The more interesting news about call ups that was reported on arsenal.com is that Djourou got his first call up to the Swiss national side for their March 1st friendly against Scotland. Good to see Senderos and Djourou get a chance to work together on the Swiss team. It looks like we'll have 16 players on international duty at the end of this month/start of March. Good for them but I hope they all come back healthy for a change.
Actually, IMO he has been the worst player in the Arsenal first team for much of this season already. Most of our players haven't been playing well, but none has been giving the ball away as often as Gliberto. That's why I am eager for the season to end and for us to get a better defensive midfield like any of the Diarra or Zokara. As long as he performs badly I think we deserve to have the right to bash him until he wakes up.
Gilberto has not had a good season, but he has played extremely well for us in past seasons. If you watch the 'pool game carefully, I think that you will find that Bob, Freddie and Fab gave the ball away far more than Gilberto. Why single him out? Freddie and Bob usually score 15-20 goals each per season, but this year they have produced nada. You could easily say that the crappy 9-away goals so far this season entirely rests with them not producing the goods, and especially not transitioning attack into goals. The biggest weakness in our midfield is not Gilberto, IMO. There are two weaknesses that are more significant: we have no width and Fabregas is not quite ready to be the playmaker that we need. An integral part of our game is to transition the ball from defense to attack on the ground. All of our midfielders (Hleb, Freddie, Bob, Fab and Gilberto) have done poorly in making it happen. However, that is not Gilberto's primary role. His role is to give the ball up to the other 4 so that they can do the business, which they have not done. Also, we should not underestimate the lack of speed on the lhs that the Cole/Clichy has caused, making it difficult to move the ball beyond midfield on the flank that has been our biggest threat for years.
Put simply- gilberto is having a shite year and it is amazing that he is in the brazil squad, but maybe it will lift his club game...
i guess none of you are participating in the UEFA.com chat with Gilberto going on at 17:00 CET today eh??
Not a bad little chat. Gilberto says the standard stuff about our chances in the CL and next season in the Prem. He says good things about the young dmids but calls for another experienced midfielder. He says his football idols are Zico, Baresi, and Cerezzo. Says that he had some trouble living alone before his wife and kid moved to England. He likes black beans and pork stew. He says that we will catch Spurs in the end. Still a class act even if he's struggled this season. I remember reading a great article on his background last season. I'll try to find it.
it's already over? O_O i couldnt get into it cuz of firewall at work. were there a lot of people in the chat?
It seemed to be over when I got there since there wasn't any way to post a message and it looked like Gilberto had said his goodbyes. Hard to tell how many people were on there but there were the usual questions and statements of support and congrats that you'd expect.