One of my good friends was getting married this weekend, so i didn't have a chance to either watch the Norwich game or write about it. My initial plan was, when i got back home on Monday, to watch the tape and then write my blog. I obviously checked the score and heard that we lost; then one of my buddies who saw the game said we played shit; Wenger in his post match interview admitted we played shit; so i decided i am not going to go through the suffering of watching 90 minutes of shit football. I have seen plenty of those games in the last 7 years: lots of possession, no real chances, mistake in the back, lose away from home. I did watch the extended highlights of the game and we maybe had 1 or 2 decent chances for the whole game. What i did watch today, was our Champions League game against Schalke 04, and i will share my thoughts about it, without going into great detail as i normally do.
First and foremost, i have to mention our team selection. The SAME team from this weekend against Norwich, with ONE change: Coquelin for Giroud. I repeat: ONE change! I am not a math scientist but i am pretty sure that if you had a match on Saturday and you played shit, and then you have a match on Wednesday and you play the same exact team, the result is not going to be much different. Obviously with Walcott, Diaby and Gibbs out injured, you don't have a huge choice, but you DO have other options. If i am not mistaken: Arteta, Cazorla, Podolski, Vermaelen, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Gibbs (before he got hurt) have played in EVERY single Premier League or Champions League match this season. And then you have Ramsey (after Diaby got hurt) and Gervinho who played ALMOST every game.
Wenger said after the Norwich match and i quote "I felt we lacked a bit of sharpness. But we missed what makes the success at the top level - that is complete focus. And they were sharper than us" ; "We had a lot of the ball but did not create much with it. It was an illusionary domination. It was a disappointing performance on our side" Well, no shit Sherlock, if we play the SAME core group of players in EVERY single game of course there will be lack of sharpness. Players get tired both mentally and physically. I am surprised Arteta, Cazorla and the rest, have not gotten injured yet. If Wenger does not start rotating the team more and mix and match the teams for Champions League and the Premier League, i expect more of the same results that we had this Saturday and today.
Today's game against Schalke just proved that if ANY team, plays very organized and presses well up the pitch against us, we have no answer, except keeping possession and not creating much. It's not "we don't have a good scorer" problem; it's "we don't execute well enough to CREATE chances" problem. Not to mention our current left back, good old Mr. Santos is slower than a turtle and leaves the defense exposed every time he goes forward. Heck, we are exposed even when he stays back, because he can't catch up to anyone. I don't know how many times Mertesacker had to clear the ball from our penalty area because Santos got repeatedly beat down the left and balls/crosses just kept coming in. If you are Wenger and you know your second left back is liability, you manage Gibbs better, and give him breathers on less important games during the season, so you don't get stuck with Santos when Gibbs gets one of his regular injuries. Or maybe you go BUY a left back that can run. I would even put Koscielny in at centre half, and put Vermaelen at left back. But then again, that means the SAME four defenders would have to play every game.
I have said this many times in previous posts, but i honestly feel that if Wenger doesn't change and adapt his management style, our mediocrity will continue. We will be a top 4, top 6 team, maybe pass the group stage at the Champions League but that's about it. I don't think we should let Wenger go, but HE should stop repeating the same mistakes he always does and then give us the same bulshit excuse: "We were a bit tired today; We lacked sharpness and focus; But our attitude was great and i can't ask for more from my players". Fuck man, i am tired of bulshit. Enough for today.
p.s.I don't support the idea of bringing in a new coach that spends like Chelsea and Man City because we don't have sugar daddies like they do. And i do feel that many players nowadays are unrealistically overpaid. I like the way we run our wage structure and so on, but we must NOT buy and pay decent salaries to awful players like Almunia, Squilaci, Djourou and so on. And we also have to manage and use the good players that we do have, in a smarter/better way.
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