Morning guys.
Alex Iwobi, perhaps the current Mr Marmite, the Theo Walcott of 2019, a player who frustrates me that’s for sure. He’ll pick the ball up, drives forward, goes passed a few players and then it’s crunch time. What he does next is crucial to attacking move. He stops, thinks and then the moment has gone. On Saturday I don’t think he thought too much, afforestation Koscielny gave him the ball, he saw Mkhitaryan and released the ball nice and early. Mkhitaryan also went for the quick ball into the box but found a defender. After winning the ball back, take not Mesut Ozil, he tucked a neat pass out wide to AMN and the rest as they say is history. A simple move, yet one when played at pace, will undo many defences.
When Arsenal were at their best under Arsene Wenger, that’s how we played. The ball did the work, the players just helped it on its way without thinking too much, or that’s often how it appeared. Pass, move, pass move and quickly too. They were so good at playing that way, they made it look simple. For them, it probably was.
Ozil, Iwobi, AMN, Ramsey and sometimes Guendouzi too all seem to want to put their foot on the ball, stop their move and with it, kill our momentum. Opposition players get back and all good things from the buildup have been undone.
The question is why do they do that? I’ve no idea and thankfully it’s not my job to find out. No, that is down to the player himself and the coaches. Could it be that there’s not enough movement off the ball to create the simple ball, do players like Iwobi run with the ball but aren’t aware of what’s going on elsewhere because they’re not checking whilst on the move or could it be just a bad habit? Do the players not know each others game well enough? Dennis Bergkamp said in his book a few years ago that he always knew where his teammates were, what they were going to do, which space they were going to run into because that’s the understanding they had between them. We don’t have that kind of understanding between the players, not yet.
Aubameyang and Lacazette clearly love playing up front together, their body language suggests that but do they play as a pair, I mean a real pair? I’d say not. Our wide play is not good either, but then we don’t have any true wingers on the pitch or wide players full stop. I wouldn’t call Bobby or Freddie wingers, not in the true sense of the word but they stayed out wide, they switched sides and they confused the opposition. Then at the right time they popped up in the box with goals. All we seem to have is Kolasinac crossing from the left or our right back hit and hoping from the other side.
I watched Man City destroy Chelsea yesterday with envy. Not because of their money etc but because they have a player like Sterling who has pace to burn, a left and right back who can defend first, attack second and understanding. Understanding between the players which no matter how much money a manager is given, can’t be bought. That understanding between the City players didn’t come overnight thought, that comes from hard work off the pitch, being drilled time and time again and so much so, there’s no room in the mind for anything else. Practice makes perfect.
I hated languages at school. Thankfully in my day French was the only one we had to try and learn and I failed miserably. The one expression I do remember though was écoute et répète because I heard it so often during my hourly lesson. My point is if you repeat something enough times it’ll stick and that’s what I believe these Arsenal players need to do and I’m sure they are. But it takes time to perfect things and Unai Emery hasn’t had a lot of that really, not compared to his Spanish counterpart at City. Or Klopp and certainly not Poch.
Sarri, like Emery is finding out it takes time to get their message across, to get the players playing the way they want instead of the way they did before. Sometimes in life, things have to get worse before they can get get better and I think that’s where Arsenal are right now. Sarri might not be afforded the time to try and prove he’s the right guy for Chelsea because as a club they’re impatient, but I hope Unai Emery does..
Monday again, have a good one guys..
Morning Rico. As the season has unfolded most Arsenal fans I know have become more and more frustrated. I haven’t heard a believable take on what Emery is trying to do at the moment. It’s as if the season has been reversed in that we are worse now than when he arrived. The players look like disinterested strangers to each other. I see nobody working for the team or any leaders (that one has been with us a while though). The Ozil situation has descended into a farce. As for team development, I ask what team development? There is zero consistency, except perhaps for Kos.
I could go on but it’s tedious. Where is the expected improvement and where is Emery actually taking the club?
Morning Adam.
Maybe I’ve just got my positive head this morning but surely as things change we were likely to lose our way a bit. I’m in the hope that it’s a player thing rather than the manager. I suppose though it’s down to what the board believe and if they’re not happy, Emery could be out before Sarri.
I wonder if the players have already lost belief in Emery…
Rico. That’s the most plausible explanation. Perhaps he has lost belief in them too. 😆
Morning all.
Emery isn’t, imo, getting anywhere near the best out of his squad.
That should be his focus while waiting for the players he wants, but that’ll take a few transfer windows.
These guys can play the game, and we all agreed that with good coaching, the individuals should improve but now they’re not, it’s because they’re not good enough.
Are they getting this good coaching?
Time will tell.
I’d understand if he has Adam. 🤣
Scott. Perhaps it’s just being proved now that it wasn’t just about Wenger but more about the lack of quality in the team. Time can change minds.
Scott. The whole “Give him time” thing certainly has merit. My take is that anybody can see that our whole defensive structure is awful. It’s already cost us way too many goals and points. Surely, a proper manager would address those concerns and at least make us organised and a great deal more resilient while moving forward with his own plans. The one thing that will deplete a squad’s confidence has to be this certainty that we will ship stupid goals. Saturday was a perfect example. From what I can see Emery has done nothing at all about that and I am not sure that our defence is any better than during the last seasons under Wenger.
I understand that he will change personnel during the coming transfer windows and that’s understandable but why not make us more durable during the interim? The board have to decide whether he is actually a good enough manager to entrust with tens of millions of pounds and I imagine that is a discussion they are having right now.
Add to that this rather strange relationship he has built with Ozil. If he hopes to ship him out for some proper money then picking a fight with him seems a bloody odd way of going about it. I understand he is trying the old tactic of picking a battle with the clubs biggest name in an attempt to enforce his position but I don’t really get it because he has removed our main avenue of creativity along the way.
True, Rico, but it seems we keep shifting the reasons things aren’t great to ensure Wenger is to blame.
It’s entirely possible Emery is no better.
Hopefully that’s not the case, but when we see players that have been brilliant at times, it shows they can play, but their performances are very inconsistent and again I say it’s up to Emery to get the best out of them.
Surely we can’t say he is.
Adam, I do not understand the Ozil situation any more than I do that of Ramsey.
Wasn’t an issue at PSG that Emery struggled to man manage the big names?
He thrived in Spain at a smaller club.
Remembering David Moyes did damn well at Everton for years and looked all at see at Utd, some managers love the battle, and struggle under higher expectations.
So many questions but that’s so Arsenal like 🙂
Scott. There were lots of rumours about player-power at PSG for sure. I really don’t know of they were true or even relevant to his position at Arsenal.
If the main aim is this top-4 thing, for the income, then our rather disorganised gung-go football seems a strange and impractical way forward. It’s not as if we are a particularly attractive side at the moment.
One thing i agree with totally and that’s that Emery deserves time, imo.
Still, it’d be nice to see the defence improve a little in the interim 🙂
We really are stuck with Özil due to his ridiculous wage, imo, so rather than butt heads, get the best out of him.
I’m not at all Scott. I’m simply suggesting the players perhaps aren’t are intelligent as once thought. I recall Wath suggesting to me that Mustafi was slow and not good enough before we signed him.
Adam, agree re our defending and considering Emery said our defence needed and still needs improving, there’s been none. As a team we simply don’t defend well enough.
Didn’t Emery try the player power thing with Lacazette to begin with too?
Morning Rico. Again another refreshing post. The new hallmarks of the game are – attacking with great pace, pressing with intensity and then great player movement with and without the ball. Add marking with same intensity and a big team effort to recover the ball when they lose possession. This is what City do more than any other team bar Liverpool. Emery promised this on arrival. Even if he doesn’t have the players for it, seven months constant practice and breathing down their necks would have produced a semblance of it, even if not perfect. Just watch the team, the movement and runs into space is not there and this accounts for why they find it difficult to retain the ball. Nobody is moving. Our attacking speed has not really changed and we can’t really surprise teams. Our marking is done in such a way that is half hearted, no real commitment to mark as our players just posture in front of the opponent, giving them yards of space to drive or cross.
Emery seems overwhelmed and your observation that there is no combination play between Auba and Lacazette is spot on. Emery really has a lot he can do with this team.
Rico, apart from THAT Cup final v Chelksi, Mustafi has been very average for us-I’m probably being kind there lol
Some of his errors are just horrible.
Xhaka looked a superstar around the time we signed him but he’s not, and he hasn’t improved.
Lichtsteiner looked a damn fine signing but he’s well off the pace.
On the plus side is Sokratis and the old boy, Kozzer, who seems to be playing as well as ever but as we know, he needs to be looked after and not overplayed.
Torreira had a flat spot but hopefully is heading back in the right direction.
I really can’t wait to see Mavropanos have a run of games.
Morning Daniel, thanks.
I heard one of the Sky blokes say yesterday that certain clubs now employ an ‘off the ball’ coach who literally focuses on just that. I’ve never seen an Arsenal team so static. They seem to play in groups too, far too close to each other instead of using the width of the pitch.
Scott, Mustafi was great in the FA Cup win in 2017 over Chelsea…
Probably because he was injured and didn’t play.. 😂
Re Koscielny, I actually think he’s playing better than he has in a long time which in itself asks another question…
Didn’t he play with Merts or was it Kozzer?
Holding and Merts, both were brilliant..
I think you have a good point there Rico, we have missed goal opportunities due to player unawareness of your mates being in a better position to score.
Bergkamp was one of my favourite players who scored some brilliant goals but ALSO, set up some beauties too because of his awareness of his team mates better positions. He had extraordinary skills and a silken touch.
I was delighted to see Chelsea get thrashed yesterday to demote them below us on goals scored.
Surely the possibility of getting 4th spot (Man Utd within touching distance) should be enough incentive to get this team to go all out in the remaining games?
It’s there for the taking……
Holding hahaha
Well there was one, solitary, lonely game I (sort of) recall where he was brilliant.
Maybe when we beat the Chavs 3-0 and he bossed Costa.
Not bad in 100 games for us lol
Rico, Kozzer clearly carried and an anjury for the latter part of last season until injury ended it, and this string of games has him back to his best.
Fitness is the key.
So was I Andorra, hope a few teams can do the same to Utd too. We need that fourth spot.
Scott, it was Merts only full game of the season and a performance totally unexpected. But it was Holding who left the pitch with Costa in his pocket I think. Ozil was good that day to and if my memory serves me right, he even chased back a made a crunching tackle on one of the Chelsea players…
Yep, it was the 3-0 earlier that season where Mustafi shone.
That’s it.
That’s his Arsenal career is in a nutshell:
Some good observations there guys – re static players. Leno passes the ball out to a player, that player then passes it back to Leno because nobody gets into space to receive a FORWARD pass.
I watched the City v Chelsea Pensioners game yesterday and was reminded of the Invincibles.
City really are a super team to watch and you are spot on Daniel with their style of play. Matchless, and it’ll be a close run thing with Liverpool.
He’s got to be one of the first out in the summer surely….
Pep on Sarri:
“People don’t understand how difficult it is. I said many times, my first year was difficult too. Some moments we played good but not consistently.
“People expect ‘Okay, manager arrives, he buys players and immediately come [results]’ – it needs time. It depends on the belief from the owners, the people who are in charge; they really need to believe in that.
Same for Emery?
Rico. We’ll wait and see. As ever with Arsenal, there’s always honey tomorrow. 😏
Afternoon all and another top notch Rico post.
I agree with a lot of the talk especially that our defense is the main problem and that it does`nt look any better than Wenger`s defense !…………………………and I cant see it getting any better because Dick has already said he would rather win 5-4 than 1-0, so basically we have in a way Wenger Mk 2 !.
We cant match the 2 Mancs for money for exciting players and exciting football so we have to match them tactically and that`s why I wanted Simeone !………………….yes it would be boring at times ala George Graham, but we are years behind even Spuds football and (hopefully) they wont win F all, so it`s being defensively organised as a team that imo would make us better ………alas Dick is not the man, if we wanted to play Pep`s brand of football, but more as PepLite because of the lack of funds then we should have signed Zorro….sorry Arteta as manager !…………..who better to try PepBall than his assistant !
X amount of Transfer Windows aint going to help much when we haven`t got the same amount of money as the big clubs to spend unless the big clubs decide to spend fcuk all and give us a free reign at transfers .
Unless Krankie spends like he does on his Rams then we are snookered, this will go on for years as it`s no different from when Abramobitch and Mansours took over a few years back, I said then that we were snookered and nothing has changed, only FFP coukld have saved us but we all know what a dead duck in the water that has turned out to be.
How long did it take Leicester to do a “Leicester ?……………………well thats our and most other teams hope………..a tiny one !
Summer has arrived here ! 😎
Jam for me please Adam, strawberry. 😜
Thanks Lc. Big money helps but as said before, it’s not a guarantee of improvement.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47163954
What a fascinating article – THANKS Lc
Living close to the Spanish border I follow a lot of their football too and have always been a fan of Diego Simeone.
Were Arsenal ever interested in him?
Sky Sports report that Ramsey has signed a £400k a week deal with Juve. Not about the money then…, Hideous.
No wonder Ramsey turned a new contract down £400k per week. Silly money, silly money. Free or not free. I hope he proves worth it or Juve will end up with a very expensive bench warmer!
However, his. Leaving reminds me a little of Nasri’s. We lose a very good footballer who has just by age attained the age of maturity. His best playing days are still to come, but not with us.
Another great piece of retention by our club officials. Given the earlier comments re Lacazette and of course the treatment of Ozil, I shouldn’t be surprised I f little Dick didn’t play a large part in the withdrawal of the contract offer.
I’m starting to believe that UE is a bit of a control freak and this is one of the reasons the team is disunited. Divide and rule, divide and rule. Trouble is his tick tacks are taking the team backwards not forwards. yes, we need to replace many players but I don’t think his present methods of easing players our by pissing them off is a very progressive modus operandi! I’ll give him time ……but not much!
Afternoon all. Dark here and cooling here rapidly.
I think Adam raised a good point Wavy, do the board believe in what Emery is doing, whatever that is, enough to give him money to spend.
As much as I believe he needs time and his own choice of players, theres another part of me which thinks he might not be the right man for Arsenal. The Ozil situation has become embarrassing..
I like to hear it from the Orny`s mouth ! 😆
https://twitter.com/bbcsport_david/status/1095004620412334082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1095004620412334082&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Farsenalarsenal.net%2F2019%2F02%2F11%2Fthings-we-learnt-from-the-gameweek-26%2F
Evening Gooners
Evening Rico, I would imagine that the transfer finance for the manager/coach is the remit of the Head of Football, that is Raul who did say he doesn’t favour doing business in January.
£400k pw for Ramsey, that’s a great job by his agent.
Who to blame?
I don’t know…
Dont know if Arsenal were ever interested in Simeone, Andorra.
Just who I wanted and dont think he has ever gave any impression that he wants to leave AM anyway as he aparrently loves it there.
Although I am in the mildest place in Britain and Wavy is stuck in the dark ages somewhere up North in the Midlands I constantly seem to agree with most of his comments about Arsenal !
😆
Good luck to Juve, if you can sign good players for nothing Wavy, then you can offer them inflated wages, it’s what we did for Sol Campbell and Sead Kolasinac.
And kind of what we did with Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil.
I’m not sure that Aaron Ramsey is the kind of player we need atm and certainly not worth £400,000 per week, when we need to spend our finance a lot more intelligently.
Good luck to him, I think we did well spending £500,000 to sign him from Cardiff. He’s given us some great moments, scored some great goals, so I don’t hate on him for securing his future.
Evening Kev. Lucky Ramsey eh, it’ll be interesting to see how his career goes from here on..
400k is ridiculous for any footballer, imo.
200k was too much but then If we do the math, still cheaper to keep Ramsey than replace him after a transfer fee comes into the equation but it’s done now, so good luck to him.
I hope our scouts are on the job as we need some hidden gems.
LC, on Arteta, it could be smart business looking to the future to bring him in next season as an assistant to Emery.
Hi Rico, yeah it will be interesting, I did hear a comment awhile ago, that under Emery, because Aaron didn’t get overplayed and was substituted more often that therefore he suffered less soft tissue injuries, so I wonder if that will continue under Allegri in Torino?
The Italians do seem to have a more scientific approach to this kind of thing, don’t Milan have some kind of medical lab or something?
£400kfor a bit part player doesn’t seem likely Kev.. 😜
Amazing that Juve see him worth 400k yet we don’t believe he’s worth half that-I still don’t think any sportsman should get this money, but that’s another topic.
Quite obviously they are a poorly run club who never win anything lol
Whatever we think he’s worth, Arsenal are looking very, very unprofessional right now.
If that’s the sort of money Ramsey’s agent was demanding Arsenal were quite right in withdrawing the contract offer. If the club had agreed to pay anywhere near £400,000 per week, for what most of us think a mediocre player, it would have become a laughing stock. As it is we have got rid of a potential source of discord in the dressing room and demonstrated, to other greedy little gits, that demanding exorbitant wages isn’t going to work.
Just read through the various comment re Ramsey. What I was/am asserting is that the club could and perhaps should have held on to him. The investment in his progress was huge, his importance to the team could be immense. He is a very good footballer and as such arsenal should have had the benefit of his ‘best’ years, not at any cost but they should have been more careful with , what was their nurturing of a special player. He’s not world class, granted but he’s a cut up the average midfielder in the EPL.
Have to say, also, that I don’t resent his leaving for a deal that will probably mean he will never have to get up and go to work again after his career has finished, and good luck to him ….and his agent! His going just seems to me one of two things a)the club are not protecting their own investments or the manager/coach has not done enough or anything to encourage a prize asset to stay.
No, good luck to Aaron, I wish him well, the same as I did when Vieriammade the same move. Juventus are no fools they know a good acquisition when one becomes available, and when all’s said and done he is a ‘raight gud bargin’ to use a northern expression! Our loss is their gain. Just saying😊
I agree Rico, you don’t pay someone £400k pw and leave them on the bench, but also you don’t flog them to death, how many times under Arsene did we hear of players being in the bleeding red zone, but he still kept them going until they broke down, how many times did Thierry Henry get a soft tissue injury towards the end of a season, at least that has shown signs of an improvement with the present coaching staff and medical staff.
Scott, they don’t have an EPL style FFP in Italy, so Juventus can probably throw copious amounts of money at players and we simply can’t.
Yeah Cicero, it kind of explains why the club withdrew its offer if that’s what Ramsey’s agent was asking for, not that I blame him for asking, I’m just glad that we didn’t cave in this time.
It also saved us from the season long soap opera of ‘Will he stay or will he leave?’ despite half of Twitter caning the club for that decision. I wonder how many of those Twitterers will admit that they were wrong?
Wavy, if Gazides and Wenger hadn’t messed up the contract situations of Alexis and Ozil (and Ramsey for that matter) we wouldn’t have seen them panic (as they did with Walcott) and pay Ozil a salary that he clearly doesn’t deserve. It’s because of the money we have tied up in Ozil that we couldn’t have kept Ramsey even if we’d wanted too, FFP matey, it sucks, well for us it does.
Kev, FFP is a UEFA thing, not just in England but it does seem we are one of few clubs adhering to the rules.
Ramsey never asked for 400k, though.
He wanted 200k and the club had agreed but pulled it after agreeing to it-Ramsey has stated that publicly and is yet to receive a reason why the offer was pulled which shows what a mess the back office lot are right now.
We didn’t cave, fair call, but we’ve cut off our nose to spite our face and now need to find a replacement which will cost a hell of a lot more than keeping him.
It’s a stupid move.
Emery and whoever else is involved now allowed Ramsey to go for free when they could’ve and should’ve sold him at the start of the season, or in January.
Then there is Ozil, sitting in the stands lol
Oh, we are sitting pretty lol
Scott, you can’t sell a player who refuses to be sold. Whether Ramsey demanded £200k or £400k is immaterial as he was happy to rundown his contract go for free. Clubs, if there were more than just Juventus, interested knew they could save having to pay a transfer fee if they too were happy to wait.
Only the club know why the contract offer was withdrawn, could it be that Emery was unimpressed with what he saw in Ramsey and decided he wasn’t worth the money?
Cicero,
He wanted to stay.
If Emery wasn’t impressed, then fine, but who will he replace the guy with and where will the money come from?
Sorry, but it’s a stupid decision.
Should’ve sold him or paid the 200.
Morning Scott/Cicero, I’m not sure that Arsenal will replace Ramsey, not like for like, Rabiot isn’t like for like and he’s been touted as Ramsey’s replacement for a long time.
The time to sort Ramsey’s contract was the summer 2017 or Jan 2018, not last summer imo. Too late then with a new manager coming in as the player already has control.
Kev, I agree re Wenger and flogging players to the point of breaking. Odd how we’re getting injuries this season yet Emery isn’t overplaying players..
Kev, id take Rabiot any day of the week-lets hope that’s a goer.
Rico, it shouldn’t have dragged on, but that’s no excuse to let him go on a free.
Seems the criticism of Wenger not training players hard enough is balanced by their game time, and Emery is the exact opposite maybe?
Morning Rico, that’s true, but you can’t compare the injuries to Holding and Welbeck to a Ramsey hamstring or a Theo hamstring, all the same, I agree that Bellerins injury seems to be a symptomatic of him rarely having a break, likewise Xhaka who is always in the team.
All the same, our players do seem to recover a bit quicker these days, so a nod in the direction of Burgess & co…
Scott, as to finding a replacement for Ramsey, Emery needs to have the guts to promote from the academy, Smith Rowe perhaps.
Morning Kev. Agree again and Ramsey’s all really took place after his horrific leg break. Welbeck was an odd one though, seldom injured until he came to injured. Holding, well we know what happened there.
New post up now
Morning all, a lovely sunny day here, tempered by 6deg in the shade. Brrrrrr!
Meant to say earlier Rico your nickname for Iwobi as “Mr Marmite” was spot on.
Personally, sad to see Ramsey go and in the cold light of day, who are we going to use as a replacement?
£200k/week (if true) was probably a trifle steep but then look at Özil’s vastly overpaid salary. Ramsey did have some flair
if you look at his heel flick goal against Fulham, where he started the move in his own half it was possibly one of the best team goals of the season?
Lots of discussion from that post-season transfer about and I share all your doubts regarding UE but I’m waiting to the end of the season to see how we perform for the remaining games and, where we actually end up before dropping the trapdoor.