PL: Arsenal vs Manchester United | 03/01/06

[Army of Me]

agree to disagree. i have to be honest i dont think i've ever seen him as a playmaker, nor have i ever seen him described as one.

now hleb, imo, is a playmaker.

 

[Anonymous]

i really do believe the 4-5-1 formation works. just look at all the two best teams in the world at the moment. chelsea and barcelona. however, i think Henry is not suited for making runs off through balls. He likes to do it himself, i reckon we buy kryut, but for now, vanpersie or ljungberg would do that job nicely. Also, hleb is world class, but we gotta play him at CM. Hes not a winger. Also, we need to buy a new RM that can cross etc. Think cole back in 2 weeks? if so, id play this.

---------------------Lehmann

Lauren-------Toure---------Campbell------Cole

-----------------------Silva
-----------Fabregas
---------------------------------Hleb

Henry----------------------------------------Reyes
---------------------Ljungberg

 

[_scorpion_]

I find it sad that we played for a 0-0 draw at home to a utd side with Fletcher and O's**t in midfield.

Shows that we are going backwards.

Over all we did ok, but we are no where near the side we once were. They created much the better chances and probably feel unlucky not to have won.

The game was a let down really, and I blame Chelsea and that c**t of a Russian, they are killing the game.

Pretty much sums up all my thoughts in a nutshell.

O'Shea and Fletcher in the middle and we couldnt dominate them? That's just ****e.

Goes to show if you play 2 tall mules against our mid feild you can pretty much keep up with us.

I don't know why people are masturbating over the 0-0 result. Or the fact were 4 points away from FOURTH? Has our ambition sunk to the level of Sp**s?

 

[Anonymous]

i really do believe the 4-5-1 formation works. just look at all the two best teams in the world at the moment. chelsea and barcelona. however, i think Henry is not suited for making runs off through balls. He likes to do it himself, i reckon we buy kryut, but for now, vanpersie or ljungberg would do that job nicely. Also, hleb is world class, but we gotta play him at CM. Hes not a winger. Also, we need to buy a new RM that can cross etc. Think cole back in 2 weeks? if so, id play this.

---------------------Lehmann

Lauren-------Toure---------Campbell------Cole

-----------------------Silva
-----------Fabregas
---------------------------------Hleb

Henry----------------------------------------Reyes
---------------------Ljungberg

Who would have the balls to tell Henry he is playing wide right! Will never happen.

 

[nazo]

i really do believe the 4-5-1 formation works. just look at all the two best teams in the world at the moment. chelsea and barcelona. however, i think Henry is not suited for making runs off through balls. He likes to do it himself, i reckon we buy kryut, but for now, vanpersie or ljungberg would do that job nicely. Also, hleb is world class, but we gotta play him at CM. Hes not a winger. Also, we need to buy a new RM that can cross etc. Think cole back in 2 weeks? if so, id play this.

---------------------Lehmann

Lauren-------Toure---------Campbell------Cole

-----------------------Silva
-----------Fabregas
---------------------------------Hleb

Henry----------------------------------------Reyes
---------------------Ljungberg

i just CANT believe your lineup
its pure nonsense

 

[godfather]

Why Henry can't make a run for others when he hasn't received the ball and just standing there and watching?

Come on Titi don't be so lazy!

 

[godfather]

i really do believe the 4-5-1 formation works. just look at all the two best teams in the world at the moment. chelsea and barcelona. however, i think Henry is not suited for making runs off through balls. He likes to do it himself, i reckon we buy kryut, but for now, vanpersie or ljungberg would do that job nicely. Also, hleb is world class, but we gotta play him at CM. Hes not a winger. Also, we need to buy a new RM that can cross etc. Think cole back in 2 weeks? if so, id play this.

---------------------Lehmann

Lauren-------Toure---------Campbell------Cole

-----------------------Silva
-----------Fabregas
---------------------------------Hleb

Henry----------------------------------------Reyes
---------------------Ljungberg

Whats this?
Hopefully AW didn't read this!

 

[Army of Me]

its not that far off, all we have to do is put henry in the centre, pires on the right and ljungberg on the subs bench.

 

[Tegh]

If Henry's heart isn't in it, he needs to go this Summer.

 

[kamikaze80]

if you look at where henry likes to play, he should be the left wing forward in a 4-3-3. rvp up front, put reyes on the right. being arsenal, it doesnt have to be rigid.

tonite, we needed more support from midfield since henry refuses to lead the line. of course, this wasnt really possible from reyes cos he had to protect cygan, and pires is physically past it, tho he gave a good effort tonite.

it was worrying that our 3-man midfield couldnt dominate utd's 2nd string 2-man midfield.

hleb looks a good dribbler and passer, but the man cannot shoot, i dont care what anyone says. to me, that should prevent him from being an automatic starter at emirates, and id much rather someone like rosicky with the technical skill and confidence to shoot and score when presented with an opportunity.

henry is clearly not 100% physically.

 

[OneProudGooner]

I got pissed off with our 'pass it into the net' way of thinking. The second half was quite unbearable it was really scrappy, frustrating and we could hardly keep hold of the ball more upfield. Still our defence was solid besides Cygan's usual inconsistent defending and with Gilberto looking like his old self we didn't look in much trouble except when we needlessly gave the ball away where it wasn't needed.

Still we seemed to lack a physical presence in midfield when it comes to battling in central midfield and a real attacking threat. Why can't we just smash it in from 25 yards or take route 1 go down the flanks, cross it in and finish rather than do 100 short passes across the box which leads to us losing the ball.

 

[nazo]

your right about our defense being solid.
in fact, whenever manure took the ball and went towards our GK, i was calm and didnt care.
but when we took the ball upfield, my heart would be beating and i would think, ok this is it, we are going to score, but we didnt.
and btw i was going to have a heartattack while i was yelling at my computer, when the ball was being passed around the manure area, wtf was everyone doing... ffs shoot the f'ing ball

 

[whoztheman]

i must have been watching a different game cos i thought reyes had an avergae game.

sol man of the match for me. played out of his skin. cygan did well too. henry was too deep-pissed me off no end-had an avergae game. van persie would have definitely scored from some of the chances that fell to pires, reyes, hleb.

i dont think we were playing for a draw. we wanted to win and we started extremely well. i think it was a fair game. their midfield DID NOT dominate ours. fab and gil did extremely well.

 

[nazo]

i must have been watching a different game cos i thought reyes had an avergae game.

sol man of the match for me. played out of his skin. cygan did well too. henry was too deep-pissed me off no end-had an avergae game. van persie would have definitely scored from some of the chances that fell to pires, reyes, hleb.

i dont think we were playing for a draw. we wanted to win and we started extremely well. i think it was a fair game. their midfield DID NOT dominate ours. fab and gil did extremely well.

i actually stopped reading there, what do you mean reyes had an average game. he was flipping neville upside down, and was giving ronaldo a really hard time in defending, other than that ive never seen him run so much in a match, he was everywhere

 

[OneProudGooner]

Their midfield took control in the second half we could hardly pass the way we did in the first half and we hardly had a chance to attack especially on the counter.. This blatently shows our midfield is too lightweight at the moment and the amount of games Fab is being made to play is too much for his age! Still they kept them pretty quiet despite that.

 

[nazo]

i really really hope wenger buys someone physically enough to control the middle.
i dont care who it is, but it has to be someone who can tackle, pass, and not make the game harder on us.. thats all i ask for

 

[jeromelee]

I think what Wenger needs to do is to go to some temple and pray for more luck for Arsenal because clearly we lack that.

 

[Anonymous]

ok then, how about this.

---------------------Lehmann

Lauren-------Toure---------Campbell------Cole

-----------------------Silva
-----------Zorka
---------------------------------Hleb

VanPersie------------------------------------Henry
---------------------Kruyt

 

[invisibleman18]

ok then, how about this.

---------------------Lehmann

Lauren-------Toure---------Campbell------Cole

-----------------------Silva
-----------Zorka
---------------------------------Hleb

VanPersie------------------------------------Henry
---------------------Kruyt

Honestly, have you ever made a post in this forum that didnt contain a lineup of some sorts (usually containing players we dont have and are not likely to ever have)?

anyways, I have to say that I thought Hleb played very well for once, in fact possibly his best performance of the season, and its probably no coincidence that he was playing in a more central midfield type of role. He has been poor out on the wings for us, and everything I have read on him suggests he is at his most comfortabel in the centre. So its probably no suprise that his best game for us has been in a central role.

 

[raphael_as]

it was worrying that our 3-man midfield couldnt dominate utd's 2nd string 2-man midfield.

I thought Fletcher and O'Shea were pretty much invisible for most of the game and Rooney was well-shackled - No long runs from half-way or anything.

On our side, Hleb got to do pretty much whatever he wanted in the center of the park (although of course the end product in the final 3rd was missing) and very little got through Gilberto, pretty much all of their attacking threat came from the flanks.

Cesc had a (for him) poor game and I think needs to have a week or two off but apart from that I thought our midfield (and defense) coped exceptionally well with a team that has put away 16 goals in their last 5 games.

Couple of other comments: I felt a penalty for Neville's tackle on Cesc would have been harsh (he did for a change actually get some of the ball) but as they say 'I have seen them given'.

For whatever reason, Henry is not performing at anything near his best at the moment, and in this form the 4-5-1 really doens't suit him (I don't know if it ever will, but it definately does not at the moment).

Wenger has to resolve this - our CM are too weak to play 4-4-2, and our best striker cannot play in 4-5-1.

Oh and a question - the soccernet write up on this says:

Arsenal played a three-man midfield, echoing not only their FA Cup final victory but also their unsuccessful attempt to stifle Chelsea's midfield a few weeks earlier.

I remeber it as being Cesc and Flamini in the centre with Freddie and Hleb on the wings and RVP and Henry up front (even with the subs I'm pretty sure we still weren't playing 3 in the middle of the park). Who's right?[/url]