A masterstroke by Wenger, when you see it in a broader context. Lehman, though superb against Liverpool and the best keeper Arsenal have, needed a rest, and to be brought down a peg or two. Almunia went out there today and kept a clean sheet, the first clean sheet in a 100 years it seems. Arsene's gamble payed off. What will Lehman think after this? Lehman will almost 100% sure be in goal in Tuesday, well fired up to prove he's the number one and wont make any silly mistakes and keep a clean sheet. That's the plan anyway.
AW is very lucky because Almunia nearly made another blunder. I would like to think AW will now start playing some the reserves like Pennant and Van Persie. A good time to rest for Lehman but he knows that he is 1st choice and there is almost no chance that Almunia will become 1st choice. There is no competition in that position unlike other top clubs.
In my opinion, he DID make a huge mistake. Whether it led to a goal or not is not so much the point. The point is that other managers will of seen that weakness, especially after the error on Wednesday, and will now encourage their strikers to take pot shots. Ive only seen a couple of reserve games this season, but he isn't the best 'keeper at holding on to the ball. Whilst playing against lesser opposition he may get away with this, he certainly won't for long in the Premiership. Almunia is not good enough at the moment to play in the first team. I completly agree with Henrik that Lehmann will be back in goal on Tuesday. I agree with W26 D12 L0 that we don't have competition in that position, but honestly, we don't actually have competition in many positions. We don't have a big squad. We never have, Taylor seems to be out of the picture for good and with Stacks rape charge, we need to bring in a good keeper soon. Lets see what this Norweigan trialist can do.
I think I'm going to order an Arsenal Keeper's shirt and see how much they'll charge me to have "Norwegian Trialist" as the name on the back...
Lehman is the best we have, he's not as bad as so many people want you to believe. I don't know the real reason for Lehman on the bench tonight, and I agree with anyone who thinks Almiunia aint ready (yet) if ever. I dont know what is happening, but I can only imagine that Lehman will fight for his no1 spot and keep it. He may only have 2 or 3 years back at the very top level.
Isn't it ironic that Wenger is making Lehmann and Almunia fight for the No. 1 goalie spot at Arsenal just like Klinsmann is making Lehhmann and Khan fight for it in the Germany squad?
He is still alive, but Arsene Wenger obviously no longer sees him as part of the team. He had quite a few first-team chances already, and yet in everyone of them he looks unconfident and burdensome. He's pretty much a weaker version of David James: decent shot-stopping skills but sub-par in everything else and VERY unconfident. And insterestingly, according to the Soccernet insider article Lehman was dropped not because of footballing reasons, but because he had a fall-out with Wenger. Maybe he knows that he is on the verge of being replaced?
I know this is neither here nor there, but in my Football Manager 2005 game Arsenal picked up Tim Howard on a free early in the 2007-8 season, and he started in a 4-0 pasting of my Nottingham Forest team. And no, I am not suggesting we buy Tim Howard. But now watch this thread attract all the Yanks Abroad groupies who search BS every day for any mention of an American. On second thought, there's really no point to this post at all. Please just go on with your lives.
Yep Henrik, a mistake waiting to happen... but proving it against Rosenborg shouldn't be a problem, its chavski im worried bout~
Chelsea? Wait till we cross that bridge, for now its the all important Rosenborg game. A win and confidence will come back.
Forgive me for being the stupid Yank here, but it's time for one of my dumb questions. In American football, when a team signs a young quarterback who will be the future of the franchise, they stick with him, even if he loses a few games. They don't sub him out, because you just don't mess with the QB's head. So here's the question: Why can't the Arsenal do the same thing with Taylor, or Aluminium? This, of course, is taking the fairly large assumption that either one of those two GK's have large growth potential.
In American sports you don't have a transfer system, so you have to work through the draft. You've got to develop your own talent or be hamstrung by the salary cap if you just try and buy one. Conversely, in soccer, it is expected of the bigger (read: financially able) clubs that they simply buy talent from smaller clubs. Why shoudl Arsenal, or Chelsea, or ManU suffer through trying to develop a keeper when they can just go and buy one and win now? With "Big" clubs, they have to "win now" every season, so they can't afford to "ride out the rough spots" with a young keeper, especially if riding out those rough spots costs them a CL slot, which they depend on to be a "Big" club. It's a vicious cycle, to be sure, but that's how soccer works.
You answered your own question. These two goalkeepers are decent but not great. Certainly not a significant upgrade from Lehman. They do not have large growth potential and they certainly are not the future of the franchise.
Well there was a thread in the news of the world (very reliable source ) yesterday about Wenger looking at Cudicini better and younger than Lehmann what do you guys think although I'm not really sure about his actual age 29 i think isn't it chelski fans. No1ArsenalFan
Cudicini is a solid keeper, but he plays a completely different style to Lehman. Carlo is smaller, but faster and good with reaction saves. Lehman is relatively huge, probably average with regard to reaction saves, and loves to come out and clean up problems (the sweeper keeper philosophy). It's a trade-off. I'm of the mind that big keeper is an advantage. They simply make the goal look smaller and opposing strikers feel like they have less to aim at.
Unfortunately, that's how I view Almunia, who, according to SKy, will start tomorrow and Sunday. http://skysports.planetfootball.com...LID=&lid=2&title=Wenger+to+stick+with+Almunia I don't particularly like the Rooney-lovin' Myles Palmer (author of Wenger bio), but he has an interesting take on it http://www.anr.uk.com/articles/m-2004-12-06-13-40-56.html Though I don't see how Campbell and co. would feel any more comfortable with the Spaniard guarding the net. Prove me wrong, Almunia!
Just saw it too. Korean Soccer news website saying that Arsene Wenger is chasing Carlo Cudicini from Chelsea. Currently Cudicini is unhappy with Chelsea for not being regular starting and he wants to move on. Arsene has shown interest in him before but this time, Wenger is likely to sign him when January Transfer is open... Well, his better than Jens and Almunia... Good Signing I say. Hope this is true !
Cudicini is definetely a great goalkeeper; he's a bit more error-prone than Cech, but other than that he's one of the best goalkeepers in the premiership. The problem is, he plays for Chelsea and Chelsea definetely will not sell him to us. Even if he wants to go to us. And he's 31 yrs old already, which means he will be another stop-gap measure. The way I see it, Arsene knows that he needs a new goalkeeper ASAP and he will get one in the next transfer window. And he isn't the only one who knows that; the Arsenal players including Lehman himself knows that too. It's just like Tim Howard where it became very apparent that he doesn't have what it takes to be the no 1 of a top premiership club. IMO, any of the premiership clubs right now have better goalkeepers than us. Even David James is better than Lehman.
I would reply to such a stupid comment with a load of stuff about dfences, conceeding goals etc. But it's so stupid I really can't be bothered.
Then I'll reply to your comment by saying that just because we don't concede a lot of goals (and we do concede more goalds than the other top sides) doesn't mean that he's a great goalkeeper. When was it the last time that he was the BIG difference, the one whose performance was the difference between victory and defeat?