On another thread i posted the following: "'Originally Posted by afcftw' Those of you making comments about Arsenal players falling over easily should try and play football against people vastly less skilled than they are. When someone is alot worse than you at football they kick the crap out of your legs because they can't do anything else. When you constantly play agaisnt players like this were you are kicked constantly you start to get annoyed at the refs doing nothing about it. Therefor you begin to exagerate how much you've been hit so the ref knows your being kicked. This happens at all levels of football and simply shows the gulf in technical ability between teams." To which berbanandez / berba whatever his name is replied: "City kicked the crap out of us yesterday but instead of crying when just got on with it and beat them." A couple of points: 1) i don't believe Man Utd are nearly of the same technical footballing ability as Arsenal so i do not think the two teams are a fair comparison. 2) this was in a manchester derby and thus can't be looked at in the same context. However this does raise an interesting question (yes, thats right although berba seems a complete plank in most posts he got me thinking): Which other teams in the EPL play a very technical/stylish football brand and do they get kicked as much as us? If so do they let the ref know about it the same ways we do? Personaly i think any team playing very high quality football get kicked as thee other teams get frustrated and the refs in the EPl let this go alot, so the players will natuarly react by going down easier. (Chamakh excluded who is just a genius when it comes to going to ground lol)
i take your point but i believe that you need to earn the right to play the football that Arsenal like to play, to often last season we were out fought. The players and the manager need to realise that teams with less technical ability are not just going to roll over but try to level the playing field by adopting a more physical aproach. Arsenal need to learn to deal with this and stop moaning cos it isnt going to change.
No it isn't going to change. Arsenal are clearly far superier technicaly than most teams in the league and so yes, naturaly the less skilled players will kick the better players out of frustration and lack of ability to do anything else. That is always going to happen and as i say it happens at all levels of football from the playground to the EPL. But, refs are there to protect the players and often will nto give free-kicks unless a player goes to ground. If your getting constantly kicked and getting studs in your feet/legs surely your going to go down under less contact to show the ref what is happening? This is often the only way to get the ref to take notice to something that should be a foul. RVP does this well, when he is clearly fouled but doesn't have to go to ground he often will drop a leg to show he has been kicked. Chamakh though is just the master.
Thanks The point is a valid one. Man City kicked the crap out of Man Utd yesterday as we were outpassing them but instead of moaning about it we go on with the game and won in the end.
United deserved the victory, easily. City were **** compared to United for most of the game, and on both of their goals De Gea could have done better. It's given me hope regarding Arsenal's top four status, because Arsenal can probably beat this Man City side. Of course, with Aguero and Tevez it will probably be another story...
The problem with Man City is that they are too negative. They just sat back yesterday, defended and tried to kick Man Utd off the park, and that is how they often play against the top sides.
The reason we get kicked about is as follows... Andrei Arshavin 5'7 Jack Wilshere 5'8 Samir Nasri 5'9 Theo Walcott 5'9 Bakari Sagna 5'9 Cesc Fabregas 5'9 Thomas Rosicky 5'10 This is the Premierleague where decent level of contact is still allowed.
ye, but out of those 5 mrwright, i would only consider van Persie a starter when everyone is fit. out of the short players, at least 5 are starters. plus we have other short players. but u did forget song, and vermaelen and koscielny can jump high
But height has very little to do with it, wilshere is 1 of the shortest players we have, but also 1 of the most determined and strongest he might get pushed off the ball occasionally but he'll make sure he forces his way back onto it, even against the likes of Samba! Same with Sagna, have you ever really seen him bullied? nasri and fabregas have the dribbling/passing to generally get around being bullied about etc, and both can give it back when needed think nasri V barton, and both against i think porto a few years ago And theo can run fast.... i mean, Rooneys 5 10, ever seen anyone moan about him being weak etc?! And crouch is 13 foot a million but gets bullied about
Give me a break, you may as well include Arsene Wenger 6'3 in that too! How often do we play with all of those on the pitch at the same time? Like 'Drudeboy' said only one of them is a sure fire starter. We have the smallest team in the league by miles but we're also the most technical. Teams ar'nt going to beat us by playing passing technical football so they beat us in other ways.
as i said in my last post, height means **** all in terms of strength aggression etc also, Barca are even shorter than us.....
Exactly: Xavi - 5'7 Iniesta - 5'7 Messi - 5'7 Pedro - 5'7 Sanchez - 5'7 Alves - 5'7 Mascherano - 5'9 Villa - 5'9 Puyol - 5'10
It's not just height its that physically our team can be pushed around. We play in the Premierleague where a higher level of contact is allowed.(Teams like Stoke for example could not exist within La Liga) The other problem with comparing us to Barcelona is that they have CONSIDERABLY better footballers.
I think it's nonsense that we are unable to compete physicaly. If you watch alot of the games last season players like Fabregas and Wilshere although small where really throwing themselves about, same for RVP, Song and Kosc/Djourou, Sagna as well. We out-muscled Chelsea in our win over them and although yes at set pieces there is clearly a problem, I do not think that we are as weak a team as people try to make out.
Really? Even Wenger has admitted in the past we cant cope physically with some of the larger EPL teams. The key is to beat them by playing football - There's NO WAY we can match Stoke, Man City, Everton, Chelsea, Blackburn, Unietd in terms of muscle/athleticism..
So if we signed and played a team of 6'7½" - Nikola Zigic (Birmingham City) 6'6" - Peter Crouch (Tottenham) 6'6" - Zat Knight (Bolton) 6'4½" - Marouane Fellaini (Everton) 6'4½" - Brede Hangeland (Fulham) 6'4½" - Chris Smalling (Manchester United) 6'4" - John Carew (Aston Villa) 6'4" - James Collins (Aston Villa) 6'4" - Franco Di Santo (Wigan Athletic) 6'4" - Sylvain Distin (Everton) 6'5½" - - Pascal Zuberbuhler (Fulham) We'd win the league? because height and strength is so important......