₦airaland Forum

solomonbrown64:
.....The bolded is very correct. Take our last match in the F.A. cup for example, all three of United goals came in with a lofted ball to either side of our defense with AMN and Kolasinac far up the pitch. Lukaku had a field day that day because Kolasinac was usually no where to be found when a lofted ball was sent to his side of defense. Kos...had to bail him out on several occasions and still yet two of the goals came in from his position. Sanchez switching flanks after being frustrated by AMN got his goal from his end because Lukaku was so free to dictate play...no one was marking him and dragging Kos .... from his position whenever he had to fill in for Kolasinac....
.....In the Chelsea match, we were so disciplined going forward and I hope it's the same against City or else it will be goals galore.....
..... That's why Emery wanted one of Perisic or Carrasco but none materialized but Suarez is here and he can move the ball from Midfield to attack, something only Guendouzi has been doing all season..... using our fullbacks in attack is costing us goals and I trust that by Summer, Emery will get either Pepe or Hazard, the younger one

you have said it all. Not even van dijk and kolibaly will be faced with 3 on 2 by good fast attackers and survive.
The other big teams have sane,hazard, mane,martial,son et al doing the do.
We rely on bellerin, who I think is our best full back, he's got energy and pacy to get upanda, others are often caught on the counter.

sod09:
i was chatting with a colleague at the office, he is an arsenal fan too.
he asked how sunday go be, he started with how many we go chop i say 5 atleast. then we try to think of a narrow way out if we have a way of managing city. but we both concluded that the defense will fvck us up.
we can slightly manage city if we choke the midfield by using midfielders that will mark and can hold ball
suarez should start, we can use guen to our advantage with his unnecessary falling especially if city are in the mood .




but in the end i dont see us having any hope against angry city

City will beat us because they have attackers who will threaten us all day, I trust sterling and sane to pin us back, an attempt for Niles and kola to attack means we will be done by sane and Sterling's pace on empty space and fans will come up with oh defense is trash and so on.

That will be the difference, quote me.
And expect our world class attackers to rely on their usual slow side passes/flicks walk the ball in the net pattern.

Niles and kola will be our maim 7 and 11, why do you think city struggle against l.pool? Mane and sallah are waiting to kill them on the counter and that's why they attack with caution, but Arsenal, they will attack us confidently since they loosing the ball means an ozil will slow it down and start building possession, Ramsey will dance and flick it on, Auba can't beat walker, laca will be bullied, and iwobi alone can't do it.

Auba and laca are good goal scorers, and will score in any formation you put them in,they just need chances to do that.
To get the best of them,either of the Twain should play the CF role and nothing more, provide them with quality wingers and AM who will create from center and wings.

Rather we stress laca a lot and make Auba looks useless on the wings.

Someone said our attack is like the Liverpool front3 SAS
NO! We aren't.
Suarez,sterling and sturidge all pace, dribbling skills,mobile and deadly on the counter, ours isn't.

I insist our defense is okay, injury disrupted our season, The back4 of Monreal, Holding, Sokratis,mustafi and bellerin is good enough.

The main problem is we rely on bellerin and kola to attack from the flanks,
Our rivals have wingers doing that and that allows their full backs and defence take shape and organized

Go see the goals we concede, often times our defenders are far up the pitch. While our attackers are busy side passing and flicking the ball.

sod09:
i say we clear out the whole wengay players..
each time they play, i feel its wengay

, I hope we do a klopp, get in hardworking decent players and clear out the average lots around.

sod09:
20m would have gotten carrasco.
my question is if we are waiting for summer to spend will top players come if we don't qualify for UCL

it is a sad situation, According to Emery, he said the club asked him to be patient till summer that there would be money to bring in new bodies..
Let's hope we qualify for CL, either through Europa or league.
Then we can get Carrasco and defenders.
Hopefully, the following will be cleared out over the next 2 summers for wages and space.
Cech
Licthterner
Koscienly
Jekinson
Xhaka
Elneny
Ozil
Ramsey
Welbeck
Chambers
Mhickytaryn..

Monreal though old, but very solid. I want us start planning his replacement

Kolasinac doesn't wow me, his only quality is running behind defence only to make that predictive pass in to box and relies mostly on muscle to defend,exposes us too much...squad player at best.

Good we eventually signed a suarez, since the 2013 40€ +1 saga

Also, looks like fans aren't that much excited about him, that's less pressure for him and we his fans, and that's nice.

He looks typical Arsenal player, looks like Rob holding, stature and movement on ball reminds me of Alex Hleb, and also countinho.

People just keep emphasizing on defense being the main problem.
Good Modern Football analyst will tell you
If the attacking unit is not good enough, the defense suffers…

Even if we sign four Van Dirk today, and we don’t have enough ball dribblers both on the wings and in central midfield, (most of our attackers ability is to pass and walk the ball in,filck it on and no innovation.)

The defense will still continue to suffer…
Go see top teams around, they have attackers doing their duty,while the full backs and defence concentrate mainly on defending.

At Arsenal, we rely on our full backs to do wingers job,our Center backs become CM ( high line) and that's how we often get caught in the counter.

Man city and Liverpool defence unit are good not because their Defenders are better than ours but because they have an efficient Attacking system that absorbs pressures from getting to their defense unit….
Same with Barcelona….

Iwobi is the only player in our team that can take d ball to an opponent, and make a driving runs on his own
Iwobi is the only player that is more of a threat to our opponent..
That shows how poor our attacking system is; Very very poor

That is why we hardly create good chances
This is why backward passes and sideways passes are always dominant in our pattern of play……
We need Ballers, we need Artistic Dribblers with brain….

Suarez isn't enough, we need 2 more fast ball carriers and dribblers on both wings.

.It is wishful thinking of what only looks good on paper by fans to think a front lineup of Laca,Auba and Ozil will produce the goods just because they are good or are big names
.There’s not one player there who bothers to try to run at the opposition’s defenders.All they do is pass,link up or smash it into the net.

Iwobi and guendozi are the only ones taking risks and trying things on the pitch, others are too scared or lack ideas on the ball, hence they just pass to the nearest man.

Hopefully Suarez and perisic will spice things up.

Didn't see the first half, how come ozil behind Auba and laca hasn't mesmerise us with assist, goals and cool football?
Even against a Cardiff at the Emirates?

Till the day we get quality wingers and good ball carrier in midfield, we won't scare any team.

Simply play either laca or Auba up top and surround them the CF with a perisic and carrasco.

Till then enjoy the frustrating,boring pass me I pass you ,walk the ball in the net football.

eph12:
If you don't have an answer, ask your dog where your team is expected to be since you know where other teams are expected to be

Before the season comenced, Arsenal was predicted by analysts to end in 5th/ 6th, that it will take 3/4 transfer windows to get them back to the top.

odizeey:
everyone knows man utd have being a victim of fraudulent coaches in recent times.

Chelsea also changed coach, they won the league 2ce in last 4 yrs, everyone should know Arsenal have been a victim of bad management. Maybe if Glazer or Dangote take over things might change.

eph12:
PSG and City have both spent more than Utd in the last few years.

While you say everyone expects Utd to be up there bla bla, where do they expect arsenal to be?

PSG, city and utd are all heavy spenders and they are expected to be at the top.

Everyone and his dogs knows the financial situation at Arsenal, sales of Chamberlain, giroud,perez,coq,Gabriel et al played major role on the few ones we signed.

Lana1:
When OGS was hired, the target would ve been to salvage what we could from the season and by some miracle, make top 4 and have a good cup run.
I'm sure no one could have foreseen an 8 win streak that included beating Spurs and an Arsenal team that just went 22 unbeaten in all competitions.
My point is United was having a torrid season after Mourinho single handedly derailed our season playing boring football while leaving us 6th and 11 points behind top 4. And a caretaker manager halfway into the season didn't look like anything was about to change/improve.

But, United now look like a decent side again thanks to the quality in the team, quality that made us finish 2nd last season. But we're still far from a finished product. And with a team starting to find its feet again under a caretaker manager and after a terrible 1st half-season, the odds are surely not in our favor to be beating City PSG or even Liverpool?

Anyways, if its by amount invested, Arsenal have spent 400m pounds in the last 5 seasons(including this one). That's 113m pounds more than Spurs. Yet u guys haven't been able to compete with Spurs on the pitch with Spurs even consistently finishing above you. Why's that?

You are not far from finished product, you have a de gea, defenders who are strong&experienced for English football, matic,pogba,mata,Sanchez, martial,lukaku are men not boys who are proven and fit to play at top level.

Spurs finished only 2ce ahead of us
2017 ahead of Arsenal and utd
2018 ahead of Arsenal and Chelsea
We've won 3 Fa cups and 3 community shield within that time, while they still trophyless.

Anyways. Good luck.

Lana1:
Those teams are better and if we lose to them, there will be no wailings from me. And it will only prove how far United need to go before we can start competing with those teams.

Remember United is the one who just sacked its manager over a month ago and in crisis with a caretaker manager.

I trust you to lament, considering amount invested year in&out to compete at the highest level, utd isn't Arsenal who have useless owners, utd and city were touted by fans and pundits to do a barca/ Madrid in England, Everyone and utd fans expects utd to be up there with Liverpool& city and also give PSG a good fight.
ATM, the football world wants to see the new look utd beat city/ PSG.
Goodluck!

ChristoBam:
Looooool, I swear arsenal fans are the funniest set of people on this earth. Listening to them lament on You tube or instagram is much more funny than watching AY live. Look at this one saying with better wingers or better dribblers you'd have won the match. I remember one time it was with better strikers, then it became you'd have won if you had better defenders, now it's better wingers you need abi?? You guys have been singing the same anthem for years now, aren't you tired?? You better leave football for now or decamp to another team you don't really hate e.g Manchester City so you don't develop hypertension cuz it's only going to get much worse with arsenal.

it is a fact, even rival fans came here to attest to our need of wingers after the Liverpool game, we didn't look that bad against utd, for me, wingers will allow our full backs concentrate on defending instead of being caught on the counter over and over.
Every team has it's weak side fans complain about. It is part of football, pundits and fans analyse every time, its no biggie

LoRdCaT:
Stoke city trashed you 3-1 at your backyard

And so, mk dons and leeds utd trashed them without doing a rugby on them.

Lana1:
See as u dey cry. Sweet tears everywhere.

How exactly did Sanchez do a Welbeck?
Sanchez split open ur defence with his crisp movement and rounded ur legbegbe keeper to score a beautiful goal while Welbeck had to rely on luck and a stupid back pass from Valencia to score that goal. So how exactly are the two goals the same?

Yes. Stoke City that has beaten you in ur house more times than any other team in Europe. I'm sure when we meet again in March, your money would be on United to win because ur club is just that useless.
As for the injuries, maybe your players should hit the gym instead if blaming their misfortunes on unsuccessful tackles they jumped into. That was how Bellerin slid into Pogba's path last season and got him red carded.

Lol. From it's just Cardiff to lets wait till they play a big team to dont worry City and PSG will knock them out soon. I just hope you won't die of depression should United win these matches.

Shalom!

Baba no need of this epistle, I congratulated you guys and also Sanchez for rounding pa Adieu Cech who's has good has retired, that was a revenge on welbeck rounding world best De gea outta the Fa semi. No big deal there now.

Yes stoke city beat us,since the days of shawcross on Ramsey, they never relegated, they are very much in the league. They cripple to have their way.

I also hope you won't lament when city and PSG boot you out.

pazienza:
Well, the FA cup and Carling cups were always going to be distractions to Arsenal season target, which basically is to get back into the UCL via Top 4 finish or outrighly winning the EL.

The season target is still intact. Our squad is too thin, injury ravaged and lacking in crucial quality across the pitch to sustain cup challenge while still keeping within touching distance of our season target.

Other than bragging rights by United fans, this match is inconsequential to Arsenal season. I was gutted to see Emery roll out a full squad for the match, and now we had paid the full price for it by losing Sokratis.

As far as the match went, I was happy with what I saw, the team tactics were spot on. With better wingers and better quality midfielders , Arsenal would be winning this type of match in the future.

Now we need to regroup for the must win against Cardiff. Without Koscielny, Sokratis and Bellerin. Arguably our best back 3. Not going to be an easy match. If we can get three points against Cardiff, then we would have done well.

You are right, FA cup and Carling is highly doubtful as we will still get done by city in the long run. Utd are free to be happy Sanchez did what welbeck did to them at old Trafford in that FA semi. The win is their trophy, city will knock them out soon, let them continue to celebrate their trophy.

Emery should have known they are a Stoke city, from what they did to us last time at old Trafford, I hate playing them, they ruled Holding out of the season, injured Ramsey and nearly murdered Guendozi by his beautiful hair,now they've murdered sokratis and koscienly again. So sad.

Also, with good wingers and good AM, we could have won, we side and back pass a lot around their box, that's where good ball carrier and dribblers would have made the difference.

kodded:
na so this carrasco and denis Suarez deal just fade away, I swear arsenal na stupid team

No vex bro, deal that won't take us 50M to get both, then clear out Ozil,Ramsey and Micky, for they are mostly side passers with nothing special in their midfield and wing football..

Lana1:
Shalaye!

Calm down, you have won nothing yet and you still chilling in Europa's garden.

hoopLA:
Arsenal vs Man United at Emirates

-Arsenal starts to press
-United score two quick goals, at least one on a counter attack
-Arsenal press and over pass with idiotìc midfielders and dumb strikers
-lapse in concentration gifts Arsenal a lifeline
-more pressing by tactically dumb players and delinquents
-united absorb the so-called pressure and hit on the counter to deal the game.
-final score:3-1

-rinse
-repeat

Too easy

..Now imagine what one or two good fast dribbling wingers would have done in the game, when a team assembles side and back passers in attack and midfield, possession and getting countered is the result.
.
They get to the opposition box and they want to walk the ball on the net, even Cardiff and lobi stars won't give you space and chance to do that..

Often times they get clueless in the box and still passes it again and again, this is where quality wingers comes in, Arsenal should have finished utd in the 60th minute.

We keep saying get wingers,they say defenders, what spectacular thing did the attackers do aside the usuall passes bar iwobi and laca..

Unfortunately,
Guendozi to them is the reason why we lost..
Ozil came in a did a Ronaldinho
Auba scored is usual tap in and will be praised the whole week more than Laca,Torreira,Niles et all.

sod09:
have you noticed xhaka torreria still works well, if xhaka goes forward torreria stay back and vice versa. But the boy game is too childish, he doesn't even have position just creating unnecessary set piece that we can't use
I was one of those who praised him in the early stage of the season but I just got tired of his gameplay jare

OK.

sod09:
At last the boy chop bench

At least if any Bleep up happen today, the boys head will be saved
They shouldn't come up with his presence on the bench affected our show

Hardetayour:
He has been the only one on that guys case joor. We won and he still blames Guendouzi. Not like he's putting himself in the starting lineup.

wait till we draw/lose or have a bad performance, they will troop in for the boy's head.

BTW, Lucas torreira(9) and Matteo guendozi (5) together (14) made more tackles than the whole Chelsea team combined (13)..

Young lads who will dominate midfield in future

For me Emery's signings haven't done bad but litcthener who I feel old age and fast pace football in England doesn't suit .

Hardetayour:
Make una free this guy joor. Let him continue hating Guendozi, it doesn't change anything.

I don't think he hates guen, I feel he's just not okay with him starting always, his comments are still fair compared to some here waiting for us to lose/draw a game so they can rush here to blame it all on guen's head.

Heaven saved guen, he could have been the scape goat if we had lost the game..

He's bossed the midfield against another big side, wonderful from the 19yrs old lad who came from ligue2 to the biggest and toughest league in the world.

make una free Sod my guy o, he's reduced his criticism of guendozi and his recent posts about the team generally has been okay..

sod09:
Plz what position is guendouzi playing
This boy can't mark, always shadow marking
He's always passing sideways
He can't track back for kolasinac
NAwa oo

broad fear God o

Guendozi starts? Emery will turn this boy to the most despised player after xhaka and mustafi, the poor boy will be d target for the game's performance.

MrDojo:
Although unlikely, right now. It is a really possibility in the near future. Teams like Everton and Co. Could challenge us if they continue to spend with wanton abandon.

at that point, the real Banter Era will start. Like Khaifa said, Arsenal will lose millions of fans worldwide that would be almost impossible to recover.

Na that time, Stan go port commot for the club.

The guy loves his yeye LA Rams, die!

make Dangote buy Arsenal,and employ me as a talent recruiter, I sabi hungry young lads,who will die and be like kante..
That's my wish o.

MrDojo:
Spot on.

We really need a massive clear out in the summer. If not, I'll just be an hibernating Arsenal fan. I cannot kill myself.

I heard, Sven wants to leave the club. Possibly by the end of the month. Apparently, he a d Unia disagreed on signings. Don't know if it is true though. Also, the article stated that Bayern we're his likely destination.

If Arsenal signs Denis and Yannick, I wonder which formation we'll play. I don't see them playing 3-4-3. Except we revert to 4-3-3, those guys will just be playing out of position.

Unpopular opinion, I think we should fix our defensive issues first. Instead of going for Dennis and Yannick.

Apart from Fulham and one or two other teams, Arsenal has the worst defensive record in the league. Which is absolutely terrible for a club of our stature.

I believe that if we can find a solution to our defensive woes, our attack is good enough to win us games. We have only failed to score in two EPL games this season (City and W.Ham).

I don't know if I'm the only one who notices how difficult it is for us to breakdown other teams, but the reverse is the case for us. Arsenal has only one clean sheet in the last 20 games (EPL), are they not mad?

A team like ours should not be leaking goals like a relegation contender. Historical, our defensive record is not that of UCL team.

Like Fergie used to say, "Attackers win you games, but defenders win you titles."

The funny thing is that, we all see the problem, but Arsenal are not willing to fix it.

I've also made up my mind,I'm just Waiting for few transfer windows to decide finally.
I read also he (sven)wants to leave, Emery may leave to,fans will boycott and fans will reduce worldwide.

Denis and carrasco will occupy the AM and Wing position.. They use both feet,drive forward and take players on. And that will be a 4,3,3 formation.

Personally, I think starting players in defence are okay,
Bellerin,mustafi,sokratis,holding and monreal all did well earlier in the season
I feel Mustafi or sokratis should be partnered with a strong tough defender like v.dijk,koulibali,Godin,Maguire et all
Also Maybe a sidibe should be brought in to deputize or take after monreal as he doesn't seem to be fit anymore to play long season.
Kolasinac to me isn't a defender...
I won't mind we strengthen the attack this Jan,because we struggle to break teams hard and most goals we score come from hard struggle.

Then next summer invest largely on Maguire and get rid of deadwoods at back

MrDojo:
Me too, bro. Me too.

Arsenal's midfielders are the only one among the big 6 that would rather move sideways or backwards than forward. None of our players, except Iwobi and Laca (sometimes), can dribble past their man. It is really annoying as a fan to see the same side ways football.

I don't don't know if other people have noticed, since we started playing 3-4-3, our midfielders as been really ineffective. Most teams usually choke out the two players there. And, since the 3 man defense are stagnant, there is no assistance from them. The wingbacks do not help much defensively too. This is one of the main reasons you see musta and papa bypassing the midfielders, launching the ball straight to the strikes.

P.s. to all those saying Auba is an average CF, abeg fear God.

Yes, baba misses a lot of chances, but an 'average' striker cannot do what he does abeg.

If his finishing was better, he would have entered 20 EPL goals already, but remember that the GKs did not come to eat beans on the field too.

The guy will arguably be a starter for any team in the top 6. I don't see any team having him and placing him on the bench.

P.p.s. Auba has never been a CF that dribbled or out muscled defenders. He is a classical example of a poacher. Think RVN of United. Useless outside the 18, but will punish any team in the 18.

That is the major reason why I want us get Denis Suarez and yanick carrasco, they posses what we lack I.e ability to drive forward, delete players outta their way ,win fouls and create openings for striker.

Also, the reason why we demand Auba raise his game is because that's what today's football require, top teams defend from the attack, see firmnho,he doesn't allow to be overrun, agureo presses defense and many other big teams attackers..
Auba,giroud unlike laca do allow defenders get comfy on the ball..
Ozil walks and get passed by a lot,..
Xhaka can't do any defending..
Guendozi though tries but too light weight to battle with heavy men like doucoure, van dijk, matic,et al
Torreira alone do this,but too short and can't do it alone..
So our defense do not get much protection.
I think football is evolving into new pattern where teams defend from the front by forcing opposition to make mistakes.
And that's why opposition players get much comfortable, and make teams like westham look like barca.

Auba is a good striker and he isn't below average.

What fans like me want from him is hardwork and not just waiting for things to happen when the game gets tough.

I think we missed welbeck, he's our most hard working striker,he makes things easy for auba and laca whenever he plays along them.

He's a typical premier league striker who fights and win duels, though no much end product.

I urge our fans to watch some teams in LA liga, I saw the real betis against Madrid, the betis boys reminds me of Emery's sevilla team that trumped Liverpool in the finals, they were all hard workers, running, defending, attacking, good passes with great energy and desire,though the lost the game,but I was proud of them.

Another is Atlextico Bilbao and sevilla,the men on the pitch played with energy,desire and purpose far more than our slow weak boys,unfortunately, our fans think to high of ourselves.

There's this inachi Williams, his goal against sevilla is something I doubt any our of our forwards could do, he turned,raced at the defence,outpaced them with power and rounded the goal kepper.

I so wish Emery can assemble such players, I'm not particular about big names,but players who understands the basics of his position, and play with energy and desire.
What frustrates me the most is our boys lacking the basic understanding of their position, playing with zero zeal,strolling and walking about,side passes,no urgency ,no motivation and innovation.

BlueRayDick:
If you say his performance is below average, then maybe you can say Aguero’s performance , Sallah’s performance and Harry Kane’s performance have all been below average for their respective clubs. He’s scored 14 league goals along with 2 strikers of 2 two teams who are far ahead of us in the league. He’s a striker and his job is to score goals and he’s done just that. See Aubameyang is not Arsenal’s problem at all. Arsenal’s problem is Multi-faceted. There are wingers who wouldn’t just score(e.g Iwobi) , wingers who wouldn’t play the right pass into the strikers’ path(e.g Mikhitaryan or whatever his name is spelt), defenders who can’t defend to save their life (e.g Sokratis, Mustafi and Koscienly), right back who can’t make run into the opposition’s half and make a decent cross( e.g Litchseiner or whatever his name is spelt ) , a right back who claims to be a midfielder but hasn’t justified himself in any of the position (e.g Mitland-Niles), etc.

Aubameyang has just one job which is to score and he’s doing that quite welll compared to other strikers as expensive as he is . At least he’s outvoted Morata, and other more expressive strikers. Except you expect him to have banged in 35 goals by now I don’t see how he’s being below average. You better thank God you don’t have Lukaku in this team who is being pursued by the ball itself

bro I don't have issues with Auba and I don't think fans do, my point is his attitude,

The succesful teams don't have players not putting a shift
Aguero's threats defense with his strength and pace and that pin back defenders all day.
Liverpool and city have all their players running and fighting for 90+
Auba isn't alone, I'm just mentioning him cos to me he's like an ozil, intelligent but soft and weak
We have lots of players with zero energy, passion, so complacent bunch of lads.
Auba
Ozil
Dhaka
Kolasinac
Niles
Mhicky et all.
I agree with the points you raised on what our problems are,but I feel attitude on the pitch is another thing that frustrate me.