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
Aubameyang will handle Rennes ? Lacazette will be fresh for the league games! OT did Man city win the Champions league yesterday? The media and pundits were actually drooling over pep and his multi million pound team, talking up Pep like he’s some sort of magician! Don’t get me wrong he’s a very good coach no doubt about it but come on everywhere he’s been the Foundation’s have already been layed… That Barcelona team could pick and win for itself and Bayern were already dominant in Germany but he didn’t pick up any European honours! At Man city he has a bottomless pit of money to go out and get any player he wants! Yesterday the media/pundits talked up winning the league cup back to back like some special feature that will never be done again! Arsenal won the fa cup back to back with a supposed weak squad and a manager who was long past it and that was deemed only the fa cup nothing special! It’s actually sickening listening to it tbh.. and then there’s Graeme Souness, yesterday he said Liverpool made a statement at Old Trafford a statement? United were without Matic, they’re best player Martial and lost 3 players to injury and to top it off Liverpool had one shot on target! We went to Old Trafford earlier this season drew 2-2 and had many opportunities to score a couple more goals and again that was deemed a poor result by a team with a weak mentality! I don’t care who the manager was then, fact of the matter is we played a much stronger team in terms of player availability! Again Souness attacks Arsenal saying they got no chance of top 4 because United is flying and Chelsea have Higuain.. news for Souness nobody wanted Higuain, Juventus didn’t and nor did Ac Milan, in fact his replacement at the San siro Piatek is banging in goals right, left and center! It’s quite clear Souness, Sherwood, Merson, Owen etc just have a great dislike for Arsenal and yes they aren’t without they’re faults and some criticism is justified, but even when we’re winning the criticism keeps coming! If Arsenal and Emery ever needed incentive to finish top 4 then look no further than the complete biased punditry upon them! Getting top 4 this season would be sweeter than ever and worth celebrating just like a trophy. rant over! COYG
Shame your “rant was over” so soon John. Just as I was licking my lips for more. I find much of the anti Emery reaction (I will not dignify it by calling it “comment”) on here to be hysterical and unthinking tosh of the cheapest and most foolish type. I did not agree with every word , in particular about Pep whom I see as a football near genious, but loved your theme and passion.
John Wick, it was OUR OWN “SUPPORTERS” who actually denegrated the fact that we won the fa cup three times and also coined the phrase those “dross, weedy, mentally frail squad” despite managing to do that feat three times in five years!!
If we have so called “fans” who belittle and denegrate players, why should we be surprised that the media look towards a club that sees unity within it’s ranks?
I don’t remember the media actually stating this was the case with our players, but I have certainly read it over and over and over again on here, by the same people.
At least the media ( with all it’s faults ) doesn’t profess to be supporters of the club, in fact it’s approach has always been a negative one regarding AFC.
It was the same when we finished fourth for so many consecutive years, as it was seen, once again, as not good enough by same noisy section of our own fanbase again, with the same tag of dross applied to theitr achievements.
Listen to the realits like Poch, Klopp, Sarri… they all say the most important thing is to finish in the top four and now, finally, we are beginning to realise just how important it was for our club as well.
Perhaps ( as Unai recognised when he joined the club, it’s also started to sink in that the players we have at the club aren’t as described by those “fans” who actually wanted our club to lose games to prove a point?!?!
The media have always pandered to certain clubs (utd, pool and chelsea) and individual managers (poch, pep and klopp) and it comes as no surprise to me that yesterday’s result has had the same conclusion.
UE manages The Arsenal, let’s start questioning everything from Ozil to Raul and the negativity begins to spread..it’s how the media have always worked with regards to our club and, unfortunately, some of our fanbase follow suit as well, or even start the negativity themselves.
As for the UE reaction, I find it puzzling, but for a different reason.
Why shouldn’t we expect our team to be in the top four?
We have had six new signings, along with the team that finished sixth last season, so surely we should expect, at the very least, parity of performances?
The fact that the standard of football has degressed into a defensive mind set, but has failed to materialise indefensive results.
This was the weakest area from last season and UE brought in five defensive players….but we have the seventh worst goals against record of the top ten clubs.
Nevertheless, the “dross, weedy, mentally frail” players along with the six new ones have kept pace with the fourth position and all credit goes to them and UE, despite his weird obsession with defensive players to the detriment of attacking players and football.
As for judging UE, that can only come at the end of the season…criticise him and query his decisions of course, but we can still finish in top four and still win a cup tournament, a great achievement.
The same type of ending that wasn’t deemed good enough just two seasons ago, but is now the holy graille that would make it a wonderful start to Unai’s reign at our club.
Ken absolutely! And well said sir. Also thank you Jon and of course everyone has their own opinions of pep and I respect everyone’s opinion it makes a good debate.
Most article i have read so far on this platform about the managers tactics are all moan, moan and moan, none has really proven anything with insightful analysis. There are time the managers fielded 3 at the back and we won confortably, we quickly forget those time we we start to lose. -Typical arsenal fans i guess.
Thank God i dont have a badge in coaching, i have no experience,and i believe majority of us dont have it, talk is cheap, its easier to point out fault but rality is far from what we think at times, if by being a good sport analyst ,or players ,one could be a good manager, Neville abd Henry wouldnt have flop when they got their chances.
I will respect the coach and support any tactict or formation he set our team to play. I see most keep quite when the tactics work but when it doesnt we start seeing some banter.
How i miss ozziegunner! Like him, i have been in defence of our defensive peformance , the instability caused by our unlucky defebsive injuries is having a huge effect and as it is, we are gradually creating the stability again, hopefully no more major injury loss. Rennes should not be too much a huddle for us to face. Coyg
Nice!
I’m totally agree with you!
You really spoke well!
Thank you, Adajim; you are the only one who has missed me!
I’m glad my points about starting the season with long term injuries to two defenders (Koscielny and Mavropanos), season ending injuries to three players (Bellerin, Holding and Welbeck) and a continous revolving door between the pitch and the treatment room disrupting team selection and the development of team defending. I can not tecall a season where Arsenal or any club has suffered 5 long term injuries to players. Unortunately there are too many, who don’t let the truth get in the way of their negative agendas.
I did ask you a while back how you are, but not sure if you saw it…. hope you’re recovering well Ozzie ??
Thanks Sue; in on Fri 15/02 for full left hip replacement, released Sun 17/02 walking with a cane. Orthopaedic surgeon very happy with results at one week checkup Mon 15/02. Looking forward to being back in full training and Arsenal’s run in to the end of the season!
Being french ,yourself like many british do underestimate french teams at your own peril,look at psg,lyon in the cl,do you follow la ligue 1,rennes are 11th but have some good young players,I,m being honest but I don,t know the numbers of players by nationality playing in the pl but french must be top or close and it doesn,t take into account players of other nationalities who played in france before coming to england,if it was not for british clubs and other big clubs from other countries buying our best players every year we would be a top league just look at all the talented players who ,ve been sold over the year the henry,Vieira,petit,drogba,hazard,cech,anelka,doucoure….the list goes on,my point being don,t think as the french league as a weak one,dembele came from rennes!!
I’m sure we used to use Winterburn and Dixon as wing backs with Adams, Bould and Keown as a back 3 at times. What we’re missing is a CB who can and will step up & join the midfielders when needed for the wing back system to work well (and Bellerin back).
Laca + Pierre at the same time could work, but not without the width. I look forward to having our 1st 11 back fit and hope with Bellerin and Kola as wing backs we can play the deadly duo together. For now it should be one or the other 🙂
No Dan I do not agree. How anyone can think that losing a key player for two extra games to be advantageous is beyond me. In a Utopian world every player would be available to pick for every game. That is so obvious that any contradiction looks pseud to me.