The College Dropout

According to Fabregas (and when you see some of the goals they concede) Wenger rarely talks about the opposition at all. they don't look to specifically stop the opposition.

He hasn't always been a first teamer. He spent a good while on the bench our first year back iirc.

I'm not worried about relegation at all. There's worse in the league. Remember how shit we where when we went down? Even then we only needed another point to survive. A relegation battle? Maybe yes.

Not smallest, just the weakest in the air. Evra's one of the smallest at Man United.

Think we are more likely to beat Stoke than Wigan atm. Against another side that don't want to play football we might do well. Didn't work against WHU but that was better than what happened against the teams that play football.

Passing and moving would be nice.

Demba Ba too.

Should be built around both of them. They are our 2 best players.

There's loads of great footballers that are one footed, howay man. It's not right but it's just how it is. IMO he should learn RB better and play there.

Didn't watch the game but seems like things have followed the general pattern. We miss Guthrie this season. Without Cabaye, Tiote takes responsibility for playmaking in midfield.

IMO in order for a club to have sustained success these days, 80% of the off-field stuff shouldn't be handled by a manager. Someone like Jol has experience of this. Focus on coaching and tactics primarily.

You get the feeling Bale's modelling his game after Cronaldo all the way down to being bit of a greedy bastard.

Someone like Gareth Bale has bulked up the "right" way. Still lean but looks very muscular these days and hasn't lost any speed. In fact his physique is of a powerful 200-400m athlete.

Not really. He plays centrally a lot and is encouraged to be the hub of their attacks.

I'd be fuming if one of our players get sent off for a challenge like that.

Tired of these piss soft red cards. It's getting to the point where you can't attempt a tackle if the ball is in the air. It's ridiculous. If a ball is shin height and you miss the ball you'll get a red card. But if you miss the ball chest height and kick an opponent in the chest/ribs you'll get a yellow.

I generally agree with what is being said. IMO Redknapp is a better manager than Hodgson. Hodgson is better tactically and the Michael Cox's prefer him more as a result. However, Redknapp has a plug + play approach that aims to get the best out of the players at his disposal. Get good players, stumble across a system that works and let the good players PLAY and actively encourage that.

Thing is, that was tactically astute. It wasn't just a hopeful ball floated into the back post Yo-Willo style. They picked out Alba as the weakest link in a small team aerially. Barca zonal mark at corners so they knew where Alba would line up. Put in a great ball, then they had the big powerhouse house have a massive run-up on Alba. Nee chance, bang, goal. Pefect tactics - UTILISING YOUR STRENGTHS (height and strength) AND PENALISING OPPONENTS WEAKNESSES. Something we don't do. Lennon had an attacking plan against Barca. Corner/set-pieces and rapid, quick, counter attacks.

Nothing is co-ordinated, nothing is planned. Stuff just happens.

In recent games only Anita & Santon has looked to pass and move. the rest lay a ball and just stand there. The 2 that pass and move are defensive players who look rather toothless in an attacking threat but if the rest of the lads played in that fashion we would be so much better. The goal we conceded against L'pool is a prime example of this. Jonas is in the middle of the pitch, passes it.. stands still, surprised that someone wants to pass to him and then loos.es the ball. One of the benefits of playing 3 in central midfieldish positions is that 2 have licence to really roam and move. But honestly, our whole team stinks. EVERYTHING about our attacking play is poor, everything. No movement. Massive gap between strikers and midfield/no link between the 2. Often play very deep. Apart from the odd Cabaye special, rarely look to play cute incisiveness passes in the middle, not a consistent threat out wide. Creative midfielders play too deep. And the set-pieces....

Krul Ivanovic Van Persie Silva Baines Mulumbu Bale Wilshere Ruiz Agger Krul Ivanovic Shawcross Agger Baines Mulumbu Wilshere Silva Ruiz Bale RVP Tried to field the best player of every club.

Most worrying thing is the way we started. Not just the 4-4-2 but that slow, cautious start we always seem to have. I'd love us to start aggresively and look to score an early goal the way Man Utd. did to us. We always like to "feel" our way into games and it's BS. We should be looking to kill games against the likes of WHU within an hour.

Yep. Our problems are bigger than a formation. Our general passing and movement is terrible but the fact remains, 4-4-2 is redundant in this league. We have loads of games. Sit Cisse on the bench for league games and try something else.

said this before but there's only us & QPR who play a flat 4-4-2 in the PL.

This is it. It's not about formations. We just don't have any patterns of attack. It's all made up on the fly.