QUOTE(Wan @ Aug 30 2009, 03:58 PM)
AC Milan is crap. Now without Kaka, they're crapper than ever. But Inter does look good, but they're nothing special IMO. Good midfield they may have, but last season couldn't do a thing against us.
QUOTE(Tak3shi)
- No creativity from midfield.
- No final pass.
- Hesitant when in front of Goal.
- Lost possession one too many times due to misplaced passes.
- No chemistry between players, often missing each others runs and passes.
- Very little shots on goal.
- Dozed of the last 5 minutes of the game in extra time. (Berbatov was crap, he didn't even play like he wanted to be on the pitch, so damn lazy) The goal ruled offside from Van Persie was because one of our players was sleeping when the ball was passed to him, that could have cost us 2 points!
- Arsenal played with more intent of getting the win.
- Bad tactics, to play on the flanks when our right winger isn't up to par, both their fullbacks did a good job against our wingers.
- Giggs went missing, lost possession way too many times, especially on crucial moments i would rate him a 4 if not for his "assist" with the Diaby goal.
Positives
- Broke up possession.
- Defended well.
- Quick counter attacking (passes in the final 3rd let us down, together with the 1st touch and hesitant attitude of some players)
- Brown did a decent job considering he hasn't played in a while.
- Fletcher did well, except for the missed opportunity, but he is not RVN so he's forgiven for that.
We won this time due to the mistakes from their keeper and the defender. Even in the games in Wigan, i hope we start to gel or we'll be in trouble real soon.
Don't expect Champion league victory this season, i'd be contented if we retained the league.
Both side misplace passes. It was that kind of a game with both sides looking to cancel each other out. But Giggs was frustrating in the first half at least. He had a lot of good chances to create something but always found a way to mess them up.
We had a lot of final pass in the end, but one way or another, we mess them up at crucial times. And in the first half if it wasn't for Giggs somehow messing them up, we would have a lot.
It's only 5 games into the season, so you would expect them not to be at their best yet in terms of team play.
Arsenal played with more intent of getting the win? What kind of bull is that. We both wanted to win the match... we're the one who got the 2nd goal, and of course they would try their best to get their own 2nd goal so they won't lose. They mess up, just like we did when we should have got the 3rd goal..
Bad tactics? It was perfect to counter Arsenal with their movement. As shown in the past that formation is effective for the big games although it doesn't always look pretty on the eye. What do you suggest then? We play 442 with the same player on the right wing? Same thing..
As for our creativity, this is the midfield for the last few seasons which supported our attacks to great effect. You've been banging on and on about it, but name me again who started in midfield last few seasons? It's not about looking back at the past, but if we are so crap, we wouldn't have managed to score so many goals or even be as successful as we did, with or without Ronaldo.
Last few seasons we had Ronaldo, who could score with either foot, head, had great finishing ability, freekicks, opened up play by drawing defenders to him, outside shot, had great chemistry for the link up plays, could hold the ball.
And even with him we got outplayed in the Champions League, now after having lost our most influential player, replace by one with only 1/2 of his abilities.
Unlike you i'm not bias, all of them were chasing us all over the pitch, harrying our def/mid/att. Some of our players were too busy ball watching to bother helping out, i could say almost all of the Arsenal players were closing down the entire pitch, look at the number of interceptions they got compared to us, we could not hold the ball for even 2seconds before they come and double team us. Whereas, they had the ball some of our players were often watching and waiting for it.
I'm not saying we played that badly but if we wanted to win it was about 8/10 while arsenal was about 9/10.
Btw, i'm impressed with the few times valencia and nani backtracked to help defend.
This post has been edited by Tak3shi: Aug 30 2009, 04:12 PM