FR: Ajax vs Arsenal | 29/07/05

[Pepe LeFrits]

Jesus christ, there are some seriously ****ing moany ****s on here. Jay-d, lodi, sakuraba etc - why don't you just wait for the highlights, that way you can skip them if Arsenal lose, or don't beat the opposition 58-0 with scintillating attacking football. It was a pre-season friendly for gods sake. Remember the corresponding against River Plate last season? That terribly exciting nil-nil draw? Get some bloody perspective.

Good work-out for the lads, and the win will do them no harm (good confidence booster for Lupoli too). I'm not so sure about Pires in the centre though, at 32 I don't think a player of his type is cut out for the role and I reckon Wenger will agree when he picks the team for Newcastle.

 

[Kenyonhater]

Wenger on Lupoli (sometime last season. I can't remember the source ,possibly the official magazine, but I remember reading it) :- " He's the best finisher at the
club". Could he be our Michael Owen, the elusive fox in the box (yawn!)?

Now I agree with the comments that we weren't that impressive tonight but we weren't that impressive this time last year and yet we started the season on fire. You just can't judge what's going to happen on these pre-season games.
I do think we look a bit lightweight, especially in midfield. Vieira will be a big loss there, especially in the Premiership where opponents were often intimidated by his presence . He had a certain aura about him which will be very hard to replace, whether or not his powers were fading ,as some argue.

Have to agree also with the comments about Cygan. The poor guy does get so much stick if he makes the slightest mistake whereas we tend to be much more lenient with our other CBs. Case in point tonight where both Kolo (who generally had a good game and was impressive going forward) and Phil made errors of judgement which could easily have lead to goals. Credit where credit's due, Pascal played well tonight. However, if Christanval doesn't work out we must get another experienced CB as cover. Phil's a wonderful prospect but it's too much to expect of him to maintain the form he showed in the spring over an entire season. And we can't bank on Sol being fit for long spells, unfortunately.

What does excite me is the depth of our young talent coming through. I'm concerned that Arsène will rely on it too heavily this season but it was great to see the likes of Eboue, Flamini, Bentley and Lupoli make an impression tonight. Phil was out of sorts but we know what he can do. I'm convinced Reyes will improve . Don't forget his form last August/September. We've seen what he's capable of and I'm sure he can be a big player for us this season. And I haven't even mentioned Van Persie, Clichy, Cesc or Quincy. Hleb, Cole and Toure are only 24 too.

It would be fantastic to go and win one or more of the big prizes with this squad. The sense of achievement at conquering (dirty)moneybags Chelski and ManU would be enormous. But I have serious doubts we're really strong enough to pull it off without a few additions between now and August 31st.

 

[kel varnsen]

Hasn't Hoyte looked good aswell? I think his mum was a runner so he's certainly faster than Lauren and what I've seen of him he's very good defensively.

f*ck hoyte. he is crap and not even close to lauren. i don't know why i'm so pissed right now, but i am.

edit:
could we please sh*t the hell up about owen. he isn't coming here(thank god) and he is sh*te...

 

[gstew]

Hasn't Hoyte looked good aswell? I think his mum was a runner so he's certainly faster than Lauren and what I've seen of him he's very good defensively.

f*ck hoyte. he is crap and not even close to lauren. i don't know why i'm so pissed right now, but i am.

edit:
could we please sh*t the hell up about owen. he isn't coming here(thank god) and he is sh*te...

Kel,

As always, your eloquence reminds me of an unfolding flower....both beautiful and expansive.

 

[Baxrus]

i don't know why i'm so pissed right now, but i am.

your lotteryticket didnt go in?

 

[kel varnsen]

i'm going to bed now. i think that is best for all of us...

 

[kel varnsen]

Flamini also did very well (except for the silly pass to pires when he had a chance to score). He made a lot of good interceptions and helped going forward and defensively. Eboue should be given more chances, he seeed more calm compared to Lauren who made a lot of silly challenges.

hehe, silly is a funny word...

edit: ok, i'm either drunk or high. i'm going to bed right now...

 

[Canuck]

I believe it's also a town in Belgium...Silly that is.

 

[jay-d]

Jesus christ, there are some seriously f****g moany ****s on here. Jay-d, lodi, sakuraba etc - why don't you just wait for the highlights, that way you can skip them if Arsenal lose, or don't beat the opposition 58-0 with scintillating attacking football. It was a pre-season friendly for gods sake. Remember the corresponding against River Plate last season? That terribly exciting nil-nil draw? Get some bloody perspective.

Good work-out for the lads, and the win will do them no harm (good confidence booster for Lupoli too). I'm not so sure about Pires in the centre though, at 32 I don't think a player of his type is cut out for the role and I reckon Wenger will agree when he picks the team for Newcastle.

What do you want me to say? We played well? We didn't, but if you read my other posts I did say it's still pre season so there's hope. Fact is we looked very poor at times, there was no or little cohesion. I mean some of you refuse to criticize, why? I'm not just *****ing and moaning I'm stating I think we need to improve, OK given that our first choice CM pair Cesc and Gil were missing today could explain a lot. But at times we just looked void of ideas. But like I said before it's pre season at that could explain why. So why don't you keep talking about Arsenal instead of turning your attention to me. Each to their own and all that.

 

[KingReyes]

When asked about Pires playing in the centre for the coming season Wenger replied by saying. "Not necessarily, Robert's a good player and he can play in any position. Thats the advantage of pre season because you can try."

 

[sabret00the]

cygan was the best of our 3 cbs on show today i felt.

definately, i really thought kolo was poor today, don't get me wrong i thought that phil was too, but it was weird, while kolo seemed phsyically fit, his brain was on neptune and phil was vice versa.

 

[sabret00the]

When asked about Pires playing in the centre for the coming season Wenger replied by saying. "Not necessarily, Robert's a good player and he can play in any position. Thats the advantage of pre season because you can try."

great news really, he's failed there all pre-season.

 

[Canuck]

So it'll be Freddie then. I'm glad we've resolved that... :mrgreen:

 

[Chips&CurrySauce]

People have to calm down and have a little bit of perspective.. First of all we were playing a good Ajax side, away from home and over the 90 minutes we created the best clear cut chances.. Freddie really should have scored both, they were both easy finsishes..

There were also some good performances.. Hleb looks class and he has to start.. I'm not sure where Arsène will play him but surely he is a better bet than Pires in the middle..
Bentley came on and he also added some finess to our game.. He sees openings and keeps possession well.. I think he deserves to play more this season..
Eboue looked good a the back, he seemed to defend against Babble much better than Lauren.. Lauren though a good player really does struggle against fast out and out wingers..
Of coursse Lupoli deserves a mention.. Only 18 years old and he has a vicious shot on him, not bad for someone who is still developing physically.. He really does have an excellent shooting technique with very little back lift.. Kind of reminded me of Robbie Fowler in his younger days..

Of course there were disappontments too.. Pires quite clearly can't play in the middle.. He doesn't tackle, doesn't track back and doesn't have the tenacity to play this role..

Senderos looked a bit shaky, his distribution was very poor at times.. He should just play it simple instead of attempting long balls..

Dennis was off the pace..

Henry alos seems to have changed his style.. He plays down the centra alot more, but I still think he is at his best when he drifts to the left where he can use his pace.. He seems to do this les and less these days..

I do feel we need a new midfielder though.. Someone who candominate the centre of the park and control the game.. Gilberto, Flamini don't have the ability to do this and Cesc is still young.. I hope Arsène focuses on brining in one top class central mdfielder, then I think we will be just fine!

 

[KingReyes]

Top post Chips, agree with most of what you said. You can see we were lacking sharpness up front with Freddie missing twp easy chances and Henry being quiet and missing a good chance himself. I'm sure slowly we'll pick up and take our chances when they come to us.

I think the question on everyone's lips at the moment is who will play central with Gilberto and the majority don't want Pires.

 

[Feis-al]

Yes they don't want Pires, Me inclusive and since I've seen Freddie do it even for Sweden at 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004, I believe he should do it while interchanging with Hleb. However, I still believe Cesc should be leading that que if he has support behind him. That is just a personal opinion

 

[fuma75]

this is ideal for me so far...

-----henry---rvp
reyes----hleb----freddie or bentley
--------gilberto

 

[Gurgen]

At least we can agree now that Pires in the middle is a very bad idea.

I think Eboue should gradually replace Lauren this season, he is stronger, faster and as much as I love Lauren, he is just too slow. Babel was humiliating him and when Eboue came on Babel didn't get past him once.
Hleb is absolute quality and should play in the middle with Gilberto.
And Lupoli is a natural, we have a real deadly Italian finisher on our hands here. I don't recall the kid even wasting half a chance yet.

 

[KingReyes]

IMO..The thing with Lupoli is that at his size he's going to have to depend on his movement off the ball to be a success. Players like Henry and Bergy are stronger physically but Lupoli is similar to what Freddie is where his positioning off the ball will be important.

 

[Isragooner]

ah you don't?get the barnet highlights.