A new thread in honor of Santi Cazorla, our best player the last two months and specially after his virtuoso performance on Sunday. Sharing with you this Vimeo for your pleasure. Pure art & Poetry in motion!
Which is Santi's preferred foot? Most other "two footed" players I get the sense that they still prefer one or the other -- I have no idea when watching our little man. I hope he gets more recognition for the euros, he deserves mention alongside the other Spanish maestros.
Could have sworn that the last time I was on the boards Santi was part of this midgetball cancer epidemic. Probably just a dream...
Cazorla is having a reinassance in form. Ozil and Rosicky must not be content, but it's great to have competition for places.
I was, and proudly stated it. He had been crap for about a year. Playing in CM seems to have woke him back up. I actually think he and Ozil can work together now, provided Santi is in the back 2 while Ozil is the #10
Santi in that role is decent ad he doesn't mind getting involved defensively. His quick passing and bursting runs with end product (jw most glaring weakness) We could also play a diamond ..........sanchez....giroud ...................ozil ........caz............Ramsey .................arteta
That's a REALLY narrow team. For the remainder of the season, I want to see something like (with slashes talking about players who alternate in a role): Giroud/Welbeck Sanchez/Cazorla - Ozil/Sanchez - Walcott/Ox Arteta/Coquelin - Cazorla/Ramsey In the summer, we should focus on upgrading the sitter role that plays next to one of Cazorla or Ramsey.
Santi has been too good lately as the number 10 not to give a leg up for this role. At this point, he must be ahead of Ozil in the pecking order as the playmaker. Schneiderlein or Illara could be good options in the summer but if Le Coq continues to perform as well, Arsene will have some food for thought.
Santi could play in back two....Ozil as no. 10 best spine for us meaning Wilshere sits...that's fine by me
Disagree. Santi's looked his best when he's played deeper, and picked the ball up from deep. If we play a formation where there is a "10" role (aka not the 4-3-3), I think Cazorla's best role is to be in the midfield, where he can direct and switch the play. I also think that's the only way to get Cazorla, Sanchez, and Ozil on the field at the same time and not have the team be frighteningly slow.
Sure, but the roles were probably reversed last season and earlier this year. It's good to have both players of their caliber on this team for the ups and downs of form. Also, looking beyond the next 6 months . . . Santi is 30, Mesut is 26
Yeah but that would men sitting Ramsey, who despite not being on to of his game, still does a lot of defensive work next to let say Coq. I am concerned that the team would be somewhat unbalanced unless Ozil really give a real defensive effort as well, something that is not his forte so far.
Having to choose between Cazorla and Ramsey is a good problem to have. I do think that this choice only really comes up in games against teams that can pose a credible attacking threat. Against the bottom half of the league, this is a plausible approach: Giroud/Welbeck Alexis - Ozil - Walcott/Ox Cazorla - Ramsey with the likes of Rosicky, Wilshere, Flamini, Arteta, and Coquelin coming in as needed to provide rest and cover. The approach will need some tinkering (primarily because Ramsey and Cazorla can't go forward at the same time). It won't work against better sides, I think, because Cazorla can be tackled in a way that sets up counterattacks - someone needs to both provide an outlet to help keep possession and switch play and at the same time be positionally disciplined when the other team has the ball.
BTW, in other Arsenal news, you all have seen the NBCSN-exclusive PUMA promo at half-time featuring Santi Cazorla (of yours and my Arsenal), I recorded it onto DVD-R and as soon as I get the software I will rip it to YouTube and share it with all you fellow Gooners here on BigSoccer!!! COYF'n'G!!!
Cazorla is in fantastic form. He needs to be starting every match right now. Just fill in any players around him.
I'm still less than bullish on Caz. Even in this rich run of form, what we've seen is Cazorla doing very very well at the things he does well. But he hasn't really changed his game in terms of improving the things he does poorly. The emergence of Coquelin has been Caz and his position on the team more than any other player except LeCoq himself. Our defensive shape and protection of the back four is so much better now so there's less incentive to point fingers at poor defensive workrate or positioning. Because when the fingers were be pointed, a lot of them were pointed at Caz, with some justice. I don't think Caz has improved very much in that regard, just that the consequences are so much less severe. As far as playing with Ozil, I think the main thing is that if Ozil plays, he needs enough space to work with. Even if he's nominally wide like today, it can still work unless other Arsenal players are trying to do the same thing in the same space. So the problems earlier in the year could be more due to the 4141 as opposed to Ozil being wide. To a large extent, this is trying to solve a problem that isn't a problem anyway. If we play Ozil at #10 and LeCoqFrancois as the holding player, Rosicky, Cazorla, JFW and Ramsey are all credible options at CM. The key thing is that we can't be afraid to sit a big name player because of reputation.
Totally agree with the bonded portion. The Özil playing wide debate was largely obscuring the real issue. That is that Wenger kept trying to shoehorn Ramsey and Wilshere into the same side. With everybody healthy, you can play Özil and Cazorla together no problem, but you can only play one of Ramsey, Wilshere or Rosicky.
Any chance Wilshere can develop into a mix of Arteta and Coquelin? It sure would be nice to have him develop into the deep lying distributor role with some defensive bite.
What I also like about Santi (maybe even more than his superb skills) is his demeanor on the pitch. The guy always looks like he's having a good time and enjoying playing the game. I would bet he's one of the more "fun" guys on the team to hang around.