this scenario: This current team requiring all 3 points to WIN the league, last game of the season playing away at our nearest rivals for the title..... (Similar to the feat achieved by the team in the 1989 season). Also can you imagine this team going a whole season undefeated? Just wondering out loud why we seem to have no bottle, how many chances have we had over the past few games to wrap up 3rd/4th place and we keep passing, apart from Chelsea, these are teams we will beat if there was nothing riding on them? My question is in a roundabout way is: Why can't we handle a little bit of pressure? We are not asking them to go and win the league at old trafford, or even go the whole season undefeated? Beat the likes of Wigan and Norwich at home, is that too much to ask for?
It's all down to the manager (Wenger), he buys the players and picks the team and the tactics. Most of the Invincibles were experienced seasoned players not lightweight youngsters and that is the essential difference when the chips are down.
I am beginning to think it is more psychological with our boys. Just really puzzled what the problem is, not like they have not been here before, like I said we are not asking them to go and win the title, beat Manure or even beat Newcastle away.... If they cannot relax to secure 3rd/4th place, how will they ever win a trophy?
Exactly, the undeniable fact is that your squad is terrible compared to the Invincibles squad. The only players in your current team who would have stood a chance of starting back then are RVP and Sagna.
I've said in other threads that it is difficult to figure out what makes a team click, and it is. A lot of the players on the invincibles were not great players. If you go back and watch the highlights of the games, you realize that apart from Pires and Henry, very few of the players did very much individually that year. I think a lot of it is finding a group of players, particularly at the back, and midfield, where their style of play meshes well with each other. It is not easy to do. Even SAF keeps going back to Scholes and Giggs.
So you don't think Vieira, Campbell, Lundberg and Bergkamp were great players, or am i taking you too literally? Most of the Invincibles were great individual players but also worked well as part of the team, unlike the current crop.
Not saying that they were not great players, I said that there were a lot that were not great. Edu, Gilberto, Reyes, a very young ashley Cole, etc etc. Even Bergkamp did not figure as promenantly in that campain as he did in others. I also said that they did not do a lot individually. The key issue was that they were very strong as a team and worked well together. They had a lot going for them that year. They suffered very few injuries and had a lot of close games, however some of the goals they let in were just as horrific as the ones we let in today, just fewer. I don't think we can go back to the invincibles, they took advantage of a tactical weakness in the 4-4-2, and the game has moved on. People use our own tactics against us. We need to find a new formula and that is why I back Wenger. You can't get to the top by recycling stuff, unless you buy the league. We will never be able to do that so we need to think up something that nobody else is doing. The only two people I can think of that do that are Wenger and Mourinho. If you added Martinez at Wigan, I wouldn't argue against you.
Arteta would be able to walk into the Arsenal invincible squad. And the likes of TV and Kosh would be good back up to have on the bench, our back up back then in the invincible squad was CYGAN.
HA, sorry, but I think you are forgetting about that season. Edu was a break through during that season, and Gilberto did his job quietly, Sol Campbell was a beast in defence, and Ljunberg was very important for us, he got something like 10 goals. Henry and Pires were the TWO BEST PLAYERS out of a very very talented group of players.
You keep going on about 4-4-2 being out dated but you fail to provide adequate answers as to how Man U manage to do well using it and how Spurs took the cream of Europe by storm last season by using it - not to mention how they did so well this season until Redknapp stopped playing it
I hate talking in absolutes and you keep putting words in my mouth, trying to make me go to extremes. The 4-4-2 is not completely "out-dated", but it does have it's weaknesses and they are well-known. Nowadays, if you play a 4-4-2 you have to add a few wrinkles that will defend against those weaknesses. Very few top teams attack as a 4-4-2 these days because it opens you up to a counter-attack very easily, it is best used when you dominate an opponent and want to break them down wide. You need two very good, traditional wingers, Valencia and Nani, Bale and Lennon. If you defend as a 4-4-2 you need to worry about how you handle players breaking before you are set in your two banks of 4, and you need to be prepared to let a lot of crosses into your penalty area. I could envisage a team that might play in a 4-4-2 defensively and offensively, but they would be exceptional. I don't think a team will win the premiership or the CL playing solely 4-4-2 type tactics, and the problem with having it as a plan B is that it really requires different players to execute than the 4-3-3, so it almost needs a B-Team. Switching to it mid-game is not practical. If you play 4-4-2 these days, you surrender the midfield and have to play the long ball forward, so you need the big striker etc, etc, etc.
I disagree that Pires and Henry were the stand out individuals in the invicible team. I think we had giants in that team, we also a blend of character in that team, these days we go three nil up at home, soon as the opposition scores, we panic... I think it goes back to a lack of leadership, I also think then we had 11 leaders on the pitch, skillful as they were, they were ready to put their bodies on line. Fair enough we have Arteta, apart from him who do we have of that ilk?
If you watch this all the way through, you will see what I mean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9SH4GGxg0g&feature=related Henry and Pires were incredible. They seemed to be able to score and create goals without much help. It meant that the rest of the team particularly the two centre midfielders were able to be pretty defensive in their outlook and were not required to do very much special, game after game.
You are having a laugh, Arteta would have got nowhere near the Invincibles squad, he's not even not even first choice in the current one.
What a ridiculous comment. He's been one of the only automatic choices this year!! Don't think Arsenal have won a game he hasn't played in. He is 100% first choice.
Arteta is not first choice??? I have also heard the statement, that we are yet to win a game he has not played in..... If Arteta is not first choice, would Tuffnell care to tell us who is then?
I agree, I also think Arteta and Wilshere would have stood a chance as well, albeit on the bench. Just wished I had savoured/milked those moments, did not as I thought big deal, we'll do it again and we will always have players of that calibre, we were going to be untouchable for a long time. The only game that sticks to my mind in the invicible game was that penalty miss from Ruud at Old Trafford.