(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 2)

As long as it's not Vermalen MK II I'm happy.

Has to be better than Johnny fudgeing Evans!

From Arseblog;
"The key stat is that Alexis couldn’t get into the game. He took one shot, a pot shot from distance that was blocked. He was also just 1/8 on aerial duels, made just 1 key pass, and had just 1 dribble. In the end he only even touched the ball 28 times. Walcott, who is normally ball-shy, got on the ball 40 times."

This sums up our attacking game. Walcott get's on the ball 40% more than Alexis. We are never going to win a game when unless that stat is reversed.

I disagree, it wasn't as much about Moreno being sh*t as it was about us pumping the ball in the air to Sanchez, he rarely got ball to feet.

It's both really. It was baffling to see the ball pumped to Sanchez though. He's not exactly a target man. Strange tactics.

Sigh.

Eurosport reporting Rambo is out for a month. FFS.

Also, seeing other "reports" on social media that our two key transfer targets have fallen through (ie: they've both pulled out).

Not too bad considering Rambo's usual thigh injuries.

Only misses 2 games I think, given the international break. 

We've got a lot of depth to cover him thankfully.

I'd be making 4 changes this week...

                     Cech

Bellerin-Holding-Koscielny-Monreal

              Xhaka-Elneny

         Walcott-Cazorla-Ox

                   Sanchez

And the bench should be looking strong...

Ospina, Chambers, Gibbs, Coquelin, Wilshere, Ozil, Giroud

Shift Sanchez out wide and chuck Giroud up top.

Sanchez is completely wasted as a lone striker. Could work in the Bergkamp sort of position of a 4-4-2 but with our current formation he has to be out wide. Don't see why Koscielny can't be ready next week. Sagna, Matuidi, Kante, Payet (ok he was subbed on) all played this week and they played just as much at the Euros. Centre back is probably less physically demanding than midfield too.

Yea I always thought Walcott up top and Sanchez wide worked better than the other way round. Walcott will go missing every other game but he does that anywhere he starts on the pitch anyway.

It's interesting that Wenger is trying this again with Sanchez, even with Walcott there. I am starting to wonder if they are looking at this as a long term thing. It could work if Sanchez is given time to adjust, and although yesterday's result was crap we did score 3 and miss a peno, so we're not toothless off the bat, so perhaps can afford to do that.

I agree Kosc should be able to play this week. Maybe even Ozil too, although I'd be starting Santi in the 10 role for sure.

I'd be more patient with Giroud though if I were Wenger. His frame and lack of speed mean he's a bit of a liability if he's not fully fit. If he's just lumbering about he'll be more of a hindrance than anything. Whereas with Ozil, Sanchez etc, they are smaller, naturally fitter, and will at least be competent when not completely fit. 

Yesterday showed how much we fudgeing miss Giroud with no other suitable options. Interesting to note that Lacazette scored a hattrick in the weekend too.

There is a positive in this; in that hopefully it'll help the haters realise exactly how key a player he is for us.

For me, it highlights that we need an alternative to Giroud when he's out/a different tactic - not a complete replacement for him.

Well yeah, because basically we tried to do the same thing but with a guy who is 5"6 in his role while also denying ourselves the opportunity of getting our best player on the ball to drive it forwards. Another tactical masterclass.

3 goals and a missed peno tells me the attacking end is the least of our worries right now. 

There's only so much of that you can put on Wenger. In a match scenario if you keep trying to do the same sh*t over and over again that isn't working Sanchez has to demand differently of the players, while the players must figure it out and change. This isn't Under 8's where your coach literally spoon feeds you the strategy, these guys need to be capable of adjusting when it's not working - which they didn't.

Will be interesting to see what it will be like with Xhaka on the field, he's apparently a great leader so that could be super useful.

EDIT: - not that I'm assuming you are - just an overall comments on tactics & where the responsibility for it sits on the field.

Oh, and if we're arguing over the price of 25m euros because we need to keep money in reserve for a big name signing - it better be f*cking Messi/Suarez/Neymar coming to justify f*cking around with this position.

Some stuff being tweeted just now suggesting Mustafi has been at London Colney for past 2 hours

Also lots of scattergun rumours - claims we're trying to hijack ManU's play for Fonte, and a 10m bid for Kjaer at Fenerbahce. Not sure what the deal is exactly... 

Maybe this thinking goes against the swell of current thought. but talking to a much more level headed mate yesterday and he pointed out that the result against liverpool might not have been as bad as i first though. his key points were that we lost one game and wenger hasnt done well over the last decade of winning the first game of the season. we lost by one goal, and one of the pools goals will be free kick contender for the season. and we had half of the first team missing. 

I know there is still hysteria with the lack of signings and i completely agree on that front. but maybe the result wasn't too bad thinking about it that way... 

I thought Liverpool had one of those halves where everything went right - those goals were superb, really. Kinda reminded me of the Nix v WSW where Powell scored with every kick.

We conceded FOUR goals at HOME.

I respectfully cannot accept that - even more so given the opposition. It's simply not good enough for any club that is seriously challenging for a title (which as things stand, we aren't), and, which charges it's members the highest ST prices in the league.

Not. Good. Enough.

That's it tbh. We did well to almost claw it back and it may have been "only 1 goal" in the end but there can never be a situation where it's acceptable for a club like Arsenal to be 4-1 down at home. I feared something similar to the 8-2 at that point but then it seemed like Liverpool weren't sure whether to keep going for it or sit back and defend what they had so ended up not really doing either. It's worrying that it's probably a surprise to Wenger that if you start 2 inexperienced young centre backs against a top PL team you usually get torn apart. One of them next to an experienced player sure, but you can't start 2 novices there in the league against Liverpool. 

In truth they battered us in the 2nd half and the score flattered us in the end. Holding and Chambers against Mahrez, Vardy and Musa this week is a scary thought.

Shouldn't be a starter anyway tbh.

Mahrez signs a new deal, so as expected it was just another agent using us in contract negotiations.

Well this + not wanting to spend too much on a CB = madness.

Guy on Twitter was right.

It isn't good enough I agree, but it doesn't preclude us from challenging. 

Leicester conceded 5 to us at home last year.

Chelsea conceded 4 at home in 2010.

ManU 4 at home in 2009.

For me it's all about what happens in these first 3 games as a group really. Go into the international break with 6 points, perhaps even 4, and I'd be somewhat relieved. Hopefully 2 new signings, Koscielny fully fit, and the rest of the team physically improved, and then I'd be looking forward to the rest of the season with optimism.

Lose against Leicester, and fail to beat Watford, that would be a total disaster. 

Some points from Arsene's presser

- sounds like Kosc might be rushed in 

- xhaka could start

- iwobi and ramsey both back after international break

- wants to keep gnabry and extend his contract, we had to 'rebuild his confidence' after not playing under Pulis at WBA

To go from long term injury, to no game time under Pulis, then come back to be top scorer going into the Olympics final is a hell of a turn around. They've done something really right there.

I gotta stop coming on here with twitter rumours because I've been wrong time after time this transfer window... but... still... here I am... lol

Sky Sports reporting that we're offering 41m for Draxler and that Wolfsburg are going to accept. 

Don't do it to yourself Paul.

It's my duty to report ;)

But in all seriousness, I know we're all hating on this transfer window right now, but does anyone actually believe we're not going to sign anyone else by Sept 1? 

I know we have history here but surely we will. At least one CB, there's just no way we'll not do that, despite our pessimism about it. I'll have to eat this comment if that happens that's for sure!

Personally, despite all my wrongness of late, I strongly believe we will have 2 new players 2 weeks from now, whomever they might be. 

I'm just hoping that a) they are good ones, and b) we have at least 4, preferably 6, points at that time. 

We'll probably end up with another CB on deadline day, though I think it's more likely to be someone like Jonny Evans than Mustafi as it seems Wenger just won't pay the money. How many league points it will have cost us by not sorting it our earlier is the main worry, especially when we knew about Mertesacker's injury a month before the first game. Away to the champions with one of the most potent forward lines in the league this week.

It's easy to see why he's reluctant to pay when asking fees are 30%+ over what they were a year ago. But he needs to move with the times also otherwise by the time he's ready to spend 30m on a defender they'll cost 50m.

Also we don't seem to have been seriously in for a forward since Vardy so think we've just looked at the fees and decided to stick with what we have. We thought we could get Vardy on the cheap with his relatively low release clause compared to other options so made an offer but wouldn't match the contract Leicester offered him. It doesn't seem like we have really tried for anyone else. Mahrez sounded more like his agent touting him around to better his new deal more than anything.

Really good points ajc. Particularly that last sentence, we do need to come to grips with this crazy money environment. Looking back now, even though he's yet to prove himself, I can see why we so quickly splashed on Xhaka. 30 odd mil for such a highly rated player seems a snip in hindsight. Getting him so early and keeping him out of the market was genius. Pity we didn't do the same for others, even if we did try with Vardy. 

Goofy666 pointed your CB point out to me too - the real mistake was not signing someone STRAIGHT after Mertesacker was injured, so that the Gabriel injury blow wouldn't have been so critical. 

Personally I think we will get Mustafi. There doesn't appear to be any other suitors, Valencia have to sell to satisfy FFP, this seems to be a lot of gamesmanship - I think the Evans/Fonte/Kjaer/Gimenez rumours are probably planted by us to try and get them to cave in, but they're holding strong. We may just wait right til the last minute to get the fee down. That's a real tightrope though, if anyone at all swoops in late we'll be red-faced big time. Lots of teams looking at CBs too - Chelsea for instance looking to pay massive money for the Napoli guy. That makes me nervous. 

Is this the guy Paul? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalidou_Koulibaly

We were linked start of the off season, would have loved him personally.