For those who have criticized Robert Pires as a “wash up”, they probably failed to realize a less eye-catching, but important asset of Pires’ game - the ability to hold on to the ball.
Arsenal likes to play an up-tempo attacking game, yet there are times you need to slow down. However, the midfield lineup of our current Arsenal side is too lightweighted to slow the game down. Take the starting midfield against Spurs as an example, Flamini, Cesc, Freddie are all undersized for today’s midfield players. Even they want to hold the ball up, they can’t. ‘Cos the oppositions would simply use their muscle to nick the ball away from them. As a result, they are forced to pass the ball quickly, resulting more mis-passes.
Pires is not a strong player neither. But he’s so intelligent a player who shields they ball away from opposition defenders very well. Most important, he knows WHEN to pass, WHEN to take on defenders, and WHEN to just hold up the ball. If you look at the younger players like Reyes and Cesc, when they have the ball, they tend to go straight to the defenders and trying to take them on with their skills. They would pull it off at times, but more often than not, they would get muscled out. Pires, on the other hand, when he has the ball, he tends to carry it wide, or carry it backward, wait until the opening emerges before making a pass, or wait until opposition defenders committing themselves before taking them on. As a result, he seldom loses the ball cheaply like some of his teammates do.
This is something the 3 French players (Henry, Pires, and Vieira) did particular well. Now with Vieira gone, Pires is the only one in our midfield who is capable of keeping the possession well. Someone to steady the ship. Anyone who questioned Wenger’s decision to keep playing Pires, look no further than the first half against Spurs: The midfield was awful. I had seldom seen an Arsenal side losing the possessions as often as the first half against Spurs. Gilberto is never the best passer of the ball. Flamini and Cesc were running around like a pair of headless chickens.
Spurs fans must sick of the sight of Pires, he just loves to score against Tottenham. And when Arsenal finally pulled level, it didn’t really suprise anyone who’s the scorer! Nevertheless, scoring goal is one thing, for many players who have suffered harsh criticism from fans this season, one must realize they are there (the starting lineup) for a REASON. A lot of things they do well may not be as easily to catch the eyes as scoring goals, but it’s equally vital to themselves, and the team as a whole.
11 Responses to “Spurs 1 v The “Wash Up” 1”
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October 30th, 2005 at 1:10 am
The wanky Tottenham Hotspur went to Rome to see the pope… and this is what he said: **AYE CARUMBA**(censored) OFF!
It was great to see our ARSENAL get back into the game in the second half. I agree with you that Pires made the difference. With all our first team players Sp*rs wouldn’t stand a chance!
October 30th, 2005 at 1:12 am
I must admit, he was the only Arsenal player who could have scored that goal - including Henry. Sometimes Pires just knows where to be, and the accuracy of his strike was perfection.
October 30th, 2005 at 1:15 am
yes, actually… sadly enough, even with all our first team players… they do stand a chance.
They overwhelmed us in the first half.
The ONLY first team player we didn’t have was Henry. If not for Pires coming on at half and playing so well… we’d have lost.
October 30th, 2005 at 1:20 am
Pires played well, and changed the match when he came on. Sometimes experience = confidence.
He was calm and cool with the one-timer to tie the match up… and after that, ONLY Arsenal looked like they could get a winner.
He also made a few superb passes. He is a very good passer of the ball. He plays very well with Henry. This is why Wenger has stuck with Robert Pires. He’s just that good… and still our 2nd best goal scorer… and our only other PROVEN SCORER other than TH14. Its not luck.
Happy Birthday Bob… keep the goals coming.
I hope I never see Cesc/Gilberto and Flamini in the same midfield again “this season”… unless its in the Carling Cup. That was not a good group to be playing together. Mediocre would be flattering them.
AW… GET THE MIDFIELD SOME HELP!
October 30th, 2005 at 1:23 am
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey Scotty!!!
Brilliant 15 minutes in the 2nd half at Foxboro by the New England Revolution!!!!!!!!
and I KNOW you were watching!
You thought it was in the bag when Djorkaeff scored to make it 2-0 on aggregate… but the Revs have HEART and GUTS… 3 goals later… we’re winners!!!!!!!!!
CUE UP THE JOURNAL ENTRY. After today’s pathetic midfield display, and the rumors of United being interested in “the man himself”… I think its only fitting that you do a little “ode to” the legend.
October 30th, 2005 at 1:45 am
Yes, I am the one that called him washed up and now I have to take back my words…Pires has finally showed the effort in the last 2 games..My problem with him was never his intelligence or his technical ability, it was his lack of trying when the team needed him most..It was pissing me off since he is only 31 or 32…If you are getting paid to play, you better do it to the best of your abilities. Bergkamp, I can understand because of his age. I still don’t understand why Pires cannot be used as a forward, he is the best finisher apart from TH on the team.
Reyes needs to pass quicker rather than holding on to the ball and he seemed off today..His pace wasn’t there either..Looks like AW rushed him back too soon.
RVP looked like Reyes out there chasing after the balls and also showed great pace..This is very encouraging when you also consider the fact that he used his right leg to try and score today..We finally have progress..I think the man has the most lethal left foot in all of football…Takes great corners, free kicks etc…It would be awesome if he played like this everyday and stopped worrying about his looks. He could fill the Bergkamp role and be even more dangerous if he has the gift of speed.
The second half at the Spurs showed we are a better team than them, which means we just need to see how we match up with ManUre and Newcastle again.
October 30th, 2005 at 7:01 am
Such is the league this year that Wigan have no officially the best defensive record..even better than Chelsea!!! AND they are up to second!! Well done to them I guess….
Yes Arsenal played horribly in the 1st half but I assure you guys that this was the Spurs team’s game of the season….they were so wound up and up for it and running on pure adrenaline and so out fought the Arsenal in 1st half….Arsene prepared his team for this game like any other game and so it took them the half time take to get going a a few tactical subs to change the face of the game completely and what a change….
I mean seriously after halftime there looked only one winner and it was not Spurs!!
I am not defending the performance of the 1st half infact I also agree that Van Persie should start up front now on a more permanent basis and let Bergkamp be supersub instead….Clichy I thought played a little better today but still not up to scratch of course….
All in all it was a good result against a rejuvenated Spurs side and considering the teams around us mostly lost including Man Utd’s shocker of a performance…and up next for them Chelsea!!
On Bobby’s performance yes it was one that changed the match but I feel if he played from the start it would have been similar to the Bergkamp performance…these older experienced players need to become supersubs now just like Bobby did today….
I say it again we WILL be fine and even with performances like these we are still only 4 points off the top spot and watch us climb into 2nd or 3rd place after the next 2 games have been played…and this after Arsenal have not even left 3rd gear!
October 30th, 2005 at 9:13 am
Ozzy, I remember watching Wigan in their Premiership debut against Chelsea, mightly impressive. They are the Everton of last season, public’s choice of relegation candidate, surprised everybody as season marched on. Best of all, they do try to play football. Their passing is surprisingly smooth for a newly promoted side who are made up of a group of journeymen.
Will they remain up there on the top 4 of the table? I don’t know. But even if they don’t it may not be such a bad thing. For smaller club who qualify for Europe could be an unwelcome distraction. They simply do not have the depth and quality to compete in two fronts (Premiership and Europe). Everton is a good example. A few years back, Ipswich Town did very well in their first season after promoted and qualified for UEFA Cup. The following season, competiting in two fronts, they were pulled down to earth and relegated as a result.
October 30th, 2005 at 10:49 am
Andez, I agree with you in calling out the fact that we don’t have the “quality necessary” that Wenger said that we have anymore. In the midfield there are so many intangibles that we had with Vieira that went unnoticed. It’s very difficult to quantify the difference that he made to the team as there are no stats. Who was knocks Vieira off the ball all game? Who shakes Vieira so that he can’t keep his cool on the ball? Who on our team provides that quality to slow the game down and, when necessary, take a few kicks instead of just kicking the ball away when he’s about to get challenged? How many of our current midfielders can resist a strong challenge and continue with the dribble?
These are all of the intangible and unquantifiable qualities that Vieira and Pires bring, not to mention the sheer size and power of Vieira to resist a strong challenge as well as issue one. Wenger says that we have the necessary quality in our side but that’s untrue. Where was it on yesterday? Bottom line, none of our kids have the ability OR the potential to play the way Petit or Vieira did, PERIOD. If there is no one available to replace Vieira and he’s under contract and hasn’t asked to leave, you say no to all bid’s. Vieira stays. IF his game continues to drop in a World Cup year and you have someone better, you bench his ass. You still have 50 million in the bank. It seems simple to me.
To defend Gilberto, his job is more to protect the defense and provide the transition to offense than to make plays. He does that very well and we missed him badly last year. Also he generally has teamates busting their hump to get open to give him easy passes. The quality of our current midfielders don’t seem to understand or execute this as well as Vieira, Parlour or Edu did. It’s no excuse to pass poorly but like I tell the kids I coach; if I receive the ball I shouldn’t have to take more than one touch if I don’t want to. I should have easy passes available. If I have to hold the ball I’m either unaware of where my teamates are or they’re not making themselves available. If they’re not easy passing targets for the entire 90 minutes, what are they doing? They can watch from the sidelines or the stands, not on the field.
This is also a quality that made the game much easier when younger players came into the first team. They were surrounded by players that supported them. All that they had to do was not make mistakes. They had plenty of support It made them look better than they actually were. When you have a bunch of young kids, who are they going to lean on for support?
This all eludes to those intangible qualities that senior midfielders with experience bring. This game is about scoring goals but to score you need to create chances. That’s very difficult if you can’t keep posession. Arsenal have historically been able to maintain posession easily because the guys work for one another creating easy passes. If players don’t do that, they will be lucky to win, or in our case draw. Where is the necessary quality in midfield that doesn’t get skull drug by Spurs or Boro?
October 30th, 2005 at 12:52 pm
Despite his 32 years, Pires still have lots of pace to beat players over the first 10m. In tight situations, this is a great quality to have. I enjoy watching his “body shuffle” where he forces a player to commit by pausing in the middle of a turn and then pulling away. A very intelligent player who knows how to create space for himself and do not often get caught in possession - this is something Reyes needs to work on for his game when running with the ball. Not many players have the ability to strike the ball first time, keep it low and thru a mass of players in the box. If fans expect him to go into a hard tackle, then it is a wrong expectation bcos that is not his game, Pires is a finesse player who is best at creating chances for strikers and also one with the intelligence to be at the right place at the right time. I think he deserves a 2 year extension to his contract - if anything else, to guide the younger players like Reyes, Cesc and Quincy.
October 30th, 2005 at 4:23 pm
Yesterday was the first game in which I thought we missed Vieira. Someone who could link up defence with attack. None of Fabregas/Gilberto/Flamini can do that, although Fabregas has the potential - he’s still a boy.