‘Debuchy mistake’ pointed out by Wenger
Arsene Wenger believes that Reading’s equalizer featured more than just a goalkeeping error from Wojciech Szczesny.
The Gunners set a new record for FA Cup semi-final victories by seeing off a stubborn Reading side who managed to take the tie all the way to extra time.
Wenger had many reasons to be upbeat on Saturday but if there was one reason to be worried, it had to be the way his side conceded to the Championship outfit.
Nearly ten minutes into the second-half, Steve Clarke side canceled out Alexis’ opener after Arsenal failed to stop a cross from the right flank which McCleary volleyed at Szczesny who spilled it into the net.
But when asked about how Szczesny’s unsuccessful save will go down as a howler from the Poland international, the Arsenal boss bemoaned how easily the Royals troubled Arsenal’s defence – a move which saw Pogrebnyak get the better of Debuchy.
“We have to analyse that (equalizer) but I think the cross before the goal shouldn’t have come in as well and then the scorer was free.” Wenger said
“There’s a combination of mistakes but Reading really wanted it and were ready to die on the pitch to go to the final. You have to congratulate them for the effort they put in today.”
The naming of Wojciech Szczesny, Mathieu Debuchy and Kierran Gibbs in the starting line-up were the big changes Wenger made to his defence on Saturday as David Ospina, Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal sat out.
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i dont think szczesny had much fault in the goal…..whenever a goal is conceded you could argue the keeper is always a little bit at fault. if they happened to be in the right position every time they’d never concede.
my take on it is this Pogrebnyak did great work in providing the goal. its something i think arsenal should do more of even tho our crossing has improved greatly this season. he’s gotten as far down the pitch as he could possibly go before crossing. debuchy i think has a gamble to make as the ball is in a dangerous position. but if he misjudges his tackle he gives away a penalty. a well timed slide tackle gives away a corner and gets rid of the immediate threat. its maybe something a player would do with a few games under his belt. pogrebnyak delivered a superb pulled back cross that goes over szczesny’s head. meaning szczesny has to reposition himself knowing a guy is there ready to shoot. the speed it happens at i think catches most keepers out cos they’re initially standing on 1 post and then they’re covering their other.
mccleary was off balanced on his shot but he connected with a solid effort. gibbs wasnt close enough to him to block his shot properly. any gk is often ashamed to concede through their legs and outfield players id hope are no different. when mccleary makes contact with the ball szczesny appears at about halfway across his goal. the guy is about 7 yards away from goal with a defender about 2 yards away from him. think if gibbs is closer to the guy that shot is better blocked and cleared by him or szczesny’s able to get hands on the ball. as it was szczesny’s vision is blocked by gibbs being 5 yards in front of him. and so the shot happens to luckily go through gibbs’s is legs but still have enough pace to go goal wards. szczesny knows the guy’s shot but cant tell where the ball but still heads towards the left side of his goal the ball doesnt go straight through gibbs’ legs and straight to the keeper tho. it hits the floor like 3 or so yards in front of szczesny. when long shots happen with a nasty bounce right before the keeper it tends to lessen their chances of saving it.
No matter what, play Ospina in the final. Dont care about we catch up with Chelsea or not. make the Polish goal keeper sit on the bench.
The ball took a nick off Gibbs which doesn’t seem to get mentioned. The deflection took the ball slightly over Szcsesny.
But to be honest Ospina is a much better keeper.
The defence is calm when they play in front of the Colombian and nervous in front of Szcsesny.
I imagine Wenger will stick with Szcsesny, Gibbs and Debuchy in the final. That might not be such a good idea.
DEBUCHY should not have been on the pitch15 min after half time he was knackered
Arsenal made a big mistake in bringing back Debuchy after 4 months out to play 120 minutes at Wembley. Poor decision that. Now you can expect a niggling injury that will keep him out for a couple more games
Reading committed 20 fouls against 9 by Arsenal. The ref gave only one yc to Reading. Little wonder that Reading were emboldened to make tackles which another would not kindly tolerate.Imho,at least
2 to 3 more yc could have been given and A Reading player sent off.
Its about time these guys in black are held accountable.In the MU/MC game ,two of the rd goals could have ruled os.If they had been ,the outcome would have been so different.
As Arsenal push for 2nd/3rd don’t be surprised they will be undone by some of these guys.
Arsenal’s goal was a gift by Reading keeper, Reading’s goal a gift by Szczesny, top notch keepers don’t concede goals like that ! !
Szczesny made a terrible mistake on Reading’s goal: falling sideways and backwards, with his momentum carrying his hands towards the post and back towards the goal-line, he tried to catch the ball with his hands. He only got one hand on the ball and it ran up over the goal-line before he could secure it in both hands–too late to prevent the goal.
He should have realized that he couldn’t get his second hand to the ball in time as he was falling and used the one hand that did get to the ball to push it out and away from the post. The reason he didn’t was that he was afraid to give up a rebound in a situation where he would have been out of position and at the mercy of a shooter if Reading got to the rebound. But, even if the ball rebounded more out onto the pitch than out to the side of the post, with two Arsenal defenders coming across and Gibbs closer to the ball than McCleary, the chances of Reading scoring on the rebound would have been slim. And, if Szczesny’s hand was strong enough to deflect the shot to the side of the post, the angle would have been terrible even if McCleary did manage to latch onto the ball.
Yes, there were mistakes made that led up to the shot, but, once the shot was taken, this was where Szczesny’s inexperience came into play. He has the size and the physical ability to get to that shot, but, whether from inexperience or simply not thinking as he was moving, he didn’t know what to do when he got to the ball and made a bad decision. An experienced keeper would know that he would not be entirely in control of his hands as he hits the ground following a dive like that and that the odds would be better if he simply knocked the ball away, to the side, than if he tried to catch and secure the ball with two hands in that situation. I don’t know if Ospina would have gotten to that shot, but I’m pretty sure that he would have tried to deflect it behind or to the side rather than doing what Szczesny did.
I also think that Wenger’s comments about others making mistakes on that play were designed to help Szczesny keep his self-confidence in a situation where he could very easily have ended up being the “goat” had Arsenal gone on to lose the match–especially after Szczesny’s “howler” that lost the FA Cup a couple of years ago against Birmingham. That’s important for Szczesny’s future, whether it is with Arsenal or elsewhere.