Ever since Arsene Wenger arrived to take over the manager´s position at Arsenal, we have known that the Frenchman has his own way of doing things. Sometimes this has led to amazing and entertaining football and sometimes it has led to accusations of stubbornness and making the same mistakes over and over again.
To be honest I do not think we are quite at that point yet, but there is a growing feeling that the current Arsenal system and tactics are not working as well as they were. A big point was made of Wenger selecting the same starting line up for five Premier League games in a row for the first time, but then it seemed to play into the hands of Swansea.
Our defeat on Monday, however, was also put down to a lack of real width and these two things combine to make me agree with Aaron Ramsey´s claim that he would be better off back in the middle. Santi Cazorla is a more natural wide man but we also have the options of Walcott, and Welbeck if he is fit.
Either of those would give Arsenal an injection of pace and attacking intent as well, and could also take United by surprise a little. So should Wenger break out of his recent rut and tweak his Arsenal tactics?
same shit every season for the last 10 seasons….Wenger just dont learn….
next season will be the same again….
I just can’t understand “us” Arsenal fans. Wenger played the same 11 that has been on a winning streak for some time now and I don’t get it if all of you guys would think that the team would never ever lose at some point. Had he not chosen this 11 and the team lost, what would the story be then? Oh I can answer, “why would he change a winning team”? The mighty Bayern, Barca, Real loses matches at some point so let’s get over it and focus on United this weekend because that game is as important as our FA cup finals this month.
‘So should Wenger break out of his recent rut and tweak his Arsenal tactics?’
8W 1D 1L from the last 10… Damn, the author has high standards. If this so called ‘rut’ was maintained over the course of the season we would finish on 98.8 points…
Because every match is different, the same starting 11 is ok up to a point but if a system isn’t working you have to be able to influence the match to get the desired outcome. Hull gave us more space to operate and had little quality in the final third. They played counter attacking football because they had no other option.
Swansea by contrast played counter attacking football as a deliberate and willful tactic There is a difference, Swansea by nature are a possession based team, very much a poor man’s Arsenal, but they had a better chance denyng us space and hitting us on the break than trying to out – football us and it worked.
you didn’t factor in luck. if we had played that game 10 times, we would have won it 8 times. as it happened, all our shots were directly at fabianski. and yes, our D switched off in the last few minutes. the selection of players wasn’t close to being the biggest mistake.
and i did like it that when OG was ineffective, that he bought on walcott and wilshere. otherwise we’d say he has no confidence in those players. and walcott did find space. i’m sad that wilshere/walcott arent a bit better than they are; but they wont get better if we dont play them. plus: OG had an off day. even if we cant get a cavani, we need another dupe of OG so when the 1st OG is having an off day, a 2nd striker can try. (walcott doesnt count; he should improve his craft on the RW).
Come on mate put your glasses on,how may real chances did we have 1 or 2 at most
Giroud needs rest he hasn’t scored in 5games which is why another striker is needed to compliment him or play in his position when he doesn’t perform!
I am wondering why he sign Welbeck for when he doesnt play him as a striker or rotate…
20 Arsenal players
struggling for game time.
Akpom
Wellbeck.
Sanogo
Campbell
Podolski
Walcott
Gnabry
Ryo
Wilshere
Rosicky
Zelalem
Flamini
Chambers
Diaby
Gibbs
Debuchy
Hayden
Gabriel
Szcz
Martinez
A fantastic bench?
or
A load of crap?
Hafiz if you’re going to whinge.. At least give us the credit of knowing a little bit of what’s going on…
Martinez, Akpom, Sanogo, Ryo, Podolski are on loan
Gnabry, Zelalem featured in the u21’s
Diaby, Debuchy, Wilshere, Walcott, Welbeck have all had their injury problems and now a few are being integrated back into the first-team.
Don’t just make lists while you only tell half the story.
Some of the tactics were questionable to say the least. I don’t understand why:
1. when we needed a goal we took offour best striker and put on a winger that needs spacde to run into when the opposition was sitting deep.
2. We took off our DM in favor of a CM.
That’s playing EXACTLY into the opposition’s hands. When you have opposition sitting deep you need to eitherstretch the defense to get in behind or you need to go direct. It made no sense then that we took off Giroud, weirdly enough after we took him off we THEN started putting cross into the box.
Secondly, if yiu take off your DM you’re begging to get hit on the counter and that’s exactly what happened. Then Monreal gets roasted on the 1 – 2, our CBs lose track of their man, Bellerin gets done by montero, cross comes in and Gomis gets a header over Monreal. Exact same goal we conceded away, which is sad because we SHOULD have learned from our mistake.
This is why we are still a bit behind Chelsea. Chelsea as boring as they’ve been are tactically flexible and astut and Mourinho is one of the best at changing a game mid match. We keep losing the exact same way. In order for us to SERIOUSLY challenge for the CL or PL 23 need to be able to change our system and affect a game mid match.
Exactly…this is a sign of poor tactical decisions….
Besides why put in a rusty winger in a striker position when we need a goal???
same basic mistakes season after season…..
time for a change….
first signing next season has to be a manager!!!!!!!!!!!!
In fairness to Wenger, we created a lot of chances when theo and jack were brought on. As much as I also shouted at the screen when Giroud was taken off Theo found himself space in a crowded box on multiple occassions..
It was a game defined by moments which unfortunately didn’t go our way. Theo, Sanchez and Cazorla had chances they should have buried.. Gomis as you rightly pointed out took his one and only chance and should not have been left one out with Monreal at the far post.
‘This is why we are still a bit behind Chelsea. Chelsea as boring as they’ve been are tactically flexible and astut and Mourinho is one of the best at changing a game mid match. We keep losing the exact same way. In order for us to SERIOUSLY challenge for the CL or PL 23 need to be able to change our system and affect a game mid match.’
IMO we did change our tactic. Our intensity lifted immensely for the last portion of the game. What Mourinho does amazingly is for the most part doesn’t put himself in the position where the game is won or lost in the last 20 minutes, unless it’s holding a lead or absorbing pressure, which he does arguably better than anyone.
For large portions of the game Giroud was left stagnant and alone in the box while we tapped it around outside. As soon as we committed numbers in dangerous positions we created chances.
sorry i waffled on a bit there. it didn’t sound like i was agreeing but i meant to.
to summarize what i was trying to say controlling a match for 70mins while creating precious few chances then going all out attack for the last 20mins leaves you vulnerable to what happened. Against Swansea 7 times out of 10 we’ll get the winner… But as we saw it leaves us vulnerable to exactly what happened.
Patience is great.. And with the ball we can control matches like few other teams can. But that means nothing when it’s 0-0 at the 70th
Come on mate put your glasses on,how may real chances did we have 1 or 2 at most
Very tight games
Swansea and Chelsea.
So for me retain the same
starting X1. The luck will
fall our way soon enough.
In the first half against Swansea with Giroud on the pitch all our corners and crosses where knee high. When he was pulled off which I agreed on, the corners and crosses where up in the air. Perhaps we where trying to bamboozle Swansea? It certainly was good catching practice for Fabianski, those shots that where on target.
I was thinking the same thing… With the players we have how hard is it to have a corner specialist?? It’s pretty much a raffle who’s going to take the corner every time we win one.
We have Giroud… IMO the biggest aerial threat in the league. Not to mention Kos and Mert. At least put it into a dangerous area so one of them can make a contest of it. Soooooo many corners fell way short of even the near post. nothing balls
i just think the players couldn’t get themselves up for this game. its a long season. they’ve been switched on for a long time. thats why i liked it that at 70th min, wilshere/walcott were given a try. wenger used to sub at min 85 ; at least he’s improving. i dont really have any other explanation for the low corners. its not the hardest part of the game and we have some really good players.
For me we are at our most dangerous when Ox is on one flank, Sanchez on the other & Cazorla & Ozil central. I believe this was how we started in our cup win at Old Trafford. (When Ox is fit that is)
I think if you look at our performances, we need to play a natural right winger. Ramsey has done a good job there but I personally think Theo would help us a lot more. Ramsey himself said he doesn’t like playing that position.
As Lee said, when the ox is back, it will improve our team massively!
If AW insists on including Ramsey in the current setup, why not deploy a 4-4-2 diamond? coquelin protecting the back 4, Ramsey (engine) and cazorla (deep playmaker) tucked in, Sanchez and giroud up top and ozil in a free role floating right behind them. Juventus has made this work to accommodate Pirlo, pogba, marchiso, and Vidal at times with tevez playing just off the main poacher/striker (morata/llorente). This would also allow bellerin the space to bomb forward which is what he does best as he began his career as a winger in Spain. With this strategy Walcott can play off giroud and closer to goal when/if he comes on. He could also play beside sanchez if giroud is unavailable because both aren’t ideal lone strikers in a 4-2-3-1. walcott would get his wish by getting time as a forward. Even so, I Still think walcotts best position is RW and he just needs time to regain form, confidence and fitness.