Mo Britain less Europe
06-24-2014, 11:34 AM
despite the moaning, our goalscoring stats last season were not bad. Well ahead of all the teams who finished behind us and onyl narrowly behind Chelsea.
Whilst the focus of complaints tends to be on Giroud we were scoring plenty when Theo and Rambo were fit and playing. It was their loss which led to a decline.
Goals against is a similar but slightly different story - Everton who were behind us let in fewer goals and that nearly made them snatch 4th from us.
So why did we finish no higher than 4th? The games against the big clubs let us down again. In particular we received three thrashings (in 1 season against direct rivals) the like of which few of us can remember before.
Why? because our defence was overrun, especially when we were caught on counter attacks. This is because we don't defend in enough numbers or quality. And part of the reason is our long known problem at defensive midfield. What we have is Arteta, whose pace is now a very serious concern, and Flamini who did well but is hardly the future. We are also by the way possibly getting rid of one of our 3 centre-halves (the argument of Sagna as cover fortunately now is redundant).
So here's the rant, if our main problem is in defending, especially through the centre when we are caught upfield, why are we not looking more seriously at purchasing 1 or 2 top quality defensive midfielders and why are we weakening rather than strengthening the centre of defence? Why are we not being linked to more defensive players???
Whilst the focus of complaints tends to be on Giroud we were scoring plenty when Theo and Rambo were fit and playing. It was their loss which led to a decline.
Goals against is a similar but slightly different story - Everton who were behind us let in fewer goals and that nearly made them snatch 4th from us.
So why did we finish no higher than 4th? The games against the big clubs let us down again. In particular we received three thrashings (in 1 season against direct rivals) the like of which few of us can remember before.
Why? because our defence was overrun, especially when we were caught on counter attacks. This is because we don't defend in enough numbers or quality. And part of the reason is our long known problem at defensive midfield. What we have is Arteta, whose pace is now a very serious concern, and Flamini who did well but is hardly the future. We are also by the way possibly getting rid of one of our 3 centre-halves (the argument of Sagna as cover fortunately now is redundant).
So here's the rant, if our main problem is in defending, especially through the centre when we are caught upfield, why are we not looking more seriously at purchasing 1 or 2 top quality defensive midfielders and why are we weakening rather than strengthening the centre of defence? Why are we not being linked to more defensive players???