Laurent Koscielny says that Arsenal will have provide a concerted defensive effort if they’re to get a result against Barcelona tonight.
The French international will be part of the back four tasked to stop Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, but he’s reminded his teammates that it’s not simply their job.
Speaking to Telefoot, Koscielny said, “When we speak about the defence, it is not only the back four, it is the entire team who must make the link between each line.”
And he suggested that hitting Barcelona on the counter was a way for the Gunners to cause danger at the other end.
“If we are capable, and we have already done this in certain Premier League matches, to play deep, to defend together and to counter, we have a chance to get a good result against Barcelona.”
His thoughts were backed by his manager, who also stressed the need for a team effort.
“I believe that at some point in the game we’ll have to be deep because of the way they play.” said Arsene Wenger. “You can’t always stop them high.
“Individually, all their players are difficult to stop. We have to find a way to do it collectively.”
Mixed feelings about the game, yes we can get a result – we can do that against any team in the world if we’re on our game BUT this is Arsenal & we don’t know which version of the team will turn up!!
Agree! Need everyone at their best tomorrow as Barca gonna be at their best too. Hope we don’t push the back line up too much as Barcas front 3’s pace won’t allow Bellerin or Kos to make many ‘recovery’ tackles. Need to squeeze them in midfield, push them wide, double up and cut out the low cutbacks and square balls they’ll try cus no ones gonna really head them in for them. If Coq and Ramsey can stifle the midfield and start counters from there, Barca very vulnerable. Their defence has been pretty poor so time to expose it! High… Read more »
*Defending* is a team effort.
Coyg.
Not really on topic, like a reminder – Debu… what was that cunt’s name – Debu…?! Whatever, forgot his name, my point was that he is a cunt. Ta-daa!
With your name, City fan I guess.
You read good, not that good in understanding sarcasm though. 🙂
You’re a cunt, Arab. Same like John Terry only your wallet is far thinner than his.
I just had a really mediocre sandwich from Pret. Even though I had sufficient awareness to acknowledge that statement was not really on topic, I felt compelled to share it.
BFG > Ney+Sua+Messi
Bodywise
Bla bla bla yadda yadda yadda…
Those Catalan whores will knocked us out of CL.
That’s the spirit, lad. I bet you’re fun at parties.
Tough call? …..yes!
but can we do it?……yes we can!…..all we need is:
A – Attacking football…the kind we are known for
R – Resilience – Team resilience, regardless of who we are playing
S – Solid defensive team work….not from just the back line
E – Efficiency – efficiency in front of goal…please?
N – Nouance…..Tactical nouance…Arsene, your call
A – Alexis to be on fire…we need him tonight
L – Lose Not?..can’t think of a better buzz word right now, but yes!…for our ‘street creds’, we mustn’t lose this one
I have to disagree with you Blogs that this team is better than the winning team of 2011. I base this solely on the fact we are comparing the team for one match only. We had a functioning midfield for that game. With Fabregas and Wilshere we had two players comfortable on the ball in the middle of the park. At the moment Santi and Jack are both out and coupled with Rosicky, also being out we really lack anyone who will dictate our pace of play in the middle. IMO I think this will unfortunately be too much of… Read more »
I am not particularly bothered about what happens tomorrow; the league is it for me this season. We have a huge chance. City is in disarray; Leceister and Tottenham have no title fight experience in their dressing rooms whatsoever. Even Pundits expect them to wilt under the sheer weight of expectations.
Conversely, we have serial FA cup winners, epl winners, La Liga, Ligue 1, Copa America and the World Cup! – that dressing room is filled with winners.
Get the 12 year wait off our backs and then make CL our priority next term.
Please please pleeeease can we keep 11 men on the pitch and not give away a penalty in the first 20mins like we do in big games way too regularly
What if the penalty is conceded via skilled gamesmanship from the home team?
* from the _away_ team
Ever the optimist, I certainly believe we can beat Barcelona, especially at the Emirates. The atmosphere is going to be electric! I don’t think the defensive half of Barcelona is all that great. We certainly have to make the most of any set-pieces we get. We need Walcott/Welbeck/Alexis/Giroud to not miss sitters. 2 crucial things- not conceding a penalty by lunging in the box (Kos!) and not getting someone sent off. If we thought Vardy’s swan-dive over Monreal’s stationary foot was bad, this is a far more refined level of theatrical diving that we’re up against. They’re going to dive… Read more »
I agree with you about the diving, but fortunately we will have a referee for this match who is known for not being fooled by it. I’m generally not wild about European referees, but I think Cakir is one of the better ones.
Coquelin will be vital for this game. He’ll have to play almost as a 3rd CB between Koscielny and Mertesacker, playing just slightly in front of them, helping them defend against Suarez and against Messi and Neymar cutting in. Let Ramsey and Özil (lol) pressure Iniesta and Rakitic/Turan.
Whatever happens, its definitely not going to be a dull match to watch…..too much attacking talent on display from both teams, and i would quietly suspect, lots of personal egos and creds between the players at stake….so i would expect lots of personal mini battles going on all over the pitch, coq/messi, bellerin vs neymar, kos/suarez that kind of stuff
I am more confident than before when Arsenal face Barca with 2 ageing cds in
Campbell and Silvester.Then Wenger said Messi was unplayable. Then how on earth did Chelsea neutralize him and won the cl?
It all boils down to the minutest detail regarding defence.If the gunners persist in passing all day long they could suckers for the counter attack by Barca.I would be satisfied with 0-0 or even 0-1.
Imho,Ramsey tends to hold on to the ball too long and as a result gets dispossessed.
Hopefully,the gunners will shoot on sight
0-0 and 0-1 are dreadful results with the second leg in Barcelona. To stand any chance of advancing, we need either a two-goal win or a win with a clean sheet, and probably an away goal as well.
Usually I don’t advocate on playing dirty but perhaps we should foul the shit out of their front three.
Hopefully it’ll provoke fatty into a another bite and result in a numerical advantage for us…
Bayern beat barca 7- 0 agg.
Bayern beat Arsenal 5-3 agg
Arsenal will beat Barca…no what am I saying
If busquets is still injured, then we have a chance to draw or score or win like 2_1 . He is the key man. This team is more direct than under guardiola, and they don’t necessarily look for a possession game. It will be a huge mistake to defend too deep and let them have the ball . The few occasions when they are in difficult position is against team that do give work to their defense .
Had a dream that Theo scored on the break. I think we could do with Campbell starting and Theo on as a sub.
“Laurent Koscielny says that Arsenal will have provide a concerted defensive effort if they’re to get a result against Barcelona tonight.”
The game isn’t tonight!
I know right?! I read this at quarter to nine and almost had a heart attack.
It is absolutely going to be a team effort. In my opinion, it has to be massive attack and massive defense. There is no way we are going to win the game without a rock solid defense. Wenger should make changes to twat Barcelona’s game. Arsenal way alone is not enough against Barcelona rather we should concentrate a bit on defensive side of things and then counter. I believe Barcelona is not going to allow us play our passing game and at the same time, we should not allow them to do their passing game as well. We would be… Read more »
i expect a defensive masterclass tomorrow, and a counter-attacking masterclass to top it off.
i think the boys have learned how to do this playing against Bayern twice in the previous round.
we’ll probably lose at camp nou but we’ll still go through.
COY-fucking-G!
Better watch out for Suarez’s teeth boys, he is a different player in the PL diving and biting if provoked ?
Playing a PL team anyway ?
The same effort that we put out against Bayern at home would do just nicely.