From Steve Phillips : The state of Arsenal
Yes Myles, I agree with your view that Man. U. will likely take our back end apart.
The frustrating part of it is, like the match against Chelsea, we might dominate ball possession, but we will only pass it around pointlessly. We seem unable to score from all this possession. Same at Shakhtar, same at Braga. Frankly, “the beautiful football” is rather boring, and when Partizan scored on Wednesday, Gooners all around the world said: “Oh no, here we go again…”
I disagree with “we miss Gallas”. Who we really miss is Vermaelen.
I think Koscielny can do a creditable job in tandem with Vermaelen because Kos can tackle, but needs Vermaelen to tell him what to do. Squillaci doesn’t seem to talk to the other players and it seems like he doesn’t know what to do himself. He doesn’t carry the weight of authority that Vermaelen does. Besides Vermaelen we need a REAL top-flight centreback. Squillaci doesn’t do it for me. Djourou shows flashes. These guys get very little to do during a game, but the merest attack by the most mediocre striker results in a goal against.
Another Walcott? Spare me. Walcott does very little when he actually gets on. I’m always expecting far more than he gives, and I’m disappointed that he seems so one-dimensional. (However, he hit a couple of nice free kicks.) Something that amazes me when we face packed defenses is the inability to take the ball and run hard and fast into the box, dare them to kick you down, and draw frees and penalties, especially when we’re too short to get onto crosses and incapable of shooting accurately. Wouldn’t you love to see Rosicky unload a rocket from the top of the box, forcing the keeper to do something and having Chamakh and Arshavin waiting for the keeper to spill one?
Both Song and Denilson are wasted space, especially since Song has started to think he’s Fabregas. Too stupid by half… and too slow; too many tackles from behind chasing some guy because you were out of position or made a bad pass to begin with. Could Ramsey hold the Song spot in a trio with Fab and Jack? At least the on-field intelligence would go up several notches.
Basically, it needs Song to stay in front of the centrebacks and make tackles. The pair in front of him are clearly Fab and Jack, with Nasri and Arshavin on the flanks cutting in, and Chamakh on the front. In Fab’s absence, Nasri can move in, and Rosicky or Walcott can get a game. Van Persie is only an alternate for Chamakh in the current set up. It’s either/or, but not both. We can almost sell RvP under the current setup.
As for buying top players, I’m not holding my breath. Nor do I expect an improvement in tactics and training (defending). It’s just not in the cards. I think the demagogue goes into each game with “The Plan” etched on his brain, and is unable to read the game, adapt, or think on the fly, and I don’t see him getting an assistant who can fulfill that role. He won’t relinquish the control.
Anyway, thanks for the chance to get that off my chest. I feel a bit better now.
Christmas greetings to you and Mrs. Palmer. I expect the kids will be home soon. My eldest flies in on Monday night from university in Eastern Canada, and the younger flies in on the following weekend.
Merry Christmas to Ian and his family. We miss his calm, factual commentary.
A 46″ HD TV is our family present this year, the HD pictures are awesome, you can almost count the blades of grass. The only problem is I crocked myself on the coffee table going for a through ball from Arshavin last weekend…
Have a good one!
Love
Steve in Vancouver
Myles replies :
I saw Ian on Friday. He may be able to write more often next year.
Hope so. I hate doing this on my own, it’s a strain if you don’t rate half the team.
It seems like 50 years ago since I first met Ian when he sat next to me in the Highbury press box. Arsenal v Blackburn. I’d never heard of the internet then. I thought HTML was a small Hungarian football club.
Yes, it’s lovely having grown-up kids coming home at this time of year. Ours always insist on Christmas Day being the same as when they were small. But of course Christmas Day is much calmer now. They don’t get into bed with us at 6 a.m, squealing, laughing, ripping open small parcels from their “stockings”.
One nice thing for our kids, who have grown up in London, is that they’ve been able to keep all their school friends, as well as their uni friends, and they’re now at the stage where they get invited to Xmas parties at firms where they worked two years ago.
I didn’t have any of that. I moved around as a kid, lost touch with all my school friends, reconnected with just one, who has been in Australia for decades. I talked to Caroline just now (Wednesday 9pm) about arrangements for this weekend, for the Christmas holidays, gift ideas.
She said she had watched Monday night’s match and had a bad night : “Me and Lucy went to watch the game in a big chavvy pub, like a sports bar, and I’ve never been in such a crowd of racists in my life. Just chavs and bad-smelling builders. I like swearing as much as anybody but this took swearing to a whole new level – and there were a couple of shouty, horrible northern Man U fans as well. Hundreds of people in this place, Dad, and we were the only two women. It was a horrible atmosphere. The only good thing about that match was Rooney’s penalty miss. It was hilarious. I was still laughing about it yesterday. “
It’s careless to crash into a coffee table, Steve.And you will have senior moments in the future.
Two years ago I was in the kitchen with Jan and I heard myself ask,”What month was 9/11?”
My excuse for that ridiculously stupid gaffe was this : I thought of 9/11 as a word, not as a number.
I had used it and heard it and read it so often that it had become a word. But the word was not September.