Football Thread |OT15| About as productive as Tika Taka
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there's some stuff in the soccernomics book about this. they said it's because they were typically a small team without much history who were really really well run for like a decade with shrewd signings and sales and a swansea style 'changing managers but maintaining same momentum and method'.
The_Hitcher89
Member
Will be interesting to see where he ends up next, in a those-poor-fuckers way.
Could be an interesting read. Up until now I never knew this about Lyon. Always tought they were a top club for ages
Relaxed Muscle
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Bayern, obviously!
Has anyone here listened to The Loneliness of the Goalkeeper? I really recommend it.
nope. sounds interesting though. downloading..
Ooh. Love me a bit of Radiolab.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
Neuer to Barça and Valdes to Bayern.
You have Guardiola as coach you have to deal with his shitty taste in players.
:lol
No way, Jose(p).
It really makes you feel bad for goalkeepers. "The only individuals in a team game" is very apt.
I already do. One mistake could potentially fuck over your career in a big way. Never did like being a goalie whenever I did play.
yeah. i got loads of sympathy for goalies reading the biography of robert enke. really goes into how difficult it is for them.
Not sure what good a sugar daddy owner would do us now anyway. With FFP coming into effect now we can't have big losses on our books in anycase although removing the stadium debt will be helpful since that can be then used on wages and transfer fees.
Would rather things stay the way they are now and change the policies from within the club itself.
Would rather things stay the way they are now and change the policies from within the club itself.
Agreed. Oil money is just a convenient excuse for the board (and Wenger, I suppose, given he is the highest paid manager in the league) siphoning money out of the club. Honestly, if you look at the past couple seasons' worth of transfers, the problem isn't the amount of money being spent, the problem is that Wenger keeps having to buy new short-term solutions because he doesn't want to spend big on one long-term solution.
Look at Santos: 6m down the drain. Park: 5m down the drain. Squillaci: 5m down the drain, etc. Wenger's refusal to buy a keeper, a quality center half. I don't even think a large change in the amount of money spent every year needs to change, necessarily—I mean, a complete refresh of the squad in the summer would, for me, cost 50m net at the most. The problem is that the club keeps trying to paper over the cracks rather than make long-term signings that will ultimatley cost more money; and the irony is that this policy is just as expensive in the long run, while also contributing to the deterioration of quality within the team.
We don't need oil money. Even United is proof that you can have terrible leeching owners and still compete. We're not at that level, obviously, but there's no reason why we can't get back on track and reverse this trend quite quickly.
WAR recon zero
Banned
Nazio,
always hyping me up on the 1st leg, always deflating on february.
always hyping me up on the 1st leg, always deflating on february.
Who made the decision to sign those players? I just can't believe that these sort of players ever played for Arsenal. It makes absolutely no sense. Fair enough the club is going to be penny pinching in the transfer market, but this? Look at deals Newcastle have been getting on players leagues ahead. Fuck it makes me so angry.
@ flippedb
thank you based fry
Wenger surely?
There has been a change though already in Wenger. The fact that he got rid of Santos so quickly and brought in Monreal is something normal Wenger would never do. How he has already lost patience with Gervinho after only 2 seasons so he is changing and realizing we are in need of quality. What we need to do this summer is not sell any of our attacking first team players but bring some in (Chamberlain, Walcott, Giroud, Cazorla, Wilshere, Podolski, Ramsey) none of those players can be sold but bring in another quality CF and we will be getting somewhere.
Get rid of either Vermaelen/Mertesacker/Kos and bring in a high quality replacement bring in a quality goal keeper and bring in an Arteta replacement of either equal or ideally superior talent and we will be good to go provided we have no departures.
Jovetic, Capoue/Gonalons/Bender, Mignolet and Humels/Subotic and we will be fine and you don't need oil money for this. Sell Gervinho, Szczesny etc... and Squallichi and Arshavin are out of contract anyway and we will have a compeiitive squad without oil money looking something like this:
Mignolet
Monreal/Hummels/Vermaelen/Sagna (Ideally)
Wilshere/Bender (Arteta replacement)
Cazorla
Walcott/Jovetic/Podolski
With Giroud, Chamberlain, Arteta etc... on the bench and we can compete. The formation obviously can be tweeked but I'm sure you get my point as this is achieveable for well within our budget with proper player sales and not our key player sales.
That Lazio goal keeper will be very upset with himself after that. He could have done better with all of Milan's goals.
I agree that there has been a change with Wenger; it wasn't very long ago that he'd deflect all the blame away from his players. Now he doesn't hesitate to put his players on blast, not to mention that press conference right before the Bayern game. I just fear it is too little, way too late.
I don't think we'll get a top striker, period. Fact is, we spent 20m on Giroud and Podolski, and handed Theo a fat 100k contract so I just don't see that happening. Which is fine I think, so long as the other areas of the team are improved. Get the midfield functioning again and creating quality chances, and all you need is someone to finish them off—which I think Theo, Podolski, and Giroud can all do. I think we need to get all the other positions you mention strengthened (top physical midfielder, defender, keeper) and maybe also a left-footed winger (since we have no left-footed players and Podolski is not a winger) too—a Di Maria type.
I'd keep Gervinho around for another season or two; we clearly aren't going to get any money for him anyways and he's half decent cover/competition for Ox (I envision Theo moving to a more permanent striking role). The only times Gervinho has appeared really shocking is when he's playing as striker; I have faith that Wenger has realized he is definitely not the second coming of Henry. Something that I really want to see happen though, is Ramsey out on loan. He needs a season of uninterrupted football because drifting in and out of the side, being shifted out on the wing, etc.; it's not doing him any good and he's been struggling.
But overall, get those three players in, force Sagna to stay one more season, and you've got a decent squad with a bit of upside in Theo, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain that's a definite improvement over the current one.
Laughable. They defended well during the first half but that's about all you could say. Offered nothing going forward. 2nd half was better in an attacking sense. 5/10 if I was being generous.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
Juninho.
By your account our attack is fine the way it is then? We only need a strong DM, a strong CB and a goal keeper?
If that was the case can you explain why we have so many boring 0-0 draws or why in so many games we look absolutely toothless up fronnt? Southampton, Norwich, Swansea we were toothless in them all even against QPR we won the game with an offside goal, against West Brom we won the game with 2 penalties we didn't deserve, against Wigan Theo milked the penalty to get us the winning goal etc.... This is all attacking problems are you able to explain why we have these if we only have defensive issues?
And this is leaving out our crappy performances up front against Bradford and Blackburn.
there is a chance of it happening because of him
but he doesn't have enough power @ bayern so bayern is safe ... for now
The attack doesn't work because the midfield doesn't function. Wenger wants to play like Barcelona, but you can't play like Barcelona if you can't win the ball back and keep possession. Arteta and Ramsey aren't physical enough to be effective ball-winners and Diaby is... well, where do you even begin with him—but you get in a physical midfielder like a Bender or a Capoue, and that kills two birds with one stone. Suddenly you have a player who shields the defense (part of the reason the defense constantly looks so terrible is because they are always left exposed and have zero cover from midfield or full-back) while also being able to penetrate the midfield. Stick that player alongside Wilshere, and you've got a functioning midfield again that can create chances and dominate games, or at the very least, start counterattacks.
We were incredibly effective against Liverpool, City, etc. at the start of the season with Diaby in the side. The team has completely unraveled since then (for a variety of reasons), sure, but I really believe that all these sterile draws against mid-table opposition is due to us being outplayed in midfield. I don't really see the attack as the problem, because the ball never even gets to the attack.
Also, going along with the whole "Wenger wants to play like Barcelona" problem, the team isn't anywhere near direct enough. They play pointless 1-2s instead of shooting the ball or crossing it. You tell someone the players to cross the ball to a tall striker like Giroud and take advantage of his aerial ability, you tell them to play through balls to Theo and use that pace to expose teams on the counter—and suddenly the team will start scoring more goals. Right now, the team doesn't play to their own strengths. Rather than revamp the attack with expensive players (and force them to play a style they're not used to), we're better off just adapting to the players we do have, imo.
We were incredibly effective against Liverpool, City, etc. at the start of the season with Diaby in the side. The team has completely unraveled since then (for a variety of reasons), sure, but I really believe that all these sterile draws against mid-table opposition is due to us being outplayed in midfield. I don't really see the attack as the problem, because the ball never even gets to the attack.
Also, going along with the whole "Wenger wants to play like Barcelona" problem, the team isn't anywhere near direct enough. They play pointless 1-2s instead of shooting the ball or crossing it. You tell someone the players to cross the ball to a tall striker like Giroud and take advantage of his aerial ability, you tell them to play through balls to Theo and use that pace to expose teams on the counter—and suddenly the team will start scoring more goals. Right now, the team doesn't play to their own strengths. Rather than revamp the attack with expensive players (and force them to play a style they're not used to), we're better off just adapting to the players we do have, imo.
I think Sagna is looking past it already, ever since that injury he had I think he's only had one really outstanding game.
If I was an Arsenal fan I'd look to Wenger going towards a narrower driving 4-2-2-2 setup. Arsenal's current style of play simply doesn't suit wingers because there's never anybody in the box (except Giroud) to get on the end of their crosses. The only time it really works in their favour is during counter attacks when the wingers can drive inside and put through Walcott or play a thumping cross into Giroud depending on the situation. Going by your team selection, I would choose
Mignolet
Monreal/Hummels/Vermaelen/<RightBack/Jenkinson>
Wilshere/<Bender/Ramsey>
Cazorla/<Gotze/Ox>
Jovetic/<Podolski/Walcott>
Then when they have the ball if they're pressured in the middle, Cazorla and Gotze/Ox can drop out wide with support from the full backs, Jovetic can come deeper to recieve passes inside and also draw back the defensive line, allowing Podolski/Walcott the space to run onto through balls.
Of course this team selection is dependent on Arsenal signing 3 of Dortmund's best players which I don't think is likely at all unless Klopp becomes their manager.
Maybe Reus instead of Jovetic, I mean if Arsenal can have 3 of their players, an extra one shouldn't be a problem.
They should just buy BVB and bring them to London.
I agree to a certain extent but I feel that in order for us to compete at every level a top quality striker must be purchased. Our midfield doesn't function properly, especially when teams press us, like Southampton done very effectively. Having a strong holding midfielder won't solve all of these problems as we are not creative enough anyway and our finishing is not lethal enough. Giroud is not a lethal finisher and Walcott needs goals made for him, aside from pace, he can't create anything for himself. That is too much burden where Cazorla and Wilshere have too much to do.
IMO, Jovetic or someone of like quality is a must if we want to compete at the highest level again.
Unfair man. Only Hummels and Bender from my post from Germany. Mignolet from Sunderland for 12-14 mil, Jovetic from Fiorentina for 25-30 mil and the 2 Bundesliga players would give us a compeititve squad.
KidA Seven
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