Tuesday 11 March 2014

How do Arsenal STOP Ribery's Influence Tonight for Bayern?






Before I go into this little article, that pic up there pretty much sums up why I LOVE watching Ribery. We all know what happens next in this pic.
  Okay, so Ribery is back in the team and Arsenal MUST in some way try and stop him. If they allow him to play and be influential, AT LEAST TWO GOALS will be conceded. So the question is what do they do to stop the French magician?





I don't think Arsenal have an Ashley Cole or Bart Simpson who can mark Ribery man-for-man and stop him. They may need to double team ON OCCASION and if it is down to a mano-a-mano, then it's about standing up. Going in for a tackle will result in the trademark Ribery fake and leave him with space to run and cross. What is important is watching his feet very closely and trying to shove him as far away from the danger area as possible.
  Defending tricky football players is hard, defending tricky football players who can play with BOTH feet is EVEN harder. So it's about timing, and biding one's time to ensure they DO NOT SELL THEMSELVES. If that is done, Ribery's effect can be dampened, and it will really come down to taking care of the other huge threats that Bayern have.

Sadly for Arsenal, I think Ribery will have an influential game, and I just don't see Arsenal keeping him quiet for the whole match.
 The way in which Ribery plays translates to ALWAYS in SOME way having a big influence in the game. There is no speed involved, all skill and technique. A lot of thought goes into what he is doing and with the super organized way Bayern are setup, Ribery WILL find those passes and WILL create those chances. So, it will be about RESTRICTING the amount of chances that Franck has, and hoping they don't result in goals.
 And also....he can cut inside and smack the ball in the bottom left corner with no problem at all. So there's that problem to try and stop too as well......


HH