The papers seem to be mostly level-headed in their reports today, result achieved, no more no less. A scrappy game on a ****e pitch, rode our luck at times, but if your opponents aren't clinical on the night you take advantage of it. Ex players seem to be the most unrealistic with their comments expecting us to Barca our way to a win every time. Lets put it in perspective, had say United needed a point away in the league to maintain top spot, the 'dug out a result' cliches would be in all journos articles. The PL is not always best either, staying with United, their first Super Sunday offering against Chelsea the other weekend was no spectacle either, another drab 0-0.
I forgot to come back and look at those Lloris clips.....my god!!! wait till Spurcat see's that near post one! all I can say is I'm glad he did it in that game! One of PNP's vids has gone so I found this one, you only have to watch it til 1min 15ish....Lloris's misery is all done by then! [video=youtube;x-p0xoafsSs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-p0xoafsSs[/video]
Most Arsenal fans will agree that Wilshere shouldn't be playing at the moment. Walcott had a bit of a shocker last night but on club form who else is better in that position?
The best bit of the match last night was watching Gerrard read the FIFA page of ****e he was given. What was that supposed to achieve other than humiliation of the captains (which is a worthwhile cause)?
That sort of stuff really annoys me - if they really want fair play there are a number of obvious changes to the Laws of the Game that would make it happen.
Walcott is just another example of the same old English problem. Players with a bit of strength and pace look excellent when playing against dross but might as well be in the dressing room when they come up against good technical players. But that sort of player always gets short shrift from the English managers, fans and media alike for reasons that I've never understood. If we are going to beat the best teams we need to pick the best technical players not the most committed ones.
A quick round-up of our players Lloris...nightmare! Walker...some might say ditto! Townsend...no minutes Defoe...no minutes Sandro didn't go by the look of it. Holtby, same. Eriksen...had a couple of efforts saved. Chiriches...played as Romania lost 2-0, no mention of him in report I read. Sig...hit the post!...again! Lamela...bench, no minutes Soldado...scored a good header in home friendly v Chile. Paulinho...played some part in friendly v Portugal The Belgium boys don't appear to have played, remaining team in group Croatia, played a friendly v S.Korea.
At least he was on the winning side. As long as his No.1 spot in the French side isn't questioned too harshly, he should revive his confidence.
Possibly, but what most Arsenal fans will not agree with is that neither Wilshere nor Walnut have cut it as internationals, and shouldn't be picked. Against the easy sides, they look good, but so do Lambert and Carroll. Against better sides they both look like little boys. I'll never understand why Lennon isn't picked over Walnut every times, regardless of club game-time. Lennon in the much better player. As for Wilshere's position, I'm sure that there are any number of players who could be given the chance to shine in an England shirt.
I think it's more complicated than that. A lot of these so-called "better" teams that England play contain players that would not get into the Premier League (or there is a good chance they would play there!) In other words, they are not good enough for the PL, yet the England team contains players that are good enough for the PL, most of who start for higher PL teams. So I don't think its just a question of technical ability, there is an element of coaching at international level and perhaps commitment. How many of the Ukraine players are (on paper) better than their England counterparts? Something just happens to England players when they try and play together!
what was that ball that Wallcott played in the 3 on 3 situation last night? I've never seen anything that poor from Lennon. Might as well have just picked it up and given them a freekick. ****ing useless.
Most people will disagree with you, there, not just Spurs fans. It's a myth that Lennon has no end product; that might have been true 5 or 6 seasons ago, but he's improved vastly over that time. The other area where Lennon wins hands-down is with his ability to take on and beat defenders. Walnut cannot do that. Sure, he's great if you pump a ball into space for him to run on to, but put a defender in front of him and he simply falls over. Not Lennon.
I'm not so sure. I do think Walcott's the better player but Lennon and Walker work well together and they have a good understanding from all the time they've played together. Walcott in a 433 is a better choice than Lennon but when the winger is required to trackback more, I honestly think we're better off with Lennon. I don't see why they couldn't play together in the side though with Walcott having less defensive duties he it allows him to move into free space for the counter. I wouldn't say it's necessarily an ideal formation selection but if we're going to set up negatively away from home then it would be more bearable if we had Walcott, Agbonlahor and Lennon looking to punish them on the break. You could see Walcott was wanting to move inside a lot and Walker ended up overlapping which left us exposed, if Lennon starts then Walcott can help them double up on the wing with pace at times whilst allowing him more freedom to make speculative runs across the pitch. As much as Walcott was poor last night I think the central midfield was more at fault than anything. They offered nothing in attack, when Lambert was running around trying to get on the end of the poor hoofs up towards him not one was there for a quick pass or trying to get into a dangerous position beyond him. At least Walcott had memorable moments, between our 3 centre mids they managed one shot from distance(Gerrard) and a squandered chance at the end(Lampard). Similarly Walker, who had his dodgy moments but if his runs were rewarded by a good pass rather than hoofing it straight to their defence then maybe we would have seen them cause more problems.
Lennon never seems to play well in a side that has the likes of Lampard in it. They never pass to him. It's as though they can't be arsed trying to keep up with him, and they know that if they give him the ball, the likes of Fat Frank is going to have to bust a gut trying to make it inside the box for the cross, or Lennon's going to make them all look like ***gots.
The more I see of Walker the LESS impressed I become. His football brain is not impressive going forward and the number of problems he causes at the back is alarming. Why are we so impressed with players like this, especially when we have 'real' wingers who do the forward job better.
