Team's problems highlighted in the Bolton game

[slapz]

Being sat with the Wanderers fans and on the outside looking in, I noticed quite a few problems the team has and must be looked at

1) Players didnt seem up for a fight even though they've had a week off against a team that played a 120 minute gruelling cup quarter final on Tuesday. Campo and Frandsen won the midfield battle way to easily for my liking

2) Henry needs a partner. Bolton's defence isnt that hot on paper but today was easy for them as 4 v 1 doesnt favour Henry. There were a few occasions today where he made a run past a few defenders but had no-one up top helping him out. I noticed a few times Bergkamp was more deeper than Gilberto and Vieira wondering if he had changed positions

3) Heading practice. Apart from Sol Campbell, the rest need heading practice. There were a few 50/50 headers the Arsenal players could have competed with but didnt leading to Bolton heading it to Okocha and Youri who started attack after attack. We looked a lot nervy at defending corners too and when we get corners, we dont look like scoring

4) Wenger opening his mouth to the papers. It seems to blow up in our face every time. All the talk about owing Bolton as they cost us the league last season and the Allardici incident meant it gave Bolton more inspiration to attack us and ultimately getting the goal

5) Holding onto leads. We played poorly but after going 1-0 up, we should have been able to hold out and even go kill the game off with the 2nd goal but yet again, we make things hard on ourselves

In the end though, this game should be viewed as a point gained rather than two lost as Bolton did more than enough to win the thing

 

[thierrys_girl]

Good write up, i agree with all of your points. Espically holding on to leads as twice in the Premiership this season we have had to go away with a draw when we were 1 nil up. Therefore losing 4 points, those points could be useful in the race for the crown, we have to learn how to hold on to a lead, its vital to us so that we can get the points we need to win back the premiership.

 

[slapz]

I was in the Bolton end as i gave up my ticket to a mate who couldnt get one so it was hard seeing how arsenal play as from the other side. You notice things about your team you wouldnt otherwise ( like Sol Campbell's nudges when he goes for a challenge, how rubbish the team can play etc etc ). I did feel a little guilty when we scored cos it was a definite foul in the lead up to the game and Graham Poll looked biased towards Arsenal until the goal and then he gave everything to Bolton just to make up for his mistake as the " 1-0 to the referee " chants got to him

Was going to do a write up report of the game in match reports but Sol's already done one so no point

 

[Anonymous]

Was going to do a write up report of the game in match reports but Sol's already done one so no point

No you still do one, you may have seen things i have missed.

And i agree with the points you made.

 

[arsenal4life]

we need a CLASS STRIKER and a CREATIVE MF
that's all
henry NEVER EVER can hold on all the championship matches and all the UCL matches and whole the FA cup matches
he is a human
and we have no other FULL-TIME STRIKER
Bergy is old
Wiltord is BULLSHIT
Kanu is a PART-TIME striker
ALi is young

we need RIVALDO + KLUIVERT

that's it

Rivaldo is 31 and can do well till 2005-2006 when the AG stands up
Kluivert is 27 and a COMPLETE striker

and I hope wenger can see what i can see in the
Kluivert-Henry-Rivaldo triangle

 

[JazzG]

I agree with all of slapz points as well, dunno wtf happened to them today.

Performances like today simply aren't good enough and we need to get it sorted out. Its all good not losing but we really should win these matches.

Still not the end of the world, give credit to Bolton as they gave it their all.

 

[thegame24]

just watching the prem OMG cygan is SLOOOW

 

[Arsenal316]

Well, I'm not surprised about this result. I mean, this is the same Bolton team that went to Stamford Bridge, and BEAT CHELSEA. Obviously, they are not such a bad team, considering the beat a Chelsea side LOADED with talent.

Today's result proved that their win last week was no fluke. If you take this team lightly, they will burn you. Bolton can be an underrated team at times. Arsenal underestimated them...as they did against Leicester. That's always been their weakness. They can show up and play a hell of a game against a good side. But when it comes to weaker sides, we relax too much.

Oh, and to all of you who keep trashing Gilberto and Cygan, you've made your point. There is an old saying..."If you have nothing nice to say, don't say it." Everybody else here who disagrees with you *cough cough...jgooner and henry_14/idiot/dan_the_man/***** cough cough* don't want to hear it anymore. We're sick of it. If you want to trash them, go to the Dump and post a topic trashing them. You're wasting everybody's time. Thanks. :idea:

 

[jc8gooner]

all of you who keep trashing Gilberto and Cygan, you've made your point.

the fact is these people haven't even tried to prove their point. They just slag the players off. Offer alternatives, make suggestions, ask why?, do anything but say: Oh, he's ****, he doesn't care, get rid of him. Support the team you fools.

 

[Arsenal316]

all of you who keep trashing Gilberto and Cygan, you've made your point.

the fact is these people haven't even tried to prove their point. They just slag the players off. Offer alternatives, make suggestions, ask why?, do anything but say: Oh, he's ****, he doesn't care, get rid of him. Support the team you fools.

:arrow: Exactly.

 

[DOUBLE-YOU]

today's match was very frustrating because we were non existent in midfield. i feel wenger will always start vieira - which is understandable - however paddy isnt fit yet and looked pedestrian. he needs more games under his belt. i dont know if he has played in the reserves since injury. wenger also seems to prefer gilberto as vieira's partner as it allows paddy to bomb forward. the problem is gilberto hasnt been playing well of late and he is in the side at the expense of parlour and edu, who both have had good seasons so far.
in saying that bolton played very well and closed us down. maybe we should have reverted to a longer ball game, just to stretch the play to take the pressure off the back four and allow us to press bolton higher up the pitch

 

[Andrew]

1) Players didnt seem up for a fight even though they've had a week off against a team that played a 120 minute gruelling cup quarter final on Tuesday. Campo and Frandsen won the midfield battle way to easily for my liking

Agreed entirely. There were no excuses this week.

2) Henry needs a partner. Bolton's defence isnt that hot on paper but today was easy for them as 4 v 1 doesnt favour Henry. There were a few occasions today where he made a run past a few defenders but had no-one up top helping him out. I noticed a few times Bergkamp was more deeper than Gilberto and Vieira wondering if he had changed positions

Kinda agree. I think Bergkamp still has it in him but he plays a little too deep for my liking.

3) Heading practice. Apart from Sol Campbell, the rest need heading practice. There were a few 50/50 headers the Arsenal players could have competed with but didnt leading to Bolton heading it to Okocha and Youri who started attack after attack. We looked a lot nervy at defending corners too and when we get corners, we dont look like scoring

Cygan's good at heading, apart from the one leading up to the goal which was a 50/50 situation. I thought Clichy was also quite good. Gilberto, Toure and Vieira are OK but the rest can be better.

4) Wenger opening his mouth to the papers. It seems to blow up in our face every time. All the talk about owing Bolton as they cost us the league last season and the Allardici incident meant it gave Bolton more inspiration to attack us and ultimately getting the goal

Wenger said before the match that he holds no grudge. So I don't think he did anything to fire Bolton up in the last week. We should have been fired up for revenge if anything.

5) Holding onto leads. We played poorly but after going 1-0 up, we should have been able to hold out and even go kill the game off with the 2nd goal but yet again, we make things hard on ourselves

Yeah... to be honest, when we scored I thought "yes, we'll get a draw". I always expected them to score for some reason, but was just happy knowing the worst we could do was draw. I think the problem when we go in front is that we just sit back and defend. For example, when Bolton scored we started attacking again. It just doesn't make sense. We have improved holding on to leads this season but still aren't too good at it. Man Utd are the masters of it and is perhaps the reason why they won it last year.

In the end though, this game should be viewed as a point gained rather than two lost as Bolton did more than enough to win the thing

Dead right there.

 

[invisibleman18]

the point u missed i think is bigger than needing another striker. we lack a ball winning/ball distributing central midfielder who can create things as well as stop things getting through. gilbertos passing is poor and his ball winning is not wat it should be. we lack someone like a gerrard or a lampard or a scholes. read my thread on this issue for more of my opinion. we lack the ability to grind out 1 goal wins in tough games like the old george graham and even tony adams teams. if we are only 1 up with 10 mins left, we ar always likely to concede cos we are unable to shut up shop. its what cost us last season. i think manure lost more games than we did but what cost us was the draws that we were unable to turn into wins. we win beautifully, never ugly. the englan rugby team won the world cup by grinding out some ugly wins. thats where we lack, tha ability to be able to grind out a win in these sort of tricky games. its either breath-takingly pretty, or poor performance.

 

[KoLo28]

they just didn't look like they wanted to be there, whereas bolton did and paddy isn't his usual self, should play some reserves games.

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

give credit when due guys. Bolton played it tough and didn't give us any space. Stop taking swipes at players everytime we lose the game. Gilberto..did better than viera today and i watched the whole game TWICE(NOT highlights). We were just never into it.

What worries me most is i think teams(PL) have found a new tactic to get to us and we haven't figured how to respond to the new tactics. Before they used to have 11 guys waiting for us at the back. These days (leicester,blackburn,bolton) they put the pressure way upfront and that does rattle us somehows. Pires our most creative player and co. didn't have 4 seconds alone with the ball before a bolton shirt was there. We need to be able to maintain possession of the ball even if we are not creating chances. We completely failed today.

Another worry is our CBs(Campbel, Keown, Cygan..exception is Toure) seem to struggle in the air against shorter strikers. Davies was doing the same thing all game against Cygan and Campbel. Use his butt to create distance between him/defender when going up for the ball. This ensures even if he doesn't win the ball..the defender's impact on the ball is not very strong(thats how they got the goal). Martins(Inter) and Yakubu(portsmouth) did that to us. Our CBs win less balls in the air when guarding short guys then big guys. These people are professionals..and they should figure out a way to deal with it.

But please please please LAY OFF CYGAN, GILBERTO!!!!

 

[AussieGooner]

Henry does need a partner but who do we get? I'd be pretty annoyed if we went for someone like Angel or Smith, I think we should even have a crack at Mark Viduka, we just need someone there along side him.

Bolton did play very well though and just looking at our defence still gives me nightmares

 

[Andrew]

I'd also like to point out that our throw-ins can improve. I find that very rarely we win a throw-in while the opposition do it easily. Something minor but could improve.

 

[vin de guerre]

Oh, and to all of you who keep trashing Gilberto and Cygan, you've made your point. There is an old saying..."If you have nothing nice to say, don't say it." Everybody else here who disagrees with you *cough cough...jgooner and henry_14/idiot/dan_the_man/***** cough cough* don't want to hear it anymore. We're sick of it. If you want to trash them, go to the Dump and post a topic trashing them. You're wasting everybody's time. Thanks. :idea:

Never a truer word... All these back-stabbers arejust a great big yawn.

 

[slapz]

No you still do one, you may have seen things i have missed.

And i agree with the points you made.

I read your report Sol and i think you covered all the main incidents. The only point i think you missed was that Vieira shoulda been sent off ( from a Bolton point of view ). He got a yellow card for the foul on Franny in the second half but he should have been booked in the 3rd minute when he missed the ball and put Youri down

It's amazing how easily you can see Arsenal's deficiencies looking from the outside. But we're still joint top for a few hours and can improve our GD by thrashing Wolves on boxing day

And on that note, Merry Xmas gooners

 

[Adam]

Graham Poll had to keep Vieira on because Campo was still on the pitch.