Morning all.
Yes yes, I know., I’ve read it. Aubameyang is close, very close but for now it’s media talk. When it’s official, I’ll believe it, same goes for Jonny Evans even though I think there are better defenders out there for the kind of money WBA are asking for their man.
I’m not keen on copying/pasting an entire article from a newspaper but yesterday, after reading this one in the Daily Mail, I thought I would.
Goalkeepers are easy to blame. It is simple to point the finger at the last line of defence, even for former professionals who are now pundits.I am happy for people to be critical, to give an opinion — I do it myself on TV and radio — but more often than not I find the assessments of goalkeeping, a specialist position, are cheap throw-aways or inaccurate.
Last season’s Champions League final was a prime example. Mario Mandzukic scored for Juventus with a shot that went over Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas. In the TV studio, two respected former internationals said Navas had been showing off — rather than prioritising the save — by going for the ball with his top hand.
I was baffled by their lack of understanding. There is a logical biomechanical reason goalkeepers reach for the ball like that. When diving, at a certain height and body position, you can reach further with your top hand.Yet the guys in the studio said Navas had been show-boating. That is lame and if you do not know some of the basic technical elements of goalkeeping, then it is best not to comment.
I am not the oracle on football but some of the punditry on my position is bemusing.I have found that if one person says something about a keeper, the others tend to agree rather than challenge. The tendency is to go with the opinion on the table rather than form their own.
Liverpool’s Simon Mignolet has been this season’s whipping boy. He has made mistakes — just as I did numerous times during my 22-year career. But a lot of the time he is unfairly criticised.
People do not recognise when he plays well because it does not fit the story. When Liverpool were very close to winning the league in 2013-14, Mignolet was a key man. Now people are jumping on the bandwagon and, instead of analysing the goals that Liverpool concede, the stock comment is that they will never win the title because he is not good enough? That is unfair. You expect it from people on social media, but not former players. Liverpool are a very attack-minded team but when it breaks down there is little cover from the three, four or even five men who have joined the attack.
There are times when Mignolet could have played better but nobody points out that any goalkeeper is going to be put under extreme pressure because of the system the team play.
At the other extreme, this season has been a David de Gea love-in. One person says he is world-class and everyone nods their heads without any analysis. David is a very good goalkeeper. He is world-class with his reflexes and makes exceptional saves but, when you break it down, I do not think he is the best because of two other areas of a goalkeeper’s game: dominating the 18-yard box and sweeping up behind the defence. He is good with the ball at his feet but I do not think he uses it enough.
By a small margin, Manuel Neuer is the best because he is the complete keeper. He is exceptional on his line, brilliant at dominating his penalty area and awesome at playing a high lineBut you rarely hear a discussion with the same level of expertise as when pundits talk about Kevin De Bruyne or Mo Salah. Too often, the viewer would switch off the TV thinking De Gea was the best in the world and Mignolet the worst. Neither is true.
I have had a lot of conversations with pundits after we have gone off-air. On-air, they have an opinion which can be quite scathing of goalkeeping. Then afterwards they will say, ‘You know better than me, I’ve got no clue really.’
I can see why both Liverpool keepers — Mignolet and Loris Karius — have been miffed at their treatment. Criticism is something you accept and expect as a goalkeeper, it is the nature of the role, but not when it is vicious, disrespectful and has an agenda.Particularly when it is from former players you know would not have been able to handle that kind of criticism themselves.
A lot of pundits want a response and the publicity. It is ironic that if a goalkeeper does not attempt to reach a shot, he is almost let off. The view will be: ‘He had no chance’. Yet if he does well to get a decent hand on it, they will say he should have saved it! That cannot be right and underlines a lack of expertise on the position.
I do not get it. Maybe it is just a case of ‘goalkeepers are different’ and the position is misunderstood.
Since Mad Jens, we’ve never really had a top notch keeper and even he had his moments. When we signed Petr Cech, I think we knew his better days were behind him but he was deemed better than who we had and I doubt anyone would argue with that, even now. David Ospina is far from being at the level we need but then again, what club does have two worldies fighting for the right to be king of the number one jersey?
Perhaps the best keeper we had in a while, albeit he had issues either with himself or with Arsene Wenger, is now just weeks or months away from replacing Buffon as the Juventus number one. Since the day he left us, he’s got better and better and despite dropping into conversation that our keeper coach taught him nothing, Wenger still keeps him at the club.
Both Cech and Ospina get their fair share of criticism from many of us, I know I’m one of the worst but even after reading the above article, I still don’t think that if our two were put together as one, they’d be anywhere near as good as Neuer, or even De Gea.
Coming through the ranks is Martinez and Macey. Martinez has played just one match on loan with Getafe CF which is doing him absolutely no good whatsoever while Macey has dipped his toes into the first team on the odd occasion. Imo, he’s the more likely of the two to push his way through if he gets his chance, especially as back in December, the club tied him down to a lengthy contract.
Cech can’t go on forever and Ospina won’t accept second place either for much longer so the club really need to be thinking about the future regarding one of the most important positions in the team.
The core of any team is crucial and it has to be strong but oddly enough, it’s the most ignored by Arsene Wenger for years. Until Cech, our keepers have been suspect to say the least. Since Gilberto and still to this day we don’t have a ball winning midfielder. Yes we’ve had a few decent strikers but up until last summer when we signed Lacazette, Wenger has never truely replaced RvP. Podolski might have been better had he not been stuck on the wing, Bendtner too but neither happened, not really.
Same can be said in defence. Merts had his qualities, that can’t be denied, Koscielny had his too, but have we really had a top class central defender since Sol Campbell? I’d say not and we still don’t today imo.
I haven’t a clue what Arsene Wenger will do come the end of the season, I wish I did, but should he decide, or better still, the club decide its time for him to stand down and let someone else take us to the next level, I’d imagine the first thing they’d do is sort out our core positions.
Something which Arsene Wenger should and could have done long before now and if he had, perhaps he’d have won something other than the FA Cup during the last thirteen years..
Back to Aubameyang, does his potential arrival excite you? We need to tie the deal down before noon today if he’s to play against Swansea tomorrow night. Mkhitaryan could make his first appearance in an Arsenal shirt which I’m really looking forward to seeing.
Should Auba arrive before Wednesday, Giroud could be off for £35m. Chelsea want him apparently and if that’s true, I’d squeeze as much money out of Roman as possible.
After all, they still owe us for Ashley Cole!
Great stuff Rico.
Goalkeeping !………………..most I have played with are complete nutters, just like Jens, if it wasn`t for my footballing skills, I`d have been one too !
🙂
https://twitter.com/bbcsport_david/status/957751674289913858
Thanks Lc.
Only a nutter would want to play in that position imo…
Exactly !
🙂
Good piece Rico, in general pundits talk a lot of shit, it amazes me how a plank like Danny Mills has a job analysing football on the radio (or anywhere) when he comes out with such gems as ‘football is now a non contact sport’, but I bet he enthused about the challenge on Sane over the weekend, another Ramseyesque leg breaker to get all the knobs excited.
I don’t think it’s necessarily taking Arsenal to a ‘new level’ Rico, that term is dripping with dangers as we can get worse, but just a case of a manager taking us in a new direction.
Cocker, I think you would have been a wonderful goalkeeper… ?
Thanks Kev. Agree re pundits and as often said, if they were that smart, they’d be a manager, not sitting in the warm on their backsides.
Some of those on Sky Sports are awful, and when Gerry Francis rocks up, I switch over. I don’t mind Danny Higginbottom (spelling) though, mind you, he’s more of an annalist than pundit and I find his views quite interesting.
I don’t know Kev, I still believe it’s a case of new manager/coaches, new direction and players to play the way we want to play. I know many fans think the club is in a huge mess, but I’m not convinced it is. The structure is there, the facilities etc etc are there, it just needs new faces to come in and the old farts out…
Agree totally Rico, new manager, new coaches, not all but just freshen it up, new voices on the training ground, more emphasis on being defensively discipline as well as attacking responsibly.
I think that the Academy is doing great, Mertesaker will be taking up his job at a really good time, not sure how influential Joncker was in his time, but the quality coming through is certainly an upgrade on the last 20 years.
Afternoon Rico and the house. Auba deal close huh?? Just like you i ‘ll wait till I see it on arsenal.com. we ‘ve been here a million times before. Don’t want to get my hopes up. Am still traumatized by Mata mvilla higuain and Suarez. If there’s anything I ve learnt about arsenal it’s to always expect nothing. Hopefully they ‘ll make us happy this time.
Spot on Rico re Evans for 25million we ‘ll get a seasoned DM in nzonzi. Evans is overrated. He’s a brawn and no brains. We ‘ll ship more goals with him than we are doing currently. He gives away silly fouls at the edge of the 18 yard. We can’t afford to give away free-kicks so close to our goal posts. Cech can’t and haven’t saved a long ranger in like forever. Thanks but no thanks west brom can shove it.
Breaking news…happening now. BLID just announced auba could be an arsenal player TODAY!!!! Yikes that escalated really fast. Oh well let’s wait and see but from what I gathered Dortmund won’t sanction the deal unless they find a replacement. So this is probably just another media hogwash.
Morning Rico and all. Pundits? Now there’s a subject in itself. You won’t be surprised to learn that I despise just about every one of them. Listening to Chris Sutton yesterday was an ordeal in itself and the partisan crap that people like Carragher spew is galling too, if you can understand a word of it. Strangely enough, although I couldn’t bear the sight of Robbie Savage on the pitch, I have found that he talks a lot more sense than Martin Keown. Danny Mills, one of the most grotesque individuals to ever clog his way around a pitch, is being shoved at us as some sort of footballing sage. It’s an insult.
There was a time when old footballers used to end up as dossers or become landlords of pubs but now they are all anxious to earn a few quid from TV. Who can blame them really? The money they get paid is really good I am told. Problem is that they daren’t rock the boat or they’ll be chucked out and have to buy a pub so they can regale their customers with tedious stories about how they once got the better of Thierry Henry of got kicked in the cobblers by Tony Adams.
Adam ‘ll kill me ???God you ‘re something else. Landlords of pubs he says. Hahahahaha now that’s comedy.
Morning Rico and the House
A very good post Rico and I think your 10.32 is spot on.
At the start of the season I felt that in the academy things were starting to change.
Now the change has become a major overhaul of Staff, structure and direction.
Many of the changes have gone through under the radar and most fans have missed them.
Kev when Junker De Kat and Van loon were here the U18’s were bottom of the 24club league
and the u21’s were in the 2nd tier of the premier league 2 with no chance of winning anything.
Now as I write the teams are in 5 compititons and have a chance in all of them, why the big change around.
Off out now but will be back later.
Sorry for any mistakes. . Bloody Keyboard.
Goonster. 🙂
Morning Rick. That has to be good news surely.
Adam am still chuckling. Have read your post like 5 times since you posted yet still can’t help but laugh. Oh my word. Hahaha. Hey Adam is Danny mills going into that pot of horse glue we ‘ve been planing on boiling for a while??? Danny mills is so useless his only good for one thing…boil him to make glue. ?Adam is a hoot. My ribs hurt. Hahahaha. Make it stop Adam make it stop. ????
Goonster. Danny Mills would be one of the first in the pot. 🙂
No that ‘ll be Owen or shearer. Can’t stand either of them. Lol
Goonie. Me neither. Ghastly people.
Morning Adam, Rick and Goonster. – thanks Rick.
Nice one Adam.
Like others on here, I’m really excited about our youth players. ‘The Magnificent Seven’ they are referred to on the official site which I think is harsh as there’s more than seven, are doing extremely well at their own stage of career but in all honesty, I can’t wait to see a few be a permanent fixture within the team.
Kev, once we get all that in place, we’ll see what Kroenke is really about. I just have a hunch that we won’t be complaining too much…
Just hope auba hits the ground running cause trust me the hyenas vultures and wolves ‘ll be out to get him. They ‘ll undermine him every chance they get much like they are doing with laca right now yet these same pundits can’t see anything wrong with lukaku or morata. If I didn’t know any better i ‘ll say the media is “arsenal biased ” but what do I know am just a bloody Dutchman.
Goonster. Some of the finest footballers ever have been Dutchmen. Are there no really promising young players over there now? And what happened at Ajax between Dennis and Overmars and VDS? What’s the word in Dutchland?
The Bergkamp thing was odd..
Just a quick one.
In the international cup we have a home game
against Dinamo Zargrerb
Adam from what I gathered it stems from poor results and difference of opinions too. Who cares I hate Ajax anyway lol. As for young Dutch players we have a few. Not world beaters like the the golden generation but they can hold their own. Players like Jeremiah St juste, Donny van de beek,perr schuurs,mathijs de ligt,Steven bergwijn and my favorite Calvin stengs(He’s a distant cousin). The future of the oranje looks bleak guys. We ‘re not churning out world beaters like we did in the 80s 90s and early 2000s.
Seems auba has signed a 3 and a half year deal worth 180 per week. That don’t make no sense at all. He was on 180 at Dortmund. You ‘ll expect he ‘ll be making more but it seems he must really want to leave Dortmund at all cost. If that’s true then we do have the best window in England so far. Just get me a beast of a DM and we are sorted. Nzonzi is my pick but ‘ll take kondogbia any day. He’s been at Sevilla for too long. It’s time he moves.
Hi all
Hope I am wrong but I fear Aubameyang is the bastard offspring of Adebayor and Arshavin!
As for Danny Mills. He was ‘summarising’ on 5live when Alonso forearm smashed Hector’s jaw. Mills said ” you could just as easily say Bellerin has fouled Alonso there”. Sums his attitude and football knowledge up. A bit like Warnock and his xenophobic shit about playing in England so you should expect leg-breaking challenges! And people wonder why our national team is so bad!
Stan. What about Kluivert’s boy. I see him whacking them in from 30 yards on TV?
Hi Bob. Warnock is another dinosaur from what I can see. I can’t stand the bloke.
Oh yeah I totally forgot about him. He’s another I see on Dutch tv often. Huge things are expected of him but I just hope he don’t flop. Has a huge pair of boots to fill. There are more youngsters out there Adam. A few in my local team but it ‘ll take a miracle to recreate the seedorfs,Davids de boer twins van persie etc. The future of the oranje is not looking good Adam. I could be wrong though.
Hi rico, don’t mind me if I ask, who wrote that piece about the keepers in the DM ..
If Auba signs today would he be available for the Swansea game I wonder
Afternoon KK. I believe it was Mark Schwarzer who wrote that piece.
Sorry Kk, I missed that important it. lol
Adam is right…
Danny Murphy isn’t too bad, he doesn’t come across as a professional Scouser, boring ya all to death with Liverpool this Liverpool that bullshit.
Yes I agree Adam, I like Robbie Savage, Chris Sutton is just a wind up merchant, but he makes me laugh, Shearer hates Arsenal, I can’t stand him, can’t really comment on those at Sky or BT as I rarely watch those channels, Lee Dixon is quite good and Roy Keane is funny, he doesn’t mean to be but he always makes me laugh.
Midday was the cut off for Auba to be able to play tomorrow..
SS’s reckon £60m deal agreed…
Auba apparently in London according to reports. Oh my this is really happening. I can’t wait for Raul to resume, this next Window ‘ll be very interesting. We ‘ll need to ship some players off and bring in New ones. Most especially a DM a new CB and another RB to relegate bellerin to the bench. He’s gone backwards. We ‘re on our way back people. Back to being a big club. COYGS ????
Lee Dixon I like, and Wrighty but I’m biased…
Roma to offer us manolas in exchange for giroud so dzeko could join the chavs. I ‘ll kill to have kostas manolas on our team. We just killed 2 birds with one stone. Shipped giroud abroad and get a classy CB too. Make it happen gazidis and I ‘ll take back every foul word i said about you in the past. Lol
Aubangeyang needed to be signed by midday to be able to play at Swansea…
So he’ll debut at the Emirates vs Everton I think.
I’m hearing on Talkrubbish that it’s pretty much done.
Snap Rico, yeah you gotta luv Ian Wright. If you get a chance, listen to him on the Arseblog Arsecast, he’s absolutely brilliant, just like a fan.
It’s getting busy then Goonster..
I will, thanks Kev. Wrighty is a fan isn’t he, i love him and wouldn’t say a bad word against him..
Where did you read that re Manolas Goonie?
I saw it on Twitter ma’am. An ITK I follow lol. It’s still speculation Rico just hope and pray the story has legs. It ‘ll make our job easier. Manolas is top class.
Stan, fancy a man of your breeding and intellect taking any notice of Twitter, I have to say that I’m very surprised.
Now Safe Hands Cocker I can understand, but not you Stan. ?
Ok, thanks goonie.
Not sure anything`s safe in my hands…………especially any women………….
😎
No surprise as to who the top two are in this link !………………..seeing the amount of money they invest, great owners, wish we had one !…………………………yes !, very bitter and very twisted !
🙂
https://talksport.com/football/every-premier-league-owner-ranked-worst-first-current-performance-180129270419?p=19
Evening All.
Looks like Auba could be in trouble with the law He was due in court today to give evidence
in the Dortmund coach bombing and failed to turn up.
Club said he is ill Judge said he played 90 mins on Sat was he ill then.
Could go 2 ways make him go another day or a heavy fine.
Rick, he can afford the fine… lol
Kev,
Mcguane to Barca permanent
Akpom to STvv Belguim loan
Eyoma to QPR loan
They have hardly played so wont be really missed.
Pleguezuelo to Nasttic ( no idea who they are)
He will be missed.
They are also saying
Giroud to Chelsea 15 million
Batshuaye to Dortmund so we can sign Auba
Cant say what I think about that Rico would ban me.
Ah go on Rick, you only live once, what’s the worst she can do…..give you an early bath !
Our motley crew in Germany doing their best to turn a 60 million transfer into a mile long algebra equation on a chalk board……..fcuk this one up guys and there be hell to pay !!!
Rick, according to Jeorge Bird, McGuane is leaving because of lack of opportunities due to Josh Dasilva and Joe Willock being in front of him and getting game time whilst he didn’t get a chance.
But if he had signed his contract, maybe he would have got more chances, I think that Arsenal knew he was set on leaving and pushed on the other two and left him to play academy football.
Good luck to him, I guess it’s about time that Barcelona snapped up one of our youngsters after we’d taken Fabregas, Bellerin, Merida, Toral and Pleguezuelo from their academy. We’re still winning 5-1….
Hello everyone. Quiet on here today?
Hi Adam.. Very quiet..
New post up now.