wtf are you talking about. Tell me this was a product of several pints? Can't think of any other reason for this.
No they moved to bigger / better sides. In actuality Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletico have been outperforming the British sides. You could probably also add Seville to the list seeing as they have won two of the last three Europa Cups. The best teams in England are just about up there with the best in France in terms of quality. We certainly dont have any 'elite' sides ATM.
I accept you were the better side on the day. However the way we we played, we played into your hands. Rather than play our game, we played you guys with too much respect, the sort of respect you would give to Barcelona, Bayern Munich and the elite clubs in the world. We should have played our game, (it is a derby game after all!), he should have given Spuds something to worry about, rather than defend like Hull playing one of the top sides. No disrespect to Spuds, they are no where the best sides we have played this season, however the way we played (or the way we set out was a complete joke). I have seen a lot of NLD even where the gulf in class was obvious, both teams have played with pride, and passion, however we played with no belief heart and conviction! The only silver lining to come from this debacle is that, we do not finish in top4, hopefully that will make Wenger/the board look at themselves......
You didn't try to defend or you wouldn't have set up with Giroud up front. He's not going to offer much on the break, especially compared to Welbeck or Walcott, who were on the bench. You were forced to defend, lost the midfield badly and your attacking players all went out of the game completely. Wenger's team selection cost you any chance of victory. It had nothing to do with treating our players with too much respect.
To be fair, I don't know what the senile old guy was doing. Like you said, we offered nothing up front and over run in midfield. I saw the first half and switched the tv off in disgust. The table does not lie (however with a good manager our squad is good enough to be in the top 3/4. If Chelsea languishing mid table last season are on the cusp of winning the league, then with a decent dynamic manager, pretty certain with a couple of players...
I've said this before, and I fully accept not everyone agrees, but for me, starting Giroud upfront is counter-productive if we want to play quick, incisive & effective football. Not only does he have poor hold-up play, he is too static. Defenders can push higher up the pitch and squeeze us because they know he hasn't got the speed/spatial awareness to get in behind. This will, in turn, put more pressure on our midfield and defence as they get pushed further back. A central midfield duo of Xhaka and Ramsey was never going to dominate Wanyama and Dier. It would have been better to put Ox in the middle alongside Coquelin or Xhaka, and then put Bellerin as a wing-back. Our wide options weren't dynamic enough. Starting Gabriel instead of Holding was just stupid, frankly. Especially as the latter, despite only making 10 appearances, has looked far more composed in every game he's featured in compared to the erratic Brazilian. I'm not sure what Wenger's beef with Walcott is, but he has 18 goals for us this season, so he clearly provides a potent goal threat. To bring him on so late when the game was pretty much done and dusted was just pointless. Likewise with Welbeck who should have started or also came on a lot earlier. He's not the greatest finisher, but his speed, athleticism and movement can cause problems for defences. Overall, it was just a catastrophe all around. A cowardly display from all involved. Not helped by the team selection as you say.
Giroud's a useful tool to have in your armoury, but it was clearly the wrong game to start him in. I just couldn't see what he was supposed to provide in that situation. Much better as a late sub or when a side's sitting back and inviting you on. Your assessment seems pretty accurate to me, though I just don't think that your central midfield options are good enough. You need a Wanyama or a Kante and I'm not even sure what Xhaka's supposed to be. What's his role? His defensive qualities don't seem good enough to be a holding player, while his passing's not quick enough for a playmaker. It's his first season in England, so I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I'm just not seeing it, I'm afraid.
Oh don't get me wrong - I don't think our central midfield options are good enough either. I was just trying to make suggestions for what partnership could have been better with the players we currently have in the squad. Tthe fact we have been so reliant on an injury-prone, 32-year old says it all about the lack of planning from the board. I've said for a while that we have needed a long-term replacement for Cazorla and it simply hasn't been addressed. Obviously we may not find someone as ambidextrous like he is, but in terms of fulfilling that role in our team, it was clearly something that was not prioritised and I can't understand why. Maybe Wenger thought Wilshere would end up being moulded into that type of player, but it really hasn't worked out for him, sadly. As for the other options, Ramsey is energetic, but provides little else. He's still living off that one good season he had, err, 3 years ago now... Elneny should get more starts as he keeps play ticking over well and has a deceptively good passing range, but he's not first team quality at all. He's the type of player you bring on to calm the game down and keep the ball to eat away the minutes. Coquelin hasn't progressed the way he was expected to, but it hasn't helped that Wenger tried to make him into a box-to-box player when that's not his natural game. Xhaka has a good passing range, but is too ponderous on the ball and slows down the tempo of our game. I thought he looked promising when partnered next to Cazorla at the start of the season. However, he's looked pretty lost ever since we've felt Cazorla's absence. I feel like he would perhaps perform better alongside a player of that ilk, but you're right that his role in the team is unknown because he doesn't particularly excel at anything. All I can say is if we want to get back to being a competitive side again, we have got a massive Summer ahead of us (although this gets said a lot and not much usually happens).
TBH, I thought you were disorganized, looked like you had no idea what the plan was - assuming there was one, and worst of all, too many players didn't put in a shift. Some actually went into hiding! Sanchez was the only one who looked like he could be arsed and you can see why he seems pissed off.
This and especially next season will show Wenger and the current setup massively. They will need to spend massively to make an impact in the league now but i can't see it happening. Old habits die hard and Wenger and co will probably bring in good to decent level players in, when in reality he needs some very good players to make next season competitive.
