Brendan Rodgers

[kris90210]

Arsenal built a dynasty around that

George Graham!

[BigChief]

dan kennet the stats guy said after 2 games that he thinks the 2nd half drop offs in performance levels are down to fitness. To be honest I thought he was mad but we've seen the same pattern in all league games and its odd.

either we're looking to play deep and hit teams on the counter or we're shagged. If its the first i understand to some extent but its still a dangerous game. If its the second then something needs looking at.

buy we're still top and we cant complain too much. much better start than last season.

Lots of us have always questioned why we don't go for teams from the off, score loads, then try to recover near the end of a game. Was only a pipe dream but now Brendan seems to be employing it as his main tactic.

I for one am happy with it and the results are proving its working. As the players grow into it they'll control their end-games, and hopefully the ball, better.

[el matador]

George Graham!

some of the younger lads wont remember the 'one nil to the arsenal' chants that used to ring round highbury.

Arsenal used to be solid, unspectacular, and *******s to play against. Then wenger came along and ruined everything.

[el matador]

Lots of us have always questioned why we don't go for teams from the off, score loads, then try to recover near the end of a game. Was only a pipe dream but now Brendan seems to be employing it as his main tactic.

I for one am happy with it and the results are proving its working. As the players grow into it they'll control their end-games, and hopefully the ball, better.

as far back as I can remember we've always had quick starts especially at home but not being able to pace yourself over 90 mins is a bit crazy.

for some reason we're running out of puff in the second half. you cant invite pressure onto yourself like that.

[frank the tank]

some of the younger lads wont remember the 'one nil to the arsenal' chants that used to ring round highbury.

Arsenal used to be solid, unspectacular, and *******s to play against. Then wenger came along and ruined everything.

I think LFC under Houllier in 99/00 was the closest I had seen to George Grahams Arsenal. General football philosophy was "don't concede and Michael Owen is likely to nick one"

[kris90210]

some of the younger lads wont remember the 'one nil to the arsenal' chants that used to ring round highbury.

Arsenal used to be solid, unspectacular, and *******s to play against. Then wenger came along and ruined everything.

They even narrowed their pitch as much as possible to make it ideal for defending. Which was why Wenger initially had more success away than at home (if I remember correctly!). Mad when you think about it now

[Norbs]

They even narrowed their pitch as much as possible to make it ideal for defending. Which was why Wenger initially had more success away than at home (if I remember correctly!). Mad when you think about it now

Totally within the rules though. Stoke do the same now don't they?

[Norbs]

Yep, here's the evidence

http://www.northstandchat.com/showth...in-Premiership

[Cormack74]

They even narrowed their pitch as much as possible to make it ideal for defending. Which was why Wenger initially had more success away than at home (if I remember correctly!). Mad when you think about it now

I never went to be honest so I could be spectacularly wrong here but I'm amazed it was physically possible to narrow the Highbury pitch to any degree. On TV it always looked naturally narrow if that makes sense i.e there wasn't room between the east and west stands to have it any wider even if you wanted to.

Any narrower and the two touch lines would have met.

[Gazzla]

I'm not completely sure where there supposed second half collapses have been, the first goals we've conceded all season were on Monday.

Against Manure for example I thought that was great managerial tactics from Rodgers as he knew like the rest of us that they were incapable of creating anything and effectively closed the game down, how many chances did they create in the second half against us? I can't think of any other than a long range effort from Nani which was speculative at best

[ChesterDave]

And v Notts County? Villa were all over us in the second half. As were Swansea.

Its great that we are top of the league and have got 10 from 12 while missing our star player but I'm not going to kid myself that we have been highly competent. We're winning games that last year we would have failed to do so, or even lost so its gravy, but we have most definitely been riding our luck.

[Gazzla]

I'll give you Villa but again that could be down to a tactical brief from Rodgers as he saw from the way they played against arsenal and Chelsea that they are the most dangerous when they play on the counter. How many games did we dominate last year and yet came away with a draw or with nothing? I'm liking the resilience and steel we seem to have now, I'm not saying we're playing amazing and to the top of our abilities as we're not but we can't ask for more than top of the league when we have so much more to come

[danperkins]

I'm kindof with Arn on this one. It's amazing that we're top of the league, but we need to improve our ball retention or we won't be staying there. We've got a load of technically proficient players in our team, and we seems to go through long spells where nothing sticks in midfield or attack.

[ronanm]

And v Notts County? Villa were all over us in the second half. As were Swansea.

Its great that we are top of the league and have got 10 from 12 while missing our star player but I'm not going to kid myself that we have been highly competent. We're winning games that last year we would have failed to do so, or even lost so its gravy, but we have most definitely been riding our luck.

We were long overdue some luck mind you

[Neil Young]

It's only five games. That's not really enough to know whether we're not very good and have just been lucky or if actually we're simply grinding out results while not playing all that well and can look forward to much better form to come.

The answer will emerge in time so for now I'm just enjoying the fact we beat Manchester United and we're top of the league.