A look at the squad before January: ‘Keepers & injuries 21 December, 2009

Not a great deal going on this Monday morning so I thought I’d take this chance to have a look at the current squad before the transfer window opens. Wenger’s told us that he will be looking what’s available in January but will not buy for the sake of it. Make sense really, I think we do need a signing or two though. I’ll start right at the beginning and that’s the goalkeeper…

Goalkeeper

The goalie position has been a bit of a worry this season. Almunia’s been dropped already for an extended period despite second choice, Fabianski being out injured at the time. Vito Mannone came in and made a good name for himself, he made some great saves and showed good reactions but he is still very young and is one for the future really. Manuel’s back in the team now after his dropping, ‘chest infection’ and family problems that he had but is back to that worrying form of early season.

Yes, he did save a penalty on Saturday but even he admits he was lucky – he just guessed right. I’m not on a one-man mission to get rid of Almunia, I just think he isn’t good enough for what we aim to achieve. I was all for Almunia being named no.1 when Mad Jens left and last season I thought he was great, however this year he’s proved that isn’t the class we need.

He looks like he knows it too, he’s a ‘keeper with no confidence and the back four have no confidence in him either. Charging out for unnecessary balls, not communicating with defenders and generally being on a completely different wave length to the back four.

Despite all this I still don’t think Wenger will buy in January. He has a lot of faith in Fabianksi and you know how he feels about ‘killing’ his younger players, i.e. Mannone. I think it’s only a matter of time before Fabianski takes his place as the no.1 goalkeeper. These next few weeks are really important for Manuel, if he doesn’t perform I think he will lose his place again and will struggle to get it back. I’m not saying Fabianski is the answer but I just think Wenger believes he is. Only time will tell on this one.

Injuries

According to the injuries page on Arsenal.com we currently have eight players out. It lists Fabregas, Clichy, Traore, Bendtner, Rosicky, Gibbs, van Persie and Djourou as the casualties. We’ve been extremely unlucky to have our injuries in the same area and that’s what’s been our downfall.

We have all three left backs out! That’s insane! Clichy, Traore and Gibbs are all out until the new year, we’re not exactly sure for how long but we’re having to do with 4th choic, Silvestre at the moment who is a liability. He put us in danger several times on Saturday and the less time he spends in the team the better.

With Djourou also out for the rest of the season and Silvestre now our current left back it means we only have Senderos as back up in defence. You can’t really say we have Alex Song either because he is off to the African Nations Cup and he is required in midfield – as soon as you start playing people out of position everything fails, just look at Man United.

Senderos is more than likely to move on in January too so unless we sign a defender we will be left with no reserve defenders. Do we want to end up like Man United? No we fucking don’t so a central defender is vital this January. Before the season started we have Djourou, Senderos and Silvestre as back up but the way it has worked out we have no one now.

We’ve also been unlucky that both Bendtner and van Persie have got injured. I wont go into how pissed off I am that van Persie will miss most of the season after getting injured in a meaningless international friendly that has nothing to do with our club… He should be fit for end of April/May but it’s likely that the season will be over by then. His only hope is if we get in a major final or the Premiership goes right down to the wire but even then he will be lacking match fitness – we can pretty much forget we have the services of Robin van Persie this season.

Bendtner should be back next month, which is a massive boost. Wenger’s been hinting about finding a striker to replace RVP for the right price and not European cup-tied. We could do with another Arshavin-type signing this January but there’s no point in signing someone that’s not going to go straight into the first team – we still have Eduardo and Vela although both are struggling for goals and confidence. We could do with a striker but with Bendtner returning I think we could just about hang on without one, we just need Eduardo to find a bit of form.

As for midfield well Fabregas might be back for Sunday, if not the week after. Rosicky is going through one of those stages where it’s three weeks, then another three weeks, then three weeks after that then three weeks from then, so fuck knows when we might see him again. Samir Nasri might be unavailable for a while too if the FA decide to take action on his stamp again Hull. Alex Song as I mentioned is off to Africa next month and he will be sorely missed. I think Denilson will be drafted into the defensive midfield role but it wont be quite the same. Right at this moment we’re not doing so good in midfield either but Cesc will be back soon and hopefully Nasri escapes punishment. We have Ramsey to come in as well as back up so I think we’ll just about manage for the time being.

So in conclusion I think the main target should be a central defender this January and then we should look at strikers. Wenger will be reluctant to buy a defensive player as always but we are so close to being in a Man United-type situation and we can count our lucky stars that Gallas and Vermaelen have managed to stay fit all season. Without them God knows where we might be, they have been fantastic.

Wenger hints at adding a striker but I think that should come second to a defender. It would be fantastic to see a quality forward come in but I’d be a little pissed off if Wenger chose to ignore our thin defensive squad yet again.

Well done if you got through that essay, thought I’d better make an extra effort today seeing as I don’t know whether I’ll get a chance tomorrow with it being my birthday. I’m out for lunch and then will no doubt be on the beers. So maybe speak to you tomorrow, if not the day after.

Thanks for reading.