No, it's not. DACOURT, would be MORE beneficial seeing as we'd need experience on the day. I am picturing a CL match. Which, by the way, would be the 'quality depth' you just mentioned. Then followed by saying we should play Larsson or Djorou... ---- I don't even care about 5 years from now anymore, I want to see us get closer THIS SEASON, NEXT SEASON- we should STOP talking about FIVE SEASONS FROM NOW. It's very nice to know Arsenal's future looks brighter than how the team currently stands now. But all of that does not take care of the issue of TODAY'S team. I would like to see Henry win the CL or be NEAR it - WITH ARSENAL - before he retires by the way.
Except I don't rate Dacourt as highly as you do. He's tough and certainly a physical presence, but he can't pass for anything and thus though he wins the ball he constantly gives it away. I said more beneficial in the long run. I wasn't being glib. Larsson, Djorou, etc. can only progress up to a point playing in the reserves. Are they ready to play now? I don't know, but I don't think Dacourt as a squad player in case of injuries is quite the upgrade over them or Flamini that you do. I'd like the team to do better this season as well. Sure Wenger can go signing players left and right like Jol, but would this make the squad any better? Wenger's tried to sign players "who would add something different," it just hasn't come off. If Wenger had signed a replacement for Vieira or a mid-level centerback last summer, we might not have seen Cesc or Senderos emerge for a long time.
In the case of Tottenham our squad is a lot better from the purchases of Jol, but this isn't about us. In the case of Arsenal there are only a couple of weak links so there is no need for Wenger to go and buy more than 2 to 3 players a summer. Basically the quality of the Arsenal squad is consistently up there. If I was to pinpoint the needs it would be in defense and CM. Hleb looks a good player but he will play out wide, right? I think it comes down to missing that player to fill Viera's shoes, not sure Wenger can work his magic all the time, Fabregas is a good player but a different type to Viera, the CM suddenly looks less threatening. What will your boss do, change the system to suit the squad, or go and get busy in the next couple of weeks?
Hleb can either play wide or in the middle, and I think you'll see Freddie and Reyes on the wings, so that probably puts him at the other CM with Gilberto. As for tactics, I think you'll see a bit of a change this season. We had talked about it in another thread, but there's a leaning here to use Hleb as an attacking CM and drop Gilberto into a defensive CM, so that the midfield looks like this: <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Hleb>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> <<<Reyes<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>Ljunberg>>> <<<<<<<<<<<<<Gilberto>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> That plays into both Hleb's and Gilberto's strengths. Some of this will depend on RvP's status since, if he can't go, Reyes could move back up front, but that's how I think a lot of us see everything shaping up this season.
You really think Reyes and Ljungberg are good enough defensive for that formation? I don't. Playing a diamond formation puts a lot of pressure on your fullbacks. Unless you play with centrally inclined outside midfielders. Either Flamini or Fabregas would have to be inserted somewhere in that diamond for it to work. You can't have 3 attack-minded midfielders and expect Gilberto to do all the defensive work himself.
Just to prove my point, you don't see Real Madrid and AC Milan, two teams who play diamond 4 midfields, lining up with all attack minded midfielders. Real has a nice balance with Guti, Gravesen, Beckham, Milan plays Seedorf, Pirlo, and Gattuso, who can all hold the ball well in the middle. Reyes and Ljungberg aren't distributors and aren't central midfielders.
You talk about how our system is going to expose us defensively, then use REAL MADRID as an example of how to do it? Sorry, buddy, but all your credibility just went out the window. If not for Casillas standing on his head most matches, they might have set a La Liga record for most goals conceded. I also don't think that you're definition of what a diamond should be is correct. My view is that you keep the wings as we've had them before, but move the CMs so they can do what they do best. I'm not saying it's a perfect system, but I think it maximizes the talent we have. I also trust our back four much more now than I did last year with Senderos in there. Between he, Campbell and Toure, we might finally have enough decent CBs to avoid the nightmare scenario with Cygan playing.
I agree with what ports is saying (save the Madrid example). Arsenal's system of attacking outside wingers was effective before because Paddy and Silva were both defensive minded and controlled the midfield. If Hleb is playing as an attacking mid, than Gilberto will be exposed. He's not the best tackler anyways, more a space-filler that relies on a harrying mid to pressure the opposition. I think the team will be desperatly exposed playing a diamond. For me the perfect replacement for Paddy would be Hedwiges Maduro at Ajax, and I'd be happy to wait a year to get him if Ajax were more inclined to sell then. Maduro and Cesc would be Arsenal's midfield pairing for the next decade. In the meantime buy Owen for cheap if possible to stifle the doomsayers.
You're ignoring the beginning of last season, when Reyes was shredding defenses and Pires was a league leader in scoring despite subbing, all WITHOUT Vieira. I'm convinced that Gilberto can handle the job, and I'm also convinced that we don't need to find a Vieira replacement. I know everyone has been kind of hung up on that, but it's not like there's a whole lot of them out there. Let's wait and see what we manage to come up with at the beginning of the season before panicking and deciding we need to find someone else in the middle.
Agree, The diamond would enable any good team to walk right thru our centre and pin us in our box. Flamini would have to be in there. Has anyone else been surprised by his reasonably good attacking play in the Amsterdam tournament?
Not really, Flamini has always shown a willingness to leg it all over the pitch. I honestly wouldn't like to see us go into too many games with him and Pires in the center, but he'd work with Cesc or Gilberto. If Wenger plays Hleb centrally (personally I dont think he will, at least not in a 442), then Ljungberg would be required to do more defensively, which he is very capable of...