Another quiet day, I’m afraid.
The main story this morning is that the youngsters went out of the FA Youth Cup to Manchester United at Old Trafford last night. In the end they lost 4-2 on aggregate after extra time but not without some controversy as United equalised late in 4 minutes of injury time that should never have been 4 minutes of injury time. It was at Old Trafford though. The kids need to get used to that kind of thing early. It’s a shame they couldn’t hang on to the lead from the first leg but there you go.
Kolo Toure says that despite the loss at Anfield and the poor performance the squad does not lack motivation. He says:
We lost but it is definitely a big motivation for the players to finish in third place. We are professional and we need to stay motivated because we are a big club and every game is important for us. We need to be really strong all over the pitch. When we win we win together and when we fail we fail together.
Sure, it’s a team game blah blah blah, but that didn’t look like a particularly motivated team to me on Saturday and Kolo’s admission that Liverpool won ‘every ball’ hardly backs up his theory. Anyway, it’s water under the bridge now and we have a big game on Saturday to look forward to.
In general though it’s gone very quiet at the club and I suspect there’s a lot of unhappiness around the place. The manager has a big task on his hands. He has to rebuild the confidence of a fairly shattered team who haven’t been the same since the Carling Cup final, in my opinion, and not only that he has to get them scoring goals and winning games. At the moment it’s a job as big as training a seaside donkey for the Grand National.
The lack of goals is a big worry and while it’s definitely true that we miss Henry and van Persie we can’t keep using that as an excuse. People say what about Chelsea without Lampard and Drogba – they’ve got Shevchenko and Kalou scoring. United without Ronaldo and Rooney – Giggs, Scholes and Saha chip in. Adebayor looked the only one likely to get near the goal against Liverpool and beyond that you’ve got a misfiring midfield who haven’t contributed anywhere near enough.
Since the turn of the year our league goals break down per player as: Henry 4 – van Persie 3 – Diaby 1 fluke – Gilberto 1 penalty – Baptista 1 – Rosicky 1 – Toure 1 – Hoyte 1 – Gallas 1 – OG 1.
Freddie Ljungberg hasn’t scored since last season, Hleb hasn’t scored in the league since Blackburn (6-2) before Christmas, Cesc has none this season, Rosicky only one and Gilberto apart our highest scoring midfield is Mathieu Flamini who can’t even get in the squad right now.
Football management is a challenging job. Who to buy. Who to sell. What formation to play. What tactics to employ. Keeping players happy.
I think this is Arsene Wenger’s biggest challenge to date. To get this team firing again will take something special. If it were up to me, based on the players that we’ve got, I’d revert to a 4-5-1 formation. Leaving the back four aside (although I would bring back Senderos or Djourou in place of either Gallas or Toure as to my mind both of them are too similar and work better alongside a more ‘traditional’ centre-half – I might even play Gallas at left back until the end of the season ahead of Clichy) I’d have Gilberto anchor the midfield, Cesc and Diaby central ahead of him and Rosicky and Freddie on the wings pushing forward with Adebayor up top.
At least then you only have to use Hleb or Baptista in an emergency. Whether or not he sees something different remains to be seen but at least it’d make us more solid, more difficult to break down and it’ll do the job until such time as he can bring players in during the summer to make a real difference to things.
I suppose we’ll find out on Saturday what he’s been doing all week but the fact that we’re all worried about playing West Ham, who have been woeful all season, shows just how much of a struggle things are at the moment.
