Some squad issues Wenger could think about by KM
Arsenal welcome Burnley in what should be a walk in the park on a Saturday afternoon. They’ve conceded 16 goals, they have only grabbed 4 points so far and have only scored 5 goals. Anything but the 3 points would be a huge blow, but we’ve managed so far to create trouble out of nowhere so it’s never as easy as it looks.
We have some squad issues. Wilshere will be joining the injured list for this game most likely, and Gibbs has a small chance to miss the game too. I don’t think we’ll miss Gibbs, because Bellerin will start as right back anyway in my opinion and the fact we’ve started the seasons with just 6 defenders is absurd.
With Wilshere there’s another problem. We know there’s talent in the lad but I’m not sure Wenger has found his best position. Another problem is that Ramsey, just like Wilshere, needs to play next to a solid DM which we don’t have. We’ll probably start with Flamini and Arteta. For me that doesn’t work. They are two players past their best with no pace. We need a Matic, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure or similar type of player to cover our shaky defense.
We’ve managed only 2 clean sheets, and they were against two of the worst sides in the PL Sunderland and Villa and both were away games. A Burnley side heading back to the championship is the ideal moment to make it the first two wins in a row this season and a first clean sheet at home.
And rotating the squad. For years we’ve been stuck with a good starting XI and no bench. Now we have squad players good enough to win such games but I still feel that Wenger will stick to the best he has. Lukas is surely on his way out after this season and Rosicky looks like he won’t be playing much.
The need for rotations is our bad fitness management and the fact we run players down to the ground until they are injured (Ramsey, Ozil, Giroud, Koscielny) are a few examples of players playing every game. Now Welbeck is also playing every game because Wenger doesn’t like having two strikers available.
It’ll be interesting to see Giroud and Welbeck available and what Wenger does with it. Maybe a 4-4-2 since we don’t have much typical wingers? Our game hasn’t been fluid and it’d be nice to see some good passes and some offensive play. Cazorla has been a shadow of his former self, and Ramsey is far from the form he had last season. Burnley is the perfect opponent for us to regain our fluency and gain some confidence.
Konstantin Mitov