Jurgen the German
Willie Hall
What a shock he says Ronaldo is the best player in the world. It's a bit embarrassing how much he wants to be like him.
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The Goon Thread
- Thread starter Jordinho
- Start date
What a shock he says Ronaldo is the best player in the world. It's a bit embarrassing how much he wants to be like him.
Robbo
Paul Walsh
I don't see anything wrong about Bale wanting to be as good as C. Ronaldo, if it means he'll continue to improve all aspects of his game. I'll admit it was a little cringeworthy to see him emulate the ****y free kick stance in the beginning, but now that he's actually started to score goals from the free kicks as well, it's ok for me.
Talk the talk, walk the walk and all of that. I think Bale comes across as a humble, hard working guy with huge ambitions to go with his great talent.
That said; we're bound to lose to the Arse now. #-o
Spursalot
Jimmy McCormick
Huh?
Embarrassing? Not at all. Bale wants to be like a hugely talented and successful player and it's embarrassing? I don't see the correlation there.
In fact it's only a good thing as far as i am concerned.
I think the stance was originally stolen from Rugby and NFL kickers in the first place. Seems to be a fairly standard method for concentrating on a single spot kick now (amongst those who care enough to work on the mental aspect of sports).
Armchair Expert
Vedran Corluka
I thought it was supposed to mask the direction the ball might be heading in.
Possibly - looks very much to me like all that muscle memory stuff though.
Jurgen the German
Willie Hall
No, by all means, try and emulate his play, hunger and even his free kick technique. But there really is no need to adopt the same stance before he takes the free kick, does it really help him? Even his hair and sideburns are similar to Ronaldo now, probably got a poster of him on his wall.
Every year you'll have journalists wanting that headline. I don't think anyone decides to call up a paper to declare us better than Arsenal. Journos ask leading questions and footballers say 'uhm, ah, sure, yes.'
SpursLodge
Nicola Berti
Who cares, he can change his name to Ronaldo and get some plastic surgery done to look like him for all I care, as long as he's banging in the free kicks, skinning defences and gets us in the Champions League that's fine by me.
"Emirates Marketing Project is not out of reach. It could be a tight fight until the end," said the Arsenal boss.
"I'm not sure it will only be a fight with Tottenham," he added when asked about the battle for fourth. "I'm not sure the other places are not reachable.
"Chelsea are just ahead and even Emirates Marketing Project is not out of reach. It could be a tight fight until the end."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21572865
Wenger still believes, but Benitez has given up:
"We have to go there with confidence and if we are close we can fight for being in the top two," said Benitez before the weekend.
"And if not we have to fight for being in the top four."
"I'm not sure it will only be a fight with Tottenham," he added when asked about the battle for fourth. "I'm not sure the other places are not reachable.
"Chelsea are just ahead and even Emirates Marketing Project is not out of reach. It could be a tight fight until the end."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21572865
Wenger still believes, but Benitez has given up:
"We have to go there with confidence and if we are close we can fight for being in the top two," said Benitez before the weekend.
"And if not we have to fight for being in the top four."
braineclipse
Steve Sedgley
I honestly believe there's a decent chance that using a set stand like that can be helpful. You see similar things in many sports that aren't as dynamic, or in other words have set situations where you're trying to just repeat what you do in training time and time again without moving targets or people trying to tackle you.
Bale has just been on a fantastic streak scoring free kicks at an abnormal rate, whatever it is he's doing he should keep doing.
I wouldn't be surprised to see more players adopt set stands like that before free kicks, makes a lot more sense than the half hearted way so many players line up behind the ball for a free kick. No real need to adopt the same stance as Ronaldo or Bale, but no real reason not to either.
Spursalot
Jimmy McCormick
The stance is a part of the technique.
Does it help? Recent free kicks would venture yes.
Danishfurniturelover
the prettiest spice girl
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-reveal-reliance-on-player-sales-8510486.html
How did they make so little seeing as they are in the champs league? they only made a profit by selling van persie.
Bit weird that if you ask me. I thought they were loaded.
How did they make so little seeing as they are in the champs league? they only made a profit by selling van persie.
Bit weird that if you ask me. I thought they were loaded.
Arsenal cannot defend counterattacks.
From their corners they are actually worse off than normal because Mertesacker goes forward for corners, but even sprinting back (yes, he did sprint back vs Villa) he appears to be moving in slow motion.... I actually lost a bet with an Arsenal fan when Villa scored because Mertesacker got back in hardly any time compared to how long he usually takes.
But yeah, take pretty much any Arsenal game and you can count on there being several huge holes around.
If they had another option for a tall defender, they'd take Gallas over Mertesacker too.
They use Mertesacker when they need extra height. They like his "organisational skills", "intelligence", etc... Honestly, both he and Koscielny are decent when it comes to stepping up to catch people offside. But Mertesacker lacks pace, ball control, passing ability, composure and plenty of other key qualities. In fact, there is something very wrong with their 3 main CBs. Vermaelen is probably their most well rounded but he is prone to horrible performances surprisingly often.
I'm sure most Arsenal fans would trade at least 2 of their CBs if they could. But then, Arsenal don't go through major changes that often. They tend to keep weaknesses for about 18 months longer than they should.
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Arsenal didn't concede a goal in the league until Cheesey returned from injury and in his first game back, forgot how to catch. Their early few games is to thank for their defensive record... Although last season they were the worst in the league at defending away, so I should probably give Steve Bould credit for the first few weeks, after which he mysteriously had no influence when Arsenal kept making fudge ups.
It's not a wtf stat and it's not that strange.
They put in an extremely rare good defensive performance against Sunderland. I mention it because that was fudging rare.
But most games are games in which they barely have to defend attacks. Teams are so focused to going to their stadium and putting 50 men behind the ball that they forget Arsenal have a bunch of clowns surrounded by a passing midfield. Arsenal's best form of defence is having high possession.
Looking at recent games, they kept a clean sheet at home to Stoke, did Stoke even have an attack in that match? (Aside from Owen's punch.) I remember wanting to see how Monreal adapted to Arsenal and he had nothing to do defensively at all.
Conceded 2 at home vs Liverpool before that, actually conceded in every PL game before that all the way back to Wigan on the 22nd of December. Reading scored 2 against them, Saudi Sportswashing Machine scored 3 against them... This is not a particularly solid defence.
Look at their CL group... Played 6, conceded 8... 2 in each of the Schalke games, against good sides, they can't keep them out.
Sticking to the "against good sides" thing: Chelsea scored 2, City scored 2, we scored 2, Man United scored 2, Chelsea scored 2... You have to go all the way back to the Emirates Marketing Project game on the 23rd of September for the last time Arsenal conceded only 1 goal vs the teams in the top 4 positions and that was when Arsenal were "clearly defending well due to Bould"... They were actually defending then though. No clean sheets vs any of the top 4 sides so far.
Also, you have to remember, Chelsea's defence at the start of the season was nonexistent. Rafa automatically shores up defences he works with... He did stop Chelsea playing football that was praised for looking good and replaced it with long balls to Torres. My point is, at the start, Chelsea were simply outscoring everyone.
It took a bit of time for our defence to take shape too, Brad was unlucky but he was conceding all over the place. (Not his fault, but he didn't manage many clean sheets.) We conceded a bunch of goals vs Chelsea and Arsenal... Those 2 games account for 9 of our 30 goals conceded.
However, I've mentioned the trends. Chelsea began the season leaking but are more solid now, we have tightened up significantly and Arsenal started with clean sheet after clean sheet but have been getting worse as time goes on.
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That's the general idea with Arsenal, the only really make money when they sell their players.
They are "loaded" in the sense they have a ton of money from selling their players that they haven't spent.
The majority of the stuff I was going to post is in the article you quoted... You can basically find the long answer to your question here: http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Arsenal
The short answer to your question is:
Here are some images from Swissramble too:
So yes, Arsenal being a well run club, the posterboy for financial fair play actually translates to: "Arsenal would have made losses 3 out of 6 years if they hadn't sold players".
Basically, they pay brick players stupid wages and sell their best players to make a profit. fudge them and the way they turn their nose up at everyone when they talk about their finances.
thfcsteff
Garth Crooks
That's just called being tossers...
glorygloryeze
Tom Huddlestone
Love the quote compilations Jordi1 Nice one as always!
