With Monaco being famous for the casinos, I suppose there is no better place for Arsenal to roll the dice and have a gamble. And that is just what I expect Arsene Wenger to do tomorrow night as the boss tries to get us into the quarter-finals of the Champions League – despite losing to Monaco 3-1 at home in the first leg.
The Gunners need an early goal to quieten the home crowd and get the nerves jangling among the Monaco players so I expect to see an attacking line-up and despite how well the team played against West Ham on Saturday, I do not think that Wenger will stick with the same starting XI.
I think we need to make four key changes in Monaco and despite his Man of the Match show at the weekend, I think Aaron Ramsey should be one of them. Not only is it a lot to ask to play two hard games in four days after just returning to the side from injury, I feel that we have to get the excellent and more attacking Santi Cazorla on to the pitch. Swapping the Spaniard for Rambo may take away some defensive strength but we have to go for it.
So I would also bring Danny Welbeck in after his great winner against Man United, and drop Walcott back to the bench. The speedy England international could be very useful as a sub, while Danny is pretty quick himself but offers more in terms of strength and pressing the opposition. Walcott is not fully up to match sharpness yet either.
My other two changes would be at the back, with Gabriel replacing Mertesacker as long as the Brazilian is fit. We may need to cope with a lot of counter attacks and the German’s lack of pace could leave us dangerously exposed, just as it did in the first leg.
And the need to not gift anything to Monaco is the reason why I would replace Chambers with Bellerin as well. The young England international did some very good things going forward on Saturday, but his positioning could have cost us a few times.
Do you agree with these changes and would you make any more?
It’s a tough call regarding Ramsey. I personally would put him in the squad because we were too weak in the middle of the park in the first leg and a player like Ramsey will help to disrupt counter attacks and launch counter attacks of our own. Ramsey also looked great and full of energy on Saturday, something we desperately need from our two deeper central midfielders. I would have Ozil and Sanchez out wide with Ramsey, Cazorla and Le Coq in the middle, Giroud up top. Walcott and Welbeck provide pace off the bench as impact subs around 60th minute.
Definitely choose Bellerin over Chambers and a fit Gabriel over Mert for the very same reason you provided, we need to protect against the counter attack.
Ospina
Bellerin Gabriel Kos Monreal
Coq
Ozil Carzola
Sanchez. Welbeck
Giroud
Anything other than this and we have no chance. Every player except Gabriel are in form at the minute. All other players are not, as we seen at the weekend with Walcott.
Attack is the best form of defence, as long as 1 full back goes forward at a time. It gives us 3 defenders plus coq.
Ramsey for Ozil and put cazorla amf
It seems like everybody is ok with Ozik and Santi playing together? If we start Ozil, Santi, and Alexis. We will lose unless Monaco has a terrible day
Ramsey shld start ahead of Welbeck..Ramsey finishes more than hm,ctrls d game nd infact offers..my line will be:Ospina.kos.gab.bellerin.monreal.le coq.ramsey.cazorla.ozil.sanchez.giroud.
Every reasonable manager wld have settled for d same line up, given d same option. Bt for me, I wld rather go for Rambo over Ozil anytime anyday, cos of his work rate plus his decency around d opponent goal post. All in all, Arsenal fc shld attack nd fear no more downfall, since, he wld has being down need no fear of a further fall. Gunner all d best!!!!!!!!!!!!
My only issue with Ramsey is that he can be lazy defensively. He fails to identify the danger man and too slow in closing him down, which has cost us a few times.
Welbeck is aggressive defensively and gets himself in much better position more often than Ramsey.
for me i will make some drastic changes:Defence; Bellerin, Per, Kos, Monreal. Mid: Ramsey, Coq, Alexis. Forward: Welbeck, Giroud, Rosicky, Alexis Plyaing no.10, feel Rosicky got something special if played tonight. COYG
we like it or not Wenger will start with per.
so my guss is he will bring welback.. and bellerin but that will be it..
me i will start welback upfront and drop giru and play ozil at left wing and bring Ramsey in. Ospina. Belerin, per,kos,monre
Ramsey Coq
Alexi,, carzola, Ozil
welback
So you drop our in form best striker for a Welbeck?? The guy can’t score a goal unless it is given to him on a plate, we need goals and you go with a player that can’t and does not score goals??? That’s weird.
If Welbeck is to start he starts out wide.
Me I prefer Ox chamberlain than Wellbeck coz Ox is now on top of the game,Rosicky also to start for Özil
Ox is also injured.
It’s crazy to see the options we now have on our squad. I think the only fixed spots for tonight are Koscielny, Coq, and Ospina – the rest is up in the air. Hopefully whichever lineup AW chooses will get the results we need.
Arsenal average postion came up to something like till CAM and that is a worry cause not only did the supporters do anything giroud needed something to motivate him and that was detrimental because of the fact that he was French and Monaco was arsene first club and how badly he wanted to do it before freed teammates. As far as the lineups are concerned I would have monreal sczeney bellerin koscielny mertesacker coquelin Ramsey ozil welbeck Sanchez and giroud as far as Cazorla he can remain patient and arsenal have themselves arrsured defensively and nullified thier attack to fullest of extents
V Monaco
Ospina
Bellerin Per Kos Monreal
Coq Cazorla
Welbeck Ozil Sanchez
Giroud
why cant we start with 3 at back
ospina
gabriel mertesacker koscielny
walcott ozil coq cazorla sanchez
welbeck giroud
or
welbeck being replaced with ramsey.
Ramsey has got to start, we are going to need his work rate and goal threat too. He is more of a goal threat than out Cazorla and Ozil, he is more athletic and energetic. We are going to need all his attributes in this games… So him and Cazorla start for me.
But let’s be honest there is no way Ozil will not start. So I think one of Ramsey or Cazorla will start on the bench.
It’s going to be a very near impossible job to go through but let’s give it a real go.
People tend to overlook the factors that made us dominate our last match against the Hammers. The two players who made it seamless for us to counter attack so effectively were Ramsey and Walcot. I will start the Qoc and Ramsey in midfield with Cazorla/Ozil ahead of them, Sanchez and Walcot on the wings.
Ospina
Bellerin Kos Gab(if fit) Monreal
Ramsey Coq
Ozil Santi Alexis
Giroud
The only thing I would consider changing is bringing in Welbeck but who for? Ozil and Santi are both in exceptional form and Rambo needs to play, out of those Welbeck has to miss out. He will also be more effective coming of the bench than the others so I think this is the team we should go for.
We should not go gung-ho from the off, if we concede an early goal it’s impossible. We MUST score first, even if it be early in the second half, at least then we can change it up and bring on some attacking players whilst they’re on the back foot. I hope we score much earlier than that but if we leave ourselves exposed from kick-off they have the players to counter us (as seen in 1st leg). We can do this, along as we are sensible, calm and clinical.
Must we play our usual 4141,4231 can’t we opt for 352 giving the circumstance we r into at the moment we really have nothing to lose at this point so I will go with this line up if I were AW
Ospina
Bell boss gibbs
Ozil carzola coq ramsey sanchez
Walcott giroud