Arsenal Have a Massive Problem In Attack by Goonerboy.
Being realistic is going to Anfield and not expecting to win, or so I am made to believe, if that is the case then why bother at all? Liverpool’s greatest strength is their mentality, while Arsenal’s greatest weakness is mentality and I think that is being passed on to some fans.
Look, there is a very thin line between realism and negativity, if you are not careful, your realism can make you become a pessimist. Personally, I know it is a tall order to go there and win, but if you analyse the match well, we should have got a draw which would have done us a lot of good, as a fan I would still be HOPEFUL if Arsenal has a match against a combined 11 of Madrid and Barca, why? because I love Arsenal, I am a FAN.
If Ludogorets was to play Madrid pre-Covid, fans will still turn up at the Bernabeau, because they are FANS, and fans are allowed to dream, to hope and to support their team, if they want to be realistic, they won’t bother travelling all the way to Madrid to see the game.
After our humbling at Liverpool, much has been correctly said about our midfield and all, but we need to start analysing the attack…
On paper, we have a very good team going forward but for one reason or the other, they have not gelled, the last time we had a gelled attack was with Sanchez and Ozil and it was often the both of them always finding each other.
Again, you might want to say it is the midfield, but in the few times where the ball gets to one of the front three, the ball is always passed back to the midfield 80% of the time, the front three is always so disjointed and bereft of ideas, the combination play is almost non-existent.
As Arteta alluded to, the squad is completely imbalanced, and it will always be as long as we have Lacazette and Aubameyang. In fact, we have been able to manage because Auba is a flexible player that can at least play on the wings.
The front three of Liverpool, City can combine without having to pass the ball back to midfield EVERYTIME, our forward players lack initiative, and combination plays that is required at this level.
I laugh when I see people clamouring for Auba to play down the middle, I assure you, you will hate him more than Lacazette if that were to happen. Auba is poor in everything except scoring.
If we want to keep playing Aubameyang at LW, Saka has to play RW, that boy has a football brain that is far more than his age. Willian can play RW, but he does better on the left.
Some have forgotten how Auba is always invisible when playing in the middle.
The biggest let down has been Pepe, he is a complete waste of money, the best he has done is those two free kicks in the Europa League, he completely lacks a football brain, we need to find a solution to this.
As long as we have Auba and Willian, we need to change our formation, 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 will suit these players. You have no other choice for now than to play Auba and Laca (or sell Lacazette) but the right wing has to be Saka, not Pepe, not Willian. Auba will thrive centrally when there is space, but most teams will park the bus against us.
As for the midfield, left to me, I would go all out for Partey who has been performing for a very long time. I am always skeptical about young players from French league, we can still use Ceballos as the number 10 while we have Xhaka and Partey as shields.
We have quantity but only a few quality, we are in for a long ride people, brace yourselves….
Goonerboy
The only problems with our strikerforce are these two things !! One Abua not playing upfront as main striker and Laca’s lack of abilty to score goals. Laca has to be the worst Arsenal striker i have seen ever. He plays more like a midfielder than a striker, he is always behind the play where he plays to deep, he hasnt got a strikers mind set he doesnt know what runs to do and simply cannot finish !! A strikers main traits are score goals and make runs and sniff out opportunities. He simply doesnt do any of these things !! He hasnt got a game in that i mean he isnt a target he doesnt use the channels and he doesnt play on the shoulder of the last defender. Playing auba upfront would change everything as he is a striker he would use the channels he knows how to make the runs and what runs to make and he can sniff out a goal and buy can he finish !! I feel sorry for players like Pepe and Auba playing out wide trying to break forward but every time they do laca is no where to be seen and the chance has gone. Id even play Pepe up front before i played laca there. He could easily be a target he has the touch to be that target and he has the ability to use the channels and again he can finish !! For me he reminds of Henry and wenger saw in Henry what i see in Pepe !! Pepe could be a brilliant striker give half the chance. But whilst we have Auba at the club i cannot for the life of me see why he isnt playing upfront and laca out wide…
Agree with you about Laca. He makes me miss Giroud. Absolutely dreadful as a striker. He huffs and puffs but can’t blow the house down! Arsenal should seriously entertain the notion of moving him on. What happens next year when he has a year or so left on his contract. Extend him and keep paying him close to 200K for 15 goals a season?
i have never read such rubbish !! Abua is rubbish at everything ?? WTF are you on ? you think Laca playing as the main striker is better than Abua would be seriously ? Auba one on one with the keeper would score everytime FACT. Auba playing the channels would get through on goal 95% of the time. The only thing Auba may struggle with is holding the ball up but id even go as far as say he would do a better job of it than Laca …He would be a threat unlike Laca who is no Threat at all !! Teams leave one man back against Laca as they no he cannot glide past him !! If Abua played upfront they would have to drop two back. I simply do not understand the rubbish that you came out of in this Article…. you go on to say Auba is invisible upfront //??? so before he came to Arsenal he was playing as a main striker and scored for fun and his assist record was brilliant !! i really do not get where you get you facts from?? you baffle me !! c
you started with Fans have no belief bla bla bla and its a let down to think this putting it that we all have to be optimistic but then say Abau is crap Laca is crap Pepe is crap and and and seriously you need a proof reader !! as i have never read so much hypocritical BS in my life !!
I agree with u in some area, arteta need to change the tactics, players mentality and orientation, never see a team as big arsenal beat real madrid, juventus to reach final 2006. There’s a lot of fear in our defense which boost liverpool moral that day, our team needs number 10
The last game I saw mostly weaknesses in defence sure a few mistakes in attack don’t write the strike force off ffs. Leno ain’t a great goal keeper let’s mention that if you mention the strike force 🤣. It might be better four defenders not three just my opinion I feel it will help. Also two strikers and four midfielders 4-4-2 formation yes please and thank you.
Personally I don’t think you know anything regarding set ups.
We play with inverted wingers ( when either Pepe or Saka play right wing).
what this does is allows you to coax defenders into following the ball and allow our fullbacks to go wider on the overlap, this works much better against 4 at the back than 5 due to the limited gaps between the back line which equates to less space to play in behind.
You also have to look at our press, don’t get me wrong, its getting much better but due to lack of real energy in midfield and the lack of an extra player in there we will struggle against better opposition like pool.
You also have to bare in mind that Liverpool are arguably one of the best teams in the world right now and there is no shame in losing at Anfield.
We have come along way in a very short time under MA and most of teh fans have jumped ahead if themselves by saying we’ll win the league etc etc.
It boggles me somewhat with how deluded some Arsenal fans are, its a work in progress or crying out loud, the squad is still majorly imbalanced, we have a £350k per week couch potato who wont play for us again imo.
We have what 33/34 first team players when it should be 25 so there is alot of work to do to trim that down.
NO ONE GOES TO ANFIELD AND WINS THESE DAYS.
We tend to have the most toxic set of fans in club football, we can be harsh a times. We should be fair to Laca sometimes, yes he missed some clear cut chances against Liverpool which was awful yet he scored one and credit to him for that. Our goals should not depend solely on him.Liverpool got 3 different players scoring that day,so why can’t we ? I was expecting fans to vent their fury on the other forward players i.e Auba,Willian,Pepe etc but no only Laca gets blamed. The guy has 3 goals in 3 matches at the moment let’s give him credit for that because if he can sustain that this season then his goal tally will be outstanding. We really do need a real CAM because our creativity is poor,we won’t win big matches with defensive minded midfielders like Xhaka and Eleny.Like a true fan,I always believe we will get better but we don’t have time,let us not be left behind. Victory Through Harmony.
You can’t guarantee many things in life but you can guarantee that if there is a bandwagon to jump on Arsenals fans are on it in a flash .
Dan kit very true,very true indeed.
This article is flawed. One defeat to a world class team and all of a sudden our attack is useless?
The hate on laca is so short sighted it’s frightening and the statement saying Auba is useless at anything other than finishing is just plain ridiculous. Laca offers so much more than just his goal scoring. In our current system he leads the press, holds the ball up allowing our full-backs to get up the field and he links well with Auba to create chances.
People seem to forget it is a team sport. Up until now Arteta has had to try and find a system that works for this group of players. He hasn’t had the players to fit the system he wants to play. Arteta identified the defence as an issue when he first came and signed a couple of players to fix that issue. Now it is obvious that our midfield needs a lot of work, which arteta is hopefully going to fix by signing Auoar or Partey (or even both if the board really backs Arteta).
Only once Arteta has the pieces to fit his jig-saw puzzle will we see the forwards start to gel better. Forwards rely on supply from the midfield to get their chances and score goals. If they do not get adequate supply from the midfield, how can you expect them to be able to link up properly with each other? Also, both Laca and Auba have had to drop so deep to fetch the ball that they have so much work to do to before they can get into a position to create or score goals.
Stop all this hating on players when we lose. Win together, lose together…
Nice one 👍