UCL: Partizan Belgrade vs Arsenal, 28/09/10, SS4, 19:45

[GDeep™]

Fabianski done all that was asked of him and more with the penalty save, Wenger must back him from now. Djourou had his dodgy moments but won everything in the air, Song must have given the ball away 10 times in the first half, Denilson was class and should start against Chelsea.

 

[James]

@ Klaus

He's just been very slopping with his passing. In his position, he can't be giving the ball away so easily.

Still completed 81% of his passes apparently. When going forwards though, was probably at the 20% mark.

 

[GDeep™]

Oh, and Wilshere is something else.

 

[Nela]

If either of the two CMs should go forward, it should be Denilson. Better passer, better shooter.

 

[Don Pacifico]

Maybe I'm wrong. Just seemed to muck up a lot of simple passes.

 

[Captain]

no, you're right; 80% is a poor return in a game like tonight's.

 

[qs]

If either of the two CMs should go forward, it should be Denilson. Better passer, better shooter.

Problem is he's also more disciplined and Song plays on that, he knows Denilson wont go forward if he does so he thinks he can get away with it more.

I'm concerned Song seems to want to be a play maker. Its a pointless pursuit because we already have half a dozen quality playmakers. He's better off focussing on being the best defensive mid he can be, because we've none of those.

 

[Timleaf]

@ Klaus

He's just been very slopping with his passing. In his position, he can't be giving the ball away so easily.

Still completed 81% of his passes apparently. When going forwards though, was probably at the 20% mark.

76% according to UEAFA.COM. That's comfortably the lowest percentage of anyone in the team bar Wilshere and Arshavin, who are the team's playmakers.

 

[qs]

In the position Song is supposed to play, in our set up 81% pass success isn't all that good at all. I'd say its rare you ever see our central mids with lower. I check those stats quite a bit and even when I feel a players had a bad passing game the stats are nearly always around or above that.

 

[James]

Agree it could've been better, but i was expecting a lower figure than that

 

[goonerleila]

Wenger is instructing Song to play in his new role and I can't honestly see why he is encouraging him to do so. He looks out of sorts and a worser player than we know he is.

 

[GDeep™]

Between the 20 minute mark and half time, Song must have given the ball away 7-10 times under no pressure, simple passes.

 

[otfgoon]

There is nothing wrong with Song's passing when he keeps it simple, infact I'd say it's pretty crisp. The problem for him tonight and recently is that he keeps attempting balls even Cesc would struggle to pull off.

 

[Clrnc]

Btw, the Partizan support was amazing

 

[Nela]

qs, I agree. And that's why I'm worried about playing Song without Denilson there next to him willing to sit.

And it's annoying, because we're not getting to see the best of Denilson this way and we're getting to see the worst of Song(trying to be some sort of playmaker and breaking down our attacks).

 

[Captain]

Just for comparison Denilson made more passes overall and achieved an 86% success rate compared to Song's 76%. That's one in four passes that Song missed which isn't very good at all.

His heat map on uefa.com shows that he didn't abandon his position that much and he covered the fourth most ground after Denilson, Rosicky and Gibbs in that order.

 

[Don Pacifico]

Re: Song

Well, that's pretty much what I though but I don't check the pass percentage rates so I'm not too sure what is a good range. As I said, just seemed to misplace a lot of passes today, certainly more than I would expect of him but then again he's been doing it all season so far.

 

[qs]

The thing about those pass stats is they don't take into account a bad pass that a team mate still gets to or wins either, or a pass that outs a team mate under pressure.

 

[Tourbillion]

Denilson was excellent. Positionally disciplined, pressed intelligently, quickly released the ball. He's also looking beefed up. I'd definitely like to see a Den-Cesc-Jack midfield soon.

 

[Y va marquer]

Well who’d have thought it, Safe Hands Fabianski?! That elusive character Wenger apparently sees in training.
Glad he showed up tonight but wouldn’t be too confident that we’ll see him regularly.

Very happy with the away win and the performance following Saturday’s result though in the opening 12 minutes or so I was hoping the second bank of floodlights would give in….thought we were lucky not to be a goal or 2 down.

Perfect combination from Wilshere and Shava for the opening goal, delighted Chamakh scored the away goal, good for his confidence prior to the Chelsea game.

Still think we need to be more clinical with our finishing, squandered too many chances in the first half.
Our defending was suspect as usual so a team with a better strike force would have made us pay.

All things considered – just a little less anxious now at the prospect of facing Chelsea.