Euro 2016 to make Wenger rethink Arsenal tactics?

The tactical side of football is always developing and changing to some extent and Arsene Wenger has himself earned a well deserved reputation for the way that Arsenal have played the game since he took over as our manager almost 20 years ago. But the possession based football that has been the Arsenal way for many years now could be coming under threat from the new tactics that were widely used at this summer’s Euro 2016 tournament, so I wonder whether the prof is starting to think seriously about a rethink.

The Euros seemed to be full of teams that were happy to concede possession and try to hit their opponents on the break. The efficacy of these tactics was starkly highlighted by the fact the winners Portugal won only one game in 90 minutes and their success was founded on their miserly defence which only conceded more than one goal on one occasion and kept four clean sheets in seven matches.

This is not a new tactic and even though it is not exactly thrilling to watch and saw a lot of flak aimed at Jose Mourinho and his big blue bus, it did earn Chelsea the Premier League title two seasons ago. There is a growing feeling that the Gunners are too predictable and too easy to play against if a team is well organised and determined to sit back and deny us space.

The new Chelsea boss and his Italy side did very well employing similar tactics in France and they were arguably the best team in the tournament and I expect more of the same from him in the Premier League and probably from Jose and Man United as well.

I think that Wenger has already started to take this on board and set Arsenal up to be more counter attacking ourselves at times, but will Euro 2016 make the Frenchman even more ready to change the tactics he has relied on for so long?

Bob.

Tags Conte Mourinho Portugal

9 Comments

  1. While I agree with the general context of the article there are a few points I disagree on.

    The season Chelsea won the title they scored more goals than everyone except Man City and were thrashing teams for half the season. I’m sure everyone remembers that 6 3 game at goosdison park vs Everton. They beat us 2 0 that season and were smashing everyone till that crazy game at whl where they lost. After that they shut up shop and cruised to the title.

    The point from that is you can’t play one style of play throughout the season. You have to have a few options available at your disposal. Chelsea had Costa the main CF who was on a scoring spree before he got injured. Remy the fast CF and Drogba for route one and they all chipped in at various parts. I’m not even going to touch on our striking situation here at Arsenal.

    Secondly counter attacking football isn’t parking the bus. Dortmund under Klopp and Juventus/Italy under Conte/Allegri counter attack but they are tactically flexible high pressing teams. They are fluid in transition and adapt to the situation through great team organization.

    Parking the bus was West Ham under Sam Allardyce, Sunderland under Gus Poyet or even now. They counter attack when they get the chance but they set up merely not to lose as opposed to a specific game plan in mind.

    Arsenal have to be tactically sound and more importantly flexible in order to he successful and this season I really fear for us because if we are being brutally honest here Wegner is the least tactically flexible of all the big name managers.

    I fear Conte is going to be really deadly with Chelsea because a midfield of Matic Kante and Fabregas is a midfield to be feared and will given license to the players like Hazard Costa Willian etc. With only one game per week they could be in a similar position to Liverpool a few seasons ago.

    Most importantly they are making signings. Meanwhile at Arsenal those tumbleweeds are rolling on…

    1. Don’t worry,
      we have Sanogo, Welback will be back after 7months and the Japanese striker(I don’t remember his name)
      above that we have the professor who have intelligent tactics

  2. Very interesting to see competitions between attacking minded managers (AW, Pep and Klopp) against parking bus arrangers (Jose the sacked one and Conte and off course Ranieri). If AW naively do his usual things without any adjustment, then we’ll see another disappointing result against those team. One thing for sure, Guardiola will not be easy to get the title as he did at Spain and German. His team are not superior like Barca and Muenchen.

  3. Chelski (without UCL football) have complete the signing of N’golo Kante…..subject to an official announcement / unveiling

    and they are negotiating the Koulibaly deal as well

    Just shows how shambolic Arsenal is and what Lackadiasical manager we got when it comes to business……How long has Conte been Chelski boss?

    1. Exactly ?
      There was life before Wenger and they’ll be life after him when he’s gone. Bring in a manager who can see what it is Arsenal need to do to win the league.
      Because the last 10 years have been a viscous cycle. , taking far too long getting transfer targets, injuries, terrible excuses, turning up one game then the next we go awol and put in shambolic performance etc.

  4. the Euro influences nothing cos for one it’s a cup competition of 7games at most and 5 to 6 games for the teams that concede possession.
    .
    we talking a 60games season not a 6games Cup-tournament.
    .we can’t play 442 cos that means Ozil is played out wide or deep in midfield. deep in midfield he doesn’t have the defensive qualities
    and outwide we all know he has his worst games there.
    all these are excuses to keep playing Giroud who is a poor striker.
    keep playing Ozil in CAM; Alexis on LW with freedom to cut in and get HIGUAIN upfront or a real striker.
    for Ramsey (if we don’t sign Mahrez or a natural RW) he continues as a false 7 in a form of ‘free-role’ swapping positions during games.
    and then when we winning comfortably Cazorla can be subbed off for any of Iwobi,Walcott,Ox,Campbell or even Wilshere to come in, move to the Rightwing and Ramsey drops to CM.
    however if we get Mahrez or the natural RW Ramsey ll simply be rotated with Cazorla… it’s a good thing Xhaka is both the destroyer Cazorla does best beside and the deeplying playmaker and dictator Ramsey does well beside.

  5. The only adjustment that can be done with arsenal is a new forward. Ozil can not play the Griezeman role like france and if we go to the france formation, i would feel it would be better with ozil on the bench, but thats a no no in wengers book.

    A Sanchez, Iwobi, Campbell, welbeck and even a ramsay/wilshere would give a 4-4-2, better structure than Ozil. If we put Ozil on the wing it we would still have room for his creativity, but we lose a goal threat going forward and also the defensive discipline needed

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