There have been some strange mutterings from Matthieu Flamini this week, especially as he came on the pitch against Anderlecht just in time to see Arsenal’s worst defensive display of the season so far! I guess could be putting forward that th team needs to defend as a whole to ry and delect criticism against him and his fellow defenders.
“Defending as a team is very important,” Flamini said on Arsenal.com. “You have to defend as a team but you also have to attack as a team and it’s very important to play very closely with each other.
“We have to defend as soon as we lose the ball because the first few seconds are important. If you attack and lose the ball then you have to defend straight away and get the ball in the opposition’s half because then you’re much closer to their goal.
“My role on the pitch to protect the back four is most important to me because we have a very offensive team that has a lot of players going forward,”
“I’m just trying to help the centre backs, Per and Nacho, because we are a very offensive team and that’s my main priority. I like to communicate with my team mates, I give a lot on the pitch and I work hard for the team.”
So what went wrong on Tuesday, Matthieu? Speak up!
Flamini, mertesacker, Ramsey and cazorla have been pretty disappointing so far this season.
Spot on… Ramsey probably the most of them all, he simply has been atrocious. He needs to stop chasing goals, and concentrate on his game more. Back heel passes, horrible free kicks, and so on need to stop. Time to go back to basics. Santi needs to be benched, plain and simple. And Per/Flamini – well, we’re stuck with them at least until January. However, I still don’t understand why we won’t use Bellerin on the right, and partner up Mert with Chambers. Nacho, god bless his soul, tries hard, but he’s just not a good CB.
Even Nacho would say he’s not a good centre back! But he’s still done pretty well so all credit to him.
I think the problem with Rambo is that he’s trying to hard to get goals. I see him staying in the box like he’s a striker and not defending like he should. If he focuses more on the game rather than just scoring goals, we will see the best ofhim. As for the rest I think age is catching them. Their all reaching into their thirties.
Welbeck-Sanchez
Chamberlain-Ramsey-Arteta-Walcott
Gibbs-Chambers-Mertesacker-Bellerin
Shez
should be the team for the Sunday.
It’s Funny he mentions that, because I felt like Sanchez, Ox, Welbeck and Wilshere have been very active defensively but you can’t blame ‘the team’ for not defending collectively if the goals we concede are due to horrible defending by the DEFENDERS (bar Gibbs) alone. But that’s just my observation, maybe Flamini plays other games that I don’t see.
When is kos coming back?
Would he be back for the manu game?
you know how injury windows go. Walcott “should be back for the NLD” but has just been added to the squad. I hope Kos will be back, but don’t bet on it.
Please don’t abuse or berate Monreal. What has he done?
He’s been excellent this season at LB, and a decent CB, given that he’s never played their before. You can provide your constructive criticism but don’t resort to calling him names.
Spot on Adienl!
Flamini is trying to dissolve the matter by addressing the situation as a “team” and knows that Wenger will give him protection any how so therefore half of the squad speaks french and by the looks of it flamini,sanogo have come to arsenal through contacts asked their agents to speak to Wenger and arteta is staying at arsenal by digging deep and doing the necessary to stay at a top club.This is the reason why arsene did not buy a CDM.IF arsene leaves arsenal these are the players being replaced positively
1.Flamini
2.Sanogo
3.Ramsey
4.Wilshere
5.Rocisky
6.Podolski
7.campbell
Such brilliant assesment. Wholeheartedly agree.
Flamini talking about defending? Thats rich!
Very true. Well said.
OT I know (sorry) but has anyone else noticed Rambo’s face and general attitude when someone other than him scores for us? It’s almost as though he begrudges them the goal. I’ve noticed many times that instead of joining in the general ‘well done’ celebrations he can barely look at the player who scored and instead looks away with a frown on his face. Maybe he thinks it should have been him who scored but until it is he should stop the sour face and be happy to congratulate his SCORING team mates. Maybe the fact that Alexis has taken over the mantle of being Arsenal’s best player has annoyed him. If so he needs to grow up. . . FAST!
@gunnerjack. Spot on exactly what I think. Maybe he has grown an ego with last year’s performances? Hope not. He does seem to not smile a lot and seems jealous of others on the pitch.
The team is out of balance, ramsay is a cam not a cdm. He bombs forward all day long trying to get goals. The CDMs we have are too old and our defense has monreal who’s a full back and Per who’s way past his prime. Come on now, get the proper players to fill key position, players that play their position and are not being interchanged.
I’ll tell you what’s going to happen; in the summer rosicky, diaby, campbel and maybe flamini will depart and we’ll get 3 players to replace them lol same ol arsenal.
On the swansea gane at the weekend I’d like to see these changes largely due to the pace of routledge and dyer and strength of bony. Bellerin at rb and chambers into cb. Id also go as far to say it’s time per b was dropped, lets try monreal and chambers as cbs. Flamini dm and Ramsey sitting, (and staying deep) to assist flam. Ramsey should be able to distribute balls to the wingers from deep. Theo rw, sanchez lw cazorla/rosicky #10 welbeck up front. Wont happen though as wenger has favoirotes in jack and per!
Flamini should not be fighting to protect a back four for a team with title ambitions.
He should be with a mid table team in the French league.
Well as much as we hate to see it, we are prob gonna see the same lineup that we had against Anderlecht (Flamini substituted for the re-injured Arteta.) Just hope they learn from their mistakes from last game and don’t let it happen again.
Flamini may as well have said, “Arsenal are a team”
Flamini is right in what he said alldo he’s been terable this season our RB and LB always look like our attacking midfielders wingers they are always cought on the counter attack I mean how many players we need in the opositions box only Mert stays back but we all know his not going to break any land speed record, soon you will notice when Walcott returns our right wing will be back to normal but left wing we are dependent on Gibbs to make runs and crosses becouse we don’t have a N/A/L/W