Starting XI

Picking a starting XI next year might be quite difficult... so far I see it as
Almunia
Sagna Squillaci Koscielny Clichy
Denilson
Diaby
Fabregas
Bendtner Arshavin
Vela

LOL :lol!:

Wojeich
Sagna Djourou Vermaelen Clichy
Song
Wilshere
Fabregas
Walcott Nasri
R.V.P

Its too early to discuss this now but as i see it now it looks like this to me:
Wojeich
Sagna Kos/samba Vermaelen Clichy
Ramsey/Fabregas Song Wilshere
Walcott R.V.P Vela/Nasri

I think Ali just wants to make new threads in the new forum
This is too early though. We have no idea what our squad is going to be like next season. We know that Denilson and Bendtner want to leave, we're unsure if Nasri and Clichy are leaving and we still have no idea who we're actually going to buy.

Until everything becomes a bit more clear, its going to be pointless to predict the starting line up

Perhaps we should give some prospective line-ups based on who is most likely to leave and arrive, then? Let's not a thread go to waste.

Based on what we have:


Based on the most likely ins and outs:


Fabregas leaving could create a shift in the formation and we could see something like this:


Just tossing a few potential line-ups out there.

no fabianski in any of the lineup ?

holy crap that emoticon is freaky

RealGunner wrote:no fabianski in any of the lineup ?

I don't know why, but I get the feeling Szczesny will get the nod over Fabiasnki next season. Wenger will probably feel Szczesny hasn't done a lot to lose his place, though it would be on Fabiasnki who hasn't done anything to be dropped either.

speaking of wojec, he played today against argentina, martinez was on the bench

poland won 2-1

whats with samba?
you want him over Dj/Kos any day?or just throwing him in against teams
who manage to bombard us like stoke bburn etc
for me its latter

sina90 wrote:whats with samba?
you want him over Dj/Kos any day?or just throwing him in against teams
who manage to bombard us like stoke bburn etc
for me its latter

I was just throwing him in as a posibility (likewise with Gervinho). Personally I'd go with Djourou-Vermaelen next season for the majority of games, but throwing in Samba against team adept at set-pieces would be a good move in my opinion. Djourou-Samba would be a great help against Stoke.

Incidentally, us having Samba would make playing Blackburn much easier.

Iceman wrote:I think Ali just wants to make new threads in the new forum
This is too early though. We have no idea what our squad is going to be like next season. We know that Denilson and Bendtner want to leave, we're unsure if Nasri and Clichy are leaving and we still have no idea who we're actually going to buy.

Until everything becomes a bit more clear, its going to be pointless to predict the starting line up

I wanted to get the Forum moving

Sczezny over fabianski ?! Wth

Why , Fabianski have better reflexes , better jumb , great game reading

What szcezny really did to make him earn the no1 Spot ?

My take would be as follows

If the squad stays the same:


If Fabregas stays, Nasri and Clichy leave and we buy Gervinho and Samba:


If Fabregas leaves as well then:


Now, mind you that I think that very last line up is not strong enough. We should really try and keep hold of our strong players.

Spider wrote:Sczezny over fabianski ?! Wth

Why , Fabianski have better reflexes , better jumb , great game reading

What szcezny really did to make him earn the no1 Spot ?

The only thing that Fabiasnki has over Szczesny at the moment is better shot-stopping ability and distribution, which Szczesny needs a lot of work on.

Szczesny is still a good shot-stopper, has much better handling and a better reach than Fabianski. On top of that, he's more assertive and confident.

Szczesny can still improve a lot, but I do just have a feeling he'll be number one next season.

We have discussed this Szcesny vs Fabianski ordeal before.O

One of them is more confident, and as a result gives the defense in front of him confidence especially when the air balls come in, and that is Szczesny.

Fabianski is a better shot-stopper...He is more capable of pulling off a stunning save than Szczesny. He has better reflexes, MUCH better distribution, better organization during corners and set pieces (By that I mean the way he pulls the players and tells them where to go). You must not forget that Fabiansk is a much more capable penalty-stopper. We are yet to see Szczesny stop a penalty iirc.
Szczesny is better at one-v-ones though

So to sum it up,

Fabianski: Reflexes, Shot-stopping, penalties, distribution, "wow" factor, kicks.
Szczesny: Confident, handling, one-v-ones.

I know which one I'd want starting. Fabianski improved a lot in his handling and has only made one blunder this season; hardly something to hold against him.

I think it was Kiwi who pointed out the main difference though. While Fabianski's mistakes are very easy to see, Szczesny's mistakes aren't. Many times, after we concede a goal, I look at it again in the replays and think "Szczesny could have done much better there" and, to be quite truthful, I found myself wondering many times if Fabianski would have saved this goal or that.

Szczesny saved a penalty against Bolton, albeit it wasn't a great penalty, but still a save nonetheless.

I'm not sure if Fabiasnki is a more capable penalty-stopper. While he has good reactions, Szczesny makes up for it with a long reach. He was incredibly close to saving Kuyt's penalty at the Emirates.

Hell, Almunia's record at saving spot kicks is considerably better than the both of them. I'm not sure it means much in the long run.

Truth be told I'd prefer Fabiasnki over Szczesny as well, though I fear if we do go down that route Szczesny will eventually ask to leave. I wouldn't be too happy selling someone with the potential of Szczesny.

GoonerJay29 wrote:

Spider wrote:Sczezny over fabianski ?! Wth

Why , Fabianski have better reflexes , better jumb , great game reading

What szcezny really did to make him earn the no1 Spot ?

The only thing that Fabiasnki has over Szczesny at the moment is better shot-stopping ability and distribution, which Szczesny needs a lot of work on.

Szczesny is still a good shot-stopper, has much better handling and a better reach than Fabianski. On top of that, he's more assertive and confident.

Szczesny can still improve a lot, but I do just have a feeling he'll be number one next season.

If that happnes ( Which i doubt it will ) then it will be major blow for fabi and it will be unfair to him

Yes Szcezny is a good keeper with great confidince but also Fabianski this year should great confidence in his performance and IMO if he didn't get that injury Szceney would have asked to leave ASAP cause it would mean another year and god knows maybe for more seasons to come on the bench

Spider wrote:

GoonerJay29 wrote:

Spider wrote:Sczezny over fabianski ?! Wth

Why , Fabianski have better reflexes , better jumb , great game reading

What szcezny really did to make him earn the no1 Spot ?

The only thing that Fabiasnki has over Szczesny at the moment is better shot-stopping ability and distribution, which Szczesny needs a lot of work on.

Szczesny is still a good shot-stopper, has much better handling and a better reach than Fabianski. On top of that, he's more assertive and confident.

Szczesny can still improve a lot, but I do just have a feeling he'll be number one next season.

If that happnes ( Which i doubt it will ) then it will be major blow for fabi and it will be unfair to him

Yes Szcezny is a good keeper with great confidince but also Fabianski this year should great confidence in his performance and IMO if he didn't get that injury Szceney would have asked to leave ASAP cause it would mean another year and god knows maybe for more seasons to come on the bench

I agree with that, but unfortunately football is an unfair sport. Wilshere would have never gotten as good as he is now had Ramsey not broken his leg at Stoke; sad but true. Ramsey would have continued his development whilst Wilshere may have gone out on loan again.

Its not like Szczesny won't get any play time.
There's always the chance of injury, which is very likely considering that this is Arsenal.
He will get to play in the CC matches, some of the FA matches and probably even a couple of unimportant CL games (hopefully).

I just think that we need a keeper who can pull off a save that can win us a match. Fabianski's save vs Wolves, for example, where he saved a shot very similar to Tiote's (but from closer, and with less speed/power) and then proceeded to throw it out. 2 touches later, we had a goal and secured the win.
I can't see Szczesny doing so yet. I think a year of playing under Fabianski, and learning from him, would do him a world of good.

Szczesny made a ton of match-winning saves when he was loan at Brentford. He can clearly do that sort of thing.

Even with the cup competitions, I don't think Szczesny will be satisfied with not being a regular starter. Provided Fabiasnki goes from strength-to-strength next season should he be number one, the chances of Szczesny asking for a move away will become greater.

It's definitely an interesting conundrum.

GoonerJay29 wrote:

Spider wrote:

GoonerJay29 wrote:

Spider wrote:Sczezny over fabianski ?! Wth

Why , Fabianski have better reflexes , better jumb , great game reading

What szcezny really did to make him earn the no1 Spot ?

The only thing that Fabiasnki has over Szczesny at the moment is better shot-stopping ability and distribution, which Szczesny needs a lot of work on.

Szczesny is still a good shot-stopper, has much better handling and a better reach than Fabianski. On top of that, he's more assertive and confident.

Szczesny can still improve a lot, but I do just have a feeling he'll be number one next season.

If that happnes ( Which i doubt it will ) then it will be major blow for fabi and it will be unfair to him

Yes Szcezny is a good keeper with great confidince but also Fabianski this year should great confidence in his performance and IMO if he didn't get that injury Szceney would have asked to leave ASAP cause it would mean another year and god knows maybe for more seasons to come on the bench

I agree with that, but unfortunately football is an unfair sport. Wilshere would have never gotten as good as he is now had Ramsey not broken his leg at Stoke; sad but true. Ramsey would have continued his development whilst Wilshere may have gone out on loan again.

Well yeah i definitely agree with you , this is a bad ass situation for both fabi and Woj :S

Great post fady. Fabianski does have that wow-factor, but I think confidence is the most important attribute to consider here. If Fabianski were to make one little mistake, his confidence in his abilities are shattered. He becomes a blunder machine, and it makes us hold our balls until the end of the game. (eg Porto). I just think Woj is the safest way to go. Yes, he's made mistakes, but like you said, very hard to spot, and he's more likely to bounce back. Him being very young, confident and commanding helps alot too.

To the starting 11, I think we'll see:

Szczesny

Sagna --- Djourou --- Vermaelen --- Clichy

Song --- Wilshere

Walcott --- Fabregas --- ?/Arshavin/Nasri

------------Van Persie--------------
I have no clue who Wenger will bring in to replace Nasri if he leaves. I don't see Cesc leaving this year either.

Iceman wrote: I think a year of playing under Fabianski, and learning from him, would do him a world of good.

If you had said this phrase last season i would've called you Crazy or insane

Just goes to show how our goalkeeping situation has changed. This time last year we were clamouring for guys like Neuer, Stekelenburg, Frey, et al and now we're debating whether or not we should go with Fabiasnki, who nobody thought we'd get over his long string of errors, or Szczesny, a promising youth.

The name is BLOODLESSS!