True. With that being said, a player of his quality and experience should not have made the two errors that he did today. Extremely poor.
Wen get says he doesn't need any new strikers,and wants the present midfielders and defenders to score more,that worked well then
Cech's a good signing and I'm sure his form will improve, but if your keepers all keep making mistakes, then perhaps it's not all down to the individuals? Perhaps the coaching needs to be looked at?
West Ham had no intention of qualifying, as the team selections showed, we had better teams out during the pre-season friendlies.
Small consolation to the Goons, but if 2013-14 is anything to go by just add 29-30 pts onto the Spanners end of season points tally and that will probably be your end of season points tally.
Why is it that Wenger seems to be the one person who watches Arsenal regularly who can’t work out who should play? It’s: Giroud Sanchez Cazorla Walcott Ramsey Coquelin (he generally gets the defenders right) Ospina (and, before him, Fabianski) No one in football is likely to create an exquisite third goal, or to go missing when the chips are down, as Mesuit Ozil. If Wenger would just make that lineup his first choice, I like Arsenal’s chances at the league. Add Benzema or some other top level striker and it’s very likely. My theory is that Cazorla and Ospina get shunted aside because they’re both a bit dumpy looking and not considered fit for splash pages. I don’t understand the love for Cech. He was a fine keeper for the team which of all teams protected their keeper. He’s now 33 and not the man, as Brunelgooner says, to learn how to sweep. And, yes, quite aside from that he had a shocker today which there was no reason to expect. I loved the way he lumbered forward, reaching top speed at the moment the ball and everybody else went flying by in the other direction.
I think sometimes you just have to accept that the opposition are better than you. Yes Cech made two horrible mistakes, but even if we look at the balance of the game, West Ham were a more threatening side than us and looked more likely to add to their lead, rather than us get back in the game. Should we have won today with the calibre of players we had? Absolutely. Did Wenger get his team selection wrong? Absolutely. Ozil can't keep getting a free pass into the team because he was good for Madrid. He hasn't shown the same qualities in an Arsenal shirt on a regular basis and I just get the feeling Wenger won't want to accept that he overspent on a player that just isn't suited to English football. Above that though, I felt Ramsey and Coquelin should have been in the midfield pivot, Walcott and Chamberlain on the flanks, Cazorla as a no.10 and then Giroud up front. That team would have given us better balance. However, that doesn't excuse Ozil's noticeable lack of effort, Giroud's idleness, Koscielny getting out muscled by a 5 foot 8 midfielder, Coquelin losing the ball cheaply and Cech I mentioned above. The manager will get all the stick for the result, and to an extent it will be justified, but the players were making basic, basic mistakes that at this level they shouldn't be making, first game of the season or not.
The league table's great at this time of year. Liverpool have ousted Utd from the EL place on alphabetical order. And Arsenal's defeat means Spurs climb out of the relegation zone. But who can stop Leicester?
But he signed all those players. He chose them. He coaches them. He's the one that comes up with the tactics (well tactic). Year after year, different playing personnel, same old problems. He's the one deciding factor. Talksport today listening too on a long drive and it was mostly amusing s4ite apart from the very assessment that if you put Mourinho in charge of any of the squads of Arsenal or City they'd each win the league.
I agree with you. But the players need to be held accountable too. You don't need a world class coach to know how to pass a ball five or fifteen yards or how to position yourself on the field. These aren't schoolboys, these are seasoned professionals. Wenger absolutely deserves blame, but the players can't escape criticism. In spite of Wenger's bad team selection and reactiveness, the players we had on the field were good enough to win that game.
But they never really seem motivated that much. Well not in every game anyway. Not prepared properly in every game. And that's why we don't challenge... Because we don't bring our A game to every game. Why can't Wenger motivate them every game? Defensive individual errors don't excuse an ineffectual blunt attack spearheaded by an average striker backed up by players playing in the wrong positions.
I think it's unfair to blame the manager for every single thing that goes wrong. He deserves a large portion of the blame, but the players are the ones on the pitch for 90 minutes to execute the game plan. Wenger deserves criticism for not being proactive and taking too long to realise the game plan wasn't working, but was it Wenger's fault Cech made the two mistakes he did today?
Yeah blaming him for one result is a bit out. I suppose I'm just more angry and annoyed that today's result makes it look like this season will be the same as always. And regardless of buying worldies at £30m+ it hasn't helped Wenger do anything that he hasn't done before. Ie get nowhere near winning the league or CL. He's the underlying reason we never win the big two and I'm pi55ed off we have to tred water AGAIN this season and no doubt every season until he retires.
Wenger's great downfall is his arrogance, his absolute certainty that he's right despite all evidence to the contrary. He seems unable to learn from the evidence in front of his eyes. Today, he, and possibly his players, competely underestimated a well prepared and drilled WHU. Complacency cost them big time today.
