Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

Who in Arsenal’s 2nd XI is pushing for a first team spot?

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To have and to hold.

That was the front page of the Arsenal programme yesterday for the FA Cup match against Burnley.

Despite the talk within the programme, and by Arsene Wenger and players before the game about how important the FA Cup and winning 3 in a row, the game ended up being used to play players who had not played much recently. Either whether they were returning from injuries, or players considered 2nd team.

In the past, Wenger has always said that he puts out a team that he thinks can win the game. Against Sunderland, he put out a stronger team than yesterday, due to the calibre of the opposition. Yesterday, just 4 first teamers made the starting line up, 2 of those coming back from injury.

So how did the second string get on? Did any of them do enough to push themselves into Arsene Wenger’s faults for the next few games?

David Ospina – Looked nervy. Looked unsure of himself. A few good saves, but his distribution came across as someone who was questioning his own decision. He often missed the quick break away, as if he was scared of messing it up. A good keeper. But not Cech good.

Calum Chambers – Take the goal out of it, which was a very good finish, he showed again that he just is not a right back. His lack of pace means he will continually get roasted by average wingers who knock the ball past him and run. He was exposed a few times against Burnley. At just 21, he clearly is a class player, but he needs games. In 2014, you would have had him alongside John Stones as the future of England’s defence. Stones has played, Chambers hasn’t. One is now going to the Euro’s, the other will be sunning himself in Spain. Maybe needs a loan deal next season to play 38 league games at centre back.

Gabriel – A competent performance, and it certainly would put a thought into Wenger’s mind as to whether he should be given a chance alongside Laurent Koscielny at centre back. The worry would be is that in defence, it is about the partnership, not the individual. Are Koscielny & Gabriel too similar? Would it be like when Koscielny & Vermaelen played together? Both aggressive centre backs who like to attack the ball up the pitch. I have a feeling Per Mertesacker will be back in.

Kieran Gibbs – For me, Gibbs was man of the match. He shone in the match. We know he is a quality full back, especially when we are attacking. He was a danger on the left hand side, playing almost more like a winger rather than a full back. Recently, he has been out of form. When he has started, or when he has come off the bench, he looked completely out of touch. Yesterday he looked sharp. Whilst he will not be taking Nacho Monreal’s place anytime soon. It will be good to know that once more we have the two best left backs in the league

Mohamed Elneny – I have seen people go to both ends of the spectrum. Some saying he was awful. And some saying he is the new Patrick Vieira. Let’s be honest. Both are wrong. When we signed him, I saw him described as tidy, efficient, unexceptional. And that is how he performed. He seemed to be everywhere, without being anywhere. And that is the key in the position he plays. Doing a lot of the unnoticed work. Keeping the ball moving. It was very reminiscent to Mikel Arteta before he had his legs stolen. Over 100 touches of the ball (more than any other player), he was busy. We have a good player here. enough to put pressure on Coquelin? Not yet. But certainly in the future he will.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – A good performance by Chamberlain. He has now been involved in our last 13 fixtures – starting 5 of the last 7, maybe he is finally getting a run that will hopefully see him improve. Of course, it was only Burnley, and Arsenal were attacking 90% of the time. But most of what Arsenal did well went through him. He also stuck to the right hand side for the majority of the game, rather than coming inside. And the pass that put Theo Walcott through was exquisite. With Joel Campbell running out of steam, Alexis Sanchez still returning from injury, and Theo Walcott being out of form and shot of confidence, I expect Oxlade-Chamberlain to start the next few games.

Alex Iwobi – I am really not sure what to think of Alex Iwobi. I do not know whether to rate him, or whether to not. He is still just a kid – just 19 – and he clearly has ability, there is just something about him that I do not like. Maybe it is his running style, he is a flurry of arms and legs. Or maybe it is he has a really tentative touch and pass. I do not know. But he performed well. Seem to revel in the free role behind Olivier Giroud allowing him to pop up right, left and centre. Obviously he will not be pushing Mesut Ozil for a starting place any time soon, but let’s loan him out to a Premier League side till the end of the season, see how he gets on (just not to WBA).

Subs;
Tomas Rosicky look tidy, got injured
Mikel Arteta will probably rarely be seen in an Arsenal shirt again

 

We are through, and that is the important thing. Looking at the teams still in the draw, it is anyone and everyone in football. An away trip to Leeds for the travelling fan will be nice, a home game against Shrewsbury for those who want the glory. Hopefully we avoid the big boys, and they all get each other.

Have a good Sunday

Keenos

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Arsenal v Burnley – Team Selection Headache’s

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I usually dislike “let’s guess what the team is for this weekend” blogs. They are simple guess work. And usually published just for hits and advertising revenue. No one really knows what is going on. They make educated guesses by looking at what colour training tops players are wearing, and who is fit.

However, with the FA Cup coming up on Saturday, I think team selection actually makes for interesting discussion.

In goal, you would usually expect to see Arsenal make the switch and put in the 2nd choice keeper. That is what we have done over recent years. However, it seems after his errors earlier in the season, David Ospina has completely fallen out of favour.

Against Sunderland in the 3rd round, Petr Cech started. And I would expect that continue.

Conspiracy theory: Petr Cech has a clause in his contract stating that he must start in the FA Cup, so as to avoid a situation where he is number 1, yet misses playing at Wembley when we make the final.

Right back is an equally interesting situation.

Mathieu Debuchy, like Ospina, has fallen out of favour. He will not play. That leaves Arsenal with Hector Bellerin starting again. Who plays at right back could depend what happens at centre back.

If Wenger go’s with Koscileny and Gabriel, it will free up Calum Chambers to replace Bellerin for a single game. If he decides to go for Chambers and Gabriel, then we have no choice but to keep Bellerin in the side. My bet is he will go for the later. With Koscileny getting a rest and Bellerin starting alongside Chambers & Gabriel.

Side note: Could we see Chambers play centre midfield with Koscileny and Gabriel being the partnership at the back?

Finally left back pretty much picks himself. Kieran Gibbs will start.

In central midfield, we will likely see whole sale changes. Mohamed Elneny will surely play his first game for the club. Likely alongside Mikel Arteta. Although Calum Chambers could also fit in their as per above. I imagine it will be the first pairing as Wenger will look to partner Elneny with someone a bit more experienced.

Moving forward, Alexis Sanchez will surely be given a 60 minute run out as he returns to fitness. At the opposite end of the scale, Mesut Ozil will be rested once more. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will also likely start in the middle, replacing the aforementioned Ozil.

On the right, it will be one of Theo Walcott, Joel Campbell and Alex Iwobi. If I was a betting man, I would go with Alex Iwobi. Although I would like to see Walcott return to the right hand side where he is clearly at his best.

Iwobi has been good, whilst not exceptional, in his performances so far at the club. He will be given a full 90 minutes to impress in my opinion.

Upfront is anyone’s guess. Will Wenger give Walcott a run out up top? Giroud barely played against Chelsea, is he injured? Who knows? Who cares?

So my predicted team?

Cech
Bellerin Chambers Gabriel Gibbs
Elneny Arteta
Iwobi Ox Sanchez
Giroud

Keenos

Arsenal were right to not offer Patrick Vieira a coaching role

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This morning’s news is full of Patrick Vieira slamming Arsenal and Arsene Wenger.

We will ignore the fact that he rates Jose Mourinho as the best manager he played against. The one who influenced him this most. This stinks of Roy Keane rating Brian Clough above Alex Ferguson purely because of bitterness.

What is perhaps more of a discussion is whether he should be at Arsenal on the coaching side, rather than managing some tin pot team in New York?

On paper, many peoples theory is correct. The likes of Patrick Vieira, Tony Adams, Dennis Bergkamp, should all be at the club, coaching. That it is a disgrace that 3 legends are not at the club.

But lets look at it on an individual basis. Tony Adams failed as a coach and a manger. Dennis Bergkamp returned to his boyhood home town club to coach, and Vieira we will come onto later.

No player has a divine right to return to a club to coach. He must first and foremost prove himself to be a decent coach. Being a top player does not automatically make you a top coach.

By all means, if you want, come to the club to do your coaching badges, like Freddie Ljungberg has done. Take some youth sessions whilst doing your badges, and over time, prove yourself. A bit like the way a youngster has to progress from youths to senior team, proving himself at all times, a coach should too.

Steve Bould is another example of this. After retiring, he worked at the club with various youth sides for a few years before progressing through the under-18s and on to assistant manager.

The best manager around at the moment, Pep Guardiola, started off in the Barcelona B set up.

Some players are just not willing to do the work. They expect to join the club from day one, in the first team coaching set up. Or in Sol Campbell’s case, wants a Premier League managerial job without ever having coached, or even taken his coaching badges.

You have to be willing to work for it.

Alternatively, go to another club, like Tony Adams did.

If Arsenal do not have space for you in the current set up, go elsewhere. Go to West Ham. Go to Leyton Orient. Go to Portsmouth. Do a job there. Prove yourself there. Then return to Arsenal when the opportunity arrives.

Now of course, there is another argument that the more club legends the club has around the club, the better influence they have. Well at the club in recent years, Liam Bradt, Pat Rice, Steve Bould, Thierry Henry and Freddie Ljungberg have all got involved in coaching. Add in Robert Pires who is a club ambassador, that is a large group of legends who are in and around the club. It is not like we have no legends walking through London Colney or Hale End on a daily basis.

How many more do we need? I read talk about Adams, Lee Dixon, Martin Keown, Dennis Bergkamp, Gilberto, Patrick Vieira and more. What do you want us to do? Get rid of all the experienced, proven coaches, for a bunch of ex-players with little or no experience, just because they are ex-players?

We would end up with a coaching staff of 30-odd ex players, all contributing very little.

Yes, over at Ajax, a few years ago they scrapped their coaching system and bought in the likes of Bergkamp, Marc OVermars, Jaap Stam, Edwin van der Saar and more, but the Dutch league is very different to England. You can not afford to take that chance in the Premier League.

Look at the Manchester United side of the 2000s, how many of the 1990s legends did Alex Ferguson employ on the payroll – Ince, Hughes, Bruce and more. None.

Now onto specifically Patrick Vieira.

All I see is excuses from him. Moaning.

The comment that screams out to me first is that he “expected”  to be asked” to join Arsenal’s coaching set up.

This kind of follows the above thought line about proving yourself. Rather than expecting to be asked. Offer. Tell the club you want to do the badges, coach the under-7s. Do the hard hours. No one in this world should be expected to be asked without either proving themselves first, or showing a willingness to join.

Secondly, let’s look at his career from retiring as a player to coaching.

He retired at the age of 35 on 14th July 2011. The same day, City created the position of “football development executive” and offered it straight to him.

They basically created a job for Vieira to keep him at the club. Reports at the time were that it would be on a similar salary that he was earning at City as a player, approximately £40,000 a week.

The role was an easy one. If City were interested in a player, he would get involved, influencing the player to join the club, a bit like Zinedine Zidane was doing at Real Madrid. An easy role, no coaching involved.

Now of course, at Arsenal, we could have offered him a similar role. But look at that salary. It is crazy. City at the time had no world wide presence. They needed Vieira to try and raise this presence. There was not a similar role available at Arsenal.

Now why did Vieira take this position? Why on retiring was he not straight on the phone to Arsenal, asking to coach the under-7s, taking his coaching abdges, earning a couple of thousand a week.

Because of greed.

He took the easy, well paid job. You can not blame him for doing so. But then he can not blame him for Arsenal not offering him a role.

He walked into a (created) top job with little or no experience.

And then moving forward a few years, he started doing his badges, and became Manchester City’s new reserve team and Elite Development squad manager. If he wanted to be part of the Arsenal set up so much, why, when he decided to go into coaching, did he remain at Arsenal?

And then in 2015, he was in discussion with Newcastle United to become their new manager. He turned them down, and instead became the manager of New York City FC in the MLS. One of Manchester City’s money laundering clubs.

Another easy step sideways there for Vieira. Rather than challenge himself in the Premier League, he takes an easy job in America, where a club with the likes of Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo and David Villa will not exactly take much coaching.

He will clearly hope to sit out there for a few years, then return to Manchester City as manager. another easy job.

He comes across as a man who enjoys the status quo. The easy life. The easy job. Maybe if he wanted to join Arsenal, he should have come out of his comfort zone, taken a risk, gone for the hard job.

We demand the best players in the world. We should also be demanding the best coaches in the world. None of those who are not coaching at the club have proved that the club were wrong in passing up the opportunity to offer them a job.

In 2014, the club appointed Andries Jonker as the new academy manager. Vieira had been doing a similar job at Manchester City for around a year. So to sum up, let’s take the names off the CV.

Would you rather the club offer the role to a man who has 1 years experience in the position. Or someone who has been coaching and revamping youth set ups for club and country for 25 years, including for the likes of Barcelona and Wolfsburg.

It is no contest. Jonker was the better choice. He was superior than Vieira.

Take sentiment out of your decision making. We want the best.

Keenos