Now this is by no means an excuse but after our terrible performance yesterday i was wondering whether some members of our squad are burnt out. The players in particular i'm referring to are walcott, rvp, song and rosicky while i guess you could also add koscielny to that list. This is where the question of depth comes in as other than rvp, song, and koscielny in defense we really don't have any cover for them. Injuries (mertesaker) are partly to blame but in summer we really need add to these key areas which is why i'm very much in favor of vertonghen who can cover central defense left back and dm. Wenger was right to rotate imo but made the wrong choices for rotation. As matters stand we really had no choice other than to play rvp but his decision to play ramsey on the wings was mind boggling when AOC and gervinho were on the bench. I know many will disagree with this but its hard to imagine rosicky carrying on for the remainder of the entire season and i would give ramsey a chance in his favored position of attacking mdfield for some games. Song has undoubtedly been overplayed this year but who else have we got with coquelin and frimpong injured. Its way too much to expect of him performing consistenly non-stop over the course of the year. I still dont trust djorou tbh so i would for now persist with our defense. I think for the remainder of the season we could sometimes line up something like this and hopefully clinch the cl spot which is by no means straight forward. Its going to be a critical summer ahead but we ought to be sensible rather than splurge for the sake of it. chesny sagna kos vermaelen gibbs/santos song ramsey arteta/rosicky AOC rvp gervinho
excuse the intrusion, but march was a leg sapping month for most clubs. even the mighty shrews faltered yesterday. freshen the squad and onwards and upwards. yesterday was surely a march hare moment. good luck arsenal, may see you in the carling cup next year but do not get drawn away! floreat salopia
I'm not sure that the players you mention are burnt out. But I do think that Ramsey still needs resting in favour of Rosicky, with Oxo on the left.
considering we're out of all competions it shouldnt be really but in view of our lack of depth its unrealistic to maintain the momentum of our 7 wins prior. Just hope we can rise to the occasion against man city though i wont be bold enough to make any predictioons.
I think the problem is still injuries. With both Diaby and Wilshere out, Ramsey and Rosicky are playing all of the games and there's not much room for rotation. That said, I don't know why we haven't used Benayoun more often, he's played really well when he's been in the team.
benayoun's too light weight to play in midfield imo and lacks the vision. Like him as a person but dont think we'll extend his contract
Don't agree with that fella, I think Benayoun is a quality player in a similar mould to Rosicky, which is probably the reason why he's not getting games. But against Spurs, they both ran the MF.
well i guess we'll have to agree to disagree then though against spurs i'm pretty sure benayoun was playing on the left wing with rosicky, arteta and song in midfield
Well that's what I'm saying fella Benayoun was immense against Spurs and deserves a place ahead of Ramsey at the moment (on the left or in the middle) Against Spurs, he started on the left, but both he and Rosicky interchanged throughout the game. They were brilliant together. They are similar players, but I think they compliment each other's game.
well if he starts on the left i'm fine with that. He a pretty tricky player with good ball retention skills!
we undoubtedly have to shift out a lot of dead wood this summer though we can't be hasty as there are some difficult decisions to make. Its easy saying get rid of this player and bring in this one but this is reality and not football manager though we definitely have to recruit as well.
I think some people over simplify the issue - slating wenger for not buying anyone in Jan is easy to do. The reality is that Jan is a notoriously difficult time to get quality players. If he'd of bought anyone just because they were available, he'd be accused of panic buying. We need to do some business this summer, but it's not as easy as simply going out and plucking a player on your wish list.
. Exactly. Some of the players need to be kicked up the arse and/or dropped. They have to know that less than 100% is not acceptable in any game at any time.
Regardless of whether you were calling for players to be signed in Jan, it makes no difference to the reality of the transfer market. Song has 18 assists this season, so that suggests that he's justified in playing further forward. He also does a good job tackling and mopping up in midfield, so I guess you must have been watching a different Song to the one I have
I was possible to get players in January - other teams did it and we have done it in the past. We knew in early December that we had an issue and we did nothing about it. Our chances of winning anything died in January/early February because were too weak defensively. It was a scenario everyone was talking about well before January - it was not hindsight. Wenger did the same as he did last year - nothing - and he got the same result.
Our squad doesn't have to play to be on the pitch. Some players know that they're guaranteed a starting spot because of the lack of strength-in-depth. We need more situations like the Walcott vs AOC fight for the starting spot.
Who was available that would have strengthened our squad and not displaced players returning from injury ?
