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Arsenal vs Barcelona | CL QF | Wed 31 March 19:45 | ITV1

lagos

Established Member
outlaw_member said:
Was I the only one who thought that Henry was somewhat wasting time when he came on? He not only started running down cul-de-sacs but there were also moments where it seemed like he was saying to us 'come on lads, let's go for a casual run', then he would fall down and lose the ball. Like as if it was some time wasting ploy to stop Barcelona from creating an attack. He actually ended up helping us more then he did for his own team. Legend. :worthy

I doubt that, I think you are clutching at straws! And if it were true it's not the kind of thing that I expect of a legend even if he is playing against us!
 

caldeltatrojan

Well-Known Member
dreamLord said:
arsenal-2-2-barcelona-passing-2.jpg


:shock:

Really the only stat that matters- 2-2.
 

russkiegooner

Active Member
sabret00the said:
:lol: @ Arshavin's successful passes.
To compare comparable things, you have to look at completed passes by Arsenal players in the first twenty minutes of the game. Against this backdrop, Arshavin's statistics might not look that appalling.
 

Tourbillion

Angry & Miserable
What bothers me is that we're supposedly one of Europe's most technically gifted teams, yet the quality of our first touch and short passing accuracy and weighting were not close to Barca's.
 

russkiegooner

Active Member
Quicker than Walcott said:
What bothers me is that we're supposedly one of Europe's most technically gifted teams, yet the quality of our first touch and short passing accuracy and weighting were not close to Barca's.
Yes, but that's the first time in my life that I saw Arsenal panic-stricken.
 

outlaw_member

Established Member
lagos said:
outlaw_member said:
Was I the only one who thought that Henry was somewhat wasting time when he came on? He not only started running down cul-de-sacs but there were also moments where it seemed like he was saying to us 'come on lads, let's go for a casual run', then he would fall down and lose the ball. Like as if it was some time wasting ploy to stop Barcelona from creating an attack. He actually ended up helping us more then he did for his own team. Legend. :worthy

I doubt that, I think you are clutching at straws! And if it were true it's not the kind of thing that I expect of a legend even if he is playing against us!

I don't truly believe that for the simple fact that Henry has been playing in that way for most of this season. However, it was still a nice thought. :mrgreen:
 

russkiegooner

Active Member
lagos said:
outlaw_member said:
Was I the only one who thought that Henry was somewhat wasting time when he came on? He not only started running down cul-de-sacs but there were also moments where it seemed like he was saying to us 'come on lads, let's go for a casual run', then he would fall down and lose the ball. Like as if it was some time wasting ploy to stop Barcelona from creating an attack. He actually ended up helping us more then he did for his own team. Legend. :worthy

I doubt that, I think you are clutching at straws! And if it were true it's not the kind of thing that I expect of a legend even if he is playing against us!

Indeed, there's a much simpler and logical explanation to that. Henry is just off form and has been for quite a bit of time, as a matter of fact. In reality, it's open to doubt whether one day he'll resemble his former self. His performance was in good part based on his incredible speed and if it's not there anymore, then it's getting somewhat problematic.

He'll still remain an Arsenal legend forever because he fully deserves it. But he'll never be a Barca legend. :)
 

krengon

One Arsène Wenger
Trusted ⭐
Barca were great, really great, but we made them look that great. the time their players were allowed on the ball was simply horrendous.

The gulf in quality looked huge, but I don't think it is and I really think we have a great chance going to Camp nou. However the midfield three needs to work really hard and press as an unit, we can't allow them so much space again or we will get murdered.
 

Bossa

Established Member
outlaw_member said:
Their fullbacks possess the ball more than anyone other position in the team bar the central midfielders. Even our fullbacks generally get alot of the ball, which is why it's so imperative that they are productive in one way or another.

Yeah I've also noticed it. Because they play with such an insane high line, their full backs and defenders are basically midfielders when they have the ball. I wish Clichy and Sagna were that good at building the game up like Barcelona's fullbacks. Their full backs are quite poor defensively though but they are rarely troubled though.
 

Bossa

Established Member
russkiegooner said:
Quicker than Walcott said:
What bothers me is that we're supposedly one of Europe's most technically gifted teams, yet the quality of our first touch and short passing accuracy and weighting were not close to Barca's.
Yes, but that's the first time in my life that I saw Arsenal panic-stricken.

Yeah I've never seen that before. But I heard that Guardiola said that they had his best game in two years. And we were below par. I dont think that Barcelona can play better than the first leg and Arsenal can only play better imo. We were very nervous and we gave them too much respect and room to play. We were already shell shocked after ten mintues. I believe the next time we play them we know what to expect and we will play a lot better.

Its just too bad that the next game is at Nou Camp. I hope that the players are prepared.
 

Bossa

Established Member
caldeltatrojan said:
dreamLord said:

Really the only stat that matters- 2-2.

Good stats from Denilson. He only played one half and he did a good job. Diaby needs to work on his passing its below par. Watching Busquets and Xavi yesterday just gave me goosebumps. Never rated Busquets but he was MotM with Xavi. He reminded me of Carrick only way better.
 

Jasard

Forum Issue Troubleshooter
Moderator

Country: England
An ITV camera man died after the game.

<a class="postlink" href="http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/02042010/58/champions-league-tv-cameraman-dies-arsenal-barcelona.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/02042010/ ... elona.html</a>

How sad... :(
 

Anzac

Established Member
Quicker than Walcott said:
What bothers me is that we're supposedly one of Europe's most technically gifted teams, yet the quality of our first touch and short passing accuracy and weighting were not close to Barca's.

Good point & it's been pissing me off for some time with our play.
if you look at our play in confined space a lot of it is one touch flicks etc rather than a genuine pass with design & purpose, and most of it is shyte. By contrast Barca looked to pass the ball & their party tricks were mainly drags behind them to a supporting player coming on to the ball, rather than in an enclosed space in attack as such.
 

sagreig

Well-Known Member
Anzac said:
Quicker than Walcott said:
What bothers me is that we're supposedly one of Europe's most technically gifted teams, yet the quality of our first touch and short passing accuracy and weighting were not close to Barca's.

Good point & it's been pissing me off for some time with our play.
if you look at our play in confined space a lot of it is one touch flicks etc rather than a genuine pass with design & purpose, and most of it is shyte. By contrast Barca looked to pass the ball & their party tricks were mainly drags behind them to a supporting player coming on to the ball, rather than in an enclosed space in attack as such.

Absolutely. Spot. On.
 

kel varnsen

Established Member
krengon said:
Barca were great, really great, but we made them look that great. the time their players were allowed on the ball was simply horrendous.

The gulf in quality looked huge, but I don't think it is and I really think we have a great chance going to Camp nou. However the midfield three needs to work really hard and press as an unit, we can't allow them so much space again or we will get murdered.

the midfield three? the whole team needs to work really hard. one of the things barca absolutely killed us at, was getting the ball quickly out to alves and maxwell. on the outside of our midfield trio.

two wide players (keita and messi) drifting inwards, bringing our full backs with them, opening up a ton of space for their full backs.

i think perhaps we need to revert back to a 4-5-1 formation to contain them.
 

Anzac

Established Member
Just looking ahead to the return fixture, many have been talking about using pace to get behind/attack their FBs & force them to hold deeper, the problem is that in general we do not play this way.

As a rule we are very narrow & attack through the middle with the wide men looking to come inside & our FBs providing the overlap - we only started attacking the flanks with our forward line once Walcott came on & look at the difference in the space it created for our CMs. Eboue is also very direct on the ball, but even he looks to come central & provides little width.

For us to do so we will need to actually change our general style of play, and going from what AA said in the post match interview endorses my view that AW does not do match day tactics other than emphasising our generic style.
 

Anzac

Established Member
kel varnsen said:
krengon said:
Barca were great, really great, but we made them look that great. the time their players were allowed on the ball was simply horrendous.

The gulf in quality looked huge, but I don't think it is and I really think we have a great chance going to Camp nou. However the midfield three needs to work really hard and press as an unit, we can't allow them so much space again or we will get murdered.

the midfield three? the whole team needs to work really hard. one of the things barca absolutely killed us at, was getting the ball quickly out to alves and maxwell. on the outside of our midfield trio.

two wide players (keita and messi) drifting inwards, bringing our full backs with them, opening up a ton of space for their full backs.

i think perhaps we need to revert back to a 4-5-1 formation to contain them.

IMO unless we change our approach in midfield re the 3 roles we won't contain them even if we played 4141 (which I'm expecting will be AW's response). All that will happen is that we'll sit deeper in defence but will still stream forward ahead of the ball in attack, and we'll perhaps become more toothless in attack.

Good point about how quickly they get the ball wide, whereas we don't do so until we are in their half.
 

Nela

Established Member
kel varnsen said:
i think perhaps we need to revert back to a 4-5-1 formation to contain them.
We definetely need to revert to a 4-5-1 for the away leg. We need our wide players to have pace and the abilbity to track their fullbacks(Nasri doesn't know how to do this). They need to have a lot of energy to drive up and down the wide positions both in defense and in attack. Eboue is perfect for this on the right. Problem is that there's no obvious candidate for the left aside from Traore, who Wenger will never start. Wenger will probably go for Rosicky. And while his experience and talent would be a plus, he's just not the type of player we need to put against Alves. Like, Nasri, he likes to tuck inside too much and we need out and out wide players to perform the tactical job of containing their fullbacks.

I'd go for Song sitting right in front of the back four with a bank of four in front of him of Traore, Denilson, Nasri and Eboue. Realistically, we'll probably see Rosicky, Diaby, Nasri and Eboue though.
 
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