Bradford City 1 – 1 Arsenal (3-2 on pens): A tale of five strikers
December 12, 2012
I’m starting to think our manager may be actually losing his mind.
I’m starting to think that somehow as a club we’ve managed to find ourselves in the extraordinary situation where we found a boss who was so successful, so revolutionary, so wise and so likable in the first half of his tenure that he’s now unassailable despite increasing evidence that in recent years he’s turning day by day into a nut-nut.
After last night’s latest (but absolutely greatest) humiliation, Arsene Wenger was asked if the display was an embarrassment to the club. He thought not:
You feel embarrassed when you don’t give everything. I feel the team did fight and will be more disappointed and frustrated.
Hmm. Respectfully I beg to differ. If you don’t think last night was embarrassing then you’re severely out of touch with what it is to be a football supporter. Let’s forget for a minute the record. Let’s forget that we’ve been in the Champions League for the last 15 years and that there’s even a decent chance that we might qualify for it again this year if we get our shit together. Whatever happens now this season will be remembered as the one in which we got knocked out of the cup by a fourth tier side.
You think that’s not embarrassing? Other than trophy wins (which we’re learning not to expect) those are the things that stick with the fans. It’s no coincidence the commentary team were banging on about Wrexham last night. That result was back in 1992 but to anyone who witnessed it it still rankles. It’s still painful.
What’s worse about last night is that this was no smash and grab raid. This wasn’t a lower tier team sticking all their men behind the ball and hoping to nick something on the break. We weren’t just beaten. We were deservedly beaten. We weren’t unlucky. We were outplayed, out fought and out thought.
It amazes me if the boss looked and that and couldn’t fault the effort on our side. You want to see what effort looks like? Take a look at Jack Wilshere. Now compare that work rate to everybody else in the side. Now come back and tell me that you couldn’t fault the effort.
I realise that his style of management precludes him from criticising his players too heavily in public, and that’s fine when you’re talking about the odd poor display and generally you’re trying to keep the team’s pecker up, but when you’re turning in performances like this week in week out then maybe it’s time for a change of tack. Who knows? Maybe they’d respond to some home truths. I can tell you one thing – as a fan, just occasionally, I’d feel better to know that he sees what we’re all seeing. A team of reasonably talented footballers strolling around expecting that, despite all recent evidence to the contrary, all they have to do is turn up and the opposition will wilt.
It was only our superior Premier League fitness levels that allowed us to get into the game at all last night. We didn’t have a shot on target in the first 70 minutes. Even when Vermaelen finally got on the end of a cross and sent us into extra time we didn’t have the quality to severely test their goalkeeper. Le Boss said, rightly, that Bradford defended very well and limited the space we had to play in but, seriously. For 120 minutes against a League Two side we couldn’t score more than one goal?
Despite all of our limitations things could have been much simpler if we had even one half decent centre forward in the starting line up. Instead we played a central midfielder on the right, a central striker on the left and an increasingly poor looking left winger up front. It might have been understandable if this was a one off due to a number of injuries but this has been our preferred formation for much of the season.
Gervinho was woeful. He offered next to nothing as a centre forward. I could think of at least two strikers at virtually every other Premier League club who could have played that role more effectively. He missed that absolute sitter in the first half and yet for all that it’s hard to blame him. He just looks out of his depth. The bigger question as ever is why, when we’ve got a rumoured £70 million in the transfer fund is that the best we can offer. Why haven’t we got any strikers? Well…Le Boss sort of inadvertently gave an answer for that:
We played with a very offensive team and for over an hour played with five strikers but couldn’t score.
Sorry, what? At what point did we play with five strikers? Rosicky isn’t a striker. Oxlade-Chamberlain isn’t a striker. Cazorla isn’t a striker. Gervinho isn’t a striker. Marouane Chamakh I’ll admit is a striker but he’s not a very good one.
Is this the reason we can’t sign a striker? Because everywhere he looks Arsene sees strikers where there are none? ‘I like Radamel Falcao as a player but if I sign him it will kill Francis Coquelin and Vito Mannone who are both very promising strikers’.
The penalty shoot out itself was largely an irrelevance. If we couldn’t beat Bradford in 120 minutes we don’t deserve to go through in this competition. Mind you, if you want yet more evidence of what’s wrong at this club at this moment in time it was fairly instructive. Bradford looked prepared. The commentary team informed us that they’d been well coached on how to take their spot kicks. No short run ups, pick a side, stick with it. Meanwhile we were taking about five minutes to even decide who was going to take the kicks. We missed three of them and you could tell we would miss them before the players had started their run ups.
You can say that penalty shoot outs are just pot luck but they’re not. There’s a reason why Germany always beat England and it’s not luck. Last night we looked unprofessional, unprepared and mentally weak. And that’s pretty much how we’ve looked all season.
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Comments
16 Responses to “Bradford City 1 – 1 Arsenal (3-2 on pens): A tale of five strikers”
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I have absolutely no idea why Podolski isn’t up front rather than Gervinho.
Wenger has lost it.
There was funny thing about our penalties though – both Englishmen had scored.
Bad result but keep de faith
Absolutely spot on again. Something definitely needs to change at the club as I have always said and guess what, it’s not the manager’s style or philosophy. No it’s the manager himself that has to go! He is now too old and set in his ways to try or indeed even be successful at anything different.
As great as the man has been for arsenal he has simply deteriorated too far over the past few years. Unfortunately for the club and fans, with the board we have, this may never happen.
Vermallen was as bad as gervino he was giving endless fouls away one which resulted in the goal
Question can this team improve yes
so keep the faith
Chelsea went through a bad season last & turned it round to win the cl
waow..dats a very gud article!!”i lyk Radamel Falcao as a player………………” lovely
For years now ,the board continue to hide behind wenger’s skirt, and nothing is ever done.
we can argue all we want , we can discuss all we want , this team is not good enough and it needs re shuffling. For me i feel something has to give, either the manger buys new players or quits period.
think about it goons, when was the last time diaby played a full season, whwen was the last time rosicky palyed a whole season, when was the last time walcot played a whole season ,… this team is not good enough to represent the arsenal.
The problem of the team still remains Arsene Wenger and the board. If they are craving for success, players like Ramsey, Gervinho, Oxlade, Diaby, Rosicky, Chamakh, Park won’t be calling themselves a first team player at Arsenal.
I feel sorry for the team because IMO, I believe that this is not the right to sack Wenger.
getting pretty tired of this shit.
whats pissing me off is that it all seems self inflicted and the remedy is being withheld due to pride.
embarrassing.
Wenger’s foolish pride will not let him see that Ramsey is currently a squad player at best not a first teamer, Gervinho is pretty much as useless as a player with 2 left feet, nothing need be said about others like Chamakh, etc. I mean a coach who stubbornly kept faith with such useless players as Jeremie Aliadiere, Senderos, Bendtner, etc for years despite their obvious deficiencies has definitely lost it in my book. His time at Arsena helps is up and it would be best if he left with some dignity to preserve his current legendary status. Who knows maybe if he leaves now he might even return someday for a second stint.
Guardiola has been linked to us again today. I’m not one of those people who think he’s guaranteed to haul in the trophies for us but I’d rather see him put in place than O’Neill, and with our board who’d be surprised if they bought a shit replacement in?
I love Wenger, but every manager’s reign has to end eventually, if he does leave his position my ideal scenario would be to see him go upstairs, become a board member or take charge of youth development, but the reality is this: right now, there are no good managers available, maybe there will be in the summer but securing one of them is another issue. So for now we back the players and back the manager, we have an incredibly talented team and a legendary manager who is still capable of dragging his team to the top 4 against all the odds, I still think he’s a good manager and am not calling for him to go but it’s looking more and more like his time as the manager of Arsenal is nearing it’s end.
TMH,
Thanks for not be one of these terrified, neurotic people that deflect the questions about our short-comings or bleat on about faith.
This squad is overpaid and underachieves. We do not even play with verve anymore, in the ‘wengerball’ style. Ironically, for a manager who seems preoccupied with developing ‘mental strength’, we are the most mentally fragile and scared team in the league.
We can no longer point to youth or potential and the stand-out players (Cazorla, Wilshere…?) are drowned out by the mediocrity around them. We’ve settled for second best time and again and this defeat left me pretty empty – because I expected it. This isn’t a shock to those that have watched Arsenal for the last few months, we are accustomed to loosing now, it’s part of the Arsenal brand. We hope to be well-placed loosers, we cannot call ourselves an ambitious club.
As for Wenger’s decision-making, it’s truly astonishing. The voices which point to a combination of pride and a double helping of stubborn are on the money – it blinds Wenger from common sense decision-making: he MUST be right… performances MUST bend to his theories…opponents MUST fall before our style, f**k tactics…
Wenger is left largely unaccountable by a reactionary and aloof board, who are terrified of changing the status-quo and being responsible for on-pitch fortunes. Yet to remain great you have to adapt.
The strange thing is I’m really loosing the will to care. Wenger’s a broken record and if PR or protecting the board comes before the fans (like everything else at Arsenal) I might just head down to Underhill on a saturday.
“Five strikers” – I think Wenger thinks in terms of position rather than playing style. So, Oxlade is a striker if he plays on the wing, as is Ramsey or Cazorla. In these terms, yes, I believe at least Santos can be a “striker” in Wenger’s terms. If Mannone was a bit faster and more comfortale on the ball, he would probably also qualify.
Again, I haven’t seen the whole game, so I’m not going to debate whether we were useless entirely or only in part. I still think something went wrong in the build-up to this season, and for me, the answer is Diaby. We’re so weak of late because we don’t have a player who could replace Diaby and perform the same duties with the same diligence. Wilshere is a great kid, but he’s not there yet – also, he’s not bulky enough. If we had a more composed and tough midfilder to aid both Coquelin and Cazorla, our defence would not be so exposed (leading to blunders) and our playmaker would not be out of his depth at the front. For me, this Arsenal lacks a heart, even with all those lovely kids and combative continentals in the side. Maybe the problem is Song’s exit – but Song is also only a mediocre deputy to the on-form Frenchman. We need someone like Diaby, but without the injuries. Ideas, anyone?
All this, of course, means Wenger’s tenure is at its end – either that or we’re stalling. And frankly, I wouldn’t mind if the management already had a replacement and arranged for Wenger to become some kind of “technical director,” “in charge of development” or whatnot.
But, for now, we’re still with Wenger, and while this team isn’t working right now, no one can say it can’t ever work. (It already did this season.) We have enough good players to compete for 3rd-4th place, and if we do bring someone in over Winter, we might yet get out of this jail free. That’s the good thing about the current Arsenal – it might not be a winning side, but there’s only so much potential that can go to waste.
On another note: way back (a year ago?) in their frustration, some supporters were wishing for a season that did not end with the customary CL qualification. “Oh, let us not qualify this time, let the team lose it, let them fail completely instead of ‘almost making it’,” they said. Right now, it’s looking like their wish is coming true…
we can deceive ourselves as much as we want starting from gazidis and the board whom for years been hiding behind the manager. the board need to spend some money, they the board should stop all this fiasco , what is the point of getting a new deal from emirates if they do not spend it. this same shit has been going on for far too long ,it is time the fans made their anger known to the board. i will say staying away from the emirates for a while until they realise that we the faNS MATTER.EVR SINCE DEIN LEFT WE HAVE NOT WON FCUK ALL AND IT SUCKS. no pride ,no fighting spirit, no direction, same wenger tactics week in week out. am going to bet you this weekened you will see gervinho as a striker, walcot a defender, vermahlen right back ,metsecker goal keeper, podolski left back,gibbs attacking midfield. it has all gone tits up. we cannot keep quiet anymore as we continue to see the ticket prices been hiked.
A gain i ask, what is the point of hiking ticket prices when the board have nothing to show on the pitch,might as well stay home and watch on television . or watch the women do syncronized swimming. arsenal are now pants.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4695156/Arsene-Wenger-has-to-quit-Arsenal-according-to-Sun-supporters-poll.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=Football
Wenger should quit say 60 percent of fans (or whoever happened to answer the stupid poll on our website)! I thought a lot of newspapers in the US were pretty bad, but the UK might have us beat there.
Yeah ArsenafanTV recently did a poll where the majority of people wanted Wenger gone too.
The relationship is really starting to turn sour the people are getting excited by the prospect of getting someone like Guardiola on board.
It’s a big mess and I don’t know what to think, I just hope Wenger doesn’t waste any of this precious cash in January on shit like Reina…we’ve even been linked to Downing! Scary times.