Lack of pace

[AJ The Red]

The lack of pace throughout our side is shocking , only a couple of our players have any pace

whatsoever and it shows especially against the a*** as wenger only buys quick skillfull

players.

 

Im sure most on the forum have played or play football and the most scary thing to play

against is pace , if your man is quicker than you you either bring him down or get skinned.

 

I know it isnt the be all and end all but its plain to see throughout our side.If you have quick

defenders you can play a lot higher up the pitch and pressure the oppsition ,we cant afford

to do that because we are open to the counter and i just hope Rafa starts to address it.

[Swipe]

It's really worring.

 

Only Gerrard and Bellamy have real penetrative pace.

 

Needs to be addressed.

[Beardsley]

Speed kills.

As true in football as in Top Gun.

[Ian Mc]

I was sitting in the upper centenary so got a great view of the movement off the ball of the Arsenal players. Pass and Move like Liverpool used to play, now we just pass sideways or lump it up top without the movement. We were outclassed in all departments tonight by a great team.

[Guest RedLegend]

It looks bad against Arsenal alright. Wenger seems to seek out players who are quick and athletic and it tends to make some of out players look like dumplings.

[anfieldgaz]

I was sitting in the upper centenary so got a great view of the movement off the ball of the Arsenal players. Pass and Move like Liverpool used to play, now we just pass sideways or lump it up top without the movement. We were outclassed in all departments tonight by a great team.

 

 

But Aresnal didnt play that well according to people on here, so you must have been watching the same game as me thent the one that reminded me of the old liverpool pass on move.

 

I thought thier movment tonight was excellent.

[Falconhoof]

I was sitting in the upper centenary so got a great view of the movement off the ball of the Arsenal players. Pass and Move like Liverpool used to play, now we just pass sideways or lump it up top without the movement. We were outclassed in all departments tonight by a great team.

 

Frightening in some ways.

 

Arsenal could keep growing that pool of talent for the next ten years.

[RafaShanks]

It's not only the pace that worried me, it's our lack of physical strength as well.

 

To be honest, we got out battled physically as well by Arsenal over both games, who are deemed lightweight by some.

 

Rafa should only sign players from now on that are built like sh1thouses and can run 100m in less than 12 seconds (non drug assisted).

[Swipe]

Wenger must have a garden somewhere where he grows young, althetic black boys.

[hideNseek]

A continuous problem. GED had no pace or ball control in his teams and sadly it looks like to many of Rafa's buys are in the same mold.

[liverbird04]

Arsenal get players in who are fast ,skillful and athletic ,they make sure they have it in their youth and it goes right through their entire set up ,it still feels like rafa just doesn't get it , his youth player for example is Paletta who is as slow as a snail ,they wouldn't have him at Arsenal for that reason.

 

We had over 60 per cent of possession against arsenal in the FA cup but it was irrelevant ,under houllier it was the opposite all we ever did was counter attack with the pace of owen . If only we had the balance right.

[Falconhoof]

Wenger must have a garden somewhere where he grows young, althetic black boys.

 

Its not voodoo.

 

he uses common sense in the transfer market.

 

We always seem to be striving. Pisses me off.

[Billy Talbot]

I thought their movement and passing was excellent.

 

I was / am not impressed by their tendency towards leaving feet in, and snide late tackles. The also indudlge in using their arms far too much - for obstruction and also striking the opponent.

 

The more people fawn over them, especially in the media, the more refs seem to let this quite horrible part of their game go unnoticed.

[Billy Talbot]

I thought their movement and thier passing was excellent.

 

I was / am not impressed by their tendency towards leaving feet in, and snide late tackles. They also indudlge in using their arms far too much - for obstruction and also striking the opponent.

 

The more people fawn over them, especially in the media, the more refs seem to let this quite horrible part of their game go unnoticed.

 

I thought their movement and passing was excellent.

 

I was / am not impressed by their tendency towards leaving feet in and snide late tackles. The also indudlge in using their arms far too much - for obstruction and also striking the opponent.

 

The more people fawn over them, especially in the media, the more refs seem to let this quite horrible part of their game go unnoticed.

 

Our pace throughout is a problem though. Especially the two centre backs tonight. I would have prefered to see Agger play with Palletta, despite the lack of experience. We've got a problem - especially with the Palletta that we don't have a natural pacey partner for him, both Carra and Hyypia leave him exposed I think.

Edited January 9, 2007 by jr_ewing

[Guest Anders Honoré]

double post.

Edited January 9, 2007 by Anders Honoré

[Guest Anders Honoré]

Let's not fawn too much over wenger's brilliant philosophy of quick skilful players. They haven't brought them above us in the league this season or last. And someone like Bergkamp wasn't exactly lightning quick in his latter years and still an integral part of the side.

 

Although I wasn't entirely happy that in the course of one season, we went from having perhaps the quickest strikeforce in the league with owen, baros, cisse and sinama (albeit only for a summer) to having to contend with crouch and morientes up front and shipping Cisse out on the wing, he has adressed it this season by bring in the likes of Gonzalez, Pennant and Bellamy who all have pace. And so does momo.

 

We could use another fast striker up front, but I don't think we have the destitute lack of pace we suffered from last season.

 

Also, our backfour showed last season you don't need to have pace at the back to hold a high line of defence. And someone like Agger is more than fast enough for a defender.

[Ian Mc]

Wenger must have a garden somewhere where he grows young, althetic black boys.

 

Good management and very good scouting network. Scouts briefed on what requirements Arsenal are looking for in potential players. Pace, Skill, Movement, Determination. The problem is deep rooted at Liverpool from the Academy upwards, the club has been run with an old and traditional outlook for a number of years now. Only until GH took over in 1998 and introduced new facilities, methods of training/scouting/planning etc for the future did things slowly change.

 

Rafa is building on what Houllier started, by modifying the existing scouting methods at the club, but face facts until this takeover happens we dont have the resource to entice the best youngsters or players to Liverpool. See Walcott/Denilson etc.

 

Sooner the DIC thing happens the better it will be for all of us.

[Swipe]

Its not voodoo.

 

he uses common sense in the transfer market.

 

We always seem to be striving. Pisses me off.

 

Wasn't an altogether serious post.

[alias75]

PL football is all about pace and power, you need a core of it in your side, at the moment we have Gerrard, and Bellamy and Gonzalez and maybe you could argue Sissoko and thats it. Think this needs to be addressed.

 

Todays game was a clear example that Arsenals young players are much better than ours but hey we knew that anyway and hopefully its getting addressed. It also showed that playing a 20 year old with plenty to prove is sometimes preferable to playing players coming to the ends of their careers.

[AJ The Red]

We will never win the league with no pace in the back 4, we are so open to the counter that we cannot let players bomb forward.Thats part of the reason we struggle to break teams down.

 

Our results against lower league teams is good because they are prob equally as slow overall as we are.But our results against the top 3 is SHOCKING( thats not kneeejerk its a fact ) to say the least and one major difference is all the other 3 have pace in their side.

[Billy Talbot]

Good management and very good scouting network. Scouts briefed on what requirements Arsenal are looking for in potential players. Pace, Skill, Movement, Determination. The problem is deep rooted at Liverpool from the Academy upwards, the club has been run with an old and traditional outlook for a number of years now. Only until GH took over in 1998 and introduced new facilities, methods of training/scouting/planning etc for the future did things slowly change.

 

Rafa is building on what Houllier started, by modifying the existing scouting methods at the club, but face facts until this takeover happens we dont have the resource to entice the best youngsters or players to Liverpool. See Walcott/Denilson etc.

 

Sooner the DIC thing happens the better it will be for all of us.

 

Agree with all you say - Local scouting has always been decent, but even our Scotland, Ireland & Wales (except Owen ) imports have been poor. Richie Partridge anyone? Leyton Maxwell?

 

To be honest, from watching the reserves on e-season, I've not seen much going on still - Wenger has got right (what he said post match tonight) - a club needs consistency of attitude and playing style throughout the teams. We've not got that at all.

[Falconhoof]

Wasn't an altogether serious post.

 

 

I know. Its just that you'll get loads of our fans remaining loyal to our current transfer policy when 2 years ago or more we should have been building up this academy of young talent.

 

its as if we went "Pongolle and Le Tallec, hard to integrate, lets make do with sub 4th division teenage talent from the merseyside area plus whatever discared players from the other clubs come our way"

 

You wouldn't think we were one of the biggest clubs in Eurpe would you?

[Swipe]

The temptation is to write something about a big overhaul being needed in the summer, but i'm sick of saying the same every year and it never really happening.

[growler]

re paletta, lack of pace and him not being at arsenal. they have their share too (players like stepanovs).

 

Also, Agger, Bellamy, anderson, gonzales, Riise, Insua (apparantly), Gerrard are all pacey. Sissoko, Pennant and Garcia are no slouches either.

 

Pace is important, but its like we don't have any. I am more concerned about technique, passing.

[Guest Cameron]

We need to follow the Arsenal (and now Chelsea) model of finding and developing good African footballers. Many of them are naturally quick, strong and athletic, they have the physical attributes and lots of potentual. Arsenal have picked up some talented young African lads virtually for free, while Chelsea typically pay crazy money for their lot.

We need more Momo's in the squad!