FR: Porto vs Arsenal | 31/07/05

[AFCG7]

Once again our midfield looked very lighweight. Flamini tries to do to much with the ball after he wins it.. this is 2 matches in a row where he has won balls but immediately loses the ball again in trying to take it too far along. He needs to keep it simple..win the ball and find a player in space.
We arent going to win anything with a midfield like this one. Maybe Gilberto and Cesc playing will make a big difference.
Once again though this game showed that when we are interested and start to turn the pressure on we are scoring goals.
Senderos looks really tired to me..maybe Wenger should have rested him for this game.

 

[AFCG7]

BY the way ..Henry looks ineffective as a front man down the middle. As soon as he shifts to the left he looks more dangerous.

 

[yonatan]

That's always been the case. That's why Reyes always bumps into him and they almost never play well for the same time periods of a game. I can only think of the Crystal Palace 5-1 thrashing last year when they linked up well together for large periods of time and therefore played well at the same time periods of the game.

 

[asajoseph]

Actually, I think in the second half it wasn't shifting out wide that made Henry more dangerous and effective, it was the fact that he started coming deep to collect the ball, and then dribbling at defenders (which happened to be down the left hand side). The combination of Henry and Hleb running at a defence from midfield positions is frankly sick!

 

[arsenal4life]

we need BALLAK

i believe we can get him for the same amount of money we offered for Baptista

we need him really

 

[Eastrek]

:-D

 

[goooner]

we need BALLAK

i believe we can get him for the same amount of money we offered for Baptista

we need him really

There is only one thing that i don't agree here and that is that we don't need BALLAK, but we need BALLACK

Yes we need him more that anything he revealed that he doesn't attend to extend his contract at Bayern which expires next year, so bavarians should sell him now to get some money out of him.

 

[asajoseph]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002 ... 20,00.html

some quotes in this article about the match.

As I was saying earlier about the lack of a go to guy in the centre of the midfield...

The Gunners boss said: “Before, when our defenders had the ball, the obvious thing to do was to look to Patrick Vieira because he always wanted it.

“He was not scared with three players around him to take the ball. Now we have to find a different way to share the responsibility.”

This is very true, although I think that Pires and Flamini is not a combination that will do that well. We need people with composure on the ball, and strength to shield it. Nobody on the team fits the bill, sadly. We need a new CM.

 

[Legend#1]

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0WYDFOAA2LR9U1HYFCICVLF65Q

:shock: 8)

 

[eddie_wills]

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0WYDFOAA2LR9U1HYFCICVLF65Q

:shock: 8)

what's this?

 

[Legend#1]

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0WYDFOAA2LR9U1HYFCICVLF65Q

:shock: 8)

what's this?

Give it a download.. you won't be disappointed.

 

[GoonerDK]

Disturbing that pires is being tried in CM, when it is obvious that he has absolutely nothing to do there!

No doubt that Ballack would be an excellent addition

 

[gstew]

Cygan is horrible! I dont even know why he plays the piece of s***e.

Cygan has been our best defender this game. What are you watching?? Typical of someone who wants to feel better about himself by denigrating others. And since it is OK to flame Cygan, he is the obvious choice. Were you not breast fed as a baby and therefore have low self esteem?

haha, bro, i love it when you go off on the cygan bashers. youre def on to something there.

Thanks for the support. I know that he is a good-not-great player and our standards should be great players. But it is almost impossible to find greatness in a 4th choice CB. I think we are fortunate to have his quality, experience and positive team attitude as 4th choice. He does not deserve the constant abuse.

 

[burnsjed]

sabret00the, you've got this totally wrong - if Senderos had been marking his man properly, he'd have cut the pass out before it got to him, or somehow prevented him from getting to the ball - that's what marking is. The fact that Senderos' man got a foot to the ball and scored is no more Cygan's fault than Henry's. If Senderos had done a better job marking his man, or Cole had done a better job blocking the cross, it wouldn't have been a goal. Cygan was marking his man, as the Porto player dribbled up the line, and that's where he should have been. There was no way he could have got accross in time to cut out the ball into the box, and it was the fact that Senderos wasn't marking his man properly that lead to the goal.

let's agree to disagree.

btw i think that cygan was by far the best defender.

So I am talking **** cos I disagree with you, yet asa it's lets agree to disagree!

There were 3 defenders in question

Cole, lets his man beat him, then let his man get the cross over, so he failed on 2 accounts.

Cygan, stuck to his man.

Senderos was atleast 2 steps behind his man, and the guy he was marking scored.

So bloody mastermind decides Cygan is at fault!

 

[KoLo28]

Oh mate it's always Cygans fault around here :roll:

 

[sabret00the]

sabret00the, you've got this totally wrong - if Senderos had been marking his man properly, he'd have cut the pass out before it got to him, or somehow prevented him from getting to the ball - that's what marking is. The fact that Senderos' man got a foot to the ball and scored is no more Cygan's fault than Henry's. If Senderos had done a better job marking his man, or Cole had done a better job blocking the cross, it wouldn't have been a goal. Cygan was marking his man, as the Porto player dribbled up the line, and that's where he should have been. There was no way he could have got accross in time to cut out the ball into the box, and it was the fact that Senderos wasn't marking his man properly that lead to the goal.

let's agree to disagree.

btw i think that cygan was by far the best defender.

So I am talking s**t cos I disagree with you, yet asa it's lets agree to disagree!

There were 3 defenders in question

Cole, lets his man beat him, then let his man get the cross over, so he failed on 2 accounts.

Cygan, stuck to his man.

Senderos was atleast 2 steps behind his man, and the guy he was marking scored.

So bloody mastermind decides Cygan is at fault!

being that you and asa are both coming from the same point of view and i said "if both defenders were just marking their men and no one tried to clear the ball then it would've left a free loose ball to any other player to gallop in an dstriker and everyones still disagreeing, the let's agree to disagree thing was to everyone, ultimately whether i like it or not, whether you like it or not it's about opinion on these things, i'm pretty sure if you was the manager you'd pick different teams to me, just as if i was manager i'd pick different teams to you, when i told you that you were talking ****, i made sure that you knew i wasn't attacking you or being serious in any which was hence the use of smilies and yet here you are getting all girlified over it, i understand that we're not gonna agree, for me once the ball escaped cole it was upto the first defender to try and clear it and if it got past him it was down to the second defender, but it never happened like that and so ultimately we conceeded, it's not life or death it's just the situation, so to you to, let's agree to disagree as we quite clearly have the potential to be as stubborn as eachother on this one and it's not like it's gonna effect the rest of our lives.

and to anyone else who feels the needs to go back a page or two and get emotional over this, let's agree to disagree too

 

[1970*Gooner]

Disturbing that pires is being tried in CM, when it is obvious that he has absolutely nothing to do there!

No doubt that Ballack would be an excellent addition

Pires was like a ghost playing in that position, he is not the worlds best at tackling is he, we need more power in the engine room. I hope AW has something lined up, Ballack would be good.

 

[goooner]

Well even though we all want a new player in midfield, you need to realise that season is starting next sunday against Chelsea in charity shield so there is no time to buy new player and even if we buy someone new it would need a lot to combine that team so now we have to play with what we got and hope that AW can make this team a new champions.

 

[burnsjed]

Sabre old chap, this will be my final posting on the subject (hopefully!)

Now I would like to think that you agree that Ashley Cole shoulder's some of the blame for letting his man get past him, and then get the cross over (though I don't recall you admitting this)

Senderos

You first said.

don't get me wrong, senderos was beat by his man

Then

if we're saying cygan marked his man which he did then so did senderos

Given that Cygan was not beat by his man, I will give you the benefit of the doubt, that you know Senderos did not mark his man, but you were trying to cover up your original argument.
If you honestly think Senderos marked his man, even though he was a couple of steps behind him, then I am at a loss.
I would like to think you do hold Senderos responsible for losing his man, and therefore the majority of the blame lies at his door.

Cygan.
Now given he was marking his man who didn't get to the ball ahead of him he achieved his job.
If the guy he was marking had made a run closer to the path of the ball, then Cygan may have been in a position to attack the ball and defend it, but he didn't.
If Cygan had tried to anticipate the path of the cross and had left his man and got ahead of him, the guy who crossed it would then have been able to pull it back, and Cygan's man would have had a free shot on goal, not very good defending.

As fas as the extra attacking player making a late run and popping up in the box, most pundits will agree that this is the hardest player to pick up.
However, if the midfield are doing their job properly, they should be tracking the runs of any other attacking player, I am sure you agree the defence can not do this all on their own.

I do not see how Cygan is in any way responsible for this goal.
He may have been responsible for others, and he may be responsible in the future!

I have no idea what your general feelings are on Cygan, I know you liked SWP and I know you like the young kids a lot (not in the M Jackson way I hasten to add!)

 

[sabret00the]

burny, dude, why not just agree to disagree? but ok here goes.

Ashley's man beat him it happens, of course he shoulds blame but that's football it's unfair to assign fault when you're outplayed, everyone get's someone that beats them, when henry don't score we don't say **** it's his fault do we, we just accept that it can't go our way all the time, don't we?

Regarding the Cygan and Senderos comparison works...actually before i go into please don't debate with me in future trying to paraphrase on what i said, i said, you've taken half a sentence and manipulated it to make it look like i'm fickle when what i said if if it was situation A then Situation B is as is. Anything getting back on topic, the reason why i say that is because if Cygan was right in what he done then Senderos also wasn't in the wrong being that his man never escaped him to talk multiple touches, he got a foot (the piece of the body) past senderos and scored using it.

Regarding your third paragraph, let's say that you're saying that the midfield should be picking up the other 7 players which is impossible then it falls down to the defence, as not even the midfield can do it all on their own.

While you don't agree that Cygan is at fault in this, i personally feel he has to take as much responsibility as Cole, but that's just my opinion, i'm really not trying to convince you, just get you to acknowledge that my opinion differs from yours and i'm not just assigning blame to Cygan for the sake of making him the evil guy, he was still our best defender on the day.

@ the Jackson joke, but personally i have no feelings on Cygan, i neither like or dislike him, it serves no purpose for me to either praise of villianise him, i'm just calling it how i saw it.

Can we agree to disagree now? ops: