An Interesting Article
I just read this on The Guardian website (so I acknowledge all copyrights etc. blah blah blah)...found it quite interesting...
West H*m showed how to defend against Arsenal, always retaining their shape and making sure their full-backs were not dragged infield by Freddie Ljungberg and Alexander Hleb's decoy runs to create space for Ashley Cole and Lauren.
If you keep it tight on the flanks against Arsenal you have a chance. Although they don't hit crosses in the air, they like to get Cole and Lauren forward, build from there and sometimes flash low balls across the box.
West H*m funnelled Arsenal into central areas and the visitors' play petered out around the edge of the box with overelaborate passing. They were challenged to thread the ball through the eye of a needle and at the moment they're failing to do that.
Space for them is often created by the movement of the wide midfielders. But Paul K*nchesky and Tomas R*pka didn't follow when Ljungberg and Hleb moved inside in the middle third of the field.
When Gilberto Silva had possession on the right, Ljungberg ran infield. But K*nchesky would pass responsibility for Ljungberg to Hayden M*llins and would then drop off and make sure he wasn't too far from Danny G*bbidon. If he had gone towards Lauren it would have left space behind for an Arsenal player - probably José Antonio Reyes - to spin into.
This way West H*m kept things nice and tight. Although Lauren and Cole went forward well at times, West Ham coped without real problems.
K*nchesky and R*pka realised there were times when they had to go with their man. It's important nearer the box, in more critical positions, whether the wide man has the ball or not. And also if the wide man gets possession and goes infield the full-back sometimes has to follow and make a challenge.
What are your thoughts people?
West H*m showed how to defend against Arsenal, always retaining their shape and making sure their full-backs were not dragged infield by Freddie Ljungberg and Alexander Hleb's decoy runs to create space for Ashley Cole and Lauren.
If you keep it tight on the flanks against Arsenal you have a chance. Although they don't hit crosses in the air, they like to get Cole and Lauren forward, build from there and sometimes flash low balls across the box.
West H*m funnelled Arsenal into central areas and the visitors' play petered out around the edge of the box with overelaborate passing. They were challenged to thread the ball through the eye of a needle and at the moment they're failing to do that.
Space for them is often created by the movement of the wide midfielders. But Paul K*nchesky and Tomas R*pka didn't follow when Ljungberg and Hleb moved inside in the middle third of the field.
When Gilberto Silva had possession on the right, Ljungberg ran infield. But K*nchesky would pass responsibility for Ljungberg to Hayden M*llins and would then drop off and make sure he wasn't too far from Danny G*bbidon. If he had gone towards Lauren it would have left space behind for an Arsenal player - probably José Antonio Reyes - to spin into.
This way West H*m kept things nice and tight. Although Lauren and Cole went forward well at times, West Ham coped without real problems.
K*nchesky and R*pka realised there were times when they had to go with their man. It's important nearer the box, in more critical positions, whether the wide man has the ball or not. And also if the wide man gets possession and goes infield the full-back sometimes has to follow and make a challenge.
What are your thoughts people?
posted by NyssietheGooner at 1:45 PM
30 Comments:
I think every Premiership manager who hadn't sussed that out - now has the blue print on 'How to stop The Arsenal' But end of the day - thats nothing new to any of us who watch the boys week in week out - we all know we only have Plan A. When it works its fluid & a joy to watch when it doesn't we're fucked - we need to vary it - everyone knows that.
we need to move the ball around quicker, this season in the away games we have plodded compared to our old pacey style.
when played with breakneck pace our game suddenly becomes ten times harder to defend against.
we also need someone like Quincy to get in behind and a proper striker wouldn't go amiss either.
I think the thing with our 'good' game is that the passing is very quick and intricate.
So everyone has to be on their game and be gelling with each other.
This is a VERY young team, but if one cog isn't 100% the machine doesn't work properly.
Surely things are far worse then the club is letting on.
Selling of PV made no sense. He may not have been as good as he was, but he was still hell of a player. He would have also helped the youth players. A new stadium with Uefa cup football to fund it makes the £13.5m a stupid piece of transfer dealing.
Wenger came out on Sky to say that he does not know if Henry will re-sign, and that he would not be surprised if he left.
Mr Hotspur
Sure..which team haven't thought of a game plan to counter Arsenal. But the sad part is Arsenal DON"T have a plan to counter it!
Our offence is a bit of let down..there was a certian lack of creativity, and what the article said we tend attack down the centre and our wall passes just couldn't come off.
When Quincy came on, he cause WH defence a bit of problem with his runs. The difference between him and Reyes is that Quincy makes space for himself whereas Reyes runs into defenders, 2, sometimes 3 of them, at times the referee even.
Another thing I notice is that we hardly take a shot from outside the box. Could it be our team lack confidence?
Add this to what Alan Hansen explained about defending against Arsenal and it could be a tough season.
No debate. Too serious a subject.
when you don't shoot. you don't score. period. can't pass the ball into the freaking net. Wenger needs to stop "always looking on the bright side."
I feel Hleb has been great, i do feel his shooting ability is superb. i would love to see him try getting those shots on especilally passin in into the net seems not to work
Watching Arsenal in the Prmiership so far this season has been like watching Arsenal in the Champions league for the past five seasons - frustrating. It seems that it used to be only decent european teams who could stop us playing the sort of football that used to rip teams apart, week in and week out in the Premiership. Now teams like West Ham, Everton and Middlesborough have worked it out as well. It's going to be a long season!!
This season is over despite what AW said on Saturday. The Bank of Chelsea's run now see's them 36 games unbeaten & unless a fluke result goes agaisnt them I can see them getting our record - that said I hope I just jinxed the fckers. We are a team in transition & I make the guy right who said 'give the kids a chance' - We've all said it one time or another - however the reality is SOME of them will make the grade & some wont. Just cos we're Arsenal doesn't give our kids the devine right to be 'The One'. What has made the current situation that much more pivotal is that The Chequebook champions are moving ahead at a much faster rate than not only The Arsenal but the whole of the Premiership.
Also why do we feel we have to pass the fecking ball into the net - just fcking shoot for fecks sake - anything can happen - a ricochet, deflection - anything. I dont quite think AW has lost it - hopefully in six games time we can be talking about the amount of goals we've scored - however we haven't scored a goal in open play for nigh on ages & with TH14 out for about another month - its going to be a long month.
Very touching. But there is a thin line between blind love and denial. The great Arsenal is not a team that should be rebuilding an era from scratch but advancing upon our shortfalls. Youth is great. But sometimes you need a man to get the job done. Hate to admit it but give credit when it is due. Mourinho is not a man who takes any nonsense and the players know it. Time for tough love i say. A player like monsieur henry would not be stalling on the contract if we show more ambition.
Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. You never know. Some defender out there could love to do a johnathan woodgate.
I think that AW should keep his opions about others to himself and look at our shortcomings. Why does he keep getting in the press talking about boring football and bad economics when his job is to make Arsenal win games. I agree with the sentiment that the team needs a bit of discipline and to have a go from range. If Sol can score with two headers then why can't the likes of Hleb and Reyes ping them in from range. We saw Reyes first goal in the FA cup two years ago against Chelsea and it was class. The only player that wants to hit it from outside the box is Cesc. There are just too many home truths that need facing upto so AW should keep his trap shut about the world outside AFC and get the job done which includes buying some experienced players to replace those we loose. We were already a young team last season and that was with PV and Edu. I wash I could feel possitive about this season but I have seen very little to cheer about (other than the fact that dirty Manc look even worse than us!)
I say play some of the youngsters Jobby. My team would be:
Almunia
Toure, Campbell, Senderos, Cole
Ljungberg, Cesc, Larsson, hleb
quincy, bendtner
Subs
Poom, flamini, lauren, ryan smith, reyes, van persie, Djourou
My point is that the supposed pro's are not doing it so give the youngsters a chance!! Ajax have been extremely poor this season so they have a good chance. However if they do lose so be it at least wenger would have tried something different.
sorry forget van persie who i forgot was suspended put lupoli on the bench instead.
I got a feeling AW chats about things 'outside of Arsenal' to deflect all the stuff going on inside Arsenal - no reinforcements, not scoring from open play, lack of new 'quality' signings - Hleb aside. I'm not knocking him - I aint fickle & I've been watching us for too many years to think all the wheels have well & truly fallen off. However if AW is in the wrong we should say - just as much as we do when he's picking trophies out his magic hat...
The game tomorrow - I cnat see Poom starting - for some reason AW really believes in Almunia - DB10 & Giberto are definitely out - just read on the official site that he plans to use Ljungberg as a make shift striker & we all know that has never worked - same when using Bobby there. Tomorrow is going to be a long frustrating game.
my team would be:
almunia(would like poom but not gonna happen)
lauren kolo sol cole
ljungberg cesc flamini clichy(if pires not fit)
hleb
reyes
Jobby, I have just seen that senderos is injured so it would have to be the usual back four anyway!! I would prefer giving larsson a chance in midfield, he looked good pre-season & the couple of times I have seen him in the reserves this year he has looked the part!! I think reyes is an excellent player but he is no striker nor is ljungberg who I see the arsenal site are saying is going to start upfront. Why cant the youngsters get a chance I am sick of wenger playing reyes, rvp, ljungberg & pires out of position just to accomodate them. As the pro's say I prefer round pegs in round holes, not square pegs in round holes!! As for pires I would love to know what exactly it is he has done this season to deserve a place on the bench let alone in the first team. He has been a great player for us, but enough is enough I want a player who does not run the other way when the ball is there to be won, he is a liability.
Anonymous said...
I see I am not the only gooner out here suffering!!!
fuck the yids! fuck the west london scum! we should be concentrating on our own back yard! because i'm afraid we're not meeting the grade lads! and it could be a long, long season!!!
i've been on this blog before; and always try to be constructive about the team, and its pros and cons, and although i still believe in the positives i've stated before... ie. "we play the best football in the country..." "we've accumulated the best set of young players in the game..." "the future's bright..." ETC. ETC. i really now believe the actions or non-actions over the last two seasons by the board and Le God, have culminated in the position we find ourselves in now, namely, MAKING DO!!!
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW A TEAM WHO WINS THE EPL, UNBEATEN JUST TWO SEASONS AGO, CAN NOW BE IN A POSITION WHERE THE OBVIOUS SPIRIT AND CONFIDENCE THAT EXISTED HAS TOTALLY VANISHED FROM THE BOYS! AND RUMOURS OF THE POSSIBILITY OF LOSING ONE OF THE TOP TWO STRIKERS IN THE WORLD, A PLAYER WHO LOVES ARSENAL ARE EVEN BEGINNING TO SURFACE... WHETHER THEY BE TRUE OR FALSE!
im afraid we have to be honest and say, 'THEY GOT IT WRONG'.
after our unbeaten season, we had a great team; bordering on the best the EPL had ever seen!!! the best footballing team in europe at the moment!!!
all we needed to go on and truely dominate was TOP CLASS COVER FOR A FEW POSITIONS...
1) a RIGHT MIDFIELDER (to give Fred a breather at times... solved with the brilliant signing Hleb, who can play anywhere across the middle. 2) A GOALKEEPER! not solved with the signing of POOM. 3) AN OUT AND OUT STRIKER! 4) AND POSSIBLY AN EXPERIENCED CENTREBACK! some of this cover was ALREADY HAPPENING IN THE SHAPE OF PHILLIPE! CESC! QUINCY ETC!
THAT'S 4 POSITIONS ON TOP OF WHAT WE ALREADY HAD! just imagine that team??!!!
so far we've got 1 in! and released 2! not just any 2! but our two most gifted and influential central midfielders one being OUR CAPTAIN! that, to me, means we now need possibly 2-3 players to get back up to scratch. now we know this is not going to happen, so that leads me to belief... WE ARE MAKING DO! IT REALLY IS JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
i know it's not everybody's cup of tea, but when players like OWEN to use one example become available; having just lost someone with the influence and presence of EDU and PV; needing what we need, surely a bid of some sort is warranted!!! a top calibre player was needed to come in once those two had gone... we're paying the price for standing still guys! and it stinks! especially when you think where we were JUST TWO SEASONS AGO!!
Jack, your team on paper looks fine, but where are the goals going to come from?? Thats what I am talking about, our players in their own right have quality but we do not have a goalscorer. Well we do in lupoli & bendtner but wenger will just ignore them as usual for the four left wingers, reyes, rvp, pires & quincy or the right winger ljungberg!! says it all really.
Good post anon (4:46)
i know what you mean anon 4:51 but i'm worried what would happen if we lost with all the youngsters out. imagine the papers on wed morning, they'd get slaughtered and their confidence would be gone. agreed though, give at least one a chance, maybe two
Jobby I also think quincy is a fantastic player, so much so that I think he could easily overtake henry in the future. However he has admitted he cannot score for love nor money & whilst I agree he would be physically stronger was it not lupoli who scored with a great finish to beat ajax pre season!! Lupoli has been prolific at every level he has played so there is nothing to suggest he cannot do it at the top level.
Owen? At the price Real Mad got for him off the barmy barcodes? I don't think so thanks. Maybe at the price Mad paid he could have been worth a gamble but do we really play his type of game?
I agree 100% though on what has been said here about going backwards since the invincible season - we've now become the nearly invisibles when it comes to having a pop at goal.
Has Arsene lost the plot? Or has all the dosh that should have been strengthening the squad been spent on Cashburton?
I doubt the former but fear the latter, which could end up as a millstone around the Club's neck as Thierry watches the squad getting thinner and thinner before getting on his bike.
The way we've been going, we'll have a lovely big stadium but will rarely fill it and being in the Champions League every year will be just a memory.
You're shit and you know it. Come on Ajax!
Ajax are in a position very similar to Arsenal. Lost key players in recent seasons (Chivu, Zlatan) without properly replacing them. Sometimes questionable goalkeeping. Individual defensive mistakes. Lack of strikers who can score regularly. Lack of enough experienced players. Won the league two seasons ago and seemed to be progressing in the Champions League, then dropped to second last year and have started off worse this season. Etc, etc. However, under Blind, they seem to be playing better, despite the results. Really too close to call, as both sides have shown they can give up leads.
Why do Wenger keep buying these over elaborating cunts(Hleb)???
In reference to Gooner be sad's comments above, questioning if we play Owens type of game. What game do we play and what game does Owen play that is incompatible.
I feel that many Arsenal fans have adopted a kind of football snobbery view towards Arsenal compared to other teams, where we perceive ourselves to be the royalty of football. This thinking even extends to when we lose games, consoling ourselves with the view that the team that defeated us is far technically inferior to us and that they have adopted some sort of neanderthal approach to winning that is beneath us. We turn our nose up at this and walk of in a huff content with the fact that they will never aspire to our unique level of football.
Some feelings about the slick passing and pace of our game are justified because I don't feel that there is another team that can do it as well as us. This is not always enough though and at times I think we are to football what the Harlem Globe Trotters are to Basketball. I fully believe that we can retain our slick style but mix in some basic threatening football to improve our all round attack and therefore have the ability to break down even the most stubborn defence.
Example Chelsea, the most stubborn of defences. We had 58% posession to their 42 but lost the game and if we are honest never really threatened them. Not many teams enjoy that level of posession against them, but it is due to our quick slick game that we did, but we needed to use that greater posession to hurt them. Trying to play through the middle of them was never going to work, they can defend that all day.
Our main problem is we never score in open play from balls delivered from wide positions, i.e with our head. We could have moved the ball around and teased Chelsea then suddenly move it wide to deliver a dangerous curling ball in behind the defenders for our players to run onto. The problem is that our forward line and attacking midfielders never make those runs and the ball flies dangerously across the box with the nearest player 15yds away, or the wide player looks up realises no-one will attack his intended cross and cuts back inside and plays to one of our deep central players again who is 50 yds out. If it was a competition to see how often you could work the ball from one side of the pitch to the other while remaining between 40 to 50 yds out we would win hands down. It is not that we are physically incapable of crossing and attacking the ball it's just that we choose not to do it. Do we need to run around trying to buy players in the hope we get more of a threat with this style of attack or does AW give the simple instruction to play our normal slick game but to mix some dangerous balls from wide with 3 - 4 players taking a chance and attacking the ball to see if they can get on the end of it. They are paid a lot of money and if the manager says I want you to do this they will do it.
So back to Owen, maybe he is not as good as TH at keepy-uppy and exhibition skills, but he is a chancing in the box striker who will never be more than a few yds away from any dangerous ball going into the box, hence his excellent scoring record at all levels. So agreed, he is not as skillful as TH, not quite in the same royalty and blue-blood category, but is he any less effective as a striker?
certain fans keep going on about missing out on owen.for gods sake GET OVER IT!!!
hes gone....he'll probably never b a gunner..... just let it go.
diop and another CF in january.....and chelsea to drop a couple points here and there and we are so back in it.
c'mon wenger.....do ur thing!!
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