Neil Banfield will be able to call upon some notable first-team experience this evening, after Arsène Wenger allowed four players to drop into the second string for tonight’s Premier Reserve League clash with Bolton.
Wenger has given permission for summer signings Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Carl Jenkinson to feature, after they were both left out of the squad for games against Swansea and Borussia Dortmund. The pair are joined by Francis Coquelin and Ryo Miyaichi, both of whom are short of fitness.
Coquelin is yet to play 90 minutes since returning to Arsenal from a loan spell with Lorient, but started the 8-2 defeat to Manchester United and was a late substitute against Swansea at the weekend.
Francis is joined by 18-year-old Miyaichi, who injured his groin on Reserve team duty at Wigan last time out. He was expected to return to training last week, but suffered a set back and only re-joined the squad yesterday. The lineup is as follows:
ARSENAL: Martínez; Jenkinson, Miquel, Boateng, Meade; Coquelin, Aneke; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Özyakup, Miyaichi; Watt.
A selection of scouts are expected, as Arsenal seek to move out a selection of youngsters, now the loan window has opened.
why is Coquelin in here he should be around the 1st team squard ! don’t get me wrong i rate frimpong highly but i think Coquelin is abetter player better technique, better passing his just better all rounded player than frimpong apart from strength were i think frimpong will bully midfielders in this league !!
So far I think better suited to Premiership is Frimpong. And I think Frimmy lacks only experience and cool head. So as I believed Frimmy has a chance to make it I believe it now too and can have a go at Jamie who said otherwise! lol
It’s good for everyone involved and I hope it will be in benefit of the club at first.
Frimpong and Song are a combination that we need to deploy in midfield to handle the premiership. Our past success was based on having two strong combative midfielders (e.g. Viera + Parlour, Viera + Petit). In combination with our centre backs, we would have a solid block of four players guarding our rear, breaking up play and supplying our attacking players. They could also add the occasional muscular drive forward when faced with the usual 10-man defence as long as one hangs back as cover.
This would also allow 6 players, including our full backs, to focus on attack and time to drop back when we lose the ball.
Coquelin is one of my favourite young players. He is very intelligent, extremely brave and technically sound. He just needs to gain a bit of physical power to be properly effective in the PL. Chucks is a man who I think is ready to step up…
Notable first team experience?! Yeah right!
He means first team experience relative to the rest of the reserve squad.
jamie.why coqlin was not taken to dortmund.we are short in midfield already
OC, Watt and Miyaichi are the front three? And Ozyakup is the playing the “cesc role”?
No he wasn’t, he’s playing the same role that Wilshere did for 1st team last season.
the disliker your either in denial or you haven’t got aclue about arsenal players
Coquelin has not had much pre-season and he needs to build up his fitness. You obviously do not know about your Arsenal players
coquelin is as fit as anyone .actually he has barelly any break this summer because he was away on internatinal duty.he would extended break if both song and frim werent suspended last time.
Oh no Lordgunner, VanDaManPersie just said it, le Coq is short in fitness cause was on u-20 WC and missed the pre-season, get your facts right.
That is some reserve team. Should get a result with that first XI.
Hi Jamie, what’s happened to the loanees watch? It used to be better than the Arsenal website loanee watch.
Rayyan I think he is entitled to his own opinion..
who said anything about fitness my arguement was that coqelin is better than frimpong and he should be ahead of frimpong !!
They are different players – rate both of them.
Frimpong is more in the Song mould, with Coquelin in the flamini utility role.
Coquelin will be the only cover when song and frimpong travel to africa in Jan – so he isn’t going anywhere on loan this year.
now i can see the future is bright for arsenal.weldone jamie what keep so o long.almost 2weaks.gunnes till i diemise
Rayann
I don’t think you know the players better than Arsene Wenger does. He trains with them all day and spends time with them in the dressing room. He takes Frimpong because that’s how he sees the boy.
Frimpong just needs to improve his passing and he’ll be the Vieira-lite we’ve been missing. He’ll replace Song in a year if Song don’t improve his game by concentrating on DM duties instead of wanting to play like Messy.
please read my comments again i said i rate frimpong highly but i think coquelin is better all rounded player did not say i know more than wenger but in my opinion MY Opinion everyone is entittled to there opinion ! wenger is no GOD he managed to get squillachi !!
Your right. Wenger made a mistake there. The problem is that Squillaci was a french international who started at centerback for Sevilla. Before that he started for a Monaco team that made the finals of the Champions League. He is definitely not athletic enough for our team but he didn’t pay big money for him and it was a coin flip.
Ryann IMO i thnk ur opinion is wrong…we hv enuf ‘passers’ already, bt frimpong provides wht we ar lakn at d moment- defnsv cover, stamina, brute force n aggresn. He’l mk song sit up or sit out!
Frimpong seems like a keeper. He needs to rein in his aggression but otherwise he is going to give us the edge we need. I think with Song, Coquelin and Frimpong we are strong and athletic in the center of the pitch. Ramsey, Wilshere, Lansbury and Arteta will be a good midfield moving forward. I think this lineup works if Park and Gervinho are as good as advertised upfront with RVP, Arshavin, Theo and Chamakh. A lot of this depends on the young talent improving but apparently we can’t compete with the sugar daddies anymore.
Rayyan,
Wenger chose Frimpong because we only need 18 players for a champions league game. Hence it unnecessary to bring 3 DM.
Is it possible to have the live streaming link of the game please?
That’s a hell of a reserve team.
Where’s Afobe?
Afobe is injured.
Good reserve team,,,,hope they will win
Just heard that Lansbury has signed a new contract for The Arsenal. Great news. I reckon if we can squeeze a top 4 finish this season we will be in a good place come next year. Especially with so many of our youngsters getting more playing time sooner than expected.
Song was awesome today as was frimpong when he came on. Bit confused why benyoun stayed on the pitch, a few nice touches and nothing else, should have kept walcott on and subbed frimpong on for him. THe second half was quite amusing because 3/4 years ago we use to pin teams back so they can’t get out of their half, now it’s being done to us. How awesome would a combo of goetze and wilshere be – like xavi and iniesta perhaps.
Hmmm.. if only little Andrei had Benayoun’s work ethic..
Reserve game summary….
http://www.arsenal.com/match-menu/3424215/reserves/bolton-res-v-arsenal-res?tab=report
Why were we not in for Kagawa this summer? The guy is superb. He was unbelievably good last season. The Japanese Iniesta. Hummels and Subotic would absolutely walk into our backline too. Gotze is ridiculously good as well, obviously. A point is a good result in the end, though it’s annoying to lose it to a one in a million goal 2 minutes from time.
why people complain JS wasnt writing anything for few week .maybe he was away in holidays or have a family break.he is writtting this fantastic blog on his free time and dont get pay for it so stop moaning
Of course he gets paid for it. That’s why there’s ads.
the adds help him paying for this site but i really doubt this is paying for his living.
I’ve been very impressed by Coquelin in his appearances, shows calmness and good passing, but I think the young lad deserves a break after a long summer. Physically, Frimpong is ahead of him, but I think Coquelin should have a future.
On a side note, does anyone know how long an extension Lansbury signed?
@morrow…. Song had an awful first half, he kept losing the ball all over the pitch and didn’t contribute much. He upped his game in the second half though making some vital interceptions.
Yossi was flaky, some good touches but never had a real impact in the game. Walcott was anonymous apart from a sweet through ball to rvp and gervinho kept running into a wall of yellow shirts. I know mertesacker lacks pace but regardless some of his distribution was poor. I can see why hummels is keeping him out of the national team.
The Arsenal have a long way to go from here. Getting vermaelen and jack is crucial to our hopes in all comps.
Great post mate, agree with everything you’ve said there.
75 selection is kept out of the selection.the crappy cahill wish he was kept out of the english national team too like mert.hummel and him are playing together in selection the last few years .they are number one and two at cb position
i disagree with u krunchyb, they might not have played to the level of arsenal we used to know but i can tell u they not far from there. any other team in our shoe would have lost. Dortmund were not German champion by stroke of luck.
good result and grit! amazingly d 1st team is beginning to show some grit too. goals conceded are quite u know somehow faultless but could also be handled but all the same i feel a different orientation about the 1st team. fingers crossed. then more importantly J. where have u been? u,ve been quiet for like 3weeks hope no probs. love form Nigeria!
@iyke: several of the Arsenal players were far from their best. And if they are not far off then I would be worried because if we performed like that against a team that can finish clinically we would have lost resoundingly.
Dortmund are solid throughout the team except upfront. They spurned several good chances and we punished them for their profligacy.
Arsenal defended well as a unit, we rode our luck and spilt some blood along the way. Personally, I loved Arteta’s commitment in that header vs Hummels; don’t think Nasri would have done that!
And RE your point about Dortmund being german champions…I wouldn’t concentrate on that too much. Yes they had an exceptional season last season but how many different German champions have we had in the last few years?
I just feel that Arsenal need to play with a bit more pace and energy. Look at all the teams who are scoring goals freely: Man Utd, Man City, Germany…fast,direct, attacking football with plenty of pace down the flanks and plenty of midfield runners.
I know we bought a few players this window just gone but I hope we invest again come January, I reckon one quality signing in January could seal the top 4 deal.
Next year we will have Lansbury. You all think he will play at AM or CM?
Just see the picture of Reserve Team, http://www.arsenal.com/reserves-youth/players
The say Hayden is 185cm tall, so Bunjaku ~ Hayden, good height, I think.
Last night was a great point!
I was actually really impresses with the back 6! Sczesny – song! Song was the best player for us IMO, did great defensive work, koscielny was excellent and it was one of the best I’ve seen Gibbs play defensively!
Going forward I still think we need a striker who runs in behind bur I was definately impressed with dortmunds defensive midfielders! They kept gervinho and Walcott quiet!
In all I still think we lack a bit of confidence going forward BUT am really impressed with the improved workrate and the defensive work! It’s coming along! There’s a long way to go but confidence will come and with that so will the fluency!
we should probably talk about the youth on this blog but I kinda disagree with you about Song. He was better in the second half but I thought he gave the ball away too much to be our MOTM. Agree with you about Kosi – had a great game. We are getting there.
I was impressed by Hummels for Dortmund. Very comfortable on the ball, always tried to go forward and create opportunities as Vermaelan does for us (when fit).
Hummels and Verminator combo would have been nice…
Mertesacker seems a little shy about attacking the longballs, wish he was a bit more aggresive in those situations… Hopefully that will improve!
Hummels is superb. He’s the guy who’s gonna keep Mertesacker out of the Germany team (and the excellent Howedes). Mertesacker seems to have Peter Crouch syndrome, not actually very good in the air for someone of his size. He was losing headers to Lewandowski despite being about 6 inches taller.
mertesacker being kept out of germany team for a while could be a great thing for arsenal as far as injuries and tiredness are concerned.
he’s slow but has his own style of play and will be great for us once he adapts.
yes i also wish cameroon fails to qualify for the african cup so we can keep song.
cameroon is alraedy out of the AFC so song is staying
careful what some of you wish for regarding coquelin. i reckon he is the next pet project for wenger with him being french and all.
mark my words we’ll be moaning about him a la denilson style in the next few years as wenger persists with an absolute sub-standard player.
You haven’t got the slightest clue what you’re talking about. Absolute tosh.
Does anyone know where Gavin Hoyte and Eastman have gone?
I can’t say I care, not even enough to wikipedia them. Neither of them are anywhere near good enough for us and never will be.
I still think that it would be better for them to gain more experience amongst the reserves.
LMAO. We are making a joke of ourselves. From selling our star on the cheap to not being prepared for losing our 2 best players. Then when Wenger keeps saying we are strong financially yet we get 60 million pounds for Fabregas and Nasri and we pile in the average signings. Benayoun a Chelsea back up on loan being the most embarrassing. Still pretending like we have a top team is a joke. The only positive I can take out of any of this is that we landed AOC but then again he after a great game for the England u21s, he is dropped for us. I had faith that we were always building for greatness but after this summer, I feel we are being tricked. Then at least we get to watch Szczesny grow before he is sold off as soon as he hits his prime and replaced by the back up keeper.
Someone is living in denial.
what is really wrong with our team? we had no business losing 2days game and here we are again. honestly am pissed.
I’m off to throw myself in front of a train. Bye.
Blackburn 3 attempts on target, 4 goals. Rofl. We’re a complete laughing stock. Utterly embarrassing.
Djourou–Mertesacker–Koscielny–Santos. What a horrible backline. I don’t trust any of them.
How bad will the team actually have to do before drastic measures are taken? Have a feeling this season i will find out…
Defender was shocking but what am so annoyed with is gervinho when he should of passed to he captin van persie to make it 3-1 but no he shoots and messes it up… I feel another adebayor moment pass the ball to bentdner 3-1 title ours until we fix up the defending and the right passes were going no where……
Massive massive job to get it right Wenger after tonight show. Yay wait for the new team players to gel and know each other… great and we ship goals like nobody business. We’ll be out of Top 4 this season very soon. Sad but very true.
Clearly the depth of quality shows as an off-form and lack of confidence DJ came on for the injury Sagna and really why why they cannot defend? I am lost for words. I meant the 2 own goals I can’t fathom why Arsenal defensive can be lost so badly in one match and perform so majestically in another match…..
A quality defensive coach might be able to installed the glaring problems much better than Pat Rice and company did for years…..Shit!!
More quality players must be brought in this January ’12 transfer and sort out the attack and defensive then we might a gleam of hope for Arsenal club. Right now we saw the media is on a crusade to make sure Wenger get sack from the job, and for just this once the thought of our beloved Arsene might see the last of him after this season. He had a massive massive work to get the attack and especially defensive sort out this few weeks….End of rant
Oh before I forget…. The lack of depth shows in the defensive when I saw Kos, Mets, Song, Sagna (no natural covers for him) playing after that energy snapped game in BVB. The right & left back position had itself not having enough quality covers let alone getting an off-form and confidence of DJ to deputise in Right-Back….This happen over the years when we demand too much from the same players load. If DJ form continues to erode it makes me thought we might had trouble to gain the trust and confidence of the fans and the manager. Do we need to buy another replacement and if indeed we brought Gary Cahill is he good enough to handle the Arsenal system? Maybe the toughness, and overall much better defensive Mats Hummels is a better fitted player then Matesacker I sugges IMO.
lots of positive from the attacking side but we still lack the better link up player with RVP which the excellence Jack Wilshere can provide that, which Arteta had provided to certain way. For only reasons known to Wenger, Ramsey was not thrust to do the task probably due to his lack of experiences and natural playing style to keep the ball moving and not the type to thread the killing pass to RVP and the attackers. I’m not saying he could not do it but his games is still developing still. Wilshere is showing that last season with his last third assists but without much goals due to his experiences. Wilshere and Ramsey goals will come in due time.
Rosicky form,inconsistent,confidence gave us lack of depth to depend on whereas the unfortunate injuries of Diaby can perhaps help to relieved some pressure on the link up or drive through to goals.
Regardless I hope to see another 2 more quality creative attacker players come in to help in the depth and provide healthy competitions to the team.
Right now our strikers seems no problems after all.
I felt the players Wenger brought in the rush was not all to convincing really Arsenal qualities we need. Benayoun? Hope its just a year loan. Arteta just can hope he turns out the real bargain but we all knew he is way down the list of Wenger.
I felt since the FPP rules cannot cause the FIFA corrupted and jokers to take any actions on the violated tempted money Man Shitty. Can Arsenal board and the 2 major share owners start to give financial back up to allow more cash injections to the squad. We are falling behind to get the quality signings we wanted due to the competitions from the rich daddy clubs.
Young Guns going down the pan a bit :(
I feel Gervinho doesn’t relies what a shit position we are in and how hard it is to score goals in PL. It was an easy goal for rvp…. but one mistakes is nothing compare to what I see in the highlights. The defending needs to be a lot better. Santos was the reason twice the goals for staying down while everyone was 2 meters up. But is was an offside goal. The last one was a penalty too. I wish walcott stood his ground let the keeper take him cus it was so obvious and clear penalty.
I missed the match so I will have to come back when I watched it. But what a fucking defence. seriously.
I blame the coaching staff for this as players who has been here for years still struggle with defending. I mean why don’t we sort that out once and for all when it happens for years. The best teams knows how to defend too. Great players with vision should know how to defend.
Time to bring in the likes of Keown to sort the defence out! I’d add hom as an assistant manager so that the ones making mistakes game after game are confronted with that as they seem cleuless on how to defend properly…
@ Rob …. Seems everyone call for Keown to the defensive coach…. Is really easy to call for but the problem is probably more of the mix of …. players personality + defensive positional + mental approach to game.
.mental approach (serious for 90 mins)
.position (poor positional which probably a good defensive coach can rectify)
.personality (communication which they don’t and raise up issue to protest if the offside was not call)
Frankly it needs practise on the Colney training field…..
Just get this in prespective:
Arsenal’s ineffectiveness, in my opinion, was simply a reflection of the players unfamiliarity with each other and Arsenal’s tactics as much as anything else. Remember, this Dortmund team basically only lost one significant player from last year, Sahin. They’ve had a season to understand their roles within Dortmund’s defensive structure. Arsenal had three players who’ve been with the team a week and a fourth for a month. Unfamiliarity with their roles and with each other caused the tempo of the passing in midfield to slow down to the point to where it was never going to beat a side as talented and well drilled as Dortmund. As for going over the top, I’m sure Mertesacker, as the new guy, was a little inhibited to do so. It’s an area which TV5 would have helped immensely because he seems to have the best passing range of the defenders, although Koz has recently impressed in that department.
I’m sure as these players bed into the team, they’ll show the quality necessary to nullify pressure. The return of players like Jack, Rosicky and Diaby would help in that area too. My gut feeling is that Dortmund won’t be able to push us back so easily in the return match.
You can’t blame it on the players not being “familiar” with each other. It’s been the same crap for years. Personnel has changed all the time but the outcome has remained the same- that outcome being defensive incompetence. There’s a fundamental and deep lying problem there. I reckon you could put Franz Beckenbauer in our backline and we’d still look vulnerable.
Oh just used Dortmund game as an example only
In Blackburn game it was the usual set-pieces, get winger to the bye-line and cross to see panic in the rear rank, that Wenger and its coaching staff lost to address defending aspects in English games.
Made no mistakes Rosicky,Song,RVP,
Arteta,Wilshere are all technical players and are capable to pass arounD in speed when the whole team in sync.
Wenger is an intelligence manager and hope he can sort out with probably employing Martin Keown like to help ease his burden on teaching the English aspects of defending. I might be wrong or slant for saying so…Thanks
Former Arsenal and England defender Kenny Sansom believes Wenger should promote youth team coach and former Gunners centre-half Steve Bould to first-team duties.
“It is clear there is a problem defensively at Arsenal and that is going to cause more problems because opponents are going to try to expose that,” Sansom said. “You have to teach the defenders how to talk to each other. Communication is massive, especially for the back four and goalkeeper.
“For me Stevie Bould was as good as Tony Adams as a player. He was very under-rated but Stevie should go in there two days a week and work with that back four on positioning, shape, communication so you know exactly where you are for 90 minutes and then you will have done your job.
I’d to agreed with him on this aspects and frankly we can hope for the most Top 4 finish after such much ill manner issues.
its not only the back four. why do everyone blame the back four always. Its the wingers and midfielders and even our strikers who needs to learn how to defend as a team. Our back four can be brilliant in 90 min but when the shot keeps coming and the marking doesn’t work in the wings the crosses and the final ball will come eventually. Steave bould can teach the back four but he cannot teach the whole team. We need a guy who can tech how to press and defend as a team. Mourinho and Guardiola knows that.
We can’t rely on some players to defend like Song. He is a great DM but he can’t stop every single ball. Arshavin needs some serious coaching how to defend as a team and how to defend in general.
Totally agree! I have voiced the same opinion. Pat Rice is from the 70’s and is simply Wenger’s lapdog. Bouldy is doing a fantastic job with the kids but is wasted there. He is a wily old campaigner who was a class act that had a devilish streak about him, just the sort of attributes our defenders need.
What a presence he would be in the changing room, around the training ground and on the touch line and although by all accounts he is a nice character, he could also put a rocket up a few backsides when required.
Paul Davis should be running the youth team. Another brilliant player and character with a bit of an edge to him which is just the sort of wining mentality our young players need for the ruthless World of professional football.
I don’t get it. We looked so good defensively against Dortmund, and then it all goes to shit against…Blackburn??? I know it was set-pieces that undid us but still, they scored from open play twice!!! I still don’t know what to think. I thought that even though we have injuries back there to Vermaelen, we were pretty well sorted back there based on the display against Borussia, but I was wrong. We were solid and we defended as a whole against Dortmund, so I know we are capable of it. We just have to do it every match. Arshavin is hopeless defending. As for the strikers, they’re not great, but I see Van Persie running trying to close his marker down at least sometimes. Arshavin is playing as a winger and he doesn’t do this enough. It’s one thing to be a striker and not do it, but essentially a wide-midfield player not to??? Inexcusable. I have no idea why Arsene benched Theo for him. We were better attacking-wise as soon as Walcott came in for Andrey. And I’m tired of the excuse that Arshavin is being played out of position…he’s lucky he’s being played at bloody all!!!!!!!! He should be ashamed of himself. It’s not all his fault but he’s played two years out wide for us and he still doesn’t know how to defend. I don’t care if it curbs some of his attacking attributes to defend. If he wants to be successful out there, he’s gotta learn to stay back or out wide at times and stay with his man instead of cutting in or not tracking back. He doesn’t have to be an extra left back, NO, but he has to defend and be in position at least SOME of the time!!! He was doing better, but he was awful yesterday defensively. If he reallllllllllly doesn’t want to play out there, he should ask to be transfer listed or to play a different position. I’m sick of seeing him be a liability to our club. I am not putting the loss soley on his shoulders!!! The back 4 were terrible. Especially Santos, Mertesacker and Djourou. I forget if Koscielny was at fault for any of the goals besides his own goal, but none of them played well. But they need some more protection from the likes of Andrey, as well as others.
Spot on Jom. It’s not about individuals, we have to learn to defend as a team. Although would we be better with Vermaelen-Cahill? Absolutely.
@ Jom,Milo,Adam…..The thing I most wanted to voice out was Wenger never seems be flexible to adapt his tactics much in some games as well as getting the fundamental of the team defending right which I suggested in the earlier comment of Steve Bould involvement. I love Arsenal which hurts me even more when I see the unit disintegrated but I really hope Wenger get to sort out those shit real soon not because the players are shit but rather the fundamental committed due to players and coaches errors.
Arshavin as most agreed a luxury player to have for attacking half and he can be guilty disappearing in matches and especially by and large lazy to put in effort to defend in most matches.Why? It could be Arsene instructions as it seems most likely…..Oh well I’ll go to that part in a short while.
Fully agreed we need to defend as a unit which Barcelona did and recent match with BVB shown they press in pack to gain their lose possession.
We employ high strategy pressing throughout the Backburn 4-3 loss match with a lack of fundamental pressing.
…My point is Arsenal pressing approach is to only think one step ahead to close down the ball holder but few players cutting off his options. The whole point is to force opposition to make quick decisions and force errors out of them, so that you can win back possession. It’s really puzzle me how players at such a big club as Arsenal don’t understand that simple concept.
Get quality players are equally important for good technical play but the fundamental to it must be correct. Cahill the best in the business right now to defend and organise the backline to front….I doubt so but he really can be a potential in the future.
Oh yay Arshavin none existence in defending in those matches might be lack of due to laziness as well as Wenger existence to place him in the attacking front only so the whole setup are fundamental wrong IMO.
Another issue is right now our midfield is nor functional properly. The current new 1-2 midfield (Song as the usual defensive midfielder, Ramsey/Arteta in the take up role of attacking play which Wilshere/Fabregas as most effective last season in the attacking base) continues to cause a headache in the middle & directly causes problems with all other positions as well. Both central midfield players step their toes by constantly run into each other zones. What players like Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere need is a point of reference link between their distributive nature and our offensive line. But it puzzle me when Aaron Ramsey wasn’t fully utilized to make offensive moves and decisions which he had the freedom to those in his Wales international matches. He was forced into side and back passes from his deep position against his natural over compensate play. Wenger tactical fault? I agreed IMO.
By honest true views are Wenger had not trusted Ramsey in his role play which cause the unbalance in the team. Yes I agreed with Adam we cannot entirely put the blame on the the defensive line.
Beyond tactics the whole team need to regain their loss confidence real soon which is contagious by having Wenger getting his tactics right in different games & utilized the player properly the their strength.
Something is definately wrong. Mertesacker aint so great as everyone said and now lost his place in German team. Gibbs has started playing like Cliche and coming inside instead of staying out wide at the back.
Kos is all over the place at times but other times brilliant. Santos looked way out of tune. The funny thing is that Cliche is doing great at Citeh and Traore is playing outbof his skin for QPR. We need a defensive coach – now!
And bloody Ade is banging in the goals for spuds. 17th in the table and no sign of improving.
The only people who were saying Mertesacker is great are people who haven’t watched him for last two years. Bremen have gone from conceding 3 a game with him last year to now being right up near the top of the table without him. Naldo, who’s just come back from injury is better than him imo and a better fit for us. Although understandable that we’d be wary of his fitness.
I knew Clichy would come good at City. As much stick as he started to get from Arsenal fans, if he can get his form back he’s still a top left back. And he’s still what, 25/26? Traore is pants. “Playing out of his skin”? I saw him play on his debut and he was average. And he got injured, has he even played again since then?
Can’t stand the guy but Adebayor is such a good player. Quality striker. I wish he’d gone abroad, I really don’t want him at Spurs. You know he’ll absolutely without doubt score against us when we play them.