Arsenal don’t have the squad players to deal with the fitness problems we have each year by KM
Hi guys. Alright, we got thumped pretty hard yesterday, but I feel like we were out there with eight and a half players rather than eleven and that against Bayern will cost you. We started with Debuchy at right back and that meant we were in trouble.
I mean Mathieu needs to be replaced. For an international right back, you could see why he was playing for Newcastle. He got absolutely destroyed and 2 of the first 3 goals we conceded were through his zone. We also missed Koscielny, and Gabriel let Lewandowski slip on side and we conceded first.
Gabriel had a really poor performance too for me and when Mertesacker doesn’t have a solid player like Koscielny next to him, he is prone to make mistakes. So it felt like we were missing three of our defenders. And as you can see, against some teams it might work out, but we saw it against Sheffield where we conceded 3 and Bayern scored 5.
Even though, I felt there were positives from Ozil, Alexis and Giroud who were up for the challenge, before we got to 3:0 down and I turned off the TV, because I think I had seen enough. The bad thing from this defeat is that we play Spurs in a must-win game at the weekend and we had to avoid a thumping.
The real trouble is the same squad will start against Spurs thanks to the marvelous injury list we have once again! Having said all that I’ll just quietly slip the thought of how we could’ve added more in the summer, but hey it is what it is.
For me the main point is, we have a good squad number wise, but very short of quality outside 13-14 players. We need squad players who can come in and do a job, but when some players come in, you can just smell trouble and Bayern exploited our weakness in defense. We could’ve been a match for Bayern if we had our starting XI available, but hey, they have one of the best managed football clubs, one of the best coaches and they boast talent.
Overall I just hope this doesn’t get into the head of the players. Wenger was first to acknowledge the fact that we were poor defensively but there are reasons for that. It’s important to ignore the media and the humiliation stuff written, because we could end up first in the league going into a much needed international break and that’s something.
After the break we’ll hopefully have some players coming back fresh and with fewer tournaments in our way, we can focus on the league. I for once have to defend Wenger with the decisions he made. He tried to rotate which is something. He acknowledged the fact that we cannot overplay the squad if we want to have a chance and although it cost us in competitions it was the right thing to do!
Apart from rotating Cech, I agree with the rest and we are still overplaying some players. Wenger is often accused of being stubborn and although I still agree with this, he made some big money transfers, adopted new tactics, bought a goalkeeper and rotated! If he can break himself with the transfer inactivity we’ll be true contenders.
What I see lately is maturity in our squad. Ozil looked like a player out with a point to prove again yesterday and he’s pivotal to us! I enjoy this squad, and although I don’t like the thumping, it’s something that has become regular with Arsenal, but it’s not something I’m willing to be depressed about again.
Wenger may never deliver a league title again, but look at Chelsea. Look at Liverpool and Man United. All shadows of a former self. We may get exposed sometimes, but we quickly forget it and if we win against Spurs I’ll be overall happy with the week.
The Champions league was not sacked by that Bayern defeat, it goes back to failing to beat average sides. To make it worse Olympiacos had unbelievable luck in both games against Zagreb and they won. But hey, there’s a lesson to be learned in this campaign. Sadly we’ll most likely slump to the Europa League.
Anyway, Spurs is all that matters now. We simply have to beat them and hope that after the internationals we’ll have some bodies back, because our league fixtures are favorable and if we have a fresh squad who knows?
Cheers everybody.
Konstantin
Being a Gooner for so long, i have learnt to take defeats on the chin and move on. Still the manner of defeat sometimes hurt. If it was 2-1 or 2-0 etc. it would make it easy to move on. A club of our stature challenging for the PL title, the toughest league in the world, we should make a statement at this level, wether we win or lose the game in the end. We defended and counter attacked in the first leg and came out victorious. We took BM head on the second leg and got thrashed. This should not happen. If we play the Arsenal way, we should Get defeated and not thrashed.
Hoping for a thumping victory over Spurs now! COYG!
we dn’t seem to ever learn from our seasonal injury woes…….do we?
We didn’t take BM head on did we, or was I watching another match?
I thought we sat back like it was defense against attack, didn’t press the ball or try to stop them playing and generally ball watched. We may have gave them scarves to wave like the rest of the observers.
Yes it’s only football, no we aren’t Accrington Stanley but come on. Been blatantly obvious for too long where the problems lie. Problems that keep us in the mix whilst still earning the club coppers but prevent us from moving forward and from truly challenging for the most revered honours in football.
To list the problems:
– consistent injury issue
– no signings (when we need them and there are better players out there than we have in our team/squad)
– no strength in depth (kids, or not sufficient quality bought)
– no consistency in performance (motivation)
– tactical nativity and inflexibility
– players played out of position or too
Many like minded players accommodated in same line up.
– unbalanced first team in quality (why have Ozil and Sanchez when you have Wellbeck and Campbell in the same team?) this and injuries in turn effect the system and effectiveness of system you play.
– slow defender in Per (he is a nice guy but you need to be able to run faster than an old lady in the modern game)
– NO LEADERS ON OR OFF THE FIELD
We “tried” to take BM head on. It just happened that we could not do anything of any significance. Our Game plan was to make a statement and in the first 15-20 min i could see that. But we could not cope for the rest of the game and our whole tactics went down the gutter. In the first leg, at least the tactics was well defined : to defend and counter attack.
Having said that, it is now obvious, for all the Arsenal way of football etc. and such a brand, we can’t defeat a team like BM unless we park the bus. This is so wrong on so many levels. This is what hurts.
We didn’t have the same team that beat Munich at the Emirates! And that was the big difference.
I very much doubt that we would have lost like that,
if we didn’t have the injuries.
I also think that it would have been a different game if Ozil’s goal would have stood, Even I was shocked that we equalised (not) 2 minutes after going a goal behind,
That would have unsettled Munich …. if it had of stood.
These injuries are very frustrating!
Something needs to be done with our training ground methods, as these injuries are happening far too frequently to be a coincidence.
Do we really have a bunch of injury prone players?
Or is it the method of training that causes the frequent injuries thats making them injury prone?
Personally, I thought our response after going 1-0 down was quite brilliant. That said Bayern were a class above us after that spell. I think blaming players like Gibbs, Debuchy and Campbell for last night is quite unfair. They were thrown in at the deep end having had little match time and then expected to perform against the best team in the World (possibly). In my view loosing Kos was a killer blow. Our defensive line was always going to be tested to the limit and he is often our saviour
What we have are injury prone players and the way we play we will always get tackled so the injuries will come. Short passing game. Wenger made no preparation for the injury bug which have haunted us for the last 4-5 seasons. He said that we have adequate replacements but where are they? Can Coguelin play a full season without rest,who can replace him and to make matters worst what if he get injury.We are at the top of the table now so all is well until,…….. Let’s just wait and see
I said the same yesterday in a quarter of space about our weak squad. Until the guys come back from injuries we will struggle, and you have to blame Wenger for that, the likes of Gibbs and Debuchy Campbell, there performance they really would struggle in a lower league. CB
Not gloating but I foresaw an 8-2 spanking with the level of squad we had and have at our disposal. I think 5-1 was a far worse result than 8-2 because we got to score only one goal to their 5 with a goal difference of 4 compared to 6 if my prediction had come true! No one should take any comfort from this result as we are the ARSENAL for goodness sake! As my son pointed out, we were the only team playing yesterday to concede 5!!!!!
Can we take our anger out on Spuds or would they want to rub in salt to this injury??? Your guess is as good as mine. Let’s just be angry as a team and go out there and take it out on those spuds!!!
What? ?
You think that losing 5-1 is worse than losing 8-2 ?
If only you would have asked your Son first, ?
Better still ….. let him comment on here, from now on!!
???
Arsene Wenger is a dinosaur who still believes that 4th place and champions league qualification is good for him. Arsenal are not in course of winning the league with injuries piling-up. He blamed the defence just like the injury. Wenger was confident with risk strategy with Debuchy given vote of confidence to play whatever way he chose. Good luck to Bayern and hope they win the Champions league!
i would sell the duo of Mert and debuchy for as Low as two pence…….. And would still get commission from their sales….. Don’t take it personal……. I’m being generous!
Don’t spend it all at once ?
How does a ‘top class’ manager build a team around players that can barely manage to play 25 games a season???I mean the stats are there and they clearly show players like Walcott, Ramsey, ox, Wilshire, welbeck and even koscielny are not players you can depend upon for an entire season.Even the back up players like arteta, Gibbs and rosicky are more injury prone than the highly injury prone first teamers. It just doesn’t make any sense, it’s like setting Wilshire a 20 goal target when he can barely manage 20 appearances.
To make matters worse,some of the players were injured long before the transfer window shut and it was known they would be out for a long time, but still nothing was done about it.How can this be called ‘top management ‘.To me it is more of ignorance, incompetence, arrogance,ineptitude etc.
It could be forgiven if it was the first time it was happening, but I have lost count of how many times this has happened and I can bet all my money on the same happening next season.
1. Sell Campbell. 2. Sell Debuchy. 3. Never start with Ox 4. Bring back Jenkinson or buy a new RB 5. Bring in Griezmann or Reus or someone with equal ability 5. Stick Sanchez on the right
Is it only me that thinks Alex Iwobi is too slow especially for a very young player? Honestly, that has been my impression of him the first time I’ve seen him play. Compare him for example with Akpom who is very fast and combative. For a forward player, you can’t overestimate the power of pace, unless if you have some sick skills to go with it. Campbell as well is much slower than I thought he was. Our team lost because of lack of pace and PRESSING yesterday.
Our ENTIRE right side was out : Bellerin, Ox, Walcott and Ramsey all gone
Campbell looked tired compared to the Swansea game. He didn’t get back into defensive shape fast at all. There was rumour that he was going to be on the bench, snd I wonder if that is becausethat was his third game pretty much in a week. I think everyone will agree that you can train as hard as you like, but being match fit and sharp is very different. I still hope Campbell can develop more along the line he showed against Swansea.
just read a n article on espn talking about how the balance of power in north london may be shifting in spurs’ favor. I just love those sort of articles, it will make our victory all the more sweeter on sunday.
Lets be realistic, we aren’t going to win ucl even if we qualify. Lets just focus on epl and we may have chance to win it den. City look very good wid bruyne and sterling. If it happens to be the same old arsenal den city wud run away wid the title somewhere in Feb already.
The negativity on here is ridiculous!! It wasn’t but two days ago all you were commenting all positive but because one loss to the best team in the world currently. “Everything is going downhill” Even in the main article it talks about not winning the league what the fuk is that about. Are team looks the best it has in years and a team that look like serious contenders for the title.
Tell that to the injuries!
Don’t underestimate Spuds baby please
We need to be on our toes because they have scored 8 goals in their last two matches
If Koscielny and Bellerin don’t play our defense will need to work extra hard
I still think we will win as long as our players play hard
Let’s not take victory over Tottenham Hotspur for granted on Sunday evening as if it is our birthright inheritance to inherit. Is it not this same squad that committed treasonable felony against Arsenal at the Allianz Arena lart night that will be fielded by the Boss? Do we trust them to deliver to us all the 3 points that will be at stake in that game? Let them prove us wrong. I think the Gunners are going to face court martial charge trial for the treasonable act they committed as they will be arraigned to face the Lilywhites on Sunday evening to defend themselves. And only a victory over the Lilywhites by the Gunners will see them discharged and acquitted from their treasonable felony charge agaist Arsenal.
Bayern are one of the best squads in the world. No panic on my end. Maybe if we would’ve had positive results in our first two UCL games it wouldn’t seem like our world is crashing down. The game could’ve been a whole lot of different scorelines. 5-1. 5-3. 7-2. We missed a few good opportunities and Cech saved us a few times.
Injuries? Are any of you truly surprised that everyone is getting injured? Are you surprised that our squad players aren’t cutting it in big games? I think we covered these topics during the summer transfer window.
Spuds are about to get put into their place this weekend!