Lukas Podolski has made no secret of the fact that he is unhappy with being on the bench at Arsenal for nearly half the season, but he was given a great opportunity last night to show why Wenger should not be ignoring him. He played the full 90 minutes for only the second time this season (the first was the League Cup defeat to Southampton) and knocked in two goals in the 4-1 win.
He said on Arsenal.com after the game:“We came here and left some players at home but you could see the mentality of the team in the first half was very good and the performance was as well,”
“Of course we are very happy, we won away in Turkey against a good team. It is always difficult to play in Turkey, with the atmosphere and the fans, but we did it well and we won 4-1, which is good.
“I had the chance to play today and I always want to score, give assists and play well. For me it was important to play 90 minutes and keep going. It is not always easy to come in and do well so it was good for me to do that.”
It was good for him in two ways. It will either persuade Wenger that he should be playing more regularly, or it will make potential suitors stand up and take notice that he still a great player and worth bidding for in January.
This was only the 55th start for the German international in his third season at the Emirates, but he has now got 31 goals in that time. In the exact same period Olivier Giroud has started 82 times and scored 42 goals.
But who will bet with me that Poldi will find himself back on the bench this weekend? Use him or lose him Arsene!
Wenger gave this reason for Podolski’s bench time after the game: “It is competition for places that is difficult,” the Gunners boss told the club’s official website. “I had Welbeck, Sanchez and Giroud at home and you can only play a certain number of strikers.
“He came back later from the World Cup but he is now coming back to a very strong level.”
Can someone remind Wenger that the World Cup was FIVE MONTHS ago…….
Nah….. He doesn’t show why arsenal must not sell him….. He shows why a potent goal scorer must not be benched ….. Boy sure knows how to bend goal posts for fun
Off Topic__
Does anybody know who Liverpool shall face in the Champions League knockout phase?
Tottenham
Duh!!! Lol!
You may laugh @ liverpool but even with a goal down their fans never once chirped Rodgers but was cheering their team on till thee end keep that in mind next time you go @ it with AW and not get the teams spirits lifted a goal or two down… Its a shame for a true Gunner to turn their back on ARSENAL/ARSENE like that.
Now take that champions league spirit and goals, back to the league and let’s give it our all fans/players
#COYG
but wenger strongly believes welbeck, giroud and sir no goal are a million times better….in fact podolski played because he was reetting giroud and welbeck for the newcastle game.
How many minutes did podolski play in the world cup???
Who is fooling who mr. wenger?????
I think wenger should just leave now because he can’t even admit his mistakes.
He shoots and is damn accurate…that is reason enough to keep him. Our other players try and dribble the ball into the back of the net it is really frustrating at times. No one can argue with Podolskis goal/game time ration…it is incredible, but I feel to get a proper idea of how valuable he can be, Wenger needs to play him more often, but we all know who Wenger’s favourites are. If Podolski leaves, I don’t blame him. He is hungry for game time and it seems still has a lot to offer.
My man, Big_Gun!!! How are ya?
True Podolski is our best finisher, out of five attempts he can score 3 or for (hope I’m not exaggerating).
I think he’s best suited to a 4-4-2 formation.
I wish he stays.
He’ll probably leave at the end of the season, how can he stay when the likes of sanogo and welbeck are ahead of him in the pecking order
he is an asset…he doesn’t even have to shoot, he can just fake a shot and pass the ball off and 3 defenders will be diving trying to get in the way because they know his shots are so accurate
Poldi is lazy and doesn’t like track back, so?
One of the best pure shooter in the world, you just have to utilize it, to use him properly.
We played 4-1-4-1, 4-2-3-1 and a bit 4-4-2 this season, and most of the time we struggled to score. If we really want to win, and goals win you games, the logic is to play your best shooter, the one that has the best converting rate, best goal per minute in the EPL. No need to tell people about his deficiencies. His one and only trick overcomes everything. Goals win you games, and when he is on the field, our team score more than the opponents. So who fooking care if he doesn’t defend?
Since Poldi slapped Wenger’s face hard by scoring 2 goals on Tuesday, I bet Wenger will send him back to bench again this Saturday.
A quality Striker such as Podolski does not need to back track and defend, he must challenge the Defenders and wait for counterattacks, a striker role is to sprint from midfield to goal, is not running all over the pitch as I see GIROUD and WELBECK, defending posts against corners, no wonder at the 60th minute they disappear, you need strong legs to score…. I noticed GIROUD coming as a sub is much more effective that as a starter, because he comes to play his role STRIKER score goals and and just that….
Not sure what problem Wenger has with the world cup. Other players across Europe were up and running in no time. Just look at Kroos. Not only did he play in the world cup but he moved teams and is playing well.
Actually Kroos is not fielded on a regular basis yet.
Kroos has been playing enough plus well enough and so has the majority of the German squad. It seems like our three are the only ones that need the tournament as justification for their poor form.
Who? Goetze? Still reserve. Hummels? Atrocious but still only 6 games . Schweinsteiger? Very few games. Khedira? Very few games if any. Muller? Reserve. Ozil? Few games. Lahm? Tired and injured, few games. Howedes? 5 games this season! The only one playing regularly is Neuer and maybe Boateng (although Guardiola does not field him every game in Bundesliga).
So you see, Wenger does have apoint with the German players’ condition after world cup.
I’m struggling for that as a justification. It was a meaningless game so Podolski rolled out. Considering how he hasn’t been injured, and that we have been poor finishing, I doubt the world cup has anything to do with him not playing. When Wilshere played through the middle, Cazorla or Ozil played ahead of him at LW.
Seems more like hierarchy than world cup.
Podolski did featured in EPL this season but he was clearly out of form. If that’s not enough argument then I don’t know what is.
Budd’s an AKB , 4get him!
Actually I know better than Wenger so by default I can’t be an AKB.
With chambers suspended and Kos and monreal very doubtful for Sat only solution for me is to play debuchy at cb with bellerin going to rb cant see any other way!
what a tool wenger is: by not buying enough defenders, and letting jenkinson go: once the inevitable & predictable injuries came, we’re forced into a makeshift defence time after time. i presume wenger wants to win PL, so the fact that he does these things that lead him away from his goal means he is delusional & not accepting of reality.
Kos & Monreal were rested. Debuchy will play RB.
When you hear commentators screaming ‘Podolski!’, you know what
Not this Podolski argument again!!
The guy has played with us for 3 seasons now why is everyone acting like we don’t know how poor he can be at times!
He’s like a ghost on the pitch when he’s not scoring!
He’s workrate and pace isn’t good to play as a left forward when we want him to drop in to defend.
We don’t play 4-4-2 the only formation he could possibly fit in.
Yeah he’s got a hammer of a left foot but we all know that! but in the big games he’s shown he’s ineffective and so gets subbed a lot.
You want more from him but I don’t think he’s got it in his locker and he’s 30 soon aswell and on high wages.
He’s an impact player or a player we can play against weak sides like Gallatasaray we can’t afford to carry players.
Except in his first two seasons he had the highest goals per game ratio of any player. While he is not a superstar, let’s not pretend he is nothing beyond a goalscorer. He plays no worse than most of the team. Other than Koscielny and Sagna, he was probably as good a player as this club had on the pitch.
Finally someone who can see the whole picture! Couldn’t agree with you more ergs. Against the big boys he’s a liability to have starting.
And nobody come back with the whole sanogo ahead of him BS either. They play different positions and I don’t rate him either. Sanogo falls over easier then Bambi on ice.
Other than Sanchez, who among our attacking players has been consistent? Ox and Welbeck have both been hot and cold. Carzola had an awful spell of games before coming on in the last month. Wilshere is up and down. Ramsey has been poor until very recently.
Yes, Podolski has weaknesses but he seems to be held to a different standard than everyone else. He needs to be used more often, not just against weak opponents or the last 10 minutes of a game.
Arsenal is full of honest battlers.
For most the form line goes like this.
One super game, 2 average one shocker,
then a prolonged injury break of 1-6 months.
Its been like this for 7 years at least.
If you like EPL 4th ECL last 16
you are probably quite happy.
if you want EPL 1st and ECL 1st
you are probably less pleased.
Podolski has to fix up, he has been at Arsenal for like 3 seasons now, he is so lazy can be a liability most of the time, we always say the same when it comes to Podolski, “Give him a chance as a striker. Give him a chance as a LW. Let’s give Podolski a run of games”etc..
But we are always disappointed, whenever he starts he is so ineffective and invisible in most games, he will have one good game and then will have 5 bad ones after. That’s not good enough. He had to start earning his ver very high wages.. Simples..
What Podoslki has done is he has increased his resale value. Sell him this winter and we can spend the money where it is needed CDM, CD.
Out of Vlaar, Reid, Van Dijk, Schar 3 of which have a contract running out, we should be able to sign one of them. Add to that Mings and we have someone to backup Monreal/Gibbs as both are injury prone.
Completely off-topic here but did anyone see the Roma – City game. The Roma player that stood out for me was the “Mohawk” Radja Nainggolan, he was a presence in central midfield.
Sick of all the ball hogs and pointless passing anyway. All the pointlessness around the box is good for nothing if chances are not made and goals are not produced. We have three quality finishes in Sanchez, Podolski and Ramsey. The rest of them are pretty hopeless. And when Ramsey is out of form he is not in the right positions leaving us with only Sanchez. We need to play him more – because Welbeck is a poor finisher.
He can only score against weak teams or if we sell him, l am sure he’ll manage to score a lot against our beloved poor defense whenever we meet his team. SOLUTION dont sell
He scored 2 times against Bayern, so Bayern was/is a small team then.
How about 2 times against Liverpool? They are lousy this season but they were top 6 in the previous 2 seasons. They were small team?
If you said he could only score against weak teams, which player on our team scored on big teams? How many games/minutes Poldi played in games against Untied, Chelsea, City in compare to Giroud, Welbeck and Theo?
Prinz POLDI has the best avg goals/minute ratio in the our whole squad. And POLDI is declared the best finisher in Epl and is in top 5 in whole world…
And he just come as a sub to play 10-20 mins and didnt score then people say he is off form..Go to hell u all…
And about teams, he had scored against Bayern for last two season, none of arsenal player was able to do soo,& also scored vs LIV and how much had he played against Top teams like Che/Manu/Manc so never say about scoring against small teams…
He was a Striker & arsene converted him into winger…He scores thats what our player dont do (Sanchez exceptional)….