re: Arsenal 2013/2014 Season Long Thread

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Author is dishonest here with reference to the Dortmund game. LINK

Ramsey has plenty of options to pass out of danger here, yet decides to dribble, for what purpose, I don't know, but he absolutely plays into Dortmund's press. It is one of the most egregious examples of dawdling on the ball I’ve ever seen from a professional.

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i'm not sure i'd say it's dishonest (everyone knows rambo made that error), though it certainly doesn't help his point at all. he could have attacked it head on instead of vaguely talking about the whole team struggling early. i think jack's positioning continued to be suspect throughout the match. here's a couple of screenshots.



sterling's first goal when ozil gives it away. jack's way over on the other side (though no one is really giving him any option). he does jog back here, but he's out of position and just kind of goes centrally without looking at who is making an offensive run.



sterling's second. holy frick. he just stands there while giroud is trying to win the ball back.

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As far as positional sense, I'd argue that Wilshere is one of our midfielders who stays most confined to his predetermined position. When he's wide, he will shade the channels and not move down the line, or he will cut in, but he doesn't move back like Podolski does to receive the ball without pressure. He's comfortable handling pressure. That doesn't mean he doesn't get caught upfield. He does. But who was it that was caught on the ball twice that led to two Liverpool goals? Ozil, not Wilshere.

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i disagree pretty strongly with this, though we don't have really any truly disciplined MFs besides Arteta. his average positioning, particularly when he plays wide is considerably more central than santi or rosicky's (i follow orbinho so i saw his bitchy heat map/avg position tweets every match )

honestly, i think Jack's positioning is worse than Rambo's but not by a wide margin. unfortunately for jack, he doesn't possess the stamina of rambo. rambo never stops running and generally makes up for his lack of position by getting back quickly or quickly pressing and tackling after possession is lost. even the ox wasn't particularly great defensively in his CM start, but he could recover with his pace. i think jack has to be much more effective positionally to be as effective as rambo in that CM role.

Why I read that, I don't know. Tactics interest me.

LFC's win went far beyond Jack's performance, though I definitely noticed the deficiencies the author noted throughout that article.

For me Ozil was the worst player on the field by a wide margin, being dispossessed twice leading to LFC goals, and a third time which Sturridge chipped wide. Those few losses of possession are simply unforgivable, especially considering LFC's attack, but more importantly considering Arsenal's own tactics.

Jack wasn't good either, though his bad performance was off-the-ball: just not working enough, struggling to cover passing lanes, and failing to find space for himself.

Ultimately it was the tactics that doomed Arsenal and not the players, however. Who knows what the result would have been without the early goal, but playing a high line against LFC is just suicide. LFC's front 5 (Studge, Suarez, Sterling, Cou, Henderson) are just far too energetic and pacey.

Oddly enough, after watching the match 4 times, the positioning and performance from the CBs really wasn't terrible, at least in my opinion. Failing to mark Sterling was their biggest fault, though I suppose that responsibility can also be pinned on the RB.

The Monreal-Santi pairing on the left was clearly a glaring weakness defensively, with most of LFC's attacks coming from that right side. This is where Rodgers thoroughly embarrassed Wenger by reversing a Sturridge-Suarez-Sterling attack that we saw against Everton, to a Sterling-Sturridge-Suarez attack against Arsenal. Rodgers knew that Sterling and Suarez (who was the MOTM imo) would put in hard defensive shifts, pinning Arsenal's fullbacks upfield, making Sturridge's pace the point of attack. This picture OBU posted illustrates it perfectly:



What to take away from this play really isn't Ozil's loss of possession, nor Henderson's work rate to cause the turnover, but Suarez very clearly protecting the passing lane to Monreal. Ozil turns to make the pass, realizing it isn't available, before turning back around and losing his balance. From there Henderson drives the ball forward and passes to an overlapping Suarez, who lays it perfectly across goal for Sterling's tap-in.

The tactical awareness and positioning from Suarez, and the subsequent sprint downfield to assist Sterling, makes the goal, and countless other examples of similar plays from each of LFC's front 5 produced the victory.

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Why I read that, I don't know. Tactics interest me.

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Ha, I'm not sure if you're referring to me or the blogger, but I'm getting annoyed at knee-jerk reactions of young players. It gets tiresome, and also I've been in a long-winded mood lately.

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Ultimately it was the tactics that doomed Arsenal and not the players, however. Who knows what the result would have been without the early goal, but playing a high line against LFC is just suicide. LFC's front 5 (Studge, Suarez, Sterling, Cou, Henderson) are just far too energetic and pacey.

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Well, before we could settle into the game we had given up a goal. And not ten minutes later the lead doubled. We were on the back foot from the beginning. We haven't played a high line all year. I seriously doubt our game plan was to play a high line and press 'Pool's midfield. Playing a high line 2 goals down was suicidal, but Wenger wouldn't have gone into the game with that idea in mind.

The early goals drew us upfield, which played into 'Pool's hands. Had we been able to defend deep, like we did last year at Anfield, and simply wait out attacks, it might have been a different game. I think Rodgers realized this and tried to take the game to Arsenal, not letting us settle into our defensive block, with the added luck that the the early goals drew us upfield, which played into 'Pool's hands, since they were pressing us from the beginning, which made the field of play extremely small. And since we had no one to stretch play, nor any safety valve for which to relieve pressure, all our flaws were exposed.

I'm not convinced there is anything to draw from this game. We defended poorly in pretty much every aspect of the game, and 'Pool's game plan worked. Pool would probably have won without those early goals, but it would definitely have been a different game if he hadn't conceded twice in the early going, and thus refused to come upfield without the ball.

magic.

also, arsenal player and screenshots uploaded onto imgur

oh the second one I should have made a gif. he kinda walks and then stops and stands there.

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there's been criticism of him in big games before (at least since his injury), particularly when playing CM. considering his specific complaints about Jack, I think the weaker opposition thing is kind of key to his point.

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I think his point is myopic. Would Ramsey have been able to let things click for him against top opposition? It's unlikely. He only started performing at a high level once he had a run of games where he could build confidence from one game to the next. He played 3 games last year against West Ham, Brighton, and Liverpool, where he played really well. Then he was shuttled back to the bench but the caliber of his performances improved because of the confidence of those three games. So when he started our last 9 games in a row, and 13 of our last 16 games, he's able to express himself and play well. Which carried over into this season.

I see no reason to discount Wilshere's excellent performances' lately simply because they are lessor opposition. Playing well against lessor opposition is what he should be doing. And he is. The fact he struggles against good teams is indicative of the fact our whole team struggles against good teams. His individual performance is not great, with regard to Liverpool, sure, but he has to continue to build upon each good performance.

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oh the second one I should have made a gif. he kinda walks and then stops and stands there.

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He looks like he's ten yards from the play. Gif it so we can see.

I'm ready for the day boys and girl. Top of the table here we come..

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You motherfrickers better read that. I spent way too long it when when I should have been working. Suppose I'll be up til 2.

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All excellent points. Especially helpful for someone like me who didn't follow the team closely when these guys started coming through.

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Poor Mesut misses his buddies Theo and Aaron.

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Typical sensationalism and fluff, or are they really getting after him?

He went through this shite at Madrid, as well.

Just found this as well...



compare that to this though...