We need to put form players on their regular positions. by Konstantin Mitov
Okay, so in a week we’ll be playing Chelsea in the Community shield and I’m largely unconvinced that we’re ready. I’ll try not to mention the fact of how much we need another CB and a CM, but rather focus on the fact that we don’t play players to their strengths.
Elneny as CB? As good as he is on the ball it’s a trap card waiting to be activated. I think Koscielny is banned for the first two games and he’s 32. Who do we play? Monreal, Mertesacker and Elneny? Come on, lets be real, it’s not good enough. We’ll put players off of their positions and we’ll suffer.
Another example was the Ox played on the left. It just didn’t work for him and once he went on the right it was another story. We’ve tried Ramsey and Ozil on the wing and it hasn’t worked either. We changed the formation last season because we were a disaster.
We had to do something and Arsene, late as usual finally took the idea of a new system, but winning 9/10 games once again put the real issue in disguise. We don’t play to our players strengths. The 4-2-3-1 was introduced once we sold Adebayor and had only one striker up front.
But for the players we had at the time it did work. After Fabregas, Nasri and Van Persie were sold though, we tried to use Giroud as a link up player instead of using his aerial qualities. We continue to try to pass through opponents playing for an idea of great Barcelona-esque football, when we don’t have the players for it and our best successes come when we play counter attacking football.
We have players like the Ox who’s strength comes in taking players one on one and whipping in crosses, but when you try to make us play passing football, we’re kind of losing the benefits. With the fact that Giroud is no longer a regular starter, there’s no target man to hit in the box.
We also have Ozil who’s main job at Real was to feed Ronaldo off his runs, who found himself in a situation where he has to hold the ball and try to find players who’re not making those runs and he suffers. This is where hopefully Lacazzete will help, but my point is that we have to make a choice.
Either we play the right players at the right positions and put a formation that suits them or we pick players who’ll specifically fit into the style of play we want to implement. What we are doing is getting bits of pieces from different puzzles trying to make a pretty picture at the end.
You may get lucky with some, but most of the time it just won’t work. Same here. Monreal for example was one player doing good in the WB position, now we have Kolasinac who did good in preseason and we’re still uncertain whether one would be forced to go to the back three.
If we get Lemar or Mahrez, you have to be thinking that one of the Ox, Theo or Sanchez is leaving, because where would he play with Bellerin also asking for the right WB role? I’d still get Thomas though, cause he’s an upgrade on what we already have, but what about central midfield?
Xhaka-Ramsey means two players slow on the ball with both not too eager to look for the forward pass. We really miss Santi there and the backup option of Coquelin again doesn’t fit the idea of dominating teams with possession by putting a player who’s success in the squad came from breaking the play of the opposing team.
I know it’s preseason and once again we don’t have all our players back, but we should’ve been working towards building up the system and style of play for next year. Chelsea are next and they already spanked us 3:0. We need to show we’ve learned some lessons and play with a solid game plan to counter them.
I’m really hoping we’ll do more business and turn up for the season opener against Leicester. We can’t afford a miserable start. Arsene must do it, or the fans wrath will be focusing on him like Saurons eye can focus on Frodo and the ring!
Konstantin