I'd really like Woodgate as a player. He's potentially the best English CB around. It's his injuries that worry me, esp. with the rest of our tender likkle players always hurting their poor likkle leggies.
Yeah, I saw the Woodgate rumor---strikes me as odd. With Kolo/Gallas/clichy/Eboue/Djourou/Hoyte/Traore--why? granted, we could have used Woodgate a few times this year, at least, but this has been an odd one re: injuries...
Poor Senderos, no one remembers him now .. No wonder we feel the need for another central defender !!
They have no need to sell him for a pittance and can hold out for a higher bid. Don't make me compare Arsenal's budget to PSV's.
Hasn't been that odd, we did have 7 different LBs last year. This could be linked to the rumors that gallas is going to move to italy in the summer. The most feasible thing I can think of is this is total BS, because boro have only recently purchased him from real. They just agreed terms in january while he was there on loan.
Look, if you asked Arsene Wenger directly "do we need another central defender" he'd say no. We have Toure, Gallas, Djourou and Senderos. This is probably the best 4 CBs of any premier side. Yes, Woodgate would be a good addition to the squad, but so would Rooney, Gerrard etc. It doesn't mean we need to sign them...
I'm pretty neutral towards Senderos .. He did a good job last season but he had his fcuk ups as well .. Read my post again .. I just bolded the things .. And i forgot to add smilies ..
so, if Senderos isn't gone, Woodgate would be an 8th back line defender? You see Wenger purchasing Woodgate in that sort of setup? I'd call that odd...you call is BS...tomato, tomaahto....
Abidal is at it again. This time he says he's going to either Barca or Arsenal. http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=452824&CPID=8&clid=3&lid=&title=Abidal+keen+on+Gunners
I don't think Gallas will finish his career here, but there's no chance he's leaving after only a year. I would be interested in Woodgate on the provision that his salary and fee, reflect his injury liability. I do think the framework of the back four needs to be reassessed over the summer. Because not scoring goals sucks, but not conceding is vital, and conceding so many first goals warrants a reassessment of our personnel back there.
We have good defenders across the backline, but we rarely keep clean sheets. Don't know how we are going to fix that one.
agreed. also, i'm not convinced we can have overlapping wingbacks, until our team defense improves. i would like to see clichy, hoyte, and eboue work really hard on their positioning and timing.
TBH a guy like alex would be great for our back line. And we need a goalscorer. Henry *may* be past it and RVP gets injured too often. Adebayor hasn't offered much lately and baptista is bollocks in my mouth.
No ? It's pretty obvious as people have already replied. Continuity. A major part of the reason that Dixon, Winterburn, Adams, Keown and Bould were so sucessful was the amount of playing time they had together. Clichy has 1/2 a season. Eboue less than that, Hoyte even less. Senderos, Gallas and Djourou make up sharing 1 spot this season. I am concerned by the amount of injuries we get, but if that improves we should get a back four that will defend better as a team...
Our clean sheets are also reflective of our inability to get a stranglehold on most matches. We don't need Woodgate. We have Toure-Gallas and Djorou to sub in as well as GilBerto who can go there in an emergency. This is hoping that big Phil is sold. IMHO we have a very imbalanced squad, particularly midfield and the desperate need of the hour is a winger with pace, strength and dynamism. Infact, I think that's all we need.
Do you really thing that Gilberto did better than Senderos at CB today? He made some major mistakes and was lucky not to be punished for them. Also ask yourself which Arsenal player would have been most likely to get a head on the ball that Alex scored with today.
Good point. But for starters no one picked up Alex's run. If indeed we do get Woodgate, will he be happy being our 3rd choice CB. And why wasn't Djorou played at rb last night leaving Toure and Gallas in the centre, also enabling Gilberto to do what he does best in the holding role?