re: Arsenal 2013/2014 Season Long Thread

yeah, depth is scary. though in a few weeks, we'll be a little better hopefully. TV5 is training. Mikel should be training in the next week or two. Ox a couple weeks after that. Poldi still a long ways out. Diaby...who knows. Tomas the same. It's not optimal, especially if someone else goes down, that's for sure.

I'm not sure Beowulf will factor in or not. some people say he'll be brought back into the fold, others don't. the way he's been in the wilderness the past couple of years, we might be better off just rolling with Sanogo. that said, he has talent...our last talented prospect who toiled playing out of position at RW has come good playing in his preferred position!

Doesn't look like he's anywhere near match fitness. Plus that pic was taken in a Danish training room. It was posted today...if it was taken today, he isn't going to be in the squad Saturday which has been the rumor. Sanogo apparently picked up a knock on international duty.

if I didn't love the USMNT, actually, if I didn't love year-round soccer, i'd be all for the abolition of international football.

I'm so hypocritical. I was so pissed that altidore hurt himself for Sunderland right before our qualifiers, on the other hand I would've nursed some serious hatred for Low if Ozil would've sprained his toe on international duty.

To me international soccer is like CFB and club soccer is the NFL

TV5 is possibly going to be in the squad tomorrow


sanogo is definitely out though :/ and beowulf doesn't seem to be training with us yet. might take to the end of the month to get to match fitness.

Any chance these injuries help us down the line?

Keep the legs fresher down the stretch, establish some quality depth?

Trying to be optimistic.

Oh well. OZIL. *he says daily, like YOLO, except not douchey, and with wood.*

it could certainly be of advantage to Mikel. he isn't exactly a spring chicken.

The Ox's was the most disappointing because he looked really, really good in the first half against Villa. Based on that and his close to last season, I thought this might be his breakout year...Hopefully he will breakout when he gets back. He could benefit a lot from Ozil too. with his vision, i really want more speed out there, when possible.

FTGE

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FTGE

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Huh?

I really think chance creation, good chance creation, was our biggest weakness (besides depth). We are strong everywhere on the pitch. what we needed was a world-class gamechanger. Anywhere on the pitch. that it came at CAM is just as helpful to us as if we had signed a top FW or deeper MF. we've got a good backbone of the squad. we just need to continue to add quality in future transfer windows.

as for his DM contention, it really doesn't hold water to me that we need a traditional DM in this squad. sure we could use a body due to Arteta and Diaby's injuries. his thought that Diaby is the only one on the squad that "adds bite" besides Flamini is seemingly based solely on size or that we've always considered him the next Vieira, despite their differences. Rambo and Jack both have more bite than Diaby has every shown. Diaby is not a DM.

Jack might damn well have the most bite on our team. he's definitely grown physically too. kid has been hitting the weights. i really think he needs to put the dreams of being a no. 10 aside and focus on positional awareness as the deepest of a midfield 3. he has all the qualities for that position but the awareness.

Wilson's right Rambo/Jack got exposed against Villa but it was a new pairing. They looked better against Fener, and even better than that in the first half of Spurs. As crazy has mentioned earlier, familiarity will only help that partnership continue to grow.