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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Djourou is the missing link

By 1970’s Gooner

I cannot understand why Wenger insists on dropping Djourou for the Premier League games and insisting on starting with Koscienly.

Djourou has been outstanding in all the games he has started using his height and new found confidence to become a very effective central defender.

He has developed a new found steeliness and his heading ability is up there with the best of the League’s defenders.

He is therefore the ideal centre half for Arsenal as most teams tend to pump those high balls into the area more than half expecting to reap the dividends.

And they normally do as Tottenham have found out when scoring their third and winning goal and Villa too today when our central defenders couldn’t head the balls clear for both of their goals…

It was really frightening today as Villa scored their first goal almost at the same time as Spurs did last week. You could feel the nerviness that begun to surround the Arsenal players.

Song and Wilshere started defending deeper, Arshavin and Rosicky started to look tired and the home crowd spurred the home team on.

It seems to me that the only way to keep two goal leads is to score a third and a fourth. These players simply cannot defend leads by playing conservatively, negatively even. They only know one way and that is to attack.

And that is why we need our defenders to be at their top, to win everything in the air and on the ground because the protection they will get will not be enough.

And that is why Djourou is vital for this team….


23 comments:

Anonymous said...

A player without the mental/physical attributes of a child is what is missing from Arsenal's side. As well as a manager with a lick of sense.

Anonymous said...

Agree with the previous poster. Arsenal fans are sick and tired of negative bloggers. Find another club to write about.

Anonymous said...

i agree with anonymous 2 and 3 lol
kochielny played really well today, why not speak of squillachi who also played well.

i have no problem with any of the blogs, i like reading ehat they think and have to say, but sometimes they go about it the wrong way.

Anonymous said...

He is right, Djourou is the missing link. Anytime a ball goes up, we look like conceding.

Anonymous said...

both centre backs did ok today but nothing special. Djourou should be starting, he's really starting to develop, but lets be honest, if vermaelen was fit then he would defo start and we do need a top defender, who is consistently brilliant. Things looking good, very positive mood, come on Arsenal fans stop being negative, we are two points off the top of the league!

Anonymous said...

spot on mate..but who honestly knows what goes on in Wengers head these days?!?

Anonymous said...

spot on mate..but who honestly knows what goes on in Wengers head these days?!?

beck said...

its been forgotten by the boom and bust media that we have held 21 2goal leads in the last 11months.
it should,nt be forgotten by an arsenal fan
shame on you

weedz said...

I don`t know what team you`ve been watching 70s, but if you think that Johan has played good this season, you know F/A about football.
It`s like watching an oil-tanker parking.

peter said...

It seems these days negativity goes hand in hand wit a lot of arsenal fans,which saddens me but unfortunately we that try to bring some positivity,look negative doing it.Djourou has been better lately when asked to come in due to koscielny gettin sent off etc... so they shud play him,we wouldnt take fabianski out now would we.

Anonymous said...

Here comes the "positive" thinking mob lol. So relieved to have scored a 4th today instead of Villa grabbibg an equalizer huh? Well I am coz we have witnessed unheard-of capitulations by this side. Last week against the scum and Brage were par for the course so stfu with your know-it-all and ostritch ways until you know for sure we have turned things around. That is all.

Roberto said...

Djourou seems to have improved this season but I still think he's a disaster waiting to happen. We have 3 reasonable CBs now and vermaelen is outstanding. Our problem is defending as a unit. The midfield needs to close players down, clear the ball and put tackles in too. Why dont we hoof the fucking ball when there is danger instead of getting caught in posession time and time again (Clichy take note) We've conceded some shocking goals this season. 7 at home to West Brom, Newcaslte and Spurs - 3 teams that have not beaten us at home for years ffs! I'm not sure what wenger can do. He's already signed 2 CBs. He wont sign another full back either. Or a CM as we have loads.

Unknown said...

I think that attacking someone for having an opinion is far more negative than what was put in the post. From what i read, the writer is saying about how much Djourou has improved? That isn't negativity!! He's saying that we now have a defender that can protect the air. This is true!! Everyone knows our defense sucks. If you don't then your incredibly deluded. Realism always gets confused with pessimism. Maybe if someone having an opinion on something causes you that much anger then you must have some serious control issues. The whole reason for blogging is top display a diverse range of opinions. Or maybe i'm missing the point...

Unknown said...

gunddown.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I think Squillaci has been the one underperforming. So drop Squillaci, play Djourou.

A Koscielny-Djourou combination would be the best solution while Vermaelen is out.

Anonymous said...

A good defensive coach is the missing link!

Anonymous said...

Djourou is not as good as you claim-he is an enigma-a combination of good individual defensive ability and bad positional and tactical awareness-just look at his display against Braga. He lplays like an amateur at times and is no better than Koscielny.

The Captain said...

A load of old tosh mate, tosh!!

Anonymous said...

I agree with everthing you said........I've been watching this young player for years at Arsenal (and Switzerland)....I've been going to The Arsenal for 57 years now and I've never seen such an improvement in a player, after so many injuries, in such a relatively short space of time....his heading ability has improved 100% and I think we've got a top-notch defender...please God, no more injuries

Anonymous said...

OMG!!...you realized too??.you read my mind man!!

all the losses at home West brom N spurs v conceded 3 goals with koscielny..

although the lost to Newcastle we only conceded 1 goal!!

Im fucking wondering why wenger keep starting koscielny when its so clear djourou knows the "ARSENAL" way of playing & is far more robust than kosc....he may not be the fastest but he's physicality and height will compensate that...!!!

Andy said...

Really, wow is this a spamming site?

Anonymous said...

Kocielny played really well????
He did ok in parts and as usual was at fault for the first goal, why didn't he close Clark down????
Djourou does close people down, flings himself in front of everything. The 2 donkeys playing at the moment may turn out to be okay but are way off that at the moment. We have one top class CB,TV, one potential to be world class JD and 2 that have the potential to be quite good and they are the 2 that play, why?????

nicoman said...

too many clueless gooners have been blaming our central defenders for our defensive shortcomings for far too long. The main problem is our defensive midfielders denilson diaby and song who are slow and cumbersome and are calamitous fullbacks clichy and sagna. If you actually bother to study the games the majority of goals conceded are thes players fault. Gallas, toure campbell, squillaci, verminator etc. all good defenders .The constant liability all these players have had to play with is same above fbacks and def mids. Until these players are replaced u can forget about Arsenal competing against the top teams .