From Adefolahan Oshinloye : Sanchez.
Harking back to Tuesday night, I can only commend the valiant performance from the lads in blue and yellow/green/lemongrass.
One thing souring it for me though, isn’t the fact that we didn’t go through – I’ve had enough time over the last fortnight to prepare for elimination.
However, I can’t help but think about the one thing that kept popping up in my mind, every 5 minutes of that match in Monaco. That maybe because I’ve been thinking it for two months, and haven’t changed my mind on it yet.
I know he’s a favourite of yours, Myles, and he’s ‘top-top-quality player’, but Alexis Sanchez is a little bit wasteful.
Time after time, away or at home, I dread Alexis receiving the ball outside of the 18-yard box. He sparks to life inside the box, scoring ridiculous near-post snapshots out of nothing, or sublime curled finishes across the keeper.
My prevailing feeling though, is that he always takes the wrong option.
He wastes space on the wing by refusing to run wide – effectively he and Welbeck killed our attacking game in the 1st half of the 1st-leg tie at the Emirates, because they both appeared to be allergic to wing play.
When he does get the ball, he tries to take too many players on, or plays the wrong pass – Monaco’s first chance of the game came when he lost the ball stupidly on the right wing, and he was harangued by Koscielny for it. I personally would’ve thrown him onto the bench myself last night.
I understand now why he never really fitTED in at Barca, becuase for a team so precise and so clinical in their approach, he’d stick out like a sore thumb.
It makes perfect sense that Xavi never really gave the ball to him – that team has far too many combinations and partnerships to make use of than to gamble on the unpredictability of Alexis.
In a friendly at Wembley, or World Cup finals, he’s exactly the player you need. During those isolated instances, skirmishers like him are incredibly useful.
The Champions League, but more so domestic leagues call for sequences, repeated actions, a particular blueprint. He doesn’t really fit into that, and now we have the fulcrum of our team back, it’s showing. He rescued us during the eary season skirmishes, 1-0s and 2-1s here an there, when our personell were depleted.
With the patterned play re-emerging now, mainly between Bellerin, Santi, Ozil and Giroud, Alexis isn’t quite the right fit. We have more automatic when we bypass Sanchez.
Everytime he lost the ball yesterday, I found myself thinking “Reus wouldn’t do that…..”
Myles says:
There’s a lot in what you say.
Barcelona still play wonderful ensemble-pattern-automatic football and I think they will rip Real Madrid to shreds on Sunday night.
They won’t have Joe Hart in goal and I’m convinced they will get their arses kicked. Maybe I’m too biased. But I can see Barcelona beating them 4-0.
ALEXIS? Without his goals and assists before Xmas, Arsenal would be mid-table.
But Sanchez should always be on the left, especially early on it an away match like Monaco.
When it comes to putting square pegs in round holes, Wenger is a recidivist. We’ve known that for a long time.
He does it his way because his way keeps him in his job.
In football, goals can come at any time and in ways you don’t expect. Sheer guts drove Welbeck forward to play a good ball through for Giroud to score the first goal.
Any match is a kaleidoscope of momentary opportunities, angles and positons, situations that only come once.
Giroud got that goal early enough to give them a boost and chance.
Speculating about the future isn’t what I do on ANR.
The future is Wenger. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that he’s more than halfway through his tenure.
He’s done 18 years, so you’ve only got another 12 seasons of disappointments to endure.
Arsenal is what it is because Wenger is what he is.
He is permanent. Unshakeable, unmanageable, unchangeable and unadvisable.
He now tells us that the away goals rule is “outdated”.
As Bobby Robson memorably said at Highbury, “Some people around here don’t know how to lose.”