Player ratings and post-match discussion vs Fulham

[banduan]

Fabes 7 - two awesome saves and a few dodgy moments
Sagna 7 - solid as usual, attacking play a bit better with less silly crosses
Squid 4 - The sequence of play which ended with him headbutting Kos was horrific from him, and he screwed up a few times later too.
Kosh 6 - solid until taken out
Clichy 6 - tactically awful. Made so many positional errors. Industry saved his game.
Song 6 - I disagree that he was positionally suspect. But his passing is real sloppy sometimes.
Wilshere 6 - not his best, yet quality shone thru.
Rozza 6 - good all round play but nothing spectacular. Like an improved Denilson.
Nasri 8 - All round awesome game- and for more than 60min too.
Shava 7 - Dangerous and buzzing. Also has quick feet.
Chamakh 6 - Good link play but again missing that edge.

 

[brady_style]

Fabes 7 - two awesome saves and a few dodgy moments
Sagna 7 - solid as usual, attacking play a bit better with less silly crosses
Squid 4 - The sequence of play which ended with him headbutting Kos was horrific from him, and he screwed up a few times later too.
Kosh 6 - solid until taken out
Clichy 6 - tactically awful. Made so many positional errors. Industry saved his game.
Song 6 - I disagree that he was positionally suspect. But his passing is real sloppy sometimes.
Wilshere 6 - not his best, yet quality shone thru.
Rozza 6 - good all round play but nothing spectacular. Like an improved Denilson.
Nasri 8 - All round awesome game- and for more than 60min too.
Shava 7 - Dangerous and buzzing. Also has quick feet.
Chamakh 6 - Good link play but again missing that edge.

Spot on comments and ratings.

It's right on the money to say that at last Samir put in a full 90 minute shift.

 

[ibby]

Nasri: 10 x infinity

Everyone else: Who cares, we won

We should care. You don't think he's papering over our cracks at the moment?

 

[outlaw_member]

Ghosts!

 

[ricky1985]

Source

“Teams close us down because they know we play through the middle, so I push my midfielders up a bit at the start to give us more room,” said Wenger.
“Song is high up the pitch because we want him there.
“I am comfortable with that, even though it sometimes leaves us open in the middle of the park. If we lose the ball in the build-up, we are in trouble.
“But we want to play in the other half of the pitch and, therefore, we have to push our opponents back. My philosophy is not to be in trouble, but to fool the opponent into trouble.

“Sometimes it doesn’t do my heart-rate much good. But if you get the three points it’s OK.

So Song is just doing as he's told. I suppose we knew his role had changed already, but it's interesting to hear what Arsène's thinking when he makes these decisions. I don't like the idea, and I don't like the set-up of the midfield as a whole.

Why does Song have to be pushed forward when we're playing a man in the hole, and a striker who drops deep to link play constantly, too? He openly admits it can leave us exposed and vulnerable defensively, too.

 

[AshburtonGhost]

Lol, that's unbelievable stuff from Wenger. Basically admitting that we are kamikaze and as long as we win, it's fine.

 

[Shadow Moses]

@ricky1985 I thought it was common knowledge that Song's new position was all Wenger's work and that he really does despise a sitting/holding midfielder.

It really doesn't make sense when you consider the number of attacking options we have in the team or the fact that he's the only real muscle in the midfield. Incredibly naive tactics from Wenger.

 

[AnthonyG]

I'm not going to go so far as to say that Wenger didn't say something very similar to that, but, man, did that report 'clean up' his diction.

And, regardless, I agree with the others, Song's 'ordered' positioning sucks. Maybe he'll get more accustomed to the role and chose his spots better. That, or the others will.

 

[DK Gooner]

If he does play that high up, he needs to be able to press quickly and slow down the opposition to reduce their ability to counter. I just think he's too immobile to play that role effectively. He is slow on turn and is often beaten by any player with a reasonable amount of skill.

It seems to me that rather than doing the business defensively even if he is told to play higher up the pitch, he is operating more as a midfielder with license to attack the box whenever possible.

We may be getting away with it in the league where we now sit loftily at the top, but am sceptical such a risky tactic will be effective in the Champions League.

 

[Armor for Sleep]

lol, as if we needed confirmation. This is all on Wenger - I doubt Song himself is one bit happy with the change either, contrary to some on here who throw out the "stop thinking you're Zidane" rubbish. He's being asked to play in a role he doesn't have the atrributes for.

If Wenger wants to play midfielders high up the pitch, then why didn't we stick with our 4-3-3 of last year with Song as the holding midfielder and two pressing CM's rather than this current shambles. Another change to appease Fabregas perhaps?

 

[Anzac]

lol, as if we needed confirmation. This is all on Wenger - I doubt Song himself is one bit happy with the change either, contrary to some on here who throw out the "stop thinking you're Zidane" rubbish. He's being asked to play in a role he doesn't have the atrributes for.

If Wenger wants to play midfielders high up the pitch, then why didn't we stick with our 4-3-3 of last year with Song as the holding midfielder and two pressing CM's rather than this current shambles. Another change to appease Fabregas perhaps?

We'll 'know' when Chamahk, RVP & Cesc are all fit & available = if he still plays Cesc as SS then as far as I'm concerned they can BOTH go in the summer.

How the hell does this address our issue defending direct balls down the middle that he said he'd address the season he bought Sagna?

 

[ricky1985]

I'm not going to go so far as to say that Wenger didn't say something very similar to that, but, man, did that report 'clean up' his diction.

And, regardless, I agree with the others, Song's 'ordered' positioning sucks. Maybe he'll get more accustomed to the role and chose his spots better. That, or the others will.

Is that an assumption, Ant, or did you see Wenger say it for yourself?

Wenger's words are regularly twisted, almost out of all recognition, even by Arsenal.com. Unfortunately on this occasion he doesn't say this in the 6 minute long post-match press conference, so I can't get to the root of what he really meant. I suspect he said this in the short Q&A he does for the written press, which is not filmed. In the Daily Mirror, John Cross has a different slant and a different quote to the Daily Express - it's like they take Arsène's slight weakness with the English language and twist it to fit what they want him to say.

Would like to know exactly what he said and in what context he said it.

 

[AnthonyG]

Is that an assumption, Ant, or did you see Wenger say it for yourself?

It's an assumption - I've never heard Wenger talk like that. Most human beings don't, but Wenger especially. I'm not saying it's far from what he said, but I reckon it's been clean edited.

 

[Y va marquer]

Mark Hughes has us all worked out....

"The centre halves are not as strong as they have been and you can expose them because they are an attacking team and always get their full-backs advanced in spaces to exploit if you can.
" If you put them under pressure sometimes they are not used to it and have to do things they haven`t done work on"

"Did Arsenal look like champions?"
:twisted: "Not in this game, but that is credit to us"

 

[USArsenal]

wait, this is from Mark Hughes, the guy who just LOST the game?

they didnt win against Man Utd. they didnt win against Chelsea.. did he say the same thing against either of them?

meh, whatever, have fun in the relegation zone Mark

 

[Y va marquer]

I know! The fact that they didn't actually win seems to have passed him by.
He's sharing his master plan on the back of a defeat.

 

[MAK 14]

It's funny how Hughes tries to come across as an intelligent manager. He really is an idiot.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

I simply love it, when certain managers come out after they'd lost, and pretend to know how you beat the opposition you've lost too earlier before.

 

[sagreig]

they didnt win against Man Utd. they didnt win against Chelsea.. did he say the same thing against either of them?

No, but clearly Chelsea and Man Utd did look like champions because Chelsea battered them at home 1-0 and Man Utd annihilated Fulham 2-2.

 

[Iloveyouarsenewenger]

Especially the part where Man United missed a penalty in 85th minute and conceded the equalizer some five minutes later was really the mark of Champions.

After all, they gained one point over the same fixture last year.