for someone who cost less than 10 million and was playing in ligue 2 a few seasons ago, giroud has done very well. of course he is going to struggle against top class teams, he isn't a top class player. hardly his fault. blame ivan and arsene for failing to sign what this team actually needed last summer, higuain.
Squad is almost there...if half of them weren't injured. I don't know what it is, but it must be fixed. Now we've lost Kos. Ramsey, who was suppose to return last weekend, is now "a few weeks away." The squad needs depth. OR better yet, health.
It's ok, but he never faces the damn goal. I've also noticed his first touch has gone to shit. I think he's absolutely dead tired, and as he's not good enough to get by without tremendous effort, his performance suffered greatly.
A genuine question from a non-Arsenal fan - do you guys think your squad is almost there? I.e., if you just added one or two more players you'd be title contenders?
The core is solid. No question and a lot of credit to wenger but this team needed/s depth. Desperately. My gripe was towards the rosy tinted fans. Every year our squad is riddled with injuries. That's another question for another day but nothing is being done to alleviate this problem in terms of depth. We should be outraged by the Chelsea defeat. No excuses. If you believe in talent sometimes you need to overspend. See bender draxler, higauin
Timing is an issue, like you mentioned yesterday. We would be a contender this year with one or two more players. Next year, City will have better defenders and Chelsea will have better forwards so it'll be a hard slog.
I genuinely believe that, last year, we would have won the league with van Persie, and this year, we would have won the league with Suarez. Not saying either of those things were actually likely, but were they to happen I have no doubt we would have won a title last year and probly this year too. These past two years none of the top teams in this league have been up to the standard of the ten years before. ESPECIALLY last year.
Fair question. This team as it is will be good enough to challenge for a fourth place, however, as mentioned by other posters is short of 3 or 4 top quality players at key positions to be a genuine contender. The day of finding these players in some unknown team or league are over. They need to be bought for top dollars now.
As far as whether this was the players' or Wenger's fault, this tells me everything: I love the man but he's getting tactically murdered by top four teams. Another interesting thing that came up in some 1000 game celebratory video was how all the ex-players talked about him as a father figure. That's all well and good but it lends yet more evidence to the narrative that Wenger has too much of a soft spot for his players and a. can't accurately decide when to cut the string and b. cant properly ascertain how much of an upgrade outside players will be.
i've been running through the thread to try to find your post. it seems the FA agrees with you. i still disagree with you (and them) but i am glad to be in the wrong in this case.
Agreed: e.g. IN: Bender, Draxler, Mandzukic BREAKOUT: AOC / A.N.Other SQUAD: Quality Centre Back And you would have at least on paper a competitive squad. We've seen with Wenger that a quality player or 2 comes thru via development each season. The above assumes no one is sold.
All the key players have been signed for long term. I doubt anyone will be leaving except the usual suspects, Verm, Bendtner and Fab. The Sagna situation will have to be solved as well and if he is gone, a top level replacement will have to be brought in (Jung, Coleman, Chambers, Aurier are rumored). I would not mind Ginter specially since Verm may be leaving. Great young talent. With the additions you mentioned, we will have a deep squad qualitatively and quantitatively.
No this squad isnt good enough without a dominant cm, a quality striker, another direct wide player and defensive cover
In my opinion, we are lacking a top striker, holding CM and keeper. On the other hand, i feel if Ramsey were healthy we would be still be hanging on to a slim lead in the league.
If we had stumped up silly money for suarez that wouldve helped, god knows why wenger wants o play a fluid system with a medievil striker? .........................suarez Caz...................ozil............theo ..............bender......ramsey Gibbs.......kos........mert.....sagna .......................chez Is a title winning unit, but it would still require good backups I don't think anyone thought we would actually win the league, but the way the top 4 have smashed us lately is ridiculous and makes me think we have to change or publically announce to fans, who pay to see matches live every week, the real fans, that they are paying to watch a club create revenue rather than try and win
bingo. i said years ago we would regret not taking advantage of the fallow period united has had and now its too late. with chavs and city we would need five top players to be on even footing
I'd say Giroud's off the ball movement is very good - his runs are really intelligent. Look at the way he snuck behind Terry on Saturday: his lack of pace is the issue. Terry's not exactly easy to sneak in behind.
It's hard to say: the injuries to Walcott and Ramsey make this squad really hard to assess. I think that with those two healthy, we might still be top of the league (if a hypothetical bet was offered, I'd probably take it, but it would depend on the odds), but a lot of injury issues are down to luck. However, the games against Liverpool and Chelsea showed us that there are really big weaknesses at striker and at DM. I've probably been Giroud's biggest defender on this board, but that's really because we can't plausibly sign anyone better this summer: Giroud shouldn't be starting every game, and he certainly shouldn't be starting against top teams. At DM, a bigger issue exists with Arteta. Liverpool, Chelsea, and Man City destroyed us on the break because the team conceded possession high up the pitch. We need to sign someone significantly better than Arteta, and there are players significantly better that we can plausibly get: either Bender, for example. Realistically, we're going to finish about six points back, and either third or fourth, depending on how Liverpool play against Man City and Chelsea. Arsenal haven't exactly played out of their skins to get to that point, and have done so with a bad injury list even by Arsenal standards. So would two big signings make this team 6-12 points better? I mean, you figure that a big signing for most teams will improve the team by six points, right?
If its a recurring theme since 05 its not luck anymore but a trend and a stubborn, clearly flawed, philosophy on behalf of management. As for Giroud, he's a 2nd striker in the current big money/big squad era. Also when I speak of a fallow Manutd period i mean talent wise as compared to their previous title winning side with Cristiano etc.