By Ian Grant
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Mark Burland
Wiltord
Despite a good start this season, I’ve always maintained with Silvain that he is an excellent player against lesser opposition. The style Arsenal play relies on players not being cheap with the ball and that is what Wiltord is far too often.
He’s the kind of player you need to bring off the bench when your team needs some energy and maybe a fluke goal, but Silvain is not the player I’d want to see in midefield against higher European opposition.
Harry Bech
Half term report
I read your half term report with interest, but you did not report on David Seaman. Was this a simple omission or are you just trying to be kind to Seaman?
Here is my report on David Seaman:
Remains a good shot stopper and a calming influence to the Arsenal back four. Does not want to venture far from his line which leaves him vunerable to crosses and corners. Unable to sweep behind his central defenders – the best example being against B. Dortmud when Seaman should have reached the ball before Jans Koller (I didn’t think ANYONE was slower than Koller!).
NB. I believe that Wenger was planning to make Wright his number one keeper this season with Seaman as cover. However, after the game against Brazil, Seaman wanted to continue as No. 1 for the Gunners and try and end his career on a high. He would have achieved this with a good World Cup and the Double.
Wenger was denfinitely caught out with Richard Wright’s desire to leave, but he does not believe in keeping players at the club against their wishes.
Keep up the excellent website.
Harry
Jonathan Wilks
Half Term Report
Dennis also scored against Southampton [away]
Deji Davies
Bergkamp has two!!!!
Mr Palmer,
You left out Bergkamp’s goal against Southampton in your half season review of our team. With that gem he actually has two rather than the 1 you mention against dortmund!!
I read your reports with interest and appreciate your frankness on a number of gooner topics, a refreshing change from the norm.
So if you could amend your report and give DB10 his dues, that would be sweet. I agree that he doesn’t score enough but this one certainly deserves a mention and furthermore he is one in a million.
By the way, when u get a prediction wrong mate don’t stress, you cant be right all the time. Not many others in journalism make as bold statements as you do so you are bound to get a few wrong. I’ll always forgive you for the Sol prediction way ahead of time!!
Yours
Deji Davies
alex
ashburton grove
An engineer friend of mine told me recently that the new stadium is designed with the option of further increasing the capacity sometime in the future. He told me that Arsenal originally submitted plans for a larger stadium, which was rejected. However, they were allowed to make it fully possible to add another tier to the beast ata later date once the regeneration projects for the surrounding area are also complete. Apparently there was a small article about this in an engineering trade magazine. Anway, thought I’d pass this on. No idea if its true or not.
Really enjoy the site – geat stuff. keep it up.
Sean Doran
Half term report
Not a mention of Seaman…did he just slip your mind or was that intentional?Just curious.
Sean.
Padraig Gill
Practice makes perfect
I was reading ofer one of your past articles Freddie in tears about the West Ham game earlier this year and I noticed your comment below. I shared your feelings on Henry taking frees but at least he has improved recently.
“Thierry Henry was terrible. He took every free-kick.Why? The free-kick thing is ridiculous now.
“After the first one I saw Patrick Vieira talking to Dennis and I thought : OK, Dennis will take the next one. But when the next one came up, Dennis walked away and Thierry put it a yard past the post.It was a good chance to score and he wasted it.”
Personally, I would not have Henry taking free-kicks. It’s been ridiculous all season, not just recently.
It’s a boring subject and having written about it once or twice already I gave up.
Because it’s something fans are always talking about. Most people think Henry’s free-kicks are appalling, a joke. And they don’t need me to tell them how bad his free-kicks are.
Padraig
carlos zaccarini
selection vs Man Utd
Why?
Why did the manager pick Wiltord when Ljundberg and Pires were in the starting XI? He has no concept of team play, no touch and poses very little threat to a well motivated defence, he has absolutely none of the qualities which will concern top defenders, i.e. pace, aggression and brains, unlike Bergkamp. Bergkamp can release Henry and Ljundberg, take the ball from Cole and Pires; a hub in the attacking third. Every top team has its “Bergkamp”, whether they’re called Raul, Aimar or Del Piero; none of them has a Wiltord.
I predict Wiltord will be anonymous against Carboni, who’s as silly as ten foxes, on Tuesday.
P.S. great web-site and book.
CZ
Paul Sinnott
Surrender at OT
Hearing TA’s comments before the Man U game I thought he was trying to distance himself from Arsenal. His first article for the Observer stated Arsenal would finish 3rd or 4th. I read this as Tony not wanting to look pro-Arsenal as a commentator, hence the criticisms.
After Saturday’s game it looks like he had a crystal ball. The first ten minutes made me angry. Just as predicted the Arsenal players were strutting around saying to themselves, we’re a great team, look what we did in Rome. On the touchline Arsene looked angrier than I can remember. I just hope his post-match comments were for the press only. He should have laid into the team after that display. We could have things easy this season with the way Liverpool and ManU have imploded. Instead we’re in a tight race that we still should win by a distance.
If there’s any way of persuading TA to abandon his degree and become full time coach under Wenger it must be done. The players all still respect him and wouldn’t want the tongue lashing they surely should have received.
One more point, every time we have a big game Wenger goes for Henry-Wiltord up front. Every time it fails competely. Wiltord has done well on the right wing but constantly gives the ball away and doesn’t look like scoring when played as a striker. The reason for the selection – it seems to me that when fit Wiltord, Pires and Ljungberg are automatic picks, regardless of form. Only Pires merits this status. Freddie has done little for about ten games now. But there’s no chance of him being dropped and he knows it.
To me though we have five ‘world class’ strikers this position is a problem. Wiltord has been covered, Kanu despite his goals this season has been worked out by Premiership defences and is often a lumbering embarassment, Dennis great player but in decline, Jeffers I’d love to get a chance but the ankle’s gone again. I’d sell two and buy one world class goalscorer to play with Henry.
I hope at the end of the season we’ll have the league and I’ll be embarassed by criticsing Wenger like this. But four league defeats in eight games is ominous, it no the usual blip but a lack of the right attitude too often.
Rant complete, always enjoy your opinions.
regards
Paul Sinnott
Ciaron
Parls
I’m so glad you reminded the non-believers of our Ray. Ray has and always will be one of my top 5 Gooners (hard to name it at the moment with such stars pressing for World Recognition). but Ray always plays 100%, hits hard, gets stuck in, and scores BLOODY WONDER GOALS!
Have Scouse mates that bang on about England’s performance being reliant on Gerrard/Owen/Heskey/Murphy combination (the 1st 2 esp.). I always said to ’em. “Play Ray. He never has an off-day.”
Although greeted by heckles and derision, I will forever stick with my opinion of our mate Ray.
Cheers,
Bergchamp!
Edward
Where was Bergkamp?
I can’t tell you how surprised and disappointed I was that Dennis did not start against Utd. He obviously wasn’t carrying any injury cos he came on.
I felt that with Wiltord up front and Bergkamp on the bench, we weren’t playing our best possible team.
I also feel that Freddie has lacked form since his return and should have started less games than he has.
I also thought bringing Toure on instead of Gio was a very strange sub.
I thought we got mugged on Saturday. It was obvious from the start what tactics Utd were employing, so why did we find it so hard to adjust to their gameplan. It was the same scenario against Auxerre, although they used different tactics to Utd. Still, we were unable to adjust.
What do you think?
Joshua Hardie
The Professor
OK, you write some interesting articles, and they are often worth a lunchtime read but please please please stop going on about your book, particularly the local sales updates. And, while I’m in moaning mode, do you realise that, when you write things like ‘Of course, I knew xxx was the answer before Arsene said it’ or ‘great minds think alike and simultaneously’ (re: tony adams), it sounds like you really mean it and believe it (you dont,do you? Even Le Boss has some sense of humour about himself).
Hope this helps.
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Dear Myles
I would like to start by saying how much I enjoy reading your views on Arsenal. It is a refreshing change to see that, unlike the posse of elderly/nostalgic and media-led East Standers that sit around me, someone is able to comment rationally about the team.
Also, I enjoyed your book on Arsene (finished it in a day!).
The topic I wanted to bring up relates mainly to the Arsenal defence.
Now of course my complaint is not that our defence “isn’t like it used to be “under the Graham era. naturally, playing the short-passing, higher risk attacking football that we do I accept that we will not keep clean sheets or look as solid.
However, if I were to criticise Arsene (which it is extremely harsh to do given) it would be his lack of movement in strengthening the defence. At right back we seem to be covered, Lauren is the perfect player (as you have stated many times) for the high tempo power game that we play. He starts many attacks, and defends pretty well given that he is a defender by origin.
Luhzny, for the short term is decent cover although he lacks the technical ability or finesse, and does tend to dive in a little too enthusiastically.
But overall, considering he has never had a prolonged run in his favourite position, he is ok.
What really concerns me is Arsene’s lack of concern of the depth of cover in the middle and on the left-hand side of defence.
Campbell, Keown and Cygan are all good players, although Cygan is still adapting. However Keown has maybe one more season? Beyond these three, there is no adequate cover. Stepanovs is not good enough. He has some good qualities, his passing is accurate and he can tackle forcefully. However, he is ponderous, positionally poor and slow to turn, and at his age I can’t see him improving a great deal.
This where my confusion lies, and I may sound extremely naive. What is the point in keeping a player who is patently not up to standard, and who has little hope of improving. Obviously Upson has been on loan, and therefore unavailable but now that he is match fit, but he is clearly better than Upson. I can’t see what Upson has done to ahve dropped so far in the “pecking order”, his main fault seems to be that he has picked up two nasty
injuries. Upson isn’t dominant in the Adams mould (obviously) but he all round a better player than Stepanov. I think he has good pace and technique for a defender, and potentially has the natural qualities to defend at the top level. as I said, he may not be the dominant “character” that Sol needs with him. Also, Stepanov restricts the potential flow of youth team players into the first team squad.
At left back, Arsene seems to rely on the fact that Ashely Cole is
superhuman and can play every game. Our cover for him consists of Upson (not a natural there), Gio Van Bronckhorst (certainly not a left back in any way) and Toure (wasted there, plus he is right footed). Juan is injured, but I can’t imagine he would have featured too heavily anyway.
So why hasn’t Arsene, who seems normally to be a step ahead of others, solved these problems. I agree with him when he says “where can I find another Adams/ Keown etc for reasonable money?”, but he has had six years to think about this and I think that we will suffer if the issue is not addressed.
Sorry for going on, hope you have time to read this. If not, at least keep up the good work. Also, I saw a chap called Damien Rice on the Jools Holland show, I am sure you ahve mentioned him before. he was pretty good.
Kind Regards
James Reiff
Suleiman Merchant
Ajax Football
Hi Miles & Ian,
I normally have anything to e-mail you about because your reports are so comprehensive and enthralling, but i’m assuming that you didn’t watch the Ajax vs. Roma game because you didn’t say anything about it.
The reason why i’m emailing you for the first time in all these years of visiting the site, is that Ajax played the most refreshing football that i’ve seen for ages. It was somewhat close to their total football of old, and was a joy to behold. It seems that they have young players coming through their system again, although most of them aren’t Dutch. In a team without Van Der Vaart, Chivu, O’ Brien, Didulica, Machlas and Sikora, almost every player still seemed brilliant.
Playing a 4-3-3, there were loads of one-touch passes, as well as equisite little tricks to buy time and bring others into play. They never seemed to be short of numbers anywhere, and despite having lightweight players like little Steven Pienaar (who completely befuddled Emerson, Lima and Totti in their attempts to foul him) in midfield, they always seemed to get the ball off Roma with ease. And the dangerous attacks from their short-passing approach always seemed to involve Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whom you spoke about some weeks ago.
He was fantastic. He scored the first goal, appearing from nowhere to control the shot that the Roma keeper had spilled, which he then held on to for a bit before cheekily and casually tapping the ball in at the far post. He set up the second goal, drawing a cluster of defenders away on the right of the box with his movement and control, before bamboozling them all and laying the ball on for Litmanen, who produced a great curling-finish into the top-far corner… Bergkamplike. He had another moment later on, where he showed a great change of pace to beat one defender, and then passed the ball around another defender to himself. Unfortunately the Roma keeper was quick off his line to smother the shot. Ibrahimovic was great throughout the game. He never wasted any balls, and showed great control off his head, feet and chest. He is really two-footed, and was controlling some difficult passes with either foot, without showing preference to use either one more. His dribbling was also great, and he had a real element of surprise about him in the way he brought people into play and the passes he attempted. He’s definitely a candidate to replace Bergkamp. In some ways he’s more like Kanu, except much stronger and faster, more athletic and much less wasteful, with lots of arrogance. He seemed somewhat lazy at times, but that might have just been me misunderstanding the system he was playing in. Still that can be worked upon.
Arsne Wenger actually had got Zlatan to Highbury, and they had had talks and everything. In fact Wenger was so convinced that he had got him, that he gave him a #9 Arsenal jersey with his name on it. Later on though he revealed in an interview that he had turned down Arsenal because he felt it would hamper his development. His technique must have also improved to no end with the Ajax coaches (to disrespect to Wenger, Primorac, Brady and gang). He would definitely be great to sign, but would probably only work in a forward line without Kanu and Wiltord. What are your thoughts on them departing in January/the summer/
Thanks for your time,
Suleiman.
(Gooner from Bombay, studying in Canada – happy to report that both places are football friendly.)
Kumar
Matthew Upson
Regarding the wonderful form that Matthew Upson has had in his loan spell in Reading, in your opinion, do you think he would make the cut in Highbury based on his current form?Although I feel Cygan is a great defender, his lack of pace worries me and i’m not quite sure whether he should be a regular first-teamer for Arsenal.Don’t get me wrong,Cygan is an impressive defender.But due to our attacking style of play,including our left and right backs who are offensive by nature,Cygan’s pace might prove fatal to our cause.Sir,based on our current form, do you think it is the right decision to give Upson the break he richly deserves?If I’m not mistaken,Upson has conceded 2 goal and has kept 7 clean sheets during his loan spell in Reading and their manager,Alan Pardew,stated that he would one day play for England.According to Upson,it seems that if he doesn’t make the cut this season, he would be leaving Arsenal.Apart from that, Upson is a 23 year old English player who would certainly give that extra commitment and passion to the game.And with the departures of Adams and Dixon and the with Keown and Seaman not getting any younger, Upson would be able to sustain the English core in the team.On a another matter sir, with Seaman in the brink of his career and Leeds tumbling down and with their financial predicament they are in, is it wise for us to lure Robinson away from Leeds?Assuming Seaman retires, wouldn’t it be ideal for Robinson to be the No.1 in a team rising to be one of the great teams in Europe.Wouldn’t it do much good for his career, now with Wright and Kirkland are also in contention to be Seaman’s successor in the England.In my opinion, Cygan and Shabaan would make excellent back-ups for the team but I’m not quite whether they should be regular first teamers.Your views are greatly appreciated sir and i would like to thank you for the time taking to read my email.Keep up the good work sir and thanks once again!
Justin Innerarity
Arsenal vs Valencia
I think your being a bit critical of the team and the performance. It was game where both teams knew that they were playing against strong opposition and were gaving each other alot of respect. Valencia may have restricted Arsenal to five chances, but they were five good chances and five more than Valencica created. Seaman didn’t have a save to make all game. We’ve got four points from two games and top of the group having played agruably the two strongest teams in our group. While Valencia have only two points. Two wins and we will have qualified. Arsenal should be strong enough to beat Ajax at home in Feb and good enough to get a least point overe there. That would leave Roma at home at a stage where they may have no chance of qualify. This leaves Valencia away in a game where we may have already qualified and they may need a victory to confirm qualification. I think the game would have been a lot more open if it had a quarter final, but i think both teams went into the game with the first priority being not to lose. I’ll till you one thing i’d rather be in our position rather than Valencia’s.
Dan Johnson
Myles Palmer
Dear god is this the egotistical man to write on Arsenal? He actually rated himself on calling the Valencia game. Well at least hes not talking about Robert bloody Palmer still….