brady
Active Member
This has been a confusing season, full of fits and starts, hope, promise and delight, as well as dismay and abject despair. We lost our captain, and tried to make light of it. Hey we got Hleb, but then we lost him. Henry came back in a magical performance that you could not have scripted even if you tried. Then we lost him again. And all the time, with the spectre of losing him permanently. Without him Sp**s smelled blood and it seemed unthinkable that we would ever win again without him.
That game, or to be more precise, that abysmal first half showing against Sp**s, put a great many things into perspective. One could say that it proved that without Henry, we are not a threat but that is purely speculative and not the point of this article. Rather let us look at the performances that were on show.
First Reyes. This game confirmed what many have suspected, and that is that Reyes is not a natural central striker. He does not really push up enough on the last defender to stretch the opposition and rarely looks to go behind the defence. His natural inclination is to come deep and get the ball to feet and start running at defenders. He needs to build up momentum and does not do as well from a standing start. His ideal game is either a counter-attacking game if we are playing away from home, or when the team is on song and able to pass the ball sweetly and early, giving him room to play his game. In some ways he has become rather predictable and will always look to beat the defender by switching directions rather than speed. Notice how often he will cut back even when the better option is to go on and shoot (not that this is peculiar to him - seems to be a trait of many in the team). He undoubtedly has promise but there have been many false dawns. He will get better - as soon as Pires is gone and he starts regularly on the left side of midfield.
Next Fabregas. Surprise, surprise. Wenger was right after all. Fabregas is not ready to play week in week out and he is not versatile enough to play right midfield where his lack of pace and dribbling skills unbalances the team. He was awful in the first half but once he moved into the middle in the second half he was back to his old self. He definitely is one for the future and much depends on whether Wenger finds the right partner for him. Gilberto is probably the best so far but here's a radical suggestion. I think Toure would make a better partner.
And that brings me to nicely to my next player. If anyone still thought that Toure was the answer after Defoe turned him inside out and laid on that gilt-edged chance for Jenas, they are living in denial. Don't get me wrong, he is a tremendous player, strong and pacey but he is not being played at his best position. Often we are lulled into thinking that he is a great centre back because his recovery of lost causes is sensational. But if you really think about it, that belies the often naive defending that so often characterises his game and which necessitates those lung-bursting sprints. He plays the game with as pure a spirit as you will find in any player but these same qualities are weaknesses in a centre back, where a cool head and mastery of the dark arts will stand you in better stead in the long run. His quickness and pace mean he is always torn between standing his ground and gambling on intercepting the ball. That is a decision he can make more easily in midfield where the stakes are not so high, so to speak. And if he makes a mistake there is time to make amends. He is no Makelele but his all-action style and willingness to shoot makes him the perfect replacement for Parlour we have struggled to find.
Sadly it is also time to bring down the curtain on Bergkamp's career, at least in the league where his legs are failing him. He may still enjoy the Champions League where he would have more time to pull the strings. Even so, with every passing game he looks less and less likely to score. He is still my favourite Gunner but this season may have been one too many. It pains me to see him frustrated and resorting to physical intimidation as an outlet. That has always been a slight blemish on his game and without the highlights to balance the image, its a sad sight.
Its not all doom and gloom however. Clichy finally showed what he can do after some faltering performances early on when filling in for Cole. He can only get better while Cole has probably reached his peak. His defending has also been slightly wanting for a while now. Like Toure, he is often caught between hanging back and shutting down, or bombing forward to make interceptions.
Van Persie is electric and finally showed us the impact he can have. He is brave, strong and committed, the qualities we have been missing in our forward line, even when Henry is around. That is not meant as a criticism of Henry since he is an entirely different type of player. We are crying out for players to commit to attacking. That may sound strange but if you watch the games, you always get a feeling that we do not have enough bodies in the box if at all. Van Persie is not afraid to get down and dirty in the trenches. What the second half showed us was that each time he got the ball, scoring seemed like a definite possibility rather than just wishful thinking - just as it was painful to note that in the first half, we never looked remotely like scoring when Reyes or Bergkamp got the ball. Van Persie is also one of the few who genuinely are not afraid to shoot once he sees the whites of the goal. This is something the team needs to work on. Twice Ljungberg got into good positions and did not pull the trigger.
Dare I say it? Van Persie could be a natural replacement for Henry if he does decide to leave. Of course if they could play together and make the partnership click, we might be on to something here.
That game, or to be more precise, that abysmal first half showing against Sp**s, put a great many things into perspective. One could say that it proved that without Henry, we are not a threat but that is purely speculative and not the point of this article. Rather let us look at the performances that were on show.
First Reyes. This game confirmed what many have suspected, and that is that Reyes is not a natural central striker. He does not really push up enough on the last defender to stretch the opposition and rarely looks to go behind the defence. His natural inclination is to come deep and get the ball to feet and start running at defenders. He needs to build up momentum and does not do as well from a standing start. His ideal game is either a counter-attacking game if we are playing away from home, or when the team is on song and able to pass the ball sweetly and early, giving him room to play his game. In some ways he has become rather predictable and will always look to beat the defender by switching directions rather than speed. Notice how often he will cut back even when the better option is to go on and shoot (not that this is peculiar to him - seems to be a trait of many in the team). He undoubtedly has promise but there have been many false dawns. He will get better - as soon as Pires is gone and he starts regularly on the left side of midfield.
Next Fabregas. Surprise, surprise. Wenger was right after all. Fabregas is not ready to play week in week out and he is not versatile enough to play right midfield where his lack of pace and dribbling skills unbalances the team. He was awful in the first half but once he moved into the middle in the second half he was back to his old self. He definitely is one for the future and much depends on whether Wenger finds the right partner for him. Gilberto is probably the best so far but here's a radical suggestion. I think Toure would make a better partner.
And that brings me to nicely to my next player. If anyone still thought that Toure was the answer after Defoe turned him inside out and laid on that gilt-edged chance for Jenas, they are living in denial. Don't get me wrong, he is a tremendous player, strong and pacey but he is not being played at his best position. Often we are lulled into thinking that he is a great centre back because his recovery of lost causes is sensational. But if you really think about it, that belies the often naive defending that so often characterises his game and which necessitates those lung-bursting sprints. He plays the game with as pure a spirit as you will find in any player but these same qualities are weaknesses in a centre back, where a cool head and mastery of the dark arts will stand you in better stead in the long run. His quickness and pace mean he is always torn between standing his ground and gambling on intercepting the ball. That is a decision he can make more easily in midfield where the stakes are not so high, so to speak. And if he makes a mistake there is time to make amends. He is no Makelele but his all-action style and willingness to shoot makes him the perfect replacement for Parlour we have struggled to find.
Sadly it is also time to bring down the curtain on Bergkamp's career, at least in the league where his legs are failing him. He may still enjoy the Champions League where he would have more time to pull the strings. Even so, with every passing game he looks less and less likely to score. He is still my favourite Gunner but this season may have been one too many. It pains me to see him frustrated and resorting to physical intimidation as an outlet. That has always been a slight blemish on his game and without the highlights to balance the image, its a sad sight.
Its not all doom and gloom however. Clichy finally showed what he can do after some faltering performances early on when filling in for Cole. He can only get better while Cole has probably reached his peak. His defending has also been slightly wanting for a while now. Like Toure, he is often caught between hanging back and shutting down, or bombing forward to make interceptions.
Van Persie is electric and finally showed us the impact he can have. He is brave, strong and committed, the qualities we have been missing in our forward line, even when Henry is around. That is not meant as a criticism of Henry since he is an entirely different type of player. We are crying out for players to commit to attacking. That may sound strange but if you watch the games, you always get a feeling that we do not have enough bodies in the box if at all. Van Persie is not afraid to get down and dirty in the trenches. What the second half showed us was that each time he got the ball, scoring seemed like a definite possibility rather than just wishful thinking - just as it was painful to note that in the first half, we never looked remotely like scoring when Reyes or Bergkamp got the ball. Van Persie is also one of the few who genuinely are not afraid to shoot once he sees the whites of the goal. This is something the team needs to work on. Twice Ljungberg got into good positions and did not pull the trigger.
Dare I say it? Van Persie could be a natural replacement for Henry if he does decide to leave. Of course if they could play together and make the partnership click, we might be on to something here.
