Team Beats Talent …. are you getting the message Arsene?

July 5, 2016

Leicester City, Athletico Madrid, Iceland, Wales, Hungary, even Italy …. what do they all have in common?

Their collective determination has driven them to beat teams packed with world class talent – and not just on the odd occasion, but consistently.

What is it about this particular period in football history that has brought about a mini revolution that has seen honest endeavour triumph over cosseted complacence?

The current success of these teams is a breath of fresh air. They are what punk rock was to the over produced posturing music of the early seventies.

The fundamental difference is that teams with this ethos are greater than the sum of their parts and the teams they beat are less. They concentrate on the basics and perform them very well.

Moreover, in most cases the fact that they have a smaller pool of talent means that the team is settled and far fewer changes are made and that can only be good for the understanding between players. Hodgson’s 6 changes for the Slovakia game and Arsenal’s 6 changes in the Champion’s league last season were both failed experiments that should not have been risked.

So the conclusion at the moment from what we are seeing at club and international level is that the team is far more important than the individual talent it comprises.

Of course we want/need gifted players, but let’s look at Aaron Ramsey as a case in hand. He has been magnificent for Wales. He’s outshone the ‘world class Bale’. He’s been a more influential player for his country than his club.

Why?

Two reasons. He’s playing in a position that allows the best outlet for his talent, and he’s playing in a team where every other player shares his desire. A team with a manager who has engendered that team spirit and devised a clearly defined strategy and style of play that all the players buy into.

Can that ethos be engendered into the Arsenal team next season?

Arsene has often said that team spirit is good. I don’t think he’s lying, I just think he is referring to the fact that the players are great friends who are relaxed and happy in training. What I want to see is them being very unhappy when we don’t play to our potential. I want to see them perform acts of bravery and desire on the pitch that whip the Emirates crowd into a frenzy of  support.

I want to see 11 players press as a team and to instinctively know when to drop back and defend as a unit. Second nature; first nature; everything about the team has to revolve around a single ethos, this is what we are seeing succeed ….. are you getting the message Arsene?

Rasp

 

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Posted by Rasp

Let’s Americanise Soccerball.

June 26, 2016

Four things.

  1. I know nothing about North American sports.
  2. When I say “Americanise”, I include South America.
  3. I fell asleep three times last season watching Arsenal from the armchair.
  4. The Euros have churned out some very dull games.

Simplistically, there may be two ways of looking at it. Defending  (as a team, individually and tactically) is getting better, or, quality attackers are fewer and further between (combined with the tactical etc, as above).

The problem with all these theories is when you look at The Copa America (TCA) and the abundance of goals and attacking football. As I sit here, my 15 year old son as two mates staying for the weekend, and I’m staggered at their knowledge of players. One listed the entire likely Croatian starting XI way before any announcement. Anyway, he also explained to me how for the Quarter and Semi Finals of TCA, extra time is not played, instead they go straight to penalties.

We all know the lovely old tale of an Englishman explaining the rules of cricket to a bewildered American chap. It remains to this day a source of complete loss to the latter, how a match can last five days, and still end in a draw.

So my angle today is this. How the heck do we make football more exciting, and why does South America produce so many great attackers?

MickyDidIt89

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Posted by Rasp

Fabregas: Did Wenger make a mistake?

June 20, 2016

I know we have done this to death a couple of seasons ago with the general consensus being that he is “dead to us” but ….  during the Euros, is Fabregas showing us what we have lost?

Let’s compare is work with Aaron Ramsey.  Fabregas controls the pace of the team through his positioning and passes, Ramsey doesn’t. I realise they are not the same type of player but they do play in the same position and carry the same responsibilities. Which player has more influence? Sadly, you know the answer.

Or was it Little Jack Wilshere  (see, I can spell kelsey) who was the player whom AW thought would be better than Fab? Surely not. JW is a little magician but he is simply not in the same class as Cesc.

Or Ozil, though they are very different players and operate in different areas of the pitch. Imagine the two of them orchestrating the Arsenal team – would we have fared better over the past 2 seasons?

My guess is that it was Cazorla whom Mr Wenger thought was a better choice than Fabregas, in this he is mistaken. Cazorla is  undoubtedly a wonderful player however Del Bosque,who knows both players well, chooses Cesc every time.

Spain have been the best attacking team in the Euro’s and Fabregas is an integral part of their midfield. Had we re-signed Cesc he would have combined wonderfully with Cazorla and made us a better team.

Mr Wenger made his decision and Cesc was forced to sign for a morally bankrupt club guiding them to the title in his first season

BUT ….

The Euro’s have also given us our first view of Mr Wenger’s next Arsenal playmaker, Granit Xhaka. Xhaka’s stats are impressive, very impressive. The way he controls the tempo and direction of play from a defensive position is reminiscent of the Great Man, PV4. Only Pogba in the modern game holds a candle to Vieiera but nonetheless Xhaka in combination with Santi, Ramsey, Wilshere, Elneny, Ox or Coquelin could be a winning midfield.

Cesc was the past and in my opinion should have been the present but Xhaka is the future and the future is looking bright (assuming we buy an extraordinarily expensive striker)

written by Big Raddy

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Posted by Erik the Red

Giroud was always Wenger’s Plan B …. Vardy fits Plan A

June 16, 2016

Following on from LB’s post yesterday asking what we could expect from Vardy in an Arsenal shirt, I thought that I would delve a bit deeper into the factors that would affect that expectation and why he is the type of player we need.

Obviously all this is based on the assumption that Vardy will sign for North London’s Finest ….. so take that as the premise and run with it.

Olivier Giroud and Jamie Vardy are polar opposites in the spectrum of strikers. Both are very good at what they do but they have little in common in terms of the striker’s repertoire.

Arsene bought Ollie when we were still having to be careful financially. He was the best we could get with the money available and his goal tally since signing make him very good value for money.

We have seen from the first games at the Euros that Giroud is a much better hold up player in a 4:5:1 than that Kane bloke from some minor club down the road, but we also saw in France’s game yesterday that a striker of his type struggles when the pattern of play doesn’t suit …. he benefits from chances created for him but doesn’t create that many chances from his own play. Giroud won’t pick the ball up at the half way line, weave and trick his way through the defenders and tuck it away, he’s not built for that.

Let’s look at our style of football. Arsenal under Arsene Wenger have been compared to Barcelona. The Dutch model of total football is often quoted when describing our fluid style of play (when it’s working). OG can hold the ball up, he’s very good with his head, he makes clever lay offs …. but those aren’t the core attributes required for the aforementioned style of football. No, that requires pace, movement, good close control, mobility, a clinical finisher …. remind you of anyone?

We were actually heading down this road when Welbeck became first choice striker towards the end of last season. That version of Plan A had to be shelved due to Welby’s latest untimely injury. Vardy is just a more finished article than Welbeck. Morata fits the bill. None of the strikers we have been linked with have been ‘Girouds’.

Ask yourself this….who will benefit most from a sliderule pass from Ozil? Who will have the pace, movement and incisive runs to capitalize on the genius of the best ‘assister’ in the world?

So my conclusion is that Arsene has been pragmatic. OG was the best we had and we have tried to play to his strengths when he’s leading the line, but in reality, a player like Vardy is what the system really requires and that would have been Plan A all along. We won’t have to adapt our style that much to accommodate Vardy, we’ve been having to compromise it all this time to get the best out of Ollie.

Rasp

Codicil…

I should make reference to GoonerB’s continual evangelism last season on the need for a ‘fast fluid striker’ and  for Total Arsenal’s undying love for all things Ollie 🙂

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Posted by Rasp

What do we expect from Vardy?

June 15, 2016

The reason for that question was that I was watching the England-Russia game with a friend (QPR) and he said:

“Are there any Arsenal players in the squad?”

To which I said “Yes, 2: Vardy and Wilshere.”

Which, after a second, the penny dropped and he laughed and said “You haven’t got Vardy”

To which I said that “I thought it was a done deal” and then skeptically he asked:

“Do you really want him?”  and I said: “Oh yes, we are are very excited about his arrival”

And then he said “Ahhh but don’t you think he is just a one season wonder?” to which I didn’t have an answer ready but it has made me think.

What do we expect from Vardy?

Written by LB

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Is Vardy the Right Man?

June 4, 2016

I will admit it, I was horrified when Young Tom, phoned me last night from Blighty with the news of AFC triggering Vardy’s release. Why when we are looking for a striker of the ilk of the chap at Dortmund whose name I cannot possibly spell would we look at a PL striker who has done nothing special until this season?

Is Vardy as good as, say, Welbeck?  I get that with Welbz out for the season we need another CF but we needed one anyway as our goals for clearly states, and I guess Vardy at €20m appr. is a decent short term solution.

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The current FWA Player of the Year and PL Player of the Season he should be good enough. 24 goals last season but and this is a HUGE but …. he scored just 5 the season before (from 34 games), and prior to that was not in the PL.

His performance for England last week was at best average, at worst anonymous, though to be fair to him, the whole team was awful (apart from Jack, of course).

Vardy’s signing is still at an early stage and perhaps he will decide to stay at Leicester but we can speculate can’t we?

Do I think he can improve Arsenal? Yes. Verdy’s pace frightens defenders and he is definitely a Plan A for Giroud.

Do I think he is someone for the future? Not at 29 y.o. We will be lucky to get 3 seasons out of him.

My main concern is that by signing Vardy we are not signing the striker who Arsenal can base their attacks in the long-term. I want us to sign a 23/24 y.o. who Mr Wenger can improve – Vardy is not that chap.

But …. if he repeats his 24 goal haul in the red and white I will be thrilled.

What do you think?

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Posted by Erik the Red

Ramsey to join Mourinho?

May 25, 2016

We are at approaching the time of year when the Deadwood express drives at Arsenal station to pick up a few passengers. Early at the station were Flamini, Rosicky and Arteta but who else will be shipped out?

Today I will focus upon the midfield.

Given that we have signed Elneny and also (potentially) Granit Xhaka, some  midfield players must be going. Ramsey, Wilshere, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ox, Ozil, Iwobi, Gnabry, plus the returning  Toral is perhaps excessive and it is in midfield that we find the biggest puzzle……. What is going on with Coquelin?

Early in the season Coquelin would have been the first name on the team sheet, it was inconceivable that he wouldn’t start. It has to be said that I am not a big fan but reluctantly started to appreciate just how much he had improved, yet Francis is firmly on the naughty step as evidenced by the arrival (?) of Xhaka – you don’t spend €30m on a reserve.

The final unbeaten run of games saw Francis on the bench with AW not picking a sitting DM preferring to play Elneny alongside Ramsey as a double pivot (™️ TA).  I doubt anyone could have predicted Coquelin being dropped.

If we assume that Xhaka is signed and that Elneny has impressed Mr Wenger  tough to be considered a sin the starting X1, then a first team place is unlikely for Coquelin and he will become a squad player. Too good to sell? Probably and we will need him in case of injury/rotation.

That leaves 4 excellent players fighting for the single forward midfield role: Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla and Ox. All deserve to be starting PL players. All are committed to Arsenal but I expect one to be sold, the difficulty is who?

I really love watching them all. Ramsey is exceptional as his work for Wales displays. But … but. Other Gooners are not so impressed. It was not a great season for Aaron. Less goals, less assists, more mistakes; nonetheless he remains a seemingly integral part of Mr.Wenger’s plans.

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Cazorla? Brilliant player. Upon his return at season’s end we improved and once again looked like potential title winners. Had he stayed fit we would have won the title – maybe – but he is over 30, somewhat injury-prone and slowing down. Arsenal need his experience – I doubt he willl be sold.

Ox. Horrible season for him. Injuries destroyed what should have been his breakthrough season. Nonetheless, he has huge potential and most of his on-pitch problems are due to his determination to be better. He needs to relax. But can he do so at Arsenal?

Jack. Another who had his season ruined by injury and who separates fans. IMO he  cannot be allowed to leave. His energy, vision and eye for goal is exceptional but his injury history is such that we cannot rely upon JW to play 40+ games.

Can Arsenal afford to keep 11 midfield players? Can Mr Wenger keep them happy? More to the point – does he want to?

I would not be surprised to see Mr Wenger selling a big name player to finance his summer purchases. Man Utd were in the hunt to sign Aaron Ramsey prior to his making the obvious decision to join AFC; they are desperate for a Carrick replacement and Aaron is a similar player (but better). A goal-scoring midfielder with International experience and a mate of Monkeyboy (who must be a MU target) – he fits MU’s and Mourinho’s requirements exactly. Could/would AW sell him to MU?

written by BR

 

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Posted by Erik the Red

Kiss My Arsenal

May 20, 2016

KISS is an acronym. It stands for Keep It Simple Stupid.

There is an awful lot of sense in this, and I often employ it to navigate me through what can appear, at first glance, to be tempestuous waters. We’ve all heard the “it’s not rocket science” term bounded about, but you know what, that’s not difficult either. Think about it. I just did.

Business plan for rocket mission. Raise loot. Employ scientist for the wiring and stuff. Find someone good at bending metal into cylinders and tall pointy cone shapes. Secure take off location free from great crested newts and butterflies. Box of matches.

So. Managing a football team.

Some may say coming second in the League is good news. Not me. I say there is much improvement needed on the back of a treble, let alone coming second. So what’s needed? Well, as always, best to look upwards, and there we find Leicester City. Ok, now what the hell did they do that was ten points better than us, and what can be done?

  1. Manager.
  2. Wow, what a job. Now this really is a cushy number. There must be 100 odd paid football managers in England, and I doubt fewer than a handful could string more than a couple words together. If my wife came to me and said “we’re going out to a dinner party and you’re sitting next to a football manager”, I’d be sick, stay at home, and watch Jeremy Kylie. What I’m getting at is Ranieri was pretty rubbish, arrives at Leicester, then wins the League with a bunch of farmers. No tactical genius at work here, that’s for sure.
  3. Footballers.
  4. Arsenal has better footballers than Leicester City, and more of them. Fact. So what happened? Leicester tried harder more often.
  5. Injuries.
  6. They kept their key players fit. We didn’t.

KISS : The Solution

  1. Motivation. Get a Leader and only players who have demonstrated fight
  2. Rotate. Unlikely we will win all four comps.
  3. Be ruthless. Cruel to be kind. You cannot keep everyone happy all the time. They need to deal with it and not sulk.
  4. Same as last summer. We need three First XI’ers. Make the money if you have to. Maureen did at Chelsea. Flogged Mata, bought Hazard. Won League.

Finally, remember the rocket analogy. Get one, and remind players where it will go if they don’t pull their weight for the full 90. Don’t forget the matches.

written by MickyDitIt89

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Posted by Erik the Red

A Last Hurrah.

May 15, 2016

Final PM of the season and Your Foreign Correspondent is away on manoeuvres, but being a man with a sense of duty this post is being written before WHU (hopefully) beat MU .

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Villa come to the Emirates after what must be their worst season in living memory. 3 managers , 3 wins all season, the draw with N’castle gave them their first point in 10 games. An angry fanbase, an owner who lives 5 thousand miles away and doesn’t appear to give a damn, players who are equally dispassionate, It is a shambles.

Could Villa win today?

They better not!!

I have no doubt Villa will be looking for a battling performance after all these are professional men playing for their careers. Some who are at the end of their contracts will be desperate to show they have value, others, like Lescott and Abangymethingy are already multi-millionaires and perhaps not so committed but this afternoon will not be an easy victory – we will have to play well to win.

Pressure. Can this Arsenal team respond to pressure? Well, we are on a unbeaten 9 game PL run, have shown character to come back from losing positions against MC, WHU and Spurs, so the answer should be Yes.

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The Last time we played AV on our Final game of the Season

A huge fillip is the return of our midfield, any team would struggle without such vital players. That said, as soon as a few come back a couple of England Internationals get long-term injuries!

We all know the value of 3 points today especially if The Miscreants fail up at St. James Pk. How funny would that be?  😀

The team: I would start the same chaps who got the draw at City with Ozil replacing Welbz.

Cech

Bellerin     Gabriel      Koscielny     Monreal

Ramsey      Elneny     Iwobi/Wilshere

Sanchez     Giroux     Ozil

Given how important Mr Wenger views the Euro’s I would not be surprised to see Wilshere start in place of Iwobi allowing Ramsey to play further forward.

Coquelin: Is he on the naughty step? He is fit so why isn’t he starting? He has gone from being one of the first names on the team sheet to riding the pine without any discernible reason.

I am sure Santi will get some pitch time in order for the fans to show their love. Rumours are that he is off in summer though my hope is that he continues to entertain us for a couple more seasons.

No excuses – we have to win this afternoon. The tough work was done up in Manchester now the lads have to finish their season in style.

Let it be so …

p.s. This being my final pre-match of an exciting campaign may I take this opportunity to thank all those who have read my views and contributed to the discussions.

COYRRG

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Posted by Erik the Red

What’s going on with the Arsenal fanbase? …. Infighting, banners and disharmony …… or just a few hotheads?

May 10, 2016
The following post is based on a comment placed on AA yesterday. We are aware that many read the site without wishing to join us in comments. Once in a while, a blogger will bite the bullet when a topic that concerns them compels them to put something in writing …. this is one such occasion ……
Gooner Guest says:
May 9, 2016 at 2:06 pm

Hello fellas,

Long time reader never poster. Was pleased with the fight we showed to get back in the game yesterday (Sunday), and thought Jack’s performance was very encouraging.

The reason why I’m posting is because both my sons were at the ground on Sunday and reported back to me some horrible things. I haven’t really been to many away games apart from the occasional ones, since the 90s (went a fair bit in the 80s). For Sunday’s match, Arsenal stewards were sent up to confiscate banners which called for the manager to go. Now I’m undecided on the manager. Gun to my head, I probably still think he’s the man for now, but that’s just not on. Can the club prevent fans from having an opinion away from home (or even at home for that matter!).

More disturbingly there was lots of fighting, in the away end, at the game. My boys who are both in their 20s, (to use the terminology, one is ‘Wenger In’ the other ‘Wenger out’) said the main perps of the violence were those in favour of Arsene staying. The reason why I’ve posted for the first time is that I’m asking whether you think the fanbase can ever be united again until we get a new manager?

I’ve followed and read this blog (sneakily while at work) for years in fact and I appreciate all of the regulars on here are old school Gooners who’ve dedicated time money and infinite amounts of love to the Arsenal. You’re all wonderful fans, I feel proud to support the same club as the posters on here, but what my boys told me yesterday makes me hate what Arsenal is becoming.

If you want to see what I’m talking about, have a look at Arsenal Fan TV. I think most of the regular guests on there are clowns, Claude in particular, but disturbingly he’s being shouted at and threatened by other Arsenal fans, even in the video… He’s a 60+ man, who for all his sins is a committed gooner.

As I said I haven’t been to away games regularly for a long time, but part of the joy was the feeling of togetherness and sense of being one. What my boys told me, made me feel very very sad.

Feel free to respond to GG’s (not George Graham) post by leaving a comment yourself ……. Ed

Post from a comment by Gooner Guest

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Posted by D.I. Bongo

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