technically you may be right but they do in that system play without a striker essentially implying the free role inculcates that of a striker.
That's right, that's what's so great about this current Barcelona team, it requires such talent to be successful that only a handful of players are capable of.
If Song and RVP both leave and no one else is bought in, this could still turn out to be a poor transfer window for Arsenal
Nico Schulz. Arsenal have had him watched a few times based on things Podolski said when he arrived apparently and are interested. Anyone else heard anything about him? Have a word with your Sauces Cym?
Vela's departure finally confirmed. http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/carlos-vela-finalises-real-sociedad-switch
You've almost drawn me in to do this AGAIN but frankly I cant be bothered... (also those 'stats' are cherried picked BS) All we really need to know is Koscielney has been our most capped defender over the last Two Seasons (mainly because of injuries to Sagna /Verm) and they have been our worst in our Premierleague history. (From a defensive perspective at least.) Last Season... Arsenal City Matches Played 38 38 Goals conceded 49 29 Av. Mins per Goal 69.80 117.93 Now i'm not laying all the blame on Kos but you have to be an idiot not to realise he's part of the problem
Squillaci was decent in Spain, he just couldnt cope with the pace of the EPL. He'll do well at Olympiacos.
I wonder how many of those goals were conceded from the left side of defence, as compared to the right side when Koscielny and Sagna start together. The problem lies with Vermaelen and Gibbs/Santos.
No matter who we're playing against they constantly get in behind our midfield with one simple ball over the top, with Vermaelen and the full backs busy trying to score goals at the other end. It doesn't matter how good your covering defender is if he's constantly left exposed by the rest of the team
Very well said, it's a shame that Koscielny will never be rated as highly as he should be because of the flaws in others.
He's not perfect, he makes mistakes, quite a few infact. The only member of the back 4 who is close to being totally 100% reliable is Sagna (i'd say about 90%), i'd put Kos at 80% reliablity, Verm at 70%, and Gibbs/Santos at 60%.
Nope no more than they used to. This is a case of shifting the blame. (or using a strawman to argue what might happen if.. we had everyone fit etc etc..) Although not as talented or as good offensively as some of our previous midfields you would have to say that.... ---------Arteta---------Song------------ ----------------Rosicky------------------ Is a more 'defensively solid' midfield than we've had for a few years. Therefore a large chunk of the balem does lie with our defenders. Particularly the ones who played the most games. 41 league goals conceeded in 2010-2011 49 league goals conceeded in 2011-2012 its a pathetic record and to say the blame lies completely away from our most capped centreback is ignorance.
All though on paper that midfield looks defensive, in reality it wasn't. Arteta was playing the defensive midfield role last season, and he was being left exposed by Song far too many times, which would then take it's effect on the rest of the players behind him. Song wasn't doing his job properly and was leaving Rosicky to chase back most of the time. Our cover in midfield is largely to blame for our problems in conceding goals as much as the defence is... I say defence, I just mean the left side of it. That is part of the reason why I'm not too bothered in seeing Song leave as well. If you watch Vermaelen play for Belgium, he is much more reliable with the Belgian midfield 3 in front of him, whether it's a combination of any of these 3, Simons, Witsel, Gillet, Nainggolan, Fellaini and Defour, they are all players who are reliable in defensive midfield and in chasing back to cover, they offer him good protection and he is less suspect to causing havoc for his own team. Arteta is capable of this, Song used to be, and Rosicky isn't capable of offering that support to the standard it's needed. Hence the pursuits of defensive midfielders and box to box/deep lying playmakers. Look at Koscielny for France as well, by far their best centre back, Laurent Blanc was too scared to disrupt the partnership all ready established to play Koscielny regularly, surprise, surprise, he plays 1 game against Spain, ends up being the best French player on the field. Nothing got past him all game.
http://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/alex-song-has-agreed-terms-with-barcelona How the **** can he agree terms with them before a fee has even been agreed between the two clubs? Also, if €18 Mil is their highest bid, then they can do one.
