Good morning Positive Arsenal fans,
I apologise for the late running of the service this morning as I have been out in the fresh air and the sunshine, clearing the tubes and clearing the mind before a day shaping the world to my preferred design.
Of last night’s game a formidable disappointment and the almost certain exit from the CL at the Round of 16 for the nth season in a row. The result proved a little more excruciating as for about 30 of the 90 minutes I saw us and the Germans battling evenly with one another and had a realistic ambition to leave Bavaria with at worst a narrow one goal defeat, probably a point and even, at best, an extraordinary win. Munich backed away from Sanchez as though he had ebola, Hummel looked like he should be playing for Klopp and even Alonso (for a few minutes) looked out of synch and the game passed him by. The minute counter then turned to 53. There followed ten minutes of fast, purposeful attack and clinical finishing that destroyed us. A number of players looked slightly dazed and I know I was. I see from Arsene’s quotes that he thought the same. The 5th and last goal heaped absurdity on top of frustration.
We know what happened but perhaps why it happened is more debatable. There are no shortage of answers that focus on personnel, on tactics, that “if only X had been standing at Y ….” or “ if Z had started instead of A….”. Chief among the hackneyed answers are the “ if only we had M in charge and Arsene had left/been sacked/committed seppuku …..” Understandable that one seeks the lifebelt of rational comfort but specious in my view.
Well my shy at answering the Why question is that we do not play teams anywhere near of the quality of Bayern Munich week in and week out and unfortunately when we did come up against them we struggle. They play with a pace and a purpose that we are not able to compete with over a full 90 minutes. We can stand toe to toe for a period. If luck goes or way and we can tip them out of their game, they meet a mad referee or they have an “off night” we can occasionally win. Nine times out of ten however their players, individually and collectively, are superior to ours. Over these two leg ties then the chance that you will get your one in ten chance back to back is very small indeed.
There are probably three perhaps four teams in Europe who are and have been at that superior standard to us. We have striven to take that further step. If one looked at the AFC starting line up last night then it was the strongest I would have chosen, and the bench was packed with proven experienced good players, Yet still we came up short. We have not stood still. We have better players and better playing systems tan we did two years ago five years ago etc. However as we have improved and moved forward so these sides have also moved developed. The weaknesses that Bayern had last night, an ageing and slower Alonso, an indifferent Hummels, a foolishly conceded penalty that then they allowed the rebound in, they managed to overcome and in the end gained a well deserved victory.
Let me make my opinion on one point perfectly clear. If Manchester City or Leicester City, or Tottingham if they had managed to stay in the CL, or Chelsea or Liverpool or Manchester United if the had even managed to qualify for the competition had been out there last night at the Allianz they would have been on the end of exactly the same drubbing. Like us they don’t face that quality each week. They are no more likely to have coped than us.
What can we do – what must we do ? No easy answers, no trite solutions. No “if X had been standing at Y instead of Z … “ or the latest “ defensive midfield beast” magic signing.
Work hard, ensure every single game, starting with Sutton, is approached with the absolute, single minded seriousness that our opponents displayed last night. Learn from defeat, do not wallow in disappointment and recrimination.
And finally, the most ridiculous picture I have ever seen.
Enjoy your Thursday.
Positively Arsenal 
Dear Andy Nic.
For and on behalf of Positively Arsenal, I thank you from the very bottom of my heart. I love you.I do.
Making sense of what seemed nonsense has lifted my spirits on a day where I would have said that was an impossible task.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I’m not sure I’ve seen a better match review. Well done A5.
Thanks for comments from Alabama & Shotta last night.
Of course I’m disappointed with the result, and I’ll do my usual thing of avoiding all the crap to come, cos I don’t have the answers and I don’t want to spend time shortening my life due to a bad result. I still love Arsenal, and hope the players get over it quickly.
COYG
LikeLiked by 5 people
Silver lining for this morning sackcloth and ashes in the Arsesphere – just picked up a ticket for the Leicester game, Block One and behind Arsene. See you for a drink earlier in the day hopefully !!
LikeLike
the flaw to your argument anicol is that we suffered these kinds of big defeats v our domestic rivals too. We have for 18 months or more had a tendency to concede goals in quick succession – 2 in 3 minutes and 3 in 12 minutes, last night is not new to us – we have seen this problem against even the lesser teams in England, its only a couple of weeks ago that Watford hit 2 goals in 3 minutes. We buckle badly when we concede, when we hold on for 15 to 20 minutes after conceding we more often than not come back strong and get our goal or two.
Is it a mental problem (Arsenal have been using a leading sports psychologist to try and help the players), is it a tactical problem, are we set up too loosely, or is it that the players are just not good enough, or a combo of all 3. We see major errors from our players in games, that mistake by Ox last night for the 5th goal is nothing new, we have seen him do it a number of times.
Wenger called it a collapse, and he is right. He also mentioned that we got caught out when the ref overturned the corner to us call, and Bayern went down field to score. That implies that the players were not switched on as they should be, BM still had to go the length of the field. We see Mustafi having a go at Ox, while a man he himself should have marked ran unopposed into the middle of our square to score. I’m all for defenders bollocking out our midfielders for not doing their shift, but it should not be done while they attack progresses. Is that a focus thing.
And its not just in defense that we seem to lose the run of ourselves in big games, our attack often looks like it is a collection of individuals, all trying to do it on their own, Alexis holds on to the ball a bit too much in most games, but in the bigger games he really forces it and the turn over rate is massive.
Our players turned into a whinging bitching rabble last night, so many of them blaming others, while apart from Ospina and maybe Kos, none of them where without blame. seeing he amount of arm waving, and bitching at each other, it actually fills me with fear and doubt that this can be put right anytime soon. The obligatory “meeting to clarify things” has already been called, but why should we expect this meeting to solve our problems, when all the other meetings has not.
What other top club suffers these kind of big defeats at anything like the rate Arsenal do. 3, 4, 5, even 6 goal defeats have become far too a common sight for us over the last few years. Defeat is one thing, “collapse” is a total different ball game.
LikeLike
Thanks A5. At the risk of being among the “if only” crowd, I will repeat my post-match observation last night.
We were beaten by a superior team who were clinical when they had their chances unlike us. The remarkable thing is we had two presentable chances in the 1st 10 minutes of the 2nd half to make it 1-2. Ozil had only the keeper to beat and Neur saved. 15 minutes later we were down 4-1. Almost all their attempts went in.
I noticed it is now the accepted wisdom in the media and their mindless parrots that Leicester’s decline is primarily down to Kante leaving . It may or may not be true. But the media presents not a shred of data to back up their claim.
Contrast this with how little attention is given how Arsenal is is substantially less effective without Santi Cazorla. I spent at least two blogs this season giving multiple data showing how. Today was again another classic example. Arsenal’s possession was only 25%. We could hardly get out of our half. Both Ozil and Sanchez look useless. If they came deep or hang long they hardly never get the ball. Poor old Coquelin is expected to be both a ball winner and a passer, excelling at neither.
People tend to minimize the role of a great player who is the technical leader (thanks WWWB). It is hardly unusual that in great teams one single player holds the key. In my opinion take Dennis Bergkamp out of Arsenal there would never have been the Invincibles. In fact, because of his fear of flying he missed several Champions league games we never did well. Yet everybody agrees the Invincibles were a great team.
All the uber managers and critics who, I am sure, loved this lineup when it was announced are now treating the same players as orphans, disowning them left, right and center. Who is gonna stand up and speak the truth that we are an inferior team without Santi. That will be the subject of my next blog.
LikeLiked by 2 people
anicol you know if we beat sutton then the leicester game will be postponed
LikeLiked by 2 people
What a lovely blog as usual. Always sending positive light. I just can’t believe that the players are feeling the pressure like this. They don’t trust themselves or the tactics, even though Wenger is right. So as soon as something goes wrong they too think “here we go again”. The last 2 yrs we’ve seen 6-0, 5-1, 5-1, 5-1, 6-3.. + the other small awful losses (OT, WHL) the players have lost all sense of trust in their abilities in the big games even though Wenger gives them the upmost trust. I think everyone needs a fresh start mentally because this cannot continue. Heart breaking.
Hope we can win the FA Cup, let’s get behind the team as much as possible and hope whatever decision is the right one.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Um – if it was an argument eddy it might have a flaw in it.
We were beaten by a better side, again.
We come from a league were we rarely if eve play sides at the level of Bayerm Barca, and even PSG who we got a bit lucky against at times in the group stage.
As for “We have for 18 months or more had a tendency to concede goals in quick succession – 2 in 3 minutes and 3 in 12 minutes, last night is not new to us”
We conceded a goal in the 12th minute, rocked and wobbled, and then clambered back into the match. We did not concede a second goal until the 53rd minute.
“What other top club suffers these kind of big defeats at anything like the rate Arsenal do.”
Then were on earth are Chelsea, Manyoo, Tottingham and Liverpool in the CL this season eddy ?
LikeLiked by 6 people
quote shotta
Poor old Coquelin is expected to be both a ball winner and a passer, excelling at neither.
last night he was neither a ball winner(0 tackles won) or a passer(5 completed passes) in his 77 minutes.
of course we are a weaker team without Santi and our other missing player Ramsey, but we have had most of this season, and most of last season to figure out a way overcome this and have failed. Have we adapted our tactics to compensate for the loss of Santi, or are we still trying the same thing but with lesser players. I would also say that a lot of the misplaced passes last night had nothing to do with us missing Santi, why would him being there suddenly stop others from misplacing a simple ten yard pass, it was happening all over the pitch form a whole host of players. We have lost, and lost big, with Santi in the team, with the same collapse happening.
LikeLike
That is an utterly splendid — indeed astonishingly mature — assessment of the demoralising game last night.
At its core is the simple but inarguably blunt truth that explains everything about the Arsenal performance, and the crippling result, and is starkly contained in your words — “individually and collectively, [their players] are superior to ours”. Amen to that.
LikeLiked by 2 people
For the opportunity to whisper advice to Arsene I would even brave a weekday night if by some fluke we despatch Sutton eddy
LikeLiked by 4 people
Bayern were/are amazingly good.
Top of my head, other than the three super clubs, Barca, Bayern, Real, the finalists since 08 have been Inter, Utd, Chelsea, At Madrid, Juventus and Dortmund.
Every one of them, bar Dortmund perhaps, have opted for true defend and counter football when facing the big three. They still lost more often than not but it’s what gave them the best shot and perhaps is the only choice.
We try something similar, but we are not as practiced at it- those others regularly deploy the same approach in their biggest matches domestically, or play generally in a way that only requires a few tweaks to set up like that- and have not built our squad with that football in mind.
It’s just…the reality of the situation. Those 3, perfectly positioned domestically to keep the great players coming and maintain themselves as footballing behemoths, have become phenomenal teams with a constant supply of phenomenal players in the last decade. They’ve put distance between themselves and us.
The normal way, probably the only way, to try deal with it is to play extremely defensively.
We have resisted abandoning- does it have to be so dramatic? Can you not work on two distinct styles, or three, four? Yes and no, but generally I believe you’re either committed to positive, pro-active attacking play or you’re something else- our attacking philosophy and it means we are not well suited to extreme defence.
If we’d had the luck over the years to avoid Bayern and Barca more we could surely have gone further in Europe, maybe gaining some extra confidence for meeting them later on. But of course we didn’t have that luck.
LikeLiked by 7 people
The old fart’s thoughts.
When our keeper lets in 5 goals and is our best player. When we make less than 300 passes and they make nearly 800. When our one goal comes from a missed penalty, an air shot and a touch of brilliance. When you think that that says quite enough for the old fart’s thoughts, then enough is definitely enough.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Rather like Barca at the Emirates last season Rich the Germans flicked the switch last night and in ten minutes dismantled our defence. Not lucky, not dependent on dubious refereeing decisions, just speed, accuracy of pass and putting the ball cleanly past a good keeper.
LikeLiked by 2 people
anicol nice try but we did let in 2 goals in 3 minutes, and 3 in 13, and as I also stated when we hold on for 15 to 20 minutes in games we often come back to score ourselves, as we did last night, but there was the collapse when we let in the second goal. 2 in 3, 3 in 12.
we have suffered big defeats to Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd, in recent years, all with the same sort of collapse as we had last night, and as stated its not just against the big teams that we wobble and let in 2 goals in double quick time, surely you remember Watford, only a couple of weeks ago, then a few weeks before that we seen it at Bournemouth, 2 in 5, a few weeks before that, earlier in the season ludogorets 2 in 3 minutes. so including last night that is 4 games we have let in 2 goals in 5 minutes or less, 3 of them with 2 goals in 3 minutes. I wrote on here near the end of last season, a list of games where the same sort of thing had happened. We wobble a bit too easily and a bit too often when we let in a goal. when we overcome the wobble we often get something out of the game,
LikeLike
So letting goals in a longer intervals would be the better approach ? I see what you are getting at now.
I had been working on the simplified not letting goals in format, or if you do scoring more goals than you let in approach.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t understand that your assertion that says our loss was down to the fact that we don’t get to face such quality every week and that other top guns in the premier league would suffer the same fate as we did last night. That’s a huge personal folly one which is tantamount to dipping oneself into a portmanteau of dellusion.
Not even Chelsea of this season but of the previous seasons certainly has the mental sharpness to cope with that occasion.
Also what kind of quality does Bayern play against every weekend in the bundesliga? Way weaker than what we face in the EPL.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I subjected myself to even greater self-criticism last night after I posted my “if only” analysis. Yet reality (‘facts”) kept getting in the way. Look at our great counter-attacking victories in the past two-three years:
– United in the FA cup
– City in the League
– Chelsea in the League.
Who was the great orchestrator from deep?
I will do the research and publish something.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Also what kind of quality does Bayern play against every weekend in the bundesliga? Way weaker than what we face in the EPL.”
Debatable I’d say. We face a more rugged, physical game, but quality wise I think the Bundesliga is ahead. Certainly from what I saw last night, and PSG on Tuesday, is no team in the PL anywhere near their level.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anicol
Yes. I wasn’t attributing what happened last night to luck, other than my widest definition, which includes the luck of them not hitting an amazing shot, or perfect cross perfect header,etc. Lovely touch to exploit our disarray, confident finish. The luck of burying at least one of our two good chances.
I don’t primarily view that stuff as lucky or unlucky- they were superb players relishing their task- but there’s an element of it.
My analytical abilities short-circuited after the second and the fuse box exploded for the third, so I’m not really in the best position to review anything after that.
Their quality was horribly clear, though.
LikeLiked by 2 people
One marvellous thing I have read again and again from almost every ‘expert’ concerns the first, in my view brilliant, goal from Arjen Robben.
The theme is basically “how on earth did Le Coq/Gibbs etc allow Robben to come inside and on to his left foot when any fule kno that he is deadly dangerous”.
Now correct me if I am wrong, and I am frequently, but at 33 years old Arjen Robben has been cutting inside from the right and blasting the ball with his left foot, and scoring goals since he first arrived on the scene at Eindhoven, at Chelsea, Madrid and for the past seven seasons in Germany. 124 goals in 238 games for Bayern suggest that, as a winger, he knows where the goal is and how to get the ball into the net. He has done the same thing for the Netherlands at Euros an World Cups every time he has appeared.
If it was so so simple as Bob the Blogger would have you believe you might have thought someone might have managed it previously ?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Odd thing is that the German newspapers were reporting today that that was the first time this season that Ancelotti team had really gone into their power. what was our part in that?
My bigger concern is that we have to go to a turd ground with a small club backed by William Randolph Hearst and the rest of Britain, who want to see the Hereford/Newcastle game over again and have us as Hack-fleisch. Last I saw was that we can only take 750 fans to that ground, while they will have four thousand or so. It be true? I still haven’t forgotten the York City experience, and all I can say to that is: Nein danke.
At this moment I could give ptang yang kipper bang about Wenger in, Wenger out or even Wenger shake it all about,(that will sort itself out) but I dont want our club losing to Sutton and those Todd Friel types at La Wank or other foxy news”I cant discuss so lets all f*cking shout!” type Z-list pundits carving up our club.If we lose those vultures will feed of it for years, as will all opposing fans, and clubs like the Middlesex Country Chicken XI.
(Hamlet to Ophelia: ” did you mean country matters?”)
Nein danke.
Banners at Sutton will only help Sutton not Arsenal.Arsenal comes first now.
Cheers A5, not a pleasant task to do the autopsy. Im with you on grouping together and seeing what can happen. But I hurt like Eddy,and understand his views too.
Heres to a unity in our fan base for Arsenal. and to thrash Sutton. And take each step from there. Cheers to Stew too, for the Lady Luck piece gestern.
It not over until its over.And then its the beginning.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Shotta, @ 11 : 08
What I am finding a little difficult to understand, is your perception that Arsenal are an inferior team without the undoubted skills of Cazorla, who is just one member of a skilful 11 man team.
In any event, Santi has undoubtedly become more injury prone with his advancing years, and at 32 years old, the passing of time is also leading inexorably to the sunset of his football career. Does that mean that we will remain an inferior team for the foreseeable future after his retirement?
I don’t think so – and that would be unacceptable for a top team, surely?
Santi has been, and I am sure still is, a very skilful and important member of the Arsenal team, when he is available, but he is only one individual, and good teams, indeed great teams, need all their skilful team members working seamlessly together, in order to perform better as a team than they do as individuals.
Logic tells us that a single skilful team member does not make a great team — however, it is also a truism that poor team members can never be part of a great team.
There is something more involved. To have a good team, let alone a great team, it requires someone with superb leadership skills – and that is over and above any technical skills they may have. So my question is, do Arsenal have a great leader? Is Santi known to have these great leadership skills? Maybe – maybe not.
As an example, the pivotal point in last night’s game came, it seems to me, was when Kozzer got injured and had to be subbed off. We lost his very important skills, of course, but we also lost his sterling leadership.
In his absence, did anyone else in our team come forward and adopt that essential leadership mantle? If not – did we miss leadership? Was that a major contributory cause for our 2nd half collapse?
I think we all know the answer to that, however painful it is to admit it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Why do people find it so difficult to say “they have a better team than we do”? Why are they so surprised at how it goes down? We’ve seen it with other sides who play us in the PL…they hold their own, look like they could score or actually win, a goal goes in against them, then another and they collapse and we roll them over. They knew they needed everything to be perfect to win. Once the tide turns, it floods. Why are people so reluctant to admit our players aren’t superhuman? And why don’t they support them through what is a difficult time for them? I wish I knew. Thanks, Andy, for doing both.
LikeLiked by 7 people
We’re lucky to have you on board Andrew, thanks.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I thought the home defeat against BBB had two important factors – one with which I don’t want to bore Andrew (ref was good last night!), the second was a shift by the players in that second half on the back of a eager crowd as AFC had had he better of BBB for 60 mins, they gambled a little by too much and essentially didn’t keep their discipline,
And if there’s a critique last night one or two on the pitch lost their’s (3rd goal in particular)
Shotts, Cazorla is a miss but we should also remember that this was one of the only forums to actually acknowledge and appreciate that the senior leaders in midfield and defence (strikers / forwards not the same for me) in the rebuilt squad were the three amigos Arteta, BFG, Cazorla and of course the outrageously brilliant and consistent Koscielny. Injury has stopped Rambo stepping up.
LikeLike
Mersons been training with Sutton!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Now see what you’ve done!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Agree with the points on Bayerns overall brilliance, and the fact they are just better.
But sadly, I fear something is wrong at the moment.
Bob Wilson, a man who must know some things within the club, if not all …not a man to seek headlines or court controversy has questioned the players. He has not named names, but the players in general. Interesting.
Whatever is, or isnt wrong, I really hope they put on a united front until the end of the season…and are seen to do so. If there are issues, they can wait until the summer
LikeLiked by 3 people
And Clatters’ last PL game was a win at the Emirates – how poetic
LikeLike
Hopefully, Clatts can persuade Mike Dean to join him
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ian Wrights been training with Sutton too!
Whose next Stewart Robson? RVP? Nasri? The ref for the game?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Bayern are a quality side. They are the de facto dominant side in their league, which allows them to build themselves up for the challenges of the CL without the kind of effort and desperation required by us. A style of play and refereeing which is also applied in Europe. They also just had a winter break not too long ago. All factors in what was always the more likely result.
And yet. and yet. We were in a game, and gradually building up steam. Until in addition to not having our best midfielder available, we lost our best defender.
However, that is no excuse for the way we collapsed. 2-1 was a stupid way to concede (and I think Ospina had a little blame attached to that one too) Ok. Still not a bad result. 3-1 with Gabriel being outfoxed by Lewa’s backheel. Alright. It happens. He just got in the game. Still a 2-0 win at home is not impossible, because we showed we could trouble them.
What followed was even worse though. No effort to get back into the game except of the headless chicken variety.
Now, the issue is that this sort of collapse is not uncommon for us. Even when the scoreline doesn’t read like it, it can be a mental collapse. Like with Barcelona, when we lost 2-0. We played really well, we had a gameplan and executed it well. Except that we missed some goal opportunities. And that led to us getting frustrated/overexcited and leaving too much space behind, and presto 1-0. Bad. A short while later, we give up a stupid penalty to get it to 2-0. Against Monaco. We conceded a stupid goal, and then compounded that stupidity by giving up another one.
There is, I am afraid, a pattern here.
Sorry to fill this blog with negativity. I am usually not so negative. In fact, I don’t think I am being negative right now. I just think we have a certain weakness under certain situations, which ails us more than most other big clubs. (Part of the reason for that is the ridiculous narrative always maintained about Arsenal. That kind of pressure is never exerted on other clubs)
I think yesterday showed that we are a long way off from the elite. If anything, the gap seems to be widening. If our aim is to get to that level, we need to figure out what to do, and take action towards it. Not a ‘blow it all up’ scenario, but as recently remarked here, Wenger keeps the ship on course. I think this performance (more than the result) suggests that we need a bit of a course correction.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Plenty of good stuff Shard – I think the common sense approach when we went 2-1 was to do the same as when we went 1-0 down and pul back, regroup and spend ten minutes calming the game down. That approach was surely more important as Kosc had just gone off. There was plenty of time left and as with their first goal we could have expected to regain our momentum. Instead we set off to grab an equaliser with predictably grim punishment within three minutes.
Fair bit of colouring of hindsight in my view there though.
LikeLike
As much as I want to remain positive, I can’t shake the fact that we were a disorganized mess for most of the game and had that penalty to thank for keeping us close. What makes it even more frustrating is the fact that Bayern were there for the taking. Anyone who has been keeping an eye on them knows they had been squeezing out tightly fought wins and draws for the last few months. Simply saying they were the better side is just a salve for our wounds and it flies in the face of their current form. Also, saying that we don’t face that sort of competition week in and week out is a bit strange considering we play in the most competitive league.
My verdict is this: Bayern outnumbered us in the midfield and we never adjusted for that. We let Alonso, Thiago and Vidal drop back and push forward at will with no one putting pressure on them. The players nor the manager sought to fix this problem as the game progressed. They kept us pinned in our own half for a good seventy minutes. Further, managers know that when they neutralize Ozil, we’re pretty much screwed. We let this persist far too long despite having Welbeck and Giroud as alternatives who could’ve given them headaches. All in all, it was a fucking shambles from one end of the pitch to the other.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well I am sure it does not make you feel any better Gains to have not been beaten by a better team. According go the Indy however Don Carlo thought it was the best performance he has seen since arriving in Munich.;
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/bayern-munich-arsenal-carlo-ancelotti-champions-league-ucl-a7582746.html
LikeLike
Odd co-incidence really – you reckoning we were a total fucking shambles and Ancelotti thinking his side had an outstanding performance.
I am saying nothing.
LikeLike
Hiya, Shard,
Long time no see — as the housewife said to the cod — one of your short comments caught my eye, and I was thankful it was not one of your specials as I would have nodded off, just like in the old days!! [lol]
I liked your summary of the game and your rationalisation as to what happened in the context of European football. You may or may not be correct — but I still think that Anicoll’s summary, repeated by me above, gets the message over succinctly, “individually and collectively, [their players] are/were superior to ours”. Sad but true.
Hope you are keeping well, and your leg is no longer bothering you! [I find it difficult to type without my emoji comforts – but I do not wish to be ostracised!] lol
LikeLike
Anicoll, isn’t it a coincidence that they look the best since Ancelotti has been there the very day we decide to play like a poor second division team? We were absolute shit, we don’t have to put a positive spin on this loss. They made us look like practice cones the way they passed it around us. No pressing, no marking and, worst of all, no clue.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Anicoll,
Whose is that gorgeous, one-eyed, shark toothed head?
LikeLiked by 1 person
So we decide to play like a Division 2 team, and were thrashed by a very poor Bayern side
As I say Gains that is not how I saw it. Certainly there was a period after the 2nd goal and for 10 minutes when we were slaughtered, and never recovered or looked like recovering from that.
I put down to the opposition being good, Robben, Costa, Lewandowski, Thiago, etc – but you reckon they are all pretty poor ?
Presumably then if we pull our socks up the tie at the Emirates should be pretty open.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Down tiger
LikeLike
I was as disappointed as anyone with yesterday’s result. But on reflection today I realised that Arsenal play a high risk game – when it comes off the reward is that we get some of the most beautiful football seen in this country. However, when it does not, we risk heavy and embarrassing defeats like that one. To follow Arsene’s Arsenal you have to be prepared to take the roller coaster ride. The lower risk option is out there for those who want it and I think that lies at the heart of the WOB mentality
LikeLiked by 3 people
I think thats Pauline Merson?
LikeLike
I didn’t say Bayern were poor. They didn’t have to play out of their skin to beat us the way they did. We had glaring weaknesses and they exploited them one by one. The way they passed it around us as if we were statues was incredible.
LikeLike
Anicoll, they passed it around us all game. Their first goal was an example of how we played. Robben had a year and a half in front of our penalty area to pick a corner and score. Alexis was going insane shouting at his teammates to press, but no one got the hint. Even the Ox had a go at Ozil for not putting pressure on the Bayern midfielder in his vicinity. We were shit. We can admit that and not descend into WOB territory.
LikeLike
Agree, we play a very high risk game.
Perhaps thats why some , including myself view Cazorla as so important. His overall mastery of this type of game maybe convinces others they too can play it, yet when he is not around, is it possible they lack the confidence for this game that the manager clearly wants them playing?
Dont have the stats, but some look lesser players without Caz….would put Ozil, Coq and probably even Ramsey amongst them.
IF Wenger stays, I believe he is going to have to get Caz back, or a similar player, or even alter his game plan, without such a player, they might not be able to play Wengerball….certainly against the best teams. Think Cesc had a similar effect on the team.
We will read all sorts of behind the scenes theories in coming weeks, but they first and foremost look like a team lacking confidence in their style of play
LikeLike
Gains, Passenal, George, Fins, AndyNic: Did you recall this same type of post mortem at ACLF some years ago when we were embarrassed by a superior Barca? They took Cesc out of the game and hammered us. If I recall the consensus by Bob the Blogger was we were too attacking and naive and Arsene must St up more defensively etc. Didn’t we set up as more counter attacking team last night. I keep observing over the years if you don’t have the quality to match Bayern when they are playing well you will be hammered.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It looked a sensible, pragmatic team last night. Ox in for Theo to improve ball retention. Sanchez up front on his own. Xhaka has plenty of experience of German football and the Allianz. I find it very very difficult to believe that if we had decided to play two banks of five and try to stifle Bayern for 90 minutes that the result would have been any different.
LikeLike