So, UEFA on Friday felt like winding Gooners up, first by changing Arsenal’s travel plans by changing the date for our trip to France, then increasing Lacazette’s ban from one to three. The positive aspect is by only having one senior striker for the Rennes tie, it helps makes Unai Emery’s mind up for him.
As the Ozil saga shows, our manager will not have his tactics dictated to him, like all good coaches, he sticks to his ethos. Yet many times I have disagreed with the Spaniard’s team selections. Notably, playing five at the back to play two up front or even asking Aubameyang to start on the left. I understand the logic of wanting to get your two best individuals on the pitch but not at the expense of sacrificing a midfielder for a defender. Most Gooners like the idea of the two (who have a bromance going on) playing as a pair but the Spaniard doesn’t seem to like 4-4-2. Both do their damage up front so playing either on the wing for the sake of if, doesn’t fulfill their potential. Where our boss seems happy to unsettle some of his squad, he seems to want to pacify his two goal scorers.
Either he’s scared of choosing one over the other or 3 CB with two wing backs is his long term vision. You sacrifice so much by taking away an offensive player though, our DNA for years has been goals/movement from midfield. As demonstrated against Southampton, the bulk of the squad will be used to get us through the next month when we play every 3 days.
90 minutes on Thursday was used as the reason to rest our Gabon star, meaning we could have 3 attacking assets behind Lacazette. Normally the options would have been 5 defenders to have 2 up front or Auba out of position.
Lacca’s ban means he can lead the line in the Premiership while his mate does the business in Europe. I would rather rotate the two then play both with one on the wing. Meanwhile Arsenal FC should never be playing 5 at the back with two DM.
Do you agree?
Dan Smith