‘He should not stay at Arsenal!’ – Twitter reacts to Arsenal star’s show at West Ham
(Image via Futbolete)
Soft goals conceded in the 3-3 draw at West Ham have inspired more criticism from fans who are yet to be impressed by Arsenal’s stand-in goalkeeper David Ospina.
Despite being deemed fit to play after returning from injury, Petr Cech could only make the bench as Arsene Wenger stuck with Ospina as a reward for his recent performances.
However, it appears not everyone was happy with the big decision in goal even though the Colombian was not directly responsible for any notable howler.
Ospina didn't really make any mistakes today but we seriously missed Cech's leadership and organisation at the back.
— Jonathan (@afcjonathan) April 9, 2016
We all know what Ospina is. He's a 7/10 keeper. You don't have to make howler errors to be sub-standard
— Carl From Operations (@Cpt_Collins) April 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/mandaarrr/status/718810726815698945
So there was nothing wrong with Petr Cech. I would say I'm astonished Wenger went with Ospina, but I'm not. We've seen this shit before
— Bergkamp & Bergkamp (@Orangeiceman10) April 9, 2016
Reward for Ospina's performances? What about Cech's fucking performances over the entire season? What about that, Arsene?
— Per Mertesacker FC (@EccentricFella) April 9, 2016
Ospina had played well in Cech's absence, but Arsene, who gives a flying fuck? You pick the man best suited to deal with the opposition.
— Talking Arse ❄ (@TalkingArse) April 9, 2016
The Ospina/Cech debate is boring. Cech hardly covered himself in glory the games before his injury. Ospina players well while Cech injured
— Steve Hills (@Merse10) April 9, 2016
It wasn’t the keeper who was at fault but the defence and in particular the soft centre. Wenger is obsessed with ball playing centre halfs at the expense of solid good old fashioned defending, especially in the air.
Bonaroca:- Very well dais. CORRECT
Although I agree with your comment about centre halfs, the goalkeeper sets the tone for the defence. If you have small centre halfs and you are playing against a big centre forward, why would you play your small No.2 goalkeeper, when your tall, world class No.1 goalkeeper is fit and available?
When we played against West Ham first game of the season we had Cech in goal and if my memory is correct he was at fault for both goals……..DEBATE DONE?!
How was any of those goals the keeeper’s fault? Fans forget quickly how it was Cech in goal when we lost 0-2 in the reverse fixture; and he was at fault for both goals, which means he could have a psychological problem playing against same team. The full backs and midfielders needed to do a bit more stopping the crosses. Period.
Are you serious? If Petr Cech gets a psychological problem having played a bad match again West Ham, we’ve got bigger problems than I thought.
Why did Arsene not prepare the defence by training them how to deal with crosses into the box when he knew that andy carroll is so dangerous.He said we lacked hight in defence yet he left Per our tallest player on the bench. Then a tactial change at half time by west ham just exposed our inability to break down their defence.
Wenger is tactically naive unlike Billic he saw their problem and fixed it sheer genius.
First of, it was not genius but the absence of Sakho that made Bilic play Carrol yesterday. I think that surprised Wenger a bit as he had prepared for pace not height. By half time, the damage was done with no time to change as we needed to go for it with offensive changes (Ramsey, Theo and Giroud). These things happen, even if it is hard to take. WestHam have not lost at home since August 2015, if what I read is correct.
If he’d played his No.1 GK he’d at least have had some height in the defence, just in case Carroll played. Wenger has lost the plot. Why play your No2 keeper when your first choice is fit?
There’s not one of those West Ham goals that could have been saved by Petr Cech and the defensive lapses we showed would not have been solved by keeper organization. That ‘No 2 ‘ keeper has kept two clean sheets in Cech’s absence through injury. No need to jump on the bandwagon and blame the manager for not choosing right. The side chosen was on a roll.
Are your sure mate? Cech is known as ‘world class’ GK for a reason. Pulls off saves a normal/decent GK like Ospina wouldn’t.
The regret here is not about Ospina making a mistake but rather the opportunity of Cech pulling off a miraculous save being missed.
No one knows anything, for sure, but even Cech has been involved when we had some of our worse spankings. It is a team game so no need to point fingers at Ospina.
Ask almost anyone who is the better Keeper. Ospina has done well for us but Cech is one of the best. He also happens to be taller which would have been useful against a big team like WH?
None of Iker Casillas, Keylor Naves and Claudio Bravo (keepers of Real Madrid and Barcelona, respectively) is taller than Ospina. All are deemed world class. I would rather have a fully fit Cech in goal over Ospina but I would not go into a blame game or “if only” rant, just because the team conceded goals it should not. I will respect the manager’s decision because he is with the players day to day and should know better than I possibly can.
Zonal defending – thats the problem, oh and Wenger is cluless
Simon, and you know this because….? Is it that you have your coaching badges or we don’t have a history of teams who have used zonal marking to improve defensive performances?
no because im old enough to remember the season where we only let in 18 goals the WHOLE season rather than letting 5’9 Bellerin stand in front of a towering Carroll who im convinced he didn’t even know was there. Its no secret that we’ve suffered all season from defending set pieces so its either zonal marking thats at fault or our defence is inept. (so which one is it Gooner Eris?)
That could simply be because the whole team was playing more defense, than just the defenders. Think about it: Ljungberg vs Walcott, Bergkamp vs Ozil, Vieira vs Elneny, Edu vs Ramsey. Not saying that the present squad do not play defense, just saying they do it much less (especially the guys on the wings and No. 10 position). Everybody would be running back on D and running forward to attack. All done as a UNIT. Now it is more like everybody help out in attack (especially full backs) and only defenders and central/defensive mid defends.
Probably when this changes and our players are also about helping on D then Arsenal will be unstoppable again.
Simon, it is not so much about the caption of the defending style than the team structure/balance and how it affects our response to situations as they occur. People forget we currently have the 4th best defence and actually had the stat for the best defence in 2015 year with 20 conceded (next best was United and Everton with 26). With a skillful, free-scoring striker like Henry, it was easy to have more of the team do the defensive work, knowing Henry was capable of going on a mazy run to get a goal. With Giroud as striker (and as demanded by modern tactics) you find that midfielders are required to make runs inside the area, with the striker being a target man who holds up the ball. Again, you will agree most EPL sides are quite capable, going forward, having near-equal resources to buy quality (see Mahrez, Kante, Payet and Lukaku) unlike the years before 2006/2007, when only a few clubs had huge resources and bought the best players. Instead of guessing and pointing fingers as to why we concede more goals, sometimes we need to give credit to the strikers of the opposing side.