Emirates Cup: Arsenal vs Galatasray | 04/08/13 | 16:20

[MaestroCesc]

Dont understand why people continue to state this, Sagna overlaps all the time and actually does get forward quite alot he just cant do much with the ball, although I still think he is a better crosser than Gibbs or Jenkinson.

Discounting last season, I think he is and by a distance. His crossing is poor when our play is out of ideas and the last resort is crossing it into the box with only Giroud in it.

Over the last couple of years, he has got so many assists from crossing and he can whip the ball in quite well sometimes (RVP V Liverpool away was an amazing cross). He does get forward quite a bit, alot more than Jenkinson, but as Outlaw says his dribbling ability lets him down.

@Bigblud watch him more closely and you will see he does overlap quite a bit.

 

[US_Gooner]

I think Sagna's biggest shortcoming by far is that he can't dribble.

Neither can Jenkinson which is why we hardly ever create real opportunities when the RB overlaps.

 

[darkgunner]

Our whole right side doesn't dribble. Jenkinson and Walcott just hits the ball ahead of them and uses their pace to beat their man. Sagna just plays a 1-2 with the nearest teammate.

 

[TheLoneFalcon]

Which would be fine if we still had the off the ball movement of 07/08.

 

[US_Gooner]

Granted our crossing lacks some accuracy, but at the same time, Giroud's positioning makes the required cross nearly impossible.

His box movement on crosses is terrible; he's almost always firmly between both center backs. Any cross that clears the near CB will most likely sail over his head. Giroud should at least vary his movement on crosses; attack the near post, back out to the far CB and fight for position at the back post, fake a hard charge at the goal line and then when the CBs are committed pull back to penalty spot, anything.

Giroud's 'spin' goal in Vietnam pre-season is a perfect example of the entire problem. When Sagna is preparing to cross, Giroud is trying to accelerate for a cross behind the defensive line. But Giroud is too slow so can't get in position. Sagna delivers his trademark hit-it-in-that-general-direction cross, which is just in front of the defensive line. Giroud, being too slow, happens to be a position where he can stop his forward motion just enough to touch the ball. Goal by accident.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

Granted our crossing lacks some accuracy, but at the same time, Giroud's positioning makes the required cross nearly impossible.

Weren't we saying the same about Van Persie, Bendtner, Adebayor etc? We've always been weak from a FBs crossing the ball scenario... the only consistent member of the team up until now in terms of FBs has been Sagna. Clichy was a horrible crosser of the ball too, but no one seemed to debate this. We've not had good attacking fullbacks in virtually any sense of the word since Lauren and Cole.

 

[musicmonkey]

Granted our crossing lacks some accuracy, but at the same time, Giroud's positioning makes the required cross nearly impossible.

Weren't we saying the same about Van Persie, Bendtner, Adebayor etc? We've always been weak from a FBs crossing the ball scenario... the only consistent member of the team up until now in terms of FBs has been Sagna. Clichy was a horrible crosser of the ball too, but no one seemed to debate this. We've not had good attacking fullbacks in virtually any sense of the word since Lauren and Cole.

It's more down to us not getting anyone other than the main striker in the box. There's no second man running in late to give the CBs something to think about other than marking Giroud. We need the CAM to attack the box and split the CBs to give Giroud some space to work with or to get onto the end of something themselves.

 

[Cruisio]

I was going to say...

As much as I'd like to bash Giroud for it it isn't a problem that's unique to him. Whilst I maintain Sagna's crossing is better than he gets credit for he's not had anyone to hit regularly in the box as we rarely have anyone in there no matter who the striker was. The closest we came to that was Adebayor and he was always f**king off over to the left flank as well

 

[eye4goal]

His crossing is ******* horrible, he's useful when he actually makes it into the box and can pass it to someone on the ground, but with high balls he's probably the worst in the squad bar Szczesny.

Think he's really not that much better than Sagna offensively.

Yeah and I think Gibbs 3 PL assists last season were all low crosses/passes. I think Sagna's biggest problem is he hesitates, and sometimes takes an extra touch or two before crossing(Jenks too). Gibbs is more capable going forward for me, and with a better final ball he should be looking at 7-8 assists per season. At least Sagna makes up for it with his solid defensive game

 

[Wouterus]

Sagna is a poor crosser, think that's quite obvious. Sure, we ofen lack manpower in the box, but half of Sagna's crosses are pointed at Giroud's knee instead of his head. Sagna really has a poor crossing technique.

Gibbs tends to overhit his crosses, but he also has attacking value by opening up defences when he paces down the left, picks up the ball and cuts it back to incoming midfielders. In possession, Gibbs increases the tempo and provides an element of surprise, whereas Sagna slows down our passing game and is extremely predictable.

I am glad we are experimenting with Sagna at CB. As a RB he is acceptable as long as he stays defensively solid, which he wasn't last season.

 

[eye4goal]

Sagna's crossing seems to have detoriated abit, he was quite good in 2007-08 with 7 assists that season(highest number for a FB over last 10 years or so for us). Incidentally that was the last season we played 4-4-2

 

[eye4goal]

Ramsey has improved for sure, but he still has a long way to go if he is to be a permanent starter. At the moment, it's his physicality that is keeping him in the team, likewise with Oxlade. Wilshere has the capacity, but he's out of form. Technically, the trio are offering very little, and for a team aspiring for aesthetic football, we are clearly being affected for the worse.

The British boys seem to take longer to develop, and its too risky to educate them all at the same time. It could be their coaching. I watched Zelalem this pre-season, and there he has a maturity to his game you don't see in Ramsey, Chamberlain or even Wilshere. I can see him developing at a faster rate if he gets a chance in the first team.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

Granted our crossing lacks some accuracy, but at the same time, Giroud's positioning makes the required cross nearly impossible.

Weren't we saying the same about Van Persie, Bendtner, Adebayor etc? We've always been weak from a FBs crossing the ball scenario... the only consistent member of the team up until now in terms of FBs has been Sagna. Clichy was a horrible crosser of the ball too, but no one seemed to debate this. We've not had good attacking fullbacks in virtually any sense of the word since Lauren and Cole.

It's more down to us not getting anyone other than the main striker in the box. There's no second man running in late to give the CBs something to think about other than marking Giroud. We need the CAM to attack the box and split the CBs to give Giroud some space to work with or to get onto the end of something themselves.

Completely agree, we've never really flooded the box as a team.

 

[Anzac]

Completely agree, we've never really flooded the box as a team.

Because our mentality as a team is to support and create rather than to finish or want to score.

 

[infineon]

Most of our players don't even have the engine to get in the box. We also have a further anomaly because Walcott is so bloody quick. I swear half the time he doesn't really use his true pace on the break because if he did no one on the team would catch him up! Otherwise you need good instincts (Lampard) and those players are pretty rare.

 

[Cruisio]

If Cazorla continues to play on the left then we're going to see Walcott suffer for it next season.

Unless Walcott is being fed through by someone who has the vision to pick him out and play the right pass then his skill set is very limited (and I like Theo)

 

[say yes]

I've never understood this obsession with our fullback's crossing. Yes our fullbacks are **** at crossing, so is almost every single fullback in the league. We don't even have anyone who can head it.

Far more important to me in an offensive sense are their ability/composure on the ball.

Sagna (16%) has a better cross accuracy than Ashley Cole (10%). Is he the better player going forward? Hell no.

 

[McIntyre]

Granted our crossing lacks some accuracy, but at the same time, Giroud's positioning makes the required cross nearly impossible.

His box movement on crosses is terrible; he's almost always firmly between both center backs. Any cross that clears the near CB will most likely sail over his head. Giroud should at least vary his movement on crosses; attack the near post, back out to the far CB and fight for position at the back post, fake a hard charge at the goal line and then when the CBs are committed pull back to penalty spot, anything.

I disagree.

Regularly last season Giroud was making runs to the near post or peeling off to the far post only for Sagna or Gibbs (often despite being in a perfect position and with time to cross) to needlessly dummy a cross, thereby missing Giroud's run, before putting the ball in; take so bloody long to put the ball in there that it gets blocked; or simply under or over-hit it.

Not to mentioned the hundreds of times that they lay the ball back in-field rather than cross it, even when in a good position to do so.

Then once in a blue moon they'll put the ball in at the right time and in the right area, and Giroud's not made the gamble. Instead he's peeling off to the penalty spot for a pull back, or readying himself for the one-two with Cazorla because he's expecting the full-back to lay it back inside, etc.

He should be making the gamble, but I don't blame him for not doing so when 99.9% of the time our full-backs have failed to deliver the right ball.

I believe our full-backs simply haven't been trained in the technique and decision making of that style of football. They've spent the last however many years at the club being specifically discouraged from crossing. And now that they're being asked to sling the ball into the area with greater regularity they too often find it conflicts with the possession based football they're also expected to maintain, so the decision making and delivery is often woeful.

Of course, it would help a lot if we actually had more than one player in the box at any given time. The wingers and attacking midfielders should be hitting the box once the cross is lined up too. It'd make Giroud and the full-backs' jobs a damn sight easier if they did, and we'd certainly score more goals that way.

 

[Dokaka]

You rarely aim a cross at a specific player, you aim it into an area where you know there's going to be someone at the end of it.

Sagna and Gibbs have the impossible task of hitting a lump in between 4 defenders + midfielders, as no one else ever attacks the box.

It's a huge flaw in the setup that I've mentioned for quite a while. And don't give me that "they don't have the engine" BS, they're professional footballers, and Ramsey always gets applauded for his engine.

It's not a matter of can't, it's a matter won't. It's a conscious decision made by Wenger to focus on finding that tiny amount of space behind the defense rather than trying to play a bit more on the luck of the draw and deflections.

If you ask me, it's Wenger's fault for failing to recognize that he doesn't have the required ability in the team to consistently find holes in a tight-packed defense, and thus more often than not his tactics fall short. You need a world class playmaker to open up a parked bus, and even if you do it you need clinical strikers to make use of the few chances they actually get.

 

[goonerwarsh]

Spot on with that post Dokaka