Should Arsenal consider playing 3-4-4 formation?

When Arsene Wenger first took over as the new manager of Arsenal Football Club over 18 years ago, the Frenchman was not very well known but he soon became known around the world for his innovative ideas, both on and off the pitch. And it is safe to say that most of the football world has taken on board all the nutritional and behind the scenes stuff.

But in recent years, Wenger has been accused of being a bit set in ways tactically. An opposing team may struggle to cope with our passing, possession and fluency, but they have no problem working out what formation they will be facing when taking on the Gunners.

Wenger has long moved on from the old 4-4-2 though, and the 4-3-3 system does suit the style of play we use and the players in the Arsenal squad, but a new idea seems to be coming more and more into vogue, the 3-4-3 formation used by Liverpool at Anfield and in their last few games. Louis van Gaal used this with Holland at the World Cup finals in the summer and he has been using it in the Premier League at times this season with Man United, including when they came to the Emirates.

United were unbelievably lucky that day. They didn’t deserve a point never mind all three and their three at the back gave us plenty of chances, but the United players seem top be growing into it and I wonder whether it might be time for Wenger to consider it as well.

Three centre backs should in theory give better protection to our goal and having wing backs means the likes ofg Gibbs could get forward more without exposing the defence. And having four midfielders might help to solve the problem of our soft centre. It might also help us to cope with the problem of having the likes of Koscielny unavailable through injury as Wenger could set up like so:

Szczesny
Chambers/Debuchy, Mertesacker, Monreal
Bellerin, Flamini, Chamberlain, Gibbs/Cazorla
Alexis, Giroud, Welbeck

What do you think Gooners?

Tags defence Gibbs Wenger

36 Comments

    1. it’s always a pain in the A*** seeing people using welbeck as a winger what does he offer from the wing! what does he offer any way??? instead Arsenal should consider sending wenger off

  1. 3-3-4 is not the right option for a team that cannot seem to defend as well as they used to, especially with mertesacker being slow

  2. Lets give Walcott half an hour next match..not more than that. He will get injured again. Give some rest to Ox, he looks tired.

  3. We aren’t struggling to attack and score goals, so why have an extra attacking player? We’re struggling to keep clean sheets. If anything there’s an argument for playing five at the back instead of three, though I think we should stick with our 4-2-3-1 formation.

    1. What about a back 5 of Gibbs, kos, chambers, debuchy, bellerin and remove flamini from the midfield completely? I mean, if were getting creative with who we have instead of just buying a new CB and DM.

  4. Forget formation. We can’t seem to stay in position. What good are tactics when we can’t do the basics. Teams like Southampton and Westham ate doing well because they have the right players in the right positions playing good football. Our style is very fickle. We’re either dominating or being dominated. Why can’t we absorb pressure, stay in position, create our passing game. We need a couple recruits in January but most importantly is Mentality! We need a run and now is the time. My New Years wish is to beat Chelsea. Wenger has to do it.

  5. You want to know where the first half of our season went???

    Lucky to draw at Everton (Defense), 2pts lost
    Tied away to newly promoted Leicester (Defense), 2pts lost
    Should have beaten City @ Home (Defense), 2pts lost
    Tied at home to an even sh***er Spurs (Defense), 2pts lost
    Why even show up at Stamford Bridge as we can’t beat a Mourinho Chelsea team (Defense), 3pts lost
    Tied @ home to Hull SERIOUSLY (Defense), 2pts lost
    Allowed Swansea to comback when we’re leading (Defense), 3pts lost
    Man Utd’s worst side ever beat us @ HOME (Defense), 3pts lost and BIGGEST JOKE SO FAR
    We all know what happened at Stoke… (Defense)
    and most recently tied away to weaker Liverpool team when we had the lead and conceded in injury time with more than half our team being defensive players at the time, (Defense)

    So there you have it, our team is a joke because our defense is a joke. I will even go as far as saying that Flamini and Mertersacker have no business plying their trades for Arsenal Football Club…

    1. It’s easy to blame defense. Yes we’ve lost games we shouldn’t have, but why? Ill agree with Mert that playing on the back foot is not good tactics, , but why do we play on the back foot? IMO if has to do with losing possession, a weak injury prone midfield, forwards who can’t keep possession. If we are going to play good football. Hold the f@cking ball. Wind down games. Keep pressure off our ever changing back four. It’s easy to blame back four when we are losing the ball. Been a tough year. You said it.

  6. I’m not a AKB or AOB, but i’m starting to really believe that we DO NOT have the players capable of winning the league. I mean yes Wenger has to shoulder some of the blame especially mostly being the one who brought these athletes to our club but at the same time he’s not the one out the kicking the ball around. We honestly have a few completely shite players on our books and until we get rid of them and replace them with class then we remain stagnant. Trust me if you are surrounded by class there isn’t much you would have to say to your team to pull off a win… First and Foremost you absolutely need the RIGHT players in the RIGHT positions…

    1. How much talking to you think Anchelotti needs to do at Madrid, Pep at Bayern as an example. Star studded teams that got the required players over time to get where they are now (some might be a little shady) but they had the ambition at one time to become that and now they are. Get the right players Wenger, PLEASE and you can know doubt sit every game and just watch and enjoy… Oh I pray for the day when the great Arsenal are once again feared all over…

      1. You couldn’t be more wrong!
        Have you ever seen a Mourihno or Pep team talk?
        They dissect the opposing team for every single game, they cover the danger areas, strengths and weakness’s of the opposition and task players to exploit that.
        They tell each player exactly what his job is and where he should be on the pitch for every eventuality.
        That is why they never have the shambolic displays of disjointed football that we do.

    1. Usually very positive when it comes to our club, but if we win the league with this team this season it would be nothing short of a miracle… Just keeping it real and regardless what anyone says you need the RIGHT players bottom line. Do you think Mourinho regrets getting Costa and Fabregas??? F**k no becuase they where the right players for him at that given time and now they’re leading the league…

  7. Agree. Mertesacker is costing us big time with his sluggish and slow efforts. Yes. he has a good pass completion rate, most of which go back or sideways, and hardly anthing for the midfield and forwards to create chances with. Flamin plays for his early yellow only, and then it’s game over for him. These two are vulnerable, and our opponents know it, and thats why it has cost us most of those points that you had the time to analyze

    1. I agree with you For eg he had a 95% pass acc in the last game but only 33% tackle succes. He isn’t good enough at tacking. He is very good in the air averaging over 64% headed duels throughout the season. Merts would be better suited to a team that sits back and plays tackically eg la liga style.

      Solutions?
      Van dijk,read,laporte aren’t the answers

      Nkaulou; he is statistically the best defender in Europe this season and he isn’t cup tired.he is tall,strong,very quick,a very good tackler and unrivalled in the air,has great leadership qualities and only 25.intrestingly enough when he first broke into the Marseille squad at 21 he was linked with a move to arsenal and wenger said he was a big admirer. He would cost around 15m but he would make the perfect fix plus long term solution. The only draw back to a deal is that Marseille are top of the table and I’m sure he wants to captain them to a title.

  8. Diaby Sanogo Wilshere
    Podolski Flaminii Arteta
    Mertesacker Monreal
    Ryo Gnabry and Campbell
    can fire us to the ECL title.

  9. That line up is shocking!

    Though I do not agree with 3 4 3 I would much rather go for

    Scz

    Debuchy chambers monreal/kos

    Chamberlain ramsey rosicky gibbs

    Alexis giroud podolski

    We can even change back to 4 3 3

    Hmmm maybe 3 4 3 could be a good starting formation change about to 4 3 3 if need be. Or even the 4 1 2 3.

    What do you actually do in your time at arsenal wenger?? Clearly not tactics and formations.

    1. Have to disagree with that to make us. Stronger defensively wenger has tried to integrate the 4-14-1 tactics in certain games this works well against those team who like to play with an ATt mid but it didn’t offer much support to the wide men as there starting positions was very deep.
      Arsenal were at their best with a flat 3 in cm (the year wilshire made his break through)this means that each cm is responsible for defending and attacking the players that aren’t compatible to this are ozil n flamini because both are either defensive or attacking in play and wouldn’t be good at both.

  10. 3-4-4 with mert at the centre of the defence …….does any1 even realize gibbs and chambers aren’t just LB and RB respectively?….sometimes the act as wing backs…….dat will leave us with only a snail protecting the defence…..get ready to be raped front, back and bottom! ….. 3-4-4 smh!

  11. Fact “Cesc Fabregas has more assists in 16 Premier League games for Chelsea than Jack Wilshere has in entire Arsenal career”. Let that sink in for a while.

    1. I have never rated Jack.

      Yes some of his runs look good, but that’s all he does is run and usually into a brick wall losing possession.

      Then he just lays there moaning and for what

      1. This fresh 3 month layoff of Jack, was solely his fault. He practically begged to have his ankles broken by Fletcher (?). Hold the ball for so long and it will happen.

        He brought that injury on himself and IMO, he should suffer the consequences (bench him). Not did he only manage to injure himself again but he also killed a good counter attack choosing not to pass to Sanchez, moment before his injury.

        1. Too bad we can’t blame Jack now. Miss the days iof his pointless possessions costing us games. Now who do we blame? Mert or Wenger it seems…

  12. Teams who use that system generally dont use their wing backs as the employ attacking midfielders. Sort of the whole point.

    It would ease our numerical lack of defenders but i would prefer a 352 over this depending on who we face of course.

    Against the better sides Gibbs Debuchy could be solid wing backs and when we have only flamini or arteta holding it would suffice as long as Gibbs and Debuchy are understanding their roles. Three cbs and a holding player would likely mean that our opponents might try going wide to find some space.

    Ramsey, and Ozil would play the spaces behind Giroud Sanchez of course. Debuchy would be a very useful wing back but if its goals we need then Walcott with Ox the other side then Debuchy maybe dropping to the back three.

    All of us are going to have different opinions on formations and who should start when where etc but i think allot of us would worry for this squad if we tried making big changes at this point. I think formation changes should be done in the off season and on training ground first and only then try it out during a match that is not going accordingly to plan.

    Heard on espn was said of course liv controlled the game they were at home against an Arsenal who were missing their entire first midfield had a makeshift defense and played wingers in central midfield. I think we made it look a better system than it is… manu and to some extent ourselves showed just how leaky it is. Liv are hyping their performance up papering over how they look defensively.

  13. 3-4-4 formation REALLY!!! Hahahahahahahahahhahahhahahahah someone must really hate Per to set him up like that…

  14. mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/crystal-palace-ultras-granted-meeting-4868594 take notice you passive fans in England.

  15. Too many times this year it has looked like a 2-5-3 with the way Gibbs and Chambers have joined in the attacks (think first game versus Andelecht followed in succession by Swansea and ManU). So maybe a 344 would be more solid but I doubt it. The formation isn’t the big problem, it’s the mentality. A few year’s ago, Hansen on MOTD accused Theo of not having a “footballing brain”. It was harsh at he time and this year, Theo is being made to look like football’s equivalent to Einstein by many of our defenders.

  16. Obviously formation very much depend on who you are up against but I favour four at he back, a defense midfielder in front of them, three in midfield ( including a number 10) and two strikers, 4-1-3-2. We need a centre back and a defense midfieder in January.

  17. 4-1-1-3-1. After January

    ………………..Szczesny
    Gibbs..Schar…Koscielny..Debuchy
    ……………….Schneiderlin
    ……………….Ramsey
    Sanchez……..Ozil………Walcott
    ………………..Cavani

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