Saturday 31 March 2012

Suicidal and indefensible

I am not a fair weather fan, so what I am about to say is not just the ranting of a bitter and twisted fool, it is the frustrated ranting of someone who always tries to give people the benefit of the doubt and a fair chance.

Firstly well fought QPR and a good three points for them.  We have no one to blame but ourselves.  The decision from AW to start Aaron Ramsey in the team in a wide forward role was many things.  It was inexplicable given we had Gervinho and Ox on the bench fully fit.  It was foolish given we needed pace and width, especially away from home with the chance to counter attack.

It was just such an obvious error from the manager.  Ramsey has not even been on form recently, in fact the opposite.  Even someone like Yossi Benayoun would have given us far more in that attacking role.  Ramsey is a decent young central midfielder and his deployment today was a stupid mistake.

Even with the right XI maybe we wouldn't have won, I still think we would have had a much better chance, our lack of an outlet on both flanks was so obvious today.  The two defensive errors from Thomas Vermaelen were poor, they were individual errors, these things happen, I will not castigate a man who has been outstanding in recent weeks for us.

We need to finish strongly if we are to hold on to 3rd spot, three points today would have put real pressure on Spurs, as things stand we have given them hope and this was such a cheap loss of points.  We play City next Sunday and if Ramsey starts on the left of the forward line, I will despair, I just cannot understand how such an experienced manager can make such terrible tactical decisions?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why change things when we have won 7 in row??? We don't know what would have happened had we actually had some width, but Wenger completely to blame for this one

arsenelfan said...

dont dispair my friend. We are still leading teh race for 3rd by 3 points with gam,e in hand.

Justremeber : Mind the GAP TOTTENHMA!!

City will smash tottenham up next week! And we will be leading by 6 points still.

Flashman71 said...

Absolutely spot on could not have put it better myself. We have had all week to prepare and focus, gervinho or the ox would have caused all sorts of problems for QPR. Let's face it it is not a hard place to go, yet again Wenger has sent out his team in a lacksidasical manner (maybe after the run of the past couple of months they actually think they are better than what they actually are, surely it is down to Wenger to sort this out and remind them to take each game as it comes) we have seen so often in the past. As for TV no excuse,I think this actually sums up his season which I believe for him as a whole has been below his standard (he seems to slip all the time and was poor as djourou today. Wenger's fault today though got it completely wrong tactically, well done for letting Chavski and the Spuds back into it. This game was absolutely pivotal for us with City coming up next week.

Anonymous said...

I worry that we cannot perform against low teams anymore. We used to carve up teams like QPR and go home happy. Far too often we don't turn up for games like this and that is simply inexcusable. Wenger must take the blame as he chooses who starts and then who to change if things aren't working. Today he got it all wrong. But sadly this is a common occurrence.
Get a strong 2 ic and bring back David Dein

DavetheGooner said...

I don't get the Alex Song hype. He continually gives the ball away in dangerous positions, does not sense danger and is always slow to recover. Yes, he occasionally makes a defensive splitting pass but surely his primary function is to protect the back 4 which he does very averagely. Although Vermaelen slipped, Song should have been covering Diakite on the edge of the box. Song is no more than a back-up DM and until Wenger replaces him Arsenal will win nothing!!!

Anonymous said...

Have spent some time to make a stat. Arsenal won total 27 games so far. 12 of them which Ramsey was not started including the creditable long last few weeks. On the other hand, loss 14 games, 13 of them which he was started including some cheap loss. I don't want him to leave but I am question why AW use him so many. He even not use Gervinho & Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain but put him on wing instead (or AM, i am not used where should he play today)
Win Total 27 games (15 start, 12 not start)
Draw Total 6 games (5 start, 1 not start)
Loss Total 14 games (13 start, 1 not start)

Anonymous said...

If arsenalfan is typical of you goons,god help you
I hope he's right about City smashing their opponents next week.So pleased i'm not a gooner

KnysnaGunner said...

Perhaps you should learn to wait till the next morning before you blog after a defeat. Obviously you are writing with you heart here and not your head. You decided before the game started that it was wrong to play Ramsey and you stuck with that - Aaron becoming the scapegoat for everything that went wrong today. It was his fault that Vermaelen let in two goals (oh I forget, you already forgave Vermaelen for that). It was his fault that van Persie had a poor game (or have you also already forgiven him because of his good season). What else was Ramsey responsible for? Theo's shot hitting the post? Luckily Theo was quick on the rebound. Song's missed passes? Rosicky's missed passes. Wojcieck's failure to stop Taraabt's shot. All Ramsey and Wenger's fault. Please grow up.

1979gooner said...

knysna

obviously you feel I have scapegoated Ramsey

this is unfair and not based on what has been written

the selection of Ramsey was the problem and I don't blame Ramsey for this for one second, I blame the manager

the shape of the team was wrong, we didn't have enough of an outlet because Ramsey is not a left sided forward player

blaming the manager for setting the team up wrong is not equivalent to scapegoating a player

your deductions are utterly nonsensical and based on nothing but your own preconceptions

sad