Nothing much new, rival analysis

Hello Hello, we'll get right into it,
there's been more about Eboue going to Fiorentina, you all know my position on that. Some other stuff in the papers about our transfer kitty figure and how selling Kolo could help us with that. It seems though that we've got 30m pounds and selling Kolo would be ... you all know what it would be. Kolou to Arsenal for 7m? I doubt it, I'd say it's just his way of getting a new contract. I wouldn't mind him coming over though, and 7m would be a good price, he's a good player. Anyway, here's Liverpool:

They pushed United for most of the season last year but bottled it towards the end. Man U barn stormed through their fixtures and won the league with a cushion in the end. It’s hard to say where Liverpool went wrong, perhaps a series of draws in games that could have been won or a lengthy injury to Torres at a crucial time, having sold Robbie Keane this injury wasn’t timed well. Their priority this summer is to keep their squad together and they’ve done so thus far, even adding one with the purchase of Glen Johnson from Portsmouth for an absurd 18 million pounds. I read an article about this somewhere, which discussed the UEFA rules and how having an Englishman starting in the team may be well worth 18m if Platini manages to impliment the 6/5 rule, which will mean that every club in the European football will have to field a minimum of 6 home grown players, a ludicrous proposition that would turn European football on it’s head and make it difficult for players from small countries to make good wages abroad.

No doubt that Johnson is a very good right back and will improve Liverpool, but is he the answer to their title question? I think probably not. They look good at the back with Johnson on the right, a rotation between Carreger, Skrtl and Agger in the middle and Aurelio on the left and with no suitor so far for Arbeloa they looked sured up in both full back positions with Dossena able to cover at left back. Their midfield will remain strong if they can keep hold of Mascherano and Alonso and Torres fire power is evident, as for me he’s the best striker in the world. They’ve a good keeper, although he is prone to the odd but colossal mistake, with Rena, they’ve got wingers who can do the business in Kuyt, Benayoun and Riera and of course Stephen Gerrard will pick the entire city of Liverpool up on his back and drag it across the goal line when needed. With quite possibly the best man for man squad in the league they’ll be a serious threat next season. But I don’t know if Rafa is sane enough to really pull it off.

We all know they give up goals, as they gave us a few last season, and with two holding midfielders between a quality back four and Gerrard you have to think that their weakness lies in the width in the midfield, defensively at least and again with our potentially deadly wingers, Arshavin, Rosicky, Nasri, Walcott and whoever else will be deployed there, maybe Vela, maybe Eduardo, (it’s hard to see Eboue or Diaby there with the other options) we should be able to get in behind.

Stopping them will be a different prospect. We’ve had a difficult time picking up Torres in the past and have given up some easy goals as well. We’ll have to have it together enough in the middle of midfield not to let the likes of Gerrard march through, feed it wide for a cross to get in to an unmarked Torres to head home easily. Vermaelen should help with that and so should a newly invigorated spirit in the squad after the purchase of an experienced holding central midfielder.

We’ll have to see if that really happens and I hope it does, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were no more signings this summer, aside from the 15 year olds we’re signing from Bosnia and Columbia and wherever else.

Theo Walcott has been instrumental in our recent matches against Liverpool, as were Hleb and Adebayor. This may say something about our pace and our ability to exploit Liverpool and their lack there of, with said pace. We’ve lost Adebayor but we’ve gained an Arshavin and the speedy Rosicky and Eduardo are back to help.

Player for player is a funny battle. Who would I rather have at right back if I were neutrally speaking, Glenn Johnson or Bacary Sagna? It’s hard to say, they’re the same age and are quality in their position. Johnson can tuck into center back and seems to do better going forward with accurate crosses and passes into the box and the ability to score some stunners. Sagna doesn’t have this getting forward, which is why to be honest I like Eboue at right back a bit better, but he is a more solid defender, as he proved last season when playing at the back for us when he was consistently our best performer back there. In the end though, I have to say Johnson.

Clichy or Aurelio, this is a no brainer. Aurelio is older and has a wider range of passing as most of his passes are long. He can hit free kicks and good crosses and can score here and there, but Clichy is 10 times the athlete is a much better defender and attacker and has 25 times the pace of Aurelio. Clichy.

I would have to imagine that we’ll be starting Vermaelen and Gallas together. Gallas proved he has a slight edge over Kolo Toure at center back where they play a very similar style. King Kolo’s bout with maleria seemed to affect his game a good deal and perhaps he was just having a mediocre season but his recovery pace wasn’t quite what it was and his ball winning and tackling dropped off. Gallas turned his dip in form around and was very consistent in the second half of the season. I can’t see Wenger not starting Vermaelen but perhaps there will be a healthy rotation with the ever improving Djourou and the other 2. But for now we’ll go with Gallas and Vermaelen. Would I prefer them to Carrager and Skrtl?

Carrager has been a top defender in England for a long time. There’s no doubting his quality. Or is there. Is he really that great? I don’t know, yeah he’s pretty good I guess but he’s not what he used to be and he’s slow. I enjoyed watching Thierry Henry turn him inside out each time they played against each other and I’ve seen other Arsenal players do it too. He’s very beatable and can be exploited by our pacey skilful attackers. Skrtl is solid and has a bit more pace than Carrager but again, he’s very beatable. Both have limited ability on the ball with a poor range of passing and neither score any goals, like ever. Carrager’s record is something like 1 every 100 odd games.

I’ve watched some highlights of Vermaelen and they were mostly of him scoring big towering headers over a bunch of tiny Dutch people in the box off free kicks and corners. A few were of some great tackles but other than that I know nothing of him. He’s obviously good in the air at both ends and apparently is very sound technically, as you’d probably expect. Gallas is of course very sound technically with a decent range of passing with both feet. He’s good in the air going forward but gets climbed over and lost at the back all too regularly. Now Gallas, as we’ve seen, is certainly beatable. He had a terrible dip in form at the front end of last season and was being beaten on the ground, in the air, with pace, with skill, with power, with everything all over the place. It was terrible. He turned it around in the second half of the season with the pressure of being captain off his back and performed well. Assuming that his bad patch is behind him, we can look forward to some of the form that made Gallas a top 5 in the world kind of defender. With his strength and technical ability and Vermaelen’s aerial prowess and their combined technical ability I think we have something fantastic to look forward to. To answer the question at hand: Gallas and Vermaelen.

Our first choice wingers will be interesting to see. Nasri’s just been injured so he’s out and I can’t imagine Eboue or Diaby being deployed there anymore, not with the options we have now. I see Arshavin playing off the striker a bit more and so I think it’ll be Rosicky and Walcott. Both have blistering pace, Walcott especially of course, and both will work to get back. Rosicky is one of the best in world at technical ability. He can shoot, he can head, he can pass, long and short, he can cross and man can he dribble. He’s got a full locker of technical ability and with a hunger that only a career threatening injury and 18 months in the phisio’s office can get you, he’ll be a fucking scary prospect for full backs.

Theo will have another year of experience, which includes a summer away with the U21 squad (something Wenger wasn’t happy about) and will be raring to go. With added competition for places and a world cup coming up he’s poised to have a hell of a season. Maybe a coming out season, much like Ronaldo a few years ago, when he was 21, or Joe Cole. A season where potential and obvious talent, which come out in spirts of brilliance will be realized and those spirts and odd performances will come more consistent. He’s a great finisher and is very intelligent, reads the game very well and will be a serious threat to opposing defenses. I said before that he’ll work back and I’ve watched him get better at it over the course of last season and I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Now, facing opposite them will be Dirk Kuyt and Albert Riera, who are no slouches. Riera has great skill and a very good left foot. His dribbling is great to watch sometimes and he can penetrate defenses. His crossing is quite good and his finishing is quite good as well. I never saw him perform in the big games though and I think put up against a quality full back he may have a more difficult time. Kuyt just doesn’t stop working. He goes and he goes and he goes and he goes. He must run 10 miles a game. He gets back fairly well but lets not forget that he’s playing out of position. He’s a natural center forward and was a good one at that over in Holland, scoring 30 goals a season for a couple of seasons. He’s a good finisher with his head and his feet and as we saw a few times in our game at Anfield last season, he can put in a good cross and does well as a provider. The biggest issue with both these guys is that they’re not great at getting back and even when they do they’re not the greatest defenders. We’ve all seen Hleb run Kuyt ragged, Clichy too for that matter and I’d say Rosicky will do a fine job of that. And lets face it, Riera doesn’t stand a chance of keeping up with Walcott. Of course you could argue that it’s the full backs who have to deal with the wingers and you’re probably right, but it doesn’t do anything for my argument. Needless to say, I’d rather have Walcott and Rosicky any day.

Central midfield is where it all gets tricky. I take Cesc over any player on the park. We’re likely to play with two deep lying center mids, just like Liverpool. We’ll have one holding and one deep lying playmaker in Cesc, although he will forage forward and get into the attack very often, he’ll just start out a little deeper. Liverpool will have two holding midfielders, one a long range passer and distance shooter and the other a fierce tackler. Xabi Alonso and Javi Mascherano are quality, perhaps even 2 of the best holding mids in Europe. Alonso has a great range of long passes and can stick a tackle too, not to mention his ability to bang in goals from his own half. Mascherano is a tackling machine who, on occasion, can bring the ball forward with pace.

Our hopes of a tackling machine remain with Song. Song works very hard and found some success at the end of the season with some great performances and has maybe come good, but to be honest I don’t think he’s the answer to our holding mid issue. He’s the type of player you’d like to see coming off the bench to deputize well for a great center mid, like Mascherano, like Yaya Toure, like Viera, like Gilberto. There’s not much to say about Cesc, other than if he recaptures his form and scores some goals, we’re in serious business. But when you think of the middle of midfield as a combo act, I have to be inclined to say that Alonso and Mascherano pip our two, but only because Song isn’t quite up to snuff.

Behind the striker I think we’ll be playing Arshavin. He has pace to burn, great finishing ability with either foot from inside, outside the box, 1 v 1, 1v 8, whatever. His dribbling is awesome and he includes the rest of the team in his play very well. Gerrard is captain awesome. He performs when nobody else does with an outrageous constancy over the past 7/8 years. He scores goals, he sets them up, he wins tackles and takes penalties, free kicks, corners, he’s the man. Arshavin may be more spectacular but Gerrard is Gerrard and you can’t deny that he’s been one of the best in his position, one of the best around, for the 7 odd years he’s been on the scene. It’s a draw, Arshavin and Gerrard.

Up front is an easy answer. I love Robin Van Persie, he’s one of my favorite players. He’s a skillful dribbler with skills like Ronaldo. He’s a great finisher and can score with both feet, although not with his head. He can score spectacular goals and has a vicious left foot with which to take free kicks and corners. His passing is very good and he’s grown strong, holding off challenges from players twice his size. But there’s no better forward in the world than Torres. His scoring record is excellent and his pace over 5/6 yards is up there with the best in the league. He can score with both feet and his head. He’s an opportunist, a poacher, a loan forward, a supporting forward, a finisher and a team player all in one. He’s Fernando Torres.

And in goal it’s no contest. Reina is the far superior keeper. I like Almunia as a man and as a squad member. I think he’s a top professional and does well at leading the side but if we’re serious about winning trophies, he’s not our man. I suppose you could argue that Barcelona won the treble with Victor Valdes, a disaster of a keeper, and a disaster of a man, but look at their line up. It’s hard not to win with Messi, Eto’o and Henry scoring 100 goals a season and with Xavi and Iniesta setting them up with Yaya Toure cleaning everything in behind. I don’t think that Reina is all that wonderful, but he’s certainly better than Almunia. Reina.

Liverpool edge the man for man battler 5 to 4 so it’s up to the managers to out manage one another. And in the battle between Wenger and Benitez, there’s only one winner. In Arsene we trust!