From Michael Budgen: a touch myopic,Myles
“Alexis Sanchez carries Arsenal – and he carries Ozil as well”
I expect drivel from the likes of Alan Shearer & Rio Ferdinand, but not you Sir !!
As the Elbowy one, embarrassingly so, couldn’t understand on Saturday why Sanchez has only started playing in the middle this year, very simply we are now playing well enough for him to be a success there.
You need to play an ‘oafish’ footballer, like Giroud, upfront, if you are playing ‘oafish’ football. (If we had the midfield you desired so much of Schneiderlin, Dier, & Tiote, no doubt we still would be playing oafish football !)
To suggest that Ozil is in some way being carried, completely misses the symbiotic relationship they have, one makes space and chances for the other.
They even complement each other superbly in that Sanchez is all hustle, bustle & muscle, whereas Ozil is deception, patience & guile.
Without Ozil’s artistry, Sanchez becomes Premiership class, in partnership with Ozil they become world class.
A touch early I know, but starting to see the emergence of a good side.
Myles has always said:
The best thing you can do for a footballer is to give him another good footballer to play with.
I’ve sometimes said: Try not to end a sentence with a preposition.
From Godfrey Kivumbi : Arsenal matches on ANR
The Spanish poacher scored after 8 minutes, netted again after another 8, and completed his hat-trick in 47 minutes.
Arsenal were cruising and Iwobi, who started, made it 4-0 in 53 minutes. Seydou Doumba got one back in 78.
Compare with:
Fernandinho made a hatchet-tackle on Victor Moses that was… out of order.
With Leroy Sane playing at left wing-back, the contest was fast, intricate & different : an armchair tactician’s wet dream.
Sometimes when I come to ANR I am looking for your insight on moments and players and performances and shots and feints and saves...
On some Arsenal matches you come off as if you can’t wait to get it done with. Especially when they play well. And get a result. You are nearly dismissive.
The two examples above are a case in point. On the Arsenal match those 2 lines are a version of “scoreboard” which I already knew. And that was about all you wrote.
With the Chelsea match I can see you rub your hand with glee between paragraphs as you write. And none of it was even above the goals.
Look through what you’ve written on some of our better displays. Tell me if I am wrong.
Myles says:
Fair comment on that blog, Godfrey. You’re not wrong.
Sometimes I’m in a hurry and have to go out and must keep it short.
If I see something interesting, something different, I might write a different line or three.
Maybe I’ve been writing about this great game for too long now.I started describing the goals at school and did that for two years.
Then I described the goals scored by Manchester University and their opponents. I was very young and writing about my friends playing against Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham and other universities, as well as Saturday league games against northern semi-pro clubs lie Prestwich Heys, Altrincham, Wigan Reserves and so on.
Then I became a journalist and an author – and described more goals.
But sometimes now I get a bit tired of describing the goals because it takes so long.
And most people read ANR for my opinions anyway.