One of the downsides to playing a very offensive lineup and a high line is you will give the opposition more oppurtunity to counter but other teams handle it better. United have played without a DM for most of the season and the likes have Evans have come in and done a great jn despite numerous defensive injuries. Our defence have had plenty of help from Arteta, Rosicky and Song this season whereas in previous years we've often pushed the whole midfield up. Yet we've conceded more than ever.
But Utd are not nearly as attacking as we are - Ferguson, as demonstrated against City, will set his team up to get 0-0 draws if it warrants it. We on the other hand pay gung ho no matter who we are playing or where we are playing.
If Wenger made that move, I would not even want to imagine the reaction. Drop two of your form/better players for such a game. Fail.
Yes but that wasnt the point. You mods are having a stinker today!!! The point was that you can't judge the quality of our back four by saying Utd's back four havent struggled as badly. We play more open than them and so our back four get exposed more often.
Haven't you just questioned on an Adams for assistant manager thread why the thread had moved away from a discussion about Wenger Outrage? ......
No, the point you made was and that was shown to be a massive mistake, as by setting them up for a draw, cost them the game, and possibly the title.
You need to read up the thread, Piskie. Context, my fried, is a valuable pre-requisite to understanding! Posts #42 and #43 should help you out.
please log in to view this image Just looked back on noticed back. I am going to blame you and Piskie. By arguing in every thread, you have made me muddle them together.
the 4 we conceded at Blackburn and the 8 at United really skew the numbers. Both games were far from "typical" performances. I think you need to take the numbers and get behind them a bit. For example last year, everyone was saying that we were bad at defending set-pieces. Everybody assumed that included corners, but we were in the top 3 or 4 in the league at defending corners. Our real problems came from free-kicks.
I dont agree with ANY of that In the 07/08 season our midfield was Eboue/Walcott - Fabregas - Flamini/Gilberto - Hleb. Reyes wasn't in the 07/08 squad and Gilberto had 12 league starts, considerably less than Flamini. Eboue had 20 league starts compared to Walcott's 11. Flamini was better defensively than Song and Arteta COMBINED. In the 08/09 season our midfield was Eboue/Walcott - Fabregas/Song/Denilson/Diaby - Nasri/Arshavin. Walcott had 16 league starts to Eboue's 17. Denilson had 36 and Nasri 28 - they were our midfielders with the most league starts. Eboue provided defensive cover. Wilshere is better defensively than Arteta - he was allegedly told to play deep by Wenger, he wasn't really offensive. Song/Wilshere is better defensively than Song/Arteta in my opinion, Arteta has no steel or pace, Wilshere has loads of both.
