Sunday 31 January 2010

Arsene must look in the mirror

Firstly I am not going to dissect the details of our depressing 3-1 defeat to Manu today. It was a Manu side there for the taking, they had a very weak back four on show and an unconvincing keeper. We did create a lot of very decent chances and on a better finishing day we could have easily had four or five goals. The referee was woeful, allowing numerous tackles from behind to go without punishment, but this was not the reason for our capitulation.

The defensive naivety on show today was truly flabbergasting. The first United goal was awful defensively, Nasri didn't cover Clichy properly, Denilson's attempted defensive effort was truly pitiful, I don't blame Almunia as Nani's ball was almost impossible to defend. The problem was that when we went behind we threw men forward in the most suicidal of manners, we were frequently outnumbered on the counter attack, it made it easy for United to dismantle. There was simply no need to throw caution to the wind like this, we were only one goal down for God's sake. The second goal showed our rank defensive naivety as Nani broke, Vermaelen tried hard to cover, Denilson's casual strolling while Rooney motored past him was typical of his pathetic performance, Rooney finished well but it was far far too easy for him in so much space. Gallas was regularly going missing up the field, seemingly forgetting that his primary job is to prevent the conceding of goals.

The frustrating thing was that this is no great United side. Arshavin could have had a hat trick, as could Song, we opened them up easily without even having a proper centre forward up there. With RVP up there we could have cut them to ribbons. Song was the only midfielder really defending for the team, Denilson was wasteful in possession and as useful as a traffic cone in defensive positions. Overall in our front six we only have one player (Song) carrying a decent portion of water, that is simply not enough to get by in this league.

The third goal saw Gallas nowhere again, Clichy was left on his own and failed to close down Park quickly enough, it was another calamity of errors, conceding a third so early in the second half meant that game was over. There was just no need to leave ourselves so outnumbered at the back, serious questions need to be asked of the management as this defensive naivety has seen us attempt suicide in several games of late, the Everton game included in this and the Pienaar goal a classic example of this idiocy.

I do not mind us defending naively in the 89th minute when we are going for a key goal, but throwing men forward recklessly so early in the game is nothing but plain stupid. The lack of defensive players in the squad compounds this obvious problem, Song cannot lift planets alone. Denilson was awful yet again and does not have what it takes to make the grade at Arsenal in my opinion. The lack of strikers in the squad is also obvious, even if Bendtner and Eduardo were fully fit it would not leave us enough depth to cope with our fixtures for the rest of the season, a striker is badly needed in my opinion. Ignore the referee, ignore the great chances we squandered, the defensive naivety that we are playing with at the moment will never win us a league title, this was no great United side and we made them look rather good as a result. If Arsene does not look in the mirror soon then I really fear for our future.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Arsenal are too Gun-Ho, terrific to watch when all is going their way but awful and Naive when they are up against it, I for one would like a change of the way we play (in order to win something), I hope Arsene does change us but I fear he can't, maybe a change in the Summer, Hiddink anyone?

Ashish said...

Let me sm up todays performance
arsenal were raped,fucked,and ripped apart today n u knw wats the funny thng this has happend thrice to us in matter of a year.
Thr is no positive to take away n thn also that scum wenger will cm tm n say we played good n shw sm statistics like we had 70% possesion,more chances blah blah blah
but he wnt agree that he is stuborn n made mistake nt signing
guys u wld probably curse me but let me assure that i m gunner 4 life but this agony n pain is not bearable ne more.
God help arsenal

Anonymous said...

we were shit again. theres nothing to breakdown, total shit penny pinching, portsmouth would probably utbid us if the rightplayer became available

leon said...

I would like to see Wenger leave - he has had his day and five years to develop a team. There is always excuses to why we lose but the truth is the players aside from Fabregas, Song, Arshavin and Vermaelin are not good enough and I include the perpetual sick note RVP in that. Arsenals priority lies with profit and money making and Wenger fits into that philosophy perfectly. Arsenal will never be successful while Wenger is there he simply has to go.

Anonymous said...

Wenger never learns any lessons year after year the same things always happen.

We have a few world class players but far to many mediocre players.

I think Arsene needs to go now while his reputation is intact, he has run his time.

Anonymous said...

A very good article. I just want to
add some more. Gallas should be allowed to join the attack when we are on the counter. But a midfielder must ALWAYS cover for him. Today the players didn`t talk to eashother and forgot to work for eashother. They where never up for it.The workrate was poor. And i agree that Denilson should start waarming the bench for some time.

Anonymous said...

Almunia was diabolical again! A new keeper is needed or bring Szczesny back!

geery Brown said...

Too many injured players-and very poor tactically. . Shocking and unacceptable standard of defending which has its roots in midfield disorganisation and tactical stupidity. This is not a one off-Complete re-run of the CL semifinal hammering last year. Remember, this United side are not world beaters-they would not come third in Spain.

Anonymous said...

I always was a wenger supporter.
but enough is enough.
this club need a makeover in the summer.
there are so many players who are not good enough.
Almunia, Denilson, Traore, Silvestre, Eduardo (sorry), Walcott, Vela.
We need a manager who wants to win something and don´t turn around every penny twice.
i´m so upset and sad...

Ted said...

Good summary 1979. I agree entirely.

Both this game and the chelsea one leave mammoth question marks over our defensive abilities.

What troubles me most about it is that Fergie seems to know exactly how to beat us, sucking up the pressure, working hard, and then counter-attack at pace.

The workrate in our team to defensive duties is appalling.

Whilst we point at Denilson today, let's also remember that we pointed at Diaby and Adebayor last season. The problem has been there for years.

Unknown said...

@leon who would get to replace wenger? but i do agree we need to cut the dead weight from the team fast get some real proven players and a CB what only wants to defend and not run up field like a mad-man!

Anonymous said...

Gallas is champ and i agree with AW's assesment that he had a good game. he is passionate and does a good job. he's always gotten unecessary stick. Vermo same, they have the same passion.

the rest of the team played like ass. clichy, denilson were terrible. almunia was terrible.

rosicky and song played well. that was about. i think 5 people showed up: gallas, vermo, rosicky, song and arshavin (he was tired by the 65th minute though)

rahul

Anonymous said...

eat a dick Leon.

rahul

Arsenalic said...

Very frustrating seeing Arsenal expose themselves so carelessly after going only a goal down. Makes you wonder how much belief is in the squad against the big time clubs...