Another day, same s#!+. only at Arsenal I guess. A quick look through the papers this morning tells us little we don’t already know, with every journalist speculating “exclusively” on the imminent departures of Fabregas and Nasri. I won’t bother to link, it’s a waste of time. Can somebody just move them along already please!!!
Ok, so we are on the eve of the new season, but none of us has a clue as to what our starting 11 is. I don’t think even Arsene knows quite frankly. Arsene Doesn’t know (for once)... ahem... What I can’t understand is why it’s so hard for Arsenal particularly to sort out player transfers? Am I being unreasonable in saying that our transfer activity is suspiciously complicated? Of course I don’t have any inside connection, but looking at how other clubs are going about their business, I am left with no conclusion but that our transfer activity is suspicious complicated. You see we never JUST DO IT. We always do things last minute, why that is the case i don’t know. Our transfer targets generally arrive towards the end of the transfer window and I think this must change. Trust me; this uncertainty is not only affecting us but the players too. You can see that even they know that our squad is not strong enough, though they cannot openly say so.
Enough said. What of the season ahead, well we seem to be gathering a lot of wingers of late. There was a time when wenger was collecting a lot of central midfielders. Anyone remember the days when Diaby played on the left? WTF was wenger trying to do on that one?
So looking at it now, I think wenger is trying to go the good old fashioned way of playing proper wingers on the wings. You see, for the past 2 or 3 seasons, the only real threat we had on the wings was Walcott. Arshavin for me has lost that explosive pace we saw in Euro 2008. For all his technical ability, he has struggled to really be effective on our left wing, ala Pires. I think he might be moved inside, to play more as a no10 where his trickery and passing can be more effective. I think we shall see Gervinho, Miyaichi, Chamberlain and Theo more on the wings, particularly when we play 4-4-2.
When we play 4-3-3 then i expect Arshavin, Gervinho and Theo to exchange the wide attacking berths. But as the season progresses, perhaps with Chamberlain and Miyaichi improving, they might make more substitutes appearances in the wide attacking berths.
Our attack in every formation will be headed by Van Persie, when he is not injured. I suspect this season might see Walcott get more game time upfront than in previous seasons. Gervinho also looks useful and can lead the line in the Absence of Van Persie. Our Moroccan connection Chamakh really bothers me. Is it a temporary loss of form or is he another Francis Jeffers? I shudder at the thought of the latter. I think we might have to sign a striker. I don’t think Afobe is ready yet, but with Wenger, who knows...
The loss of Fabregas and Nasri for me is just an unnecessary distraction and insult to our club. The sooner they leave the better. I think between Ramsey, Wilshere, Rosicky, Song, Frimpong and Diaby (forgotten man) we have sufficient manpower to form a good midfield trio. I just shudder at the prospect of an injury to any one of the 1st 5 midfielders above. Diaby we know is perennially injured and when he is not, he can be either very good or very poor... God help him. I think Arsene might yet bring in another central midfielder.
And so to the defence. Jenkinson I think will be a very capable understudy to Sagna. Our strongest central defence partnership is Vermaelen and Koscielny. Djourou is not bad, but is very error prone. He is sometimes too confident and tries to control the ball under pressure, instead of just hoofing it away to safety first. If he can improve on that part of his game, i.e. knowing when to control the ball or just hoofing it away, I think we have a very good central defender there. Squillaci is an embarrassment and should just be put down... I feel sorry for the lad, i guess it’s a case of wrong guy wrong time for him and us... We need to buy at least another central defender. Jags, Dann, Samba, Joe Hammerfoot, anybody, at this moment in time I would take frankly.
I’m not too confident with Gibbs and Traore to be honest, but I doubt wenger will buy in that department so no point bothering. Both are inexperienced and prone to injury in my view, but only time will tell. The Goalkeeping department is sorted.
The squad is too thin without a new defender, midfielder and dare I say striker. You’ll notice I have left out Fabregas and Nasri because I have decided that they are have already left.
So our team is shaping up thus from defence:
Chezny/Fabianski/Mannone
Sagna/Jenkinson Koscielny/Djourou/Vermaelen/? Gibbs/Traore
Song/Frimpong/Diaby
Walcott/Chamberlain Rosicky/Wilshere/Ramsey/? Miyaichi/Gervinho
Van Persie/Chamakh/?
Not bad at all, but could be better....
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