Painfully apparent that Henry is still tired and not at 100%. We simply don't have a player that can step up and take the game over and score a freakin' winner... besides Henry. Are we THAT one dimensional that we can ONLY win if Henry is fit and 100% and playing well. If thats the case, and it appears so... thats feckin' HORRIBLE planning. No use having Reyes and Cole if we are not going to play them. Either PLAY THEM, of sell them IMMEDIATELY. I don't give a feck about the price either. If it doesn't meet your "evaluation"... whoopdie-f'n-do. What good is having them WATCH us play like crap. PLAY THEM or TRADE THEM. (to use an American sport phrase) 4 and a bit days until the transfer deadline... and if we do NOTHING, then we are already DONE in the league. Painful to watch. Painful waiting for Wenger and the board to make some moves. PAINFUL.
I knew that Henry was a huge part of Arsenal, but to see the "fans" on here calling him out and blaming him for the loss is absurd. There were 11 men on the pitch today, and except for Fabregas and Hleb creating chances, you cannot blame the loss on Henry. Arsenal should have other people step up when Henry isn't at his best. This is the same Henry that scored versus Real Madrid and beat them single-handedly. The same Henry that dribbled past three Barca defenders in the CL final. The very player who made me wish I was an Arsenal supporter. Teams like the ones I support could only dream of having Henry, and yet you slag him off. Gloryhunters...
I think the talk of the team simply being out of shape and practice has some merit, but I also think there is a broader, more stylistic answer to this. To score goals in the beginning of the season by the means we typically employ (intricate one touch-passing, nonsense fantasy plays which make me proud to be an Arsenal supporter) is difficult. Other teams who are scoring at this point are scoring in a manner much more traditional such as low crosses or long-distance shots. If we were to have a player capable of that style of play, such as a Stewart Downing, who could effectively put the ball in the box onto someone like Walcott or Ljunburg's foot or Adebayour's head we would be scoring goals. We started playing balls over the top (Reyes is brilliant at it) last season and that sort of fit this design (if I remember that is how we won on the road), but we've lacked that up to now as well. Either that sort of longball has to come back or we need a winger capable of bringing width to the side (not thre CMs in Winger's robes).
Screw you, no one here is slagging Henry, they are just saying that he didn't play well today and if he had scored we wouldn't have lost. Its pretty simple really. I guess you never criticize the Dinamo Houston players when they have a bad game? Did you criticize any of Birmingham's players when they were getting relegated? Put a sock in it.
A loss is a loss, no one takes them well. Henry has poor games sometimes, and when he does, people point it out. I didn't hear anyone saying that we should bench him or get rid of him, so i don't know what you're so offended by.
Henry should be dropped to the bench for the Boro game, until he regains his fitness. A sharp Henry would have buried his 2 clear oppurtunities and we win today. Honestly, I don't think we have a striker that works very will with him in a 4-4-2. As much as I hate 4-5-1, we're much more successful with it. If we wanted to play a 4-4-2, our best combo is Adebayor and Van Persie. Obviously we can't leave Henry out, so we won't be seeing this very often. But I do feel Wenger needs to drop Henry for the Boro game unless he can prove that he's fully fit. Our problem is not something that can be fixed by a transfer. The players just need to have the composure and mental strength to finish off teams. We could have been 2 or 3-nil up before City scored today. We don't have that killer instinct that wins you football matches. Of course a couple transfers would be nice to solidify some weak spots, but the teams we sent out the last two weeks hsould have been fit to take 6 points.
Harsh, but I think it's a bit ridiculous of people to complain about us debating what's going wrong with Arsenal. Some say we're bad fans, that we're fair-weather fans. But it's ridiculous. We simply want the best for the club and I think your frustration is warranted based on some of the recent posts around here. Giving Adebayor lip for not finishing, pointing out that Henry is not anywhere near 100%, or that our defensive situation needs to be resolved quickly does not make any of us poor fans or false Arsenal supporters. It makes us fans. Fans who want to win! And I think that's completely acceptable.
I thought the team played well overall, but I don't think Eboue (his passing was crap) and Hoyte (his defending was kind of crappy) did very well. I think the team was unlucky and will get better quickly. Here are some of the problems, I believe: Henry's pace was tough on MC's defense, but he's never going to win those long balls from our defense with his back to the goal, when he has to head the ball down to a team-mate or control it. Adebayor is good at this, but he didn't start, and Van Persie doesn't dominate in the air, at least not in long ball situations. He almost had that header off the corner, though. We need to shoot, obviously! The day was epitomized when Hleb crossed the ball back when he was six yards out. Hleb is great because he dribbles straight at people, but he and the rest of the team need to let it rip. We need to get people in the box, as someone mentioned earlier. When Arsenal is really playing well, they can score from passing across the box. It's kind of annoying when there's no one trying to get any closer than the 18 yard box. As mentioned previously, we can't score on corners very well. And I'm not sure we defend them real well, either. Our aerial game seems suspect.
We need someone who's fit and isn't afraid to take a shot on goal. All I'm seeing most the time is playing with the ball. Why didn't Henry get subbed out? He clearly is not fit and wasn't playing well today. I don't care if it's Henry or not, if he's not playing well, he shouldn't still be out there, IMO.
The reason why Henry is still on the field is because the only way you can get match fit is by playing matches.
Its not so much to do with his lack of matches but to do with his lack of rest. He played a full season, then the world cup all the way to the final. Then for some bizare reason Domenech made him play the full game against Bosnia. He also has an achillies problem that he needs to rest and has been told by the team doctor and his personal doctor that it is going to aggrevate and flair up alot this season due to his lack of rest.
henry needs a good rest, its not that he aint match fit, as MMM just said, hes [played too much and we can see he doesnt seem to have nothing left in him. i wish he could sit out the next 2 weeks instead of playing for the french, we would see a fresher titi.
personally i don't see what all the fuss is about, still early days, with a relatively young squad, with little to no experience in the premiership. don't forget we lost some pretty influential players this summer, and it's not like the team's playing too badly, we are just alittle rusty in our play, that only comes with games to be honest. i'm still optimistic about a top1-4 finish, so stop raging...it's not the end of the world, lol. salaam.
Geez, you haven't even been around much and you have a yellow card..... Agree with your comments. Yesterday was certainly frustrating as hell....but too early to panic.
I was really frustrated yesterday for all the reasons that have already been talked to death around here. But the fact is we've played 2 games, and have 36 to go. We were a couple of breaks away from winning that game yesterday, and that will even out. We're far from on song, and we could use some strengthening, but it's early days and we also show a lot of promise. It'll come. After all, it's not like we lost 2-0 at home to a team that played over half the game with 10 men, is it?
Probably because a half fit Henry has a better chance of scoring than any other member of the squad fully fit.
Well, i remember one goal by Henry (CL, his first game last season, far corner ) rit after his injury. With Henry on the field, we can expect goals anytime. Though i have to accept he want at his best (even he said so), with him on the field, there's so much optimism and with so many kids , optimism is wat we need now and definitely not new signings or more skill. For starters, we have to just keep shooting at the goal. Hleb, though his game was good, i was pi$$ed off at him for passing the ball back when he was so close to the goal. He should have gone for it. Thats wat we lack. Confidence of scoring goals. ANd i'm really surprised that when Wenger said "We can expect lots of goals from midfield", no one's even taking a shot .. After all this, i still say that was one good game to watch. Too bad we lost !!