How bad is it at Arsenal?

[The_weatherman]

I think Hleb is over-rated, one of these players who makes lots of nice little movements and passes but who ultimately doesn't have quite enough end product to go with his technical skills.

He scored 4 goals all season and failed to score from the 12th November until the end of the campaign in any competition. Even the much derided Voronin scored more goals than him. In his 3 years at Arsenal he's scored 10 goals and, domestically, they've come against Boro, Charlton, West Brom, Blackburn, Reading and Fulham. Hardly what you would could big games. Hleb, who many consider to be a top-quality player, has scored fewer goals in his three seasons at Arsenal than Yossi, a squad player for us, recorded this season alone.

Not only this but each of his goals cost over £1M considering he came to the Arse for £11.2M. One could argue that as a "midfielder / winger" his job is to create, not to score, but in Arsenal's formation the players behind the strikers have to contribute with goals or the team struggles. When they have been at their best under Wenger it is when the midfielders have popped up to score - Pires and Freddy for example. This season they had that early on due to Rosicky and Fabregas but the former got injured and the latter tailed off in terms of scoring. It then all came down to Adebayor and Eduardo and their season collapsed pretty much when the poor lad got his leg snapped as it left them without enough goal-scoring players.

Arsenal will be a better side if they get a bigger goal threat in place of Hleb. Nasri might be that.

I think Nasri is not scoring enough goals actually, something he might work on but I thought when he was linked with Arsenal that they needed someone to put it in the back of the net from time to time. If they had a midfielder like Lampard, Ballack or Gerrard they would be pretty devastating.

[Parm]

one of my gooner mates described Hleb a few months ago as a visonary!! pissed myself laughing at that

[Scratch]

one of my gooner mates described Hleb a few months ago as a visonary!! pissed myself laughing at that

Possibly cos he kept passing to players that only he could see?