*Official* English Football Season 2011-12

[Uppercut]

Still can't believe Van Persie's miss. But the team were so gassed by the end, AC would probably have picked them off in extra time.

 

[slowfinger]

Was so hard to watch during the end... Arsenal know how to annoy a man, anywho, back to Unitedddd.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Was so hard to watch during the end... Arsenal know how to annoy a man, anywho, back to Unitedddd.

CDMs are a great bunch to hate. They really are. Schadenfreude or not it's still fun.

Although I wouldn't have begrudged them winning the tie against Milan.

 

[sledger]

Ah well, top effort really, was a really good performance. Just makes the total ineptitude showed in Milan last time round all the more annoying though.

Nevermind, won't have done their momentum any harm I suppose.

 

[Jarquis]

Bloody proud of our recent performances tbh. Which makes the performances against Milan and Sunderland all the more galling.

Loving Rosicky3.0.
What RVP is doing trying to lift that rebound I'll never know.

 

[Nate]

Yeah, he should have kicked it along the ground into the keeper.

 

[Furball]

Lack of a midfield option killed us when Ox went off.

Did Chamakh touch the ball after he came on?

 

[sledger]

Must have just been going through a massive purple patch in his first 4 months, because there's no other way to explain how rubbish he's been since.

 

[Jarquis]

Did Chamakh touch the ball after he came on?

Dunno, was offside unnecessarily at least twice though IIRC.

 

[Jarquis]

Yeah, he should have kicked it along the ground into the keeper.

 

[Nate]

Deadly.

Was a fun game. Thought going 4-2-4 at the end was a shambles, but as been mentioned, there wasn't much else Arsene could do.

 

[sledger]

How was it a shambles then?

 

[Nate]

...it didn't work? There was no flow from defence to up front, so you long balled it, the exact opposite way of playing that you're so effective at, and had gotten you three goals until that point.

 

[sledger]

With a limited time left on the clock and the other team putting everyone behind the ball, attempting to incisively pass your way through against a defence like Milan's will get you absolutely nowhere. Unless you're Barcelona.

 

[Uppercut]

Milan very noticeably didn't just try to get men behind the ball though. They absolutely dominated possession for the last 25 minutes of the match, Arsenal didn't get a sniff after RVP's miss, and while tiredness looked to me to be the significant reason for that, trying to play without a midfield definitely didn't help. They also became horribly narrow when Walcott and Ox came off, everyone was moving into the centre every time they went forward. The gameplan that had worked so well in the first half just went to pieces late on.

 

[sledger]

Milan very noticeably didn't just try to get men behind the ball though. They absolutely dominated possession for the last 25 minutes of the match, Arsenal didn't get a sniff after RVP's miss, and while tiredness looked to me to be the significant reason for that, trying to play without a midfield definitely didn't help. They also became horribly narrow when Walcott and Ox came off, everyone was moving into the centre every time they went forward. The gameplan that had worked so well in the first half just went to pieces late on.

Well, when you don't have any available midfielders, playing without them is pretty much all one can do. You can't continue with a certain gameplan if you don't have the means to get it to work effectively after all. Given the circumstances I'd say throwing everyone up front was probably the best option.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah there weren't really any options that allowed the team to keep their shape, and Ox in particular clearly had to come off. It's just a pretty thoughtless tactic, the whole "oh we need a goal so let's bring on a striker" thing. It's the same tactic that saw Ferguson replace Scholes with Hernandez and hand control of the game to Liverpool in the FA cup match. Arsenal have a much more methodical style than any other Premiership team but it really comes back to bite them in situations where humping it long becomes the only option.

 

[sledger]

Has always been the way with Arsenal to some limited extent, in the Wenger years anyway. Remember about ten years ago, whenever there was a desperate situation Kanu would always be thrown on as a target man (which was always questionable seeing as he was one of the most skillful players in the side with the ball on the ground but nevermind), can't recall it working even once.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Spuds 1-0 down early at home to Stevenage and struggling somewhat.

 

[Furball]

Yeah there weren't really any options that allowed the team to keep their shape, and Ox in particular clearly had to come off. It's just a pretty thoughtless tactic, the whole "oh we need a goal so let's bring on a striker" thing. It's the same tactic that saw Ferguson replace Scholes with Hernandez and hand control of the game to Liverpool in the FA cup match. Arsenal have a much more methodical style than any other Premiership team but it really comes back to bite them in situations where humping it long becomes the only option.

Chamberlain was injured though; it was hardly a tactical blunder. Wenger said himself in the post-match interview that they struggled in the last 20 minutes because they had too many strikers on the pitch.

Benayoun or Arteta being fit enough for the bench and a 20 minute cameo would have made a huge difference.