Ok, i don't want to resort to criticising Rooney again, but, he has missed far more easy chances than Adebayor, but he doesn't get the criticism Adebayor gets does he?

Adebayor wastes no where near as many chances. Plenty of people have fluffed more than him this season.

What are you on about? I have heard plenty of people criticise Rooney for missing alot of chances. I can see this debate is not going anywhere with you as your sheer lust for tall black men such as Drogba & Adebayor are blurring your opinion.

I don't even like Adebayor that much. I like Flamini and Rosicky much more. I do think he's a good player though. I think he has been more just good this season.

Yeah i know Rooney has received some criticism for missing chances, but ignore him, and just look at the ridiculing Adebayor has received despite being fantastic this season. I think it comes down to his height. He doesn't look like the most stable or mobile of players, so it's easy to call him a donkey and clumsy when he messes things up.

Adebayor does not deserve the criticism he has received from so called Arsenal supporters on this forum. He has been excellent for the Gunners this year and was running neck and neck with Ronaldo as the league's top scorers for much of the season.

Yeah, I'd agree with most of what you're saying.

But I still don't think I'm fully wrong to say he did a decent job. As I said, in the circumstances and considering his personal hindrances, he was decent.

But if you look at his goalscoring feat and his conversion rate, it's still pretty good.

I agree that he misses some sitters, but he also scores some absolute crackers that you wouldn't have seen going in from various angles & positions. Headers, volleys, 1-on-1s, curlers, piledrivers, chips... he scores all sorts of goals and he has scored plenty this season - enough to be classed as "good enough".

And to give him even more praise, he isn't your poacher-type natural finisher either. Most of his work on the field is in the holding up play, running off Defenders, hussling & hassling entire Defences on his own and using his amazing stamina & energy to run teams ragged and create bags of space for the rest of our players.

Being a "good enough" player does not require the ability to not miss good chances. All great players miss good chances regularly and usually they make up for it by doing something else positively or making up for it by banging in a goal every other game and scoring winners or huge goals against really tough sides.

Look at the teams he's scored against this season - it's not just your mid-to-low Premiership sides.

I will wholeheartedly admit that he's not yet quite refined, nor is he a "great" Striker. But he is a great contributor and always has been, he gives 100% and usually performs well. That's a "good enough" player, especially when they top scoring charts for large parts of the season and have stats to back up their contribution and efforts.

I don't know any Arsenal fan personally that would ever say that Adebayor is not good enough. I think that's ludicrous. Wenger claims he's a "dream of a Striker" because of his versatility, style and all his other beaming attributes. In most games Adebayor will be running the frontline on his own and most of the pressure will be on him to score the goals - Cesc, Hleb, Flamini, Diaby and Eboué haven't scored many. Despite that, Adebayor has done the job. Also considering the fact that by the time Adebayor holds up the ball, hassles four Defenders and makes continuous long runs for long balls, through balls and high balls, he doesn't always have the sharpness or concentration to consistently bang in every good chance or control every pass perfectly.

I think his technique has improved massively this season also. He has a lot going for him now and even when Eduardo, Rosický, Hleb, Cesc, van Persie, Eboué, Bendtner, Walcott etc. have all been fit, Adebayor has been irreplaceable in this Arsenal side - simply because he's had a brilliant season and has been our shining star - without his goals and contributions, we'd be absolutely nowhere! Eduardo nor van Persie nor Bendtner would have been able to do what Adebayor has done (based on injury proneness, injuries or general ability there).

I like the guy very much and I am more than happy to see him lead our line. For me, he is more than good enough. Wenger thinks even more highly of him, and Wenger knows more about ability, potential and player performances than us.

Well said J-Axe. Hopefully that will put and end to the Adebayor bashing and save me time trying to defend him.

I think he's been better than all of the strikers at the top 4 teams in this country, other than Torres. Not bad for someone who ''isn't good enough for Arsenal''...

I'd swap Kuyt + Crouch for him in a shot. The funny thing is, he's actually a bit like those two put together. He's a worker like Kuyt, but also has the height of Crouch and is used as the target up front.

Typical biased comment from a POOL supporter

And why is that? Isn't goal scoring the job of strikers? They are the two highest scoring strikers so what Sticky is saying is legit.

OK.....Ronaldo is a striker and has scored more than both Torres and Adebeyor. Add to that - Rooney, Saha and Tevez are all better than Torres and Adebeyor, and are all strikers. That's why it was a typical biased comment from a POOL supporter. Plus, I'm sure there are plenty of Chelsea fans on here who would argue Drogba and Anelka are better than Torres and Adebeyor.

But he's saying torres is better than Ronaldo... Which is laughable.

Luck and experience.

They are the two main reasons why Liverpool are in the semi finals and Arsenal are not. As I have said before, football at the highest levels of the game can be decided by the smallest fractions, be it a lucky deflection, a penalty, a red card etc. In this case, Arsenal can rightly feel aggrieved that the decision to turn down a legitimate penalty appeal in the first leg was not replicated in the second leg. Both were penalties in my opinion, although Hleb's was more clear cut. But the point is made that, all things being equal, then both should have been given.

The second reason Liverpool got through is because of their fantastic resilience and belief no matter what the situation, whereas Arsenal lost their composure. Three times in the tie they surrendered a winning position very quickly:
1-0 up at home then three minutes later Kuyt equalises.
1-0 up away and dominating the tie then 15 minutes later Hyypia equalises.
But most criminally, they were 2-2 and through to the semis then virtually straight away concede a penalty.

At this level, you cannot surrender winning positions like that, especially the last one. How can they concede a penalty virtually straight from the kick off? Surely someone should have been a bit cynical and taken Babel out, much like Aurelio and Mascherano tried to do to Walcott's Maradona-esque dribble? Credit to Liverpool though who came back into the game following Hyypia's equaliser and from then on looked pretty set to run out winners. Before then they looked dead in the water, but their experience shone through whilst Arsenal dropped the baton as the finish line came into sight.

I don't want to talk too much as a lot has already been covered by some great posts, but I will just say that this was one of the most absorbing and emotionally draining top level matches I have watched in recent years.

A fantastic advert for the Premier League and the Champions League.

Spot on with your summary Jo

Fair enough, but I was under the impression that Ronaldo plays mostly on the wings. My mistake then.

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Ok, i don't want to resort to criticising Rooney again, but, he has missed far more easy chances than Adebayor, but he doesn't get the criticism Adebayor gets does he?

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Of course he doesn't,he's British.But in his defense if he's not scoring he's making things happen other ways.
gerrard is another story ,that guy never gets any criticism ever and he disappears in more games than he shows up for.He never did anything as captain when Mascherano went off on one and that's exactly what he's supposed to do.And,where was the critics when both of them blatantly dived in the heat of the diving debate.


Adebayor is who he is ,he's not a Drogba by any stretch and he's not a bad guy.If steven gerrard goes over and shakes the hand of a foreigner then he must be ok. His character is clean and if people want to hold the bendtner thing against him then ok,but tell it like it is.Don't disguise it with his lack of ability ,because he lead the league in scoring for a long time in the league.His problem was having to compete in the African cup of nations and all of Arsenals cup and league matches.That's more gam,es than any of the other top scorers had to play.Give him a break, actually give me a break.

No such position as a winger theses days. Ronaldo plays as a second striker behind Rooney when United play 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1. United's attacking play is SOOOOOOO fluid that I'm not suprised opposition players and their fans get confused about their position on the pitch

You think because J-Axe posted a long defence of Adebayor means I'll retract my statements & change my views on the player? First of all J-Axe said "you look at his goalscoring feat and his conversion rate, it's still pretty good"... You don't actually have to shoot to waste a good chance! Shots to goal ratio's just look at the one's where he actually gets a shot away but ignores times where he misses the ball, mis controls it and allows defenders to get back, poor passes in good positions, too slow to make it onto the end of a good pass, etc, stats are meaningless in this circumstance

This is where I now know to stop taking you serious! What has he done to deem himself better than Drogba, who you almost creamed your pants over last season. Or what about Anelka? Scored for fun at a poor performing Bolton side. Or Crouch, who when has been given his chance, delivered the goods. Or Tevez, who kept West Ham in the EPL ALMOST by himself. Or Rooney, who at the age of 22, is one of the greatest talents in the world with his all round play. Or even Van Persie? On his day, injury free, sh!ts all over Adebayor

Your problem is Sticky, you try and keep to the same side of an argument as the more established members. You need to try and learn to stick to your own opinions and stop waiting for J-Axe to reply so you can add your 'I agree' statments

EDIT: From a thread in the General Football Section




Please refrain from spouting your pish on the forum if your not going to stand by it

Well challenge my comments on Adebayor if you still completely disagree - that was the point of my post, to challenge your views. Instead to try to mock Sticky T.

The fact that you admit that Adebayor's shot to goal conversion rate is still pretty good shows that you are blinded by a short viewed opinion that you have generated from only a handful of games & perhaps more MOTD highlights.

Adebayor scores enough to be good enough and he doesn't miss anymore chances than most other Strikers - at least not to the point where he's "not good enough". The fact that 95% of Arsenal fans will disagree with you, a large proportion of non-Arsenal fans will disagree, Thierry Henry will definitely disagree and so will Wenger.

Adebayor is good enough - it's ludicrous to say he's not. Anybody who says he's great, top class or World-class could be argued as Adebayor is not yet refined and still has a lot of negatives in his game. But this season has been an advert for Adebayor's heavy positives more so than his negatives. He's young & improving and has stepped up to a new level since travelling from a decent Monaco side to a European Giant in a tougher League. To come to this level, at that age, with that lack of experience and sit among the ranks of Ronaldo & Torres in the scoring charts as a lone Striker is pretty amazing mate - no two ways about it.

Ballack and "the best" in a sentence? MY TIME MACHINE WORKS.

Hello 2002.

Your missing the point. What I said is that shot to goal ratio doesn't tell the full story. John O'Shea had the best ratio last season, does this make him the best striker in the league? He wastes chances that doesn't get recognised by the staticians. If he loses the ball at the edge of the box, it won't affect his shot/goal ration. If the ball is played to him, 2 yards from goal, open net but it goes through his legs, it won't affect his stats. the only way his stats change, is when he actually shoots.

''To come to this level, at that age, with that lack of experience and sit among the ranks of Ronaldo & Torres in the scoring charts as a lone Striker is pretty amazing mate - no two ways about it''....the same ranks that the regularly blasted Benjani sits pretty amoung?

What has Henry or Wengers views got to do with anything? It's not asd if either are going to come out and say 'he's not good enough for Arsenal' no matter how bad he was. He wastes a lot of the ball and alot of Arsenal attacks breakdown through him. unfortunatly, I don't beleive that is covered in stats and certainly not covered it MOTD so you can keep your sly comments to yourself. I would say I've watched Arsenal more than any other team in the World this season bar Celtic, for the sheer fact that I love how they play football. That's what I'm basing my opinion on. As for MOTD, I'd rather watch RTE's The Premiership, that should indicate how much I despise the show.

Mocking Sticky T in what way? The way he reckons Adebayor is the cream of the crop bar Torres yet in other threads he contradicts this by saying Droba & Torres are the best two in the entire league? If he's going to make comments and not stand by it in other threads, to me, makes it look like he's either, a) debating with me for the sake of or b) agreeing with you to stay in your good books. If seen him agree with other 'established members' aswell as one of the many that seems very eager to jump on the 'MontyMagpie bashing bandwagon'. I'd prefer if he would come back at my post with his own views rather than dismiss my opinion...

Sticky wrote:
'Well said J-Axe. Hopefully that will put and end to the Adebayor bashing and save me time trying to defend him.'...

To me that looks like he's gald you posted your side as he's doesn't know how to argue his veiws himself

Hahaha did he really say Terry was one of the best technically, and Malouda WTF?