EPL:Arsenal v Bolton Wanderers | Sat, Jan 10, 2009 15:00

[General]

Hleb has more pace and skills to get past players to create chances on the wings, something Nasri lack as like you said, alot of his plays are very very one dimensional.

Its very dangerous to play him in CM though. One thing is playing him in CM means nobody outwide, and he is abit suspect defensively. Only when we chasing game, then playing him there makes sense

Hleb has more 'on the ball skills' but I'm not sure he is any quicker than Nasri. He couldn't pull away from a player in his maiden season here and was equally frustrating on the wings. He only proved effective when he went AM behind the striker. This is where I see Nasri eventually ending up - AM rather than a pure CM.

 

[Macho]

I thought Hleb was quite pacy actually. It just wasn't his type of game. I don't think anybody wants to see Nasri in CM- but I would like to see him behind the main striker.

 

[DaGunners]

He won't sacrifice our 442 to play Nasri behind the striker...

 

[awooga83]

Bit late to the party here but went to the game yesterday and my god it was cold, thought I won't need the gloves bloody could have done with them.

Result was all important but from the performance you can still see we have major problems, we had no cutting edge we couldn't get into Bolton. In the past when we dominated we would be guilty of wasting chances but we hardly create any now. The miss from Ade was criminal he took far too long and too many touches and it could of cost us in a game like yesterday.

77% possession. Again, it speaks volumes about everything that's wrong with this side. No movement, creativity, or intelligence (besides Robin and Samir).

Spot on with this constant moving of the ball from lrft to right which is fine but its purpose is to unbalance the opposition so we can push into the gaps that appear but we could not do that so we just mov sideways aimlessly with ni ideas no one running on ahead or if space was there trying to run into it with the ball, so ineffective that way its quite sad to see what we have become.

But we just about got their in the end but still in very bad shape on yesterdays showing.

 

[DOUBLE-YOU]

Just a couple of points about the game Yesterday

1 - We need to play we more urgency,Wenger always points out the importance of the first goal,so we should be piling on the pressure from the start to try and score straight away.Most of the games we play against the lesser sides we seem to asleep during the first half and it takes a goal scored against us or the frustration of the crowd to wake us up.

2 - Vela should be playing for us on the wing while Fabregas is injured,Nasri should be more central and Denilson should sit his arse on the bench.Without doing a whole lot I was impressed with Carlos Vela,he is much more direct when it comes to attacking and he plays with a higher tempo than the likes of Nasri.Nasri seems to try a lot of long range passing when he is on the wing,most of which don't come off.Move Nasri more central and he can feed the ball along the ground like the one he put on a plate for Adebayor,he has the vision to make a defence splitting pass unlike Denilson.

3 - Give Jack Wilshere a chance,I mean he can't be worse than Eboue.The game was crying out for a player like Jack against Bolton,Eboue wasn't that bad but he just doesn't have the attacking prowess of a natural winger.Whats the point of having Wilshere on the bench if he never brings him on ?

3 - Give Bendtner a break,so what if his first two passes where to the opposition.He nearly scored within five seconds of coming on and he eventually scored the winning goal.Does he need to hear the sarcastic hooray when he gets his first pass right ? Straight after he scored he was pumping the air with his fists,I thing 50% of that was due to sheer joy at breaking Boltons stubborn defence but the other 50% was a f**k off towards our own fans.Understandable IMO

4 - Adebayor really needs to be told to stay inside the box,why does he persist in popping up on the left and right wing ? I'm sorry Ade but you will never be Thierry Henry.

5 - Almunia really needs to be told to stay in his box,twice Yesterday he came flying out for two balls that he hadn't a hope of getting.We got off the hook on both occasions,I know that he can be good at rushing out when confronted with a one on one occasion but FFS stay in goal when we have defenders back.

1- vela is a forward not a midfielder. he has done nothing to warrant playing wide. yes we are looking bland but he is not the answer. i would rather wilshere. defensively we would get punished if we played nasri in centre and vela wide.

2- totally agree with your point about bendtner

3- I understand your point about Ade staying in the middle, and to a degree you are right, but i think the problem is midfielders not getting in the box when he is wide.

4- I see where your going about Almunia and again you're half right. I think Almunia's problem is he doesn't talk. twice during the game there was confusion, the type that would never happen when Jens or Seaman were playing because they spoke to their defenders. i think about the goal keane scored for liverpool. ok djourou was the wrong side of the forward but gallas was a mile away when he should have been covering. a good goalkeeper spots this early and organises the shape of the team infront of him.

 

[Clrnc]

Hleb has more pace and skills to get past players to create chances on the wings, something Nasri lack as like you said, alot of his plays are very very one dimensional.

Its very dangerous to play him in CM though. One thing is playing him in CM means nobody outwide, and he is abit suspect defensively. Only when we chasing game, then playing him there makes sense

Hleb has more 'on the ball skills' but I'm not sure he is any quicker than Nasri. He couldn't pull away from a player in his maiden season here and was equally frustrating on the wings. He only proved effective when he went AM behind the striker. This is where I see Nasri eventually ending up - AM rather than a pure CM.

Nah. Hleb has lotsa pace actually. He was very good for us on the left, equally capable of the right. Nasri is more of a AM though like you say, than Hleb

 

[General]

Hleb didn't have the direct pace of an out and out winger just like Eboue but both are no slouches. In fact I'd say latter is the quicker man. Pace is Walcott, Clichy, Toure and Henry circa 2004. As far as I'm aware, the ****s best games came behind the main striker than on either wing.

 

[Captain]

He had enough pace to not get caught once he went past a man and that is pretty much all that you need.

 

[ricky1985]

Nasri is only going to get quicker though. Once he gets his fitness issues sorted, and his confidence really starts flowing, he'll be half a yard quicker.

 

[patrick42uk]

Hleb had pace but he rarely utilised it fully. He preferred to rely on his agility and quick feet. His instinct was almost always to use those and then move the ball on rather than look to drive with the ball which he is more than capable of. The main reason for this being he played with his head up all the time and almost always plays the right pass at the right time.

 

[otfgoon]

Hleb had pace but he rarely utilised it fully. He preferred to rely on his agility and quick feet. His instinct was almost always to use those and then move the ball on rather than look to drive with the ball which he is more than capable of. The main reason for this being he played with his head up all the time and almost always plays the right pass at the right time.

I reckon it was a confidence thing as well, as when he was on form he'd trying driving with the ball more often.

 

[banduan]

After watching clips of the video and the celebration I'm reminded how much Bendy is just a kid and RVP is actually a big bro to many of them. He just looked like a goofy chuffed teen looking to his bro for approval.

 

[Anzac]

Stayed up until 230am & then found out that the game wasn't being covered..........

we don't have movement off the ball, and we don't have players in attack willing to take on defenders - so we pass the ball to the man who is standing still waiting to recieve the pass...........or is it the other way around = we want to retain possession so we pass the ball to the man & as a consequence we have no movement & we don't take on individuals?????? To many technically profficient pass merchants, not enough creativity & very little flair!!!!!

 

[progman07]

There is hope. Wenger told in his interview that he accepts that nowadays teams defend, and he also told that the attacking teams have to adapt and improve on creativity and movement.

 

[irishgunnerz]

At the minute points are better yardstick than performance. Last year when we drew all those games people were complaining we needed know how to grind out a win. Well we're doing that now, albeit three months too late) but our recent form is actually the best in 2009 if I'm not mistaken.

I see that interview too prog, at least he's aknowledging the problem. At the minute we're suffering because of the lack of Fabregas guile & Theo's pace as an outlet. With Ade's indifferent form as well we do struggle to create and take chances. But as long as we keep getting points from games like this I'm not going to complain too loud. Its not as frustrating as watching us create chance after chance trying to walk the ball into the net, and ending up drawing 1-1 to some aimless hoof

 

[asajoseph]

Has anyone else mentioned the fact that Mustapha Riga was subbed on and off on saturday?

Something strangely ironic there, I thought...

 

[beck]

out of interest,where do you get internet access at 10 to 3 so close to the stadium?

 

[Clrnc]

Hleb didn't have the direct pace of an out and out winger just like Eboue but both are no slouches. In fact I'd say latter is the quicker man. Pace is Walcott, Clichy, Touré and Henry circa 2004. As far as I'm aware, the c**nts best games came behind the main striker than on either wing.

TBH, you just need to find the video when he tracked Ronaldo back all the way to be convinced he had geniune pace

 

[asajoseph]

out of interest,where do you get internet access at 10 to 3 so close to the stadium?

At home

 

[General]

Hleb didn't have the direct pace of an out and out winger just like Eboue but both are no slouches. In fact I'd say latter is the quicker man. Pace is Walcott, Clichy, Touré and Henry circa 2004. As far as I'm aware, the c**nts best games came behind the main striker than on either wing.

TBH, you just need to find the video when he tracked Ronaldo back all the way to be convinced he had geniune pace

Don’t think I need a video to make than call. I wasn’t suggesting he was a slouch by any means but neither was he a sped merchant. He’s a c*nt anyway. Typical greedy mercenary.

@ Beck. I didn't get your question.