FC Cologne v Arsenal | July 23, 2011@1430

[Spork]

Ryo's work load really impressing me, just how he actually seems to put a lot of effort into each movement, always running toward the ball instead of letting it come to him, looks well motivated.

I haven't seen the second half yet as Arsenal Player stopped working for me and I can't get any videos to play at all now.

EDIT: I really do wish Arsenal Player didn't have the final score at the bottom of every page, it really isn't necessary and for those of us whom are unable to catch certain games live it does.. Well spoil the game a bit.

 

[Floating]

I though Gervinho had a decent game and had great positioning for his goals, but one area which he may need to work on is his vision/passing ability. A few times I noticed that his weight of pass was not the best and he often picked the wrong pass, a prime example in being when he passed to Vermaelen instead of an open Ramsey (in a counter). That being said, had a great game but I'm reserving judgment until I see how he performs in the PL.

This has been the general consensus on Gervinho by those that have watched him — he's a brilliant player, but a frustrating one as well. He'll score loads of goals in our team, add pace, directness and finishing to our attack (which we desperately need), but he'll also be sure to misplace a few passes and break down attacks by making the wrong decision at times. Can't have it all, I suppose! :wink:

 

[caek]

I though Gervinho had a decent game and had great positioning for his goals, but one area which he may need to work on is his vision/passing ability. A few times I noticed that his weight of pass was not the best and he often picked the wrong pass, a prime example in being when he passed to Vermaelen instead of an open Ramsey (in a counter). That being said, had a great game but I'm reserving judgment until I see how he performs in the PL.

This has been the general consensus on Gervinho by those that have watched him — he's a brilliant player, but a frustrating one as well. He'll score loads of goals in our team, add pace, directness and finishing to our attack (which we desperately need), but he'll also be sure to misplace a few passes and break down attacks by making the wrong decision at times. Can't have it all, I suppose! :wink:

Yup. The other thing I am worried about is that if he does indeed play in that LW position, is his willingness to track back and help out in defense. It's no secret that the right side of our team is much more solid defensively. This has something to do with Walcott's ability to read the situation and willingly help track back, but it's not only this. Due to Walcott's pace, team's are much more reluctant to push their LB/Winger's forward in an effort to stop Walcott exploiting the space left behind the defense, and in effect, Theo almost nullifies the threat without doing anything. We saw this against Chelsea (the win) last year, when Cole was hesitant in going forward due to Theo's pace. I'm worried about that left-hand side of our team, if Gibbs is going to be playing at LB and Gervinho, who's more of a striker, is in that LW position, his willingness to help out the defense is going to be part of his game. We already saw that in both of his goals last night, he pushed in-field. If things had gone wrong, say for example, Jack's pass did not reach its intended destination, we would be very vulnerable down that wing. I guess it's a case of risk vs. return, but Gervinho has to stamp tracking back into his game if he is to do well in the PL. I am not sure how Lille's formation worked last season and how different things are in the French league, but I'm more worried about Gervinho's defensive abilities than his passing game right now. This is why I intend to reserve judgment and see how he performs in the PL. I'm confident that he will be willing to help out defensively and I'm also confident Wenger will see to it that he knows exactly how these things are done, but I just hope he adapts better than Bendtner did.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

The Koscielny-Vermaelen partnership is slowly becoming a more than decent one.

There was one incident yesterday, when Cologne once again started a counter attack and played a ball behind our defence, and you could see Kos telling Verms to stay out wide (Verms looked slightly 'confused' for a second), because he'd cover the middle.

That's the sort of communication I'd like to see from our defenders more often.
I know Verms does that, and it's encouraging to see, Kos does it as well (like he did with DJ too).

That surely won't make up for our shortcomings in that area which go far deeper than just a lack of communication within the back four, but I just thought I should point out, that our CBs are communicating with each other.

 

[DK Gooner]

Kos had a mixed bag yesterday. It's still pre-season and hope that he can iron out the mistakes before the start. Kos did some things very well yesterday, but some of his decision making was poor. There was one particular incidence when he left an on-coming man to run across to the man with the ball. It was a 2 on 2 situation and TV was goal side of that particular attacker. By moving across, Kos created a perfect outlet for the opposition by creating a free man. They subsequently had a shot on goal which was missed. On another occasion this could have cost us dearly.

I think Kos is worth persevering with as he has improved markedly and I think there is further scope. My main worry with him is not the physical side of his game as that can to a degree be mitigated by having a complimentary CB partner. I worry more that he makes aggressive decisions which do not always reflect the needs of the situation at the time. Experience should hopefully improve his decision making, but are not in a position to overlook problems in what is a troublesome position for us.

Gervinho had the sort of impact I was hopeful for as his movement was excellent. My main concern is that bar Wilshere, the options on display did very little to create openings for other players. Gervinho has the ability to be dangerous and we just need the rest of the team to give him opportunities.

Chamakh was missing again. We had plenty of the ball, but not once did he look a threat or look integral to our attack either on or off the ball. With RVP suspended for the CL qualifier, he has got to do better than what we have witnessed this pre-season.

Vela did little better I'm afraid. I think he is more potent than Chamakh at present, but he still does not do enough to make himself involved. His link up play is not yet good enough for tight spaces and his movement, while OK, did nothing to create opportunities for either himself or his team-mates.

Alex Song was again his own worst enemy. He was poor in his decision making. He provided little cover to the defence. Even though he is fairly young himself, he has more appearances than all of that starting back 5. All of them have had a mere one season in the first team and so understanding is still in its relative infancy. While he is improved on the ball, he is not integral to our attack and his awareness of the needs of the team as the game unfolds is lacking. I expect significant improvement at the Emirates Cup as we need to be on top form for the CL qualifier.

Ramsey for me is still not ready to be thrust straight into the first team. He has loads of potential, but I see the conundrum that has faced Liverpool with Steven Gerard. Ramsey has a fantastic finish on him with range from outside the box. He can use both feet well and technically, he is superior to Gerard, but has obviously yet to reach the level of impact the Liverpudlian has made. Ramsey, when pressed, is not yet making the right decisions consistently or executing well when he does. His game at the moment carries too high a level of risk to operate as an AM in our current system. For Wales he is utilised as a number 10, but that does not seem to be a position we will be using. He has got potential, but he has not ready to overtake any number of our present options for a starting berth.

Frimpong did OK. He has great ball-winning potential, but that year lost to injury may have stifled the development of his passing game. More than decision-making, his execution was lacking. I think he has far more potential than Song, but is not yet at his level. He has a good engine and great determination, but he has to better pace himself. With experience and match-day intelligence he can improve on his staring position to minimise the need to make so many runs.

As for the FB experiment, I thought it worked quite well. Still a lot to work on, but the signs were encouraging. Gibbs provided a more penetrative attacking outlet on the left than we have seen in a while. He provided great width while also attempting forays into the opposition box. He has still has a lot of work to do, but provided greater threat than our CF. Jenkinson did alright at RB. Own-goal aside, I thought he showed some promise. He is still getting used to the game at this level and our style of play. He often played risk free passes backwards and ventured a bit too far forward when Gibbs was also advanced. A better understanding between the two is needed, but that will come with time and training. He has a very good cross on him and he showed some good defensive instincts. Nowhere near ready to start, but hopefully he can develop as a effective understudy to Sagna. Overall, I feel our attacking options increased significantly with far more space for our players to exploit even in the box, due to the increased width and threat of our FBs.

Overall a useful run out. Enough encouraging signs tainted with the predicted frailties being exposed in abundance once more.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

Agree with your sentiments on Kos, DK.

Sometimes, he's too rash when it comes to tackling, something that already costed us last season, and seemed to continue this pre season too. Didn't happen that frequently though, which is a good sign, hopefully.

 

[brady_style]

I thought Arshavin looked much trimmer than I've seen him since he arrived here.

He was always a bit podgy -remember those Pepsi ad photo's - but he looks like he's done some sort of work over the Summer on his body.

If we can get him playing to his potential it would be amazing.

 

[Armor for Sleep]

I don't think he's lost any weight tbh, said it during the game.

 

[Big Poppa]

One thing I picked up on, was the number of excellent corners we had, where the ball dropped right into an area of the box and we got someone like Kos positioned to head it goalwards.


Yet he couldn't generate any power from his header to cause a threat. This for me is another reason why we need to get a powerful CB in alongside Vermaelen. We get so many corners that we do so little with, yet opponents get just one, and They always seem to threaten our goal!

 

[jay-d]

The Koscielny-Vermaelen partnership is slowly becoming a more than decent one.

There was one incident yesterday, when Cologne once again started a counter attack and played a ball behind our defence, and you could see Kos telling Verms to stay out wide (Verms looked slightly 'confused' for a second), because he'd cover the middle.

That's the sort of communication I'd like to see from our defenders more often.
I know Verms does that, and it's encouraging to see, Kos does it as well (like he did with DJ too).

That surely won't make up for our shortcomings in that area which go far deeper than just a lack of communication within the back four, but I just thought I should point out, that our CBs are communicating with each other.

I saw something totally different to be honest. Again to me ease the opposition got through on times was appaling. We really need a solid partner for Verms. And Kos and Djorou as back ups.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

The fact that so many balls were being played behind our defense shows our pressing up front didn't work well enough. We didn't close down the opposition early enough, then you can rarely avoid such balls.
Once they didn't use long balls, their midfield could easily pass ours, as we've had too many holes there as well.

Also, our offside trap once again didn't work as often as it should, that's definitely an issue that needs to get sorted out.

For sure Kos made some mistakes, but so did Verms (****ed up at least one offside trap) and the rest of the lot.
Neither Cahill nor Jagielka at the back would've made any difference yesterday.

 

[fabo]

Positives:
Gervinho
Jack is bloody immense and looks refreshed again

Negatives:
Midfield cannot defend
Defence will again leak 40 goals this season
Nasri seems to be carrying on from where he left off second half of last season.
Only Arsenal could concede a goal like we did

 

[outlaw_member]

I don't think he's lost any weight tbh, said it during the game.

Agreed, he looks exactly the same, except for his hair.

I also agree with Fabo, only we could have conceded a goal like that. I know it was very unfortunate, but we seem to be a constant victim to many of these 'bad luck' moments. If it's not world beaters scoring the best goal of their career, it's a ridiculous error like that.

 

[alboots101]

Mostly ordinary with a few bright sparks..entertaining for a pre-season game.

 

[Spork]

I'm only just watching the second half of this game now.

Damn that move from Arsha in the fifty third minute was amazing! I actually dropped my jaw, showed more skill there than 90% of last season.