How do you get space in behind a parked bus?

October 8, 2014

This comment from Gooner in Exile in response to yesterday’s post, contains enough interesting questions for a couple of posts. His comment is reproduced in it’s entirety so the opening paragraph refers back to yesterdays post.

He made this comment at 9.20pm

Evening all, interesting debate today, well done RC78, I have to first disagree with one of your later comments, we simply haven’t got time to shift formation between 3-5-2 then 4-2-3-1 or whatever, we have to have a system and personnel that fit in that system.

Maybe one of City’s problems in Europe is that they try to change too much from PL to CL, Maureen has a system, he uses it in all games, the only difference is how much freedom the attacking players are allowed.

Rodgers earned a lot of plaudits last year for setting up his team for each given opponent, Martinez too, no surprise with only 2 days training between games this method starts to fail.

When you have no European föötball you can drill for 5 days between games.

The same with International Breaks, one of the reasons the “smaller” clubs get upsets after Interlulls is not just the travel time of their opponents but the fact that they have had 10-12 days training at their club being drilled on how they are going to play their next match.

I’ve pretty much asked myself the same question for three years, and I would really like to see a good answer:

How do you get space in behind a parked bus? And hence how do you exploit that space with pace of there is no space?

Basically why do teams defend so deep against us and not against say ManUre or Liverpool or is that just a figment of my imagination? I’m not necessarily talking about big teams but the likes of Stoke, Palace, Villa. Everyone behind the ball and hope to counter.

We could obviously play the same way but I fear we would end up with a lot of goalless draws. The other team, if disciplined, will just stay back. We have to force the issue. One way is endless crosses into the box, worked a bit when we had Ollie fit. But defences still didn’t really come towards us. Shooting from distance is another tactic, but often the ball is just gifted back to the opponent.

So can some bright spark tell me how we can try and create space in behind to win games without over committing men forward against a park the bus side?

I’m also pretty sick of hearing that Ozil is played out of position and that he only expected to play central and for 70 minutes for Madrid, he is a £42m footballer on a rather large pay packet. Do you think Bergkamp would have sulked if he played left wing? Or would he have found a way to influence the game. And maybe we should just sit Mesut down with a pile of DVDs of Bobby Pires, a number 10 who played left wing and took apart many an opponent.

Written by Gooner in Exile 

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Are we already on course to another season fighting for a 3rd or 4th place finish?

October 7, 2014

Last year ended on a high note with a Cup Victory, a trophy at last…

We started this year with another Cup Victory, albeit less important and prestigious.

However, and despite a good summer transfer window (Debuchy, Chambers, Sanchez, Welbeck, we are really struggling to hit heights in the EPL and are performing ok in the Champions League. The question is why?

Is it due to the fact that our club seems to attract injuries to key players like vodka attracts the Russians? Is it due to the fact that some gaps in our teams were not addressed during this summer (CB and DM)? Is it due to the fact that some players are just below par most of the time (Ozil, Wilshere)? Is it due to the fact that our game is too predictable and horizontal and does not have enough verticality to it? Is it a bit of everything mentioned above? I cannot answer as it is too early in the season.

However, I see that our main rivals are doing well:

– Chelsea seems stronger than ever and are comfortable on all fronts, at home, away and in the domestic and European cups;

– Man City is still struggling in Europe but is strong in the EPL;

– Man Utd is ahead of us despite disastrous start and embarassing defeats;

– Liverpool is level with us despite a heavy outcry about the lack of results since the beginning of the season and same with Tottenham.

So my questions are as follows:

  1. Did we just get used to playing second fiddle to Chelsea and the Manchester teams?
  2. Are we in a crisis already? And if you believe so, what shall we do to address this situation?

Written by RC78

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

What would the result have been if Mourinho and Wenger swapped places?

October 6, 2014

There are few things in football on which most of us would agree, but the fact that Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho are polar opposites when it comes to their respective personalities and football ethos is undeniable.

So allow yourself a flight of fantasy, cast aside the thought that most Arsenal supporters can’t abide ‘the chosen one’ and put Mourinho in charge of Arsenal from the start of the last transfer window and Wenger in charge of Chelsea – would the result of yesterday’s game been any different?

Would Arsene have brought in the players to Chelsea that Jose did and vice verse Jose to Arsenal?

Would the teams have set up differently and played differently in yesterday’s derby? Undeniably yes – but would either have been an improvement?

This raises so many questions in terms of style, vision, ruthlessness, class and motivation …. you decide

Written by ‘The Devil’s Advocate’

 

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Posted by Rasp

Don’t Mention the War ….

October 5, 2014

I don’t want to write about him, so I won’t.

No, not the big mouthed class-less clown or even his vicious, neanderthal henchman – I have plenty to say about them. I am talking about the player upon whom the media are choosing to focus almost to the exclusion of there being two unbeaten teams meeting this afternoon. It will not be about one man but about 22.

I don’t like Chelsea, never have.

My first trip to the small club close to Fulham was in the ’60’s.  Along with the rest of the North Bank I marched to the Bridge. At that time (and probably today) Chelsea had a bunch of meathead followers called the Shed Boys – loonies to a man, every one a criminally violent fascist; it was the intelligentsia from the genteel streets of Islington who would attempt to “Take the Shed”. It will not surprise our regular readers to discover that I had no intention of hitting anyone or even less of being hit, after all it would have done severe damage to my karmic being, but I was carried along in the spirit of the North Bank as we entered the ground. The next hour was horrific as fights broke out all around me and the Shed became a battle ground.

Unknown-1

The Shed

I have no idea whether the Shed was taken, all I know was that I vowed that from then on I would sit in the stands for away games at The Bridge. On my last visit I was with the Away Boys in the lower stand and above us were the Chavs; needless to say the whole game was ruined by them throwing coins, drinks, urine and other stuff down on us whilst the police and stewards looked away. I will never go back.

The days of the wonderful Chelsea Pensioners with their stoicism and humour are well gone. Want to know about Chelsea’s New Sophistication? John Terry is all the answer you need. Please, please. please let him get Diaby’ed this afternoon.

Then there is the manager. If I allowed it my keyboard would self destruct rather than let me write about him. Yes he is a brilliant tactician and has won time and time again. Yes, he has the Indian sign over Mr. Wenger. But let me ask you this …. would you let him go out with your daughter???  Just recall the spiteful and cowardly eye-gouge whilst at Barca, can you imagine Mr Wenger doing that? The High Priest of the Me-Generation has found his natural home

I can’t write about their team. They will surely win the title this year and are very, very good in every department. But so what ….. they are still Chavs.

Arsenal: Before we get all doomy it should be recalled we go into this game unbeaten on the back of a fine win against the Turkish Chavs.

We do not have the players to play defensively and I do not believe Mr Wenger will be over-cautious. No-one wants a repeat of last season but this is a game we should try to win as opposed to damage limitation. We have superb attacking potential and this is a game where Alexis will surely shine.

What do we need to do to get a result? Be lucky. Be resolute. Be tactically aware. Be fearless. Be ruthless. Be aware that we have huge pace and the centre of Chelsea’s defence is manned by Orcs.

My Team:

7th oct

The real concern with this side is the size of our midfield. Is there a more diminutive midfield in world football? If Mr. Wenger plays Cazorla instead of Ox he would lose 15cms and Ox is hardly a giant. Could Diaby be a solution – is he available? Or Bellerin at RB and Chambers alongside Flamini as a defensive shield?

We will not get many chances so Welbz will have to be potent.

The food from the Borough of Chelsea is , as you would expect, dreadful. Cakes and Buns mainly – not your lovely creamy jobs, more things full of fats and raisins.

Unknown-2

The Chelsea Bun – Looks like something a dog laid.

Can we win today? It is a huge ask with Chelsea being in fine form and with our brave squad diminished by injury. The losses of Debuchy and Ramsey could hurt us today. As good as Chambers is, he is going to find the pace and trickery of Hazard difficult. Ramsey’s ability to score and his non-stop movement is hard to replace. But why not? We have an excellent team and we are unbeaten.

Trouble is Chelsea have one of my heroes playing in their midfield.

Don’t mention the war.  I did once but I think I got away with it.

COYRRG

written by Big Raddy.

 

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Posted by Erik the Red

Is Silent Stan good enough for the club and the fans?

October 4, 2014

Stan Kroenke and the club have generated some adverse publicity in the press recently.

There have been some insightful discussions on the topic over the past few days on AA. Now that Crystals is back to the fold, I thought maybe we could do a “Kelsey” and put comments by AA patrons together to try and generate some consensus, or better still, some disagreement.
chas says:
September 24, 2014 at 6:26 pm

Bad PR, whichever way you look at it?

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/23/stan-kroenke-arsenal-dividend-fans-anger

Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke angers fans by taking £3m out of club

• Payment matches 3% rise in season ticket prices
• Kroenke has dodged issue of receiving dividends

Amy Lawrence, The Guardian, Tuesday 23 September 2014

Excerpts: “Arsenal’s majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, has taken a payment of £3m out of the club according to the latest company accounts.

“Having never taken dividends from his American sports franchises, … this is a move that has gone down badly with Arsenal supporters. Coincidentally, the £3m figure tallies with the amount the club raised from a 3% rise on season-ticket prices for this season.

“The money has been paid to Kroenke’s company, KSE LLC, for strategic and advisory services which relate to Arsenal’s broadband division, the media department which raises funds by selling a three-hour block of weekly content to the lucrative international market.

“No doubt the Kroenke payment will be a subject on the agenda at Arsenal’s AGM on 16 October.”

This then generated insightful comments from the AA in-house accountants.

LB says:
September 24, 2014 at 6:53 pm

Can one of the plethora of accountants that frequent this site please comment on the article in the Guardian about Stan Kroenke taking dividends out of the club. Thank you in advance.

RA says:
September 24, 2014 at 7:23 pm

[F]rom what I briefly heard on a local radio station, the fans are upset that Kroenke took £3m out of the club as expenses, and justified it, by saying the Glazers were brilliant owners and had taken very much more out of Manure than he was taking out from Arsenal for his personal expenditure. this would not be a dividend – as it would have had to be issued to the other shareholders, like Usmanov, and any fans who are still holding shares.

His salary as a director is peanuts too.

This might be a straw in the wind? Perhaps he is going to want a return on his investment in the club, though he has never previously done this with his US franchises.

chas says:
September 24, 2014 at 8:15 pm

I think it’s a piece of misleading journalism (surprise surprise) to suggest it was a ‘dividend’. The bad PR aspect of it for me was the fact that the amount taken out more or less equals the ticket price increase.

Gööner In Exile says:
September 25, 2014 at 7:26 am

Where I stand on £3m….it’s a Non story.

It’s literally at the arse end of the Accounts under a section called Related Party Transactions where any dealings with companies related or Directors related have to be disclosed. It is required to demonstrate that a fair value has been placed on those transactions. It can also be used to show services that were provided but not charged (eg KSE could provide Contracts Lawyers, but never charges for them….this would have to be reported so that Investors would know a change in ownership could increase costs of running company if they had to pay for it themselves).

There are about £260m of Operating expenses, a large portion is player wages, the accounts do not provide a full breakdown of these expenses, the £3m paid to KSE for strategic, consultancy advice is in reality peanuts compared to our overall costs, would Arsenal fans be happier if this was paid to Bodgeit Flogitrun & Co for Marketing advice? Or to WeChargeEverySecond & More Lawyers…..we wouldn’t even know.

Not sure Stans answer was the best, but in a season where our player trading was £32m out compared to consistently in, and wages went up £12m, is it a surprise that the media find something else to focus on?

chas says:
September 25, 2014 at 7:34 am

“would Arsenal fans be happier if this was paid to Bodgeit Flogitrun & Co for Marketing advice? Or to WeChargeEverySecond & More Lawyers”

I think the answer is a resounding, ‘YES”  🙂

Eddie says:
September 25, 2014 at 7:50 am

I would not believe a story stating that Kroenke takes nothing out of the club. Why shouldn’t he? Had I invested millions I would want to see some returns, even if it was from the AFC

RA says:
September 25, 2014 at 8:01 am

Up until recently, Eddie, it is true that Kroenke has taken very little out of the club.

His director’s salary really is minimal, no dividends have been paid to shareholders, of which he is the major shareholder of course, and he seems content to see the value of the club rise due to good fiscal management and therefore when he eventually sells Arsenal, and in due course he will, even if it is in many years time, he will reap the rewards of his investment then.

On the other hand he may get peed off with the constant sniping about the club and his stewardship and start taking a huge salary, and authorise huge dividends to the shareholders to shut them up. 🙂

chas says:
September 25, 2014 at 8:09 am

I doubt he’d authorise huge dividends to the shareholders because it would mean giving money away to Mr Creosote.

Big Raddy says:
October 3, 2014, headline post “Friday’s Rant”

Complaints about Stan Kroenke taking money out of the club: Why?  When I owned a business if one of my customers told me that I couldn’t take a smidgeon out to enjoy a self-finding mission to the Berkshire countryside I would have given them short shrift (whatever a shrift is?). The man has invested heavily into AFC and yet to take a dividend, his company did some work for the club, they got paid. So what?

Anyone who thinks Silent Stan is in it for anything but profit is beyond naive.

mickydidit89 says:
October 3, 2014 at 6:02 pm

Agree about Stan. I’d of thought he’s about the perfect owner. Hasn’t leveraged the company, takes nothing out and doesn’t interfere with football matters.

Eddie says:
October 3, 2014 at 8:49 pm

I too think that Kroenke is a perfect owner. He keeps his views to himself, doesn’t go to all the games sitting there like Abramovitch with a teenage girlfriend and a face like a slapped arse; doesn’t attempt to run the team or impose transfers. And last but not least – does not want to change our name to Arsenal Lions/Donkeys or Giraffes or shirt colour to blue. Perfect, he has my vote of confidence.

*****************************

I have unashamedly pilfered material from these discussions and just put these together. So what do you think?

Here are some questions for you ………

1. Has silent Stan been a good owner for the club?

2. Is Stan Kroenke a better owner than the likes of Abramovitch and the Glazer family?

3. Was it wise to pay KSE LLC £3m for strategic and advisory services?

If your answer to 3 is yes do any of the following apply?

  • Stan deserves some return on his investments in the club
    Stan has been a good director and he deserves to be rewarded
    These services had to be procured, better pay KSE because they have a stake and will deliver
    better services
    Better than paying dividends which would then go to unworthy shareholders as well

If your answer to 3 is no do any of the following apply?

  • This is poor publicity for the club
    The club is not providing good value to fans, better invest every penny in developing the squad
    This is just a clever way of fleecing fans and redistributing their money to the owners

Over to you, readers, contributors and patrons.

Arnie.

 

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Posted by Rasp

Friday’s Rant

October 3, 2014

What is it you find disagreeable ?

Here is a starter ….

Complaints about Stan Kroenke taking money out of the club: Why?  When I owned a business if one of my customers told me that I couldn’t take a smidgeon out to enjoy a self-finding mission to the Berkshire countryside I would have given them short shrift (whatever a shrift is?). The man has invested heavily into AFC and yet to take a dividend, his company did some work for the club, they got paid. So what? Anyone who thinks Silent Stan is in it for anything but profit is beyond naive.

Unknown-1

Needs money for a decent haircut.

The price of piss-weak beer at The Emirates. I do not mind paying big money for a ticket nor for a Chinese child slave produced replica shirt but I object to drinking low alcohol lager at premium beer prices.

Mobile phone conversations. It should be mobile free inside the stadium. Do I give a monkey’s whether the bloke sitting next to me has to pick up his daughter from riding classes after the match? No, I do not, nor do the 20 people who can hear his inane conversation.. Nor am I interested in whether the twat behind me wants to buy pork belly shares at €1.22 and will not pay a cent extra. I am there for the football and so should they be.

This isn’t football related but I am writing this and you aren’t 😀 ……

The “It should have been Me” and why isn’t it?  These blokes are around the same age as me and some of the chaps on AA. Just check out the crowd reaction at 1.33. You may not like the music but imagine it was you up on that stage instead of Brian Johnson (lead singer)….. just imagine (play extremely loud)

 

 

 

 

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Posted by Erik the Red

Arsenal Purr

October 2, 2014

Weds Oct 1, about 7pm, and I’ve found the team news.

mickydidit89 says:

October 1, 2014 at 7:06 pm

Looks like the usual 4-1-4-1 thingy to me, unless Arsene is going for Ox alongside Flamini, which I would, as then Mesut gets the middle all to himself 🙂

………..Danny
Santi Mesut Sanchez
……..Flam Ox

Definitely can’t see it happening though

Got that wrong then. Our Smooth Talking Frenchie did go back to the 4-2-3-1 that gave Villa a good seeing to, but played Santi in the Rambo role alongside Flamini rather than The Ox, and thus we were treated to the speed of thought, ball and movement from Mesut, Ox, Alexis and Danny Welbeck.

We have not played such a fluid half of football since the home fixture against Napoli last term.

From Calum Chambers in his Budgie Blue boots (or were they Pistachio?), the whole side clicked and purred. A complete joy to watch. Our Pole in Goal managed to get himself sent off, which didn’t matter, other than it left one fewer player who didn’t get a rotational break ahead of Chelsea this weekend, but overall there was nothing to grumble about.

dw

Of course, the night belonged to Danny Welbeck with a hat-trick, alongside a superb goal by Sanchez. It was, however, the quality of the through balls for three of those goals, from Alexis, Mesut and The Ox, that caught my eye as much as the clinical finishing itself.

I watched the game with my Son, and as usual before the game, we discussed the possible outcome. One thing we did agree on was that with the quality of footballers such as Ox, Mesut, Sanchez and Santi, you always have the chance that if it “clicks”, it’s going to be good news for The Gunners and bad news for everyone else.

Last night, exactly that happened.

Finally, and on a sad note, I think we should all spare a thought for Louise Van Gaal this morning, who must be feeling a complete plonker.

Written by MickyDidIt89

And some player comments from chas.

Szczesny…..Didn’t have a lot to do before the penalty incident and it’s difficult to blame him too much for trying to stop a goal.

Ospina….. Made a few excellent stops, my favourite being a block with his feet from a player cutting in from the right. The North Bank chanting Os-pi-na (as in ‘you’re sh*t, ahhh’) every time he took a kick was really funny.

Gibbs….. Played very well, always provides an option. Deciding to play for offside in the penalty incident did Szczesny no favours.

Chambers….. What a buy! Whether it’s maturity beyond his years or a simple naivety based on a belief in his own abilities, Calum is as good at right back as he is in the centre and looks perfectly at home playing CL football.

BFG….. Class positioning and timing from the large German. What we’ve come to expect.

Koscielny….. Top quality performance from the boss. Fingers crossed for that ankle/heel.

Flamini.…. Made Carvalho look like a lumbering sloth tonight 🙂

Cazorla….. Santi was everywhere and conducted the Arsenal rhythm section superbly.

Ozil….. Some delicious passes, the man just oozes class.

The Ox….. Alex made some outstanding runs. He still seems to lack a little confidence but it’s coming.

Sanchez….. Another who just oozes. Assists, goals, tackles, dribbles, tricks, backheels. Just a delight to watch.

Welbeck….. First senior hat-trick and a smile as wide as van Gaal’s nose. A really special striker’s performance from Danny. One tucked through the keeper’s legs, the second bent around the outside by opening up his body and the third a deft chip. Glorious.

chas

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

There’s Only One ……

October 1, 2014

First things first……

Congratulations to Mr. Wenger on his 18th Arsenal Anniversary. You do not look like a man who enjoys a cream cake and a bottle of Asti Spumante so instead we will take the cheap route and send best wishes.

What a fantastic ride it has been from the DB10 years, through the TH14 years and now onto the DW23 era. Thank you.

Unknown-1

“I left the Afghan coat in the 2CV”

Right, let’s get onto what will be a difficult game. It would be a tough one had we been on form and given our inability to find cohesion this season  …. yadda yadda yadda.

Galatasary are only in the competition because their city rivals and league champions Fenerbahce were very bad boys and not allowed to play in the CL so the Turkish runners-up took their place.  They like Italian managers and have employed both Mancini and Prandelli over the past season – we can expect a compact, counter attacking team. They have some fine players including the mercurial (read unreliable) Sneijder. In Yilmaz and Pandev they have strikers who will cause problems to our brave lads but as always in CL games at The Emirates it will be the quality of the opposition defence which will determine tonight’s result.

And talking of defensive quality, let’s talk Eboue. Tonight should have seen his return to his real home club but instead poor Emmanuel will be sitting elsewhere. His star has faded in Turkey and as far as I can find out Eboue hasn’t even travelled with the squad. Apparently he has been relegated to the reserves. What a shame. It would have been great to hear “You’ve only come to see Eboue” sung once more at THOF.

Onto The Arsenal. Much is made of our injury record and with good cause. Just a few games into the season and we have already lost 4 first team starters (and Diaby is being rested for tonight 😀 ). It must be hugely frustrating for Mr, Wenger to see his squad depleted year after year. However, as always it gives opportunities for others to shine and a few games for the Ozil/Alexis combo to fire.

With so many midfield and attacking options picking a team is guesswork but  …

My Team:1st october

Hard to leave out Cazorla who is such a marvellous player. Perhaps my line-up is too attacking though Alexis is very good at tracking back and helping the midfield. It will be fascinating to see how the team sets up when Walcott returns in just a few weeks.

Against Spurs Ox had a fine game and I expect him to continue his good form tonight. Last season’s injury robbed him of a breakthrough year; at almost 21 he is on the path to super-stardom and a run of games will convince Mr Wenger that The Ox is undroppable (hopefully!). AW predicted that Ox will be a central midfielder …. we shall see.

I am always loathe to predict a victory but if Arsenal are to progress we have to win tonight. 10 points is the target and given the drubbing we got in Dortmund we cannot assume we will beat them at home (of course we will BR – you doomer), so a win and a draw away plus two home victories will be enough.

A win tonight will set us up for a tough game at Chelsea. It will also give a boost to the fans at the Emirates who are starting to lose the feel-good factor left over from the FA Cup win.

On an Anniversary night Let it be So.

written by Big Raddy

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