As an avid arsenal fan I have to see the player I am most dissapointed with throughout the season is Gilberto. The problem is although he is a world cup winner, he is far short of quality that a world cup winner should have. I was always afraid of how we would cope when vieira left, not because we could not replace him but because he used to cover up for gilberto short commings, without vieira gilberto is nothing more than an average player if that and in my opinion is not worthy of a top 4 club. Today's game is a prime example, what did he do that was good, not a lot in my eyes, in fact he probably misplaced or lost the ball more times than he completed a pass or made a good challenge and unfortuantely today is no exception, the past few games I see him misplace pass after pass after pass. He is not the reason we lose but he certainly doesn't help when everytime we are looking to build through the middle he gives it away. I truely hope Diaby can establish himself sooner rather than later so he and febregas can form a great partnership in the middle. Febregas to me has outperformed gilberto in every game I have seen this season (probably 15+ games) yet he is only 18. today in my eyes wenger should have taken gilberto off and put hleb in because gilbert was having a pretty good game and was doing more than gilberto. Just my opinion but I am pretty sure I am not the only person dissappointed with the so called 'world cup winner'.
Re: Gilberto He really sucks right now. I guess the back injury really affected him. Ljungberg is also useless now.
Re: Gilberto I wouldn't go as far as saying useless, you have to take into account he normally plays alongside gilberto ie gilberto on the right of the central pair, so he is always having to babysit him and never gets a good pass from him because he gives the ball away.
Re: Gilberto ian i have to agree with you, ive lived in USA for 2 years now and Arsenal get very good coverage on tv here, and of the games ive seen ive not been impressed with Gilberto at all,when wenger took off Gilbert today i thought for one second my wish had come true,then i noticed there was an o missing on the name on the back of the shirt. maybe he needs to have a spell on the bench.
Re: Gilberto Ljungberg doesn't finish and doesn't run into open space. That was his strengths as his ball skills are poor.
Re: Gilberto A very long spell, maybe it is that he is just to confortable he is pretty much the second name on the team sheet behing henry if he is fit and there is no way he should. I just hope wenger realises sooner rather than later, Diaby I really think given the chance this season could really prove himself he looks exactly like the king of player we need in the middle of the part. I think wenger should have given him a chance from half time in place of gilberto who as already mentioned was and is useless right now.
Re: Gilberto Finally people start to see it...I have never been an admirer of Gilberto and in the past when I criticised him, there were always people defending him...Where are you people now? 1 thing is obvious, Gilberto doesn't have premeir league standard technique and no matter wad people say about him being a good cover in front of a back four, that's not impt because he cant even control the ball properly. If effort is what u people want den i feel that Flamini is better than him. He sometimes seem to be always there because he does nothing except standing around. He is crap and will always be. It's not form or what. He just lacks ability! Enough of the fact that when he was injured our defence looked unstable less season, thats nothing more than just a coincidence. He is playing every game now and he is almost always the worst player on the pitch. There's a reason why he is on the Brazillian bench and no 1 bothered to make a bid for him when we bought him.
Re: Gilberto Yeah Gilberto has reverted to the form that had half the board calling for Edu to start awhile back. Shame because we could use an experienced player in the center of midfield to help Cesc as he develops. I agree that we've got to hope that Diaby is ready really quickly if for no other reason than to make Gilberto worry about his spot. I think the thing that is killing Ljungberg this season is his poor finishing. We are used to counting on him to chip in with a fair number fo goals but he hasn't done that this season. It is bad enough that he is missing changes around the perimeter of the box but he has also been missing the sitters/tap ins that were his bread and butter in the past. I don't think his poor play is all his fault though. He has been called on to do more work to help our weakened midfield and Henry hasn't been making the dangerous runs that Freddie would follow with a late run in the box for a goal.
Invisible Shield, my a**. More like the Invisible Sieve. On form like this, I wonder if he'll make Brazil's WC side.
He probably has some chance of making the WC only because brazil aren't well renowned for their defensive play, not that you can call anything about his play defensive, maybe more like defensive lapse play.
I doubt it. I think they'll go with the other dmids they used at the Confed cup: Emerson and Renato(even if he isn't a pure dmid). I think Gilberto would have to do very well over the next few months or have one of those guys get injured to get to WC06 at this point.
Any sense to playing Toure as a DM (when he returns), with Cesc up top in a diamond? I know that width can be an issue when playing a diamond midfield.
The question is, has he always been like this or is he just going through a bad form this season (along w/ Freddie and a few others) and he can't get out of it since he's first choice and there's no one to cover for him to keep him out for 2 or 3 matches to let him see for himself what the heck he's doing wrong? i would think part of the problem is Wenger not getting anyone better for different positions so when someone's playing terribly, they can see how they like life on the bench when there's someone better on the field and they actually have to step up and fight for their place... Pires, Ljunberg, Gilberto, I'm referencing you lot....
Also, I'm not the sort to think we need to get rid of him, I think we jusst need to sit him on the bench and make him adn the others earn their places. *I would love to see Toure in midfield, he's one of the -well, only maybe - who's actually enthiusiastic on the pitch and he likes to get forward and he's responsible as well on the pitch, I so much want to see him as DM or even CM, how exciting that would be, he's definitely a spark and it feels he'd wake some of the team up in the center to foward.
Bottom line is everyone is off this season. Even Henry, obviously he tied the record but he went i think 8 games without scoring. Pires has none and Freddie has i think 1. As for Gilberto he has been the worst overall but hopefully things will get better. I have faith in him, because Wenger knows what he is doing when he buys players. He doesnt spend money on frivoulous players.
I agree. Fabregas has been so poor lately. I'm wondering if Wenger has brought him along too quickly. He is a poor longrange shooter and his link up play today was completely absent. I don't know, maybe I'm still upset about his sending off, but I thought he was awful - so was freddy.
Fabregas didnt have a great game, but if you look at the only two chances taht we had, he was involved in both of them. His one touch play with henry set himself up for a horrible finish, and he made a killer pass in the sequence that led to ljunbergs miss. we have to remember that the kid is 18, and most 18 year olds arent terribly consistant. I still think we need him starting as much as possible, we do however need to find someone to take over for gilberto.
Pires has seven goals this year, and Freddie has 1. I was just looking at the stats and in the league, other than henry, no one else for us has scored 5 goals. RvP has 4, Pires 3, Reyes 3 but we just arent getting the production that we are use to getting from other players.
i like this idea a lot, except i think it creates a problem for us at the back. kolo's partnership with either sol or senderos works because they're two different types of CB's - one tall and strong, and one with pace (think terry/gallas). this is a generalization, but i think it's true, and is also why you don't generally see the sol/senderos combination we saw today. if we found a center back in the toure/gallas mold, i think kolo would slot into DM very, very well. if i recall correctly, toure did play this role once this year. and i seem to remember him being pretty good as well. i also thought he excelled at right back when he played there. i honestly think he's been our best performer this year, and is pretty much my favorite gunner. ever hear him complain? contract problems? don't think so. kolo's the man. i hope he does well in the African Nations Cup.
Toure is the man, i also like Lauren. I pretty much like all the African players, they just play and dont complain or worry about anything. As for a suggestion which i stated awhile ago on the forum we need an enforcer. Someone who will stick it too people and get stuck in against anyone. Vieira was that person, he set the tempo of the game and we dont have anyone else who can do. Henry can but hes a striker and its much harder when not in the middle of the pitch. As for Cesc hes awesome. Sure he has poor performances but like evanpemsocr hes only 18. You can't expect that much out of him at such a young age. This year with the sale of Vieira it wasn't an optimal situation for him. If him and Vieira would have played together we wouldnt be in this situation in the league. Gilberto just doesnt cut it when trying to lead the midfield, he is more of the support player of the middle two midfielders. Lets get our champions league spot and win the CC and the FA Cup and hopefully work some magic in the CL.
the only way gilberto can be effective without an enforcer is thru different tactics and formation. in a 4-4-2 you need an enforcer simple as that. we cant play 451 cause you need a target man leading the line. i think a solution is to bring in an italian/german assistant coach so that we can play 3-5-2 with a back three of toure, sol, johan. wingbacks: cole and lauren. midfield three of gilberto,cesc and someone in the hole (hleb/pires/freddie). henry+reyes(RVP/bergkamp when fit) upfront. this formation doesnt need an enforcer because its provides a compact midfield and an extra centreback without having to sacrifice a striker. it basically forces teams to play around us cause there is 3 centrebacks. PS. the left and right centrebacks need to be fast because the wingbacks attack more in this formation, so this strategy does rely on the speed of toure and johan to succeed. we need toure back desperately. how is ivory coast doing
I agree with everything you said, except the last part. This is definately gonna sound selfish because it is: I hope Ivory Coast crash out of the group stage and we get Kolo back ASAP. We need him more than they do. They did win their first game however, so the odds are they'll go through.
i'm a little torn with you there. one of the only things i've heard out of sepp blatter's mouth was when he spoke on the subject. he said something to the effect of european teams needing to give back to africa - we take their best players, only to get upset when they need them back for a month every two years. it's not too much to ask, and all the clubs are fully aware of the implications of taking on a full african international. as much as i'd love kolo back, i think ivory coast could use a lift right now. i hope they win it. (though it's a little weird rooting for dogbag! )