The Official Football Thread 2006/2007 (4 Viewers)

[Raiks]

Wes deserves better, I don't wanna see him rot in Geordieland.

At the moment Wes is a player sitting in 2nd and 3rd string lineups and not having the opportunity to get regular first team playing time so he can make the most of his career. Because for a player which was a club junior and with so much talent, he should have played a lot more games then he has, especially when you're manager is stating stuff like Brown being 'the best natural defender I've ever seen'. Whether those games be at St James or any other club is irrelevant, just let him do what he does best.

 

[bng]

Yeah, wow. Hope you guys are lubing up for this weekend. You might need a whole new bottle of Vaseline for the occasion, don't worry Freddie can lend you his. You guys can save your money for doorknob sacks or whatever.

At Half time it looks lik u guys need the lube. 2-0 to Liverpool, haha arsenal

 

[AcStyle*]

FT: Liverpool 4 - 1 Arsenal

Crouch scores a perfect hat-trick.

 

[HeCtic]

I knew we were fucked when I saw that lineup. Putting Diaby on the left and playing two tiny players in the centre of the park. Fucken hell, with a team of Denislon, Cesc,Hleb,Clichy and Eboue was it any surprise we were outmuscled and consistently beaten in the air.

Taking Eboue off and putting in a more defensive fullback was waving the white flag and taking the tallest midfielder we had off and bringing in two more small players in Rosicky and Freddie. Not the managers best of games, but hopefully it highlights to him what the problems are with the team.

Freddie, Baptista,Aliadiere and Hleb out this summer. Bendtner will be back and, so two wingers are a must buy this summer as a bare minimum. Even if he has to spend the bulk of his money on these guys he should, because we are desperate for width,pace and height.

If there's any leftover get in another tall strong centre-back, but wingers are a must for us this summer. Losing Pires and Reyes and not adequately replacing them is why we this season has happened. Not replacing Vieira and giving Denis one season too many are what caused last season's unspectacular league form.

It's not the end of the world, because a good transfer window can change things around but I think Wenger might have too much faith in some players who can't do it now. Gallas can shut his mouth too. For a guy who was happy to point out every other players faults in the previous few games, I'd like to ask him why he doesn't want to contest anything in the air. Pathetic, moaning cunt.

And crowing Scousers can fuck off too. Even a team with as many problems as Arsenal have managed to play you off the park 3 times this season already. You've got just as far to go as we do, to say the least.

 

[LMF^^]

I see the problems HeCtic, but you gotta admit, that was the poorest performance I've seen from Arsenal this season. The line up might have something to do with it, but still, you'd expect better. Liverpool on the other did very well, that first goal by Crouch had a lovely build up, and Crouch's finish was clinical. And I only watched the first half, because I know that the game was over, and there was no need for me to watch the Scousers win by a big score.

Back to United, we played excellent football, created a large number of chances, failed to put them away in the first half, mainly due to Rooney's lack of touch, and lack of luck in front of goal. That second half performance contained some of the best football from United I've seen this season. Scholes' goal was pure class, and then Ronaldo went on with it. Nice to see Ole back as well, I think he has the best goal-to-game ratio in the league. That guy is just special in his own way.

Blackburn made it very tough for us, they were organised in defence, and they were acting like kunts like they normally do. Luckily we didn't let them to get us and showed great determination. It's that kind of performance that makes me so proud to be a supporter of the team.

Only sour point of the game is the injury to Vidic. It looks like he might be out for the rest of the season. It's a big blow, but seeing from today's determination, Wes can do the job in the centre. It doesn't look solid, but I'm confident that we'll go on with the job.

Bring on Roma!

 

[HeCtic]

I see the problems HeCtic, but you gotta admit, that was the poorest performance I've seen from Arsenal this season. The line up might have something to do with it, but still, you'd expect better. Liverpool on the other did very well, that first goal by Crouch had a lovely build up, and Crouch's finish was clinical. And I only watched the first half, because I know that the game was over, and there was no need for me to watch the Scousers win by a big score.

It wasn't the worst performance this season. We've been made to look more one-dimensional than that, by far worse teams than Liverpool this season. Todays performance was another in a long line of listless Arsenal performances this season, the difference being that they had a good striker in form playing for them. Blackburn, Sheffield United, West Ham,Everton, Man City, Boro, Fulham were all worse than this for me to take. You said you knew at half-time, I knew when I saw the line-up. Wenger must have lost his marbles for this to happen, we literally gave Liverpool three points today.

It's disappointing to take because three seasons ago we won the league unbeaten. For a big club, we've got a very small time attitude with regards to transfer spending. Top players would come to us if we aggressively pursued them instead of conceding defeat to Chelsea right from the outset. It's all good for us to say we have the best young players, but another season like this next season and it'll be 4 years without a title, and most of these youngsters will want to go to clubs where they will win something.

If he doesn't plan on spending where we need it, it sends out a signal he's lost his balls for a fight, which is traditionally a very Arsenal characteristic. I'm sick of transition and regard it as a buzzword used to glorify decline. We can easily get back in it, but I don't see any signs of boldness from Arsenal this summer.

Sorry for the longness but Invincible to Impotent in three seasons is hard to take.

Also, Wes Brown is a good defender, you should be alright for Roma though. English teams generally do the job against Italians.

 

[Raginsheep]

What can you do though? Gilberto was out injured so there goes experience in midfield and cover for the defenders; the fat lard is shit despite scoring 4 against the scousers earlier, and cesc needs a long rest like the rest of the team. Lack of width also hurts. Bring in Quarsema and next season with fit players.

The funny thing is, the fat lard was suppose to be Viera's replacement 2,3 seasons ago before he moved to Real. Give us back Reyes!

 

[Phyuk_Yiu]

Ahh a great win for us against a respected team, wish we could do the same away from home.
Im really happy for Crouch, he's got such a positive attitude and always gives his best no matter how many times he doesnt make the starting line up. I was hoping he would do the robot dance again.
Another positive is that we got to rest our players without losing out on it. I think the days of relying purely on Gerrard are over.

I got to see the second half of the Man U game. Blackburn seemed to cave in, i mean for two of the goals they were basically making a wall in front of the area and not marking anyone. That was probably due to the skills of Ronaldo who cut right through them.

 

[LMF^^]

The funny thing is, the fat lard was suppose to be Viera's replacement 2,3 seasons ago before he moved to Real. Give us back Reyes!

Baptista is nothing like Vieira, they're two completely different players.

Well comparing to Shevchenko, I guess Baptista might have pipped him in the goals scored this season. You've gotta consider the adapting period for these players, and plus, Sheva has played more games than Baptista and still hasn't done very well.

Reyes doesn't wanna go back, just like Crespo doesn't wanna go back to Chelsea.

I got to see the second half of the Man U game. Blackburn seemed to cave in, i mean for two of the goals they were basically making a wall in front of the area and not marking anyone. That was probably due to the skills of Ronaldo who cut right through them.

Our second half performance was unbelievable. We never allowed Blackburn time on the ball, and they were caved in in there own half for the majority of the time, due to our share of possession and the way we pressed up when they had the ball. For around 20-30mins of the second half Blackburn struggled to even get out of their own half. That is a very very long time.

I couldn't pick any standouts in this game, it was a terrific team performance. Everybody played their part and it was certainly one of the best performances I have seen this season.

 

[Raginsheep]

I'm not saying he is anything like what Vieria was, I'm just saying that two seasons or so ago when we were chasing him, he was touted as Vieria's replacement.

Sheva has quality and even though he's form has pretty much been shit, he can make it in the EPL. Baptista on the other hand is totally out of place here. He's slow on the ball, poor technique, no movement off the ball, can't pass, screws up the rest of the team's tempo.

As for Reyes, shame he's such a idiot. Given time, he could've been great and instead he looks like he's about to piss away his career.

 

[LMF^^]

As for Reyes, shame he's such a idiot. Given time, he could've been great and instead he looks like he's about to piss away his career.

Well what makes you say that. Real Madrid is in a better position to compete in the league than Arsenal atm. He doesn't like London, and that's fair enough. There's more to life than just football on the pitch.

 

[HeCtic]

What can you do though? Gilberto was out injured so there goes experience in midfield and cover for the defenders; the fat lard is shit despite scoring 4 against the scousers earlier, and cesc needs a long rest like the rest of the team. Lack of width also hurts. Bring in Quarsema and next season with fit players.

The funny thing is, the fat lard was suppose to be Viera's replacement 2,3 seasons ago before he moved to Real. Give us back Reyes!

For a start, Wenger can play all his players in the positions they specialise in. Even without injuries and suspensions, our first choice starting line-up consists of two wingers who both played most of their careers and made their names by playing centrally. Even our backup wingers are pretty horrendous. Freddie is gone, well past it, Theo is a striker and when we have to play guys like Diaby there as makeshifts we know there's serious problems depth wise.

The team in general has a lack of height, and now that we've lost the Spurs cunt we have no agressive headers of the ball in defence. Against Liverpool we played a small team against a very large team even though Wenger must have known that Ashley's boyfriend and Gonzalez are good at winning corners and free kicks around the box, and that guys like Xabi have good delivery. Put them all togethor and you know why we've copped so many from set-pieces, and why we were so inadequate yesterday against Crouch.

We've only got two genuine goal threats and they are both injury prone, so next season I fear we'll be praying they stay fit for long periods else we'll be relying on Bendtner and Ade to get us 15-20 goals at least combined.

Pity is Quaresma will pobably go to Cuntski, but there are other guys we should be looking at like Simao, Ribery and Babel who would be available this summer. I think we need two of them at least. There's a lot more wrong with Arsenal right now, that I could honestly right a few pages worth on, but it'stoo painful for me to go over it all. Arsene has to be very active this summer.

 

[Raginsheep]

TBH, had we had Reyes playing even at a decent level for us this season, we'd be doing much better overall I feel. He was pretty much Wenger's winger up until he left for Madrid leaving us without a effective wide player.

As for Real Madrid, they're in 4th position, same as us. As far Capello's player management policy goes, and Reyes' year for them, it doesn't look like it'll do him much good. It certainly hasn't helped Rhobino develop imo. Besides, are Real really going to pay the money we'd be demanding for Reyes?

 

[HeCtic]

Yep, Reyes last year despite not giving a shit and despite being widely criticised by everyone around still got us 6 goals and 18 assists. About as productive as Fred, Hleb, Rosicky and Theo put together.

I'd have him back, but then again he's always been my favourite player so I'm a bit biased.

 

[Raginsheep]

For a start, Wenger can play all his players in the positions they specialise in. Even without injuries and suspensions, our first choice starting line-up consists of two wingers who both played most of their careers and made their names by playing centrally. Even our backup wingers are pretty horrendous. Freddie is gone, well past it, Theo is a striker and when we have to play guys like Diaby there as makeshifts we know there's serious problems depth wise.

The team in general has a lack of height, and now that we've lost the Spurs cunt we have no agressive headers of the ball in defence. Against Liverpool we played a small team against a very large team even though Wenger must have known that Ashley's boyfriend and Gonzalez are good at winning corners and free kicks around the box, and that guys like Xabi have good delivery. Put them all togethor and you know why we've copped so many from set-pieces, and why we were so inadequate yesterday against Crouch.

We've only got two genuine goal threats and they are both injury prone, so next season I fear we'll be praying they stay fit for long periods else we'll be relying on Bendtner and Ade to get us 15-20 goals at least combined.

Pity is Quaresma will pobably go to Cuntski, but there are other guys we should be looking at like Simao, Ribery and Babel who would be available this summer. I think we need two of them at least. There's a lot more wrong with Arsenal right now, that I could honestly right a few pages worth on, but it'stoo painful for me to go over it all. Arsene has to be very active this summer.

Wenger likes to play his youth as wingers because it helps them develop their skills in beating their man and ball control etc so when they do play in their preferred positions, they're a much better player overall. Hence why he persists with Theo out wide. No idea why he plays Diaby there though.

I think Ade has scored 10 this season, so no reason why he and Bendtner can't get 15. If Henry and RvP stay fit for a whole season, then thats potentially another 20 goals each. Get a goal scoring mid-fielder who is also a winger (not Ribery) and combine it with Rosicky and Cesc and thats another 10+ from the midfield easy.

As for potential players, I really want Wenger to sign a goal-scoring winger if he does nothing else. While Ribery is a good player, he's not the player to start scoring the goals we lack from mid-field. A goal-keeper if the crazy german leaves and possibly a defender (Woodgate anyone?) and we would look a much different side. If Wenger signs Bapista though, I'll give it up.

 

[Raginsheep]

Yep, Reyes last year despite not giving a shit and despite being widely criticised by everyone around still got us 6 goals and 18 assists. About as productive as Fred, Hleb, Rosicky and Theo put together.

I'd have him back, but then again he's always been my favourite player so I'm a bit biased.

To be fair, Helb is very much underrated at times. He might not get the assist but if you started counting 2nd, 3rd passes before the assist, he'd rank very high. Rosicky has done well considering its his first season. He has to step up next time though. Theo is just a 17yr kid who has been forced to play a much more important role than a 17yr should. Freddie is past it though.

 

[HeCtic]

Wenger likes to play his youth as wingers because it helps them develop their skills in beating their man and ball control etc so when they do play in their preferred positions, they're a much better player overall. Hence why he persists with Theo out wide. No idea why he plays Diaby there though.

I think Ade has scored 10 this season, so no reason why he and Bendtner can't get 15. If Henry and RvP stay fit for a whole season, then thats potentially another 20 goals each. Get a goal scoring mid-fielder who is also a winger (not Ribery) and combine it with Rosicky and Cesc and thats another 10+ from the midfield easy.

As for potential players, I really want Wenger to sign a goal-scoring winger if he does nothing else. While Ribery is a good player, he's not the player to start scoring the goals we lack from mid-field. A goal-keeper if the crazy german leaves and possibly a defender (Woodgate anyone?) and we would look a much different side. If Wenger signs Bapista though, I'll give it up.

Playing players out of position has never been a proven method of success. You might strike it lucky once in awhile with a guy like Flamini but for the past season we've been playing 4-5 midfielders who all want to play central. It might help us in the future but what use is that when it renders us seasons as painful as the last three have been? We've had three of the most unnecessary seasons of transition possible considering the talent we have. Every season we're just one or two signings away from a huge team.

Even against Liverpool we decided to play two young, creative and slight midfielders against three big, strong established internationals, while we had two predominantly central players playing out wide.

We've got a lot of good players, but we have so many similar players that we are ridiculously ineffective now. No variety and players being given roles they are not suited for are what's killing us, and they're all management mistakes. It's all great when people stress out the need for short term pain for long term gain, but on the flipside short-term successes bring huge positive benefits in the long-term as well.

I don't understand what you have against Ribery though. I'd love to have him simply for a fact that he gives us something we don't have in the team, and that in itself will unsettle opposition teams as they won't be able to settle down into games like they are doing so now. I'd rather have Simao, but if we finish the summer with Ribery and Babel I'll be pretty happy.

To be fair, Helb is very much underrated at times. He might not get the assist but if you started counting 2nd, 3rd passes before the assist, he'd rank very high. Rosicky has done well considering its his first season. He has to step up next time though. Theo is just a 17yr kid who has been forced to play a much more important role than a 17yr should. Freddie is past it though.

I think the fact Hleb gives the ball away 9/10 times when he's in the opposition third is what tells me he's not good enough. I'd get rid of him quick, he's still got a big rep in Germany so we can cut our losses with him. He's been mediocre borderlining on atroticious at times these past two season, save the odd decent game. We paid 10mill for Hleb. We turned down Carrick at 2.1 million and let him go to Spurs because Wenger didn't want to get into a bidding war for an English player. Same deal with that little cunt Lennon. Our transfer policy is so wrong for a big club.

Rosicky could be huge for us next season and he has a proven pedigree so it's worth waiting for him to settle. The fact that Theo's playing so much shows a distinct lack of depth and poor squad planning. Unfortunately I could probably apply that to every position in the squad as well.

 

[Raginsheep]

In regards to the playing staff avaliable, I find the following article to be an intersting read.

Linky

Haven't seen much of Carrick but I don't think he's what we needed.

As for Ribery, I have nothing against the bloke but feel that we could do better (in terms of what we want from a winger) compared to him.

 

[...]

who needs ruud van nisterooy when you have park ji sung!


and gg to rio

 

[Phyuk_Yiu]

Everyone ready for an early morning?
I sure am, Liverpool is in good form and will (hopefully) go all guns blazing against an injury striken PSV team. Obviously i don't want to jinx anything as this is the manager who knocked us out with Benfica, but i don't expect anything less than a win.
The other match will be interesting, i think Bayern has the endurance to fight out a Kaka-reliant AC Milan.