When? All I did was making a fair prediction that any good striker could score at least 35 goals with the amount of chances we have been creating this season.
This team is so much better with Ozil and Ramsey in the middle, they truly are the engine of this team. Wenger probably stopped his plan to make AOC a midfielder after the 6-0 loss, but I wouldn't mind if he plays in that position to rest Ramsey, because Ramsey's has a big impact on this team.
You are still missing my point. The real difference between a world class striker and a striker like Giroud is the world class striker can create his own shots, Giroud can't. Suarez and Renaldo average 7 shots a game, Giroud only averages 3 shots per game. Suarez and Renaldo create the bextra the extra 4 shots for themselves with their speed and skill. So even though they all convert about 16% of their shots (and it doesn't really matter what kind of shots they are) Suarez and Renaldo are world class and Giroud isn't. This doesn't make Giroud a bad striker, just a limited one. It could be argued that because Giroud doesn't have the speed and skill to get behind the defense, he is generally under more pressure from defenders when he shoots, in which case the fact that he is only finishing 16% of his shots isn't particularly damning.
Diego Costa is also a world class striker, but he has a remarkably low amount of shots. Shots/Goal Player Goals 3.235294118 Alexis 17 3.785714286 Pedro 14 3.884615385 Costa 26 4.714285714 Bacca 14 4.8 Aduriz 15 5.4 Messi 25 5.4 Bale 14 5.588235294 Benz 17 6.3125 Griezmann 16 7.107142857 CR7 28
You do understand that these numbers are just the inverse if the conversion rates that Tonerl posted on page 9 and I expanded on on page 10. The only difference is that you've added a few more players.
You said that world class striker can create their own shots, while I showed that Diego Costa, someone who is not really good in creating goal scoring chances, only needed 3,89 shots per game to score almost as many goals as someone like Ronaldo.
Jury's still out for me on Costa re: quality. Is he 'world class'? Maybe. But he's played one season where his output was so far beyond his career norms. This could mean he's taken the next step, or it could be an outlier and his numbers could normalize next year. As an aside, I think it would be epic if Chelsea pay £38 million or whatever and £230k per week for him and he goes back to his typical returns.
I get what you're saying and you're right as far as it goes, but they paid nothing for Ba, and Torres didn't revert to his norm, he went into the toilet.
. How are you defining Costa's ability or inability to create his own shots? i haven't seen him play, is he a Giroud clone that rarely gets behind the defense and doesn't have the quickness to create space for his shot in the box?
did any of you guys ever see him at cardiff? i'm curious how much his game has changed. my earlier memory of him - circa that carling cup run - was more of a passer and less aggressively offensive. like how i felt fabregas was before the formation changed. then ramsey had the growth spurt that took him out awhile before the injury. his game seems to be more like fabregas was before he left - with less precision in passing but more running and defensively conscientious.
i feel like it doesn't matter who we have depth-wise, wenger just does not believe in rotating. i feel like he believes in having whatever the current XI is run until someone gets tweaked* then he gets others into play. i get your point about someone being hot/in form and riding it out but that seems crazy short-term . . . which seems the opposite of wenger. *exception: somebody's contract is up. then they get a good stretch of game.
okay. but what about: 1) win silverware. AND 2) knock united the ******** out of europe completely? that's got to be worth some extras, no?
2013 Wigan 2012 Chelsea 2011 Manchester City 2010 Chelsea 2009 Chelsea 2008 Portsmouth 2007 Chelsea Yeah m8, mid level clubs. Arsenal fans are the most snobbiest, pretentious, and entitled fans in England. except it has
prince for me losing the league in this calamitous fashion wont be forgotten by winning the fa cup imho we shoulda went for the epl title im happy about the fa cup but man its a letdown when you lead for 129 days and just capitulate without a fight like we did
And it's not the first time too. This is worse than 2008 and 2011. But winning the FA Cup is still nothing to sneeze at. It will be AW 5th. We will tie United with 11 FA cups tops in England. Full credit to AW for winning nearly half of these 11, if we win in the 17th. Even if he should resign.
it shouldnt be. No one is saying we should pretend winning the cup should make us forget about this Tottenham-like collapse. WHat I am saying is that winning the FA cup is a great achievement and it ends the trophy drought.
I hate this idea that the 2008 and 2011 titles were lost because the team choked down the stretch. Those titles were lost in August because the team didn't have enough quality depth to survive injuries to key players in February/March. Those first XIs were fantastic - best in the league even when everyone was healthy (except for Almunia). This season, even the depth got hurt, and this season has been an extreme outlier in terms of injuries, even by Arsenal standards. I'll illustrate my point by pointing out what we're discussing in the transfer thread: we all recognize that it's the starting XI that needs to be improved, not that we need to add more depth. We're talking about getting upgrades over Giroud and Arteta, not providing cover for the likes of Hleb and Rosicky. This starting XI isn't nearly as good as the 2008/2011 teams, and we all know it, and it's the first XI that needs upgrades. Not more depth.
Not for nothing but the fact that Liverpool and Arsenal are even in the title race with these respective squads is pretty telling how low the League has sunk.
Agreed. Buy the league was more winnable this year because probably the league is worse overall than it was in the past.
Julien Laurens @LaurensJulien 13m 45 good minutes for @AbouVDIABY with the Arsenal reserves tonight against Chelsea. His first game since March 2013. Great to see him back. Would be a welcome surprise if he can stay healthy.