wenger finishes his transfers
i am pleased with some of the transfers, but i am left baffled and shaking my head at the state of the gunners. here're liverpool and man utd busy bolstering their back lines and what are we doing? we're buying strikers. like we need more firepower in attack. we've got henry, van persie, bergkamp (even though he's gone at the end of this season), jose antonio reyes (although he's really being turned into a midfielder), arturo lupoli, quincy awusu abeyie, anthony stokes and we've now added
abedayor (who i suspect will slot back into the midfield somewhere, but he is a natural center forward) and wunderkind theo walcott.
we are potent up front, there is no question.
but who cares about up front right now? i don't. we're bleeding to death at the back. we need help in defense. and we need it this week.
we are without ashley cole again, cause he hurt himself in his comeback; we're without eboue and toure who are off in africa; sol cambell's hurt his foot; now even cygan is gone (who was not nearly as bad as i feared filling in for our left backs) with a hamstring injury; justin hoyte is still out on loan.
that means our back line this week will be some combination of lauren (our tested and true workhorse... and one of my favorite gunners), swiss boys johan djourou, and nervous nelly phillipe senderos, and either kerrea gilbert, sebastian larrson, or alexander song. we need a good defender or two dammit! not more strikers.
the one move i am totally satisfied with, even if i remain onconvinced of his skill, was the pick up of abou diaby to fill the boots of vieira. i know he won't fill paddy's boots, but at least we got someone in the position we needed to be filled.
once again wenger has bought for the future, but once, just once, couldn't he buy for today?
posted by bananas @ 10:03 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
i know it can be frustrating, but stick with it. my only analogy that i can come up with is the Quebec Nordique (now Colorado Avalanche). for years, they sacrificed the now for the future, but its paid off most handsomely. they're one of the toughest teams in the league to beat. well, they were the last time i watched the NHL anyway.
While I agree that it would be nice to have a more short term focus, the problem with picking up defenders right now is what do you do with them all in a month when our current players get back? I guess we could be like Chelsea and acquire top international players and not dress them, but I don't see that as necessary. We already have two great young left backs in Cole and Clichy who will be fighting for time in the left back spot so it doesn't seem worthwhile to pick up a player to fill in for a couple of weeks. Assuming Campbell passes his fitness test we still have Lauren, Campbell, Senderos and one fill in player (sounds like Kerrea Gilbert) for the match against Everton tomorrow and the Carling Cup match on Tuesday (which some of the youngsters like Song/Djourou will likely play). Cole is expected back for the FA Cup game against Bolton and Toure/Eboue will be back from the African Nations Cup in early February. Within a few weeks we will be back to:
DL: Cole
DR: Lauren/ Eboue
DC: Campbell/Toure/Senderos/Cygan
With regards to the situation up front I'm thinking 16 year old Walcott is likely to play on the wing (as does Reyes), leaving Henry/Adebayor/Bergkamp/van Persie as our strikers right now with Quincy and Lupoli hopefully forcing the issue in the next few years when Bergkamp retires (and I believe Aliadiere is still our property, but he looks like a bit of a bust).
Personally I'm not at all concerned about the Arsenal defence, but the central midfield spot still has me concerned (I'm not at all a fan of Gilberto and Flamini).
i'm with you entirely, brian, on gilberto and flamini, and i'm guessing you agree with my love for cesc, or you would have mentioned him.
i'm also with you on our full back situation. i think the tandems of lauren and eboue, and cole and clichy are excellent and i think we need no coverage there. but campbell is not long for this team, senderos is to sketchy, and while i like cygan in spite of himself i can't rate him, which leaves us toure as our only long term, quality, center back. i wasn't hoping for a complete overhaul, but something strong for the present and future would have made me feel better.
damn i wish we were in the hunt for diarra.
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