It's crazy as this Arsenal team wasn't that broken and only needed a couple of players to now looking completely disjointed. The quality that's left in that side has massive question marks over it, and if I was a fan I'd be worried. This time next year, not sure how many if any will be left and given the shallow pool of players, not easy to replace.
Arsenal 2017/2018
- Thread starter Santi_Mesut_Alexis_87
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We don't even have such a bunch of technical players, tbh. I am especially talking about our midfielders.
I do enjoy having a good old laugh at Arsenal's expense. Never, ever change lads.
Yeah, 7th or 8th. It doesn't change that much in the end.
Did you also predict that we'd finish outside top4 during the 10 years before that when everyone else did the same?
The new Liverpool. Our frontline is gonna be Walcott, Welbeck, Fletcher and Vokes next season. A middle table club can't afford more.
Gonna be a long season. That's the reason why i already consider it over 
Vokes is a tough guy though. We need some of them.
I think that's a little harsh myself. I didn't watch all of the game yesterday but he was being forced to drop deep and dictate the play in a way that a #10 never should, simply because it severely limits their ability to find space in threatening positions and take the risks needed to play that killer ball.
He would be occupying an entirely different role if someone like Cazorla was in there.
Not many did. The consensus was always that you guys have an uncanny skill to be in the top 4, but last season since Spurs no longer looked like a flash in the pan and Pep at City+ Jose at Utd were the first time that the possibility of you dropping out become almost a foregone conclusion.
In the end we tailed off due to our Europa League campaign and Pool took the 4th spot, but the premise remained.
If you don't sell Sanchez this season, you'll have marginally improve, but your biggest problem in defense and midfield remains. If you are very lucky, Chelsea will implode and you pip Pool to that 4th spot, otherwise 5th/6th is reasonable.
Does that happen every match? I'm talking about the bigger picture, not just the Stoke match.
I'm not really sure because I don't watch them that often, but it wouldn't surprise me much. Just look at his midfield partners. Coquelin and Elneny are devoid of talent never mind creativity. Ramsey is far too keen to ignore his midfield duties, and Xhaka's yet to show the quality or character to take on that role.
So to some extent I see it as Ozil stepping in and doing what he can to help the team despite his natural instincts and preferences. I'm sure he knows that's not where's most effective so it's a form of individual sacrifice for the greater good. Although you can argue whether that's actually working out. It is possible they'd be even worse if he didn't help them control the game.
When Sanchez and Koscielny are back in the team they'll be fine I reckon.
Why Bellerin? Valencia is the superior full back and he is a horrible defender. Ox isn't anything special as well. Ozil
there all far better than anything you have and would easily make your first team other than maybe Koch and i can't remember the last time he was in form. You guys conceded 15 more goals than us for a reason.
Wenger is not gonna start them against Liverpool though, albeit them half-fit are already better than most our players.
The difference is that Josè drops average players, while Wenger believes in them.
Its crazy. Arsenal with that whole capital thing, should have been able to sign players that have gone elsewhere. For example Kante, can you imagine him in that side.
Any team would miss Cazorla but the quality of his replacements is very average - Elneny & Coquelin are not Title winning players, Xhaka isn't much better.
I don't know how Wenger persists with players for so long when like ''it's obvious'' - Almunia, Kieran Gibbs, Bendtner,
Put Ramsey & Ozil in very dominant controlling sides, it probably looks different, but they look crowbarred in, atm.
I don't know how Wenger persists with players for so long when like ''it's obvious'' - Almunia, Kieran Gibbs, Bendtner,
Put Ramsey & Ozil in very dominant controlling sides, it probably looks different, but they look crowbarred in, atm.
We also scored 23 more goals than you did. The reason you conceded so few goals was because your team is a lot more defensive and better organised than ours, not because the individual players are better. If we had a manager who could actually organise a defence all of our defenders would start looking much better.
I'm sure I've read somewhere on here that he didn't actually buy or bring through most of those player, more the luck of the draw so to speak (they were present when he took the job)
Wenger persists with Welbeck. Enough said.
The Welbeck thread over on Arsenal Mania is pretty funny. Loads saying they can't believe some of their fans thought they got one over on us by signing him. Oh and the thread is titled "Danny Welbeck, half bodybuilder, half donkey".
Arsenal's team is genuinely terrible these days. Wenger has persisted in keeping players like Gibbs, Welbeck, Ox etc that have shown time and again, that they aren't good enough. Without Sanchez, they're a poor outfit.
Arsenal's team is genuinely terrible these days. Wenger has persisted in keeping players like Gibbs, Welbeck, Ox etc that have shown time and again, that they aren't good enough. Without Sanchez, they're a poor outfit.
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We conceeded less under lvg too. We have the ability to defend counter attacks much better.
We did a good Job by getting 20m for him
Yeah we were so much more defensive than you guys yet per Squawka we created more chances in the league than you and there was only a 1% difference between of both our overall possession(55% and 54%).
I agree that we are more organized than you guys but even if mourinho was your manager, no amount of organization could change the fact that:
Gabriel is trash and belongs in the championship.
Mertesacker is too old and past it.
Mustafi is rash and is a question mark at best
Koch is out of form
LVG was even more defensive than Mourinho, that hardly disproves my point.
And you could say the exact same thing about your CBs before Mourinho joined. Don't pretend that the likes of Rojo and Jones were highly rated on here before last season, and half the forum wants Smalling to be sold. Bailly genuinely looks great but we haven't even seen Lindelof play so I've got no idea how you already think he's ''far better'' than all of our CBs. It's not a personnel issue, it's a defensive organisation issue.
If you assert that LVG was even more defensive than Mourinho and that our defensive organization is the reason why our defenders look good , then Jones and Rojo would have looked better under LVG. As you stated that was false as Rojo was too erratic and error prone and Jones always got caught ball watching or in the emergency room, hence the reason LVG opted for Smalling and Blind most of the time. Last season Rojo and Jones along with Baily were our best defenders and Smalling was our worst defender even though they played under a less denfensive coach as you implied. So what gives?
He wants to win his way. He wants to show average players can win you the league (unfortunately, he can't motivate them like Ranieri did with Leicester).
While Giroud warms the bench.
Except I never said your defensive organisation was better under LVG, I simply stated he was a more defensive manager.
Do you want me to believe that Jones and Rojo suddenly turned into amazing CBs last season when Mourinho became manager but it had nothing to do with Mourinho's defensive organisation?
I think we play a different defensive style though. Under LVG we had the ball most of the time and played a higher line, so our defenders had to be fast and good at reading balls over the top. We also used more man marking, while Mourinho prefers zonal. I think our defense is also just better now, we relied a lot on DDG under LVG whereas he's a spectator most games now.
On the whole 'defensive coach' argument, there's a difference between being able to organize a good defense and a coach who is not interested in developing the offensive side of his team's game. No elite coach falls into the second category, so I don't know where the accusation of being defensive comes from.
I tell you what it is gonna happen next week: lose to Liverpool and then Wenger is gonna push the panic button again. He is gonna try to buy 3/4 players at the same time.
Wenger is like Mugabe. Need to get rid of this dictator to save Arsenal.
The two concepts are correlated. A team that's sets up more defensively is in a way organizing the defense.
Jones improved because he stopped his habit of ball watching and was less injured last season so he got a better run of games to develop consistency. Jones always had natural defensive ability especially in 1v1 he just needed time to harnesss it. Rojo got better because he became much more competent in possession and less erratic and positionally suspect.
You still haven't addressed why Smalling was our worst defender last year( bar the UEL Final) since you asserted that Mourinhos magical defensive schemes made average defenders looked like really good ones.
Not sure if that's a good comparison.
I've said it many times, but I'll say it again, Arsenal/Arsene have been pretty clueless since David Dein hasn't been there to hold his hand.
He only believes in his own ego and only trusts people who are "yes men". He always wants to do it his way. He is a dictator. It's as simple as that.Not sure if that's a good comparison.
That's true. Dein would have told Wenger which players to buy.