I thought all things considered last nights performance was all we could have expected. Below I?ve made my comments on individual performances.
Stack: Made some excellent saves, not at fault for the goal. Not bad for our 5th choice keeper.
Clichy: Angry Ashley had better watch over his shoulder. Had a slip late in the game that could have been made worse, but recovered well. Gives Le Boss the option of using AA in midfield.
Cygan/Keown: Ok I guess. Keown was unfortunate with the goal.
Toure: If it wasn?t for Thierry, most gooners would have him as Player of the Season. A magnificent find, again, by The Arsenal scouts. However, he was caught out of position for the goal. This meant Keown moved over to right back, Cygan followed him and in turn Clichy moved into the centre. Toure arrived just as the ball was being laid off into all that space for the ?boro mascot to score.
Parlour: Ran his balls off again.
Edu: Superb tackling but his distribution let him down at times.
Silva: In my opinion a waste a space. Others will disagree.
Bentley: Showed flashes of skill possibly one for the future. Needs to build upper body strength as he was too easily knocked off the ball at times.
Kanu/Quincy: Got into space, but lacked the support that Bobby and Freddie usually provide.
I wasn’t unhappy with the result, it could have been worse. I?m not sure what the plan for the second leg will be. I?m hoping that Dennis will be back and Patrick plays as he is banned for the Man City game on Sunday.
The future looks promising.
9 Responses to “BOYZ II MEN”
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January 21st, 2004 at 2:16 pm
I agree it wasn’t a bad performance and I’m sure it was great experience for the young players but it seems that they were bit light up front. The results not really important and I don’t think the manager will change much for the second leg. Imagine if Henri, Vieira or Pires got a serious injury in this meaningless competition.
January 21st, 2004 at 5:11 pm
Are shooting could have been betta. Also, Keown was tripped leading up to the Juininho goal and ref missed it. The ref’s a wanker!
January 21st, 2004 at 5:15 pm
They think is all over but let wait till Wednesday. I have faith with the team and Boss.
Over all it wasn’t a bad game or performance and the kids prove a point, that with more games they will get even better.
For the benefit of Arsenal FC and their vast army of increasingly concerned supporters, that time has arrived for the Club to think about the future. We need a striker and I am not talking about fantasy football here. Someone with quality and can help Henry out. As the Gentleman wrote Henry and co cant play each team.
If we are serious about 4 cup/titles this year then we have know choice but to buy a good striker.
The best teams on the continent do it. Buying kids is all good but end up on loan.
Kanu hmmm was not there yesterday simple and period. I have respect for the guy and his charity but he is not playing well.
January 21st, 2004 at 5:20 pm
True we had 2 clear good penalties but as the saying goes if is not your day forget it.
Anyway we are talking about S. Dunn here. The so-called top ref in England. What a shame
January 21st, 2004 at 5:40 pm
im not so sure whether the future looks too promising. i know its early in his career but i can’t see Bentley ever making the grade. he is undoubtedly skilfull but there’s not enough thrust or penetration in his game, no killer instinct. i knew when he got that chance he would side foot it harmlessly into shwarzer’s arms. he’ s trying too hard to play like Robert Pires.
i thought, although he made several good tackles, edu’s passing in the second half was terrible, for some reason you always think a left foot pass is going to be cultured and precise; edu is beginning to defy that convention. if only we had petit in his pomp.
gilberto silva could play against yeovil and he still wouln’t stand out, i really am starting to believe wenger is being threatened by the Brazilian mafia to play him,as his faith in him is seemingly unending. he is not a bad player by any means, and sometimes he does shrug off his arthritic tendencies and go on a surge, but as soon as he does he gets ‘nose bleed’ syndrome and gets caught in some hypnotic trance where he can’t pass or shoot; problem if your playing with your mates in the park, never mind for arsenal.
parlour toiled again but his crossing really must be addressed. how mean, how many times did his crosses get cleared by the first man, i’ve had a kick about on the highbury pitch, it isn’t really that hard to elevate the ball into the vicinity of the area.
kanu was crap, no other word for it. i really thought in a game of this relative unimportance he would relax and steal the show after his few decent performances in the first team recently. how wrong i was, he just reminded me why i found him him so infuriatingly annoying and dopey in the first place. a striker who can’t physically shoot, a slight drawback.
quincy guy seems to have some potential but he defined the phrases “blind alleys” and lack of “end product”. what happened to papadopoulos and fabragas? and are ryan smith and jerome thomas the same person, bloody hell, those youngsters have been made in a laboratory, brave new world!
January 21st, 2004 at 6:13 pm
I said this sometime ago and all I heard was crap from so-called fantasy fans.
The problem with Arsenal and most people will tell you is Wenger had done a good job for the club but we are not that good. Take 4 players out and we are sh#t. Look at last season for example.
Kanu and Wiltord should go and bring in a top striker to partner Henry. I think the kids will come of age and good only if they have playing time and not going on loan. We seems to have more kids or players on loan than United/chelsea add together.
January 21st, 2004 at 11:38 pm
In a week where the last place team BEAT Man United, you must realize that there is not such a huge gulf between teams… at least not big enough that on any given match day, any team can be beaten.
We trotted out our RESERVE TEAM against Boro, and they trotted out there REGULAR TEAM.
We lost 1-0, and thats not so bad. Alot of young talent got the opportunity to play on the big stage. These are for the most part, the same players that got us to the Semi-Finals of this Cup. So, I think they deserved the run out there.
We can easily win the 2nd leg. It should be interesting to see who Wenger plays in that match. Alot of speculation on who we are buying this week. But only ARSENE’ knows… the rest is just rubbish. I like our current team. Top of the League, alive in the CL, undefeated in league play. I’d rather see the kids get the chance than see us spend alot of $$$$ on the likes of Kluivert or some other over-priced / overrated player. (yes… MY OPINION). But if Arsene buys him, or someone else, I’d have faith that he would do well for us.
Silva… for what its worth… is our 3rd leading scorer, with 4 goals!!
January 23rd, 2004 at 2:35 pm
I agree with some things Stag133 says. People, you are all forgetting that we played teenagers against a PL side. They held their own.
Some of us are expecting too much from some of the youth. They performed great considering it was a semi final cup game, they had litle if any experience against a PL side. They are not going to perform as good as Henry and Pires. Its just not gonna happen.
Bentley has the skils and if he gets bigger physically, we have a good player. Quincy is young and will learn from his experience against a PL side. Kanu was not crap. He was involved in our few chances. We would not have had as many chances if he were missing from the line up. We could have finished better but that is expected with youth. The last thing to come is the finish. There is time, they are teen agers, don’t forget that.
Some of us are a little spoilt.
January 24th, 2004 at 8:01 pm
Why would Wenger be pressured by the Brazilian media to play Gilberto, over fellow Brazilian Edu?