20 Dec 2017 14:51:53
Manchester United fan come in peace.
Just wanna say a Happy Retirement to Tomas Rosicky. One of my favourite football players growing up. A player if it weren't for all those injuries would be talked as much as all the ex legends that played in the Premier League and being still talked about today.
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20 Dec 2017 16:22:15
Shane,
Totally agree.
Well played mate.
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20 Dec 2017 22:15:32
Thanks, their were two players watching football all my life who I thought be a natural replacement for Scholesy one day. One was Sneijder (2010) and the other was Rosa (Around 2004) .
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20 Dec 2017 11:00:40
Watched a football discussion the other day with Terry and Carragher about the player management from both manager and senior players. Terry said that Mourinho pretty much delegated the senior players in his Chelsea team (Terry, Drogba, Lampard, Cech, Ivanovic etc) the role of having a go at the less senior players even if they misplaced a pass! I don't feel like any players in this current arsenal team have the balls to take control of the dressing room (with the exception of Jack) , and can't imagine Wenger being demanding at all. True leadership on the pitch is definitely a quality (outside of technical ability) that we have truly missed on the pitch since the invincibles, and is probably the reason we didn't win the league all those times we were 1st/ 2nd by xmas time. This really needs to be addressed over Jan and in the summer, we need to sign players who aren't afraid to have a go at players who aren't performing.
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20 Dec 2017 15:02:20
Its not wengers style, he doesn't like his players to be vocal, like that. Calm and control, that's his philosophy. don't upset anyone.
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20 Dec 2017 17:15:01
I don't understand why that changed Steve. We've had plenty of leaders in his era. Well I say plenty I meant maybe 10 plus. And I don't believe he just decided not to have any leaders because he never changes his mind lol.
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20 Dec 2017 19:46:38
Arsene never used to be afraid of upsetting player or shy in letting people go who no longer fitted in with his plans, Wrighty and Merton were left in no two minds about how Arsene felt when he thought their time was up at Arsenal and players over 30 got only 1 year at a time deals and take it or leave it option.
Now Arsene gives contracts away like confetti to players who look not only past their best but also unlikely to be available most of the time.
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20 Dec 2017 03:54:13
Good result and now we have reverted to a back four, we have sufficient cover defensively, although in the summer window Mertesacker will need to be replaced as he retires and I would sell Chambers.
I am not at all convinced by the DM options, so one signing in the January window, such as Nzonzi and a second signing in the summer, we should then unload Coquelin and Elneny.
We should try and recoup what we can for Sanchez in January and Zaha looks a good option. The same goes for Ozil and Fekir would be a good shout, The problem is that Ozil and Sanchez may choose to run their contracts down and we will get nothing for them.
Huge match against Liverpool, we simply cannot afford a loss. With Mustafi back alongside Koscielny in a back four, I am a little more confident. Although I fear for the DM, which needs to be on top form to stop Liverpool.
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20 Dec 2017 05:33:39
Back three, back five, back four, it doesn't make a blind bit of difference against teams that attack us. We are poor at defending whatever.
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20 Dec 2017 08:38:54
Absolutely Steve r - The problem is that Wenger refuses to bring in a specialist defensive coach to work with Steve Bould. If, say, Keown was brought in to do the job, I can assure you the problem would be resolved. Look at the influence on the defences of Allardyce, Hodgson and Moyes at the relegation threatened clubs once they arrived.
Wenger plays far too high a defensive line, allowing teams in behind th back four. In addition he doesn't play proper DM's, preferring more technical players in the roles and in the 4-2-3-1 formation the full backs have zero protection, as the 2 CB's are unable to go wide to double up and the wide attacking players are too high up to cover their full backs. Wenger's most successful period was played in a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1, where the wide players doubled up with their full backs defensively and we had proper DM's such as Vieira, Petit and Gilberto.
Throw in zonal marking and you have a disaster. Although this season we don't appear to have been exposed defensively from deadball situations, so something must have changed. I will have to have a good look and see what the difference is.
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20 Dec 2017 11:27:11
I'm not trying to split hairs here but is martin keown a specialist defensive coach?
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20 Dec 2017 13:51:56
Keown has taken his coaching badges and has helped with coaching at Arsenal in the past.
He played nearly 600 matches as a defender and over 40 international matches for England.
Given the choice of Bould (given a free hand to coach the defence) and Keown in charge of coaching the defence or Wenger himself, I know who I would choose.
Interestingly Tony Adams admitted that the defence sorted itself out, often ignoring Wenger. Having been superbly coached by George Graham, both Bould and Keown have first hand knowledge of the training methods necessary.
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20 Dec 2017 17:12:42
Your going off track again RG. Is keown a defensive specialist? Yes or no! He is a defender who has a lot of experience. I could name 20 off the top of my head with similar experience in this country alone. And if all those 20 are considered special then the word special is lost on you I'm afraid. So would you like to rephrase it to "we could get someone with lots of defensive experience to help" . And I don't find it interesting what tony Adams has "admitted to" so stop using words as a fact like interestingly and say "I find it interesting" because others might not .
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