Wenger needs to sort out Arsenal’s midfield immediately

Arsenal need to take charge of the midfield battles now! By Sylvester Kwentua
Arsenal’s 2017 campaign, trophy wise, is pretty much coming to an end as the Gunners repeated their annual drill of progressing a decent way in all major tournaments before crashing out in a drastic manner. However, things have turned quite sour this season with fans and critics getting way more ammunition than usual to criticize the team, the manager as well as the board, so much so that this might finally be Arsene Wenger’s last season with Arsenal.

With 12 more games to go before the season ends, Arsenal have two tasks on their hands now. Firstly, they would try and get back to the top four, a zone which has been their home for quite some time now, and secondly, Wenger is expected to go all out for the FA cup.

One department of football that has been of great concern to fans and football pundits alike has been Arsenal’s midfield. Arsenal had started the season with arguably the best core of midfielders in the premier league and quite shockingly, it has turned out to be a major chink in their armour now. Though injuries to the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Santi Cazorla have played a huge role in this phenomenon, Wenger’s team selections have further exacerbated it.

Wenger’s tendency to keep on playing a player, even when he has become a dead rubber, is his biggest fault and Francis Coquelin has been a prime example of it. Despite breaking into the team with tremendous vigour and aggression a few years back, he has reduced himself to a liability now and the way he bounced off Eden Hazard last month pretty much summed up his current state. Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain has been brilliant from the middle and should find a permanent place there alongside Xhaka as per tactics.

Wenger needs to make the desired change for the sake of the team or else he will keep on losing games to teams he should ordinarily win. He needs to drop Coquelin for a while and use Chamberlain more often. Even Ozil, should not be guaranteed a regular starting berth until he proves he can improve on his game. Against Bayern, out midfield didn’t give our defenders the much needed cover and that was why we conceded goals like it was running out of stock. We need to up our game before our next match and one sure way of improving, is to work on our midfielders.

Who do you think should play in our midfield from now on?

Sylvester

8 Comments

  1. Hasn’t managed to sort out his jacket zipper for over a decade, asking him to sort out a midfield might be too big a task.

  2. The fans are in a dilemma now. I want Arsenal to win the FA cup and qualify for champions league next season but Wenger should leave after the season with this achievement.

    I fear the board would give him another contract if he wins the FA cup and qualify for champions league. That’s the problem. Too bad I can predict what’s on the boards mind but if they plan to reward Wenger if he finish in the top four and win the fa cup then Its better Arsenal finish 7th.

    That’s why I say we are in a dilemma.

  3. We don’t have much options now, so by elimination technique, Coq is out due to his form, Elneny is injured so he can’t play..we are left with Xhaka,ox and Ramsey…

    On current form, I will go for Xhaka…Ox pivot…
    Wait a minute, can’t we just play 4-3-3 flat??

    We can then have:

    ……Ox……Xhaka….Ramsey…..
    I think that will be fine, Ox get to play in the middle and the front three will be:

    …..Perez…..sanchez….welbeck….
    I think Wenger will go with Xhaka Ramsey with Ox on the wings..

  4. Even if we have Verratti, Cazorla, Kante, Matic, Pogba and Isco in the midfield area, Arsenal will still struggle, if they still use the same system. You can try to bring all Barcelona midfielders like Busquets, Rakitic,and Iniesta into our team, we will not dominate and will still produce bad passes.

    Playing with short passes and slow tempo like Barcelona requires all players to work as one team. Barcelona can dominate and have more ball possession because most of their short passes work and they intercept a lot. This is because the distances between their defenders, midfielders and attackers are short. When defending, their attackers will be the first defenders, pressurize the opponent’s defenders and move back to help the midfielders. When attacking, their defenders will be the first attackers, move forward to make sure they are close to the midfielders. They will have to make sure the offside traps work, or will be punished by quick counter-attacks, as we saw in some of their games.

    Playing with such high defensive line requires guts and high confidence, the things that Arsenal does not have currently. Watch Arsenal and Barcelona play side by side, you will see the difference in their systems I am talking about.

  5. Calculate 8 million annual salary since we last won a league title till now, and u will see why wenger deserve all the criticism he is getting.

    Mangers dat have earned less have won more trophies than wenger, yet some fans are still worshipping him in spirit and in truth,

    Our recent record in the ucl is a shame, we loose the first leg and play for pride in the second leg, but now we can’t get a draw home and away in the last 2 years

  6. Calculate 8 million annual salary since we last won a league title till now, and u will see why wenger deserve all the criticism he is getting.

    Mangers dat have earned less have won more trophies than wenger, yet some fans are still worshipping him in spirit and in truth,

    Our recent record in the ucl is a shame, we loose the first leg and play for pride in the second leg, but now we can’t get a draw home and away in the last 2 years

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