Arsenal & Manure young teams - A myth

[Guest]

Just done a quick analysis of Arsenal's team first 11 (the team that played in their CL match last night) and compared it to us and manure (our / their best 11).

Here are the results:



I think it's fair to say that people who are lauding this Arsenal team as 'young' are wide of the mark. Whilst they are a 'young' team, they are hardly younger on average (albeit slightly - 24 compared to 25) than us.

Man Utd are also labelled as a very 'young' team, but they average at 27 !!

All of this to point out that what we read in the press can be bollocks and without substance sometimes. They just make you believe what they want.

Sorry, was a bit bored.

[Fivex]

Even if you take out the 4 Manc players over 30 they still have an average age of over 24 which surprises me. Wasn't aware of too much hype on Utd being a young team though?

[Guest]

Even if you take out the 4 Manc players over 30 they still have an average age of over 24 which surprises me. Wasn't aware of too much hype on Utd being a young team though?

I've heard Fergie laud his team as 'young', Wenger has been saying that for years and the press have been jumping on this bandwagon.

Wenger's team have been around for years and played together for a long time, minus some recent additions like Sagna and Walcott. Other young players such as Fran Merida are still waiting to be blooded in their first team.

We've still got Leto, Lucas, Insua, Babel who are amongst the cream of the crop of young players worldwide and they are gaining experience progressively. Add to that the lot of young lads (a long list) just bought by Rafa in the summer, makes our squad one of the youngest if not the youngest in the whole top flight.

[MrsB]

Sorry, was a bit bored.

Hehe, no, I find it interesting. And if Lehmann had played for Arsenal their average age would be closer to 25 than 24.

[Guest]

Hehe, no, I find it interesting. And if Lehmann had played for Arsenal their average age would be closer to 25 than 24.

+ Gallas who is over 30 it would have been higher by a small margin than ours. We can still bring on the likes of Insua, Leto and Lucas to bring our average age down.

[dww]

I actually think that a year on average age is significant but the main difference is that Arsenal have only 2 keepers, one defender and one midfielder who are in or approaching their 30s in their entire squad. You could rejig all the teams a bit to shave the averages up or down but i think the teams picked are fairly representative.

Having said that I think that our team is quite a young team with the few experienced heads left from the Houllier era now gradually fading from the team and Gerrard and Carra now being the only two older players you can see keeping first team places in the next 2 to 3 years.

The Man United claim is mostly an attempt to give the replacements for Giggs and Scholes time to acclimatise really. I also think that Fergie is thinking about the team he is trying to create when they go - players like Anderson, Rooney, Tevez, Nani and Ronaldo are quite young to form the heartbeat of a side and that is what he is moving towards next season.

[Parm]

well the future looks good for us

[thesilverfoxlfc]

Get rid of Carra and Fab they are messing our average up

[Guest]

Get rid of Carra and Fab they are messing our average up

Trying to be clever foxy ?