Firs of all, we have to recognise that Arsenal did score a lot of goals last season, and had they had a better defence my point here might by mute. However, in many games where they didn't score enough my observations were: Unwillingness To Shoot - this was endemic in the whole team, apart from RVP. The worst culprits were Nasri and Wilshere. It's indicative of a lack of killer instincty and goal hugry striker. Inaccurate Passing - somethimg I noticed was that often times the passing is evert so slightly off, just that little but ahead of the receiver causing him to stretch or just that little bit behind causing him to break stride, or even passing the ball to the receiver on his wrong foot. All these caused the attack to lack rythym and fluidity and gave the defending team time to cover the spaces. I found this to be annoying and smacked of a lack of real nous on the part of Arsenal players. The worse culprits were Wilshere, Song, Glichy and Sagna. Crossing - Sagna and Clichy are Walcott are by far the worse crossers I have ever seen. Sagna has great difficulty clearing the first defender, and also more often than not is not confident enough to cross the ball first time, and so stops the ball first to set his sites. Walcott is rubbish as a winger - someone once described his game as "the usual mix of blistering pace and wayward crossing". Blundering, Blithering Clichy - remember in 2008 last minute Arsenal leading 4-2 against Spurs. Clichy has the ball on teh left in his own half, no one within 20yards, but he manages to get himself into a panic and goves the ball. Well, it's amazing how often he does this. An opposing manager would say to his right wing to put Clichy under pressure. He is an all too obvious liability. Abu Diaby seems to be similarly jinxed. All this to say, I think all the talk of bolstering the defence is fine and valid, but I just hope Wenger gets the attackers to work on their shooting and passing and crossing.
Good article, the point about crossing is so true. Clichy's crossing is worse than a hungover Silvestre's with 1 leg.
Wilshere is worth a thread all on his own. Whilst I agree he is the most talented youngster we've seen for a while I do have some reservations. My main one is that he often runs into dead ends, failing to spot the best pass. This may change with time, and often times the forwards don't help if they do not make runs to open up the channels. I think Wilshere gets a lot of plaudits because he is a busy player, and I can't help but think that a lot of energy is wasted. He could benefit from playing at Arsenal with a more seaoned pro whom he could learn the nuances of midfield play from.
