Ok, we are back in the group stage of the Champions League and we are off to Germany. Also to add insult to injury of the tiny tots is, it is not Thursday night either. The Arsenal vs Borussia Dortmund Champions league Group Stage Signal Iduna Park Tues, Sept. 13th. 1945 UK, 2:45/1:45pm EST/Cen. Sky Sports 4 for those in the UK Arsenal Player The only ones out are those injured. KILL!!!
Gervinho------Park------Walcott Song-----Ramsey/Coquelin-----Arteta Santos------Mertesacker----Kos---Sagna I figure RVP should have a rest since he played International and on the weekend. Ramsey maybe as well although not sure if Wenger will just be trying to get them playing as many games together as possible for chemistry reasons.
Gervinho--Van Persie---Walcott Song-------Arterta------Rosicky Gibbs--Koscielny---Mertesacker--Sagna -------------Sczcesny-----------------
at some point ramsey has to get a rest. i think this is as good a game as any. we have rosicky/yossi for this type of game and right now aaron is no difference maker.
U must be kidding? No way RVP doesn't start the game. I think Gibbs wil start as well since Santos is not totally fit.
I like this, except I'd have Arshavin for Walcott. I'd rather see Theo come in as an impact sub. He was piss poor versus Swansea. Make it happen.
Rosicky isnt that good. Arshavin lost all his speed, since hes fat now. But on his day, he can be a trouble maker. THe only problem is, WHEN WILL IT BE HIS DAY????
Arshavin looked gassed in the first half against Swansea, can't see him starting this one after only 2 days rest. TexTechGooner's lineup above is what I expect. Maybe Park instead of Theo if he's ready.
I don't understand the recent criticism of Rosicky. I think he's played pretty well so far this year. Certainly Rosicky > Ramsey as far as I'm concerned. Oh and according to the score sheet, Arshavin was our one and only troublemaker versus Swansea.
Don't let logic get in your way. We've all had to come to grips over the past 3 years that Rosicky was extraneous to our plans, and I say that as a firm member of the Tomas Must Go Brigade. So, when he plays cleanly and efficiently, we have trouble changing gears to accepting his better play. I don't think he's got the stamina to go more than 60-70 minutes any more, though.
Really looking forward to this one. Dortmund will really come out after us so hopefully there will be some space in behind for Gerv, Theo or Arsh. Id love yo see what Rosicky and Arteta could do together with Ros looking rejuvenated so far this term. Give Ramsey a bit of a break after Welsh duty, sub on for whichever is gassed. Also itll be interesting to see how much Mertesacker takes control of the back four in this one considering his experience dealing with Dortmund firsthand. Could be quite handy in this one. They may have looked off this weekend but I chalk that up to looking ahead to us more then them being poor. They can hurt us with their quality for sure.
Rosicky made his name playing against German clubs in the bundesliga so I don't know why he wouldn't start.
As a fan of Bayern München who was stunned by the amazing football Borussia Dortmund played last season I might be able to give you some insight about the current state of your opponent. First of all, yes Dortmund is weakened by the loss of Nuri Sahin to Real Madrid and the absence of their top striker Lucas Barrios (35 goals in the last two season) but don't be overly confident by the latest mediocre results of Dortmund in the Bundesliga. As the current champion their opponents use a tactic which I like to call "Bayern München treatment". It essentially means that instead of participating in the game the other team is giving up all ambitions of making the game so they are playing extremely deep and counter attack minded with fast wingers and strikers. Dortmund isn't used to that yet but as far as I know that's not the way Arsenal London is playing football at all. So you will face a team that tries to play with a very small corridor between attack and defense to put a lot of pressure on the ball and force errors. Errors may proof costly as Gündogan similar to Sahin has good vision for vertical passes. The addressees will most likely be Götze and Kagawa who are both very quick, agile, have great finishes and are therefore able to execute counter attacks properly. I would guess that last season more than half of Dortmunds goals happened after forced or unforced errors. Be aware that the entire team of Dortmund is physically very strong, they have regularly the best numbers on ran kilometers per game (~125km average I believe) so it may demand great effort and patience in order to be successful. How I expect them to start: ---------------Weidenfeller-------------- -Piszczek--Hummels--Subotic--Schmelzer- -----------Gündogan--Bender------------ --Götze---------Kagawa-----Großkreutz-- --------------Lewandowski-------------- Weidenfeller is a very good ballstopper, very solid in the 5 meter box but not without flaws in the 16 meter box. Hummels and Subotic are a well tuned duo of CB's, presumably the best in the Bundesliga. They are flanked by Piszczek and Schmelzer who are international average at best, no real threat offensively but they are solid and put a lot of effort and kilometers into their play so they shouldn't be underestimated either. Bender is very solid in winning tackles, running for the ball and putting pressure on the opponent but he is no playmaker, more a typical destroyer with decent technical abilities and a powerful shot from distance. His partner Gündogan is certainly a gifted deeplying-playmaker with vision and great talents but he hasn't adjusted to the Dortmund system yet so they suffer from a lack of creativity. On the left flank Großkreutz is a player I dislike and respect at the same time. He is a typical worker, besides his deadly finish he has average technique, average vision, crosses and dribbles are mostly predictable but this guy has an unbreakable will, runs, puts pressure on his opponents and has a good feeling for free space (a bit like Thomas Müller). Götze on the right flank is without a doubt the most talented young player in German football but he is just going into his second season and therefore it remains to be seen if he is already capable of playing to the top of his abilities even though his teammates may be struggling. Kagawa is a player with enormous talents on the ball and strong combination play but he certainly suffers from the injury of Lucas Barrios the South American striker whose technical abilities are certainly stronger than of his replacement Lewandowski. The Pole doesn't participate that much in the game and needs to be fed with passes. On top of that he isn't a clinical finisher and sometimes wastes chances. Hope it was interesting for you guys. I'll be eager to see the match tomorrow.
Don't know if it was mentioned before.. Robbie Savage on Radio5Live (BBC): "I don't rate Mertesacker at all, he wasn't good for Real Madrid"
I have a reason, he is injured squad for tomorrow Andrey Arshavin Mikel Arteta Yossi Benayoun Marouane Chamakh Johan Djourou Gervinho Kieran Gibbs Lukasz Fabianski Emmanuel Frimpong Laurent Koscielny Per Mertesacker Ju Young Park Andre Santos Bacary Sagna Alex Song Wojciech Szczesny Robin van Persie Theo Walcott
Bad feeling abt this.. I forsee a 1-0 loss.. Given the wy we're still gelling and got hammered by Man U and got lucky against Swansea, and now we're playing the german champions at their home in the highest level of Club football.. Hope the team proves me wrong obviously.
.....................szczesny................. sagna..mertesacker..koscielny..santos ................arteta.....song............... ...gervinho........................arshavin.. ...............walcott...van persie.........
I like it. Been waiting to see what a Song and Frimpong combo in midfield can do. They both like to venture forward occasionally so I think we can still maintain attacks with them. Clean sheet would be an awesome boost for this club. The Swansea win wasn't perfect, but I think a few clean sheets in a row will give the new look offense the confidence they need to be patient and tell management that we can pick up points without scoring 3-4 goals per game. Love to see us score a bunch of goals, but 0-0 or 1-0 away would be a satisfactory result IMO. ASIDE: some mod might want to change the thread title as this is an away match. Wouldn't want anyone to get confused.
I really want to see Park play for us. Just in general. I'm excited to see what different dimension he can bring.