Furlong not good enough .... Yet

I thought it was great that after months of moaning people got a back 4 starting the game all under the age of 30.
Furlong would not have been exposed it Sandro had not been a crock all season and had to be replaced as a precaution.
Sandro and Henry were stamping their authority all over the midfield in the first half and then Sandro ran out of steam.
Henry got a soft yellow card and had to back off in the second half and the problem was then Nico should simply just not be in the team. He is too slow and he is even more guilty of fannying around on the ball like Barton does from time to time and wants to show he can beat players with intricate turns, rather look for the simple layoff. If you are going to single out anyone for the two Arsenal goals, there is your culprit. His first one gave away possession when he could have played it inside easily or back out wide and that loss of possession lead to a counter attack that Arsenal excel at. The second was a lazy half arsed attempt to clear a ball rather than take ownership of the clearance.
Rob Green could not be blamed for being beaten at the near post when the playing striking the ball that hard is only a few yards out. Sometimes a goalie will get beaten through sheer attacking endeavor and not through fault of his own. Green has also at times single handedly kept us in games and would be on my shortlist for player of the season.

 

I didn't see Hoof ball last night I saw controlled and measured passing by us with a clear directive to aim for our two front men
A couple of chances were made and its just those chances that win you games
Arsenal came out second half and changed gears with their game as SB says …a system that has been drilled into Arsenal you add to that players with total composure, understanding and you are close to brilliance. However CR played a brilliant tactic to offset their game and I am sure that if one of our chances had gone in different game because Arsenal heads do drop … it was very good IMO to take a new game to Arsenal… they didn't like it

I would say that we were just unable to cope with their step up in the second game as they passed and skilled themselves to within 3 feet of our goal … name a team in the premier league who can do that?

Furlong has Sanchez under wraps for a lot of that game and deserves nothing but credit IMO

Mild criticism we looked to play safe even after going two goals down yet we regained our simple game enough for Austin to announce that he can score against the best. I think he is growing so fast as a player and I didn't think he would make it but he has no doubt now and we will have trouble holding onto him .. he is as good as Kane at scoring butane's work rate is off the charts … good news for England

 

Great post this!....People are too quick to criticise our own players instead of giving praise for the opposition players.....Sanchez is world class, and does what he does best, whoever he's up against. Generally speaking ,too many times I read that it is poor defending when we concede, (sometimes it is!) but hardly ever is credit given to the oppo for maybe a well worked goal. It seems ALWAYS that the defence "could have done better".

 

Hoilett was more of a problem to Furlong than Sanchez!

 

I thought we looked the better side till we lost Sandro and onuha , I was at the game felt we was unlucky and kkranky was a shambles when he came on .

 

Not much to add to this spot on analysis. Krancjar's introduction unbalanced a formation that was working pretty well. Which brings us back to Col's comments about Ramsey's tactics. Given our sick list and Barton's usual suicide mission it's difficult to see how we could have lined up differently other than to play Krancjar from the start which would clearly have been a disaster. We are maybe forgetting that Arsenal are one of the best sides in Europe.

 

I'd be delighted with that front four on Saturday and it should have been something very similar last night imo.

 

Hoilett was on the left.

 

I didn't have the chance to watch the game but I've read the posts on this and the matchday thread with interest.

Sanchez is class and Furlong will have benefited by playing against him. Perhaps he could have had more support but Sanchez is more than capable of beating two men as well as the one. The rest of Arsenal's team is full of players that would enjoy the space created by any doubling up or excessive cover (Ozil, Cazorla, Rosicky and Giroud).

There's little point in Ramsey putting in the youngsters and then trying to carry them - they need to be treated like they're established (barring vocal support from those around).

The matches that I have seen, the play is reminiscent of how we've played under Arry (in terms of hoofing it up to BZ) but there's a clearer use of wingers, a clearer plan in operation (ie more focused and organised) and more energy and drive in each player's performance. To change style part way through the season would be catastrophic IMO.

We should never expect defeat from a game no matter who we play (on the premise that we can beat the top teams once every 10 games then let's try to improve that ratio or make the one time the current time) but we shouldn't excessively berate the team or consider it a sign of impending doom (not that I've seen a lot of anything but clear analysis and debate) if we do succumb to a top side.

Try to beat Spurs (a more winnable game but still probably odds against us) and, if we don't, we move on knowing that there's a bit more pressure to cause an upset in another game or two later on that we're not meant to win.

 

The point is, if you're going to hoof it up to BZ and use wingers in a 4-4-2, those wingers simply have to track back. It can't work any other way. We more or less played 4-2-4 last night and that was tactically naive imo.
Coquelin, as good a player as he is, was given the freedom of W12 to sit in front of his back four and dictate everything. We had no one in that area to stop him.
I like Ramsey and I think we should stick with him when we go down, as he will bring on the youngsters and build a side hopefully. This will be very necessary as the likes of Austin will not be around.

 

Col why do you keep on disregarding Phillips defensive side and then kidding yourselves that Sandro and Henry contributed going forward.

By your logic we can call our formation last night a 6-0-3 because Hoilett didn’t attack or defend

Can only rember one instance that Gibbs got forward and that came to nothing so stop worrying about the wingers tracking back. Actually Bellerin had more of an impact

Coquellin didn’t dicate everything. He made nothing passess. Only Sanchez and Rosicky hurt us really

Swords has it right. You would definitely be the worse football scout in history

Biggest game changing incident last night was Gabriel’s injury. As soon as oscielny came on BZ didn’t win a header or being anything down which he did at ease before.

If it weren’t for Onouha’s injury then Zarate would come on (for whatever reason I’m told Ramsey don’t like Vargas)

 

Where have I said that Sandro and Henry contributed going forward? I'd have played them both as holding players in a 4-2-3-1 anyway.
Gibbs got forward for both their goals.
A winger in a 4-4-2 isn't actually a winger, he's a wide midfielder whose job is to get forward and track back. Their job is to help out with the opposition's wide players when we are defending. You have no understanding of this whatsoever.
If I would make the worst football scout in history, then you would certainly make the worst coach. You seem to have no tactical knowledge at all.

Also, if it's true that Ramsey doesn't rate Vargas, a goal scoring International and a bloody good footballer, then we're in more trouble than I thought!

 

Exactly this !!

 

Must admit I find the Vargas situation very odd although I suppose he's either an up top striker or plays in the No. 10 role. So as we don't play with an out 'n' out No 10 his only place is up top with either OBZ/Austin and seeing as our game plan seems to be knock the ball up to OBZ you have to leave out Austin which is madness as he has scored almost 50% of our goals.

I would like to see both Vargas and Zareta start against Spurs with Phillips wide right but all three to have licence to roam in behind Austin up top in a fluid 4231 that was so good at Sunderland. What was interesting on the commentary last night was the number of times it was mentioned that we were not picking up the 2nd ball, nobody from the midfield was far enough forward so the strikers were isolated particually in the 2nd half. At least with 4231 the midfield has to get further forward to support the striker thus creating more opportunities.

Back OT I thought the lad Furlong had a decent game, he is not going to play against someone of Sanchez's quality every week, it was a good but harsh lesson.

 

Excellent post.
There was no support for the two forwards as were were playing 4-2-4 most of the time, with huge space down the centre.
You're right that the formation and display against Sunderland seemed to be a huge step forward. I'm just disappointed that last night seemed a step back to old Dino's tactic of hoofing it up to Bobby.

I agree that the injury to Ned and Sandro having to go off severely hampered us and it's true that Gabriel's injury actually helped them to cope with BZ much better.
However, Kranjcar should never be played as part of a midfield two and he was terrible when he came on. We could have left Henry as the holding midfielder and gone 4-1-4-1 rather than letting Nico show-pony in the centre.

We miss Fer a lot.

It's all opinions eh?

 

If we had scored first (Cliche I know but we deserved to) it would have been a different story. I think a lot of you are forgetting we are literally down to the bear bones now in the squad re injuries and suspensions...... no Fer, Faurlin, Barton, Ferdinand, Dunn, Sandro/Isla not 100% so Kranky had to play centre midfield as no one else when sandro came off. Ramsey had a game plan which worked for the most part.....he needs time which thanks to HR and TF he hasnt got.......!!!

 

Posted the very same thing on the Match Day thread, Col.

 

COL, that is so annoying. You were constantly telling us that Phillips was a rubbish player even though it was obvious he was decent. Now you're saying he's just miraculously turned good all of a sudden even though everyone else always said he was a good player.

How you can rate Toilet above him is beyond comprehension mate.

 

Well you said we played a 4-2-4. This coming after you moaned about phillips deficiency's tracking back.

He obviously didn't play up front. You are grossly exaggerating the defensive deficemcy and over playing the time he spent forward. He could have done more defensively maybe but I say let him off. Been in our top 3 players3 games running. When has your bum chuum hoilett ever beenthat? And he's not exactly the best defensively and gives sod all going forward.

You then over play Sandro and henry's contribution. By the logic you apply to phillips (not enough going backward and lots going forward). You should say Sandro and Henry are defenders because not enough offensively but lots of pluses defensively

So phillips could do more defensively but Sandro and Henry could do more offensively. So I think you are wrong to discountphillips as a midfielder and say he's an attacker then not disregard Sandro and Henry as midfielders and label them as defenders.

Phillips has set up all 4 of our goals since he has beenin theside. You want to start looking for other weak links especially as you are so in to Hoilett