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Monday, January 25, 2016

The reasons Wenger didn't play Elneny

By 1970's Gooner

There are three reasons Wenger didn't play Elneny against Chelsea.

The first is that he has just got together with the team only 10 days or so. He has not yet adapted to the way Arsenal play their football, what his position entails within the overall game plan and he has not yet got to know his fellow players.

Secondly Wenger got his man early this season because he knows that if he had waited for the summer then his price would have risen disproportionately. Why? because as everyone knows the much increased PL money for next season is bound to create large inflation in transfer prices adhering to the age old theory of too much money chasing the too few good players around.

And thirdly Elneny is going to be like Gabriel. Wenger will treat him the same. He will hold him back if he has Coquelin fit. Just like Gabriel is considered by Wenger to be an understudy to Mertesacker.

He is wrong of course. The BFG is on his last legs. he has no pace and no distribution capabilities. He has experience and is good in the air but these attributes are not enough in the PL.

As for the game against Chelsea Wenger was wrong to start with the BFG. He has been wrong starting him all season. I have said this in previous posts. His lack of pace cost us the game. The BFG should not have attempted the tackle thus would have kept himself and the team alive.

Ramsey had one of his worse games. He kept passing the ball to the opponents most of the time. Ozil gave up after we let the goal in. He didn't rise to the occasion, didn't lead the team. He became peripheral. The team as a whole became peripheral. They did not have any belief that they could come back which does not augur well for the run in.

Koscienly was as much at fault for the goal as the BFG imo. He is supposed to stay behind the BFG so as to cover for his lack of pace. On this occasion he was square. WHY?

Wenger got the tactics wrong again. We started slowly and gave them space to play about. WRONG. We should have blitzed them like we did Man Utd.

Nobody picked Cesc and Willian up in those first 15 minutes. They were free to run the game. WHAT WAS FLAMINI AND RAMSEY DOING?

The two positives were: When we finally decided to have a go in the second half we were decent which shows to me that we would have won the game if we had 11 players on the pitch.

The return of Sanchez was invigorating. He can advance with the ball leaving opponents behind and out of the game. He lifted the whole team up. He reminded us how we will be demoralising teams in the coming games. He will take the place of Walcott who is much below his best.

And when Coquelin comes back (which will be soon) and Cazorla too we will be real challengers again.
















28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok, BFG was a bit rash with his challenge but if he had made no attempt to tackle Costa and Chelsea scored everyone would be asking why didnt he tackle him. Damned if you do and damned if you don´t. He followed his natural instinct as a defender and that is to tackle. Finally, as replays showed there was no contact, Costa, as usual, made a meal of it and the ref fell for his antics

bakrima said...

Thank you very much , nobody else can explain it better , especially regarding Metersacker who is really very slow and fragile , he is very tall but imbalanced and almost past his best, Elneny is an unknown quantity in the football world and time will show if he is really good for Arsenal.

Anonymous said...

???

Anonymous said...

These are small and non-essential things. You do not see the real Arsenal now. The team has no character because Wenger has no character. All to wipe his nose with his hand as he does. No concept, low mentality, no game concept, poor control of the ball, wrong passes, poor play body to body, no physical strength and fighting spirit.
Rescue us from Venger, please

Unknown said...

yeah rescue us from wenger please!!!!! i'm sick of winning f.a.cups and sick of beating man utd ,man city,bayern munich at home and being 3 points off the top with half a dozen stars to come back.it,s awful being an arsenal fan when we could be wonderful like other massive clubs liverpool ,everton,newcastle,spurs!

Unknown said...

Beating man Utd.. Hang on, Norwich did that, Southampton lately.. Man city.. West Ham, Everton beat them..Bayern Munich was a freak result hence what happened in the return fixture only highlighted! Serious title contenders serial title winners don't consist of tactically inept managers and snail like defenders ..
When we won the league 11 years ago we had quick defenders and quick intelligent players.. A manager that was fresh hungry and not restricted by a massive pitch or financial restraints of a new stadium.. We may have won the fa cup and sit 3rd in the league - but the same old demons are coming back to haunt us.!
Why buy eleny and not play him? There's a lot of why's that keep cropping up.. Why don't we play consistently hungry like Leicester do that has proved so successful or the spuds play pressing pressing.. We showed we can do it against the likes of Bayern man city and man Utd - why do we lack the belief (barring Sanchez)
The one I keep hearing perpetually in my mind though is.. Why we won't win the league with arsene Wenger as manager or Arsenal fc..

Anonymous said...

Agree with AW.If Wenger cant win the epl this season,please let him go and manage
RM or any other big club. He would find underperforming will bring the axe immediately and thanks for the memories.
The bg shd not play anymore games.He is slow and liable to make a blunder or worst
concede a spot kick. Let Gabriel and the Egyptian play.
Tactically Wenger cannot match the top guys. Yeah He created the invincibles. Since those days the epl is a more level playing field.
Koeman will be itching to show he can beat Arsenal again.You can bet your house
if that were to happen again,the ES will rise up in revolt.
A MU official was quoted as saying football is results driven industry. People come to see a winning team not ballet soccer. Not passing in front of a heavily defended goal with egg on your face.

Anonymous said...

in the first place Wenger started with Wrong strategy by not starting with Sanchez. Flamini should not be played, he showed signs of poor performance in Stoke match. Hew should have been taken for Sanchez. Campbell was running like a lost child! He should have been replaced instead of Giroud! Walcott should form a Left-Right lighting attack with Sanchez, Ox was no better than Walcott. Ramsey made so many mistakes in last 2 matches and Koceilny too, Wenger had all along been too conservative Not to start with new ideas, like starting with Gabriel and Mertisacker. So much talk about Rotation, only talks! Which big or good player wants to sign and sit on the bench all the time???

Anonymous said...

In the first place Wenger started with Wrong strategy by not starting with Sanchez. Flamini should not be played, he showed signs of poor performance in Stoke match and was not playing his part in Chelsea match, what was he doing all the time in the box? He should have been taken off for Sanchez. Campbell was running like a lost child! He should have been replaced instead of Giroud! Walcott should form a Left-Right lightning attack with Sanchez, Ox was no better than Walcott. With Walcott and Bellerin on the right, I believe Chelsea would have conceded a goal! Ramsey made so many mistakes in last 2 matches and Koceilny too, Wenger had all along been too conservative Not to start with new ideas, like starting with Gabriel and Mertisacker. So much talk about Rotation, only talks! Which big or good player wants to sign and sit on the bench all the time???

Anonymous said...

I don't understand what Wenger sees when the game is played. Does he never see how bad our defence is at times keeps using same tactics with the same players and when things go wrong never changes anything. I have respect foe what Wenger has done but I also have an opinion that it is time Mr Wenger decided to call it a day. Please Mr Wenger it is time to Go And for the Arsenal board to even consider an extension of his contract is negligent to say the least.

Unknown said...

I guess, it time for Arsenal consider dropping Wenger as Arsenal manager. He has lost focus and lack the ability to choose the right players for a particular game. He is sentimental in making selection. The club should pay him off at the end of the season and bring in Pep.

Unknown said...

I guess, it time for Arsenal consider dropping Wenger as Arsenal manager. He has lost focus and lack the ability to choose the right players for a particular game. He is sentimental in making selection. The club should pay him off at the end of the season and bring in Pep.

Stevie S said...

Costa got Mertesacker sent off end of. An incident which ultimately lost us a match we were more than capable of winning. How is the manager supposed to allow for cheats in his game plan? Fair enough Mertesacker shouldn't have slid in like that but from replays there is clearly no contact. Difficult for the referee not to give the decision because in real time it looked like a foul. This why the PL need to review the incident and reverse the red card and hand another ban Costa or Imposta as I have renamed him - he mascarades as a man and a footballer. We need to get rid of these cheats who are ruining football for the fans. Imposta could have jumped Mertesacker's challenge and been through on goal. Why did he not do this? Because he new if he fell over he would get his man sent off. Much more satisfying to this man than running now to possibly score a goal. Wenger described him as being clever, he's not clever he's a cheat. Anyway, I thought Arsenal's performance was good considering they had 10 men for most of the match and playing a Chelsea team who just looked to defend after they scored. You would have it was Chelsea who were down to 10. I wonder how many of there fans took satisfaction from the way they won that match. I wouldn't if was my team. I actually wonder how many of you above a Arsenal fans, judging by the comments not many. When Arsene Wenger leaves our club it will be a sad day. Just look at the state Man United are in.

Unknown said...

Well said can't believe the comments of these so called fans, fair weather fans

Unknown said...

Well said can't believe the comments of these so called fans, fair weather fans

Anonymous said...

We lost the game becuase of stupid wenger period.

Unknown said...

absolutely agree mate hope you read my sarcastic comment earlier.too many pathetic whingers on here and amongst arsenal fabs in general.wenger does make mistakes but he gets far more right than wrong.

Unknown said...

top man .too many hysterical spoilt cry babies amongst arsenal fans.i have managed and coached football teams for around 20 years and trust me you know alls it aint as easy as you think.

Unknown said...

golden boy pep may prove to be a great manager in future but winning german titles in a one horse race any manager of our 92 league clubs would so and winning all he did with a mostly inherited side at barca including the worlds best player deserves recognition but is not a guarantee of success in a more even and competitive league like the premier league.

Unknown said...

because the league is tough from the bottom to top unlike other leagues everyone can beat everyone.wenger still gets far more right than wrong and you give him no credit when he gets it right ie munich and man city.he isn't perfect but nobody is. we have won trophies now have a squad full of medal winners in many domestic leagues,s cups and international competitions.the results against top sides have been much better last 2 years except chelsea and unfair dismissals haven't helped in those matches.we are still well placed no need for hysterical overeaction or panic nor unbalanced criticism.

Anonymous said...

Wenger needs to go upstairs and stay away from picking the team,obviously he has to see the season out,but it should be his last.
Fantastic manager and servant to the club but,hiss lost the plot regarding this team....why take off your main goal threat,when clearly Ramsey or that waste of space Walcott should have made way for Gabriel and clearly the Kos should have been sitting on Costa's shoulder
not isolated like the BFG was.
But as we all know defending is not that high on his lists of things to do...Anyway getting back to Wenger he has no out and out leader of this team,and making Walcott captain for sentiments sake!! F@@K that we are in the biz of winning football games not giving the band away to people with no heart.The Chelsea result just sums up Wengers management....being that he probably is the only person who thought that we could beat chelski,but us fans know different don't we.
As for Elneny he has played every game for Basel but not considered.....why not take a chance what has he got to lose,only a game that was lost by the sending off already,maybe he has lost the bottle to take a chance...so in that case climb of the mantle and give it to someone that has a bit of something about them and bring the pride and passion back to our great club

Anonymous said...

Wenger keeps getting undone because he NEVER changes his system. All opposing coaches know how to play against him, so if Arsenal don't play at their best they lose or draw and big teams with big players usually humiliate him by making his players look like a pub team.

Today, Wenger is nothing but an old clown and the board are a bunch of thieves stealing the fans money and pocketing it despite achieving fuck all.

Stevie S said...

He took Giroud off because he has no pace. He thought he was going to have to play on the break where Walcott's pace would have got us in behind and benefitted the team more. As it turns out it was Chelsea who sat back and played on the break.The man doesn't have crystal ball.

Stevie S said...

He changed his system against Stoke to 4-4-2. Let's not forget how many of our top players have been out for long periods with injury.

Unknown said...

Forget wenger and his careless mistakes follow this link and make some money for yourselves http://dollartab.com/?ref=84349

Unknown said...

fuck all !!!! didn't we just win the f.a. cup twice under the clown wenger beating in those euns spurs everton manu and liverpool.clubs no bigger than us when wenger came to us and all having to build grounds yet we have built ours and despite the financial shackles that brought outperformed .

Anonymous said...

No one gives a shit abut the poxy FA Cup. It's not the reason why Arsenal bought a new stadium and Wenger is paid £8m a year.

Anonymous said...

Time for Wenger to go. I am sick of seeing his
assing frenzy. The MU game was th exception.
Anyway I doubt he can win the epl again.