Arsenal Question and Answer with Luke of Only One Arsenal

Today, The Football Front talks to Luke of Only One Arsenal and Arsenal RT's. 

Thanks for coming on, My first question to you is, what did you make of Arsenal’s season? Did you view it as a success or as a failure?                  

It was a successful failure. Another year without a trophy can not be called success, however after losing both Nasri and Fabregas, and the incredibly bad start to the season, to finish 3rd, above Tottenham, is a good achievement. 

Did you find any player making significant strides of progression last season at Arsenal?

Koscielny, during his first season at Arsenal (10/11) you could see he had talent, but was quite prone to mistakes. However last season he established himself as our best CB and one of the best in the Premier League.

There have been quite a few break through players for Arsenal players, but has there been any Arsenal player who has perhaps disappointed you?

Chamakh, Park Chu Young, Ramsey and Gervinho.

Chamakh is no doubt a good striker, but whenever he played you knew he wouldn't score and I think he knew that as well. We saw little of Park Chu Young, He didn't really have any time to impress or disappoint, but it would of been nice to see more of him. Ramsey is still young; and after that horrific injury plus losing his mentor, Gary Speed who made him the Wales captain, I think some fans expect too much. Gervinho was frustrating to watch, great build up play, but a blind postman could deliver more than he did, he lacked the end product, saying that it was his first season in England and had the ACON, hopefully he will settle more this season.

Jack Wilshere was of course injured all of last season, should Arsenal and England fans be extra concerned by this? Should we be worried that injuries will effect his progression not only now, but later on in his career?

I'm no injury expert, but the fact Wilshere injury was only meant to be 'a few days or weeks' at the start isn't healthy. I think Jack was thrown in at the deep end both for Arsenal and England, I can't see him playing before the new year. Hopefully the club will be cautious, and the FA may not call him to every England game, this should mean once he is back, he's back for good.   

 

What are your thoughts on the new Arsenal signings?

All 3 signings offer new options.

Cazorla offers something we haven't had since Fabregas left, someone who can open up defences, and is a real playmaker, he is all a marquee signing, after been touted as the best player outside Madrid and Barcelona in Spain.

Podolski looks set to play LW, which will offer a new option, people have unfairly judged him on the Euro's. I hope to see him played centrally as well, as I think he would thrive there.

I haven't seen much of Giroud but he looks to be a good signing, whether he was brought to replace Van Persie, we do not know, we shall soon find out! 

Seeing Arsenal have sold Robin Van Persie, do you feel Arsenal need to be active in the market for another striker?

Yes, I feel Giroud could already of been brought to replace Robin, in that case we need a replacement for Giroud, as I don't think Park or Chamakh are up to it.

Finally, something that bugs fans of other clubs, is Arsenal fans seem to hold a strong negative feeling towards Ashley Cole and Samir Nasri, do you feel the Arsenal fans are right to feel that strongly about it?

Let's start by saying we are not the only team who hold strong  feelings against former players, the other fans that this 'bugs' probably hold grudges against footballers like Arsenal fans do, so it is hypocritical to single out Arsenal fans. 

Ashley Cole was part of the invincible’s and was a Gooner born and bread, he has gone on to be more successful, Despite having a bitter feeling at the time, since I have decided it is best for everyone to move on (including Cole himself.) 

Regarding Nasri, it's not the move which annoys me, it's more the disrespectful comments he has made about Arsenal since, he is clearly big headed and thinks he is above everyone else, this was proven at the Euro's after insulting French Journo's. I feel that every time Arsenal fans move on, Nasri will come out and say something about Arsenal himself.  

What was your favourite moment of the Premier League season?

Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham, the game changed the season for us and Tottenham. It was also hilarious to see the cocky Tottenham fans turn up in the 'Mind the Gap' T-Shirts, and the rest is history. 

Off the field it was nice to see fans and players of all clubs to rally round after the Fabrice Muamba incident. 

Your darkest moment of last season?

Losing 8-2 to Man Utd. Dark, Dark days, also during Arsenal 1- 2 Man Utd when the crowd turned on Arsene like never before, replacing Chamerlain with Arshavin, I was there and at the moment I just wanted to leave, most fans still trust Arsene Wenger, I think most fans were just questioning that substitution but I am against booing our own players all together 

 The One word answer section

So in this section, you can only pick one word to respond with

1.)   Messi or Ronaldo

Messi

2.)   Tottenham or Man United

Arsenal 

3.)  Ozil or Pirlo

Ummm... Pirlo

4.)  Chelsea or Man City

Man City 

5.)   Adebayor or Nasri

The Idiot (Both) 

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to do this Q&A

This interview took place on 14th of August 2012. 

You can follow Luke on Twitter at @Arsenal_RT's + @OnlyOneArsenal

Check out their website too: http://onlyonearsenalblog.wordpress.com/ 

Liverpool Question and Answer with Jack Widnell

Hi Jack, cheers for taking the time to answer our questions for The Football Front.

So Jack, what did you make of Liverpool’s season?

Obviously last season was fairly disappointing, but the Carling Cup was nice to win and to come so close in the FA Cup was disappointing, but also slightly encouraging. Ultimately it was disappointing for Dalglish and I’m looking forward to seeing Brendan Rodgers in charge.

Why do you think Liverpool struggled in the second half of last season?

Liverpool’s form at Anfield last season was shocking. To think Blackburn had more wins at home than Liverpool last season when they were relegated is embarrassing. But it wasn’t poor performances. In my opinion it was complacency. Luis Suárez already said that at half-time and 1-0/0-0 in some games, the team thought the job was done and often ended up drawing. So I blame complacency, and there’s no excuse for that.

Through Twitter, everyone is pretty aware that you love Lucas Levia! Do you feel his injury demonstrated just how important he is to the Liverpool side?

 Really? Is it that obvious that I like Lucas? In all seriousness though, definitely. Liverpool had the best defence in the Premier League along with City until Lucas got injured. There were also ridiculous gaps between the midfield and defence exploited when Jay Spearing played. It’s good to see Lucas back though and I can’t wait for this season.

And would agree, Liverpool and other fans now see Lucas as one of the best defensive midfielders in the world?

Most certainly. There are some very, very good, underrated defensive midfielders in the Premier League. Most notably Alex Song and Lucas, but Lucas has definitely established himself as one of the leading defensive midfielders in the game.

Besides Lucas, which player impressed you last season at Liverpool?

Martin Skrtel. I always knew he was a good player, but he was extremely consistent and formed a solid partnership with Daniel Agger. Very deserving of the Fans’ Player of the Year award.

The Reds spent massively last summer and in January 2011, do you feel the weight of expectations on these expensive signings took their toll on the players?

Almost definitely. I think the pressure weighed Jordan Henderson down in particular. He lacked a lot of confidence last season. Despite costing £35m, I feel it was less-so with Andy Carroll. Everything he did though was reflected upon his price tag and I think that took away a lot of the positive contributions he made, sadly.

Stewart Downing was one of the most criticised players last season, do you feel he will ever succeed and win over the fans at Liverpool?

I think he can succeed. He had a very positive pre-season and has been known as a ‘second-season’ player throughout his career. He can most certainly be effective and quite often last season the lack of assists were not his fault. Carroll and Suárez were very poor when it came to finishing chances.

It seems, poor results, poor transfers and poor media handling cost Kenny Dalglish his job at Liverpool. Did you see the dismissal coming? Did you think it was right?

I said in March that he was going to be sacked, funnily enough! I did want Dalglish to keep his job, but he had a poor season. In hindsight now we have Brendan Rodgers, I think it was right for Dalglish to go before his reputation was damaged. He’ll forever be a Liverpool legend, but it just wasn’t meant to be this time around.

The Luis Suarez saga was a huge event in the Liverpool season, do you think the conflict has damaged Liverpool Football Club?

I don’t think it’s damaged the football club itself, but it has picked up a name for itself. Some people like to label Liverpool a ‘racist club’ now, but that will soon disappear. People will forget and move on. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.

Brendan Rodgers has just come in at Liverpool, what were your initial thoughts before he was appointed? Did you want him? Or did you rate him?

I won’t lie, I wanted Rafa Benitez or André Villas-Boas and I was originally a bit underwhelmed when I saw Brendan Rodgers was set to be appointed. I thought he did a magnificent job at Swansea, but I was a little sceptical. But as I began to read about him and listen to what he had to say, I was looking forward to seeing what he could do.

Now Rodgers has been in charge for a month or so, has he impressed you?

I don’t think he’s done anything but impress anyone. Even the most sceptical of Liverpool fans I’ve spoken to have been impressed with Rodgers. But he has to take his talking to the pitch, that’s ultimately where he’ll be judged. I hope he does do well as he seems a perfect fit for the club.

Has the signing of Borini pleased you?

 
Yes. He’s young, he looks confident, knows Brendan Rodgers’s style and ultimately he can score. Liverpool really struggled in front of goal last season, so hopefully he can help sort that out.

In terms of expectations, what do you expect from Liverpool next season? Where do you think they will finish in the table?

I’m expecting an improvement from last season, most definitely. I’d hope that Liverpool can challenge for the Champions League places, and also try and pip Newcastle and Spurs. People need to keep their expectations realistic. The last three seasons we have finished 7th, 6th and 8th. So it would be silly to demand a fourth placed finish when there are at least four teams who have better squads than us and have spent more too. City, Chelsea, United and Arsenal will be very, very difficult to catch next season, but if we have a good start to the league, who knows? People were tipping Newcastle for relegation last season and they finished 6th. I have a lot of faith in Brendan Rodgers, but I’ll take it as it comes.

As you know, Liverpool have the Europa League to contend with next season, do you feel the Europa is an unwanted distraction for The Reds?

Across Europe, the Europa League is a very reputable competition, it’s only really in England that it’s labelled as a distraction. I think Liverpool will take it very seriously. We have, or should have, plenty of options available for rotation and resting players, so I’m hoping we can do well in it.

If you were the Liverpool manager, what positions and (realistic players) do you think LFC need to fill?

Well if Liverpool sign Cristian Tello, Nuri Sahin and Clint Dempsey, as well as replacing Andy Carroll should he leave, I feel we would have had a very successful summer.

Finally, how long do you think Brendan Rodgers needs to prove and fully implement his style at Liverpool?

I think we’ll start seeing his piece come together around November, but I doubt it’ll be until next season that he’s been able to implement his style.

General Questions

Right, to finish off, here are some random yet trivial questions for you Jack.

If you could work shadow one player for a week, who would you shadow? (and why).

 
Lucas. I’d like to see him train and how he is in real life. He seems a very nice, positive character and it’s proven that he has a brilliant mentality. Either Lucas or Mario Balotelli.

If you were a referee, which player would you take the most satisfaction in sending off?

Wayne Rooney. No question.

Name your ultimate 5 a-side dream team, can be players from present or past.

 
I’ll choose players in the present - Casillas; Yaya Touré, Fabregas, Messi, Silva.

You’re at a dinner party, you can invite two footballers, one manager and one wag, who would you pick?

Lucas, Luis Suárez, Brendan Rodgers and whatever Sergio Ramos’s girlfriend is called. She’s unreal!

This question and answer session took place on the 27th of July, 2012.

You can follow Jack on Twitter: @jwidnell

Talking Tactics: Question and answer session with LankyGuy Blog

Today, The Football Front speaks to Jonny Mullins the creator of Lanky Guy Blog, who is one of the brightest young and upcoming football analysts in the blogsphere.

 Hi Jonny, thanks for coming on,

Let’s start off with the Champions, Man City, in your eyes did they deserve to win the Premier League? 

Yeah I think so. They had the best team, the best squad and they were determined even to the last second.

Did you feel tactically, Roberto Mancini got the best out of his players?

Well they won the league so he did pretty well! They certainly progressed in 2011/12, especially in attack. They had a good mix with the work rate of players like Milner and Barry in midfield and the mobility in attack of Silva, Aguero, Tevez and Nasri as well as Toure when he played between the lines. I think Mancini did well with the players available though I think they have weaknesses defensively.

Why do you think Man City struggled in the Champions League? 

Small details really. I don’t buy that they weren’t suited to the Champions League style. They just had problems defensively especially against Napoli’s 3-4-3 shape. In both games they struggled with the way Napoli counter attacked with their three forwards in the space City left and that eventually cost them.

Man City, Swansea, Arsenal and Fulham all played some of the most fluid passing football in the Premier League, do you expect more teams to adopt a more progressive passing game as the years go by in England?

I think England has adapted really well over the years. There’s more and more teams playing more of a passing game as you said and in fact the Premier League made more passes overall than La Liga last year so there has clearly been a progression in style. I don’t know whether we’ll see lots of proactive ‘passing’ sides in the league but I think teams are trying to be more progressive and adapt without losing the directness and speed that is associated with the Premier League.

One man who has been appointed to instil a passing philosophy at a big club is Brendan Rodgers, how long do you think it will realistically take him to implement a successful passing game at Anfield?

It’s noticeable already that Rodgers has got them building out from defence, with the centre backs opening up, one midfielder dropping deep to pick the ball up and the full backs pushing up. However it will take time to try and get it working. There will be matches where the team may lack penetration or where they’ll concede goals by giving possession away at the back. I watched the friendly against Roma and there was a number of sideways passes given away which put them under pressure, especially with the space between defenders. I don’t think there are quite the players available to make it work as well as Rodgers probably wants it too so it will take time.

Andre Villas -Boas pointed out a few months ago that implementing a passing game in the Barcelona mould is not possible in the Premier League, because of the tempo, the aggression and tenacity of the English game, would you agree with this view?

I think so. The Barcelona style is different to anyone else’s because of the way they carry it out. They try to have as much control over a game as possible and that can be difficult against opposition who are aggressive and play at a high tempo. I’m not sure whether it’s impossible – if you have the right quality of players then maybe you can. But if you look at Barcelona’s game - the slow transitions from defence to attack, the continuous switches of play, often playing into pressure etc - then that is clearly very difficult to carry out in general and certainly in England.

Speaking of Villas-Boas, although he had immense success at Porto, his system didn’t exactly work out at Chelsea, do you feel his methods can work at in the Premier League and more specifically at Spurs?

I’m sure he can do well, given time. He has the tactical knowledge, he knows all the small details from his experiences as a scout and manager so he’ll know exactly what he wants. Maybe he made some mistakes at Chelsea with the players but if he can learn from it then he can make Tottenham into title contenders.

One system I saw grow in prominence last season, was the system of playing three at the back, so many sides adopted it from Wigan to Barcelona. Do you feel next season and even further into the future, more sides will adopt a three at the back system?

It’s definitely a possibility. The way 3-4-3 shapes up numerically against your usual 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 or even 4-3-3 can cause problems for teams. When Man City faced Napoli was a good example. When Man City got their full backs forward, Napoli often left their front three high and let the wing backs close them down which meant that on the counter attack, Napoli often had numerical equality with their forwards. That can be very difficult to play against. Wigan’s shape was also very good to watch because their wing backs were allowed to move very high and wide, especially with the cover of a back three so when they had possession, they were able to stretch the opponent with switches of play and open up space in the middle for the front three moving inside. And if you look at some 4-3-3s, they often move the holding player back into a back three when they have the ball so a three at the back (or five depending on if you wait and play counter attack) is a logical progression.

Last season, I recall a moment at St. James’ Park where Man City took off Samir Nasri in the 61^st minute and Mancini put on De Jong. The decision was met by despair by most fans, who could not understand it, as Man City were drawing and needed to win.  Mancini ended up making the right decision in putting De Jong in, as Yaya Toure played in a more attacking role and got the winner. Do you feel fans sometimes don’t understand tactics as much as they should?

Maybe not about understanding but I do think sometimes fans can be too quick to criticise without actually asking themselves why a manager has made a particular decision. Managers aren’t stupid, they make decisions because they think it’s for the best. There’s always room for people to question things like substitutions but it’s always much better to analyse first what they’re doing and then if necessary criticise after.

Was there any manager whose side you enjoyed watching tactically last season?

Outside of the Premier League, I thought Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund were superb. They played with such great intensity, pressed and attacked really well. The way they beat Bayern Munich in the German Cup Final was fantastic, they didn’t give them any time or space to play.

Did any manager positively surprise you in the past year?

Rodgers was definitely one of them. Swansea were a great side to watch and had a solid foundation. I was also impressed with Fulham and the way Martin Jol got them playing was great.

Dream Team

So, what would be your dream XI? (of present players)

Casillas; Alves, Thiago Silva, Kompany, Lahm; Alonso, Xavi, Di Maria, Ronaldo, Iniesta, Messi

Who would be the manager of this team?

It might be cheating because he’s not managing anymore but I would make Arrigo Sacchi the manager of this team because he created one of the best club sides ever to play the game in the AC Milan of the late eighties and I’d love to see what he’d create here.

What league would you play in? 

I’d love to see them try and carry out their style Premier League.

What stadium would you play in? 

Wembley

Finally, what would you name your team?

Sacchi’s spectacular selection of brilliance.

Thanks for taking part!

You can follow Jonny on Twitter: @lankyguyblog

Make sure you check out his site too: http://lankyguyblog.blogspot.co.uk/