Arsenal Tactics – Should Wilshere move to the wing?

Wilshere can play on the right for us by KJ

After the impressive performance against Villa on Saturday, there has been a lot of questions over Wilshere’s role in the team. We managed to play good football on Saturday and after Mesut scored, we had the confidence to play incisively as well as being calm enough to see out the second half.

Wenger has notoriously changed our formation this season into a 4-1-4-1 which seems to have been formed for two reasons: firstly, it will somehow better prepare us for the bigger games away from home and secondly, it allows us to play Wilshere in central midfield. The problems however have been obvious with Özil being forced out wide and with Ramsey playing too far up thus isolating Arteta.

With the success on the weekend with the return to the 4-2-3-1, it seems that Wilshere might be out of luck again and may not play in the centre as much as he hoped. For me, that’s not a huge problem as I think he can be an exceptional midfielder out wide.

He had pheneomenal performances on the right last season against the likes of Marseille and Cardiff. He was able to dribble into the box easily enough and could move across goal because he could move the ball onto his left fairly easy by playing on the right. That’s also why Özil prefers the right if he’s to be played on the wing. Attacking midfielders out wide are known for preferring the flank where they can cut in as that makes them extremely effective.

Wilshere has had a good start to the season and I think he can continue that in a 4-2-3-1 by playing in a wide position so we don’t have to ruin the whole team’s chemistry.

Tags Ozil Wilshere

43 Comments

  1. Well the guy just said he has been learning a lot from the videos of Mascherano and Pirlo and suddenly one of you come out with a statement like this.. The guy is tailored for box to box role and that’s where we all love him to succeed as well.. Let us all give him some time to find his feet and understand the responsibility of the role.. He ll be a legend..

    1. Totally agree, I think wenger is working towards assembling his most successful formation, 4411 and basically we saw it on Saturday, with him confirming the plan was to get ozil behind their midfield. With welbeck and ozil as our new henry and bergkamp, we could soon see sanchez and walcott as pires and overmars and jack and rambo as the new petit and vieira. The back 5 speaks for itself but never forget the rest of those successful squad members that came in a done a job, when we needed them (parlour, ljungberg, wreh, wiltord, Gilberto and many more) that is where the likes of campbell, giroud, cazorla, rosicky, podolski, sanogo, chamberlain, diaby, arteta, flamini, coquelin and gnabry are in terms of the managers thoughts.

      I know he yet to start his best “front 6” but I just get the feeling it’s edging ever closer. The missing links will soon all be fit, whilst jack and rambo need to take one for the sake of the team. All they need to do is build that understanding, I see our midfield five being every bit as good as either of the big twos 5 that started or finished their match yesterday just imagine if we can make a midfield of Walcott wilshire ozil Ramsey Sanchez work? Don’t tell me that William ramirez fabregas Matic and hazard is better than that. Whilst city are rolling out 36 year olds to save their skin and James milner is making their starting x1. I’m sorry all this furore about their squad depths, will you please look at ours.

      I agree the defence is at bare bones level and it’s pretty annoying to see the man city bench with 3 ex gooners on it, but at the end of the day it was their choice to go for the big pay days in favour of the international status. All 3 of them were first choice for club and country at arsenal now 2 are in the international wilderness while one is deputy to arsenals first choice right back for france.

      And for the record we have 8 defenders, it’s just bellerin and hayden have not been officially promoted. Man city and chelsea both supplement their first choice centre backs with youngsters. They have nastasic/mangala and zouma/ake whilst we have chambers/hayden nothing wrong with that in my book.

      1. wiltshere out wide is an awful thought! David Seaman was the best goal keeper we had but we wouldn’t of played him left wing if another goal keeper played well!!! i would consider playing the diamond formation which incorperates Rambo and Wiltshere box to box, holding midfielder and Ozil at the points, With Sanchez and Welbeck up top! with our two full backs attacking plus the ability of the top two to shift wide to cross we could be great going forward, so only worry is defensively wide but again with the work rate of the top two i’m sure we could learn to cover defence! i also think more of our squad players would suit this system i.e walcott can play as ginuine second striker, two box player opertunities that would suit rosicky, ox, coquelin, diaby and even arteta if he was not deployed as DM. my only complaint again is just that! Arteta really is the weak link!

  2. Wishere defenitely started the seasin on a real high. So should keep him fit by giving him occasional rest . Dont pressurize him much. Its so good to see him playing like this

  3. Never mind about that crap article, what about the weekend football results. Spuds lose at home to WBA, Liverpool lose to W.Ham,Everton lose at home to C Palace, Man.U bashed up by LEICESTER. CITY and chelsky and shit y drop 2points each.Makes our. win ar Villa. even sweeter. YIPPEE!

    1. Also we can hit back on Fabregas stating that our win, and “also a clean sheet” was very good result, but City-Chelsea draw made it even sweeter.

  4. and that too Lampard their own legend made the result more sweeter. Oh God, I can enjoy this all day long. COYG!

    1. the faces of the Chelsea fans when Lampard scored was even sweeter. I never laughed so hard in my life! It was the perfect BPL weekend indeed.

  5. The goal scored by Ozil
    and that scored by Wellbeck
    were well constructed and
    sweetly taken.
    Wish it was that easy every game.
    So is Arsenal finally gelling? Or was it just Villa?
    After the ECL group stage and after
    another 9-10 league games perhaps
    we shall know.

    1. as long as ozil is in the middle , i’m confident we can keep this going.
      welbeck is running unlike giroud & ozil is looking for his runs.
      hope to see a few more of those.

      1. We played awesome, my guy Ozil was beasting in the middle, I was basically in tears when he scored.

        But don’t forget about our defense. There was a set piece that Aston had at the beginning of the match that had about three of them open in the back post. And there were some missed tackles that left us vulnerable. Our D can hold their own, but we will get exposed on counters and set pieces. I don’t wanna see anymore Immobile goals. immobile my a$$… what a walking contradiction.

  6. As to where each of our
    mid/attack play, I am coming to think it does
    not really matter. To me they should just play
    play play and eventually become comfortable
    with themselves and with each other.
    It can’t be coached it just evolves with time
    to the point where they instinctively know
    when to make the pass when to make the run.

  7. Actually we can form a different team, while one team having
    Welbeck
    Sanchez-Ozil-Walcott
    Ramsey-Flamini/Arteta/Diaby

    otherwise team 2
    Giroud
    Podolski-Cazorla-Campbell/Oxlade
    Wilshere Arteta/ Falmini/Diaby (depending on the conditions)

    Also I have pointed out that both teams can develop their own coordinations in their formations respectively. We have seen Ramsey-Ozil-Welbeck linking up in last match. Also we have seen Wilshere-Cazorla-Giroud linking up fantastically at some moments, for exapmle Norwich home,Fulham home,Sunderland home. So we can make two different teams and they are both quality as from my point of view. And can decide whom to play every game. Since Giroud is injured for now, we can rotate Cazorla and Wilshere for Ozil and Ramsey and when Giroud returns, we can have these two teams.

    1. @christopher: exactly. in weeks where we have PL on weekend, CL on tue, PL on weekend, it’d be great to see pod/caz/campbell/ox/wilshire start vs the weaker PL team .
      if things dont go well, wenger can sub in his regulars at 45min or 60min.

  8. I am worried about Arteta. He seems to have to make a lot of effort just to cover a small amount of ground. Even his passing, which is his supposed strength hasn’t been good enough (whenever he has to pass to someone other than Mertesacker). I am afraid in the big matches he will be a liability to the rest of the team.

    1. he’s not confident on the ball at all, which is odd given his history. I remember when he used to be so aggressive on the pitch. Now he barely dribbles and rarely looks for the foreword pass – always to the sides or back to CBs. I dunno if its the change of the position is to blame, but it’s honestly unfortunate for all of us.

    2. To be honest I was impressed by his forward passes against villa they were sharp and direct to the the final third some people need to get of his back his passing has always been quality apart for the disappointing team performance against Dortmund.

      Were he doesn’t look comfortable is in his tackling it is often missed time and he is slow in tracking back.

      I’m more worried about flamini as he is blocking coqulin from tacking his last crack at making it at arsenal.

  9. can’t jack play the DM role beside arteta/flamini/ramsey? i honestly don’t think he’s meant for the wings. he’s great with those short passes especially those sexy ones with the outside of his foot.

    1. Dead on mate, I just can’t picture Wilshere on the wing… Plus, it wouldn’t make sense making space for a make-shift wing when he would be taking the spot of a genuine, class wing such as Walcott, Sanchez, etc…

  10. Did you noticed this, that when Ramsey was playing his worst football 2 seasons ago his game quickly changed for the better when Arteta moved into the DM area. Arteta created spaces for Ramsey to thrive in and shine. This same type of a mature player is what Whilshire is missing. Why don’t we try the Diaby-Whilshire partnership? Diaby is now mature enough to be an effective defensive link if instructed to. I think Ramsey’s lose of form might have something to do with his master (Arteta) also struggling with his game.

    1. Wilshire was also at his best when him and abou were part of a flat three formation. He also did very well when it was him and Alex song

  11. If Wilshere Ramsey Ozil and Arteta/Flamini are all in the starting 11, I prefer Wilshere to be the player who plays on the Wing. I saw him playing there last year, his performances were better than what Ozil is able to do on the Wing

  12. Some of the comments on here make me glad half of you are not our manager. Diaby DM? Really…when we have actually seen him play, he loses the ball far too often and is not a great tackler either. Diaby’s strength is going forward with the ball as an AM or at the most a B2B midfielder.

    Quite simply Arsenal need to buy a typical DM, one who can lone wolf it comfortably in front of the back four and be that source of aggression and physical presence we have lacked since Viera’s and Gilberto Silva’s departure. Right now, we have absolutely no threat defensively in the midfield, and it has been a weak spot the bigger teams have taken advantage of year after year. Arteta physically is inept and under pressure as we saw last season and before, he struggles. Flamini is all heart, but a red card waiting to happen.

    Our biggest problem is when the opponent counters after we have just attacked. Last season, our full backs (Sagna and Gibbs) were caught with their pants down multiple occasions and all we had was Kossie and a sluggish Mertesacker to defend against 3+ players. A solid DM would give us that added steel at the back we desperately need if we wish to be title contenders.

  13. Always felt like Wilshere is much more effective for us as a rotational player. Too much starting spots in a row make him overconfident, same goes for Ramsey now. What a great luxury to have two good box-to-box midfielders playing for our club, only thing they need is a midfield general!

  14. Alex Song has completely destroyed Liverpool’s midfiled. He was a beast in that game for West Ham and has had maon of the match performane.
    He was availbe for a very less amount. We truly lacked in defensive area.
    Did wenger missed something .
    sunny.

    1. Exactly I called for us to bring him in on loan and many fan was against it calling him a defensive liability song would be an upgrade on arteta

  15. lets not get curried away with the result at AV half their team had flue.

    ASTON VILLA
    F Delph Illness no return date
    B Guzan Illness no return date
    N Baker Illness no return date
    D Bent Illness no return date
    A Weimann Illness no return date
    A Westwood Illness no return date
    R Vlaar Calf/Shin Injury 27th Sep 14
    C Benteke Calf/Shin Injury 27th Oct 14
    L Kozák Broken Leg 2nd Nov 14

    1. So they had nine players out and were still performing very well all season.
      Of those u mention
      Guzman
      Benteke/giroud
      Vlarr /debuchy
      Weimann/walcott
      Delph
      would have started
      This shows that Guzman was probably the player they missed the most

  16. Wilshere on the wing???
    It means a bit of pace and most importantly being able to track back.
    Our LB and RB are always all out in attack (which is why we conceded so many goals in counter attack) with cover.

    I don’t know what it would bring putting Wilshere on the wing expect the player being frustrated and having poor games (check out Ozil!!).

    I know the fans want all the best players on the pitch, but sometimes it is impossible to achieve (even though Wenger seems to try it, but that is because he has no tactical acuteness )…
    If Ozil plays, Wilshere (he is not a DM and will never be) should be on the bench, simple as that…

  17. Wilshere and Ramsey in central positions back of midfield
    CAM: Ozil/Cazorla
    Wings = Sanchez and Walcott/Welbeck/Ox
    Striker: Welbeck/Giroud

    1. Spot on.
      Most have been complaining that Jack has been poor since his injury, and now, when he starts to really kick on, the poster wants to f… him up, by sticking him wide.
      Jack and Rambo rotate, or, play together.
      Ozil/ Cazorla in the 10.
      We have a ton of options for the wide berths, left and right.
      Tomas can not even get a start yet.

  18. This might be a bad team because it leave out some very important players in the bench, Gibbs and Debuchy and Wilshere and its a pattern that we fear – what with Man United LvG failed attempts, but it is what can perform wonders for us
    ——————-Welbeck
    —–Sanchez, Ozil, Ramsey, Walcott
    ———–Flamini——Chambers
    —–Martesacker, Konsienly, Monreal
    ———————Szczesny

    It will resolve the problems we have with the isolation of the DM by bringing in the second guy and in this case i choose Flamini and Chambers because the two have good utility value and can cover the wingback and full back areas in case of counter attack and still have the duty to stop attacks in the centre of the pitch. The defenders will have to stay in the back and will not need to go forward and therefore any attacks will find a resolute team of three, helped by one of the DMs waiting

    1. I don’t need to speak about the credentials of the attacking five—and the fact that each of the roles above will have another one player in the bench that can play a powerful replacement. Podolski for Sanchez, Giroud and Sanogo for Welbeck, Ox for Walcott, Arteta for Chambers and Flamini, Diaby for Flamini and Arteta, Gibbs, Debuchy and Bellerin can cover the back CBs with training and Ospina for Szczeny. Rosicky, Wilshere and Carzola can come into the center. The younger players too can be involved adequately in matches that we are doing well…

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