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It's a myth that Man United have more strength in depth than Arsenal.

Sunday, 24 February 08, 11:12 PM

One of the most ubiquitous chants among pundits in the ongoing Premier League campaign is the one that says Manchester United have more strength in depth than Arsenal. After having written Arsenal off at the beginning of the season and then being proven wrong, they can not say the team that has lost 4 times this season is the stronger one. Instead they talk about "strength in depth". So let's examine the two squads.

 

Manchester United have 28 players in their squad. The players are:

Goalkeepers:

1. Edwin Van Der Sar
12. Ben Foster
29. Tomasz Kusaczak
Tom Heaton

Defenders:

2. Gary Neville (captain)
3. Patrice Evra
5. Rio Ferdinand
6. Wes Brown
15. Nemanja Vidic
19. Gerard Pique
22. John O'Shea
23. Johnny Evans
25. Danny Simpson
27. Mikael Silvestre

Midfielders:

4. Owen Hargreaves
7. Cristiano Ronaldo
8. Anderson
11. Ryan Giggs (vice-captain)
13. Park Ji-Sung
16. Michael Carrick
17. Nani
18. Paul Scholes
24. Darren Fletcher
33. Chris Eagles

Forwards:

9. Louis Saha
10. Wayne Rooney
21. Dong Fangzhuo
32. Carlos Tevez

 

Arsenal's squad consists of the following players:


1. Jens Lehmann

2. Abou Diaby

 

 
9.  Eduardo

15.  Denilson

19.  Gilberto
 
 
 
 
 

 

30. Armand Traore

 

 
Each squad has about 28 players. I would like someone to point out to me where the deficiencies in the Arsenal squad are and where the depth in the United squad is.
 
Which of O'Shea, Simpson, Dong, Evans, Fletcher, Park, Eagles, Brown, Neville is the great superstar of the Premiership that left on the bench is going to turn around a major game? Which one of them would make Arsenal players or Liverpool players quake in their boots at the prospect of playing?
 
As far as I can tell, United's strongest starting team is:
 
                                                           Van der Sar
 
 
 
Neville-----------------Ferdinand--------------------Vidic-----------------------Evra
 
 
 
Ronaldo----------------Scholes---------------------Hargrieves-----------------Giggs
 
  
 
                                          Rooney------------------Tevez
 
They can have their 5 bench players as (best of the rest): Anderson, Nani, Saha, Kuckzak, Carrick    
 
 
Arsenal's best 11 is:
 
 
                                                                Almunia
 
 
 
Sagna---------------Toure------------------------Gallas ---------------------Clichy
 
 
 
 
Hleb-----------------Fabregas-------------------Flamini---------------------Rosicky       
 
 
 
                                            Van Persie--------------Adebayor
 
 
Bench: Eduardo, Gilberto, Walcott, Eboue, Lehmann
 
 
I am still waiting to be shown the United strength in depth. I am told that United have more experience. That's a much less dubious claim. This present team won the league last season afterall. They have the experience of having won the league. On the other hand, if you take out Giggs, Ferdinand, Scholes, Van der Sar  and Neville the rest of the Man United team do not have that much experience. Never forget though that Arsenal also has the following veterans; Gilberto, Lehmann, Toure, Gallas. Players like Fabregas, Flamini, Rosicky and Hleb are also reasonably well experienced.
 
One of the least-known bits of trivia about this present Arsenal squad is that it was the one squad in Europe that had the highest number of participants in the 2006 World Cup. Arsenal players who went to the World Cup were: Henry, Cole, Adebayor, Gallas, Senderos, Djourou, Toure, Eboue, Rosicky, Fabregas, Gilberto, Van Persie, Lehmann, Walcott. 14 Players in total. That's more than the number that went to the World Cup from Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, Chelsea, Manchester United and Juventus.
 
The Arsenal squad has seen two teams of second-stringers get to two consecutive Carling Cup Semi-finals, while the Man United second string was booted out at first try by lowly opposition. Most of this team have already been part of the run that saw Arsenal in the Champion's League final in 2005. A fair bit of them played a part in the invincibles run. A player like Song has been so disrespected but all that changed when he went to the African Nations Cup and shone on another big stage.
 
 
Why do Arsenal not get the respect they deserve? Why is the press and a lot of bloggers and pundits so invested in the notion that Arsenal have a weak squad? 
 
Of course it is because Arsene Wenger has refused to spend crazy money to buy players like Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea have. But Arsene Wenger has been a successful manager despite never having really spent like crazy. With the present team, he shows he has done just that again. Why does this make so many people mad? Why?        

 

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Posted by olegunner | Comments (19)