Koscielny – Don’t just blame the defence for Arsenal defeats!
The Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny has improved incredibly this season but has had his defensive partners changed, practically weekly, as injuries and suspensions have played havoc with the Gunners back line.
But the French international says that it is too easy to simply blame injuries and the defence for Arsenal recent bad results, and says that surely the team should be defending as well as attacking with every player on the field.
“We’ve lost a lot of players and haven’t had any real full-backs fit, so it has certainly been difficult,” Koscielny said.
“They’re important to us at both ends of the pitch, but several players have come in and they’ve given all they have. Regardless of that, we know we can do much better defensively.
“It’s not just about the back four – we need to defend together, as a team, and that makes the defenders’ jobs easier too. It also helps our attackers if we win the ball in the opposition half, so we need to work hard in all areas.”
Today of all days the team needs to work as a solid unit, especially as Man Utd are set to crowd the midfield to try and stop Arsenal playing their passing game but, as Wenger said: “Yes they have sometimes had a very compact midfield to kill our passing game and get us on the counter-attack,”
“They do that very well and sometimes it works for them. However last year we beat them 1-0 in a convincing way.
“As ever,” he concluded. “It just depends on how well we play on the day.”
It certainly does, Arsene, and we hope Arsenal play a lot better than they have for the last couple of weeks…
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Messi?
at the end of the day none of those players will sign for us in this window, as much as I would love them to
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Not blaming arshavin. Wenger to blame. Lost the plot
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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Out of tune?. Like or Dislike:
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Just to get things straight I am not saying we should not boo Arshavin because he is brilliant.
Boo the manager for putting him on in the first place.
If the fact that arshavin is useless can only be seen by the fans and not by the manager then wenger deserves the criticism not the player for coming on because his manager told him to
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^thank you. Imagine you come on as a substitute to the whole stadium booing? Imagine touching the ball and getting booed by your own fans. I know these guys make a lot of money but thats because of the over commercialization of the sport, the psychological effect of the home stadium booing their own player for coming onto the field is a big one. How can you expect a player to perform
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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lets face it arshavin isnt a good defender, yes he jumped at the fake cross but he made a decent recovery and followed valencia all the way into the box (which is why valencia wasnt able to take a shot and was forced to pass to welbeck). We had 4 guys in the box who were just watching the passes. As I said I think its unfair to boo the player, even if he is shit. If we have a player that is not good enough for this team then it is the manager’s fault for keeping him. Simple as that, I don’t like blaming the coach but his decision to start djourou and sub oxlade was a face palm.
But it says a lot of the fans that were booing arshavin when he was touching the ball (i kno when the boos happened at the sub it was because of the decision to change), even if his performances have been terrible lately. What happens if van persie stops scoring? Do we boo him as well?
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Great clear at the goal by Mertesacker. He play great tonight.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Just to get things straight I am not saying we should not boo Arshavin because he is brilliant, because on the contrary he isn’t.
Boo the manager for putting him on in the first place.
If the fact that arshavin is useless can only be seen by the fans and not by the manager then wenger deserves the criticism, not the player for coming on because his manager told him to
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It was wengers fault the ox was xhausted and signalled to the bench twice to ccome off
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Arsene need gud midfielder at the moment. It is funny 4 a man to lie 2 himself. Arsene Wenger is telling the fan that a 2yrs boy can wrestle 20 yrs old man. As an economist, u dont sale a refine product & buy unrefine/raw one 4 immediate use & xpect the same reesult. Couch should nt respect any individual & cos million pple pain. Pls sel djoro, arshavin, denilson. Chamach, almunian, & dat guy with no 31 & buy gud players. No brother in business. If some players re bribing u to field them pls tel us to stop worrying our head. Always complaining that our players went to injury. Y Alex is nt complaining abt lost of prayers. Pls AW we re tired
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Arshavin shouldnt have replaced Ox, anyone can see that, but too boo Arshavin when he came on, how the fudge can you expect Arshavin to get his confidence back with HIS OWN TEAM supporters booing him? A true Gooner would never boo another GUnner, well Denilsons an exeption…
also KOSCIELNY, MERT AND YENARIS WERE BRILLIANT.
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DEFENCE WAS GOOD APART FROM DJOUROU WHO HAS NEVER BEEN GOOD…
YENARIS SHOULD PLAY RITE BACK UNTIL SAGNA CUMS BACK HE LOOKED GOOD MUCH BETTER THAN DJOUROU AND JENKINSON ASWELL
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No one bood arshavin,every 1 boo when they saw oxo was geting substitute.wenger lost the plot
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problem was not defense, team mentality that has forced the equalizer goal more!
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all of you listen wenger had no choice the ox pointed to his knee twice and was exhausted and signalledto the bench to take him off we already have enough injuries as it is
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Koscielny is correct when he says it,s not always the defe
nce that,s to blame it,s actually the midfield with either
Ramsey or Wilshere,two lightweight mediocre young players
not capable of coping with the physical demands of the
modern game,rather obvious as every match proves but Rosi
cky,ben Ayoun and Arteta are experienced mature players
who can defintely cope with the physical side of the game
yet ben Ayoun certainly doesn,t get near enough playing time,wonder why ?
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