[Ed. note. Ask and ye shall receive. Andez is back with a vengence...]
I watched the Bayern tie, came back with one big “D” - Disappointment.
And the disappointment is the result of another two big “Ds”, or rather lack of - DEFENCE and DESIRE.
Chelsea lost, Man U lost, I watched them both. Chelsea were out-classed by Barca’s attacking football. But their defence played their skin out. And once again it took a 11-man side to beat a 10-man Chelsea.
The Man U/Juve clash could really have gone either way, it’s a wide open attacking match. Man U, if anything, played with their usual heart and desire.
We lack of both. Defence is a easy target to point our fingers to, but it’s not a new problem. What surprised me and disappointed me most was the lack of desire from our players. We failed to create any decent scoring chance in 90 minutes. In probably one of the most important matches of the season for us, you would have assumed that the players would roll their sleeves up and come out fighting. Few did, most didn’t. BIG players play BIG in BIG matches. Where were our BIG players?
On the second leg, the omen is good. Based on our performance in the first leg, we could have gone dead and buried, particular had Bayern’s Frings not missing a sitter. Instead of trailing 0-4 into the return leg, we caught Bayern napping in the end and grabbed a vital away goal, cutting the deficit to only 2 goals. That’s two bonus goals to our favour. Clearly somebody upstair decided to throw us a lifeline. Now the only issue is - will we be able to grab it with both hands?
The reason there are two legs in the playoff stage of the Champions League is for teams to make a come back, to leave the fans some glory memories. Plenty of teams had done it at the past, and you can be sure plenty will do it again in the future. So WILL we be one of them?
Never mind of our defence [may concede more goals], if we WANT it bad enough, we would overcome any obstacle on the way. It’s time for our players to STAND UP AND TO BE COUNTED.
This coming match [the 2nd leg] reminds me the sceniro of Anfield 89. Like now, back then we needed to win 2 clear goals, against a mightly, all-conquering, all-star Liverpool side. We didn’t have any superstar, just a bunch of home grown young talent who were willing to fight for each other and fight for the club, who were willing to run till they drop to the LAST MINUTE of the match. In the end we completed the mission impossible and left the Gooners a night we would never forget. But if we didn’t win that game and beat Liverpool to the title, I believe the majority of the Gooners would still be proud of our boys’ effort, desire and heart.
So here comes the bottom line - our current side, no matter who’s missing, who’s playing, we will still have more talent and quality than the Anfield 89 side. And Bayern aren’t a class above us like Liverpool did back then. Lastly, we are playing at home, unlike playing away at 89. So if I were Wenger, I would show them the video tape of the Anfield 89, show them IT CAN BE DONE. As a bunch of kids a decade ago had done it before, despite nobody gave them a prayer. Titi, Paddy, Pires, Dennis, Freddie, Sol, Cole and co., you guys are world class players, there is no reason you guys can’t repeat what Adams, Rocky, Smith, Dixon, Nutty, Bouldy, Lukic, Hayes and co did at the past, as long as you show us the HEART and DETERMINATION. So go get it Gunners!!!
8 Responses to “D,D,D and to repeat the Anfield 89”
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February 24th, 2005 at 4:52 pm
inspirational rallying call there andez. the cheesy, sentimental part of me loves it.
in a funny sort of way arsenal having to win 2-0 and come out firing is probably the best thing for us in terms of our performance. we are at our WORST when over-analysing scenarios and playing for a draw. thats when we usually produce tepid displays.
at least with this game we will have no choice but to stick it to bayern. i actually wouldn’t mind a repeat of the highbury game against bayern three years ago, when we scored after a minute or so. just hope we don’t throw away a 2 goal lead this time.
the problem lies herein: if arsenal, and thats a big if, manage to take 2-0 goal lead, what the hell are we gonna do then? i know what i’ll do, piss my pants. can you just imagine the pressure? toure, cygan & co attempting to do the iimpossible and keep bayern at bay. does not bare thinking about.
February 24th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
If we get up 2-0…(When we do)…
what we do is KEEP FREAKING ATTACKING!
Not take off Pires for Senderos… or some other defender… KEEP THE FOOT ON THE PEDAL ALL GAME LONG!
Great to see some positivity Andez. You at least REALIZE that it CAN BE DONE… AND BY OUR CURRENT SIDE.
February 24th, 2005 at 5:28 pm
Winning and losing is part and parcel of the game, the years I grew up with the Gunners, they NEVER GIVE UP WITHOUT A FIGHT. Losing does not disappoint me, losing without trying is what frustrates me.
It’s easy to cry out loud - keep the faith. But what really MATTERS is the players have to do the same - not by winning, but by giving their ALL till the final mintue, fighting to the end to score a late goal rather than getting sloppy in the end and conceding a late goal. Otherwise, our faith will become blind faith.
February 24th, 2005 at 9:19 pm
Arsenal are just not cutting it this year. You can put all the reasons down to missing Bergkamp on the road in the CL and Gilberto for the majority of the season so far but I reckon it’s down to Wenger’s offensive style and how important that is in his mind over defence.
It isn’t a coincidence that now Quieroz is back at Man Utd, the defence is back to it’s usual solidity but you just wonder, who is coaching our defenders particularly on the art of defending set pieces. You didn’t need height to defend Pizarro’s 2nd goal (something that has been suggested by Wenger to be the case for our misgivings in this area).
Not buying a defender last summer or in January has cost us a hell of a lot. Last season we got away with hardly any injuries to our first team and even if we did, we had them replaced with proven quality; EDU / GILBERTO / VIEIRA with hardly injuries in the defense which we got away with.
Also, I’m starting to get sick of Henry’s head-down sulks and non-trying when things aren’t going his way (sorry I feel this way guys but I do, someone needs to tell him defending from the front means something, not just when you lose the ball Thierry!)
Not been good enough in the CL over the past couple of years due to Wenger not having a clue how and when to make good substitutions and change tactics in a match to change the game e.g. why take off Clichy when he was one of our better players & why not change the system of Ljungberg up-front and Pires on the right when that clearly was not working.
First time in years I have switched off an Arsenal match albeit for 5 minutes but still, it was that unbearable.
I have never seen Arsenal this CRAP in the CL. I agree with Andez, that whatever Arsene might say “I believe in the desire of my players”, I found it hard to believe how he can say that after such a toothless display. (I reckon we only had 3 shots on goal (none from Thierry)).
With a good, tactically astute no. 2, who can give Wenger suggestions regarding substitutions, defensive practise in the training ground and suggestions to BUY in the DEFENSE, this would help a great deal.
Finally, can the mighty Arsenal beat an average Bayern Munich? I soo want them to but comon, at the moment they can’t buy a clean sheet let alone keep one. There are too many reasons in the Arsenal team to say they won’t keep a clean sheet rather than they will.
Just cross your fingers and hope Thierry has a good night. Roll on Weds March 9th!
February 25th, 2005 at 10:48 am
Nice to see you back, Andez. Good post.
February 25th, 2005 at 5:31 pm
Arsenal have all flair and no grit. The ‘98 side successfully melded flair with English grit at the back. Flair will win you the vast majority of games but there are times where grittiness is more important. Those cold wintry days at Bolton or Blackburn…or in Munich. Arsenal have no grit unforunately. The word is out that we don’t. That’s why Bolton and Man Yoo never change their tactics on us.
We need Gerrard.
February 25th, 2005 at 7:25 pm
Welcome back Andez,
It’s nice to read some one who so intelligent and so real sharring his thought. To me you ar qualify to post on any decent blogs or in any decent newspaper on belhalf of all of us Arsenal’s fans.
A really, really desappointing. By a night we should to us a lot about humility in football. Kolo was not supposed to be our worst defender on the night.Then in the end nobody was waiting for an arsenal’s goal.
We should be bead but thanks GOD, Kolo’s been used to show us something, but what?
until the last minute Kolo fought to stay in the game. He’s night and our night by the way, could have even worse.
If the Bayern can beat us, Kolo’s goal means we too can beat them.
Like we’ve seen all season this team is going to give everything at Highbury. The fans, the managers and above all themselves, are all desappointed about our performance. That’s mean we have an agrement and we should get together and believe strongly that we can. Some fans are so scared that already gave up as usual.
As usual they want to buy new players now! But what they want most urgently is to throw away the current team. They want to start with our captain, Wenegr, Pat Rice, God…..
I believe in this team, no matter what we win or fail in Europe. I know what Europe is. You don’t necessairely win because you are the best team. Most of the time you win because of failure of some others big teams
The only secure way for us to win and qualify is to attack from minute one to minute 90.
We should work on our passing around the box.
We should go five goals. I don’t expect Bayern to score more than once. We have to work on st pieces again and again.
Attacking football at great pace, defending as a team, not concede goals on set pieces.
Bayern will defend deep. Makay was playing sometimes at right back!
if Edu is not fit, I’d play Cesc. We’ll need a high tempo and accurate passing going forward. Fab’s the best when it comes to pass the ball.
February 26th, 2005 at 4:32 am
Scotty, Paul, thks! Out to a holiday lately, to have my own winter break!