no way campbell will
ever get into our first team with our other promising young stars on loan.
Not exact matches
Anyway, tonight while he was deep
into the draft for his leventy - seventh fantasy sports
team (which are not real, guys, in case you were confused) I
got bored, so I started throwing things in the blender and when I was done, I had my
first ever Coconut Peach Pumpkin Smoothie!!
Mertz should never have been our captain in the
first place... who has
ever heard of a
team that makes 11th hour transfer buys (Arteta & Mertz) then seemingly places those same individuals
into prominent leadership positions from the
get - go... indicative of the problems that have permeated our clubhouse for the better part of 7 years under the Kroenke & Wenger... what is wrong with the players chosen and / or the management style of Wenger that doesn't develop and / or encourage strong leadership from within... Mertz was the fine collecting lackey from year one... this is what happens when you don't
get world - class players because many times they want to have a voice on and off the pitch and this can't happen when you play for a fragile manager who has developed a coddling wage structure where everyone is rewarded for simply wearing the shirt and participating in the process... not enough balance between performance and pay, combined with the obvious favoritism shown to some players regardless of their glaring lack of production... remember that Ramsey has played in positions that make no sense considering his skill - set (out wide) and has forced other players off the field or
into equally unfamiliar positions with little or no justification (let's remember when you read articles about how Ramsey's goals this upcoming season being the potential X-factor for our success that this is the same individual who didn't score a goal until the final week last season)... this of course is just one example of many... before I hear another word from Mertz I want this club to address the fact that no former player of any real consequence has any important role in the management structure of this club, yet several former Gunners have expressed serious interest in just such an endeavor (Henry, Viera, Adams, Bergkamp... just to name a few legends)... there is only one answer: an extremely insecure manager!!!
Danny is a 15 minute player, after 15 minutes of each game he just disappears and all he does is run, close down, lose passes, he just does not give much as a striker, we down talk Giroud but he gives us more than danny, he will work hard, assist, score sometimes and bring this
team mates
into play... Welbeck has
got the worst link up play
ever, his
first touch is so bad, whenever the ball
gets to him we know it won't stick and that means he will be chasing down the ball due to his poor
first touch.
This is an incredibly difficult question to answer for a variety of reasons, most importantly because over the years our once vaunted «beautiful» style of play has become a shadow of it's former self, only to be replaced by a less than stellar «plug and play» mentality where players play out of position and adjustments / substitutions are rarely forthcoming before the 75th minute... if you look at our current players, very few would make sense in the traditional Wengerian system... at present, we don't have the personnel to move the ball quickly from deep - lying position, efficient one touch midfielders that can make the necessary through balls or the disciplined and pacey forwards to stretch defences
into wide positions, without the aid of the backs coming up
into the final 3rd, so that we can attack the defensive lanes in the same clinical fashion we did years ago... on this current squad, we have only 1 central defender on staf, Mustafi, who seems to have any prowess in the offensive zone or who can even pass two zones through so that we can advance play quickly out of our own end (I have seen some inklings that suggest Holding might have some offensive qualities but too early to tell)... unfortunately Mustafi has a tendency to
get himself in trouble when he
gets overly aggressive on the ball... from our backs out wide, we've seen pace from the likes of Bellerin and Gibbs and the spirited albeit offensively stunted play of Monreal, but none of these players possess the skill - set required in the offensive zone for the new Wenger scheme which requires deft touches, timely runs to the baseline and consistent crossing, especially when Giroud was playing and his ratio of scored goals per clear chances was relatively low (better last year though)... obviously I like Bellerin's future prospects, as you can't teach pace, but I do worry that he regressed last season, which was obvious to Wenger because there was no way he would have used Ox as the right side wing - back so often knowing that Barcelona could come calling in the off - season, if he thought otherwise... as for our midfielders, not a single one, minus the more confident Xhaka I watched played for the Swiss national
team a couple years ago, who truly makes sense under the traditional Wenger model... Ramsey holds onto the ball too long, gives the ball away cheaply far too often and abandons his defensive responsibilities on a regular basis (doesn't score enough recently to justify): that being said, I've always thought he does possess a little something special, unfortunately he thinks so too... Xhaka is a little too slow to
ever boss the midfield and he tends to telegraph his one true strength, his long ball play: although I must admit he did
get a bit better during some points in the latter part of last season... it always made me wonder why whenever he played with Coq Wenger always seemed to play Francis in a more advanced role on the pitch... as for Coq, he is way too reckless at the wrong times and has exhibited little offensive prowess yet finds himself in and around the box far too often... let's face it Wenger was ready to throw him in the trash heap when injuries forced him to use Francis and then he had the nerve to act like this was all part of a bigger Wenger constructed plan... he like Ramsey, Xhaka and Elneny don't offer the skills necessary to satisfy the quick transitory nature of our old offensive scheme or the stout defensive mindset needed to protect the defensive zone so that our offensive players can remain aggressive in the final third... on the front end, we have Ozil, a player of immense skill but stunted by his physical demeanor that tends to offend, the fact that he's been played out of position far too many times since arriving and that the players in front of him, minus Sanchez, make little to no sense considering what he has to offer (especially Giroud); just think about the quick counter-attack offence in Real or the space and protection he receives in the German National
team's midfield, where
teams couldn't afford to focus too heavily on one individual... this player was a passing «specialist» long before he arrived in North London, so only an arrogant or ignorant individual would try to reinvent the wheel and / or not surround such a talent with the necessary components... in regards to Ox, Walcott and Welbeck, although they all possess serious talents I see them in large part as headless chickens who are on the injury table too much, lack the necessary
first - touch and / or lack the finishing flair to warrant their inclusion in a regular starting eleven; I would say that, of the 3, Ox showed the most upside once we went to a back 3, but even he became a bit too consumed by his pending contract talks before the season ended and that concerned me a bit... if I had to choose one of those 3 players to stay on it would be Ox due to his potential as a plausible alternative to Bellerin in that wing - back position should we continue to use that formation... in Sanchez, we
get one of the most committed skill players we've seen on this squad for some years but that could all change soon, if it hasn't already of course... strangely enough, even he doesn't make sense given the constructs of the original Wenger offensive model because he holds onto the ball too long and he will give the ball up a little too often in the offensive zone... a fact that is largely forgotten due to his infectious energy and the fact that the numbers he has achieved seem to justify the means... finally, and in many ways most crucially, Giroud, there is nothing about this
team or the offensive system that Wenger has traditionally employed that would even suggest such a player would make sense as a starter... too slow, too inefficient and way too easily dispossessed... once again, I think he has some special skills and, at times, has showed some world - class qualities but he's lack of mobility is an albatross around the necks of our offence... so when you ask who would be our best starting 11, I don't have a clue because of the 5 or 6 players that truly deserve a place in this side, 1 just arrived, 3 aren't under contract beyond 2018 and the other was just sold to Juve... man, this is theraputic because following this
team is like an addiction to heroin without the benefits
never waste CAPITAL LETTERS on an article about Chambers at this juncture... I still can't believe that no one from management has
ever explained why such a frugal club spent so much money on him in the
first place... we haggle for months and years with clubs for players who could have a monumental impact on the very future of our club but somehow we found $ 16 million for someone who couldn't regularly crack a Southampton lineup (very fishy)... don't
get me wrong, I like what he showed at times last season in Middlesbourogh but from the handful of games I watched him play I still have some serious questions about his consistency as a back - line player in the EPL; as such he should prove himself on loan for another season, making sure that he goes to a
team that wants him in the starting 11... bottom line, let's not
get bogged down with the semantics of peripheral players and focus on the real task at hand = figure out who the hell is going to be our starting 11 for the foreseeable future, which means
getting contracts signed,
getting rid of a lot of deadwood and bringing in talented players
into the positions which truly need upgrading... the rest is just unnecessary noise
«Josh
got into the
first team when he was young but had a serious injury that no one has
ever really flagged up.
I am definitely in «
Team NO» — as much as I love your fantastic selection of shoes, I have to admit I can't
get into the socks trend... I hardly
ever wear socks anyway but if I have to, it is the
first thing I take off when I arrive at home
You'll
get to see the X-Men
team established at the end of Apocalypse (Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Quicksilver, with Beast, Xavier, and Mystique as mentors) dropped
into the middle of what many consider to be the greatest, most tragic X-Men story
ever told — and this isn't its
first time being adapted.
After spending some time behind the wheel and taking my
first ever iRacing podium finish, I couldn't help but
get in touch with Kevin Bobbitt from the iRacing
team to ask a few questions about iRacing and it's potential integration
into Steam.