Weekly Review BY Galen Sona.
We have had 2 very difficult games in the premier league against Manchester United and Southampton. We have seen all what is good and most importantly, the bad things about Arsenal’s play.
1) What formation should we use? We seem more confused than ever, 3 at the back, 4 at the back or 5 at the back. Right now I’m not sure, I don’t even know what to say? And I am sure loads of fans are in a similar position with me. I have tried talking to about 5 Arsenal fans about our preferred system and shape? So far I have got 4 different answers and that tells you we are in trouble.
2) We desperately need a CB? If Koscielny, Mustafi and Monreal are not at their best , we have no chance of keeping clean sheets. Southampton could have scored 5 goals today and Manchester United scored 3 goals with every opportunity they created. Koscielny can’t play 2 games in a row, you can see he is struggling. Mustafi is constantly getting injuries. Per is past it and rightly deserves to be going on retirement in the summer. We need to get another CB, not in the summer, I am talking about January.
3) Granit Xhaka is not doing it for me. He is the most one footed player i have seen in my life. Honestly I have had enough of his immobilty and his numbness to danger. He can’t smell danger and he lacks the awareness to do what is required in such a position. Fernadinho, Matic and Kante, for example, are all miles ahead of him. The fact that we constantly play from the back to a player that can’t handle pressure and pressing is just laughable. Everyone can see that Xhaka is a problem, even my lady friend Nash and she doesn’t even understand football that much. I know loads of fans are in love with Xhaka but it’s not working in this system. May be a midfield 3 of Xhaka, Ramsey and Wilshere will help us. How about buying one of Leon Goretztka, Steven Nzonzi, Lemina or Oriol Romeo.
4) Alexis Sanchez is playing for Himself. I don’t care how good this lad is, he is either playing for himself or he thinks he is 10 times better than his team mates. He is misplacing simple short passes and he stays on the ball for way too long. How many times will Saed overlap and Sanchez won’t even look at him? Same against Manchester United with 68.1% accuracy and he lost the ball 32 times against Southampton. Against Manchester United he lost the ball 34 times. I don’t care what anybody says, if you are not Messi or Ronaldo, you should not be losing the ball 66 times in 2 games. I know his game is based on risk, but at the moment he is abusing his powers.
5) The Title race is Over. Defensive errors are alarming, Ok truth be told, we were never in the title race and we have not been in the title race for over a decade so there is no need in talking about this. What annoys me the most is how many times we have shot ourselves in the foot. How many mistakes have we made leading to goals this season? What are the reasons for this mistakes? Are the instructions from the manager good enough? Are the players good enough to carry out his instructions? I spoke about Xhaka being immobile, one footed, and poor when pressed. Playing out from the back with him as the main guy is suicidal. We saw same mistakes with Mustafi and we saw with Per. Somehow we are getting punished for every mistake we make.
Where do we go from here?
Cazorla was the main man, he organised our play and made sure we didn’t lose possession in dangerous areas, I think his season is over. Personally i think buying a CB and Midfielder would go a long way to helping us.
Players out
Sanchez and Walcott, Elneny.
Players in
Van Dijk, Goretzka and one of Draxler or Mahrez.
Switch to a Back four
I know we shall may be not buy anyone, this is Arsenal footbal club we are talking about. But if this club has any ambition we must buy a CB and a Midfielder. Replace Sanchez with Mahrez or Draxler if he wants to go.
Finally I would like to dedicate this article to all the Africans who are sold into slavery in Libya for as little as £250. I hope and pray they get help.
By Galen Sona.
Talking point no. 6 – what crisps go best with Guinness?
On the face of it this might seem slightly irrelevant. However Arsenal’s win percentage increases if I am drinking Guinness before and during a game therefore the issue is pertinent
Lol can u please drink more Guineas then, it Christmas ? , u have another excuse to drink. Lol
I’m omnipotent the case!!!!
But seriously I do need some crisps to go with the lovely beverage
Hedgehog and banana.
1) I think 4 at the back (Bellerin looks lost as a WBR) and get rid of Bould. He is wasting chewing gum and destroying the defense.
2) Wenger won’t buy a CB in January. Most probably Kos will pick a long injury and Holding or Chambers will be like signings.
3) Agree, Xhaka adds nothing to the team. It’s a shame a club like Arsenal to keep him playing.
4) Alexis thinks he is Messi but he is a billion miles away.
5) We were never in the title race, just Emirates Cup, FA Cup and Top4-Wenger’s Trophy.
Issue no. 6?
I think Wenger controls the defensive training not bould. Bould’s offence is that he is a yes man.
1) What formation should we use?
Any formation would be useless if Arsenal still use Wenger’s obsolete system (training programmes, strategies, rewards, punishments, selections, transfer policy, youth development, etc).
2) We desperately need a CB?
I still have faith in Chambers and Holding, as Koscielny’s and Mertesacker’s successors. But even Virgil Van Dijk would not defend well if the defender is not guided by a good defender coach, which Wenger and Bould are supposed to be.
3) Granit Xhaka is not doing it for me.
I see Xhaka has better attacking skills than defending. We cannot force him to be mobile, hardworking and win the ball like Kante, Busquets, Mascherano, Makalele, Gilberto Silva or Matic, but I believe he could be the creative attacking midfielder Arsenal need, if supported by a good DM behind him.
4) Alexis Sanchez is playing for Himself.
Yes, high risk is part of Messi’s, Neymar’s and Sanchez’s games. But no matter how talented Sanchez is, he cannot do much and will be demotivated if he is supported by skillful teammates and if he keeps playing under a bad system.
5) The Title race is Over.
It was over when Liverpool demolished Arsenal.
6) Where do we go from here?
Enjoy the rest of the season and let’s hope Wenger leaves at the end of this season.
7) Players out?
Walcott.
8) Players in?
Van Dijk, Goretzka, Draxler, Rafinha, Denis Suarez, Moura, Aleix Vidal, Adama Traore, Pastore… I don’t think Arsenal would get any new player in January.
9) Switch to a Back four?
Again, any formation would be useless if Arsenal still use Wenger’s obsolete system. A good tactician should be able to change it according to the situations. Guardiola used 3-5-2 at the start of this season, then once his players understand his concept he changed it to 4-1-3-2, then lastly his favorite 4-3-3.
Good points. Even though you didn’t always agree with the things I said on the article, you made a lot of valid points . I still don’t agree with the point you made on Xhaka. Well as a fan I hope he proves me wrong . Xhaka as attacking mid? Rather have Wilshere Ramsey Iwobi and Jeff Rene. He makes so many mistakes to play for a team that wants to win . He would be fine at Everton
It’s incredible after playing for almost twenty years with a back four that he suddenly changed he’s whole philosophy to a five on the basis of couple of good results, weird, but anyway love your optimism gotanidea
Damn,next summer we need
2 CBs
GK
CDM
CM
CAM
LW
So at least 7 players. But we will get maybe 1 senior and 1 youngster. Others will be replaced in the next 2-6 years.
Wengers tyranny needs to end so Arsenal can start a new, other then that fans should not take this bs to heart as things which are supposed to happend do actually happen
same old, same old
Draxler subbed as he knows that he would waste his time at Arsenal, if money was the aim, Schalke and the other bundesliga teams where happy enough to provide him with
Mahrez has Sami Nasri written all over him, feeding his ego, and bye he will go
Van Dijk, like yeh, Wengers will say that he will find someone as good as him, somwhere in the second devision
Arsenal did hire those bvb scouts for a reason, aim is to be lucky and find some nobodys and hope they will turn good not like the endless Sonogos we had till now
Just saw who we got in Europe, it’s an easy tie, but a huge occasion, because by the time we play Ostersund, it’ll be eight long years since we last won a knockout tie in Europe, EIGHT!!! And that isn’t one of these stupid stats where we haven’t even been in Europe for some of those eight years, because we’ve had European football every season. We should easily win, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if we lost, given Wenger’s awful record in Europe.
Sorry to go off topic again but Manchester United don’t seem to be very good at food fights. First there was the famous pizza fight when they lost miserably and now the milk fight where they’ve been done again. Probably because they’re getting no help from Sky Sports or the FA.
lukaku attacked pep by trowing a bottle at him but pep is too smart to get it, he dogded it and d bottle hit ateta, lukaku DAT couldn’t attack for d full 90min was d first to attack after d game has ended spits at united
I would have expected a more relevant comment from you KENNY. This nonsense is not your style.
You’re not wrong Jon, but you know how I feel about Manchester United, a little dig at their expense.
as a Nigerian fan. I think Wenger should be sold to the MLS or Chinese league in January if we are to have any hope of top four.what the hell is Walcott still doing in our team and belarin should cut his hair like David Silva did may b DAT will step up his game
Galen, nice article. You and I have typically disagreed in the past, primarily on our difference in opinion on Mesut and Ramsey, but I like what you’ve had to say here. Will therefore share my thoughts with you, as your article prompts good discussion I feel.
1 – Back 4. The 3 served it purpose last year to plug the damn, but now, to maximize our personnel it needs to be a 4. Everybody seems to hate Hector right now, but maybe the kid isn’t a wingback, just as an example. Either way, been saying since preseason, we need to go back to a back 4 to maximize our best starting positions for our attacking players.
2 -Yes. That player might’ve been Gabriel, who’s Valencia are second in spain right now I believe, but eh never really solidified his chances here. And I think no knowing the language really hurt him. His own fault…or maybe not, we all learn at different speeds. Either way, we need a new CB, Chambers needs to go, he’s not good enough. Has repeatedly showed us he’s not good enough.
3 – Xhaka, the Left-footed-Mikel Arteta-as-a CDM at the end of his career, is not good enough. Wenger bought him thinking he’d be both a defensive ball-winner and deep-lying play maker, but he’s just not athletic enough to effectively do both of those here. Everyone he’s been paired with it just hasn’t worked, so at some point it’s got to be apparent it’s him. We need what Coquelin was when he was partnered with Santi – athletic ground covering ball winner that then had the technical ability to give the ball to Santi/Mesut – or someone better than him. Xhaka is a Europa League player for us. Nzonzi was good enough when he was at stoke but we wouldn’t look at him. He always gave us fits every time he played against us. Glad his time at sevilla has changed peoples’ minds.
4 – Alexis hasn’t played for at least the last 4-5 weeks. He just sits in the same pocket (basically his starting position in the 3 front) and just tries to clip balls in. Doesn’t make hard runs in-behind, doesn’t quickly effectively link up, just sits, clips, and occasionally sprints after losing it the 5th time. If we had better players, he’d sit…or really be gone already…..but alas here we are.
5 – hahaha, yes. This is what Pep does. Did it in Spain. Did it in Germany. Doing it in England. Top Manager, with Top resources, he’s gonna produce.
Where do we go? Santi being out and not being replaced changed everything. His ability and the way he linked with both Mesut and Le Coq made us the most dangerous we’ve been in years. Got us all the way to 2nd place. Without him we are so unbalanced and unproductive.
I’ve the utmost respect and admiration for Arsene, but until he goes, or the board start paying current market prices for top players, we’re not going to win anything.
I will continue to hope and support and cheer on my team, but until there is a change at the top, we won’t mount a title challenge.
Lots of really good points made on the back of this article. It’s been nice to read a page that so far people are able to have different views and has yet to have a load of hysterical AKB’s trying to deny that changes are badly needed and telling everybody to support another team if they want to see changes.
BTW I agree with most of what Galen says, particularly about Xhaka who clearly cannot do the job he is being asked.
The article makes several valid points and I disagree with little he says. But, like all comments on this thread, it fails to address the real fundamentals , which is that until Wenger is gone, history, kaput, champagne swilling time as he leaves, nothing suggested by intelligent and shrew observers will ever work. Wenger is King Midas in reverse! He must go ASAP!