LC – Bradford vs Arsenal– 7:45pm – 11/12/12 - SS2

[evoh_1]

play a winger as a striker

a striker as a winger

a centre mid as a winger

And we wonder why we didn't have a shot on target for 69 mins.

disgraceful linup from wenger, the man has lost his mind trying to fit triangle shaped pegs along with the square pegs into round holes.

Get a system and bring in players to fit that system, not the madness we see each week.

Add in that we are now playing an attacking midfielder as our defensive lynhc pin and you have to look at the manager and his current squad building ability.

His love of playing out of position must come from the successes of Petit, Henry, RVP but come on man Gervais can't score from 12 yards 1 v 1 and you want him as a centre forward?

 

[outlaw_member]

Wenger's methods are becoming more and more questionable. How can you possibly have pre-planned your substitutions? I know this is hardly something new, but it makes absolutely no ****ing sense whatsoever. How can you decide before the game, who will be taken off at what time. What the ****? Does he have a magic ball or something? What ever happened to assessing how the game is developing and deciding accordingly?

What about deploying players based on form? Oxlade had a good game against WBA, yet Wenger would prefer to use a horribly out-of-form Ramsey in an unnatural position. Coquelin by all accounts was having a decent game, yet he was the first to be cut. Wenger loves experimenting with just about everyone, yet the ones actually worth trying like Podolski or Walcott at CF, or Cazorla at RFW is the ones he avoids almost completely. It's true that geniuses come off as being 'illogical' to your average men, but Wenger's just ****ing lost in every way.

 

[progman07]

I don't think it is a matter of not working hard enough[/u]. we lack genuine quality in certain areas.

You should stop and think for a while..
we weren't playing Barcelona, or any other big teams, and we got outplayed by Norwich, Swansea. And we just lost to Bradford.

Are you saying FM-mode wishlist will solve the problem? Well, in that case we need a major overhaul around 6-7 new players..

And about training, of course I don't know but watching Rosicky came back from 18 months constant injuries and look better than the younger players should give us a hint.

I understand where you're coming from, and even partly agree. But I really think that a lack of quality is the main cause of our poor results. Yes, we got outplayed by Norwich and Swansea. But Gervinho wouldn't even start for Swansea. Podolski, Ramsey in current form are midtable players, and they are not the only ones. A lack of serious quality, combined with a few players who are out of form, and this is what you get.

About the younger players: We can't expect from them to carry the team. If the team struggles, they struggle. I actually think our talents are doing quite well in general. Szczesny and Wilshere have been our best players for a few games in a row. The Ox played well against WBA. Coquelin did really well today.

The question must stand than again - what the **** did Wenger do with the huge amount of money available to him? Norwich and Swansea don't spent 140m a year on wages, they don't have 70m cash reserves.

 

[Hunta]

Agreed outlaw, it's becoming increasingly obvious that he's scared to upset some of our bigger names by subbing them off, embarrassing them. Podolski will play 60 minutes no matter how invisible he is, Cazorla will play the full 90 no matter how **** he is, Wilshere is getting run into the ground because we have no quality back up, 120 minutes against Bradford, really?

Coquelin was our best player by a country mile yesterday, yet he gets subbed ahead of Cazorla, Ramsey, Gervinho and Podolski?!

I want a manager with a pair of ****ing balls, when was the last time he made a sub before the 55th minute of a game without a player being injured?

 

[Stevo the Villan]

Yaya didnt call himself Grand Tourinho

He really, REALLY should have though!

 

[DiamondGooner]

So the big question why doesn't Arsène change his team selection?

You can't even use the excuse that it's a winning team with the odd upset.

Does someone want to add up our results for the last 15-20 games because I'm to scared to do it, the results are horrendous.

All Wenger gives a crap about is squeezing apple juice from oranges, he's picked his team and he'll keep playing it praying it comes good, he's pathetic and I don't care about the nostalgia he's hurting my club.

My respect and love for him will return the day he announces he's stepping down, hell build him a statue but right now you cannot forgive how the highest paid manager in England is getting the basics wrong and refusing to fix it.

No excuse what so ever.

 

[GDeep™]

Feel sorry for Wenger, I'm disgusted with these guys who cross the white and struggle to show even the basics.

Vermaelen played like a ****ing teenager, absolute ****** this guy atm.

 

[stiiphunn]

Wenger has to take some heat for the fact he choses to field Podolski and Ramsey as wingers, its clear to me why we look crap going forward with those guys as wingers. Its not their fault its Wengers.

Yes, I think this is our biggest issue at the moment. We're creating very little and it is mostly down to the players currently playing on the wings. They're either pure strikers or CM, and they're just not cut for the wings.

Looking at this from a broader perspective, our strikers/wingers are decent but they're not going to win you games nor are they going to create chances after chances. Walcott, the OX, Podolski, Giroud, Gervinho (!), Ramsey (!) etc. they're just not creative enough and unfortunately those guys are playing in the 3 positions that are around the opposition's box/goal.

Not sure who we could get in January, but an offensive player capable of creating is as far as I am concerned the ultimate priority.

Let's not kid ourselves. We've been below average this season in the final third. Actually we've been dire in the final third. I can't remember a single game where we litteraly killed the opposition (except maybe for a 6-1 or something). This is something we need to address.

I sort of like our midfield - Arteta, Cazorla and Wilshere. I actually think this is a brilliant midfield which needs to gel together a bit more. It's all very recent. I also think that our defense is fine - except maybe for the LB position.

Now if we could just add creative players upfront, things would go much smoother imo.

 

[eye4goal]

We've already had a shake up, though. I don't think there is too much that needs changing in regards to first team personnel. Wenger needs to stop his anal persistence with Ramsey on the flanks. Gervais needs to be replaced by a quality wide player. A striker and a strong midfielder would also need to come in, with Theo staying and that's about it.

Wenger's obviously failing to motivate and coach his players, which is the largest part of the issue.

I think the lack of motivation is down to the direction of the club more than Wenger. How can players be motivated when they see RVP replaced by Gervinho and Cesc replaced by Ramsey. If he buys better player I don't think his coaching and motivation would be an issue, but sadly we have been an absolute joke in the transfer market of late.

You look at the players and you feel they're just seeing out time before their next move. Walcott seems to be off, and even Sagna doesn't seem bothered anymore. Vermaelen has been so bad as a capain and I think he needs to be replaced by Wilshere

I think a clean slate would be the best solution for all parties. As for the shake-up I think it was more of us papering over the cracks with Mertesacker and Arteta. He is still handing player time on a plate to Coquelin, Ramsey, Gibbs, Chamberlain and Szczesney. I really think we're 5-6 players away from challenging with about 10 that need to be let go

 

[xinu]

The massive mistake of making Vermaelen captain is costing us big time here and he needs to be replaced by Jack who is the only one in the team with enough fight and quality to be captain. Sort this out first and then deal with the other issues such as dropping, getting rid and replacing because until this is done we won't do anything even if we spend big.

The team is weak mentally and disjointed and no one takes any responsibility. So zonal markings a joke because no one wants to organise properly or attack is crap because all players want to do is pass the ball on for others to do something rather than trying to make something happen themselves. So nothing happens as no one is willing to do anything. The same for the build up from the back, centre halfs just want to get rid of the ball instead of looking to do something positive even if that means sidewards or backwards.

The captain should be the main leader and run the team on the pitch but Vermaelen cannot as he is playing so badly generally and hes not a big enough character for it anyway. This is a test of strong management and it needs doing, fergie would have done it 5 games ago!

 

[MaestroCesc]

@Big Poppa, zonal marking has nothing to do with it, teams concede from set pieces all the time whatever the type of marking.

Dont understand criticism of Ox for having a right go at Chamakh, thats what i bloody well want to see from our players, not this awful silence they often display. Of course you should lay into someone who cant hit a 5 yard pass, it was disgraceful from Chamakh.

Having said that Ox's final ball along with Gibbs, Gervinho, Ramsey and Podolski (who didnt even have a final ball to hit he was that anonymous) was awful, at times they had so much space but always underhit or overhit, we often cross it when no one is in their. Dont understand why we didnt pile more men into their box. Our final ball was a joke, the fact we took 65 mins for 1st shot OT, 87 mins for a goal and we only scored 1 in 120 mins against a L2 very tired Bradford team. Our attack has been **** this season, but frankly that is beyond shocking.

Credit to Ox and Jack for tucking away their pens, pretty awful we scored 2/5 too... Shows we are bottlers especially as two hit the posts. I said after Fulham Ox should be no1 on our Penalty taker list, yesterday he had to score or we would go out and he did the best pen of the night under extreme pressure.

Huge credit to Jack also for trying take the responsibility of winning it himself, stepped up to the plate very well considering he wqas obvously very tired by the end and has only played a couple of games since comeback but he should have done much better with his chance.

 

[kopzilla]

I put money on us to get the equalizer. I just knew we would get our usual last min goal and it had to be Vermaelen.

We almost won it in injury time and we had the momentum. I thought it would be a straight forward win in ET. So I put money on us to win it in ET and left the house for some work only to see us lose in penalties some time later.

tbf we did have a couple of shots on target..Cazorla hit the bar and the keeper did well to make some saves..but we should have finished it in ET.

 

[VAVAVOOM 14]

The massive mistake of making Vermaelen captain is costing us big time here and he needs to be replaced by Jack who is the only one in the team with enough fight and quality to be captain. Sort this out first and then deal with the other issues such as dropping, getting rid and replacing because until this is done we won't do anything even if we spend big.

I'm confused, you want Wenger to hand the armband over to a 20 year old Wilshere so he can captain this sinking ship? Thats far too much pressure for him at this stage in his career, especially when you look at the imbroglio we're going through.

He's not even mature enough yet, he needs to work on his temperament as he gets hotheaded rather easily.


P.S.

If Vermaelen were to get stripped, Why would Wenger bypass Arteta-the vice captain- and award it to Wilshere?

This would only continue the trend of using the captaincy as an incentive towards our best players in hopes that they don't leave.

 

[evoh_1]

Pretty dire times when you get trolled by a league 2 team that just slapped you down:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-torquay-a-tougher-task-than-the-gunners-1486892" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/ ... rs-1486892</a>

Torquay put up more of a fight?

Seemed to try out there but it wasn't good enough against weaker but better organised opponents, still hte inquest continue as the team can't seem to find the next gear.

 

[Glovegun]

@Big Poppa, zonal marking has nothing to do with it, teams concede from set pieces all the time whatever the type of marking.

Dont understand criticism of Ox for having a right go at Chamakh, thats what i bloody well want to see from our players, not this awful silence they often display. Of course you should lay into someone who cant hit a 5 yard pass, it was disgraceful from Chamakh.

Agreed.

The Ox had a piss poor night as well really, but he's fifty times the player Chamakh is. And I hated the way Chamakh kept on haranguing him afterwords, as if demanding a certain level of performance from your teammates is wrong. Roy Keane would've lynched him.

I f*cking hate Chamakh. He's too cowardly to put himself about physically or break into a job, he doesn't seem like he wants to score goals, he looked disinterested during the shoot-out and seemed like he was going to cry when the Ox told him where to shove it.

He's a pathetic, useless little wimp and the sooner he f*cks off the better. Some bloke on this forum defends him constantly and talks about how badly we treated him when RVP was here. Boo-hoo, poor little man on £60k a week whilst people who don't earn a quarter of that in a year fork out to watch him play. Forgive me if I don't feel overly sympathetic. If Chamakh was that bothered about playing football he'd piss off, but he isn't.

 

[bojed]

Diaby on the left wing, Flamini at left back, Eboue up front and now Ramsey on the right wing, Podolski on the left wing and Gervinho as a centre forward. What's the common theme here?

We have poor squad depth and Wenger has been inhibited by the club's determination to keep a lid on the median wage, but there are other things in Wenger's control that I'm failing to understand.

He said that we had five strikers on the pitch against Bradford and failed to score. The way I see it is we had just one, and he was on the left wing and we failed to even create a scoring chance. Who, pray tell, were the other four strikers?

As for the goal we conceded, zonal marking yet again left a guy completely free at the back post. It's beyond a joke and we're fast becoming a punchline for footballing jokes.

The sad thing is we have some very talented players - not many, but a few. There is no hint though of any game plan. We just go into each match with the same approach. If nothing changes after 60 minutes, then we'll take off Podolski for someone and hope for the best. This despite a string of poor results. Why are we playing with one striker and no width against a team 3 divisions below us?

We had to wait 70 minutes for an attempt on target against a League Two side, with close to our strongest available XI. The problem wasn't a lack of effort, it was a lack of quality and cohesion. Players don't need extra training sessions, management and coaches need to admit they've got it wrong and change something. Last night was an ideal opportunity to try something new, yet we went for the same again. It's bordering on insanity.

We had to play Flamini at left back because both cashley and clichy were out injured. IIRC we were very unlucky with injuries in that season. We played cole, clichy, flamster, seb larson, lauren, eboue and cygan at LB in one season

I agree with everything else.

 

[Invincible]

Can everybody else see what I'm seeing in this picture? Can't be an accident surely? Perhaps the photographer knows something we don't?

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

Don't know, nothing tops the 4-4 against Newcastle in 2011 for me, although I'm cautious with claims like that, you never know what's still upon us.....

 

[VAVAVOOM 14]

This is possibly the most humbling, humiliating result in our history.

 

[Floating]

This is possibly the most humbling, humiliating result in our history.

Worse than the lost against Wrexham after we had won the league (who were farther below us than Bradford is), or the 8-2 last year?