Mannone – Bergkampesque

Three steps forward – two steps back: five observations from the Schalke 04 game.

November 7, 2012November 7, 2012TotalArsenal

Mannone is growing in stature – Wilshere is growing in form – Walcott in the middle is a rapidly growing Theo-ry – Our inability to hold onto the ball is a growing worry – Arsenal lacking defensive shape and discipline is a growing concern.

A lot of supporters expected Arsenal to bounce back from a bad performance/result instantly, just like we used to do in previous seasons. But, right now, Arsenal are suffering from structural problems that need time to be resolved; whilst in previous seasons we often only had to work on our focus and attitude to bounce back again.

Our current team is struggling to get a coherent system of football working in which players understand and find each other automatically; one that works in all areas and makes us fluent and deadly efficient, and in which substitutes can fit without too many adaptation issues. Clearly, this is still a work in progress, but progress was made nevertheless last night.

Schalke surprised me tactically: why attack us and try to dominate the game from the first minute, when their tactics at the Emirates had worked so well for them a fortnight ago? I cannot imagine Stevens not being aware how much Arsenal crave space, so it must have been a deliberate strategy to attack us and try to score a goal early. I applaud it though: it is exactly what a good game of football needed, as the game had a lovely flow to it and some very good football by both teams was on display last night. Schalke’s opportunism gave us the space to attack, and boy did we revel in it: it was just what the footie shrink had ordered!

Theo showed Giroud how to stay calm and focussed when an opportunity comes your way for the first goal, as he persevered with strength and good balance to put the ball over the line. Luckily Giroud took his second opportunity with the pounce of a hungry tiger, after great wing-play by, the otherwise mostly ineffective again, Podholeski.

Arsenal almost played the perfect first half against Schalke tonight. The defence was far better organised and mostly solid, our midfield was gradually winning the individual battles, and our three attackers combined well to score two very valuable away goals in Gelsenkirchen. But just before the end of the first half, individual fatigue by our best player of the season until now, and a collective lack of concentration gave the Germans an opportunity to pull a goal back: a real shame!

Cazorla is clearly in the ‘red zone’, because if there is any player at Arsenal you would bank on not to give away the ball at that moment, and in that situation, it has to be out little, energetic Spaniard. Holtby did brilliantly, though, to both see Huntelaar in space and to deliver the ball perfectly weighted to him in a flash; and although we should have done better defensively, it is fair to say that was a fine goal by Schalke 04.

The second half saw us trying to regain possession, but we were simply not fit enough to deal with Schalke’s midfield dominance. Cazorla struggled to get a foothold in the game, Arteta tired a lot towards the end, and Jack also lost some of his sharpness in the second half. Our defence struggled to keep its shape and were put under more and more pressure. The equaliser was almost inevitable and totally deserved by the Germans.

Arsenal somehow held on for an important point, and could well have clinched all three points at the very end, but Theo did not see Giroud in the perfect position to score the winner, and went instead for goal himself from a difficult angle. He should be forgiven for that though, and it in the end a draw away to Schalke 04 is a decent result.

Observation one – one step forward:

Mannone had another very decent game. Red Arse wrote a great post last week about Arsenal goalkeepers’ situation and since then Mann1 has put in a couple of assured performances against the horrible Mancs and Schalke 04. I am warming to Vito and I hope he will get a couple more games at least to further build his confidence.

Observation two – two steps forward:

Wilshere came through his next test with colours. He oozes class and is simply a joy to watch. Clearly, he was still rusty at times and needs to improve his match fitness further, but he made such a difference in midfield for us by helping out Arteta in the defensive department, whilst supporting Santi in setting up attacking moves. So great to have him back: he is our ideal lynchpin.

Cazorla and Arteta struggled to keep up with the tempo of the game for most of the second half, and this is all down to fatigue. It is so frustrating that we still cannot use Diaby and Rosicky to come and help out, and give the super-Spaniards a bit of a break before something or somebody breaks them.

Observation three – three steps forward:

Theo through the middle with Giroud next to him, or in front of him; in a 4-4-1-1 or 4-4-2 formation, could actually work. I really liked the way Theo and OG created opportunities between themselves last night, and with plenty of practice and playing games together they could become our two-headed goal monster we so desperately need.

Observation four – one step back:

Our inability to hold on to the ball in order to release the pressure being put on our defence is a big worry at the moment. Giroud needs to improve on his first touch, and shield the ball a lot better so he can give the rest of the team a break; by holding on to the ball and passing it back to somebody in space. I also felt that both Podolski and Theo were weak in holding on to the ball and find a pass to another player far too often. Especially when our midfielders were clearly running on their reserve tanks, it was important for our attackers to help out more in keeping possession.

And you know who we desperately missed yesterday? Alex Song. The way Arsenal left the defence unprotected just outside the centre of the box, on a few occasions in the second half, was just amateur-like; and could have easily cost us yesterday. I also feel strongly that Song would have helped us tremendously in holding onto the ball better.

Observation five – two steps back:

Our defence, even with TV5 instead of the shirt-swapper at LB, still lacks shape, discipline and organisation. Koz had a good game and so did Mertesacker and Sagna, but Vermaelen struggled again. And, as a unit, it was nowhere near what is required to compete successfully at top level.

Vermaelen’s confidence is shot: the lion of Flanders has turned into a pussycat. But I have written enough about TV5 in recent posts, so won’t go back into that again.

On a final, Arsenal unrelated, note: as a football romantic, I am absolutely delighted that, over two games, the properly run football clubs of Ajax and Dortmund got the better over the cup-buyers of Citeh and Madrid. There still is hope for football! 🙂

Total Arsenal.

Mannone is ok, but is ok good enough for Arsenal?

November 2, 2012TotalArsenal

Following the continued injury to our so called No.1 goal keeper, Szscezny, we have had the young Italian keeper, Mannone, known by many as Man One, guarding the sticks for us for a number of games.

I don’t think it would be fair to label him as simply a good ‘shot stopper’ and nothing else, because in a number of games he has pulled off some critically important saves, either to keep us in the game, or enabling us to hold out for a win.
The game against QPR showed this very well with two vital saves late on, particularly the block against Machie who had made a fantastic run which left our defence for dead and all of us thinking he would score.

And yet ………………… there is something frighteningly fragile about his ability when it comes to dealing with crosses or, as in the Norwich game, his lack of anticipation in getting down to strong shots, which on that occasion he spooned out to Holt for an easy tap in for what became the winning goal rather than pushing it around the post .

It would be invidious to blame our occasional lapses entirely on Man One, after all he is just a single cog in our overall defence, and we do have the best ‘goals against’ record in the Premier League. The Zonal Marking tactic does not always seem to have been mastered by the rest of the defence, and this has allowed the opposition forwards to attack the ball and leave our centre backs flatfooted and Mannone looking clueless.

That said, he has often made vitally necessary saves but has looked uncomfortable and often flustered when called upon to do so. It must also be said that most of the goals he has conceded did not come from open play, other than the Norwich one which springs to mind, but almost all of them have come from set piece corners or free kicks.

While we are at it, can I point out his useless kicking from dead ball situations or when clearing pass backs? Well, OK, that is my initial thought but the cause of this problem almost certainly lies initially with the defence, who have developed a foible of passing the ball back to him, even when there are forwards running at him, rather than taking responsibility on themselves for clearing our lines.

As it happens, at the moment, we do not have any choice in playing Man One as both Chezzer and Flappy are out injured. In truth, even if Fabianski was fit, I doubt that he would play as both the management and the fans have completely lost faith in him.

So, is Mannone going to revert back to being our No.2, rather than remaining as our No.1 when Chezzer comes back from injury? I think that will be the case, not because he does not have confidence in himself, he has already said he sees himself as our No.1 keeper, and he undoubtedly is an ‘OK keeper’, but that is the point – he is just an OK keeper, he is still unproven and I fear he just does not have it in him to become a ‘great’ keeper and that is what a club like Arsenal undoubtedly needs.

We also have another product of the youth system coming through, with young Martinez getting splendid reviews in the Reserve and U21 games, in the recent past, so does that mean when Chezzer returns from injury we will be seeing a revamped goal keeping set up; with Man One carrying out his threat to move on to get regular first team football, if he does not stay at No.1, and Martinez taking his place as the No.2 keeper?

I am not so sure. This would appear to smack, to a certain degree, of Arsene promoting ‘OK but not potentially great players’ from within the clubs youth system, and particularly in the goal keeping position, rather than looking at our needs and finding a keeper that meets those requirements.

That would beg the question, “why is it that we have not looked further afield to buy another David Seaman or even another Mad Jens”? It can be argued that we need a ready-made, first class keeper, now, who will win us games, like Hart is doing at City, rather than someone who occasionally saves us from losing games, but in any case needs much more time to develop his potential?

This draws us back into the discussion as to whether this is a sensible, premeditated and calculated choice made by Arsene to promote keepers from within the youth ranks as the best way forward, in order to solve a problem in a critical position that requires the highest quality player needed at the very top level of the game; or is it perhaps, instead, another reflection of having to make do with what we have, in order to conserve our cash resources, and enable us to keep to the self sustainability model that the Board are committed to?

What do you think?

Written by Red Arse.

Gervinho and Podolski clinical finishing saves our day: match report

September 19, 2012September 19, 2012TotalArsenal

Montpellier 1 – 2 Arsenal

Firstly I should say I got it totally wrong with regards to the team selection tonight. I was convinced that Arsene would prioritise our game against ManCity and would give the likes of Podolski, Cazorla, Gibbs and Gervinho a rest, or start them on the bench. He did the opposite by playing his strongest team from the start and with hindsight, despite the fact that most of the aforementioned players appeared to be very tired in the second half – something I was anticipating – Wenger definitely made the right call tonight.

These are the sort of games that can go either way, but I am convinced had we not played our strongest available team tonight we could have easily lost two or even three points, and even then we had to rely on a large dollop of luck to come away from la douce France with maximum points against a very spirited team. Maybe Arsene learned from Man United’s mistakes last year, when they thought they could cruise through their CL group with weakened teams, and ooh how they paid for it! Lol.

In order to qualify in the Champions League, we normally need to win our three home games and get something out of one or more of our away games. It also really helps to start well in order to gain momentum. We managed just about to do that and we should be happy, but our display in the beautifully named Stade de la Masson was far from convincing, and I think we will need to analyse it further properly over the next few days (I have no time tonight to watch the game a second time, so I am afraid you will have to settle for my initial findings and gut-feelings about the game).

I believe that key to it all was our midfield not functioning properly on the night, and especially Diaby, despite no lack of trying, failed to repeat his phenomenal performance against Liverpool two weeks ago. I guess it did not help that he collected a yellow card in just twenty seconds after kick-off, but Abou looked rusty throughout the game: he struggled at times with keeping possession as well as safeguarding the shape of our midfield. Arteta was our rock once again and as usual he put his body and soul on the line. Cazorla had some strong moments, but especially as the game went on, he seemed to disappear for large periods.

As a trio, though, they lacked shape, calmness and composure: we were unable to dominate play in midfield for large parts of the game, and it almost cost us dearly.

First Half

Not totally unexpected, Montpellier started the game without any fear and with a clear game plan. From the first minute, they did not allow us to control the game by passing the ball around as we have become so used to again this season. They started with a high line and were keen not to allow us to build up attacks from the back, or even just to pass the ball around towards the midfield. Very often Montpellier committed two players to attack any of our players who were in possession of the ball, and our usually so effective triangles were constantly broken up.

It also did not help at all that our captain, who has been so good at leading by example this season, made an error of judgement after eight minutes, both in terms of taking an unnecessary risk – there was no need to take on Belhanda there and then – and in the execution of his tackle. Diaby’s yellow card and TV’s foul that led to the penalty, which was put away with ooh-la-la cheekiness of the highest order by Belhanda, somehow set the tone for what turned out to be an uncomfortable evening.

Luckily, we were able to convert our first proper chance to level the match, and it only took us eight minutes since we conceded to do so. A beautiful, smooth move through the centre of midfield which had started with Diaby who passed the ball to Cazorla; the Spaniard then found Giroud at the edge of the box, and the ex-Montpellier player managed to put a very good through-ball in to the unmarked and on-site Podolski. The latter had time to pick his spot and fool the keeper in the process, and he showed his experience when he slotted the ball with apparent ease past Jourdren: 1-1, game on!

This appeared to have bamboozled the CL-inexperienced French team, and Arsenal went for the kill once more only two minutes later. And it was another beautifully worked goal. When the opposition is hunting us down and triangles are being suffocated, the only thing that seems to work sometimes, is taking on a player of the opposition and move into the space behind him. Jack Wilshere did this so well against Barcelona in that famous home CL win two years ago, and in Gervinho we have another player who excels in it (and the Ox is not far behind too).

Gervinho made a quick and smooth move to go past a player of the opposition near the right sideline, after which he passed the ball to Giroud. The latter did not manage to reach the ball but it bounced perfectly of the leg of a Montpellier player into the path of Jenkinson. Incredibly, from the moment Gervinho passed the ball to Giroud he sprinted into the box, as you would expect from a typical fox-in-the-box kind of striker. I think it is fair to say that most of us had not pictured him like that! Jenkinson delivered a razor-sharp cross into the box towards Gervinho who, with only a metre between him and the goalkeeper, stayed calm and finished with deadly accuracy: 1-2 to the Mighty Arsenal and it all looks very promising for us again.

However, after going in front we fail to continue controlling the game, even though we don’t give away much either. They simply keep a lot of their players in our half and make it really difficult for us to find our passing game.

The throughout the game very impressive, Cabella, probably had the best chance in the first half for Montpellier with a well-placed, low shot, after a fine run across our box, that just whizzed past Mannone’s left post.

Second Half

I expected Arsenal to start the game a lot more organised and more capable of holding on to the ball, and to be able to dominate the game again. But we were never able to sustain possession and take control again of the game during the second half, which is a bit worrying.

Just after the restart, Diaby had an unfortunate slip in the box, leaving Cabella with a golden opportunity to equalise, but the 22 year old lacked the composure/experience which is so important at this level, and was demonstrated so incredibly well to him by Gervinho, and especially, Podolski earlier in the game. Although, it is fair to say he was simply unlucky when his lovely, bergkampesque attempt to chip Manone hit the bar rather than the back of the net in the 54^th minute. I think we might see more of Cabella in the future.

The same lack of composure was shown by the equally promising talent of Belhanda (also 22 years old) late on in the game: after a rare mistake by Mertesacker in the box – at the end of a fine move by Montpellier – Belhanda was left with space and time to take a first touch and pick his spot – he does not keep his shot low to the ground but shoots right at the arms of Mannone, who does well not to panic and keep hold of it. That could easily have been the deserved equaliser for Montpellier, but luckily we escaped once more.

Other than Diaby’s fantastic, surging run from our own half all the way to the penalty box; where he fed the ball to Cazorla who could have done better with his shot on goal, we had very little to offer in terms of our attacking efforts.

In the end we held out and can now move on to the next game. Suffice to say, Wenger and Bould have some work to do with the team, as we are unlikely to get away with a repeat of tonight’s performance against Man City on Sunday.

Player ratings:

Mannone: I really liked him tonight, even though he did not have to make many big saves. He was calm and oozed confidence: 7.5.

Jenkinson: Tenacious, solid performance and a great cross for the winner: 7.5.

Mertesacker: Really read the game well and was desperate to keep discipline and order in an increasingly becoming disorganised team: 8.

TV: Silly mistake to give the somewhat harsh penalty away, but recovered well after that and worked well with Mertesacker to just about stay in control in defence: 7.

Gibbs: Less dominant and present this game than in previous games. I felt he left TV too often exposed this game: 6.5.

Arteta: Reads the game as well in midfield as Mertesacker does in defence. Another solid, totally committed performance: 8.

Diaby: As per the Match Report comments; below par / too rusty on the night: 6.

Cazorla: Not his best performance this season, but his class still shone through at times. He seemed to disappear a lot in second half: 6.5.

Podolski: He also seemed to disappear a lot in the second half, but took his goal very well when it really mattered: 7.5

Giroud: Great assist for the all important early equaliser and worked very hard all over the pitch. He did not get great service on the night and will feel frustrated not have come close to scoring a goal against his former team: 7.

Gervinho: Instigated and finished fantastically the second goal. Worked hard to help out midfield and defence and was a joy to watch: 8 and my Man of the Match.

Total Arsenal.

Please note, my post was also published on http://www.arsenalarsenal.wordpress.com today.