I’d post but on phone and too dumb to copy/paste a long article but the Cox article on Wilshere/Barca performance was great
I really like Ian Wright, he seems like a stand up dude. Sucks he has to see that kind of shit. Also, this video always almost makes my eyes sweat.
Spoiler This is the start of a new series re-assessing the most famous individual performances of the modern era. Some will be legendary displays by established world-class players, others will be once-in-a-lifetime cameos that have nevertheless gone down in history. It’s easy to look back upon historic displays with rose-tinted spectacles, or to revise our memories of particular performances based upon what came afterwards. A second look at these games can be revealing. First up, it’s Jack Wilshere’s performance for Arsenal against Barcelona back in February 2011… Why this performance? There’s an inevitable sense of “what might have been” with Jack Wilshere. Now 28, he’s suffered two injury-ravaged campaigns at West Ham, his boyhood club, having departed Arsenal in the summer of 2018. Once, it appeared Wilshere was destined to become Arsenal captain and an England regular, but now — having not completed 90 minutes in the Premier League since August 2018 — there must be a question about whether he will ever enjoy a consistent, injury-free top-flight campaign. Perhaps more than any other player in modern football, Wilshere is almost entirely defined by one performance. There have been other highlights in his career — he’s made two substitute appearances in triumphant FA Cup finals, twice scored the BBC goal of the season and, at international level, produced two remarkable goals to turn a tricky European Championship qualifier away at Slovenia in 2015. But everyone really remembers the day when Wilshere went toe-to-toe with Xavi and Andres Iniesta at the age of 19 and emerged with his reputation dramatically improved. What was the context? This was the second straight campaign Arsenal had met Barcelona in a first leg at the Emirates. The previous year, Arsene Wenger’s side had somehow managed to battle back to draw 2-2 but the first 45 minutes was among the most ferocious batterings you’ll ever witness in the Champions League. Although Barca failed to score thanks to some rare Manuel Almunia heroics, Arsenal had been completely overpowered by Pep Guardiola’s side. More than their midfield passing or the dribbling of Lionel Messi, Arsenal were completely flummoxed by Barcelona’s intense press. They appeared completely unprepared for that challenge and looked completely incapable of playing through, or going around, the pressure from the opposition. That’s what made Wilshere’s display so memorable. A year after Arsenal had been so desperately outpressed, now they boasted a mobile, technical, confident young midfielder, who was capable of receiving the ball on the half-turn, slaloming past challenges and taking Arsenal through the lines smoothly. Was he as good as we remember? In the opening period: no. Arsenal start well and dominate the opening 10 minutes but their most dangerous player was Theo Walcott, who had destroyed Barcelona in a substitute appearance the previous year. Barcelona’s left-back Maxwell was clearly terrified of him and backs off dramatically, allowing Walcott space to dribble into. Wilshere’s contribution is minimal during the opening quarter of an hour and when pushing forward to put Barca under pressure, he finds himself twice rolled easily by Sergio Busquets. When the tempo drops a little, Barcelona start to dominate and Arsenal begin to wobble. And then, 18 minutes into the game, Johan Djourou panics when being pressed by David Villa and lofts the ball awkwardly towards the midriff of Wilshere. He controls the ball calmly, shifts to his right, strides away from Iniesta and puts Arsenal on the attack. There’s a roar of appreciation from the stands. From then, Wilshere relaxed and constantly produced similar moments of quality under pressure. The most impressive aspect of Wilshere’s game was his spatial awareness when receiving possession. He was constantly scanning the pitch to check for opponents on his tail and knew precisely when to turn away from them, when to play a return pass, and when to control the ball, suck in Barcelona player, and then play the ball into space. It’s simple enough on paper, the type of thing academies teach from an early stage. But when Wilshere was doing it against the world’s best — including the three players that had recently been voted as the top three in the Ballon d’Or — it becomes particularly impressive. It’s also worth outlining that Arsenal’s other midfielders were not on form in this match. Cesc Fabregas was constantly sloppy with his passing at transitions, conceding possession immediately after Arsenal have just won it after a neverending Barcelona sequence. Alex Song, who was booked for his first tackle of the game, on Messi, subsequently commits another four fouls and then perilously slides in on the Barca star, thankfully just about winning the ball. Arsenal are slightly shambolic in midfield. But then there’s Wilshere. Midway through the first half (00.30 in the above video), he tackles Pedro, gets ups, darts past Iniesta and plays the ball behind Busquets to Robin van Persie. Two minutes later, he does something almost identical — Pedro’s miscued cut-back is played into his path, so he checks over his shoulder, eases past Iniesta and plays the ball past Busquets and onto Walcott, who launches a break that nearly ends in a Van Persie goal. What’s particularly striking is how mobile Wilshere was: full of forward running and drive on the ball. Arsenal went behind to a David Villa strike but Wilshere leads the fightback with a direct dribble through the centre: striding through midfield, glancing over to both wings to check his options, committing Gerard Pique and then poking past him for a decent Van Persie chance. In the centre, Wilshere had sprinted into the box, waiting for a cut-back. And the more the game continues, the more it becomes clear that Barcelona are scared of Wilshere and are desperate to surround him whenever possible. Increasingly, Barca hunt him down in a pack of three, with Wilshere never looking hurried and simply offloading the ball to a team-mate enjoying space elsewhere. He ended the game with a 93 per cent pass completion rate. What was the highlight? Two minutes after half-time, there was an absolutely brilliant moment that demonstrated how Wilshere was almost taking on Barcelona on his own. Receiving the ball from Djourou deep in midfield, a clever body swerve prevented Messi from dispossessing him. Both Xavi and Iniesta expected Wilshere to offload the ball sideways and tried to block off passing lanes into Song and Walcott respectively. But they then realised that Wilshere has simply surged between them, dribbling directly through Barcelona’s midfield. Busquets, initially tracking Fabregas, then has to step forward and shut down Wilshere — so Wilshere takes advantage of Fabregas’ freedom to play a one-two around Busquets and then, slightly stumbling on the edge of the box, has a decent left-footed effort on target. It’s easily fielded by Victor Valdes but this is a 19-year-old single-handedly dribbling through the most revered midfield in the world. (Photo: AMA/Corbis via Getty Images) What has been forgotten? While Wilshere was considered a creative midfielder who had become accustomed to playing alongside more of a defensive midfielder, it’s worth remembering that Arsene Wenger had made two attack-minded substitutions to transform a 1-0 Barcelona lead into a 2-1 Arsenal win. First, Song was replaced by Andrey Arshavin, who played on the left. This meant Samir Nasri was shifted infield alongside Wilshere in a very attack-minded midfield duo. Later, Walcott was replaced by Nicklas Bendtner, meaning Arsenal took the game to Barcelona with a midfield and attack of Wilshere, Nasri, Fabregas, Arshavin, Bendtner and Van Persie. Wilshere was essentially the most cautious player of those six and his attacking surges were limited during the final 20 minutes. After Van Persie had slammed home the equaliser, Wilshere was involved in Arshavin’s late winner. Receiving a pass from Bendtner in front of his own back four, Wilshere’s simple but well-weighted forward pass to Fabregas set Arsenal on their way to the goal which has — perhaps alongside Thierry Henry’s return goal the following season — produced Arsenal’s greatest moment at the Emirates. What happened next? Wilshere was the centre of attention ahead of the return match at the Nou Camp — a 3-1 Barca win — when Guardiola was quizzed about Wilshere’s talents in his pre-match press conference. “Wilshere is a top player. He is an excellent player; not just Arsenal but also for the national team,” Guardiola said, before adding a curious dig with his next sentence. “He is lucky because we have many players in the second team like him but he plays because there is no pressure at his club to win titles.” The reaction to that comment was almost apoplectic in England, and Wilshere remembered the comments when interviewed by the Islington Gazette about this display seven years later, when asked if he remembered Guardiola being complimentary about him. “Yes, he was — but he also killed me as well. Do you remember what he said? He said they had loads of Jack Wilsheres at La Masia!” Eight years ago, it seemed a curious comment. But now, look at the list of Barcelona B players from that season and several are in a better situation than Wilshere. The obvious one is Thiago Alcantara, who Guardiola signed for Bayern Munich, and has become among the classiest midfielders in Europe. But there’s also his younger brother Rafinha, now at Celta Vigo, Sergi Roberto, still a semi-regular for Barca, Jonathan dos Santos, who has starred for Villarreal and recently played alongside his brother Giovani for LA Galaxy, Oriel Romeu, a mainstay in Southampton’s midfield and Gerard Deulofeu, Watford’s best attacker this season. Even relatively unheralded defenders like Martin Montoya and Marc Muniesa have had more impact upon the Premier League than Wilshere in recent seasons. Wilshere’s display was a large part in seeing him voted Arsenal’s player of the year that season and also probably contributed to him being voted into the PFA Team of the Year. Although technically, that’s based upon domestic displays, it’s clear that European performances certainly help. Gareth Bale, for example, won PFA Player of the Year that season despite just seven goals and one assist in the Premier League — his Champions League displays, particularly home and away against Inter, were surely more crucial in terms of the voting. Similarly, Wilshere was inconsistently good throughout 2010-11 for Arsenal — he wasn’t quite playing this well every week. But if his season overall was slightly overhyped, that certainly isn’t true of this individual performance. Midway through his first full campaign, Wilshere was genuinely holding his own against the best midfielders in the world and probably the best team of the modern era.
I couldn’t copy/paste off the app and had to go to the website. Did they disable copying on the app? Lame
We might need the body next season. It's gonna depend on what becomes of the transfer market. I can see a scenario where we don't pick up the option & then renegotiate a lower post-COVID market driven salary. We'd still be in position to pay more than all but a few teams. It'd be cutthroat, but we need that in our DNA.
even if they don’t buy anyone you got Sokratis, Holding, Mustafi, Saliba, Mari and Chambers under contract as well. I don’t see how it’s an issue of needing bodies. it’s quality and fitness that are the problems.
So I guess Luiz cost us £24m for 1 season between the fee to Chelsea (8m), agent fees (6m), and wages (10m). Doesn’t feel particularly healthy or sustainable
I saw they got renewed for another season and were supposed to start filming in the spring. But I'm sure that's been delayed
I'm at the point where re-signing Auba will be a successful summer. We're not doing shit with the covid hits, thankfully bought Saliba last summer.
Totes. If we can sign Auba to like a one year extension or something for not a billion dollars, then fine. Otherwise get as much back as you can and move on.
Haven't seen any Partey stuff from reputable persons. Laca-Partey swap could make sense, normally never believe swaps but it will be crazy this summer
I forgot a ton, had to go back and look at the results. Forgot how we got bounced out of Europe and honestly would have never guessed we were still in the FA Cup. Once I perused the results I laughed and remembered.