What is it about the Dutch in general and Ajax in particular that creates all these wonderful players?
It is a real shame they couldnt hold onto their generation, because it would have been sensational. And after todays result you probably love him some more.
I would like to hear (read?) some opinions on Tévez, preferably from the english gentlemen.
Gentleman?
Tevez i think is very good although he is always been overshadowed for the past couple of seasons. At united Rooney and Ronaldo were there. Argentina, Messi. At city he is finally the main figure and the main threat so i suppose its no surprise he's begun scoring like he was in his Corinthian days were i assume he was the main player(?). Having said that, he doesnt get incredibly plaudits which will change if City get into the CL and he continues his scoring record.
Where were you heading? haha must've been funny....for everybody else.
Ouch. It's at Stamford Bridge. Not looking good at the mo. Seriously, Wenger needs to bring in some experienced players but it's way too late for them now. It'll be another trophy-less season. That goes for Utd as well imho. D: Carling Cup maybe?
I was heading to London, ironically it was a fly emirates flight.
Wenger's problem? Adding steel and experience to his young side might be admitting that he was wrong in trusting them to move Arsenal on. Plus because of their wage structure they seem to be limited in who they can bring in. Why go to Arsenal when Chelsea, Man U and City can offer more?
In my opinion the problem is not experience. There is enough of a balance of young players and experienced players. Van persie, Arshavin, Fabregas, Sagna etc you can harldy say they're not experienced. The major concerns are threefold, injuries, defence and the mentality (which is related to your point about "steel"). The mentality of some players is horrible. Denilson and Diaby are two prime examples that suffer from collective lapses of concentration. They cannot focus for 90 minutes, its beyond them. I can bring countless examples of players ghosting past them as they simply stand and watch. Or crosses coming in and they're not focusing on the player or the ball. Or misplacing passes because they are not concentrating on who they are giving the ball too. Its gets incredibly annoying, and its down to the coach to fix it. Others have other problems, Clichy for example tends to panic when things are not going well. If the team is playing badly he plays even worse, he begins letting people go past etc. Thats also related to the general problem we have in defence. Almunia, god help him, has a similar more exasperating problem. If he makes the smallest of mistakes, there is no going back, he will begin to crumble. There is more but lets leave at that.
The mental problems and the mistakes from it are all evident in the 4-4 with spurs. Bentley scored a goal from far away, Almunia mistake. He begins to crumble, second goal he makes another mistake as he parries the ball into the path of bent who scores. Close to the end clichy get jittery from a bit of pressure and makes a mistake, the ball is in jenas's hands and he shoots. Almunia already demoralised and making mistakes right left and centre, reacts late to the shot. Goal. The last goal is a perfect example of Denilson and Diaby's lack of concentration, its the last minute its 4-3, they lose concentration and just watch as Huddlestone passes to Modric who shots. They should have been closing down faster. Its something that i believe Wenger has tried to adress a couple of seasons ago. Im not sure if you remember (why should you >.>; )but in the 08 season when we had our title run,
this came out. I have doubts if stuff like that works but its shows that he is trying to get them more mentally stronger. But it doesn't seem to be working and all of this means "unpredictable" arsenal.
The mentalitly problem of the team also leads to the general problem with our defence. Almunia and clichy are vulnerable mentally, if the chips are down they are going to make mistakes. And its up to the other three to help them out, but the problem is that for the past two seasons only one of CB's has been at playing at a very high level while the other was being bailed out. Two seasons ago, it was Toure was playing very badly and Gallas was keeping the defence together (which was evident when he got injured, we fell apart and started conceding ridiculously that season). Last season it was the other way around, Gallas who was beginning to lose some pace was starting to make mistakes (although not like toure) as Vermaelen held the fort. This season we'll see how whoever partners (both their names are hard to spell off my head, im not going to try >.>) Vermaelen performs but im sure it will continue. So we had two mentally vulnerable players, one CB who plays badly which leaves only two players who are consistently playing at a high level. Which means if we're down by a goal or two we are most likely not going to catch up but lose by more as they continue to crumble. (Barca 4-1, Chelsea recently, United 3-1 CL etc).
Also add to the fact that we have a stupid host of injuries. We end up being unpredictable, defensively awful and generally "close but not yet there".
