Hmm...every player that tries to man the center of the pitch with Flamini looks bad. I wonder what the problem is there. Maybe Flamini is just so good that he makes everyone else look poor.
Gilberto does all the dirty work at the back.When Lauren or Cole goes up into attack he makes sure their side of the field are covered.I have often watched games when he helps Robert Pires since Pires doesnt always come back and help on defense.He does a job very similar to Claude Makelele at Chelsea.
Gilberto reminds me a lot of the song "Don't Know What You Got 'Til It's Gone". When he's in the lineup, you barely notice him. Hell, I remember a couple of years ago when people complained that he wasn't getting ENOUGH yellow cards, which obviously meant he wasn't aggressive enough. But I think his importance comes as much off the ball as on it. His positioning is usually so good that it forces teams to change the way they attack and to change the angles that they come at. You notice that when he's not in the lineup. Teams are much more direct and come straight at us when he's not there. Granted, the passing in the midfield gets better when he's out, but he's not in the lineup to spring the attack.
Exactly. Which is why my complaints about him lately have been limited to his concentration on set pieces (see Sunderland's goal) and his giving the ball away needlessly at midfield. You mention that he's not the one to spring the attack and someone else in this thread stated that he's best when he makes the simple passes. I wholeheartedly agree. It's just that, IMO, lately, rather than making those simple passes...he's been giving the ball away too cheaply in the midfield.
I really do not think Gilberto is fit to be compared to Makelele as some people have said. Makelele may seem 'invisible' but he really makes a lot of crucial interceptions, has good 1st touch and vision. Therefore, enabling him to launch counter attacks as soon as he wins possession. I have watched Gilberto for so long and i really do feel that he is just average. Whats this rubbish about him protecting the defence well. I hardly see him making more than 10 interceptions in a game and his tackling is very average(no better than Cygan IMO)hardly knows how to slide also. But i do agree he breaks up quite alot of attacks bcos part of the of attacks that he breaks up is our own attack. His passing is really pathetic and is onli accurate when he passes the ball back to Campbell or Toure or any of the defenders bcos they are unmarked. His 1st touch is also very bad and he looks uncomfortable in possesion unlike Makelele. I feel that he would have been a flop if he is playing in a club with zero tolerance like Chelsea and Manchester United. The fact that he is a 1st team player with us is bcos we have no money and a serious lack of depth. This season, his performances have been rubbish and he should be ashamed of himself bcos he is e senior midfielder who is supposed to lead the youngsters, the only time that he put in a solid performance is during the Charity Shield against Chelsea.
I don't. Just kidding lol. Gilberto was the player who let PV4 go and do what he wanted last year. He sits and makes defence his priority, which is what we needed so badly last year, a midfielder who didn't feel that he had to join EVERY attack. He is a very good player and while he appears lacklustre at times he DOES HIS JOB. Is that not the most important thing rather than arguing about how good he is? "Does he do his job?" Yes. Does he do it well? Yes. Discussion over. He is the best defensive midfielder we have had since Manu Petit, and like elknco said unless we are going to go out and buy Kompany (unlikely) or YaYa (even more unlikely) we are going to have to get behind him and let him do his job. G to the IL-berto is a legend. Rant over. bigg skizzle
Strange then that the team is so much more solid when he plays. And that's before and after Vieira left. Explain that?
I seriously dun think we have been really solid this year. Our defence conceeded quite a few and we have not been able to keep possesion as comfortably compared to last season when we had Vieira. In fact, against Sunderland even though we scored 3, we did not have a great deal of possesion and lets not mention that 1st half against Spurs. Vieira wouldnt have let that kind of thing happen without showing whos the boss in midfield.
Did you even watch the Sunderland game? Now I thought that maybe I had imagined that we had a way bigger slice of possession than you are suggesting, so I thought I'd check it out just to make sure. And guess what, these stats (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/match?id=184807&cc=5739) say we had 74% of the possession. Wow, crap that isn't it? We didn't play well in the first half at Spurs, but I would say, and Wenger has said it himself, that none of the team performed well in that first half, not just Gilberto. And what I would also say is that apart from long range shots, how many real chances did Spurs create? Two that I can remember. Doesn't show a lack of solidity to me. I also seem to remember, and I'm trusting my memory more than yours now after your Sunderland comments on a game only a few days ago, that Vieira hadn't played particularly well for us for ages. Indeed his propensity to give the ball away last season led directly to a couple of goals against. I'm not saying he's not a good player, but I think he couldn't motivate himself to play for us any more and the move to Juve has refreshed him and his form has picked up. Let's go back to last season again shall we? A quick diary of what went on. August, Spetember, Gilberto and Fabregas are playing in central midfield as Vieira is out injured. We are playing champagne football, beating all-comers and being hailed as the "incinvibles". October, November, December, January, February, we lose at United and go on a very dodgy run of form. Gilberto gets a back injury around this time and Vieira is left as the senior midfielder. We're shipping goals and the skipper isn't playing well. March, April, May, Gilberto's back, the team are conceding less goals even with Sol Campbell's continuing absence and we crown the season by winning (albeit very luckily) the FA Cup. Now I'm not saying that Gilberto's absence was the sole reason for these runs of form, but you are severely underestimating his influence on the team.
Stop picking on Gilberto. Last season when you had Vieira without Gilberto your defensive midfield was worse. Defense is a team collective task. Until Wenger realises that T . R . O. U . B. L. E............. Phishy, when one fish is rotten in the basket, all of them are rotten, and when you eat beans you can't tell which bean will make you fart, can you?- ...Greetings from Zani the cyclone!
I don't know if Gilberto has been crap or not, but he definitely will be now that I've picked him up on my fantasy team.
thank you for the new sig zani, you really do operate on a different plane of consciousness than the rest of us. Brilliant.
Yeah that Motterman - only ever poaches from 6 yards out. Not like the all singing all dancing Drogba
I could stuff a box with Zani speak (aka crap) and stamp it with a guarantee of brilliance. However all you are really getting is a box of crap.
He's come out with some absoloute gems in the past. I guess if you churn out enough rubbish sooner or later you hit gold by accident - a bit like EA Games then....