Few days late, but thought I would sum up the game in the usual way, if only to help put it to bed in my mind! THE GAME Well I personally was pleased that Park was not in the side (I was sort of hoping he would be injured so MH couldnt play him). So that was one positive, but it was immediately undone by MH picking SWP - his name announced followed by a few groans from the Rangers fans. Anyway, support him and the team nevertheless. The first half began with Arsenal on top and they had a few early crosses with no-one on the end. Wilshere was clearly a big boost from them and he was excellent imo. Kept the ball well and was at the centre of all their good attacking moves. They hit the bar from Ramsey who was left unmarked in the six yard box. We were not without chances but our ball retention was shocking tbh. But a decent effort in the first half. Second half was much the same at the start. As it went on SWP was starting to become his usual problematic self - not running at his man, giving the ball away cheaply, and generally doing nothing worthwhile. The game was certainly heading for a draw, no doubt. That was until M'Bia let us all down very badly. After he had played very well he won a free kick from Vermalen - but rather than get up and play on he decided to take a swipe at him. That made things increasingly difficult and shortly after we were 1-0 down to a offside goal, but with one less man it was of our own making. Mackie came on for SWP and immediately did more in 10mins than SWP had done in 80 odd. Mackie made a brilliant run past 3 arsenal players in was one on one with Manone in the Gunners goal - either side it was a goal - but he hit it straight at him. Granero also should have done better late on. THE RATINGS CESAR - 9 - MOM - class display. just class. made 5 or 6 world class saves and kept us right in it. only beaten with an offside goal. TRAORE - 6 - didnt really notice him much tbh. seemed to go into his shell a bit. NELSEN - 7 - was defending well and seemed to have formed a good partnership with M'Bia. Think he may have been the one to leave Ramsey unmarked as per the game bit above. M'BIA - 4 - sorry, but cant give him the score he deserves as he completely lost us the game. shocking discipline, just shocking. BOSINGWA - 6 - had plenty of chances to cross the ball into good areas, and often had loads of time - but i think failed with every one tbh. But defended well. GRANERO - 6.5 - was at the centre of our good moves but generally made far too many fouls and poor challenges. could easily have received a second booking - we were all calling for MH to replace him to save going to 10 men. missed a sitter. DIAKITE - 6.5 - same as granero but with less of the poor tackles surprisingly. often had space to run into and he generally did. SWP - 4 - had enough of watching him. he is a drain on our resources and is showing no signs of improvement. why is he playing. HOILETT - 7 - at the centre of all our good attacks and kept on trying and plugging away with little help really. TAARABT - 6.5 - superb defensive display but a little quiet going forwards but tracked back superbly. ZAMORA - 5.5 - poor really. didnt win many headers at all and didnt get involved that much. SUBS: MACKIE - 6.5 - not on for long but caused problems and was giving his all for the cause. made a superb run and should have scored. CISSE - 5 - looks a shadow of his former self really. not timing his runs at all and looks off the pace. we really lack options up front. THE FINAL WORD Well, despite some low individual scores we more than deserved a draw strangely enough. We had a few decent chances but our lack of ability to retain possession let us down but we more than matched them. Just a poor attacking display really. M'bia has caused us no end of problems - we finally had a settled defence working well together and he has immediately undone that good work. Yet another change needed!!!! Hughes simply has to stop playing SWP and Park - if only to save his job as they are the main problem at the moment. SWP offers nothing to the side and what must Mackie be thinking. I am losing patience with MH but he still has my support for now. But that will change if he persists in playing the two mentioned above. They will get him sacked. One month Mark, one month, and that is my limit.
Good report Judo. The one absolutely consistent theme in all posts on this forum is that SWP should never play in the Hoops again. Which means he will start on Sunday!! Really hope not.
Why when SWP is given the ball does he not try to go down the wing? All he ever does is give it back to the one who passed to him in the first place. Why is Mackie not on for him, he always tries to go forward and has a reasonable goal threat about him. No disrespect to SWP but I haven't seen a single thread on here that thinks he should play, so why does MH play him time after time. We have Mackie, Hoilett, Tarbs or even DJ (when he is with us) that would do a far better job. Unbelievable. And don't get me started on why Faurlin is not playing, apart from the fact that he isn't an MH purchase.
Thanks Judo. I agree that Park and SWP shouldn't be in the team, though I didn't think SWP was so bad Saturday - or to be more precise he was terrible at times, but he did get in 2 or 3 good crosses and worked hard. I think we would have done better at Arsenal with a 4 5 1 (or 4 3 2 1) with Diakite, Granero and Ale central and in more withdrawn positions in midfield, and with Adel and Hoillet getting forward more, particularly Adel who seemed to have been told to stay back Saturday which he did well, but this noticeably reduced our attacking threat. With this formation with 3 players in midfield who are good defensively, and cover the back 4, there should be no need for these defensive wide players, particularly when they don't defend too well either. I'd have Cisse or Mackie up front, Zamora would have got lowest ratings of all from me Saturday, but we have a big problem up front when Cisse is not firing, and Mackie though he gives us agression and can be fantastic, often seemed to disapear from games when he started - perhaps he deserves another chance against Reading. You are hard on M'bia - I agree it was a stupid reaction, but from what I could see he didn't connect!
Good points there Oslo - regarding Mbia he did connect - i didnt see at the time what he did but watching MOTD he did and with force. SWP just doesnt do enough for me. He misses great chances to go down the wing or pass to good areas.
Sorry not meaning to carry on the SWP bashing but there was one point where he had the ball wide, had time, had runners coming into the box and he put the ball way over there heads not sure it hit the ground in the area at all. This about sums up his performances for us up for me, works hard, get in the right places, looks good until he gets the ball then it all seems to go terribly wrong.
