Arsenal look set to win this year’s Amsterdam tournament hosted by Ajax. I (as I’m sure many fellow Gunners) watched the 2 games we played this weekend: first against, Ajax, a 1-0 victory for the Gunners, and 2nd, a 2-1 victory ove Porto. Some thoughts on these two matches:
I am not sure whether it’s the preseason, or something else (no PV4), but we struggled to get the ball out of our half. Cygan, who played for 90 minutes in the second game, looked terrible as always. He never inspires confidence. Senderos is solid and growing in stature, although some might say he lost the Porto striker allowing him to give Porto the lead in the first half.
Our passing is not yet crisp, and we don’t look confident on the ball. We gave the ball away too easily, and too often….not something I want to see on a regular basis.
Jens Lehmann has trouble SAFELY distributing the ball. This may come back to haunt us when the EPL begins in a couple of weeks. As we have said before, we need a back up. There are rumors of signing a Uruguayan keeper, aptly named Viera!! (Spelled slightly differently). Hope he is good….we can’t afford to have Almunia in the net again this year.
Pires will go to ground if a defender breathes on him. Refs know this and will rarely give us the free kick. I fear for us wanting a free kick that never was given, getting caught out of position, and having to pick the ball out of our net….
This is the first time I’ve paid special attention to Hleb. He is wonderfully talented, selfless, and a hard worker. A wonderful addition to our squad and I expect lots from him in the years to come.
We missed out on Baptista…he’s off to Real to warm their bench….He would have been a magnificent signing for us, we need a physical, aggressive striker like him, but oh well, such is life and we will move on to bigger and better things.
I don’t mean for this post to be a negative one….I’m just pointing out some observations over the weekend. It seems as if the gulf between us and Chelsea is widening in terms of having an experienced, solid squad, which is necessary to win trophies when your first team is tired, bruised, and battered and it’s crunch time (February - May).
I have faith in Wenger and our youngsters and I hope we will challenge on every front to go forward this year.
Would like to hear your thoughts
Be strong, Play strong, Up the Arse,
Biggun
27 Responses to “Some Thoughts on the Amsterdam Tournament…”
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July 31st, 2005 at 6:42 pm
Your last line says it all…..Hope! Since when did we hope to challange? Everton hope, Bolton hope, the scum from the wrong end of the Seven Sisters Road hope, we expect…we demand…we do not hope! But as the season draws closer it seems more and more likely all we have is hope…Bloody pathetic, there is a huge ‘void’ in the middle, its needs to be addressed A.S.A.P!
July 31st, 2005 at 6:54 pm
I have to say I totally disagree on Cygan TODAY. He played well. I am not a Cygan fan, but I give him his due for a good match. (other than that kick with about 5 minutes left directly to the other team!)
Senderos WAS responsible for their goal. He is a kid. He will make mistakes. We will pay for those mistakes by picking the ball out of our net. That happens when you play young talent. Deal with it. He’s good… could be very very good. But he only played 1/2 season last year.
I thought we played a very good 2nd half v. Porto, and displayed some of what we are capable of offensively. Bentley was anonymous in the 1st half, and Pires is NOT a central midfielder. Freddie came on and did his thing. Bergy looked decent too. Eboue fouled repeatedly when he came on. Hoyte got beat immediately after coming on.
Where is Cesc? Where is Clichy?
The lack of experience will probably be our downfall this year. You simply can’t ask 18-21 year olds to play consistent for a 50+ game schedule. There will be certain players that get exhauseted, because we can’t allow them to rest. HENRY for example. Gilberto for another.
The keeper situation is… its Lehmann. We’re going with him. Mannone is there as well. Almunia… and apparently we’ve signed the other Viera from Uraguay. Thats it! Fingers and toes crossed. Waiting for the accidents to happen.
Midfield might be faster than ever! But they are lightweight and lack muscle. Last I checked, the EPL was known for its physcial play.
So today was an entertaining match v. Porto, well… the 2nd half was. We have nice kits. We have some very talented players. We have a plethora of young talented kids. I fear the mix is wrong with young and old. We will struggle at times, and be brilliant at others. Maybe the Charity Shield will shed a bit more light on things. The opener v. Newcastle and @ Chelsea will tell ALOT of how this season will go. RIGHT INTO THE FIRE for our young starlets. Lets wish them well and get behind them with lots of support. They’ll need it.
July 31st, 2005 at 7:17 pm
Yes, unfortunately our mix is not quite right yet…..we will need more experienced players to truly challenge this year.
Come on Arsenal….behind you all the way,
Up the Arse….
July 31st, 2005 at 7:56 pm
Think it went well. As Henry said there were some heavy legs out there, training and all. I like this Hleb guy, the left wing is okay. He plays well with the team, and it can only get better. Reyes was as frustrating as usual, brilliance and futility. Could even see Pires on the left and Hleb taking Reyes place. I think he’s get a fair run, and if he can’t improve he really should be benched.
Defence was a bit heavy legged, but I think Cygan was okay. We’ll see next week.
July 31st, 2005 at 8:24 pm
Scary but true! Tottenham have moved into 4th place with the British bookies, behind Chelsea @ 8-13, Arsenal @100-30, Man Utd @7-2 and then Spurs @ …..100-1! What about the Pool, Everton, Newcatle? they`re all behind in the betting and the bookies usually get it right!
July 31st, 2005 at 9:53 pm
Must have been a ‘glip’ in the system, Liverpool are now 4th @ 11-1, phew!
July 31st, 2005 at 10:46 pm
Reyes is here to stay. He signed an extension. He cost us alot of money. He’s going no place. Better hope his play starts to improve, because he’s going to be in the line-up. He tries his ass off. I will give him an “A” for effort.
July 31st, 2005 at 10:48 pm
After you said that, I checked my bank account really quickly. If Liverpool were 100-1, I’d have wagered quite a bit on that one. They are a good shot at 11-1 in my opinion.
July 31st, 2005 at 10:51 pm
Rumor is… both Arsenal and United are attempting to hijack the Essien deal at the last second!
I’d be right back on board the good ship lolli-pop if we managed this coup!
Why not bid 23-25 Million… and take this talented young star to Highbury, where he’d fit right in the middle of the park?
At worst… drive up Chelsea’s prices even higher… they are offering 21 Million and Tiago on loan for a year?!
Well, if they are going to get him, lets make them pay something truly stupid… like 30 Million!
Better yet, lets get Essien!
August 1st, 2005 at 1:27 am
What is this biased sh_t? Which game were you watching? I think you are merely repeating the Senderos ‘good’ & Cygan ‘bad’ rhetorics/cliches and going along with what others usually say about them two rather than a judgement of what happened on the pitch.
Cygan was quite solid. It was Senderos who had a very weak game. He WAS responsible for the goal. Your wording of “some might say” implies that you disagree or you did not see what happened?
Since when did we go 6 - 0 in preseason? Yet the gap between us & Chelski are widening “some might say”. I know it was pre-season & “some might say” (I am getting hooked to this) that these games don’t mean anything. Well, by that logic if you want to ignore the results of preseason games then you have to ignore the way the results were achieved.
To many we are defeated even before a ball has been kicked in the season proper, even when the tranfer window is still opened.
This article is a mangled assortment of cliches/facts.
August 1st, 2005 at 4:03 am
Of course Hleb is good. He has been one of the most outstanding players in BUndesliga. I was amused at some people here who were moaning that we were buying some unknown quantity. I had no doubt from the beginning that he would add something into our game. That some people know Papa Diop better than Alexander Hleb, you gotta be watching too much of Premiership matches.
Probably had Wenger been pursuing one of Bundesliga best midfielders, d’Alessandro, some would also say the same of him, dismissing him as an unknown who couldn’t get the job done at Arsenal.
While it’s good to love our club, or the league, it is healthy to respect other leagues and other clubs’ players as well. And just because you never heard of him doesn’t mean he is not a quality player.
Heard that we clinched Viera deal. I admit that I heard very little of him despite him being touted as SOuth American’s most promising goalie. I knew and droll for Oliviera, his national teammate, but I haven’t seen Veira played. GIven that the news is true, we’ve just solved our goalie’s problem.
So let’s get a centerback! Heitinga is a very talented Ajax centerback. Vincent Kompany is also very good. I am not sure we can count on Senderos at the moment. The boy needs time.
As for midfielder, well… Pires-Flamini partnership is a joke. I hope those 2 games were enough for Wenger to tell. Pires can only play wide. Heard he signed Song. I have no idea what Wenger would do, let’s wait and see.
August 1st, 2005 at 6:20 am
i quite agree with stag and ivan’s assessment on Cygan. To be fair, he’s not really a bad player, when he played well, he’s pretty solid. Problem is he’s rather inconsistent, and tend to make silly mistakes out of the blue.
As for Senderos, he’s still very much a rookie. As i mentioned last season, don’t be too tough or expecting too much on him. He will be a top talent one day without a doubt, but he’s still very much learning his trade. He will make mistake, he will learn, and he will improve. But he needs to supporters to stand behind him. If a few mistakes or a few bad games then everyone is all over his back, that will kill his self-belief, and won’t be doing him any good. Same can apply on every young talents of our team. Look no further than Reyes last season, the amount of expectation and finger pointing to him was unbelievable. I am not a big fan of him, and I do agree some of his performances last season was well below par, but the accessive criticism to him I did feel was a little bit too much, and not so fair to a young player who’s only 21.
August 1st, 2005 at 6:35 am
If Reyes doesn’t perform he should be benched like anyone, else that’s my point.
August 1st, 2005 at 6:54 am
Pires isnt a great central midfileder. Once we have Gilberto and Cesc in the middle we’ll be grand. Im not going to start panicking just yet.
August 1st, 2005 at 7:01 am
I tend to disagree. With Lehmann, Cole, Toure/Sol, Lauren, Pires, GIlberto, Freddie, Thierry and Bergkamp we have loads of experience. Cesc is a very mature player for his age, and Reyes and RvP can more than hold their own. Its not all doom and gloom. We’ll be fine.
August 1st, 2005 at 7:53 am
Not going to happen. Wenger likes the kid. He is going to be playing alot.
August 1st, 2005 at 8:07 am
Cygan has two main weaknesses IMO. Firstly he is very slow. Very easily beaten in one-to-one situations. I don’t think he is going to improve in that department. Secondly, he tends to give the ball away. I would prefer him to smash the ball away from defence rather than trying to pass out of trouble. Instead, it usually gets Arsenal into more trouble.
Cygan can still contribute to the team if he is playing as a sweeper ala Beckenbaur style. Reading of the game and positioning can still get him ahead of the opponent but I doubt Wenger will ever play with a sweeper.
As for Reyes, his form has been spotty since early last season. He needs to work on his repetoire of tricks to beat defenders this season as most defenders now know how to nullify his style of play. All his running and enthusiasm will count for nothing if he does not impose himself on games more consistently this coming season. If Wenger continues to play him and he continues to turn in sub-standard performances, it will only be to the detriment of the team.
August 1st, 2005 at 8:46 am
Even though I haven’t been over-impressed with Senderos throughout the tournament, he did play out of position against Porto.
As for Cygan, every time I see him pull on an Arsenal shirt I wonder if Wenger really knows what the hell he is doing. This is one of the worst defenders in Arsenal’s history. He turns like a tanker, his positional sense his bad, his distribution is irrational. He can’t even mark at corners.
If there are 100 central defenders in the Premiership, he muct be ranked at about 95th. Therefore I haven’t a clue why Wenger has not replaced him, except for the fact that Wenger’s record of buying defenders is absolutely terrible and a big weakness of his.
I watched both matches, Cygan did not play well. He did the minimum that was expected from him - and adequately so. If he’s going to start the season, of even play a significant part, then we may as well pack our bags and go home, because Wenger will have well and truly lost the plot.
August 1st, 2005 at 9:13 am
I have to assume that the many of the young players and formations we saw this past week were trials and/or backup plans. Wenger needed to give them a run out to see where he wants them. Clichy is likely to be first choice backup for Ash, and Cesc is likely to start in midfield, with Bobby coming in on the left for Reyes or vice versa.
It will also be interesting where Hleb plays when Gilberto returns. I’m hoping he gets a shot just behind Henry, allowing him to drift left and right and link up with Cesc. That’s where he played in the Confederations Cup and he was mega dangerous. He also played fairly well defensively, adding that much needed component to our lightweight midfield. Putting him between the strikers and the the CM will strengthen it until we can find our next Vieira or Makalele.
It seems that Porto took a page from everyone’s book and attacked our right side. That is still a major trouble spot, as is some much needed chemisty in the center D. I’m afraid Sol’s return will take some time adjust there, too. For me, its not that we don’t have the talent and the mix of experience as much as we need more time playing together. For the record, so do Chelsea. Mourinho’s comments on how he has the toughest job may have been ridiculous on the one hand, but on the other, his side should be a heck of a lot more potent with all that talent. Of course, he’ll build a wall in front of the box until he finds it. Hopefully our defense will allow us more time as well, which may be why Cygan was getting a lot of minutes. Wenger may want to see how he’s improved if Sol decides to fly.
It also seems to me that you advocate some stop-gap signings, Stag. We’ve got 30 days to find some, and I suspect Wenger will start in earnest to pull them once he’s exhausted plans B and C of what he really wants. The fact remains that we can’t just isolate a player and guarantee him for the side. I’m confident that those players we want know we want them. Now its the deal, and dodging the other big clubs who seem to be secreting players away from other clubs regardless if they’re surplus to needs.
Transfer market death by attrition is really frustrating.
August 1st, 2005 at 9:13 am
I agree, i too perfer defenders to play it simple, just smash the ball to the roll Z, but don’t try to be fancy and pass the ball out of trouble (or rather INTO the troulbe)!
But i don’t think Cygan can play a sweeper ala the Beckenbauer style. The Kaiser is an all around player who’s actually more like a central midfielder, who needs to be quicker and much more skillful to be a sweeper.
August 1st, 2005 at 9:22 am
I’ve been trying to unlock the mystery of Reyes for some time, and he continues to baffle me. Maybe its because Wenger likes him to play a major role in the attack when he’s not ready to lead. For me, he should have gotten a more gradual run out, going only to the left where his shot is strongest. But we didn’t have that luxury to play him slowly, as was the situ with Cesc.
And he’s still not linking well with Henry because they like the same places on the field, and he lacks the ability as of yet to think a few steps ahead. He gets the ball, looks up, and makes his choice. He’s had his one-touch moments, but they so often are ill-chosen or executed. Most of the time I can see him thinking, and so can the defense, who already knows what he’s going to do. He’s best with a straight run at the goal running onto the ball and the ball on his left. He’s done okay laying it off from there, as well. Other than that, he’s been, as A-G says, brilliantly futile.
But I totally agree that Wenger is keeping his faith in him, and he’s worth 11 points in the fantasy draft, so others apparently fear him. One thing I’ll say is that he gone down less in the preseason. If he can keep his footing, he can run away from defenders with ease giving him less options to freeze up his brain.
August 1st, 2005 at 9:25 am
Wow, that Peace Cup must be rated highly.
August 1st, 2005 at 9:35 am
Agree, Cygan has square wheels. His experience is supposed to make up for that. We’re waiting. Although he had a solid second half and ruined more than a few route one attacks.
Also agree to a point about Reyes. His main problem is that he’s not clever enough to fool defenders. I can’t remember the last time he left one standing. He usually outruns them onto the ball, or does a back heel pass. He is getting better at cutting inside, but now he needs to work on laying it off into space better. I still have hope, mainly because some of his daisy cutter strikes have been inhuman.
August 1st, 2005 at 9:44 am
I’m behind you on the preseason dismissals, ivanmwpoon. I watched just about every one including the other clubs and these matches were very near 100%, especially in the second halves. We won that Holland tournament, and we usually tank it. And we did it trying some new things and young, YOUNG players. A small injection of pace and we took matches over easily.
As for Cygan and Sendy, as Danny said, Sendy was out of position and without the benefit of merely adequate defensive cover in the midfield. Boy was it a test for our back four! There was also a little matter in the Porto game of Ussandro (sic) who beat Sendy. Cygan was leaving his post to mark him when he might have done well to stay put. As a result, Sendy was moving to laterally for my liking. The goal may have been a momentary lapse of concentration or lack of experience, but it may also have been a matter of him guarding too much space. After all, Cygan could have made a challenge as the ball came in.
That being said, Jorginho was a menace. That ball he sent in was Maldini perfect. And he was creating tons of havoc everywhere.
August 1st, 2005 at 3:59 pm
okay, i watched and re-watched porto’s goal. and it was not sendy’s fault or cygan. if blame is to be laid, it should be at the feet of lauren.
this is how their goal happened….
a long ball from their right back seeking out lisandro on the left, was met by lauren’s head and then kicked into touch for a porto throw.
as the ball was thrown in, lauren was shading lisandro, but then the play was swithched to their right, where jorginho was left unmarked (hello ashley?) meanwhile lisandro snuck in behind lauren who turned his back and drifted towards the left where the ball had been played. at this point, senderos is in a perfect position. indeed there was not a porto player near to him, so he just marked the zone, which was fine at that moment.
so jorginho sends in his cross, past cygan who was on mccarthy like a glove; to the onrushing lisandro, who was left unmarked by lauren.
lauren forgot about his man (how many times have we seen that?), and his man stole in the back door unmarked. senderos didn’t see him until it was too late, and it wasn’t his man anyway.
for me, this tournament proved even more that we need to replace lauren at right back. he is too slow, his positional sense is bad, and he gives up too many fouls down deep.
August 1st, 2005 at 4:06 pm
cygan is the best cb we have at passing the ball out from the back. his control and accuracy are top drawer. but he is slow, and sometimes he is out of position. that all said, i think he played very well yesterday. he made some key interceptions and clearances, and won more than his share of head balls. watch the game again, but without your collective biases against him, and you can only see he played well.
i feel reyes’ biggest problem is a propensity to hold the ball too long. he needs to know when the simple, quick pass is his best option.
August 1st, 2005 at 9:06 pm
Off to a decent (but not sure comfortable and confident) start against quality sides. Hleb looked solid and provided some spark, great addition. Not till Freddie and Dennis came on against Porto though did we look like a solid side. Where’s Fabregas? Is he hurt and not travel? He looked strong at the beginning of last year filling in for Viera….I would like to see what he adds in the middle.