Squad Analysis

[Anonymous]

Something Feanor said in the Villareal match thread made me think of something and i remembered this thread...
Here's the ages of our attacking midfielders: arshavin 27,Rosicky 28, nasri 22, Walcott, 20, wilshere 17. And strikers: Ade 25, Eddy 26, RVP 25, bendtner 21, vela 20. Looking at that age group, we're pretty much set in terms of attacking force for the next 10 years! Even if walcott decides to become a striker, we still have merida or lansbury or barazite who (can) make it. IMO we have more than enough experience, exuberance and all that despite what the media call us (immature, too young etc..). We have players at their peak and those still peaking, we're definitely set.
Only thing that struck me as funny was central midfield and central defense. Midfield's too youthful while central defense is too old (other than djourou of course, but you need a pair...not just one...)

I think Kolo is the right age, JD is young, and Gallas and Silvestre are experienced, add to that brining back Senderos and I think we have the right range of ages at the back.... We dont need a single purchase, however, if Wenger absolutely had to buy someone, for me it would be a at-his-prime (26-29) central defender who is tall and aerially combative. Not the shorter Gallas/Toure type. We Definitely don't need a single midfield or foward purchase.

 

[banduan]

Gallas too old? Kolo? Kolo too old?

 

[Anzac]

Something Feanor said in the Villareal match thread made me think of something and i remembered this thread...
Here's the ages of our attacking midfielders: arshavin 27,Rosicky 28, nasri 22, Walcott, 20, wilshere 17. And strikers: Ade 25, Eddy 26, RVP 25, bendtner 21, vela 20. Looking at that age group, we're pretty much set in terms of attacking force for the next 10 years! Even if walcott decides to become a striker, we still have merida or lansbury or barazite who (can) make it. IMO we have more than enough experience, exuberance and all that despite what the media call us (immature, too young etc..). We have players at their peak and those still peaking, we're definitely set.
Only thing that struck me as funny was central midfield and central defense. Midfield's too youthful while central defense is too old (other than djourou of course, but you need a pair...not just one...)

Central midfield is on the young side - both in terms of age & persistant playing experience / partnerships. Central defence should be in their prime.

 

[Lord Dula]

It was only a few months ago Wenger was saying he couldnt see any players out there who could improve us. Very worrying.

Get ready for the "we're looking to bring in one or two players of super quality and keep what we have together" spin.

Like on the playing side, do not get your hoes up on the transfer front. There wont be any swift big money deals.

 

[progman07]

Wow great find. I have forgotten about this topic.


Squad analysis: not good enough.

It would be interesting to see whether Rosicky can recover or not, because he is another body in front of Diaby and co.

Also, we certainly need to get in 2-3 world class players. At least two.

 

[AshburtonGhost]

A couple of articles have popped up over the past few days with Wenger saying he isn't looking for signings and the usual board blab of "we have money if he wants it". After five years of expecting summer signings, for the first time I have already resigned myself to not seeing anyone useful come in, let alone anyone at all.

 

[Zico]

A couple of articles have popped up over the past few days with Wenger saying he isn't looking for signings and the usual board blab of "we have money if he wants it". After five years of expecting summer signings, for the first time I have already resigned myself to not seeing anyone useful come in, let alone anyone at all.

I'm glad you're learning Ashburton. It's a waste of time to follow the BBC rumor update all summer long to find that none of those players are coming to Arsenal: they're all going to Liverpool and Chelsea. And then our players disappear after two days of rumors.

If you go into the summer believing we will sign nobody, then you will be delighted when our only signing is Fabian Delph.

 

[AshburtonGhost]

I should have learnt when we flogged Vieira and responded by picking up that mangy-haired Belorussian back in 2005

 

[progman07]

My team would look like that next year:

Almunia

Sagna Toure CB Clichy

Rosicky Cesc CM Arshavin

Villa Eduardo


Subs: Fabianski, Gallas, Song, Eboue, Nasri, Theo, RvP



Out: Diaby, Silvestre, Ade
In: Villa, DM, CB, Traore/Senderos back from loan and Rosicky would return. If Rosicky doesn't return, sign a winger, too, maybe (Theo and Nasri aren't ready yet to be honest)

Reasoning:

Diaby out, because he is lazy, injury-prone and doesn't have a real position
Silvestre out, because we can't compromise quality in defense anymore
Ade out, because he isn't the striker we need. With Arshavin in the team, we will need a striker who can stay onside, make clever runs behind the defense, can play 1-2s well, and who doesn't allow us to put stupid crosses in the box. He always dreams of Beyonce, I mean Milan.

That striker we need is Villa. A world class, experienced striker who would fit in our game and who can step up and lead the way by example. Expensive, but we will get money from Ade's sale.

Get in a CM, Barry, Alonso, Toulalan, whoever, the important thing is to get in someone who is a character. Someone who won't get muscled off, someone who will step up in key moments, someone who oozes class and shows leadership. Won't be cheap, but we need this change, really.

Get in a CB, obvious stuff, someone who is reliable, and will show strength and leadership at the back. I don't know whether he should play next to Gallas or Toure, maybe Toure as Gallas is getting older and will soon leave anyways.

 

[KY]

It was only a few months ago Wenger was saying he couldnt see any players out there who could improve us. Very worrying.

Well after seeing all our semi final performances, almost anybody would be an improvement over diaby and silvestre.

 

[Anzac]

A couple of articles have popped up over the past few days with Wenger saying he isn't looking for signings and the usual board blab of "we have money if he wants it". After five years of expecting summer signings, for the first time I have already resigned myself to not seeing anyone useful come in, let alone anyone at all.

I'm glad you're learning Ashburton. It's a waste of time to follow the BBC rumor update all summer long to find that none of those players are coming to Arsenal: they're all going to Liverpool and Chelsea. And then our players disappear after two days of rumors.

If you go into the summer believing we will sign nobody, then you will be delighted when our only signing is Fabian Delph.

You forgot the potential for City to steal the limelight in the market this summer.

 

[Captain]

City will only be able to sign middle tier players at best. We have enough of those; they won't have a significant impact on the transfer market except to drive prices up.

Squad analysis: Never play Cesc in a 4-4-2 again and buy the requisite players to play him in a 4-3-3 or sell him.

 

[Anzac]

City will only be able to sign middle tier players at best. We have enough of those; they won't have a significant impact on the transfer market except to drive prices up.

Squad analysis: Never play Cesc in a 4-4-2 again and buy the requisite players to play him in a 4-3-3 or sell him.

They are the new richest club around, and I think Robinho is better than middle tier.

More importantly I don't disagree with your analysis = get it right or convert it into revenue so as to make it right via other options.

 

[Captain]

Do you think Robinho would have gone there had any of the top teams around europe actually bid for him?

 

[Clrnc]

Toure should be a 3rd choice CB in a dream world. I would bring in a top class CB to pair with Gallas with Djourou as 4th. Sell Silvest and Senderos

Almunia
Sagna CB Gallas Clichy
DMC
Rosicky Cesc Arshavin
RVP Ade

IN: CB DM
OUT: Silvest, Senderos.

 

[Glovegun]

We need two centre-backs (because I reckon Gallas will god), a top midfielder and a striker who makes better off the ball movement than what we currently have.

Diaby will never be good enough. He has one good game in 9.

 

[Feet]

We have 3 games left this season, we've played over 55 games since August last year and there were quite a few questions from then that we should now have answers to, it's time for some reflection. Consider this my squad review now that we've seen most of the players in various positons. Don't expect too many amazing revelations or terribly insightful analysis, alot of this everyone already knows I just wanted to write it all down as it's been buzzing around my head these last two days. I'm going to look at the three sections of the field and then try and look at the bigger picture of the squad as a whole.

It's time to look at what we had at the start of this season, what has continued to work, what didn't work and what needs a complete rethink.


Defence

From 07/08, we had the two best full backs in the league in Clichy and Sagna, and one of the best centre backs in the league in Gallas. More or less this continued to work, we're unbeaten in over 20 games. We've had more injury interruptions than the previous season though, but I think the standard of defending, particularly from the fullbacks, dropped significantly from last season but not enough that it should be a genuine worry. Once Gallas was stripped of the captaincy I think he's been excellent, that responsibility was removed from him he was absolutely strong back there. I know alot of people will not forgive or forget the errors he's made in the past and question his right to have an Arsenal shirt but I believe he's righted the wrongs of his past with totally proffessional and consistant performances.

If we hold onto Gallas and Toure I'd be happy to continue with that first choice CB pairing, however I think there's a reasonable chance atleast one of the two will move on, and if it's Gallas then that's a major new problem for Wenger to solve. I'm happy for the back four to remain the same as it did for the alst 2 seasons,

Almunia
Sagna Toure Gallas Clichy

I can't see either FB going anywhere so it's just a question of who goes of the CBs if anyone, and whether Wenger will promote Djourou to the first eleven or if he'll get someone more established in. I think Djourou would be a better choice than Senderos, but I don't think he's ready to be playing 40 games a season at the highest level. So if Gallas did leave I'de be most comfortable with an experienced ready replacement so we have the proper strength in depth required for a 60 game season.


Midfield

We had Cesc and a crocked Rosicky left of the "fab four" of the previous season, and two young players in Walcott and Nasri. Then we had three players vying for the position in the spine of the team in Denilson, Diaby and Song. Not forgetting we still had Eboue as well. This was a far more contentious area of the squad and even now after 55+ games I don't think Wenger has settled on any definate starters and their positions apart from Cesc and (now) Arshavin.

Cesc has had a poorer season compared to previous and not had a consistant partner to help dominate the centre of the pitch, none of the three put forward have staked their ironclad claim on it, none of them have been consistent enough or good enough and so the problem we had at the beginning of the season still remains unresolved. I hope that one of these three will leave the club this summer, and be replaced with a CM player that Cesc, Arshavin and Nasri\Rosicky\Walcott can build a unit with.

Speaking of these other players - it's been made fairly clear that Nasri is not suited to being a winger so this is another player who should be played in the centre, that second position next to Cesc is getting congested with unsuitable possibilites. No one is holding their breath about Rosicky coming back, but I hope he does. We need his quality, or someone of his quality, on the other wing as Walcott has not been consistent enough on the right and I think that's been almost as big a dissapointment as the unresolved issue in the centre.

Rosicky New-CM Cesc Arshavin

With Diaby or Denilson leaving, I guess Nasri and Walcott can cover Rosicky if he fails to ever come back. One good signing in the centre and I feel we'll be looking good again with enough strength in depth too.


Strikers


We'd kept Ade, RvP was coming back from injury and we had Bendtner. Eduardo was out for goodness knows how long and there were rumours of Vela showing promise up front. The immediate thing to say is that the two senior strikers were largely disappointing. RvP had been injured most of 07/08 so I guess we can only be happy that he managed to play in lots more games this season and had a reasonable strike rate, but Ade has been terrible. Truly he's proven what alot of Arsenal fans suspected, that his excellent form the previous season, particularly with regard to finishing, was the exception rather than the rule.
Comparitively his finishing has been consistantly poor. Bendtner has done well when called upon, he's young and he's been very frustrating sometimes, more wastefull than Ade but with a much better excuse (young and inexperienced). Eduardo's return has begun before any of us expected it but has understandably stalled before it could get going and Vela has proved himself an excellent prospect but not ready for the big time yet.

Going forward I hope we can still get good money for Ade from another club based off his form the previous season, I believe that he was made to look good by the fab four behind him in that season as much as it was his own undoubted skill. He's just not consistant enough to be playing regular champions league games for me. Given a choice I'd have Eduardo step up in his place, but this assumes he'll ever be as strong as he was before the ankle break. I think Bendtner has a big future at Arsenal, he offers us options in the air which none of our strikers have I can see him moving up to third choice next season if he continues to improve.

Certainly the striker positions were the one place where I felt at the beginning of the season we could look forward positively from, but as it's turned out it's been the most dissapointing of all. Completely failed to meet the high standards of the previous season and that's largely the failure of Adebayor and to a lesser extent Eduardos ankle break. Thank goodness for Arshavin is all I can say, he really saved our league season from the brink of complete failure.

Edurado RvP

That'd be my choice for next season, Vela is a year older and will definately get more starts and sub appearances next season as fourth choice. I can't see Wenger buying another striker as if needed Arshavin can also play up front behind\with RvP or Bendtner.


So that's my view of it all.

Out by choice
Diaby\Denilson
Adebayor

In by choice
New CM

Which allows,

Almunia
Sagna Toure Gallas Clichy
Rosicky New-CM Cesc Arshavin
Edurado RvP

Bench
Bendtner, Vela, Diaby\Denilson, Song, Djourou, Gibbs, Eboue etc

That's the team I hope we'll be playing next year, (in leiu of certain players leaving or staying and any signing\s, as well as players coming back from injury properly. Lots of ifs and buts unfortunately.)

To summarise if that's all tl;dr for you, we've gone backwards. Same problem as last season in midfield with the added problem of not being good enough up front. Another transitional season it was, we can only hope that by August these issues will have been addressed directly so we can properly compete for the league title next season.

 

[lagos]

Arshavin doesn't want to play as a winger though

 

[Feet]

He's done "alright" as a winger so far though!

Still if that's the case and he wants to play up front then all the more reason to require one less striker, allowing the door to open for Adebayor.

I do feel that would mean we would need another player on the wing though cause Nasri and Walcott haven't been good enough, the former better in the middle and the latter too inconsistent. And I fear seeing Eboue regularly getting starts on the wing again...

 

[lagos]

Yes he has but I read somewhere his agent said he wants to play central behind the front man