Szczesny: 8 - Great performance, fantastic save towards the end, his distribution was good throughout. Slightly flappy at crosses still.
Sagna: 5 - Very slow in attack, seems content with passing sideways and slowing everything down to a walking pace. Defensively inconsistent, should be replaced now by Jenkinson.
Mertesacker: 7 - Solid as ever, positionally intelligent and gets in the way of everything near him.
Koscielny: 7 - Great centre half pairing, quick, good passing out from the back and lots of key interceptions; even dealing with the physicality of Zamora very well.
Monreal: 5.5 - Remain unconvinced by him as a first choice option, maybe needs to adjust to the pace of the league a bit. We seemed light on the left flank frequently, as his postioning and speed leave a lot to be desired.
Arteta: 6 - Passes to Monreal and Sagna almost exclusively, but is always alert and helps to slow down (rather than break up) opposition play. Needs to become cover next year.
Ramsey: 6 - Covers a lot of ground, poor passing though and his shooting technique is frankly abysmal. Could transform into an excellent utility player next year with some honing of his talents however.
Cazorla: 6.5 - Tries to get things moving, increasingly difficult as movement ahead of him is almost nonexistent. Works well with Rosicky, but has an impossible job in reality, especially with how fatigued he is.
Rosicky: 7 - Most mobile, inventive player on the pitch, again hampered by awful movement of the two up top.
Walcott: 6 - Had a few chances that he created himself that tested Green, and took his goal well. Movement still leaves a lot to be desired however, and his finishing needs improvement when he's not clean through.
Podolski 5 - Drops too deep, doesn't work hard enough and offers no movement. He's out of position and it shows, needs to play on the left as I feel we are better with a front three of him, Giroud and Theo. I'd start with Gervinho against Wigan.
Player ratings.
posted on 4/5/13
Sagna really need to keep concentrate on his first task that is the defense. He has no cover when he is upfront and yes his crosses are woeful. He needs to work on them.
posted on 4/5/13
Arteta, Theo ,Szczesny, Kos and Per only ones that looked like they gave a fack.
posted on 4/5/13
I think people are rather harsh on Sagna. There's often very little he can do when Walcott doesn't make any decent movement ahead of him.
posted on 4/5/13
Skins admit that. You are right.
posted on 4/5/13
I think people are rather harsh on Sagna. There's often very little he can do when Walcott doesn't make any decent movement ahead of him
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What more can walcott do? he run infield the give Sagna room to drive into the box but no he turns his bk and passes bk towards our goal. And when he does cross the ball its a floaty ball into the box with no pace which any decent defender can clear.
dont give me the bull thats there hardly anyone in the box. we usually have at least 2 people in there. We are not going to get 4-5 guys in the box u know.
posted on 4/5/13
Podolski is worse than Giroud in the central role. Wonder if those celebrating Giroud's ban would admit this. Podolski's movement is facking non-existent.
posted on 4/5/13
"What more can walcott do? "
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A lot more - with Walcott's pace he should be running across the defence waiting for the through ball - but he just doesn't do it, and as somebody who often sits in the North Bank I've watched him and been exasperated by his lack of movement.
How do they not practise this in training ?
posted on 4/5/13
Podolski is worse than Giroud in the central role. Wonder if those celebrating Giroud's ban would admit this. Podolski's movement is facking non-existent
That's half of the truth.
posted on 5/5/13
I agree with you about Podolski Gunnerthru, if Podolski is 100% fit (I'm not sure he is) then he is actually worse than Giroud up front - and Giroud is mediocre at best.
posted on 5/5/13
What more can walcott do? he run infield the give Sagna room to drive into the box but no he turns his bk and passes bk towards our goal.
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Maybe Sagna doesn't drive into the box because he knows for 100% sure that if he loses the ball that Mr. Walcott will be wandering around somewhere in the middle of the field rather than helping cover him? Look how different our left full backs are able to play. They can get forward and perform overlaps because they know there will be a degree of cover for them if it goes wrong.