Just Been to the Arsenal Game

[AFII]

-------------Reina
Finnan---Carra---Agger---Arbeloa
-------------Mascherano
---Gerrard----Alonso------Kewell
-----------Kuyt
----------------Torres

That is our best XI when everyone is fit.

[Parm]

which "kids" do you mean?

http://www.arsenal.com/squad.asp?thisNav=First+Team

take your pick mate. Ok "kids" maybe the wrong term, perhaps younger players. And before you say well he paid millions for these young players, which team doesnt now?

[Parm]

-------------Reina
Finnan---Carra---Agger---Arbeloa
-------------Mascherano
---Gerrard----Alonso------Kewell
-----------Kuyt
----------------Torres

That is our best XI when everyone is fit.

shock horror, AFII posts something sensible!

[Neil Young]

-----------Charles
AFII---Carra---CAD---Insua
--------DJS------Lucas
-Fredo----Gerrard-----Kewell
-----------Crouch

Sub: Pacman (for Gerrard after 3 minutes - tactical change; Rafa's explanation afterwards: "We needed to play with more weight")

[desertscouser]

and that would be who?

Good question.

Back 5 are obvious. I would probably play Gerrard on the right (eventhough his best position is in the middle) with Mascherano and Alonso in the middle and Yossi on the left. I'd play Crouch and Torres up front.

[fred_plasticine]

http://www.arsenal.com/squad.asp?thisNav=First+Team

take your pick mate. Ok "kids" maybe the wrong term, perhaps younger players. And before you say well he paid millions for these young players, which team doesnt now?

don't worry mate, i won't.
i'd rather point to the fact that our first team squad is on average only a year or so older than arsenal's.

[Parm]

don't worry mate, i won't.
i'd rather point to the fact that our first team squad is on average only a year or so older than arsenal's.

fair enough, couldnt be bothered to type out all the arse names! thing is if I was an Arsenal fan and I saw that one of the young guys was being thrown into a match (like say Bentender or Denilson) then I'd be a lot more confident about them coming in and doing a good job. Whereas in reality for us, I'd be ****ting it if Hobbs played.

[Red_Polo]

-------------Reina
Finnan---Carra---Agger---Arbeloa
-------------Mascherano
---Gerrard----Alonso------Kewell
-----------Kuyt
----------------Torres

That is our best XI when everyone is fit.

Insua's no longer our best left back then?

[dww]

fair enough, couldnt be bothered to type out all the arse names! thing is if I was an Arsenal fan and I saw that one of the young guys was being thrown into a match (like say Bentender or Denilson) then I'd be a lot more confident about them coming in and doing a good job. Whereas in reality for us, I'd be ****ting it if Hobbs played.

Part of that though is that they have simply been there longer and had a longer time to get experience in the team. In the past we have not had the ability to buy top youngsters like that.

A more valid comparison for Hobbs might be say Korea Gilbert or Hoyte who despite having more experience than Hobbs (in the former case not very much admittedly) who you would never see Wenger pitch them straight into a big game. I'll admit Wenger has been more keen to blood players in the first place but partly that is because he has bought more high quality young players in.

It is important to understand that each young player needs to be handled on an individual basis and it is easy to point to the fact that Agger a young player who was ready for first team action was given the chance. I think it is pretty common knowledge that Rafa was not happy with the develoment program when he got here and has felt he hasn't had the money to bring in top youth before last summer. So in the end we will have to be patient as he clearly feels that the players we have are not good enough (yet). We will only have confidence when we have a track record of bringing through players or individual players like Hobbs have come in and aquited themselves well.

[Maestro]

fair enough, couldnt be bothered to type out all the arse names! thing is if I was an Arsenal fan and I saw that one of the young guys was being thrown into a match (like say Bentender or Denilson) then I'd be a lot more confident about them coming in and doing a good job. Whereas in reality for us, I'd be ****ting it if Hobbs played.

Bentender - brilliant!

[AFII]

Insua's no longer our best left back then?

Insua is probably our best left together with Arbeloa. The reason to why I wouldn't pick him for a big game or any game is that he is to young.

You only need to look at all the young superstars to see that most of them that start to play to early week in week out get injury problems later on because of that.

It's better to wait a year or two and play him when other players need a rest. Then we would have an excellent left back probably without injury problems for a long time.

[tommyg]

arse will need all the help they can get on sunday cos we are going to ****in whip them 3-0

I like your optimism but i dont think we'll do so well

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

Lets see how good they are when a proper team really gets stuck into em.

Sure they've looked great against ****e like those last night and against Derby, but so have we.

I saw them play against Sunderland a couple of weeks back at home and Sunderland got in amoungst them, they struggled at times.

And lets not forget we routed them on our patch last season.

Got no worries about Sami starting on Sunday either.

[keniget]

Only read the first few posts about Sami... here is my view...

Sami has been poor recently, but not because he's completely "finished", he just can't play two games a week consistently anymore. He'd be fine for the odd game. Carragher hasn't been at his best of late either. Luckily though, we've still got a decent defensive record.

Also, who tends to normally have shockers against Arsenal?

Who got RAPED by Henry last season?

Nobody worried about him?

[Red_Polo]

Insua is probably our best left together with Arbeloa. The reason to why I wouldn't pick him for a big game or any game is that he is to young.

You only need to look at all the young superstars to see that most of them that start to play to early week in week out get injury problems later on because of that.

It's better to wait a year or two and play him when other players need a rest. Then we would have an excellent left back probably without injury problems for a long time.

People: never let it be said I can't get blood from a stone