Unfortunately RvP is the most talented player in the league. No team can mark him for an extended period. He scores goals from so many types of situations that it's scarey.
I think we should just man mark RVP for the game, a la middle school soccer. He's their best player? Put a defender that stays on him the entire game.
I think this is going to be a great match. Their defense is deplorable. They have no midfield. But they can score the crap out of the ball. If we can defend well and get Theo and Podolski into dangerous positions, there's no reason we can't get something.
We need to put Theo at CF this game. He has way too much pace for their CBs. Throw Ox and Lukas on the wings and I think with JW10, Santi, and Arteta's passing we can tear their defense to shreds. Just please, either Verm or Sagna at CB.... For some crazy reason, Im optimistic about this game. I think our defense is much stronger then theirs.
Job 1 is to take care of Valencia around our left. And please tell the refs to pull the yellow on Valencia when he can't turn around the fb and goes towards the corner of the box and falls down at first sight of the cb. It just gives me a headache watching it.
walcott has already played 144 minutes this week. sagna at cb? yeah, he's really experienced there and at 5ft9 he'd surely dominate any aerial threat........
Not sure what to make of this one. Robin cannot score, in any context. I expect if he's through on goal, a professional foul is committed, and Verm/Per get a four-match ban. lol...... Or they "accidentally" tackle him harshly, and he gets injured. United played well against Chelsea, so I think they are slight favourites.
Anything short of taking his jersey off to reveal an Arsenal jersey underneath and then immediately voiding his contract and switching teams at half time will be considered unacceptable. And you probably meant "muted"... sorry couldnt resist
I was kidding of course, but I am kind of curious if any professional teams ever employ that tactic... I don't think I've really seen it, but I think it would be super frustrating to a player like RVP to have someone on your hip the entire game.
it has advantages and disadvantages. the good: it can take the best player right out of the game. the bad: if used right by the marked player it can leave big spaces that can be exploited. speaking of defending, can we please dump this zonal marking rubbish and go back to man marking for set pieces.
We have used zonal marking the last two seasons and our set piece goals conceded has declined. Liverpool, with zonal marking under Benitez, had one of the best goal conceded on set pieces record in the premiership. I never get why people harp on zonal marking when man to man marking concedes just as many goals when there is a foul up. You never hear anyone say, "lets dump this man to man marking rubbish" when someone concedes off that. And more importantly back when we were man to man marking, we were tops in the league in percentage of goals off set pieces. It is this weird British thing I just dont get. Maybe because its easier for pundits and fans to blame one person for a goal with man to man, whereas with zonal its a bit more difficult and confusing. Me, whatever tactic works best for our team I will take it, and it seems like zonal marking actually works the best.
i hate pure zonal marking, in fact, more than that, i detest it with a passion. if you use any form of zonal marking it's best being a partial, mixed system.
just to the naked eye, it seems we are getting beat to headers more regularly with zonal marking.. guys may not score, but they are beating us to the ball. teams have missed sitters against us.
This. Watching him against Chelsea, I remembered how insanely talented he is. Had he styed healthy, I think he'd reach Henry status and we would have paid him whatever he wanted. My (painful) guess- 2-1 to the bad, with RVP scoring the winner and Ian and Macca proceeding to spend 25 minutes prattling on about the typical talking points (no scoring threat without RVP, haven't won anything in 50 years, etc.; all the typical nonsense).
I'm not big on zonal marking. This is not based on stats per se but from experience playing within both systems. The thing I really hated was allowing the other team runs into the box without having to deal with being pushed around and tugged by another body. Even if I was in position zongin, I felt at a disadvantage if the ball wasn't heading directly for my head.
Pure zonal marking probably works well for Stoke City but I just don't see how it can succeed for Arsenal.
It's not the general idea of zonal, it's the specific implementation, the coaching of the tactic, and the players. As Prince said we were fantastic defending set plays last season with zonal marking. Van Persie was a big part of that, actually, but Giroud has the ability to do it too. We have been crap this season on set piece defending, but it's not because zonal marking doesn't work.
Apparently OX is out for this one. Training injury, out 2 weeks. Arsenal have the worst medical team.