every year people are quick to point of all these tactical flaws at Ar5ena1. and make them out to be massive errors in judgement by wenger. but if this were the case, why do the likes of us and liverpool find it so hard to overthrow them? barcelona didnt have a cm with "significant defensive ability". i didnt see them struggling too much. barcelona competed very well against teams in their financial bracket without this dcm. just like Ar5ena1 perform very well in their financial bracket too.
pedro, alexis, walcott, ox. theres really not much in it. it all comes down to which players will suit Ar5ena1's style best and fit in well. soldado can look a semi pro player at tottenham, but look a world beater at the right club. you're underestimating the importance of a player being at the right club for himself.
their squad depth in attacking midfield is fine. tbh their squad depth in general is world class.
no doubt they can compete if they want to. but i dont think kroenke has any need for a life insurance policy atm.
Mate, lets be clear, even mentioning them in the same sentence as Barcelona is embarrassing, so lets not do that.
- their depth in attacking midfield is fine, their depth in defensive midfield = no, defense = no , attack (1 striker) is a joke mate
- Actually Arsenal struggles repeatedly in cups against teams much poorer than them from a fiscal perspective (the point the Scum fan in the rant above makes), additionally over the last 5 or so years the point gap between us and them (and our fiscal budget is less than 50% of theirs) is much closer than between them and the PL winners (which their budget is actually closer to).
Are they well run fiscally? = yes
Have they been able to do "just enough" to hold their position? = yes
Are they fleecing the brick out of their fans and providing nothing but lip service to ambition = yes
Lets compare to Spurs for a second
- Do we struggle to compete fiscally = yes
- do we have a 100M+ surplus to try to make that next step? = no
- do we have some kind of plan to change that in next 5 years? = yes, stadium, NFL, US investments, area regeneration, etc.
Scum
- Do they struggle to compete financially = yes, but margin is much smaller (their wages are almost on par)
- Do they have a 100M+ surplus to try and make that next step? = yes, they choose not to use (you call it business risk or whatever you want)
- Do they have some kind of plan to change that in the next 5 years? = absolutely not
As I said, they have made a business choice, you may argue that its smart, but the truth is they charge like a club that wants to be ambitious, they talk like a club that wants to be ambitious but in no way do they act like a club that wants to be ambitious.