Arsenal: An attacking team that don’t score goals!

Arsene Wenger has been complaining all season about the referees awarding penalties to Arsenal’s opponents and the schoolboy errors committed by our defenders, but in his eyes the only reason we have been losing is we simply don’t score enough goals. “[Winning each game 4-3] is not the solution I like,” he said on Arsenal.com. “I like the four, but I don’t like the three.

“We have to improve our defensive record, absolutely, and everybody has to contribute. That is why we have to work on that and find the balance. Without destroying our offensive power, we have to find the balance so we are better defensively.

“We don’t necessarily need relief but we want to be more efficient on the football pitch because when you say we’ve conceded too many goals, I think we don’t score enough goals. That’s our basic problem. That’s not only defensively but offensively, we don’t score enough goals.

“That’s our DNA. We are an attacking team. The danger is when you are an attacking team that you don’t score and then of course you create your own problems.”

He is right of course. How many times have we had 30 attempts on goal and had 70% of the possession and only scored once? Like against Man United at the Emirates?

He admitted that he was desperate to buy another top defender in January (although I don’t think we tried  hard enough personally) to try and stop so many silly errors by our back line, but he has made it his main priority to bring in more strikers to add to our ‘goals for’ column. We must be confident that Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan and Mesut Ozil can link up brilliantly right from the start to give us a cushion against our floundering defenders.

Well, attack is the best form of defence, right?

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20 Comments

  1. Meh season is over tbh and we needed to focus on next year.

    Should drop Mustafi and Kos and let chambers and holding get game time.

    If they don’t grow then ship out Mustafi and bring in 2 quality CB.

    Also need a quality DM and ship out xhaka.

    Oh and a defensive coach

    1. We have already have coach who was part of the best back 4 Arsenal ever had. His name is Steve Bould and – like Pat Rice before him – he is treated like a mere YES MAN. We will never defend well till the French control freak leaves. And that will not be until Kroenke says so. And Kroenke knows nothing about football !!!

      1. Chris, couldn’t have put it better. Please Arsene Wenger let Steve Bould earn his money and coach Arsenal’s defense!

        1. So you two people are at London Colney everyday to watch Arsenal in training.? How else would you conclude that Steve Bould does not do any coaching work?

          1. David how dare you question the well grounded myths the media portray that fans who “think for themselves” then parrot! Face facts vast majority of fans will never spend the time to learn about football/football economics or read between the lines of various things especially transfer business and Wenger’s comments on such.

            Wenger’s not perfect but if he was even 10% of the things that get claimed on here we’d of been relegated along time ago. Delusional is not even close, these guys genuinely think Wenger controlled transfer negotiations despite the fact every source on the subject claims the opposite and that Wenger has regularly pushed the club to spend more. Likewise they believe talents waste away under Wenger due to outdated coaching methods despite the fact there is not one player who left Arsenal and kicked on in personal (not collectively won trophies) development impressively (say like ex-Chelsea players such as Lukaku, Bruyne, Matic etc.) not one not even a defender which Wenger according to the masses can’t coach which should mean a long line of succesful ex-Arsenal defenders once they escaped the shackles of Wenger. Upson is the closest and he was much the same as Nasri/Fabregas/RVP well thought of went on to play much as expected no better although Nasri/RVP’s careers stalled pretty quickly afterwards tbh.

            When has one of Arsenals flops ever go on to be anything? The fact Carlos Vela a player who was always more suited to La Liga is the best example and a poor on that says all that needs to be said about coaching at Arsenal or tactics to bring out the best in them for that matter. Ox looks like Ox did at Arsenal finally finding some end product at his peak age (why we were willing to keep him) but nothing special certainly no improvement he was better from wb than he has been anywhere for Liv so far.

            It’s why the board who for all their penny pinching faults (make no mistake this has always been the board and not wenger) have shaken up the scouting/negotiation side of the club (contray to claims of war behind the scenes, wenger has never handled these in the first place and still as ever has final say on transfers just not on the budget.) This was the problem area that and the board regularly refusing to spend money because it was a risk (be interesting to see how much Griezmann goes for now given the board told Wenger 80mil was too big a risk 2 seasons ago.)

            I’d happily see Wenger go because it’s the age we live in not because he’s past it but because the moment he went the media/sheep fanbase would give the club an easy time/say positive things like Liverpool get currently and that would likely have a positive effect because these things do matter especially in the market for younger players who grow up on media.

            Our only saving grace is the amount of ex-Arsenal players/agents (who despite their reps do pay attention to coaching levels, it’s in their best long-term interest) who have traveled around making sure that at least among a lot of pros Wenger’s coaching ability is not up for debate. Doesn’t change the money issue (Wenger did his best to say I’d of loved to sign Laporte any day of the week but we can’t compete once City get involved which is true but no one paid attention because that doesn’t fit the narrative.) We made attacking signings because the rich clubs didn’t need attackers right now so we didn’t get blown out the water plain and simple.

  2. If your attacking players are not good enough, the defense area will suffer even if the defenders are world class…
    Manchester City team for example, They have one for the most devastating attacking unit in the world, The attacking unit absorbs pressures from the defense unit….. Only Liverpool team has been able to break through the attacking unit of Manchester City team and tested their defense…..
    my point is this, A great attacking and central midfield unit makes any class of defense looks World class…. If Wenger can be courageous enough to utilize Lacazette Aubayamang Ozil milki and Wilshere in the same first eleven, our defense will look better…. Barcelona and Manchester City are good examples

    1. There is a way and it involves dropping Granit Xhaka, a player Wenger has not dropped yet but his performances indicate he should be dropped. the pattern is 3.3.2.1.1. People are forgetting there is Welbeck, Iwobi, Reiss Nelson, Edward Nketiah who can sit on the bench and come in when one of the two needs to rest and so one does not have fears that after using the two there no one popping from the bench who can play super sub…

      ——Aubameyang———————–

      —————————Lacazette——-

      ———–Mkhitaryan-Ozil—————-

      Kolasinac——-Wilshere——Ramsey

      ——-Monreal-Koscienly-Bellerin——-

      ————————Cech——————-

      It would be a bold line-up if Arsene went for it but look at the advantages. Lacazette is aready showing great link up play with his colleagues and can play the second striker. Aubameyang at the CF role but biased to the left so he can take advantage of the width in the left to initiate attacks and stretch the defenders, Lacazette plays second CF but biased to the right so he too can stretch the defenders. Ozil and Mkhitaryan play a rear but potent attacking Mid-fielding duet, and can proceed to take chances and score. Ozil has already shown he can get the goals.

      Kolasinac and Ramsey provide the width but can cut inside and offer assistance to Wilshere in the Anchorage role. There will be no need for Bellerin and Monreal to spend too much time attacking and can stay back to defend 80% of the time. Cech…he needs to be replaced but that may only be in the summer.

    2. I can’t agree more. Attack is the best form of defence. The main problem with many of our contributors is their biased opinions and stereotypes. Once some people believe that a certain player or manager is bad even when he doesn’t play in a particular game he will be blamed for the loss! Take the example of the Aubameyang negotiations. Even though it was clearly stated that Wenger had not been involved in the whole process still some people found a way of blaming Wenger for the delay in concluding the deal!

  3. Attack is the best form of defense but in our case, it’s not. How can you have 4 very good attacking guys but that’s it, from behind them to the GK are all goal leakers, mistake after mistake, all average at best. You think that attack can stop people from bombarding our goal posts? Even with MSN or BBC, if all the rest are Arsenal midfielders, defenders and mr. Cech, the the phrase attack is the best form of defense do not apply there

  4. I am more concerned by the claims of auba in for outgoing laca by the idiotic skysports pundits.

    1. Yet when United sign Lukaku and then Sanchez lip service is paid to 60mil+ Martial (lucky they keep missing a lot of performance related additions or he’d be close to 100mil that was before the market doubled too in the summer) or clearly talented Rashford falling down the pecking order. Bias at it’s very best. Liverpool had a very impressive attacking unit last year and signed Salah/Ox no negative press. It’s a joke and the fact so many fans lap it up is embarrassing.

  5. With LMAO we don’t need as much attacking from our midfielders

    They can sit a little deeper and help protect defence better.

    Xakha long balls are great- but we need someone that can tackle!

    I’d play Elneny instead, and sacrifices king balls. Be better overal team balance

  6. I believe it’s BECAUSE we have so much possession that we put ourselves under pressure at the back.Think about how we attack.Against teams that sit back with everyone behind the ball we play our unique brand of the Emirates Waltz.Sideways Sideways Back Sideways Spin in a circle (Yeah YOU RAMSEY)Backwards Sideways sideways Etc Etc
    We have players more focused on retaining the ball than actually doing anything positive with it.LITTLE JACK at least tries to run at the opposition and take players on but he is the only one.When was the last time you saw anyone consistently take their markers on?We are too concerned in playing keep ball.We have all this possession but look how few chances we create.
    By having players joining in the attacks we invariably have too many players congested in an already packed final third.Both fullbacks are up.Tha mibfield 3 are up (but going sideways)Ozil is TRYING to find space and time.The strikers are normally making runs in space that just is not there.
    Then we have the counter against us.With no CDM and players out of position we are so vulnerable to teams breaking at pace against us.Look at Swansea this week.They had pace to burn in Dyer and he was able to exploit space that had us scrambling to defend.
    When we get our NEW MANAGER I’m sure he will be scouted by us with fresh ideas and tactics.Im sure Wenger hasn’t realised that you get points for scoring goals and winning games and NOT for how many passes you can make during 90 minutes.

    1. IF you think we have too much of the ball you betray how little you know about football and how poorly you follow it day to day so much so I won’t read the rest of your nonsense. Wenger has long moved away from keep ball, we still have quite a high number because all top teams will have an above average number due to sit back teams who allow insane levels. This is singularly what annoys me most about fans you don’t understand the first thing about the game. City pass sideways a lot. Chelsea pass sideways a lot. United pass sideways a lot. What annoys me even more all these teams do it against us but none of you go oh Matic just passed sideways all game he’s so poor. Poor teams will always have space to exploit btw it’s why Bent was prolific at Charlton and average at Spurs.

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