Though securing second place is essential - and obviously shouldn’t be compromised - I think we could use the run-in to prepare for next year - prepare by experimenting a little so as better to consider our strengths and our needs.
Forget about the defence for the moment - clearly a keeper has the first claim on our resources, and equally clearly it would be nice to buy a defender if we have money to spare - but those are issues for later. What seems a more pressing question at present is the midfield, especially the wings, and way they connect, or fail to connect, with the strikers.
?
I’d like to see Quincy given a try on the right - now, while Freddie is injured. I think he’s actually left-footed (and is therefore presumably Pires’s rather than Freddie’s eventual replacement), but if he can also play on the right, that would be useful to know. If he can’t, or if he’s obviously nowhere near ready for the first team, then we may need to buy someone this summer. (Freddie is injury-prone and Cesc, our only cover at present, isn’t ideal on the right.) Shaun WP would be a good choice in that he’s intelligent and pacy and can double as a rightback and striker. Sure, he’ll be very expensive, probably now - sodding Chelsea - several million more than he’s worth, but the Uefa home-grown ruling raises his value for us, given the high proportion of players from obscure places we’re always likely to have. I’m agnostic about whether he’d be the best use of our money - that depends on who else is available - but it’s worth considering that he’s quite similar to Freddie so the two of them could rotate without necessitating a change in our style. Less easy to predict are the subtler things. One of Dennis’s great strengths was his almost telepathic understanding with Freddie and Viera: that’s something we’re going to miss badly unless van Persie and his teammates can find a similar rapport.
Van Persie? No doubt about his potential, and all credit to Wenger for taking the risk - apparently several Italian clubs rejected him as too much of a nutter. But watching him against Chelsea, I thought he urgently needed playing time to develop his sense of his own and other players’ positioning. In addition, it’s not yet clear (at least not to me) what kind of striker he is. Surely we have to give him a proper run in the first team to discover this NOW, before the end of the season, as it must in part determine the other kind of striker we need? That we need someone is obvious - Thierry and van P can’t possibly carry us through next season on their own - but who? Compatibility seems to me to be almost as important as brilliance. Yes, we want talent but, equally, we want talent that will gel as a team. Wenger, though the best judge of individual potential in the world, seems strangely uninterested in the way it’s likely function as part of the whole. Weird, considering he’s supposedly such a cerebral manager, that his approach is so piecemeal. Cesc and Vieira will never play well together; Henry hasn’t ever had the kind of striker-partner he needs: incompatibility has been a weakness for years. My argument isn’t just the familiar one at the moment about our tactics being poor in particular games - though they are. What concerns me more is the long term. According to today’s Independent, we’ve got lots of money to spend. Good, and I’m sure Wenger will spend it on marvellous players. The question is, Will they gel
24 Responses to “Gelling”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
April 24th, 2005 at 7:56 am
Well here is how I see things for us to move forward.
I don’t think we can afford Gerrard, and even if we can afford him someone have to go. I think we have a good midfield setup if they all fit - Edu - Gilberto - PV with FF - MF in a support role. Gerrard will not stay at Liverpool even if the win the CL knowing only the top 4 teams in England will qualified and don?t see them catching Everton. That opens the door for Chelsea ? bad news.
On the wings this is why I hope we keep Pennant - He had proved himself at B’ham but Wenger will not give him a game or chance. With Freddie as the first choice, Pennant can play the support role. Shaun Wrighty will be a good buy but very hard to see Wenger buying another Wrighty ?legend?.
On the other side Pires will need some support and I don?t think Reyes is the guy to do the job so RVP will fit that role well. Fast, strong and can stay on his feet so is Pennant. So our midfield is sorted.
But you right all we need is a Keeper, Striker and defender. And I’m not saying some kids but experience and established players who can get the job done. I said this even before the beginning of the season. We have the money to buy good players but until Wenger stop buying the 1-pound players we will always be in the same situation.
Quincy / Lupoli are not ready after all the hype. Aliadiere not happy and you can’t force him to stay. Reyes will not say a word about him before others write what you did not said. So it shows we need a good striker not another sub.
Goalie - Taylor will never get a game under Wenger’s watch.
Defenders - We need a good strong player to help Sol - Toure - Senderos.
Is easy to put names forward but we need to get going otherwise trust me, this time next year we will be talking about the same issue.
April 24th, 2005 at 9:04 am
You don’t think Pires and Henry connect??? And Cole with the pair of them?
Vieira and Gilberto are fantastic in tandem as were Vieira and Petit.
Wenger has been all about pertnerships over the field.
Overmars and Bergkamp?
Bergkamp and Anelka?
Cole and Campbell?
Campbell and Toure?
Freddie and Bergkamp?
There has been so much ‘gelling’ in the Arsenal team that Bryllcream were looking at sponsoring the shirts!
I grant you that Vieira and Cesc hasn’t worked, not yet anyway. But Cesc and Gilberto looked amazing, and Cesc with Flamini has bags of potential.
Quincy is two-footed and can play anywhere in the attacking positions, but I would like to see him groomed to deputise for TH14 when he needs a rest, he certainly possesses all the attributes to play the same role, the hardest player to gel into the side is Reyes. His talents demand that he plays and that he gets a lot of the ball but as yet he hasn’t managed to click with anyone particularly well. He’s apparently earned himself the nickname ‘vertigo’ because of his reluctance to go upstairs in the training centre and eat with the other players after training. But what that really means or how important that is I’m not sure, but some more ‘evidence’ of his state of mind was in the Sunday Times…
Home truths for Reyes
Arsenal?s Jose Antonio Reyes will be keeping his head down this weekend after an outburst from his long-term girlfriend, Remedios Rivas. The couple have just split up and the model-cum-TV presenter is quite happily telling anybody who wants to listen that Reyes is afraid of his mother Mari. ?He fears to tell her that he wants to live his life and become independent,? said Rivas. ?His mother controls his life and controls all his money. He does not even know how much he has in the bank?
April 24th, 2005 at 10:02 am
I don’t think this is a question we can answer before we got the guy playing for us. Reyes had all the attriibutes that apparently critical to play our kind of game, but well..
Wiltord was doing great on the right wing and still..
Obviously by now we know that players like Jeffers or Cygan couldn’t really gel into our play.
But most of the times, we can only tell when we actually got the player..
It’s always a gamble when you buy an outfield player.
I still think we are running out of wingers.. And I stick to my belief that despite Pires being our 2nd top scorer, he doesn’t give us the width, pace and creative passes he used to give us few years back.
And I still think it’s naive to get Pires and Ljungberg make a run into the center all the time, hoping to create chances right through the crowds of defenders.
Yes they are both prolific. But when both your wingers turn into the receivng end, that means you need your forwards to be the ones creating space.
It’s fine when you got TH or the on form DB as your forwards. Otherwise.. it’s a dead end.
It’s easy to see that when we are against top and organized team, one of our wingers almost tend to have silent game. Sometimes both of them.
I don’t think there are many Robbens, C. Ronaldos, or Giulys. But, imho, we need one winger with that quality to make a difference.
In any case, let’s get ourselves a great keeper first and foremost, shall we?
April 24th, 2005 at 10:03 am
Now that my friend is a great post. A little rumour, a little speculation and a couple of good quotes.
Reyes is turning into a prize **AYE CARUMBA**(censored) with his family, girlfriend and numerous’quotes’.
If your going on Monday I’ll buy you a pint in the ‘twelve pins’ at finsbury park.
April 24th, 2005 at 10:28 am
Again, its difficult to tell how we gel on the training pitch. Perhaps Wenger feels he’s got raw material that can adapt, and that piecemeal choices will gel with experience. Many times its worked for him, and in some big cases, it hasn’t. Reyes, of course, being a very big case.
I’m concerned about letting some of the kids have a run when we still have a few crucial ties to consider. Guess we’ll see in about an hour and half if league games can be toyed with. Late subbing when we’re up comfortably is another thing, but unlikely to yield much in terms of gelling. If we do need someone behind Freddie, I would hope it would come in tandem with a striker who is comfortable in the air. And as you point out, RvP could be that guy, though he seems to like to make his own chances, a la Henry. Of course, there’s still a lot a wide midfielder can bring on the floor and in a long range shooting, and if SWP wants in, I’d think we’d need to lose someone to get him.
Its tough to speculate what a few months growth will do to our youngsters. They seem to have great attitudes when I read about where they feel they need to improve. Surely, experience in the back is essential, and that 24-27 age range could be ideal, in these areas as well.
A keeper (leave to Lehmann to start making this a tough call of late) some wide midfield depth and a striker that works withwhomever we choose. And if we’re lucky, giving Quincy a fun or two if we’re in the catbird seat before year’s end. That’s what I’m seeing.
April 24th, 2005 at 11:06 am
We need
A top class striker
A top class right/two footed attacking midfielder.
Maybe a world class goalkeeper if we can find one.
But I don’t see a anyone better than Lehman and available for transfert at the moment.
Almunia will need a new run after if his heroic display in the FA cup.
I don’t think we need a new CD, considering Hoyte, Ebou?, Garry, Djourou are decent replacements.
April 24th, 2005 at 12:04 pm
Cech wasn’t exactly available for transfer the moment he was bought. And according to the news, he was pretty much within Wenger’s radar as we bidded for him before. .
The term ‘available’ often depends on how much we are willing to spend.
While there are some players such as Buffon who is cleary unavailable, there are many who can become available and are definitely better than Lehmann.
Havign said that, I have to say that Lehmann has shown that he can be a good GK lately. Must be the pressure of being replaced that got him going.
April 24th, 2005 at 12:27 pm
I didn’t say they never gelled; in fact I specifically mentioned the Freddie-Dennis combo because we’re going to miss it sorely - unless we address the problem of the right-hand side now. It is a lot weaker than the left, with the excellent combos of Henry/Pires/Quincy/Ashley/Cichy, as you point out. Also as you point out, Reyes is a square peg in a round hole - we don’t need him on the left, we don’t need his type of talent because it’s not what works best with Henry. I love him but he’s a classic case of a great player bought for raw talent rather than for fit.
April 24th, 2005 at 12:28 pm
I agree Pennant would be useful at the moment but I can’t see it happening. He’s blown two chances and Wenger is strict.
April 24th, 2005 at 12:31 pm
We nearly did buy Cech, a while back when he first went to Rennes, but there was some screw-up with the work permit, which may be why we didn’t try again.
April 24th, 2005 at 12:36 pm
Just a caveat to what you said about SWP applying to the UEFA home-grown rule, Miranda. My understanding of the rule is that home-grown doesn’t officially mean that it applies to the country of origin, i.e. SWP being English therefore “home-grown.” I could be wrong but I think the UEFA home-grown rule means that “home-grown” means that you have to bring through a certain number of players through your youth academy but that they can be from anywhere (along the current EU, non-EU player guidlelines), meaning you theoretically could have Arsenal players, say from China, the US, & Nigeria, but if they all come through the Arsenal academy, they count as “home-grown” per UEFA’s new rule. I could be wrong but I think that’s how the new rule applies.
With that said, I agree with whoever said Quincy & Lupoli are not reasy yet. Quincy (as of now) is too raw & young for full matches (in my opinion), so if he’s to be used, it should be as a late X-factor sub. Lupoli is still another couple years away form 1st team football at least.
I think who we get or go after depends on who leaves. Personally, I think Edu & Aliadiere will leave & possibly Reyes. Maybe even Cygan with the emergence of Senderos. Also, I think with Ryan Garry coming back from a long-term injury, he, along with Ebou?, may start to see some time at right back which may push Lauren into midfield, which all of a sudden now we have Lauren as a wide midfield option. Might not happen, but it’s something that is a possibility I’d like to see tried since it’s in midfield where Lauren made his name in Spain.
Plus, where does Bentley fit into all of this? Does he go on transfer as well? Or does he come in & play that DB10 role, alternating with Dennis if he stays? B/c I think if Bentley goes out on loan again next year, he’s gone for good b/c he’s may it clear on numerous occasions he doesn’t want to go back to reserve team football.
April 24th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
God, that’s the saddest story I’ve read for a long time. Poor Reyes! He breaks up with his girlfriend, who badmouths him on tv, he’s scared to eat with his teammates, and no doubt his mum is giving him stick. Pretty sad for us too, now I come to think about it, because he won’t recover his form while he’s feeling so down; on the other hand, he may not want to go home where he’s the object of ridicule. So we’re stuck with him! I bet Henry isn’t helping the situation either. I’ve a feeling he wants Reyes out so he can have a striker more to his liking - such as Trezeguet. What a mess.
April 24th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
It was me who said Lupoli definitely wasn’t ready and Quincy possibly wasn’t but I’m less sure about Quincy because he has been on the bench once or twice. I think the Uefa ruling is two home-grown and two who’ve come through another English academy, so SWP would be useful to us. What I don’t understand is what constitutes ‘coming through an academy’ - I mean how young, how raw, do they have to be when you acquire them and how long do they have to be part of your academy as opposed to part of anyone else’s? Is Quincy, for example, Ajax’s, rather than ours because that’s where he started even though he was very young when he came to us ?
April 24th, 2005 at 1:42 pm
Cheers! Hope to take you up on that one, unfortunately, not this time though.
April 24th, 2005 at 1:53 pm
It’s the ‘piecemeal’ comment that most struck me as being out of place. And had there been little to play for this season then I would agree that this was the perfect time to experiment. You could argue that a lot of what has played out before us this season has been an experiement in terms of trying out so many young players. I don’t ever remember so many coming in, in one season.
I’m so against making a move for Trez. He’s expensive, injury-prone, contributes little to team play, and probably most worrying hasn’t yet had a good game with Henry in their time in the national side.
The Reyes story just seems to lurch from one bad headline to another and this latest instalment perhaps sheds some light on what is behind his general unhappiness. But if I were Wenger I’d get one or two of the lads to fix him up with one of the many eligible young women of London, I’m sure there’s plenty of Anglo-Spanish senioritas who’d be interested, to help him get over his broken heart, to get him away from his nagging mum and off the PlayStation. He might see life in London in a different way… it sometimes takes things like that for things to fall back into place.
April 24th, 2005 at 1:57 pm
I think DB10 has been the perfect foil for TH14, the only problem is that he hasn’t been around when we need him most - on away trips in Europe. And now that he’s 35 we have a real problem in that we need a new strike partner for him.
I think it would also be prudent to have someone who can play instead of TH14. We’ve been exceptionally fortunate that he hasn’t suffered any serious injuries *fingers crosed* but he also seems to play so much better after having had a break of any kind.
April 24th, 2005 at 2:09 pm
You are right about a players’ nationality not counting as long as they have spent three years at the clubs’ academy between the age of 15-21. It’s UEFA’s way of sidestepping the EU law on free movement of all Europeans to work throughout Europe. There is an additional burden though in that when the quota of the sqaud that has to be homegrown rises to eight, two of those have to be of the teams’ national association i.e. English for Arsenal.
I agree about Lauren moving to midfield, and that Bentley needs to be given a chance on the right too, but then Lauren had an absolute blinder against Duff.
Long term I’d like to see Toure play in his place, as he would add more physical power to the back line as well as be more of an attacking asset. He’s also far more of a ‘natural’ defender, whereas Lauren’s lapses have come about when he switches off because defending isn’t an isnstict for him as a player it is something he’s had to learn.
April 24th, 2005 at 2:25 pm
We also missed him because when he had his work permit the russians bought him, before the transfert windows was open. I remmeber Cech’s transfert was one the first moves of last summer.
It was for a record fee for goalkeeper in France.
Yes “available” means we can compete and buy. Gerrard isn’t available for Arsenal.
And we don’t need a central midfielder at the moment, even if EDU leaves.
April 24th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
You’re probably right about ‘piecemeal’ being wrong. What’s making me tetchy is Cesc. He can’t play in his proper position until Vieira retires, so he’ll probably be stuck out on the right whenever Freddie is injured, and eventually he’ll get pissed off and leave. It’s unthinkable that Wenger would ever willingly bench Viera and let Cesc play in front of Gilberto. A senorita to Reyes’s rescue? Nice idea. In the meantime, since he’s having trouble with his real one, perhaps a substitute mum? Where does he live so I can go round and tuck him up with a mug of hot milk?
April 24th, 2005 at 7:57 pm
Reckon goalkeeper should be priority number 1 if we seriously want to consider ourselves genuine Champions League contenders next season.
Then central defender with experience then striker.
Would still like to see SWP in the team tho hehe.
April 24th, 2005 at 8:47 pm
Not too long I remember [when van Persie failed to perform in a few games around the mid season]seeing some comments saying Wenger should spend some REAL money getting some REAL quality player, instead of spending a few kitty on a lesser quality player like van Persie.
Now that van Persie have had a decent run for the past few games and proved his doubtless talent. It’s great that people start to feel good about this kid now. But again, let’s be PATIENT and be REALISTIC, and to prepare and expect a young player like van Persie will bounce to have some off days somewhere down the road, it’s just the nature of young players. Should that happen, let’s remember to keep the FAITH.
To me, this season the greatest reward are seeing some really promsing youngsters coming through. Cesc, Sendros, van Persie, Flamini. And that young right back Emmanuel Eboue. Though only seen him playing a few games, he’s been extremely impressive.
We will have a couple additions during the summer that’s quite sure. No matter who’s coming, as Scotty again rightly pointed out, it’s difficult to predict how they would jell with our current team. but again, the important thing is to be patient and allowing the new players room to adapt and improve.
If there is anything I admire the Liverpool FC, it’s their song “You will never walk alone”.
April 25th, 2005 at 10:41 pm
I definitely agree with what you said in your last paragraph & that I’d also like to see Toure move out to right back & then bring Senderos in to partner Campbell.
April 25th, 2005 at 10:50 pm
It should be noted that goalkeeper is the only position that Chelsea won’t outbid us for. That’s really nice to know. ManU might hamper us, but we can stay ahead of them if we want, unlike Chelsea.
April 26th, 2005 at 2:33 am
Edgware apparently.
I think after watching the Spurs game and how played AW has remodelled the midfield to something like it was in 97/98 with Cesc in the Parlour role playing more like a central midfielder and freeing up Pires as more of an attacker.
Also, AW has kept Sol on the bench for 2 weeks while he was fit and kept Senderos in the side.
If Sol can get benched anyone can, and that includes Vieira. But to be fair to him he’s been playing the best he has all season just lately.