UCL - Arsenal Vs Schalke - 24/10/12 19:45PM SS4

[Big Poppa]

The team is lacking serious width. It astonishes me that our management team refuse to recognise this and continue to select centre forwards/central midfielders there.

Why the frack did it take 75 minutes to make any sort of change and why did we make no change to our shape whatsoever? Ramsey had no interest in playing where he was told, Podolski ain't a ****ing winger, Gervinho's not a centre forward!

 

[coopsollini]

Cazorla went missing second half, he's not playing too well atm. But then who is.

I wanted Cazorla to sit this one out after the Norwich game. Fella looks knackered and will be done for the season in December if he doesn't get a bit of rest soon. Unfortunately he's one of few players in the squad who's capable of playing football and thus he's being run into the ground.

Indeed, tonight was a night when we could have put Arshavin in the CAM role. We need to use the squad more effectively, rather than run our best players into the ground.

 

[darthwenger]

This club is BURIED under a weight of mismanagement, lack of investment, misplaced faith, lack of direction and low expectations.

This sentence says it all for me.

I know the ground was basically empty by the final whistle - glad Kronke there to see the empty ground considering he hasn't invested a penny.

 

[Buhry]

I knew I would be right when I decided not to bother about looking for streams for this one.


This is getting worse every season, and with THAT money in the bank, Arsenal just becomes more and more annoying.

Same here, watched Dortmund-Real on tv instead of looking for a stream, definately a good call.

**** result, not suprising at all either. We're garbage going forward and with ramsey in midfield and santos and mannone on the field it's no suprise that we're leaking goals.

 

[The_Playmaker]

Terrible performance tonight from nearly everyone. Some credit to Mert and Caz. Worst players were Santos and Coq.

Coquelin was easily one of our best on the pitch, the only one to put his body on the line, far better than Ramsey or Gervinho. Podolski was completely anonymous for the fourth or fifth game in a row, and is still not able to finish 90 ******* minutes, need to check on that. If we're trailing at home in the last minutes, we can't just sub him out, should've taken Santos off and played Mert-Verm-Coquelin at the back.

Also, Bould gets on my ******* nerves waiting with his subs until the 85th minute, far worse than Wenger ever was in that aspect. Did the same vs Montpellier and Olympiakos, what's the point of letting them warm up fifty minutes if he's going to sub them for five minutes?

Podolski may be playing with an ankle injury, one of the commentators said it prior to the Norwich game. It certainly looks like he isn't as free in his movement.

I think its more likely that Wenger told Bould that he had to make certain changes at certain times. Wenger is still in control and most of Arsenal's changes look predetermined. A change that should have happened would have been sorting out our left hand side of the pitch, and then possibly sort out our right hand side.

I agree that Coquelin played well. What I found amazing is that we pushed Mertesacker into a centre forward position, without any intention of knocking it forward or crossing the ball.

 

[MaestroCesc]

:x

Cazorla went missing second half, he's not playing too well atm. But then who is.

It's the kind of game a RvP or Cesc can drag you through kicking and screaming, though.

That's the difference between those two and a Santi-level talent. The ability to do it almost single-handedly when the teams needs it.

We had many poor games like today with RvP or Cesc in the side, sometimes both. Too early to be making those kind of comparisons.

Yes too early, but still its clear that he isnt as good as either them and it isnt that close.

 

[Anzac]

I absolutely HATE the 4-3-3 / 4-5-1. Everything about it.

And yet you could say that Shalke used a 4411 / 4231 / 433 against us to great effect.
The difference being the team patterns & player roles - we look to play our 4231 as a 451, whereas they played their 4231/4411 as a 433.

Compare how effective their front 4 of Huntelaar, Farfan, Afellay & Holtby. Farfan was the player who attacked Santos on the flank NOT their RB, both WFs acted as WFs & looked to get into the area on & off the ball. Holtby played higher up the pitch in support of Huntelaar than Cazorla has done of late.

We bemoan how slow we are in transition - little wonder when the opposition jam the centre & force us wide & we then rely upon the FBs to provide width in the attacking 3rd - we have to wait for them to get forward & join the attack.

Since CFC we have NOT played counter attacking football at all & have yet again reverted to AW's possession passing game in a 451,
which is his bail out formation & style, as much as the cross from the FBs is the bail out equivalent ON the pitch.

 

[McIntyre]

WOW, want a stat?

From SSN, Arsenal have had the fewest shots on target of ANY TEAM in the CL this season, ANY TEAM.

That's because all individuality and speculation has been drilled out of our players.

Instead of shooting they always play the extra pass.

Where other teams' players have room to get a shot away, ours don't. Because we're playing so narrow that there's three other Arsenal players within a 3 metre radius and another 4 opposition players.

Gnabry came on and showed more individuality, ambition and invention than the rest of our squad (bar Cazorla) have done for years.

We still see fleeting glimpses, but 99% of the time our play is boring and predictable.

Cazorla already looks like his invention is being hammered out of him, and Gnabry will soon follow.

Whereas the invention and individuality of Bergkamp, Henry, Pires etc. expanded our game, nowadays all invention and individuality is curtailed to facilitate our brand of Barca-lite training ground football.

 

[DiamondGooner]

Why the frack did it take 75 minutes to make any sort of change and why did we make no change to our shape whatsoever? Ramsey had no interest in playing where he was told, Podolski ain't a ******* winger, Gervinho's not a centre forward!

LOL

Santos isn't a LB either.

 

[Glovegun]

Just got back from the game, and this team is already beginning to annoy me.

I'll leave aside the pathetic, sh*t atmosphere and plastic gimmicks around the ground. That's for another debate.

I just cannot stand this tippy-tappy five-a-side crap that Wenger has them playing. If you want to play possession football, a la Barcelona, it has to be perfect. All we do is knock it around and wait for someone to **** it up. No-one runs beyond the ball, everyone just jogs around and wants it to feet. To feet to feet to feet. There's no width, no-one takes a shot, nobody works for the shirt.

We're short on quality because we sell our best players every close season, but we have to work with what we've got for now and the team just aren't putting a shift in.

We've gone from Thierry Henry to Gervinho in five years. Absolute sodding joke. To everyone defending 'Gerv' and comparing him to Thierry, have a laugh. Go to a game, take a look at him, and try telling me there's a twenty goal a season striker in there. Go and get a proper striker Arsène. Chuck a load of money at Dortmund for Lewandowski, or exploit the rift between Lambert and Bent at Villa. Just get a proper striker in please, not this receding clown in the number 27 shirt we've currently got.

Thank God for Mertesacker, because if he wasn't there we'd have lost by more tonight.

 

[MaestroCesc]

Depressing when you look at our team today wasnt even that bad. Although i think we will never see our best team because of injuries which is

Szczesny
Sagna-Koscielny-Mertesacker/Vermaelen-Gibbs
Areta-Wilshere
Cazorla
Walcott/Ox-Giroud/Podolski-Podolski/Ox

 

[Hunta]

Even our best possible eleven isn't that great, our forwards are just bang average IMO.

 

[evoh_1]

Hahaahahaha what another joke.

we lacked a bit of confidence, we were jaded, we lacked sharpness on and on and on. Whats wrong with them they got battered at carrow road and may has well not have even turned up for this fixture again when will itnot be about the match that has gone but about the players, the preperation and attiude around this club over for quite a while now.

Mannone again is shameful and a standard facepalm everytime he's asked to do what is supposed to be his job.

Podolski, like everyone else no movement, desire or care for the result or performance.

Gnabry was our best player out there and he had what 10 minutes and is 17 years old, first guy to have a shot and it would have gone in if not for a great save.

Nothing will change after this and the same rhetoric will be wheeled out again and again which is beyond annoying but to be honest thats just how it is really with the club.

Another important point:

OUR FANS ARE SO **** IN GENERAL ITS UNBELIEVABLE

I will stand in the supposedly most rowdy section of the stand chanting my heart out till i'm hoarse and is there anyone joining in? No, not a f#cking chance. Does anyone show any interest outside the big matches? Hardly.

Take not for the Germans, Dortmund last year and Schalke this year they support their teams so much is deafening while we don't even bother. Maybe its the cheap tickets they have and such but their is an ethic to be a unit of support, no english team has that we certainly don't as a unit give anything back to the squad on the pitch.

I congratulated some of their supporters on the way back as they didn't cheat, played us off the park and their fans did a sterling job.

 

[Giroud]

Our strikers are too isolated in my opinion. The lack of a driving force in midfield is forcing Cazorla to drop deep to get control of the ball leaving our striker isolated. Our wingers do f*** all on the ball and rarely support our centre forward too. I'm no big fan of Diaby but his ability to bring the ball forward is hugely missed. I think we have missed him more than many have thought. Crossing is woeful as usual but it's our off the ball movement that is killing us, no support, no runs to split defences. We could get away with our lack of quality out wide with some proper movement and drive in attack but if we want to push on we're going to need that along with a proper squad and quality wingers.

 

[jones]

Cazorla went missing second half, he's not playing too well atm. But then who is.

It's the kind of game a RvP or Cesc can drag you through kicking and screaming, though.

That's the difference between those two and a Santi-level talent. The ability to do it almost single-handedly when the teams needs it.

We finished fourth with a front six including Cesc, Nasri, RVP, Theo, Song and Wilshere. This has nothing to do with Santi, we could have had Messi in our line-up today and he wouldn't pull us through this, because the team as a whole couldn't be arsed to do ****.

Nobody making any runs, absolutely no movement off the ball, nothing. Countless passes from Vermaelen to Mertesacker and vice versa, they pass it to the fullback, fullback to Arteta or Ramsey, they either lose the ball or pass it back to our CBs. Disgraceful, we haven't had a real chance at goal for full 180 minutes now, as soon as a team sits back we turn to a dog turd.

 

[Coypus]

The team is crap. Coquelin, Metsacker, Jenks and Gnabry are the only ones fit to wear the shirt. The rest can f*** off. As for our joke captain what ever happened to the Verminator? All I see is a mouse.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

Cazorla went missing second half, he's not playing too well atm. But then who is.

It's the kind of game a RvP or Cesc can drag you through kicking and screaming, though.

That's the difference between those two and a Santi-level talent. The ability to do it almost single-handedly when the teams needs it.

We had many poor games like today with RvP or Cesc in the side, sometimes both. Too early to be making those kind of comparisons.

That was the point, though. Poor games like those were far more winnable with higher quality players.

You'll always play poorly at some stage of the season, it is when the chips are down that the very best drag you through.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

We finished fourth with a front six including Cesc, Nasri, RVP, Theo, Song and Wilshere. This has nothing to do with Santi, we could have had Messi in our line-up today and he wouldn't pull us through this, because the team as a whole couldn't be arsed to do ****.

Nobody making any runs, absolutely no movement off the ball, nothing. Countless passes from Vermaelen to Mertesacker and vice versa, they pass it to the fullback, fullback to Arteta or Ramsey, they either lose the ball or pass it back to our CBs. Disgraceful, we haven't had a real chance at goal for full 180 minutes now, as soon as a team sits back we turn to a dog turd.

What is it with you and Strawman arguments? I wasn't talking about league position, I was talking about a single game. Top talents often win you individual games that you didn't deserve to win.

And you can bet your house that Messi would have made this game different through fear factor alone. Messi would do more than our front three combined tonight, and that half a yard for the other two players in the front line could be put to good use, too.

 

[Bossa]

We had no ideas and we played with no urgency. I swear playing Gervinho up top is like playing with a black hole. The ball just gets lost. Cazorla and Podolski are nowhere near their standars when you go that Forehead flopping all over the place.

And what the **** is wrong with Ramsey? This guy is a total joke with no basic technique at all.

And I swear André Santos is the new Eboué but even worse.

I cannot wait when AOC, Gibbs and Wilshere are back.

 

[Airknight]

The same Messi that had so much influence in the game against Celtic? pfft.

Better players equals better chance of results, that's obvious, but i think there's a problem in how we want to play because rivals currently can without much trouble reduce us to just backward passes and the odd cross, zero threat.