ponsaelius

He's a world class one touch player. Shite at running and stuff though.

Agree on the injuries and striker. But Aaron Ramsey at RAM ends up in the same positions/areas as Ozil and they spend time passing to each other trying to slip intricate balls in.. they are very good players and it can work in more games than not but it's not the most efficient plan imo. Sanchez likewise likes to cut in to central areas. Then it's a bunch of them needing to play the most intricate football to create chances. Arjen Robben is one of the best players of his generation. He's fairly one dimensional too. Maybe that is the case about Robben (as in he's a player who's truly exceptional at a handful of things) but it's not with Sanchez. He's a very varied player who offers loads of different stuff to a team at a good level; as is apparent when you compare the different ways he's played for Barca, Udinese, Arsenal and Chile. Sanchez has shown he can play in a front two for a counter attacking side (Udinese), in a possession side as a wide forward looking to run in behind to score (Barca) and as an all round playmaker (for Arsenal but particularly Chile). He's got great work rate, an excellent dribbler, good vision, is a decent finisher, takes the odd free kick and is alright in the air when he fancies it. He's probably one of the worst examples of a one-dimensional player I could think of to be honest. If anything he's a jack of all trades, but that is a harsh way of putting it.

Exactly, Ozil's role for Arsenal is closer to Iniesta's for Barcelona at his best. He sets the tempo for their play. He was more directly influential for Madrid but then he was a #10 who had Ronaldo and Higuain running in behind every 60 seconds.

But stats aren't all that matter, clearly. It's not fantasy football. Sanchez had ran out of steam a bit by that point and Ozil got them ticking (although Cazorla was also fantastic in this period). He's not a Roy of the Rovers player who's gonna be bursting a gut and smashing in screamers but he was a massive positive force in the vast majority of games in that period, culminating in the final where he was exceptional. Arsenal have a brilliant midfield who didn't play well tonight individually, but that's not where their main problem is.

got some freebie tickets in the platinum club, long live the bourgeoisie

Ramsey infuriating because he doesn't stay disciplined in midfield? Sanchez one-dimensional? Not sure what you're keen to see instead. These are some of the most talented (and certainly not one-dimensional ffs) players in the league. When all together Arsenal play the best football and go on long winning streaks. What costs them is when these players end up on the treatment table (as was the case in the early stages of last season) or they lack the killer, world class touch upfront somebody like Aguero always offers Man City.

Arsenal put together a ridiculous run of form last season pretty much from the moment Ozil came back into the side after injury. He returned mid-January in the 5-0 against Villa and they were the best team in the country right up until smashing Villa again at Wembley in May. To suggest he's being wrongly favoured over other players is a grudge-like opinion. Their problem is that despite having an excellent midfield they have a decent but ultimately fairly limited player in Giroud as comfortably their best striker. They'll finish top 3 this season but be miles off Chelsea and Man City because of this. That said, no way Giroud should have been subbed today. Bringing on Walcott for him as a straight swap in that situation was a poor move. In a packed defence he can conjure something up with 1 touch play and was threatening to do so.

Giroud is tit but that was a terrible decision to take him off. You don't bring on Walcott when you've got a team pinned back ffs.

This is good, but I still not sure about Sissoko out wide personally. Like I said his best spell was his first few games against Villa/Chelsea etc through the middle.

Actually, swap the wingers there. Want dat natural service into Mitrovic.

Where's he gonna play when he comes back. Easy to forget his great impact when he first joined was playing as a #10. Mitrovic Perez Sissoko Thauvin Anita Wijnaldum Might be decent. Or perhaps just have a solid 4-3-3 with the same personnel.

And although Debuchy was better going forward, it was more in a high-energy sort of way that would get us further up the field. Think Janmaat is actually a better crosser of the ball.

My only memories of Debuchy are getting sent off against Liverpool and West Brom like a cunt. Similarly the only things I can recall right now about Janmaat are his red cards last week and against Leicester, again for being a cunt. Both decent, but reckless. Debuchy slightly better going forward, Janmaat better defensively. There's no way Debuchy was considerably better for him to be an obvious choice over Janmaat.

Rafa is such a shite appointment for Madrid, and I like him as a manager. They were onto something good with Ancelotti, about as suited as you could get for Real, indulged the egos and let them off their leash tactically every week. It only went tits up because Modric got injured at a key time and they literally lost everything in the space of a couple of weeks. They'd have probably challenged Barca again this season and definitely won some more trophies. I mean they still might, but I just can't see it working that well personally.

Anybody watching Madrid game? Are they shite under Rafa already?

Tiote was great for 2 years 2010-2012. He's been utter shite since then, but thats besides the point. Who displaces him? Anita? Colback? Perch? We've played trash in midfield consistently for a while now.

Carpi getting bummed to death by Samp

Aye + 11 out of 13 for Argentina and as far as I can remember he's on 4/4 from shootouts. It's not good but he takes fucking loads, half of them in games where they're taking the piss at 5-0.

So much for that injury then. Looks like we were always trying to do the deal for Thauvin.

It is, but he hardly even took that many really to test it.

He's taken about 80 though. At least he scores when the pressure's on in shoot-outs, unlike the Portuguese gimp.

Mad how Murica is supposed to at least be able to produce good keepers and yet their best one is fucking shite.

Yep, the Everton whinge. It's very notable. Almost as much as the Chelsea "wheeyyyy" when they score a goal.

Owen should joint bottom with Smith for shagging horses.

No.