Official Arsenal FC Thread

[BC_]

i'm too distraught to have any long term thoughts at the moment

but i do want an arsenal sig if anyone has a good source

I'll make you one (unless you find one elsewhere), what you want on it?

edit: What other than Samir?

[jerrod]

you could put some van persie and walcott on there too.

that's really all you need

edit: and wilshere

[ZaQ-]

Okay, so now that the smoke is starting to clear, let's make a quick list of players I'd never, ever like to see wear an Arsenal uniform again.

Bendtner
Rocisky
Almunia
Denilson
Bendtner, again for emphasis

[jerrod]

i may have to go rewatch this, i was pretty thrilled with what almunia did. i wouldn't have been mad at all if he didn't stop a lot of those

[IronChef]

Okay, so now that the smoke is starting to clear, let's make a quick list of players I'd never, ever like to see wear an Arsenal uniform again.

Bendtner
Rocisky
Almunia
Denilson
Bendtner, again for emphasis

You can add Clichy to that list for me. He's a great guy from what I've seen, but he's terrible positionally, his delivery sucks, and he's very error prone. For the longest serving arsenal player he has zero leadership capabilities swell. I wish Gibbs wasn't so injury prone.

[ZaQ-]

i may have to go rewatch this, i was pretty thrilled with what almunia did. i wouldn't have been mad at all if he didn't stop a lot of those

I may have to rewatch too, but I don't recall any difficult saves except the one on Villa, but even that one he looked lucky to catch it with his (thigh/abdomen?)

[J.Kim]

Okay, so now that the smoke is starting to clear, let's make a quick list of players I'd never, ever like to see wear an Arsenal uniform again.

Bendtner
Rocisky
Almunia
Denilson
Bendtner, again for emphasis

You can add Clichy to that list for me. He's a great guy from what I've seen, but he's terrible positionally, his delivery sucks, and he's very error prone. For the longest serving arsenal player he has zero leadership capabilities swell. I wish Gibbs wasn't so injury prone.

I'm starting to sour on Clichy as well... it'd be great if we could find a better option for left back and have him come off the bench (though, that's highly unlikely)

And please, can Arsene PLEASE get rid of Bendtner? I don't understand how he still plays so regularly...

I'm starting to think Arshavin should go as well, while Arsenal can still get a relatively high price for him. He takes more things off the table at this point than he brings to it.

[kromoszoma]

Clichy gets caught out of position all the time, but he's miles better than last season. And miles worse than a couple of years ago when he was actually chosen the best left back in England. Gibbs ain't all that great defensively either.

Almunia is a third stringer now, he's good enough for that, but he's going to leave anyway. He was great yesterday, now is not the time to slag him off.

As for Bendtner, I don't get the hate. Yes he's clumsy, he misses a lot, he'll never be Henry or even Adebayor. However, he does contribute despite contantly playing out of position. He has a pretty good mentality, not as soft as the majority of our team, and he was our top scorer a season or two ago, wasn't he? And he's still young too. He came on yesterday in a losing situation, against the best team in the world, without any kind of service from midfield, he happened to get one chance and he blew it. It happens. Henry missed a bigger chance in the CL final and I didn't hear anyone demand his head.
If anyone's looking for a culprit for yesterday, it should be 1) the ref, 2) Fabregas, because he picked a really bad moment for that brainfart

I'm not a big fan of Arshavin, but he has picked it up lately, he's even gone back to defend these past few games. If he keeps that up, I'd be happy to keep him. If he goes back to being lazy, he can piss off.

[IronChef]

I dislike Bendtner because:

a) he's not very good
b) he blows easy chances far too often
c) he's cocky as all hell
d) he threatened to look for a transfer if he didn't get more playing time
e) he too often doesn't work hard on the pitch
f) he's rumoured to be the laziest on the team during training

Henry was the best striker this club has ever had, possibly the best the PL has ever had. Everyone misses easy ones sometimes, but 95% of the time he sticks them in the net, Bentdner is probably below 40% on gimmes.

[kromoszoma]

So how does everyone feel about our backup midfielders? I think for all the talk about or central defenders before the season, this was a huge problem which we failed to address. We have no cover at all for Song, he's our only DM; If he goes down, Wilshere can play there, but then you have Denilson, Rosicky or Diaby in his place, who are all pretty much useless.

Last season we played Attacking midfielder - Box-to-box midfielder - Defensive Midfielder, we went into this season with
AM: Cesc, Rosicky
B2B: Diaby, Denilson
DM: Song, Frimpong, Eastmond
with Wilshere and Ramsey as potential AM's, though Ramsey had been playing B2B and Wilshere had been forward.

Defensive midfield had been our weakest spot depth-wise by far, Denilson and Diaby were rubbish back there and the young guys were too green. We were extremely fortunate that Song held up during the season so well.

This season all were calling for Wenger to sign a DM, but to his credit he merely adjusted the formation so instead of AM-B2B-DM it was one attacking mid with two defensive mids behind, one moving forward at a time. This meant Diaby and Denilson could play back there and not have to act alone, it gave us more depth and flexibility across the board. Wilshere also was transformed into a defensive mid to amazing effect.

To be honest although Diaby and Denilson are shown up at Nou Camp and the like, I don't think they're that bad as backups. You'll find it difficult to find anyone better to come and play backup, not getting a starting spot. With Frimpster and Eastmond returning I think Cesc-Aaron-Jack-Diaby-Frimps-Eastmond-Song is okay as a rotation, given that Jack-Eastmond and Jack-Frimpong should be perfectly operable DM lineups when Song's out.
Agreed another DM this season would've been nice but next year I'm not worried.

My concern was and is centre back; we've been ridiculously lucky with injury this season, Vermaelen might not ever return and Squillaci isn't good enough. CB is arguably the most important field position and Kos-Djourou with Squid as backup isn't enough over four competitions. Heck, if Djourou hadn't accidentally turned into an A-grade CB over the offseason we'd have been royally ****'d.

It's like we eatch different teams. The way I saw it, we didn't play attacking midfielders last season, and we don't play two DM's this season, it's 4 defenders, 1 dm, 2 mc's, 2 wingers, 1 striker, same as last year.

I see these things like box to box differently too. I don't think a box to box is a position, it's more of a quality. Cesc can play that, Jack too, but Denilson and Diaby can't because they are lazy, they can't get back on time, can't tackle, etc. That's why I say Denilson is useless, he passes like a DM and defends like an AM. He doesn't actually do anything well. You can call them b2b's, but you're setting yourself up for a disappointment, because they're not gonna run around like prime Ballack or Vieira did.

As for Frimpong and Eastmond, one played a few promising preseason games, the other played a couple of games when we had an injury crisis, he was all right, and that's it. I'd be happy if they worked out, but there's no guarantee for that.

[ZaQ-]

As for Bendtner, I don't get the hate. Yes he's clumsy, he misses a lot, he'll never be Henry or even Adebayor. However, he does contribute despite contantly playing out of position. He has a pretty good mentality, not as soft as the majority of our team, and he was our top scorer a season or two ago, wasn't he? And he's still young too. He came on yesterday in a losing situation, against the best team in the world, without any kind of service from midfield, he happened to get one chance and he blew it. It happens. Henry missed a bigger chance in the CL final and I didn't hear anyone demand his head.

Bendtner has no touch, no ball control, no finesse. I'm sick of him seeing mis-touch nearly every sublime pass that gets put at his feet. Hell, even Chamakh converts that chance more often than not.

Arsenal wouldn't have been in any CL finals without Henry. This year, we may have gone farther without Bendtner.

[kromoszoma]

As for Bendtner, I don't get the hate. Yes he's clumsy, he misses a lot, he'll never be Henry or even Adebayor. However, he does contribute despite contantly playing out of position. He has a pretty good mentality, not as soft as the majority of our team, and he was our top scorer a season or two ago, wasn't he? And he's still young too. He came on yesterday in a losing situation, against the best team in the world, without any kind of service from midfield, he happened to get one chance and he blew it. It happens. Henry missed a bigger chance in the CL final and I didn't hear anyone demand his head.

Bendtner has no touch, no ball control, no finesse. I'm sick of him seeing mis-touch nearly every sublime pass that gets put at his feet. Hell, even Chamakh converts that chance more often than not.

Arsenal wouldn't have been in any CL finals without Henry. This year, we may have gone farther without Bendtner.

He's not a finesse player, but watch him rise for a header, no one in this team comes close, not even Chamakh. He's a big physical centre forward playing out of position, and his technique could be better, but expecting him to show great finesse is like expecting Messi to score a bunch of headers. And his technique is underrated anyway.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrfkvCE5SxU[/youtube]
He can do whatever he wants, he's just not consistent enough. I know he's frustrating to watch, but the amount of hate he gets from our own fans is ridiculous, and when something like this happens, everyone suddenly forgets his game winners and the fact that he's 23.

[BC_]

I like Bendtner. I don't like him as RVP's replacement leading the line because he doesn't hold it up well enough, but I like his potential. If we adjust the formation in the future (which we'll probably have to if/when Cesc leaves) then I think he could have a long future here.

Clichy is good enough this year. I'll be wanting a new LB soon though.

Arshavin should have been sold last summer, simples as that.

It's like we watch different teams. The way I saw it, we didn't play attacking midfielders last season, and we don't play two DM's this season, it's 4 defenders, 1 dm, 2 mc's, 2 wingers, 1 striker, same as last year.

I see these things like box to box differently too. I don't think a box to box is a position, it's more of a quality. Cesc can play that, Jack too, but Denilson and Diaby can't because they are lazy, they can't get back on time, can't tackle, etc. That's why I say Denilson is useless, he passes like a DM and defends like an AM. He doesn't actually do anything well. You can call them b2b's, but you're setting yourself up for a disappointment, because they're not gonna run around like prime Ballack or Vieira did.

As for Frimpong and Eastmond, one played a few promising preseason games, the other played a couple of games when we had an injury crisis, he was all right, and that's it. I'd be happy if they worked out, but there's no guarantee for that.

I googled 'Song Wilshere pivot' and hit #1 was from arsenalreport.com, a site I'd not heard of but will definitely return to, really really good stuff.

Summary of defense and midfield this year
Stoke writeup including extensive section on Song-Wilshere

[BC_]

you could put some van persie and walcott on there too.

that's really all you need

edit: and wilshere

Here, don't have to use it

[ZaQ-]

Well our injury report continues to look bleak. Cesc is out for Saturday's game at Old Trafford. If this means we have to endure more playing time for Rocisky, I will now stab myself in the face.

We are also in pursuit of an emergency loan to cover for Szczesny, who may be out a while.

Haven't heard anything regarding the health of van Persie.

[BC_]

Van Persie's playing apparently. If it were me I'd put Nasri in midfield, Bendtner at RWF and tell them that the play goes through RVP even more than usual.

[jerrod]

you could put some van persie and walcott on there too.

that's really all you need

edit: and wilshere

Here, don't have to use it

oh ****

love it

[ZaQ-]

Van Persie's playing apparently. If it were me I'd put Nasri in midfield, Bendtner at RWF and tell them that the play goes through RVP even more than usual.

I don't understand why they don't put Nasri in Fabregas's CAM position when he's injured, instead leaving him on the wing.

Anyway I'd prefer Bendtner to Rocisky, but take that as a backhanded compliment.

[BC_]

http://translate.google.com/translate?u ... =&ie=UTF-8

The shoulder injury to Johan Djourou is less serious than feared on Saturday and announced by the coach of his club...
...Apparently he suffered no fractures or injury to the bones, ligaments strained during the dislocation of the shoulder does not seem too serious in a statement. The young man of 24 years must still await the detailed assessments of exams, but it was decided to make every effort to be available to the national team on March 26 during the qualification match for EURO against the Bulgaria.

GREAT news.

Also, IronChef what do you know about Lansbury? What sort of player is he? Haven't seen much of him yet.

[IronChef]

I like Lansbury a lot, next year I think we'll probably seem him in the first team.

He's a midfielder, generally better on the right side. Has been compared to Ray Parlour because of his tireless engine, passing range, and eye for making runs into the box. He plays for the England U-21's now, and was captain of the U-19's. Has great pace, and is strong. The one knock I've seen against him is that he likes to party, a lot.

He can also play keeper in a pinch.