Match Day Thread Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal (UCL Round of 16) 2016/17 Official Match Thread

This sums up the problem with Wenger and what is generally wrong at the moment.
He seems to keep picking players who may have done well some time ago and hope they come back to form.
Ozil, in spite of his talent, has virtually disappeared and is now almost a passenger.
Ox and Walcott keep popping in and out of the team.
Lucas Perez is a player who has done well when given limited chances. Why the hell Wenger doesn't give him a run of games is a complete mystery. Perez needs to move on to a club where his talent will be recognised.
Sanchez is the only fighter and he may well now leave us.
There ain't any backbone in this side.
Wenger cannot motivate this team anymore.

 

Not that it really matters but Hull had 51% possession at Emirates. We have a load of decent midfielders but I don't rate any of them except Cazorla higher than that

 

I like Xhaka. Technically he has lot of good qualities.

A big problem for us this Season is Coquelin has stopped producing the displays of last Season - he was never top class but his level has dropped considerably and now the likes of Xhaka/Ramsey are struggling alongside a DM who is not performing.

Its fair to say Ramsey has also been pretty terrible this Season.

 

Most of these midfielders hold their place in our squad based off a handful of good performances years ago.

 

what is the problem Wenger has with Perez as every time i've seen him play for you he has looked a threat but he hardly ever seems to start.
on last night your team seems to have no stomach for the "fight" . Decent position at HT then Koscielny (sp) goes off and the towel followed rapidly after him.

 

Another Wenger trait, he seems to not understand when a player is done, he could have made a lot of money selling players at the right time.

 

I wouldn't even say that these players were once great and therefore could ever then lose it and be classed as 'done'. They were simply never great in the first place... They just had a handful of great games and Wenger then seemed to believe that was their natural level and that he should persist with them, even when the evidence suggested their natural level was far lower.

Ramsay
Coquelin
Oxlade
Walcott
Giroud

All merely adequate players who have had a handful of great games on occasion interspersed with huge periods of mediocrity.

 

You can throw in the following that he persisted with:

Denilson
Gibbs
Arteta
Diaby
Wilshit,
Bendtner
Djourou
Fabianski

The one guy who looked quite good and showed passion and work rate in Joel Campbell was sacked off. I'm astounded that no mid table club picked him up

 

You could argue that he only persisted with those players was down to severe budgeting and stadium building. But he is not ruthless enough and it's come back to haunt him on numerous occasions. Diaby being the worst case in point.

But his transfer dealing have a lot to be desired also. The latest was when Cazorla got injured, everyone and his dog knew that this would have a severe impact on us, but did he do anything? No. He rarely takes initiative and or a risk in the transfer market, the last being Arshavin when we were in danger of dropping out of CL qualifications.

 

Bit unfair putting Arteta in with that lot

 

Bottom line is, our squad is full of squad players. Millions of squad players for every position. Unfortunately very few actual first teamers and a weak as pi55 central midfield filled with squad player water carriers. And the only person that has the authority to fix it can't because he has no idea how to because he's mediocre at his job.

 

Not really. He was okay when he arrived, but Wenger kept him for far too long even when he was injured and his legs were gone. He did the best that he and for 10m i guess that was okay. Lets face it though, he was never a world beater or even close to being one and at the age you bought him for. He is at most a squad player for a side challenging for the top

 

He has been awful in the market. For years, people have been saying, you need a DM, you need a striker, you need some defenders. You have no leaders and just a bunch of midgets who are not physical or leaders. Every year, Wenger decides to splurge on a winger and some luxury players.

This year he brought a bit of steel in Xhaka but not a leader. Mustafi the same. To be fair they've not been that bad and they are new to the league so we should remember theres always that adaptation period. Still though, although they aren't weak, they also aren't that athletic. It's so much you are doing bad in the league (chelsea are doing better than expected), but at the key games in the season, when you really need to bring it your team just seem to be mentally incompetent.

 

Since the early 2000's, i don't think that Wenger was ever ahead of the curve. He always seemed to be trying to catch up or had

Since the mid 2000's, i don't remember a time when Wenger was ahead of the curve. He always seemed to be playing catch up, whether they are deficiencies in his squad or tactics. I don't think he's had a complete squad since the Invincibles, and although he's got his best squad right now, it still looks weak in key games, as you've pointed out in your post. But this more to do with his failing ideology than anything else. As much as people dislike Fergie, he knew when to change things up, and built numerous title winning teams. His latest was easily his sh1ttiest, but he still managed to win the league, through shear tenacity and grit. Wenger unfortunately does not embody this, his teams are mentally weak and nervous. The way we got blown away by Bayern shows this.

 

Yup. I agree.

Not just midfielders though.

Walcott. The guy is hot and cold. Goes through periods when he looks quality then disappears for months on end.
Gabriel he's been here two years now and besides a decent recovery tackle his shown himself to be WAY below the required standard.
Gibbs a decent level full back. He will never be TOP class though. Would he make it into the squad of any of Europes TOP sides? Hell No.
Chamberlain. This is his best Season EVER and he's scored 2 Premierleague goals. (6 in all comps) - The guy has zero end product under pressure.
Ramsey hasn't done enough over the past two Seasons. I'm 50/50 over wether we should keep him.

We always stick with players WAY to long. I mean even Bendtner got over a 100 appearances for us FFS.

The we have guys like Perez and Joel Campbell who seem to show real commitment and promise when they play.. and what reward do they get for that?.. Nothing.(in Campbells case sent out on loan) Wenger doesnt punish poor performances or reward good ones.

 

While all these players should have been culled ages ago, the current plight of Arsenal is not their fault really... Yes there are certain levels of self motivation that some don't seem to reach sometimes. But I doubt they're actively choosing to play at a mediocre level. They're just simply mediocre players. Wenger bizarrely seems to think he can polish a turd. He can't. He's nowhere near good enough manager to do so. He's simply a turd of a manger himself.... The problem with our club is that we have a board who don't know where the flush handle is.

 

Fabianski is far too good for this lot

 

Just to make this more depressing..

On aggregate over the last two Seasons Bayern have beaten us 10-2. How ****ing embarrassing is that?