PL: West Ham United vs Arsenal | 05/11/06

[awooga83]

Agree ther Leonardo with someone like Rosicky who is 25 has had plenty of time to develop and show if he would be a goalscorer. He is a great midfielder and playmaker and can make intelligent runs but as you say he isn't a goalscorer and i agree non of our midfielders look like they will be bar perhaps Cesc because he is still very young. People like Rosicky will score some goals but they will miss plenty of sitters because they aren't clinical enough like true goalscorers are.

 

[kel varnsen]

Players can indeed suddenly turn into a more prolific goalscorer or loose lethalness. But imo if a player never has scored more than 3-5 goals a season (at the age of 25), it's unlikely he will start scoring 10+ even is he plays for a more attacking team.

unlikely, but hardly impossible. frank lampard did it when moving from west ham to chelsea. ballack did it as well a few years ago...

 

[alibey]

It would be nice to play 4-4-2 but i'm pretty sure we are going to go with our 4-5-1/4-1-4-1/4-3-3/or whatever the hell it is formation. I think we can beat West Ham by more than 2 goals but the most important thing is that we don't concede first.

You've got the point. Watching West Ham against Blackburn I wasnt impressed with them at all and I think we can put at least 3 by them.

Our lineup should stay the same overall, Eboue might be back so he could replace Hoyte. Also, i want Clichy to play again to get match fit.

I dont agree with this, I think Clichy isnt in good form right now and i preffer Gallas - Djorou - Kolo - Hoyte back line.

 

[Artillero]

I have not seen Thierry and Robin play well together so I would like to bring in Ali.

Ali has a point to prove against West Ham after how they treated him.

 

[clockwork orange]

Players can indeed suddenly turn into a more prolific goalscorer or loose lethalness. But imo if a player never has scored more than 3-5 goals a season (at the age of 25), it's unlikely he will start scoring 10+ even is he plays for a more attacking team.

unlikely, but hardly impossible. frank lampard did it when moving from west ham to chelsea. ballack did it as well a few years ago...

Lampard is indeed an exception to the rule, (Ballack already proved when he played for Chemnitz he could score 10+ a season) and I'm sure there are a few others (could mention a few too). But in general very unlikely.

 

[awooga83]

Although Lampard isn't particularly great at scoring goals in terms of being a goalscorer if he only had one or two chances a match he wouldn't get many goals but he takes penalties, freekicks and has god knows how many shots in a game with plenty of richochet goals in that mix.

 

[Captain]

Lampard scored the same sort of goals for West Ham, he just obviously had less chances to do so and more defensive work to get through.

He was still good for double figures (or at least close to it) for most of his time at West ham.

 

[Taozhe]

Teams always seem to play their scorcher games against Arsenal. It will be a tough match but I hope we can crush them.

 

[hujja]

Tomas may not be a reputable goal scorer but he has the ability to suddenly score out of nothing which is exactly what we need when we run out of ideas or when the pace drops off.

It would've been handy against the likes of Aston Villa, 'Boro and Everton.

I think Tomas should try more often when he gets within shooting distance. I've seen him line up to shoot and then pass to someone else a lot.

Sure there might be a wall of defenders in front of him but there's no harm in just letting one rip. It might taken a deflection or something. Hell, it might soften up the defense by injuring them with the immense power in his shots.

This West Ham game is going to be a carbon copy of the Everton game. I'll be happy with a 1-0 win although it might end up 0-0 again.

Here's to Tomas opening his Premiership account.

 

[USArsenal]

and quick question, why do people keep saying that Cesc shows more goal-scoring ability than Rosicky? how many goals has Cesc ever scored in a season? he has had his fair share of chances this season too, and has a total of exactly 2.. the same as Gilberto.. the same as Hleb, the same as Adebayor.. the same as Aliadiere even... and they have all (except Gilberto) played LESS matches than Cesc....

not sure how scoring at the U-17's translates into scoring ability in the Prem....

 

[kamikaze80]

for me, cesc has shown a coolness and composure in front of goal that i havent necessarily seen from rosicky (though i'm optimistic that he can eventually contribute 8-10 goals for us given the positions he gets in) and definitely not from hleb. you just dont see those two picking a corner and passing it into the net; whenever they score, theyre lashing at it.

thats my entirely unscientific basis for my opinion.

but gurgen has a point, pires, bergkamp, freddie in his day, and henry were virtually automatic when through on goal. composed enough to decide whether to chip and skillful enough to curl one inside the far post. right now, its just henry and rvp (jurys out on baptista).

 

[entropy13]

2-0 for Arsenal. I'm still hopeful.

 

[celestis]

Pires had a dip at Marseille, but he was a 10+ a season man at Metz. He has always been a goalscorer, the potential was always there. Rosicky and Hleb just don't have it. Cesc does have it, because he was a big goalscorer for the Spanish youth teams. No doubt he'll reach that level on the world stage too. But the other two, I'm not so sure at all.

Although I agree Pires was more of a goalgetter than any of our current midfielders, this you're a goalscorer or not philosophy doesnt wash with me.

Scholes for example scored loads from the middle, then when ages without scoring. Same thing happened with RVN and his new strike partner Raul. Peoples game changes as they develop.

I agree with that ,I reckon that Hleb and Rosicky can 10 a season.

In Hlebs case , with his stupendous dribbling skills , he finds himself in the box at least once every game . Thats 38 times a season. Only reason he does not score more often is because he does not shoot. That simple. In the positions he gets himself into , you do not need technique just shoot somthing is bound to happen.

Rosicky , his technical ability striking a ball is without question . He can score from any distance. Anyway, he scores a few for his country and with Arsenal he will get more chances .

I would say both are capable of 10 a season.

 

[RammiXP]

im worried about this one.

If west ham had not won last weekend i would be less worried but with that and the fact i feel we will be low on morale after playing so well and not winning, i see the best result we can get as a draw.

i pray for the win but can't see it happening without some real mental strength being shown from the lads. lets hope there up to the challenge

 

[gunner_down_under]

I'm gonna be optimistic for once...4-1 to the Arsenal.

Henry x 2, Rosicky and Fabregas...

We've outplayed pretty much every team so far this season and we're due a good win. Hopefully we won't concede early and West Ham will come out for us to attack them.

Is that making up for the misses on wednesday? cuz in that case, it should be 7-1 with RvP twice on the sheet and Gilberto once!

 

[Asterix]

This is the first time in ages I've enjoyed reading a match thread. Nice work everyone.

I've tipped a draw, because whenever I do we win.

 

[Aussie]

This is the first time in ages I've enjoyed reading a match thread. Nice work everyone.

I've tipped a draw, because whenever I do we win.

So if we do draw now I believe you should have to prove your worth in the lobby!

The next five games for me will decide if we have a chance of taking out the Premiership. United and Chelsea have perhaps their hardest runs of the season just about and I can see them dropping points. So clearly we need wins and nothing less.

 

[qs]

All our players are not clinical enough at the moment for example look at Van Persie he can finish fantastic chances then miss 2 or 3 sitters.
Finishing was the wrong word what i meant is we must be more clinical which is something we have struggled with this season, but the top teams are always clinical they can have a poor game get one or two chances anf they will score from them on those type of days.

I think this is just an over reaction to the CSKA match. Against Everton we didn't create enough clear cut chances due to their negative play. Thats a problem we will have to deal with time and toe again though so its no excuse.

We dont lack finishers. Henry and van Persie are, as Ive said, 2 of the best finishers in the business. van Peries has been missing chances because he's always in 2 minds at the moment. He'll get over that. Henry fails to score a coupole of games ina row and its a crisis, same thing happened last season then we hammered Boro. I wouldnt worry about it really, thats just football.

I dont buy into the notion our midfield doesnt have goals in them either. Fabs finishing is grand for a midfielder, the miss against CSKA couldve happened to anyone. I reckon Hleb and Rosicky will get at least 10 each in all competitions, Fab will be in and around that too. Plus Gallas always chips in with a few.

What did Pires do for us last season? We've more goals in midfield this year than last IMO.

 

[gunner_down_under]

This is the first time in ages I've enjoyed reading a match thread. Nice work everyone.

I've tipped a draw, because whenever I do we win.

Well, I'll tell you what mate it's the first time in ages a matchday thread hasn't exceeded 7 pages something like 5 days before the game! Whatever's gonna happen to the Ribery and Mascherano threads??


coming back to the game, it would be interesting to see the formation we will choose if Ade comes into the game towards the last 30mins or so, because I believe as long as we play 4-5-1, there's no room for him in the team, because, I dont know if he's as skilful as RvP running with the ball at his feet. And Henry's not going to be taken off, so we might just end up with a 4-4-2 as the game progresses.

 

[13fortune]

i'm looking forward to this match, especially when we were lacking goals against cska....
i wish best to guys to score as many as possible..
i agree that we must try shooting more often from outside of the box....many our players have good shooting ability from distance..
but i didn't think the problem against cska was not shooting from distance.
as thierry said, it was all about us. i don't mind if we will shoot only from 16 metres or less if we will outplay the opponent like we did cska