Arsenal’s dropped stars show big changes are needed

Fresh faces show improvement, but change is firmly needed. ‏by KM

We won a game! Congratulations! It’s a rare event at Arsenal these days! I mean we win a game, time for a new contract Arsene! Believe it or not, we played the same formation! We played the same players too! Those that faced Barcelona.

We played exactly the way we always do, but what was the difference? On one hand we played an Everton side, who beside an FA cup semi-final have had a difficult season. They lost from 2:0 up against West ham and their defense is really struggling, with Stones likely to leave and no real replacement for Distin, with Jagielka far from his international level of 5 years ago.

Aynway though, if we had put in the same commitment against Swansea and United we’d still have a shout of the title. This win aligns with Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott and Per Mertesacker all not starting with only Giroud entering to prove why he is on the bench!

Coincidence? I don’t think so. Those 4 players have lived a happy life off Arsenal for too long and need to leave in the summer. I’m sad we didn’t see Campbell again, who is another player making it to the squad thanks to injuries and doing better than the regular starters, but sadly Wenger just doesn’t like him, but truth is even Iwobi made Walcott look like a bench warmer.

You see, we are so reluctant to buy players, when it’s obvious some are not good enough, that even the academy lads outperform them. Other examples? Hector Bellerin in place of Debuchy, who’s just terrible. The lack of a DM to such a fact that Coquelin comes in and we immediately win against City.

Now Iwobi, who can at least stop the ball, put in a pass and even score a lovely goal from a solo run! He and Welbeck really made our attack look fresh. Oh last but not least, Elneny who looks miles better than Ramsey!

That’s five or six players, that make some of the old faces at Arsenal who’ve been here for ages, look like the average players they are. This is half a squad of average players being regularly kept in the first team. You cannot tell me we can’t buy anyone better if the academy lads can improve on what we have already!

The players I mentioned look like they have a purpose, even if it’s just to prove themselves. Our away game at Barcelona was miles better in terms of going forward than was our first. Spurs was another better performance with Elneny being introduced. But it’s too little too late. Fergie said that Leicester will win it with 3 games to spare and it looks all the more valid of a statement.

Despite the new faces, we suffered from the same old mistakes. We finished the game with 6 defenders, practically inviting Everton over. Why not put Campbell and Walcott on and put some fear of counters? We tried this against Liverpool and it cost us the win. Juventus played counter and went up 2:0 and in the second half their will to roll over cost them their place in the Champions league.

Another bad managerial decision was not to sub Ospina. They guy was really struggling and that was another reason to invite them to our box. A corner almost ended up in our net, because Ospina couldn’t move. If it got to 2:1 we go into a slide of negativity that never ends well.

Since we won the game nobody will remember though. But it was a warning sign and Arsene’s job is to see those signs and make sure they don’t lead into serious damage. The signs were there in all the recent games we lost, we just failed to identify them.

Finally I’m not sure about Gabriel but I agree with the decision to replace Mertesacker. If we keep asking the same question of a player 3 seasons in a row, the truth is he’s never given a definitive answer thus needs to be replaced. Also I think that constant rotations of your CB will never result in stability, thus good or bad for now it’s Gabriel for me.

People may call me negative or an AOB, but I refuse to accept we’ve turned a corner by one win. We still repeat so many of the things that have lead to this constant failure and the promises that are surely coming this summer are just a tool to renew season tickets.

Until we change our game style, formation, players that are not good enough, spending policy so that we buy in all the positions we need, not just one, buy players with characters, driven by success with lots of titles behind them, change our ambition to titles, not fourth, reduce immense ticket prices, stop being a business rather than a football club, introduce younger members to the board or unbelievably somehow change the manager, I will not be convinced.

Konstantin

Tags Gabriel Giroud Iwobi

15 Comments

  1. Ospina didn’t ask to be subbed. He was hurt but it was not serious. When you get hurt like that but get some adrenaline on your blood, you are just fine. Right choice NOT to sub him for an inexperienced goalie.

    What’s this talk about BACKUP right-back? Isn’t Jenkinson, who was a starter for West Ham, not good enough? We need center back for next season!

    1. double agreed. Jenx is good enough as a back-up and rotation. Send Chambers on loan to some mid table team where he can play 30+ matches per season as either CB or CDM. prio #1 is a world class striker (at any cost), second is CB and/or CDM. Juve wants Giroud, is it time to cash in on him? I split…

      1. My honest opinion Jenko is not good enough, he can not make it in West Ham’s first team regular and has scored own goals, got a few red cards and has not had a good run this last 2 seasons..We need to go out and find someone who will really give Bellerin a challenge for first spot which I hope brings out the best in both.

        And yeah I saw the rumour about Juve wanting Giroud I agree cash in and do a swap Giroud out, Morata IN!!

  2. Changes need to be made but first let’s focus on finishing this season strong. We should be playing our new boys more regular and benching the old bandits with the intention of letting them go come summer.
    We can free up funds both wages and general cash with the sales of deadwood players and retiring players.
    Come summer we need to get rid of:
    Szczesny (not up tap scratch)
    Ospina (he wants more first team and has made it clear),
    Debuchy (complains rather than fights for his spot
    Mertesacker (Old, no pace, retire)
    Walcott (Never been up to scratch)
    Giroud (not consistent enough)
    Jenkinson (not good enough as second string)
    Flamini (please just go)
    Rosicky (retire and will be missed)
    Arteta (retire he did try for us)

    I estimate around £50 million in funds and around £600 k in wages both could go a long way in signing new players.
    Who we need coming in:
    GK, RB, CB, Striker (maybe a replacement winger and a replacement CDM but for me these are not as urgent)

  3. @Konstantin,
    I agree with you.
    I strongly believe that our title bid was given a stab in the summer transfer window last year.
    My prayer now is that we finish strong. But as long as we still repeat the same old mistakes, I see only constant heartbreak for we fans.

  4. I wonder how Giroud and Walcott feels with our most recent implosion, seeing as a lack of goals has sounded the death knell for our title aspirations…..knowing fully well Wenger staked all our hopes on their average ability…

  5. Sell Giroud, let others come through and give some of that Wenger love to Welbz, it bugs me that it is an ex UTD player but he has shown so many attributes that TH14 had. Tall, strong, fast, powerful, got good technique…

    Do NOT sell Per, keep him as a SQUAD player. Silent Stan will only give Wenger so much to spend, we do not need to spend what little he has on another CB when we have 4 good ones already. Per, Gabriel, Per and then Chambers. Per also has bags of experience and that is good for the team.

    Ramsey…
    I wanna say keep him but if we can get good money for him then sell him, we have Cazorla and Elneny to play the role alongside Coquelin and Wilshere can also do that role so we should have plenty of cover.

    Theo.
    Do NOT sell him.
    He can play across the front 3, decent cover for a match and someone who could make a difference, that is a good bench player. If Theo decides to go back to being a wide player then we would have 4 wide players which is ideal.
    Alexis, Campbell, Iwobi and Theo.
    Gnabry could do with another loan, this time to get some game time. Ox hasn’t performed and could do with being loaned out… if not then sold while we can still grab a decent price for his young age.

    Go all out for Ibra in the transfer window and pay him what he wants for 2 years.
    Get a pair of handcuffs and cuff Welbeck and Akpom to Ibra with strict instructions to learn, learn and LEARN!

    Get Wanyama as backup for Coquelin.

    Our title charge stumbled when Cazorla got injured, with the injury to Coquelin it just crumbled. We have enough cover for the CM who plays alongside Coquelin (I believe) but cover for Coquelin will be only Chambers next season unless we buy, let Hayden be 3rd choice but we could really do with another top holding CM for cover/ rotation.

  6. We all know the biggest change we need…….yes you guessed right WENGER, mine is nothing personal against the man, at least it wasn’t till last Summer transfer when he in his delusion decided not to reinforce the team, resigning players (that we all are grateful to) that should have been long gone….. yes the same old story but this time with a big difference that changed everything for him and his delusional followers, we’ve been told all these years that we could not compete against Oil Money and Russian Oligarchs, well Leicester and Spuds shattered that argument…..Time to change direction under a new Manager let him build a new team.
    Thank you WENGER time to let go old man

    1. Wrong, the biggest change we need is Silent Stan to leave the club.
      Wenger is only doing what he is told with great effect, make top 4 and make me profit.
      Changing Wenger will not change the owners targets. Change the owner and give Wenger the target to win the EPL and while we are at it allow Wenger to spend 100% of any money made from transfers.

      Yes Wenger only bought 1 player, 1 player he had talked to and been involved in getting, what about Gazidis? He should be the one getting players that Wenger has singled out.

      Gazidis screwed up the Cazorla transfer, yes we got him but a year after we originally tried because Gazidis wouldn’t pay a couple million extra. What else has he been screwing up? He screwed up the Suarez offer, I will defend Wenger in this as he has NEVER made such a stupid bid in the past and he has done the opposite and pay extra for a player (look at how Nasri signed a new contract prior to us signing him and the sole reason he did that was to get his previous club more for him).

      Unite against Silent Stan!
      Get that money grabbing yank out of our beloved Arsenal!

      1. You see that is exactly where you are wrong, and while you and every other AKB deflects e blame on Kroenke and keep excusing WENGER for his shortcomings ARSENAL will keep underachieving…..OZIL, SANCHEZ and CECH signing equals 5 times LEICESTER total PAYROLL a team that 2 seasons ago was playing the Champions League, Vardy and Mahrez together did not equal Walcotts salary….now this is wealth, true Kroenke and his pet Gazidis are not splashing money all over the place, but they have given enough to WENGER to build a winning team, what we have instead a bunch of medium to good players unable to cope with pressure, playing with the same old tactics again and again, every manager around the globe, never mind the EPL knows how to play us and could say 100 reasons more, a courageous victory against a declining Everton is not turning any Corner for us…….stop blaming Kroenke and Gazidis WENGER and only him is the reason why we just can’t win at top level,

  7. I pray nothing Happens to Nacho monreal…….cuz God help us!

    We need a younger LB…. Gibbs is not just it for me

    1. I too have thought this but I think we can hold out for another season with Gibbs and then start looking for more option (my choice Gaya from Valencia)..But we need to first focus on the more pressing replacements and positions

  8. @konstantin…always so negative. You undermine yourself with your excessive negativity and unrealistic criticisms.

    We won….yes and although you imply it’s a rarity, the fact remains we’ve won more than all the PL teams bar two, we’ve lost fewer bar 3 teams, we’ve scored more bar 3, conceded fewer bar……etc etc. Your intro makes us sound like we’re relegation fodder.

    We all know we’ve got a few academy kids coming through who are talented aka Iwobi, Reine Adelaide and several loan players who can give the 1st team a run for their money….which is actually what teams try to get from their academies….it’s a positive….it’s a good thing…..what’s the issue?? Bellerin emerged (and was bought by Wenger) and will one day be one of the worlds best. It’s amazing how you choose to look for the negative rather than the positive.

    Mert has his limitations, we know he’s got no pace and is no Terry or Adams when defending, but sorry he’s actually not a bad CB. However like most (inc yourself) I’d like to see Gab get a run with Koz as I simply prefer pace and more aggressive cbs. Theo is hit and miss and I think Wenger knows it. He is being used as an impact sub and even then only occasionally. I don’t know what to do with the guy but Wenger was being held to ransom and chose to extend his contract. Hindsight is great but probably a mistake. Giroud he’s ok for the squad but Welbz does bring a new vitality and much needed pace through the middle. Ramsay is a talented player but unfortunately for him he’s not a disciplined cm, and is otherwise behind both Santi and Ozil in any kind of attacking midfield role, and that’s probably where his best suited.

    As for Wengers managerial mistake, lmfao. Ospinas a drama queen. Try watching a few games. He always grimaces and wanders around looking half dead after any kind of proper contact, then miraculously recovers, as he did on Saturday. I’m glad Wemger knows the players a bit better than you do and I think you are absolutely in the minority to say you’d have replaced him with Macey.

    Few people would claim AFC have turned any corner. You’re not convinced, most fans aren’t convinced and I’m certainly not convinced. Fact is we have not taken as many points lately as we’d have liked. We’ve had no luck at all but despite that we’ve just played three away games and walked away with reasonable results from them all.

    1. You sure are a sight for sore eyes. Well put into perspective. Just look at man city chelsea united and liverpool all struggling, yet we are remaining defiant.

      Long live the wenger reign.

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