The tactical tweak that could have got Arsenal all 3 points against Liverpool

HOPEFULLY, EMERY CAN NOW TWEAK HIS SYSTEM TO HELP IMPROVEMENTS by Nicholas

After yesterday’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool, many aAsenal fans must now be vindicated to believe that Arsenal are now at a level where they can hold their own with big teams. This also means that quietly, many fans believe that we are contenders but they would not admit that come May 2019 we could lift the trophy aloft.

We must thank Arsene Wenger that despite the failings of this side, he managed to start the process of bringing in top class players and in his later years, without promising Champions League football. He managed to sign Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang when there was no Champions League Football to promise them. This all means that despite our failings, we were just a few steps away from resurgence and Emery-style has managed to bring through this resurgence in style.

We must also thank the Board for seeing through the cast of serious contender for Arsene Eenger post to pick the right person with the exact skill sets useful to get Arsenal to take up the resurgence quickly. With examples of Manchester united after the exit of Alex Ferguson, Liverpool with the entry of Klopp, and Manchester City where first Guardiola Season was nothing much to celebrate about, fans must have resigned themselves to about two or three season of messy football before it would pick up. To find Arsenal knocking at the top four rather quickly and dominating an arguably the most powerful Liverpool side in years, is something many must have not thought possible, yet that is what happened.

Emery, inevitably inherited his predecessors squad problems that he has to work extra time to deal with. Squad thinness, defensive fragility and how to play two form players in Lacazette and Aubameyang in the same side without upsetting the balance, are all passed on to him and they are very much alive with him. There are statistics that indicate that Arsenal are more concrete when Aubameyang is not playing, yet he often gets on the scoring sheet. Yesterday, he failed to score but his statistics are reading high and his influence in the game highly got Liverpool defense harassed to a point that the arrival of a new attacking formation got them disturbed out of their cool to a point of conceding almost immediately when Ramsey, Iwobi and Welbeck came on.

Perhaps Emery has been just below all out bold to want to shift the play pattern which would have these two strikers playing together and getting Welbeck to replace one of the two late in a game. Because Aubameyang has played as a winger when the two have been in the field except during Fulham when he opted for 4.2.2. system. It did not go badly but he never deployed the system again.

I think now with the evidence from yesterday, Emery should now not be afraid to go the last mile into the adventure to bring these two players, whose complementary game had been doubted previously but every time they have been deployed, they have been successful in playing off each other. They have been team mates rather than rivals both on and off the field. They have treated their duty as a department where each has a role rather than a situation where one person gets to play and others to wait for their chance. Certainly, Emery has encouraged the cooperation but just. Unai has not played them as complementary strikers often. Klopp himself is reportedly to have described the duo as Van Persie and Dennis Bergkamp, which means he was prepared for a system that the two would combine and play off each other magically, and that was not quite what he faced from the tone of the statement. Perhaps he was just being cheeky questioning the fact that Emery has not found a way to utilize the two as a striking duo rather than have one of them shoved into the wings.

I wish to suggest a system that might help Arsenal deal with these three problems for now and build upon going forwards. It is a generic 4.3.3. system

———————Lacazette-Aubameyang——–
—————————Ozil—————————-
—-Iwobi————-Torreira—————Xhaka—-
————————-AMN (Roving Fullback) ——-
———Holding—Sokratis—-Mustafi—————-
—————————-Cech——————————

With Koscielny and Mavropanos returning soon from injury, Mustafi should be the one to give way. Ainsley Maitland-Niles plays a free role of a roving defender, who will be mobile and fit into either ends where the fullbacks should be, to help out in defending that area when the attack is directed there. He is certainly mobile enough and will be the perfect aid to Torreira in covering any spaces at the back.

Perhaps on the left we have better players but both Iwobi and Xhaka play in the areas of shifting from wingers to Central midfield to support Torreira and AMN when necessary. Cech will have to learn playing with the ball at his feet, as Leno will still need to learn much more.

I will not say that if this was the pattern that Liverpool found yesterday we could have bagged the 3-points, but I suspect Klopp thinks so!

Nicholas Oyoo