Arsenal 0 – 2 Schalke: No crisis but directors face tough questions today
October 25, 2012
Okay. Before we all start losing our minds this morning can we at least first of all agree that Schalke are a very good side. This defeat may have come only a few days after our humiliation at Carrow Road, and may well have had all the hallmarks of that toothless display but this was hardly the same thing. Schalke are a top three side in the Bundesliga. They beat Dortmund at the weekend and last night they pressed us vehemently all over the pitch, they were neat in possession and had quality going forward. Norwich they ain’t.
Agreed? Okay. Now let’s start losing our minds.
We were pretty bad last night. It’s not often you watch an Arsenal side that can only muster a single shot on target and that in the 94th minute from a plucky substitute when the match was dead and buried anyway.
It certainly wasn’t the ideal night to be suffering what most clubs would describe as a massive injury crisis (and what we generally consider to be a return to business as usual). The lack of Theo and the Ox meant that effectively we played with a winger at centre forward but no winger where we could have used one – on the wings. Lukas Podolski is a great player, one of the best finishers I’ve seen at the club, but I’m still yet to be convinced that left wing is his position. He generally does a good, scrappy job there and there’s always the hope he’ll drift inside and lend his goalscoring touch inside the penalty box. But he’s not going to skin three defenders and cut one back from the byline. That’s just not his game.
If we are going to play him there you’d hope it would be to add balance when on the other side we have just such a dynamic, flying winger but last night, for understandable reasons (largely how hopeless Gervinho was there on Saturday), we stuck Aaron Ramsey out there. In tough games it’s worked to add a bit more steel and manpower to our midfield but again, he’s not going to add a great deal of penetration to our attacking play. And with so little penetration it’s no surprise that we struggled to break down the belligerent Schalke defence.
For the most part we were effectively a 4-5-1 with Gervinho as the lone frontman and any suggestion after his early season goalscoring form that he was this season’s Thierry Henry would have been put to bed fairly sharpish on last night’s display. If there was any advantage to having Arsene Wenger sat in the stands as he completed the last game of his latest ludicrous touchline ban it would be that he had a decent view of how badly we need to sign a striker in January. We need someone with pace, power, presence, smart movement and a natural finish. Gervinho I’m afraid is not that man.
I’m not dismissing him as a player by any means. There were enough mopey Gooners sat around me doing that already last night. But clearly his best position is left wing where on his day he can trick his way past the best fullbacks and cut the ball back across the box. Anything else is a waste of his talents.
Defensively all critical eyes will be on Andre Santos this morning. And fair enough. I took some time from our plodding passing game last night to watch his movement off the ball and even in the first half he looked like he was struggling. I don’t know if it was his fitness or just lack of awareness but he was continually a step behind the other defenders’ movements and that proved costly on their first goal particularly as he played Huntelaar onside.
In defence of his defence Santos was left continually exposed throughout the match with Podolski often looking to come inside and an apparent confusion between Coquelin and Arteta over who should be covering. It was forgivable the first couple of times but for no one on the team or the coaching staff to spot what was evident to 60,000 fans and put it right was not. Santos was targeted as our weak link and regardless of his own deficiencies we should have done more as a team to guard against it.
There’s no doubt that injuries are taking their toll and with one or two regulars starting to show signs of fatigue – Mikel Arteta has looked especially below his usual high standards in the last couple of games – we just don’t have enough match-winners in reserve to carry us through tricky ties like this. While Manchester United have Van Persie, Rooney and Welbeck to choose from up front, it was Javier Hernandez who rescued them with two goals on Tuesday. At the moment our first choice centre forward is not even a centre forward and we’re still making room in the squad for Marouane Chamakh.
This isn’t a crisis. Yes, we badly need to beat QPR on Saturday but with the prospect of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, Gibbs and, deep breath, Jack Wilshere all hopefully vying for a return the side could look an entirely different prospect in the not too distant future. But the timing couldn’t be worse for the directors at the AGM today. Stan Kroenke is in town with his St Louis Rams and even to his untrained eye he must have seen how lacking we were in the firepower department last night.
I’d like to think tough questions – on the wisdom of failing to spend our transfer budget when there are improvements that need making to the squad, on the sluggish performance of our commercials team as wages at the club continue to spiral – would be met with honest and illuminating answers. But I’ve been to a few AGMs in my time and if there’s one thing this board is excellent at it’s obfuscation and dodging the tough questions.
Maybe if nothing else the last two results will force them to be more candid.
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12 Responses to “Arsenal 0 – 2 Schalke: No crisis but directors face tough questions today”
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Podolski has been playing with an injury and I think we’ve seen his industry suffer as a result – I still think he’s actually playing well and it’s those around him really letting the team down.
Santos isn’t a defender, is he? Play him on the left wing and let him compete with Gervinho for that position, but a proper left back to compete with Gibbs (who has been excellent this season) and play Podolski through the middle.
I actually think the loss comes at a good time for the meeting – hopefully someone will speak out of turn and give the fans fraustrations some well chosen words to help send the message home.
Arsenal are in need of a natural striker, because we are sinking and it is just the begining of the worst things to happen.The board should sit up and save the entire gunners fans the shame.
I’m not too worried at the moment. If Wenger doesn’t give this team a rocket and demand a performance against QPR to get some confidence back then ManU are going to absloutely hammer us without a doubt. We’re not in the middle of a crisis at the moment but we could be if things don’t turn around sharpish.
Funny how i actually thought this season would be different, but its just like any other in recent years. Always lacking that 1 or 2 extra players, Not some 50m signings but some solid compliments.
Such a shame.
I thought things were starting to look good about a month ago, but now it’s just the same old same old. No leadership, nothing creative coming from midfield. I’m hoping that Jack will be back in the side for QPR and that he can maybe inject some passion into a tired looking team.
Supporting Arsenal is now like signing a contract with heart attack. It seems loosing matches is now their birth-right. With a ready made excuse for it-injuries. Yet, Wenger have full trust and confidence in those injury ridden players. And the players has a way of faking their abilities. Towards the window you see them performing as if the sky is their limit. After the close of the window their ugly and shaddy display becomes manifest like the stars at night. Wenger should have known this fact for 8years now. Yet he turns a blind eye. for Arsenal to reclaim it’s lost glory, they need world class players in all positions like Barcelona, Real Madrid, United, and Chelsea. With Arsene Wenger’s position guaranteed as manager for life at Arsenal just as Sahara desert is guaranteed of “NO RAIN” Arsenal fans must accept whatever their darling team offers as performance. By now I don’t think their is any Arsenal fan still dreaming of trophy this season, without being pessimistic, for us to win the league we have to over take Chelsea, united, city, tottenham and the rest. How possible can that be? The earlier we tell ourselves the truth, the more we save ourselves of heart attack. The trophy is “going, going, go…?
Have you noticed that since arsenal plays 4-3-3 cannot play great football?
The club really should stop paying the players after performances like that.
Make them earn their millions through performances.
I cant be arsed at work today but if I drop the the equivalent level that Arsenal played last night I’d probably be sacked for gross misconduct.
Again I will say it, all the blame should go to Mr Arsene Wenger. A few reasons why I believe so:
Firstly why put a natural striker on the bench and play a winger in the position with the mi-guided hope that miracles will happen? This is even more confusing when one considers how Giroud was starting to gain some confidence after a couple of goals for club and country.
Secondly are we going to be made to endure another hopeless, stubborn, mis-guided belief in another catastrophicaly bad defender (in the mould of Stepanov & Squillaci)? Why is Wenger still playing Santos, I know we don’t have a replacement as the much-needed purchase wasn’t made in the summer, but I think even an academy player may have been better than him last night. Even more confounding is the fact that Wenger is trying to convert Santos into a midfielder in a position where there is already a glut of layers (Podolski, Gervinho, Arshavin, etc). So the guy probably doesn’t get enough training with the regular back four because of this.
Finally I think Wenger’s philosphy of letting the players fail or succeed is no longer effective. If those boys knew that their asses would be chewed out like a Fergie would do, they may have been a little more bothered to put up an effort last night. Case in point is Manu’s game vs Braga in which they were also 2 goals down but came back to win.
So I think its time we and most importantly the board pressed the panic button. Not necessarily meaning fire Wenger, but at least make him feel uncomfortable enough to make the drastic changes needed. At Arsenal, it seems the more things change, the more they remain the same!!!
AGM meeting today sounded pretty awesome, glad to hear that the fans actually spoke their minds and let Kroenke, Gazidis and that fucking idiot Peter Hill Wood know the score.
1st; santos got no support from podolski that’s why his positioning was bad
2nd,if podolski has a knock why was he picked to play in de last two games he should ave been dropped till he is 100% fit
3rd,no tactics for the game we knew frafran % affelly were gonna play y not play djourou or vermallen @ left back with Santos or Arshavin LW
4th, we have ox,frimpong wilshere sagna back nxt wk & de following wk Gibbs Walcott & szyny diaby rosicky back 3rd wk November so the excuse of injury should stop
5th,we need to back R players I.e chamakh he has been here a yr give him a chance & support him all this slating has to stop ppl R already digging giroud grave why why why
The Telegraph are reporting our new kit manufacturer deal will be with Adidas and worth £25 million a year – this will bring us into line with teams like Liverpool, Chelsea, United etc but United are confident their next deal (2015) will be worth at least £60 million a year so it will soon look very plain again.
I have no idea on the length of the deal – if it’s 4 years long then that’s fine but if we lock ourselves into that deal for a decade we might be regretting it a few years down the line. I hope Gazidis knows what he’s doing.