It was Ramseys fault for playing such an outdated formation. We were virtually 4-2-4 against their five man midfield. Phillips simply refuses to track back and that left poor old Furlong to face sanchez one on one time after time.
Very disappointed with Ramsey.
Isla is coming back from injury.....and with his nature (which we have already seen...attacking with limited defensive qualities), he would have done no better.
Thought Furlong OK, whilst the centre back formation of Caulker/Ned with Henry and Sandro in front was working....but Furlong was exposed as that formation disintegrated when Ned went off and Sandro was substituted
This was a game that was made for Danny simpson, now that is Arrys fault, letting him go, and going into the campaign with an unbalanced squad.
Furlong is going to be a good player, and will have learnt much from last night
Even after he had been scalped, and we were 2 nil down...he played with passion.
I like the lad, and think he will be a great asset in the future
Paul..............Ramsey changed nothing in this game, other than pressing higher up the pitch in the first half (this fell off completely in the 2nd half). It could easily have been a Redknapp side that we were watching, except it would have been Ned at right back, which actually, may not have been a bad idea.
No one can blame the young lad Furlong. He was up against a ridiculously quick, World class player in Sanchez, but the set up was all wrong.
I agree that a team like Rangers, where we are now, can't try to outplay that Arsenal 5 in midfield, but we could have set up so much better than 4-4-2 imo.
Even in the first half it was clear that the inability of our wide players, especially Phillips to track back was going to leave the fullbacks terribly exposed. I said at half time that Sanchez continually getting one on one with Furlong was going to be our undoing. How many times did you see Phillips or Hoilett with a one on one? They always had numbers in there to press around our attacking players..............we didn't have the same.
I don't blame the players. They gave their all, which is something that Redknapp couldn't get out of them, but 4-4-****ing-2? I'm sick of it!!
So what formation would you have played? It was clear we were set up for two approaches to attack Arsenal; playing direct to Bobby and Austin which worked, and out wide to our wingers to deliver crosses - which worked for our goal. Granted they didn't track back as much but the plan was to play in their half.
If we played 4-5-1 he would have been accused of not trying to win the game, and, if we're playing 4-5-1 then Austin would have to have been dropped as Bobby is a target man.
At home, 4-4-2 works, and it's evident Austin has been learning a lot from Ramsey as his footwork looked much better yesterday and actually turned a man with his back to goal.
The problem came yesterday when Sandro had to go off. He was having a very good game and the introduction of a centre midfielder in a 4-4-2 against a 4-3-3 is always difficult when the game starts to become stretched. Niko wasn't quick enough and he rightly got punished when he lost the ball for their first goal. Ideally, we'd have had a Barton type player to come on instead but obviously he was suspended.
The scathing criticism of Furlong is ridiculous, the young lad was superb in the first half and tired towards the end, but the lad did as well as he could for both goals, he forced the winger wide to the touchline - personally Rob Green shouldn't be getting beaten at the near post from there.
I haven't seen any scathing criticism of Furlong. I certainly don't blame him at all. I agree that we missed Sandro when he went off.
I don't agree that playing a different formation would mean that we weren't trying to win the game. I hoped that Ramsey would be a bit more savvy when it comes to tactics, but he just went with a Harry way of playing imo.
Since you asked, I would have played 4-2-3-1 with Vargas in behind Austin and Isla and Zarate each side of him. Isla would have given Furlong some much needed protection and his energy made quite a difference when he came on last night. We were never going to trouble Arsenal by whacking the ball 60 yards up to Bobby. He had some success against Gabriel, but even then his flicks generally didn't lead to anything. I don't think Austin has benefited from playing with BZ for quite a while now.
I do agree that Austin seems to have improved his first touch etc and that should mean that he can play in the formation that I have described, with Vargas giving him close support.
If I want to watch a team lump it forward to a big centre forward all game I can go down to the park on a Sunday morning.
Because no one has been outplayed by Sanchez this year..... Silly criticism of a young lad who I thought had a good game against one of the best attackers in the world. We were fine until Sandro went off and we had no one other than Nico to replace him with. He gave the ball away for both their goals and our shape went out the window when we tried to play through our midfield which meant Arsenal could finally play their game, which unsurprisingly cut through us with a fair amount of ease in the second half. The 442 isnt pretty or modern, but for the first 55 minutes we gave the opposition nothing to play with whereas if we had packed the middle and tried to pass our way to victory, we would have been overrun after 10 minutes.. I was at the game and really enjoyed it, its just a shame that after Austin's goal we didn't throw everything at them, we didnt even win a corner, but credit to Arsenal, they are a great side and once again, we've rattled a big team at Loftus Road. Positives for sure, though we NEED four wins from somewhere. I think we will give Spurs a good game on Saturday.