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Worst individual performance by an Arsenal player

BigPoppaPump

Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
Painful stuff. I try to forget it ever happened, never watch highlights of that game etc.

We deserved to win that final, but football is about luck sometimes and we never got it that day.
Sad that we never got into more CL finals during 2000-2005 there weren't many teams better than us in Europe. I think the CL still had a weird format during some of those years but still, I think it's a blight on Arsène's record.
 

BigPoppaPump

Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
The only time that Koscielny looked class for a significant time was when he had Per there to think for him and order him around.

He was a great athlete but everything was last ditch tackles, needing to use his recovery pace because he was out of position etc. Really good CB's rarely get themselves in those sorts of positions to start with.

You could make a great highlight reel out of all his desperate last ditch tackles etc. Happened way too frequently.

You always fancied him to drop a howler in a big game too. Proper mentally frail when the pressure was really on.
Brilliant post, never seen a player out of position as much as Koscielny.
 

BigPoppaPump

Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
Anyone remembers Aaron Ramsey’s first season back here after his loan spell. The 11/12 season. Poor guy was deployed as our 10 to replace Cesc and was diabolical at it. I remember he had one game against a lower PL team (I think it was Fulham). He completed something like 55% of his passes and his Whoscored rating was like 4.6.
He was so poor, never seen someone be so consistently bad so then he became one of the most hated Arsenal players during those times. The 2013/14 season he really got everyone on side but his career was a disappointment imo.
 

sergio_giorgini

Dying on Mt.Neymar Hill
We’ve had some poor central defenders down the years there’s no doubt about that. But I don’t think any of them were as bad as their performances suggest. The problem was they were hung out to dry by a manager who played too openly and left them vulnerably exposed, especially on counter attacks.

They were never given a fair platform to shine.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Sad that we never got into more CL finals during 2000-2005 there weren't many teams better than us in Europe. I think the CL still had a weird format during some of those years but still, I think it's a blight on Arsène's record.

The 2 group stage format, was really difficult...and that was during most of our peak years too, annoyingly.

Trying to fight United for a title in 2003 (with refs letting teams kick the **** out of us) while having to try and navigate a second Champions League group with Valencia, Roma and Ajax...after qualifying from the first one against quality Dortmund and PSV teams...mad.

Our lack of European honours at Highbury, is very frustrating though..as you say, we should have won more, than just the 2 we have.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Speaking of Stepanovs.

Didn't he have a great game at Euro 2004, keeping a clean sheet against Germany or Holland :lol:
 

mpower2540

Well-Known Member
Mustafi vs Bayern away in the 5-1 defeat. For one of the Bayern goals he's not even looking at what's happening he's having a chat with the RB while Thiago just moves away from him and scores. Diving into every tackle, throwing his arms around, shambolic.

Podolski vs Bradford too. I was at Valley Parade that night, sat with the Bradford fans and it's quite comfortably one of my worst ever experiences watching football. Podolski didn't even look like a footballer, he was so dreadful I actually started laughing at him.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
And on Almunia...



...imagine how he would be remembered if this save helped us win this match.
 

Blood on the Tracks

AG's best friend, role model and mentor.
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Rice
People like Koscielny because he had memorable moments and a good highlight reel of last ditch stuff.
But at some point you've got to ask, why was he having to engage in last ditch tackles and being so reliant on his pace all the time? It's because he made a lot of errors in terms of positional play, overly committing himself and lack of concentration.

If you're in a last ditch situation like Kos often was it means you've made an error previous to that in some aspect of your defensive game.

There's a quote from Maldini and I'm paraphrasing here but it's along the lines of 'If I have to tackle of even leave my feet it means I've made a mistake or not read the game correctly.'

You look at someone like Per, physically he was awful but how many times did you see his lack of pace exposed or him having to lunge in for some last ditch tackle? Hardly ever, because he had a great footballing brain and could read the game and avoid those situations.

Yeah, Laurent's physical attributes and Per's footballing brain and leadership did gel well. The difference is though you could have put any decent athlete next to Per and they'd have looked good.

Put Koscielny next to pretty much anyone else and he'd have looked a borderline liability.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
People like Koscielny because he had memorable moments and a good highlight reel of last ditch stuff.
But at some point you've got to ask, why was he having to engage in last ditch tackles and being so reliant on his pace all the time? It's because he made a lot of errors in terms of positional play, overly committing himself and lack of concentration.

If you're in a last ditch situation like Kos often was it means you've made an error previous to that in some aspect of your defensive game.

There's a quote from Maldini and I'm paraphrasing here but it's along the lines of 'If I have to tackle of even leave my feet it means I've made a mistake or not read the game correctly.'

You look at someone like Per, physically he was awful but how many times did you see his lack of pace exposed or him having to lunge in for some last ditch tackle? Hardly ever, because he had a great footballing brain and could read the game and avoid those situations.

Yeah, Laurent's physical attributes and Per's footballing brain and leadership did gel well. The difference is though you could have put any decent athlete next to Per and they'd have looked good.

Put Koscielny next to pretty much anyone else and he'd have looked a borderline liability.

Dislike phrases like this, nothing wrong with slide tackling, wonderful art to master...



...it's not like Paolo didn't slide tackle a lot too.

Edit...in no way am I saying Kos is on Maldini's level, before something like that starts :lol:
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Don't know why Arsenal fans of all people, go to such extremes to criticize Kos.

No one is saying he is Tony Adams, or on the level of other world-class CBs...but he was a lot better, than being made out.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Ah, the programming of negativity and hate towards Arsenal from A-M continues. Great mind exercise, searching for bad memories of Arsenal now.

Great fan forum.

Sp**s fans genuinely think Ledley King is the best ever English CB.

And although they are completely insane to think that, at least they back their players.

Arsenal fans, worst in the world.
 

GDeep™

League is very weak
Sp**s fans genuinely think Ledley King is the best ever English CB.

And although they are completely insane to think that, at least they back their players.

Arsenal fans, worst in the world.
King was a great CB though, injuries just killed him. Everybody in the game says a fit King is Rio, Terry, Sol etc levels.
 

mpower2540

Well-Known Member
People like Koscielny because he had memorable moments and a good highlight reel of last ditch stuff.
But at some point you've got to ask, why was he having to engage in last ditch tackles and being so reliant on his pace all the time? It's because he made a lot of errors in terms of positional play, overly committing himself and lack of concentration.

If you're in a last ditch situation like Kos often was it means you've made an error previous to that in some aspect of your defensive game.

There's a quote from Maldini and I'm paraphrasing here but it's along the lines of 'If I have to tackle of even leave my feet it means I've made a mistake or not read the game correctly.'

You look at someone like Per, physically he was awful but how many times did you see his lack of pace exposed or him having to lunge in for some last ditch tackle? Hardly ever, because he had a great footballing brain and could read the game and avoid those situations.

Yeah, Laurent's physical attributes and Per's footballing brain and leadership did gel well. The difference is though you could have put any decent athlete next to Per and they'd have looked good.

Put Koscielny next to pretty much anyone else and he'd have looked a borderline liability.
The guy had to work with some clowns in his times as Arsenal CB. Wenger even admitted we played a very risky game where we kind of left the defence to work it out for themselves because we wanted to lean into our offensive capability. He was one of the few who could cope with it imo. Ability wise I thought he was excellent but he was mentally incredibly fragile. I've said it before, we made him a leader of the defence when he never was and was never going to be one.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
King was a great CB though, injuries just killed him. Everybody in the game says a fit King is Rio, Terry, Sol etc levels.

He was very good, as you say...but I wouldn't have him in that group.

Unsure if he had the mentality, to really kick on, even without the injuries... similar to Kos for me.
 

GDeep™

League is very weak
He was very good, as you say...but I wouldn't have him in that group.

Unsure if he had the mentality, to really kick on, even without the injuries... similar to Kos for me.
Rio said he was maybe the best out of all that group. Don’t get the Kos comparison at all, King was actually a tough leader type.
 
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