[Archived] Arsenal Preview

[Hasta]

A couple of things that I haven't seen much mention of.

I thought Simpson was one of the few (only?) that wanted to get tight and put a tackle in at times. I don;t know who got MOTM (I'd gone by then) but if I was forced to choose he'd get it. It's a sad situation when your awarding MOTM for putting in effort and tackles but even that was in short supply yesterday.

Also, Santa had a bit of a shocker. It's not mentioned much cos we know how good he is and we may well rely on him quite a lot this year. However he was poor all round yesterday summed up by the chance in the first half which he really should have buried. Let's hope it's just his return from the slight injury and the trip to Paraguay.

[cn174]

I thought Simpson was one of the few (only?) that wanted to get tight and put a tackle in at times. I don;t know who got MOTM (I'd gone by then) but if I was forced to choose he'd get it. It's a sad situation when your awarding MOTM for putting in effort and tackles but even that was in short supply yesterday.

Emerton got man of the match.

[thenodrog]

Also, Santa had a bit of a shocker. It's not mentioned much cos we know how good he is and we may well rely on him quite a lot this year. However he was poor all round yesterday summed up by the chance in the first half which he really should have buried. Let's hope it's just his return from the slight injury and the trip to Paraguay.

He won just about everything in the air but it's possible Arsenal allowed him to do this confident that they could defend against his flick ons to Roberts.

[thenodrog]

Interesting that after Everton, the Ince out brigade were chirping that one swallow doesn't make a summer, however, it seems that one bad defeat does make a clueless manager.

Two. Have you forgotten letting WHU score 4? You may find it 'interesting' but I find it appalling that we now have the worst goal difference in the Prem. 11 goals against in 4 matches is relegation form in anybody's book. Rem EiT no one can defend the indefensible. Letting goals in like we are doing will quickly undermine confidence, and a team at the foot of the table playing without confidence and with no adequate leadership will be relegated. It's increasingly obvious that we simply do not have the resources to buy our way to safety come January.

[vyeo]

Graham, if you thought that Andrews had a good game yesterday your clearly have no understanding of football at all.

Andrews was slow, inept, lumbersome and dangerous. I mean dangerous to his own team. His tackling was late and ineffective, his positioning and passing was off the mark, in fact, he was so bloody much out of his depth it was criminal putting him out there on that pitch.

It has to be one of the worst managerial decisions ever.

He may be a good box to box midfielder in div 2, but he is a player who failed at Hull, dipped at wolves and had a good season at MK Dons. You do not, at the age of 27, forget how to play football. You do not make the jump to the Premiership via 2 divisions, you work your way up. I cannot see what Ince and co see in him. I didnt see anything yesterday that made me think I will give him time to adjust.

Andrews is not and never will be a Premiership player. Thats why Hull and Wolves have both got rid of him.

Another thing whislt we are on, Ince said it wasnt long ago that Fowler was banging in goals for Liverpool, well Paul, it wasnt that long ago he couldnt even make the bench at Cardiff

Forgot about aht one didnt we mate

Fully agreed. I can only think of one reason why he's being picked ahead of Vogel - being the gaffer/guv'ner (i really dont care)'s mate. What has Vogel done to get into ince's bad books anyway? he hasn't had a look in, and he's the midfield with arguably the best pedigree on our books.

[Damage]

Two. Have you forgotten letting WHU score 4? You may find it 'interesting' but I find it appalling that we now have the worst goal difference in the Prem. 11 goals against in 4 matches is relegation form in anybody's book. Rem EiT no one can defend the indefensible. Letting goals in like we are doing will quickly undermine confidence, and a team at the foot of the table playing without confidence and with no adequate leadership will be relegated. It's increasingly obvious that we simply do not have the resources to buy our way to safety come January.

Three.

What about the insipid performance at home against Hull?

[Hasta]

Three.

What about the insipid performance at home against Hull?

Three bad defeats? I could swear we've only had 2 !!

[imy9]

Fully agreed. I can only think of one reason why he's being picked ahead of Vogel - being the gaffer/guv'ner (i really dont care)'s mate. What has Vogel done to get into ince's bad books anyway? he hasn't had a look in, and he's the midfield with arguably the best pedigree on our books.

Vogel is injured.

Fowler was scoring goals for Liverpool 2 seasons ago. When he was fit, he started and scored goals for Cardiff.

One full week with the management team, will result in an inspired performance against Fulham, I predict 4-1 to us with RSC getting a hatrick

[John]

I do actually find some of what Ince is doing 'clueless'. I don't have time to write a full list, but what is really worrying me is the shape of the team, and how loose we are. I am making my assumption on all our games so far, not just a knee-jerk reaction to yesterday.

Granted we had injuries yesterday but we do not want to get into a rut. Condfidence will only go down.

We are creating and missing plently of chances, but we do not have the personnel or pace within the team to play like this. I think Ince's comments post-match suggest that there may be a tactical re-think.

You can only judge things so far, but he has already made mistakes and his activity in the transfer market is questionable. It is not a case of getting on his back for the sake of it, but I am just concerned because I care.

Prior to the start of this season, Ince said it would be a learning curve for him. Why do we have to be the guinea pigs.

[RoverJoexx]

I would take a 0-0 now next week if its for the good of the whole season.

That defence system is not working and need to be address fast. Get back to zonal marking which work reasonably well for us previous seasons.

Credit must go to the Arsenal's frontman too, their movement into spaces were sublime but you can't lose your markers so easily esp. against top players as

they will make you pay at this level.

[Daremz]

We need to have more creative midfielders to keep pressure off our defenders. Because our midfielders don't have much creativity, most of the balls go backwards, which gets our defenders under pressure, as their footballing capacities are just...not very good. Villanueva in. Fast.

[The Prof.]

Forgetting those on here with the hallucigenetic tendancies and those who need to lay off the anti - depressants awhile, there is a semblance of quality analysis yet again. As it seems to come from The Drog. I am putting myself in the former category.

Midfield

Andrews - did okay, tidy but a bit slow to the second ball but he might speed up. Axe can't play but can tackle and picks up second ball better than anyone at the club. He would have been in my team as there were increasingly big gaps between midfield and the defence and then in the 2nd half, midfield and defence and attack. Why Ince thinks we can out football one of the best footballing teams in the Universe with £2m fourth division player is beyond me - but there you go.

Incey - consolidate the way we play by playing with the capabilities of the players we have, not the ones you think we have (they are at Arsenal)

Attack

Looked okay to me and I would have started with that. Got lots of poor balls and made something from them in most cases. Benni Mac. Well he can do it (very slowly now) but he went for every ball that RSC went for. Can't play together I'm afraid and we all new that.

Incey - for my money your real first mistake was not to snatch £6m for him - you'll probably regret that.

Defence.

IT'S THE KEEPER STUPID! I disagree with everyone on this board I think here but I've played and anyone who thinks that Robinson is a professional keeper is Hallucinating now. This is the key problem. He can't catch and has no control or command of his area. He doesn't shout or talk. He ain't got time to get better and he won't. Even sound defenders (which is basically what we have) will look jittery. This is the first problem that has to be solved very quickly or were down in November. Has to go. He is the key problem we have to find a solution for. Come on Adebayors second was 2 yards out when he headed it -Big Bad Brad. would have just caught it.

Incey - spend £10m and we've a chance. Otherwise Charlie boy could be Maradonna and we'll still let 4 a game in.

Defence.

Is it me or has Warnock been replaced by Pederson. He just isn't a quality defender if he ain't there. Wing back if we play that way with 3 quick centre backs okay, but not a defender. It's a mental thing I think. A shame as he can defend well when he stays there but he really has a Damien Duff wannabe complex this guy.

Defence.

Nelson. Mmmmm... Has the injury slowed him down a lot or is it me?

Samba. Some scary passes but defended okay.

Right back - well we now have 2 but no quality right winger. Bert is an excellent right back and gets forward as much has he does when he's in midfield. Why change him? We just loose a man playing him there. The Kid did well but to me it's a pointless exercise.

One thing we did have left when Hughes went was a raft of competent defenders so this is sortable.

Tactics.

Well he can change those so not too worried here - he will try things over the next few weeks and so he should. Not much longer than that though.

Team Spirit.

Oh god. I thought heads went down after the first goal like I've not seen at Ewood since the half time Flitcroft argument with Souness. Why? My biggest issue now.

Still undecided and will still give the guy a chance...... but the we can soon look forward to Fat Robbie coming on. Ohhhhhhhh.......

[vintageadidas]

My opinion of the game. Also, as we got beat i have not seen any replays or papers (it is a ritual):

Robinson - Decent game, he will get better. Could have been 6 or 7.

Warnock - Had a bad game and really had a go at Nelsen. All is not well at the back. Will leave in January.

Samba - Pants.

Nelsen - Rubbish most of last season and so far this season.

Simpson - Did okay, but booted the ball away without thinking a few times which let Arsenal attack again and again.

Emerton - Mr. Reliable. Best player for us.

MGP - Poor, yet again.

Reid - Poor, yet again.

Andrews - I was slightly impressed with certain things he did.

RSC - Had a poor game and looked fed up at certain times. Will be hard to keep hold of him in January.

Roberts - Poor game.

Derbyshire - Not a right winger, he should be upfront.

Treacy - I like that fact he attacks but had little impact.

Benni - He actually tried for once.

Tactics: Shocking, we never got in their faces. We tried to match them at a passing game. There is only one winner when you let Arsenal play! We have always give them a good game because we never let them play. We are in the bottom 3, shipping goals and not scoring. Worrying times, but that can all change against Fulham. Hopefully!

[Exiled in Toronto]

Two. Have you forgotten letting WHU score 4?

No, have you forgotten that, but for Roberts crap penalty, we would have almost certainly gone on to win that game? The manner of our defeat at WHU was nothing like yesterday's 2nd half.

Or is two defeats of any kind enough for you to write off a manager? Kenny had six in a row, mostly really bad ones, and no-one bleated.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Lets put all this in perspective, we have played four games in the EPL so far :-

Everton - amazing away win that no-one expected, with a style no one expected

Hull - Largely disappointing draw. Personally I wasn't surprised - always a bad time to play a newly promoted team. Their win at Newcastle shows you can't take them lightly.

WHU - Yes we let in 4, but that was two late goals that put a totally unjust reflection on the game - that we could have won if we had taken our chances.

Arsenal - never really expected to win, but we actually had enough chances in the first half to make a game of it. In the end class told - but they are a seriously good team he will out play far better teams than Rovers this season.

We have 4 points out of a difficult start - which is roughly what I thought we would have.

We have shipped goals - but we have two defensive midfield players that could make a difference when fully fit (Grella and Vogel) - we are also missing our most influential midfield player in Dunn.

Our defense seems to be make some silly mistakes - but this was always likely to happen with a new manager with new ideas and style of play. Ince seems to like to attack teams - hopefully he will have learnt you can't always do that in the EPL - but it will take a little time for the defensive unit to get sorted to the new style of play (this could be sorted if Ince resorts to his favoured 5 man midfield - when everyone is fit).

[bobsterbrfc]

Just out of curiousity, what do people who signed up to the Anti-Big Sam campaign on Facebook think? Not asking in an arsey way....but it was a feasible option two months ago....and maybe still is!

[LDRover]

Why's that LD?

I didn't expect the transition to be seamless, I expected us to take a couple of steps back but I can smell relegation and I never for one moment thought that when Hughes left. I thought we had more solid foundations than that.

Ince is not entirely to blame though (although his work in the transfer market has been pretty woeful) the board have a lot to answer for - the failure to replace Bentley being a monumental faux pas.

[JAL]

We need to have more creative midfielders to keep pressure off our defenders. Because our midfielders don't have much creativity, most of the balls go backwards, which gets our defenders under pressure, as their footballing capacities are just...not very good. Villanueva in. Fast.

An excellent point !

Its a point I was trying to make weeks ago about the fixation with some on here about having a defensive midfielder when we clearly had weaknesses attacking .

[AggyBlue]

I can smell relegation and I never for one moment thought that when Hughes left.

Hughes did too.

[Hughesy]

Didn't we concede 4 goals twice in a row when Hughes just started out for us ? Give Ince some time for goodness sake. Arsenal are a very good side.

I agree with your point

Warnock didn't cost us three goals, he never should have been left to challenge Adebayor in the air because there was only ever going to be one winner. Either Samba or Nelsen should have been with him.

Nelsen & Warnock cost us the 1st and 2nd goals between them. Warnock made a daft challenge for the 3rd (touch him or not), Warnock on saturday was terrible. Nelsen was poor, Samba did Average and Simpson did abit better. If anyone needs dropping then its Warnock, followed by Nelsen. Samba is getting caught out of position, but usually it is because he is covering someone else's ass.

First Half we did play well until they got the 2nd, 2nd half we were poor more or less all of the half. Robbo was unlucky especially with the 3rd and 4th and he made a few other good saves too.

Andrews? Didnt do too bad, not as bad as Reid anyway.

Emerton & Pedersen - lots of energy and effort.

RSC - Starved of a good partner, Needs McCarthy im afraid guys (who did well when he came on)

[No Nay Never]

For me Warnock cost us 4 goals yesterday, but at the same time he is as good a left back as ive ever seen at Rovers.

My opinion on Ince at the moment is that some of our football is better than under Hughes, but the basics i.e breaking up play and basic defending seem to have gone out of the window. I reckon the reason for this is that with his central midfield selections he is offering little or no protection to the back 4. Where as Hughes 9times out of 10 had a central midfielder sitting in the hole and protecting the defence, and also picking up the lose balls and spreading it about. This season we just havn't seemed to have that yet, apart from the first half of the west ham game where Grella seemed to be doing that job.

Yesterday we had Andrews and Reid both bombing on and getting involved in the attacks which you may get away with against the slower sides, but against a side that break as quick as Arsenal do you don't stand a chance. Numerous times we were attacking and then in the blink of an eye they had 3 men running at our 4 defenders with Andrews and Reid chasing shadows.

[thenodrog]

I didn't expect the transition to be seamless, I expected us to take a couple of steps back but I can smell relegation and I never for one moment thought that when Hughes left. I thought we had more solid foundations than that.

Ince is not entirely to blame though (although his work in the transfer market has been pretty woeful) the board have a lot to answer for - the failure to replace Bentley being a monumental faux pas.

You should have paid more attention to my postings in June then LD. I guess you were you on holiday.... right?

[American Rover12]

Where is stephen warnock? the man that played this weekend is not him. Terrible terrible terrible.

[Paul]

It's increasingly obvious that we simply do not have the resources to buy our way to safety come January.

Is that because you think by January we will be in so deep it will make no difference or that you believe we have no funds for transfers?

[Iceman]

At age 3, you get taught how to stop a ball, at age 6, you learn how to stop a ball, at age 10, you should know how to stop a ball, at age 15 you should be able to defend properly, at age 18 you should be good enough to talk to your team mates on the field of play, of whats happening around you. Both Nelsen and Samba should be dropped. Ooijer and Zurab should be given a chance as a partnership. Nelsen has gone from being solid, to an absolute joke. It seems the only guys who tries are Robinson, Bert and the match day mascot. The rest couldnt care less. If Ince is a real coach, he should start taking responsibility for the rubbish being displayed. Who or what is he going to blame. If there are no internationals? Warnock,robinson,simpson,benni. Mokoena,andrews,derbyshire,roberts all never played for their countries, hmmm so realy a poor excuse by Ince.