by Good_Eye_Sniper » Mon May 11, 2009 10:01 am
Here are a few thoughts having watched the highlights.
Firstly, I have no idea where some people get the idea that, just because a fan voices disdain at a shockingly bad result, they are in some way doing the club a disservice. Maybe it's the fact that we have had so many shockingly bad games this season that the same disdain has been churned out so often, but hey, that's just me. I won't sit and sing Kumbayah when my team is letting themselves and the fans down. How that equates to jerking of the knee and calling for Wenger's head, I have no idea.
Anyway, onto the match.
Yes, we started brightly, but like so often this season, that only lasted 20 or 30 minutes. If teams can weather this initial attack, they now know that they have a fair chance of turning us over. For a change, we were not missing a threat in the final third, however, the old wastefulness in front of goal has come back, and then some.
Walcott has become a lynchpin in the team this season, but yesterday, his finishing was appalling, and RVP seemed to be hiding.
As I have said before, Gibbs has been outstanding this season, but I stand by the fact that he had a terrible game. He was out of position for most of the game, and cost us a few times. Saying that, I'm not one for pointing the finger at an individual, when the team didn't pull its weight as a whole.
I think what really let us down, apart from the woeful finishing, was our passing. We lost possession so many times, and when we did, we looked painfully stretched at the back, and open for the counter.
To be honest, I just doin't see how this can be remedied, because (much like Liverpool teams in the past), we have the components for a great team, but they are just not putting it together.
This, coupled with the knowledge that Wenger has come out with his usual "We will buy 1 or 2 players in the summer, if we can find the right ones" spiel (which probably means we will be lucky to see 1 player arrive), is a little alarming going into next season.
One can only hope that the players mature a bit in the summer, and learn from the myriad mistakes of this season.