Morning all.
This might sound negative but Arsenal’s attacking play is little short of bad. The lack of creativity, pace, movement, swift passing is as clear as day. I don’t just mean against Man City, but in general. It’s been that way since long before Arsene Wenger left and I mean a prolonged period of time when an Arsenal team played entertaining football.
Even as Arsene Wenger struggled through his final years, attacking football was his way, Unai Emery dished up the odd game where we looked great but under both of them, the defensive shape was often all over the place.
The best days for Arsene Wenger came thanks to having a strong back five. Whether that be Adams, Bould, Dixon and Winterburn or Lauren, Campbell, Toure and Cole – he had a strong backline in front of an equally strong goalkeeper. Upon that he built and built well but always stuck with a 4-4-2 formation.
1997/98.
2001/02
The Invincible season.
Then came the 4-3-3 formation, designed to do what I’ve no idea but with three in midfield, the forward line had to start pulling their weight. Imagine that eh, you’re a striker, expected to score goals, AND defend! And that’s exactly where we are as a club with Mesut Ozil I think. A great player in his own right but he doesn’t suit the modern day way of playing football but there’s absolutely no doubting that Arsenal need a player with his creative abilities. I’m not for one minute suggesting Mikel Arteta is wrong to leave him out, or Unai Emery before him but at a time when Arsenal are really struggling to creative something from nothing, it’s inevitable his name will crop up.
Whilst I’m fully aware that Tony Adams hasn’t exactly excelled in coaching, he was part of one of the very best defensive back lines Arsenal have have during the Premier League’s existence and talking to Premier League Productions, he’s said:
I think it’s time for a back four. I’ve been saying it since the start of the season. It wins you cup games, it doesn’t win you league titles. I think he’s got problems with Hector (Bellerin), I think his defending today, (Saturday) wasn’t very good at all.
But I’d like him to go to a back four. They’ve got Gabriel now, get him a partnership. They’ve been unlucky at the start with (Rob) Holding going down but get them into a back four.
They look like they’ve a holding midfielder now who’s got a bit of presence and build for the future.
I suppose the biggest question now is, with Thomas Partey in the squad, the first ‘proper’ holding midfielder we’ve had at the club since Gilberto, will Mikel Arteta consider changing his formation?
Would playing a 4-4-2 suit the squad better in your opinion, would our creativity improve with a different system, or is it a simple as the players Mikel Arteta has at his disposal, simply have to do more?
I don’t know the answer, if I did I wouldn’t be sitting in my kitchen right now drinking a cup of tea but it’s something to discuss. Let’s be honest, our attacking play is toothless right now and unless Mikel Arteta finds a solution, I think we’re going to struggle on for a while yet.
See you in the comments guys.
I strongly believe that 4-4-2 would better suit the team in terms of results but it’s effect upon the squad could lead to future problems….Supposed “Big Hitters”…in Willian,Xhaka,Lacazette,Luiz and Bellerin might struggle for game time.At least Aubamayang would be playing in the right position rather than this devolved front three which rarely connects and allows defences to snuff them out fairly easily unless they happen to receive the “perfect pass”….
Just for the fun of it , I was thinking last night as I watched the telly with the missus about when football’s formations changed.
Back in 1966 Ramsey invented his wingless wonders and I looked at his team and tried to substitute the ones we have now into that team . . Keeper we only have one and the back 4 is relatively similar. For Hunt and Hurst , Lacazette and Auba are a fair comparison but in midfield we could use Pepe , Willian , Nelson , Saka as Peters and Thomas as Stiles but we don’t have Charlton or Ball .
The former joining the attack , linkiing play and shooting from distance and the other an out and out running machine , working his socks off , covering every blade as they say.
When ever I go through the squad I come back to midfield , could Willock become Ball ? could Saka replace Charlton ? I am not sure but what do others think ?
Is this where Arteta needs to be looking and what affect would bringing in another player or two have on Smith-Rowe , and the others that are coming through.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong Rico with sitting in the kitchen drinking a cup of tea and ruminating on the team, it’s tactics and a change in system. I ruminate all the time but usually in the front room as my kitchen is too small for a table and chairs but I think we need to maybe show a bit more patience here, because we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
When Arteta arrived our defence was on its knees, poorly coached by previous managers it was a total mess and it also isn’t that long ago when opponents just casually strode through our non-existent midfield. Arteta has made us hard to break down and hard to beat but it isn’t the pretty free flowing football of Wenger where we would have gone to the Etihad, played some nice stuff and probably lost 4-1.
I admit it can be a hard watch, but it’s early days in the process and Arteta still has a lot to rebuild and if you think he can do it in barely 10 months then I’ve gotta tell ya that he can’t and nobody can.
This squad is full of some pretty dysfunctional players who’ve been badly bruised mentally from the lack of direction at our club prior to Arteta returning. We still need to move quite a few of them on but it’s going to take a long long time because we aren’t subsidised like Chelsea or Man City and we’ve not been able to sell our players as well as Liverpool.
Arteta has done a great job on our defence and it could probably play a back four now but I worry that the midfield is capable yet of shielding it and building attacks yet, we don’t want to go with a back four and get spanked, we still need upgrades in the middle.
Up front the players are good enough but they need to do more and if they can’t then we have to replace them. A fully fit Martinelli would have made an enormous difference, he’ll need time to fully recover but when he does he’ll be a major upgrade on Nketiah and Lacazette.
Morning all.
To be honest, I don’t care what formation we play right now.
Until we really get our defence as a unit down pat, we should not worry about anything else-results included.
We’ve been frail at the back for years, Arteta is clearly addressing that and he’s being criticised for doing what fans have asked for???
This a change of culture and mindset.
It doesn’t take a few games, even a few months.
We need clubs to know we aren’t a pushover when the going gets tough and when that’s the case, we are a chance even before a ball is kicked.
So be it Joel should that prove to be the case. Performance and results must come before who gets playing time etc etc. In my opinion anyway.
That’s a bit too far back for me Potter. Haha.
But where would that leave Partey? My own thoughts were about finding the players to do what Freddie and Pires did, Parlour too during AW’s early days. We have the central midfielder so perhaps now, Arteta will build around him.
Morning Rico.
Small steps, imo.
We can’t expect it all at once.
People rave about Klopp and rightly so, but he has been at LFC 5 years now.
I hope in that time, Arteta has won us a title or two 🙂
Scott, no one is criticising Arteta so I’m not sure why you’d suggest that. Just suggesting that we’ll struggle a bit until the attack works better. Whether that’s tomorrow, in a few months, next season even, something will need to be done.
Rico, as I often do, I generalise about fans around special media-not contributors to this group.
It’s incredible how many are complaining already lol
Short of an unbeaten season, plenty will continue to bleat.
I think we will be better offensively with 4 at the back, hopefully Arteta thinks so too, after all Man City set up that way.
I’m all for sorting out the defence first – in which Arteta has been outstanding.He likes his team to be fluid, how very modern. It works though.
I was looking at the table – we have conceded fewer goals than every team except Aston villa – and they have played 1 less game.
Morning Scott.
For sure, he can’t do everything in five minutes but with the talent we have, you’d think we could muster up a bit more going forward. Klopp is often cited as a defence for time given and I’m sure Arteta will be afforded similar time too. Unless things go horribly wrong.
Scott, criticism will go on regardless, it’s the human default setting to be negative so it’s inevitable.
Did you manage to see Arsene Wenger on the Graham Norton show?
Including a 7-2 hammering of Liverpool Limey. They really look good but an injury or two might change that.
I recorded it but haven’t got the energy up to watch it yet . Was it worth it or just a book advert.
I wrote quite a long comment this morning and it just disappeared, it’s such a pisser when that happens.
We need to have patience, Arteta has focused of getting the defence right and is now working on the midfield.
The forwards really have enough talent and they need to be taking the chances they get and working harder to create others.
Nothing we didn’t already know really Potter, a bit of a book push. Same for the other guests.
I found it Kev, sorry about that. It’s a glitch with WordPress.
Think you’re right re Martinelli, he’s exactly the kind of energy and enthusiasm, not to mention his ability, we are crying out for. I think it was you who mentioned Nelson not long ago and I’m with you, if Pepe’s form continues, surely it’ll be time to give Nelson a chance.
Just why I think the Europa fixtures couldn’t be coming at a better time. It’s up to the player who travel to Vienna to give Arteta something to think about.
Evening Rico and All
If you have a clue you have to get the back right
Arsene was lucky when he turned up our defence
was water tight.
Micky has had a western-super to
deal with,yet has done well so far but has only
bought defensive to the squad 1st team as we
all wished.
Over the last few years watching us sink in the
grass like dead ants when ever the boots were
flying,I happen to like what Micky’s doing with
what his got.
Systems what ever you play are about the
players you have Liverpool best in the world
last year played 4-3-3 is that the best system
then,Klippty Klopp got the right players by
spending record amounts on the best around
at the time mainly the core keeper/centrehalf
we will see now if it’s the system or the players
with these two out.
Systems come and go and change during games
winning or losing through a game,will a lot of times
depend who’s on your bench,I used to love it when
Arsene threw 4 on up front,remember Kanu throwing
dummy’s on the edge of the box..Loved it.
Rico, I’ve seen a minute or so of Wenger discussing the push and shove with Jose.
Poor Jose-I believe he’s upset his name isn’t mentioned in the book.
Such a quality man, he is 🙂
Really enjoying watching Leeds… can’t believe the ground Ayling has covered.. some player 👌
Thing was that no-one knew what Kanu was going to do next , Least of all Kanu. For a man with clown sized feet he sure found a way not to trip over the ball too often.
Thanks for finding my comment Rico and yes the Europa will and should provide six fixtures that Arsenal can comfortably negotiate and win even with highly rotated teams. Nelson should be given a chance to put down a marker in those six games he’s probably been starved of opportunity more than any of his young contemporaries, I’ll be very disappointed if Arteta doesn’t give him a fair crack, never mind what he does in training. Some of our players must play like Maradona in training because in matches they play more like Madonna!
Exactly Scott, when he was asked the question about Wenger’s book his enormous ego took over, he could have easily said that he’s not read it and moved on, but not Jose, it’s all about him and it always has been, he must have been gutted that he’s not in Wenger’s book, he is frankly pathetic…
Indeed he is, Kev.
One sour and bitter Individual.
Since his time at Barcelona , I regularly use a restaurant in a Catalan village that has a picture of him with Bobby Robson eating there. To this day the people are respectful to Robson but still call Mourinho ” The Translator “
11.49 Kev. Agreed, but Arteta does seem to give players a bit of a run before ditching them doesn’t he? I’m sure Ozil was given quite a number of games before being left out for what seems like for good.
If Willian and Pepe continue to be ineffective for much longer, surely he’ll have to rethink his team selection.
Love things like that Potter and I bet Mourinho hates it.
What is Translator in Spanish….?
Tradutor
‘Mourinho’. 😀
traductor in Catalan , Robson was much loved in the area but he had a problem with remembering peoples names . Mourinho did an article in El Mundo saying that he had to sort out Robson’s inability to communicate . It was not well received and hence his nickname.
So I am told.
The very best descriptive word of Joe Say is THE word we don’t use here 🙂
Morning all.
New post up now