I'd still start Debuchy in that line up myself, think he brings a lot of experience. Regarding strikers though I think Liverpool showed exactly how much difference a top forward makes to your team. Their seasons with and without Suarez were chalk and cheese and I firmly believe that's where we have the most room for improvement. I like Giroud and what he offers a team but I'd rather he wasn't plan A. I look over our entire squad and I think we're comfortable in every position bar 2. Strikers and DM. The striker situation concerns me because I'm not convinced they're they appropriate level, good but not great. The DM position concerns me because as much as I like and rate Coquelin, he's all we have in that role. Others are around who can "do a job" but again, as with the strikers, is that really what we want for us? Were I to wield the power I'd lose Arteta and Flamini and replace them with a dedicated DM who'd push FC for a starting role. I'd keep Giroud and Welbz but get someone in who'd hopefully be good enough to start ahead of them. I think a lot are getting slightly hysterical because others are spending big and they're jealous. We've a very strong side which I feel is a small tweak from being incredible.
They took a risk, but to be honest they didn't need a back-up to Matic because their players rarely ever got injured, unlike our players, and they have always been a fairly defensive side on the pitch in their game plan. And they have a manager better than ours. But we shouldn't be comparing what other clubs are doing to what we're doing, we need to act in our best interests and it is ludicrous to suggest we don't need another DM. Again, their manager was on another level to ours. And by the way, Carrick is a very good player. Better than Arteta. What you're failing to understand is that first of all - by your own admission - Coquelin only performed for six months. Doing it over an entire campaign is far different. Second of all, how can you be satisfied with Flamini and Arteta as Coquelin's back up when you saw how ineffective they were from August to mid-December last season?! That should have been telling that we needed another DM. Not only that, but you want to rely on Wilshere who has had a number of injury problems too? Even though he's not a useful DM? I'm sorry, but I don't accept that. What would be the point of scoring all these goals if we're letting them in at the other end too?
We are going to have to disagree on the quality of our manager. Also I'm a big critic of Flamini but I think a fully fit Arteta is a very good player. I think as backup option he is very solid option indeed. Wrong. Despite our horrific start last Season we conceded less than City and only four more than Chelsea. (who were apparently defensively superb) - The stats speak for themselves. Our defence was SOLID last year and we've now added a World Class keeper to that. A top striker will be enough IMO. But then there ar'nt many of those available.
Arsenal have made a £10m bid for Napoli defender Faouzi Ghoulam, with the 24-year-old being lined up to challenge Kieran Gibbs and Nacho Monreal at left-back. Thoughts ?
Well of course he could go but after a solid last 6 months, a trophy and essentially claiming the LB slow for himself I think it'd be odd if it were true. The Mirror is on twitter implying Arsene thinks a new deal is imminent. I for one hope that's true.
I'm sorry, but you're wrong. He is decent at best. He keeps play ticking over and is a good passer of the ball. That is it. Have you forgotten the countless occasions where we were overran in midfield because he did not have the physicality and stamina to play the DM role effectively? I don't mind keeping him around as he is clearly a good character, but I want his game time to be limited. First of all, you can't just make a statement like that without contextualising it. You need to look at the significance of the goals conceded. Were they game changing goals that we conceded or were they meaningless? Most of the goals Chelsea conceded were meaningless, as in they were goals which were conceded whilst they were comfortably ahead in games and so the goal conceded wouldn't influence the outcome of that match. Second of all, our stats improved when Coquelin came in. I haven't disputed that. Prior to his emergence though, we were awful. And that was when we had Arteta and Flamini in midfield, so I still can't comprehend how you can advocate having someone like Arteta when he wasn't good enough to solve our DM issues before as it was. He most certainly isn't now. I'm surprised we're even debating this to be honest! It was solid once Coquelin came in. We need someone to rival his position or play alongside him. I have already said I feel people are exaggerating the influence Cech is going to have on us though. He hasn't even played a minute for us yet and we're speaking about him like he's going to single-handedly win us the league. Let's not forget he was protected and was played in front of a very sturdy and cohesive back four which helps a lot. It will be interesting to see how he does with our back four, who are solid, but are still prone to lapses in concentration. Lacazette would be a decent fit. He's a bit of a tap-in merchant, but he's quick, got great movement and had a higher conversion rate than Messi and Ronaldo.
Sorry but some of the above is bordering on rocky ground. You can leave yourself a bit open to questioning by claiming someone is wrong for giving an opinion on something that doesn't agree with your opinion. Both of them are opinions and there aren't any firm facts to prove that a player is poor/decent/good/amazing/world class. And surely any goal you concede could be significant, and you don't know until the end of the game if it was or wasn't significant - just as the 5 goals Chelsea conceded against Spurs were significant, yet the one goal we conceded against Crystal Palace wasn't significant in the end, because we won 2-1. You can't dismiss all the goals Chelsea conceded as insignificant, yet use a different rule to measure the goals we conceded, and say they significant as this is neither fair nor consistent. Arteta was ruled out for a significant amount of last season, while playing in front of a patched up and out of form defence. While IMO he's not the greatest DM (though to be fair he acts more as a deep lying playmaker, setting the tempo, keeping possession and quickly transitioning play from defence to attack), he does bring a lot of positives to the team. And it seems a bit unfair to lambast him for our poor defensive performance in the 1st half of last season when he was injured for a lot of it and he wasn't even close to the only poor performer. Santi could barely string a pass together, Ramsey kept losing the ball (when fit, though he wasn't fully fit until Jan), Merts was very poor, Kos injured/playing with an injury, Chambers was an emergency for almost every defensive position ect.
So, old misery guts wants to talk potential transfers...is this Lacazette chap meant to be any good? How much would he set us back too?
On the topic of transfers it's funny how many 'sources' come out and say we're just about to make a major signing. These are sources who no one has ever heard of before, but are apparently really close to the club/player/manager. But then strangely after a week of every media organisation and their dog (yes I've seen Rupert Murdoch's dog sharing stuff, Fox I think his name is) sharing, quoting and shouting about the source, everything goes quiet. Personally I'd like to see Pedro or Benzema come in, but I can't see us being able to get rid of Welbeck a year after signing him to make room. We already had to sell Podolski for peanuts to get his wages off the books. I can't see this LB coming in, as we already have two internationals battling it out (and isn't Wilcox meant to be a LB?), with Monreal having done really well. Only position I think we'll realistically sign is DM, but seeing as a few targets have gone, it doesn't look promising. Still I've doubted Wenger quite a few times and he's produced, or the players I thought we needed have nose-dived at other clubs.
