By 1970’s Gooner
I call it as I see it and once again Wenger got things wrong, this time at Bolton.
Firstly, tempo
Bolton were there for the taking. Arsenal had the majority of possession but this was not concentrated in areas where we could hurt them. The reason was that we were playing at a slow pace allowing the opponents to put men behind the ball.
In parallel Arsenal’s players were not pressing high up the field nor were they pressing hard enough to make them make mistakes. If there was something to learn from the Villa victory it was the high tempo, pressuring and hunting them down in packs all over the pitch.
This was non existent against Bolton.
Secondly, wrong choice of starting eleven and tactical positioning of Song.
If there was another lesson to be learned from the Villa victory it is that Rosicky is back to form. His high tempo game, tenaciousness but much more importantly creativeness and running at their defence head on were badly missing at Bolton.
Ramsey who was wrongly selected ahead of Rosicky had nothing of the above. He is weak in defending, distribution and of course putting his chances away. Rosicky would have had us 2-0 up by half time if he was presented with those chances.
As a result of one mistake another is inadvertently made. As a result of wanting Ramsey to be the creative midfielder Wenger obviously instructed Song to sit back. Song sat back too much in my opinion. But this meant that he couldn’t share the creative part that was so sadly missing. And he has proved that he can do it.
Thirdly, Wenger got the substitutions wrong again.
Rosicky should have come on much much earlier than the 81st minute! The team was crying out for some creativity and sparkle but no, Wenger had to insist on keeping Ramsey on the pitch!
Instead of putting Rosicky on first he opted for Henry (in the 69th minute for the Ox). I said it before, Henry cannot cut it any more in the Premier League and it showed last night. He is slow, ponderous and added nothing to the team when he came on.
So there you have it. I call it as I see it. Who else can I blame?
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15 comments:
well, you are right to call things as you see them.
In return so can I, even if my opinion is different to yours.
Ramsey did miss a chance at goal, he does occasionally lose the ball in defence, and now and again he tries too hard with clever flicks that do not work out either on the wing or in midfield.
There's a common thread there. He plays his heart out; covers every blade of grass and makes himself available to make the mistakes in attack, midfield, defence or on the wing. He is the engine room of the team and will only get better.
It is spurious to compare him with Rosicky, who is a fine player in his own right, he just isn't Ramsey or capable of putting in the shift Rambo does.
Wenger keeps rolling that stone up the hill then it keeps rolling back,then Wenger rolls the stone back up that hill then it keeps rolling back.The man is stubbornness incarnate.
We are blaming the players over and over again but could the constant playing players out of position and failing tactics be the real culprit,i think so.
I whole heartedly agree with this post.
Wenger's just seen what "over-playing" a youngster can do with Wilshere; he's also seen it with most of his squad including players like Fabregas. If he really see's Ramsey as part of the midfield of the future why does he play him so much now when he's clearly fatigued.
Rosicky has been in fine form recently, passing, probing, dribbling, bursting past opponents and seemingly dynamically tackling better than Song does and that still isn't enough for him to get a starting role.
Ramsey isn't the same player anymore in the sense that before his injury he was being moulded into a Fabregas Mk 2 and looked very close to becoming that kind of midfielder. Now he seems more like a Gerrard midfielder. Over 25 games played this season and only 3 goals and 5 assists whilst playing so close to the goal and often the closest player next to the best striker in the world at the moment.
Rosicky would definitely have better stats then that if he played as much games next to van Persie and had as much time to build up form like Ramsey had this season.
Danish Gooner,
You cannot stop your tiresome rubbishing of a fine man and a great manager.
Stubborness, as you call it - and God knows why - is called determination and perseverance by most reasonable people - but you would not understand that!
How can you say that a man who hasn't scored a league goal in 2 years would have had us 2-0 up at half time? Don't get me wrong im a big Rosicky fan. He's a very tidy footballer but his goal threat is non-existant
Hello, Bolton fan here who was at the game and a couple of comments to your post.
We were delighted the more the game went on not to see Rosicky come on and I personally felt Ramsey was largely ineffectual against our midfield 3. Mavies making great attacking runs, Samantha patrolling the centre and NRC being solid and leading well.
We were also delighted when Ox was taken off so early, and a sense of ecstasy arose when we saw it was Thierry replacing him.
I also thought that there was a disconnect between Vermaelen and Mertesacker and they didn't seem as together as I had seen them in the past. This led to Song sitting back and the knock on effect of the midfield issues you mentioned.
Many of the fans around me were delighted when they heard the team announced and thought there would be points in it for us.
Finally, every report I've read says how dominant you were and deserved the 3 points. 51% possession is dominant yes, 16 chances to 14 is dominant, but we have now only lost 2 of the last 10 (MUFC and NUFC). About time we were given some credit.
Red Arse, most reasonable people would see that persevering with a way of doing things that clearly isn't working is the very essence of stubbornness. But perhaps you disagree that sliding down the table suggests something is wrong.
Agree with you. It's time to stop defending Arsene Wenger. As manager, he picks the team, so for goodness sake, he ultimately bear the responsibility....not blame, blame, blame, then excuses, excuses,excuses...mind you, he even blamed the fans!!! Wanker needs to remember that when he's gone from the club, the fans will still remain with the club; so in that respect, he cannot ignore the fans, which he is quite adapt to do these days.
Having said that, Wengers tactics were wrong. Yesterday's game showed (and not for the first time)that most of the players cant shoot. Walcott may run like a speedy gonzales but he plays like a kid upfield, MOST of the time he's clueless or make wrong decisions. Even missed badly the one-on-one chance to score...mind you, he's an England international player supposedly.
Why did Wenger's team keep passing the ball, not just sideways, but keep passing back to defenders and even the keeper repeatedly, wasting of time.
Why was Alex O-Chambo taken off at all? He was a threat to the bolton players every time he had a go at them wit hthe ball.
No disrespect meant, but what's the use of Henry coming on to replace Chambo? It's almost similar to the man utd game; when Arshavin canme on for Chambo, the pressure on the opponents went off.
Rvp is topclass as usual, despite not scoring, his quality shone. Here, stubborn wenger while praising RvP will let the whole team/club down if at all RvP picks up an injury (which you really hope he doenst!). As usual, the manager's blind stubborness will be arsenal's downfall. The team is at 7th place, unthinkable for Arsenal ...but then, that's what you get when you have PHW, Kroenke, Gazidis, and esp the Wanker around.
1. Arsene Wegner is a great manager! 2. Ramsey is a fine young footballer! 3. Arsenal are bound for the top four (CL football) next season! 4. Wilshere and Diaby will be back to safe us falling from grace! 6. We will have no further injuries and will win the FA cup! True, Wenger is a great manager who has sticks to his believes even though they are wrong, perhaps his hands are tied too. But the rest of the above mentioned statements are simply not true, if you expect them you borderline insane.
I couldn't agree more, this was an intelligent analysis. Bolton plaid with 12 players including Wenger on their side. This was not the first time Wenger screw up a game that could be easily won by bringing the weakest combination of players.
Don't get me wrong, Ramsey is a young growing player, but he is not a creative mid-field player at this current level. It is beyond me why Wenger play him day in day out. The problem is not he plays Ramsey, but he pairs him with Arteta, who is even slower than Ramsey. Rosicky deserved to start before these two, I prefer Coquilen before Arteta, so Song could advance forward to feed the attack needed penetrating passes, which was lacking from both Ramsey and Arteta. Did you see what Schezney did on that game, the guy is a complete idiot, he belong on the bench. If you recall, Almunia as well as Fabiansky had similar problem, they are relactant to clear the back line and this could not be the players choice, I suspect it has something to do with the coaching, they must be told to keep in their box at all cost, it sure looks like that way.
We really need to replace Fabregas with a like for like buy! We haven't done that yet which totally baffles my mind! The team is average and actually are a 5th or 5th place team (as much as i hate to say). As far as your comment about Henry, we all agree that he is not the player he used to be, but if you watch him, his positional play is fantastic! he just don't have the right service! For example Arteta was coming forward and Henry was begging for the through pass, which would've put him through to a 1 on 1 with the keeper, But Arteta took too long to read the play. Arteta is a good hard working player but he isn't very creative... nor is Ramsey... Rosicky is playing better but lets be honest, he doesn't really take the team to another level... Our team is a lot weaker than previous years and it is craziness that Wenger didn't buy any World Class Players to ensure that we finish in the top 4. It will be close to a miracle if this team makes top 4 and i really hope that somehow they can do it.
I've said this before and ill say it again...Ramsye is over-ratted...he is not creative enough to be in that position, and this post just confirms something that all Arsenal fans are complaining about. Wenger, you need to shape up or ship out. We lost 11 points from the last 4 games, how much more points will we loose with your "quality"..?
Simply Ramsey is over and over over rated.
Henry it is another addition just for commercial purpose not footballing technics.The man has clearly past it.
One thing we arsenal fans we dont get it is the top managment they just concerned about the profit/debit issue.
Look at the buys we had on summer.Knowing that we where loosing not one but two top players they scrambled at the last minute with chelsea reject and the korean.
One thing for sure Gazidis will be happy to announce some shirts sale in Asia due to Myiachi or Park .Otherwise it does not need a scientist brain to understand this as the two buys had nothing to do with football tactic or technic.
This young players Walcot Ramsey and so on has to be blended slowly.I mean send them on loan to another premiership club and give them a chance to play when they can make it.To vent it on Ramsey is not fair the lad is covering every blade of the grass but still is not ready for the first team at Arsenal.Simple.Anyway to me is overrated as i stated above.
Simply Ramsey is over and over over rated.
Henry it is another addition just for commercial purpose not footballing technics.The man has clearly past it.
One thing we arsenal fans we dont get it is the top managment they just concerned about the profit/debit issue.
Look at the buys we had on summer.Knowing that we where loosing not one but two top players they scrambled at the last minute with chelsea reject and the korean.
One thing for sure Gazidis will be happy to announce some shirts sale in Asia due to Myiachi or Park .Otherwise it does not need a scientist brain to understand this as the two buys had nothing to do with football tactic or technic.
This young players Walcot Ramsey and so on has to be blended slowly.I mean send them on loan to another premiership club and give them a chance to play when they can make it.To vent it on Ramsey is not fair the lad is covering every blade of the grass but still is not ready for the first team at Arsenal.Simple.Anyway to me is overrated as i stated above.
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