist in ALL of our 15 or so counterattacking goals of 09/10. The stats for last season are probably similar, infact i'd almost guarantee it.

His intelligence of where to run, when to run, where everyone is, when to release the ball etc was outstanding.

Theo's vs B'burn in the 6-2 is a perfect example of this. As is Cesc's 'perfect' goal in our 7-0 demolition of Sparta Prague. More recently, there was Cesc's pre-assist for Van Persie's goal vs Wolves last season. His first time pass to send Theo clear was exquisite. As is his goal vs Ipswich last season that sent us into the CC final.

All of those were immense counterattacking goals, and the common denominaor is that Cesc was a massive part of every counterattack.

Cesc ran and drove a frightening amount of our counterattacks, and without him we are going to struggle at this for a while. He effectively was the reason we've counterattacked properly over the last few seasons, as time went on he was relied upon more and more for this.

 

[GaelForce22]

Agreed with Ricky's ratings the most.

Szczesny - 6

Sagna - 7
Mertesacker - 6
Koscielny - 7
Gibbs - 6

Frimpong - 5
Arteta - 6
Ramsey - 6

Walcott - 3
Van Persie 5
Arshavin - 5

Defence seemed solid enough, with only two or three mistakes - better than we've seen lately at least! I thought the midfield was ok, each player looked a bit off to me but they're all so new to the team and each other it was understandable. The front three don't have that excuse and were absolutely awful. Theo especially, who I'd normally defend, had one of the worst games I can remember from an Arsenal attacker. I'm hoping he wasn't fit, because everything he did was atrocious after that run and shot in the first 15 minutes. Wouldn't stop moaning either. Gervinho can't come back quick enough...

 

[outlaw_member]

I know it's an isolated incident, but I remember Sagna picking the ball up to the left of our box (In the 90+ minute of a CL qualifier/group stage game in his first season and one of his first games) and he drove the length of the pitch before he squared the ball to Hleb in the opposition's box. Hleb trickled the ball into the far corner with his left foot. He actually did had another driving run in the 07/08 season where he dribbled with the ball from the half way line before he hit the byline and cut the ball back for Adebayor to score. (It was the game Eduardo scored an overhead kick in a 4-1? away win at Eastlands)

My point is - Sagna has the ability to advance with the ball via dribbling in the 07/08 season, but since then he's lost his way. He had the confidence and ability to do it, but he's been pulled away from doing it.

I agree, Sagna offered plenty offensively in his debut season. I recall another moment against Man Utd when he carried to the ball to corner of the box, and he cut it back for Fabregas to score.

As for Fabregas, yes he was often always the provider for any effective counter-attacks. We need to form a new link from back to front in order to reactivate it. Any new link will have to start off with one of Frimpong, Song and Arteta who'll need to be immediately on or placed onto the ball when it has broken loose, who will then have to pierce it through to the provider that will give the final pass for the finisher. The problem here is that only van Persie is capable of performing that role as the link between the initiator and the finisher of the counter. Whilst, Walcott is the only potential finisher that is consistent enough in the type of runs he makes for it all to become a habitual pattern for the team.

This is a problem because in our current system, van Persie can only cover this duty, as long as the finisher's (Gervinho or Walcott) are positioned ahead of him, and that he can pick them out. The key for the counter to become a consistent part of our arsenal is that van Persie has attackers to release. He will only have these runners to release if they are positioned at least parallel or ahead of him when he's on the ball. Now, it's important that the players who move the ball from the defence to the attack are good enough offensively, so that they don't require any one of Gervinho or Walcott to drop deep, thus compromising their high position.

If they are constantly being asked to help the quartet of Gibbs-Wilshere-Arteta-Sagna to move the ball from the middle third to the final third, van Persie will lose his runners, and when we do have an opportunity to counter, van Persie will be the furthest forward and with no-one to pick out, thus the counter will be rendered almost useless. In actuality, I expect that the supporting quartet won't perform consistently enough together to really allow Walcott and Gervinho to stay high, and it will be van Persie who will be acting as the finisher i.e. in the last phase of the counter where he doesn't have the pace to be effective.

The obvious solution to this, if we want to place more emphasis on the counter-attack is to switch to a 4-4-2, and deploy the provider van Persie directly behind the finisher, Walcott or Gervinho so that they are more likely to complete the counter.