Watching the Olympiakos match has me feeling like this squad has very few differnce makers or real class players........Sneezy, Vermaelen, Sagna, Song, Gervinho, Theo and RVP obviously and the talented AOC coming through! Watching AA look awful out wide and Rosicky/Arteta not doing much it makes me think offensively of trying something new..... Utd, Barca, City, Real etc seem to have changed their tactics to a system of 4 advanced players of interchangeable positions.....notably Barca with a pivot and dm in Xavi and Busquets with Messi, Villa, Sanchez/Pedro, Iniesta/Cesc...Utd followed suite with Rooney, Hernandez, Nani and Young (first started with a 3 in 08 with Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez) Anyway, at Arsenal we have a few players who can play upfront and outwide....so I was thinking of a formation and tactic which revolves round this.. .................RVP Gervinho....AOC.......Theo ............Song...Arteta Gibbs....Verm....Kos......Sagna .................Sneezy The top 4 are all interchangeable in almost every way, AOC is comfortable across the middle 3, RVP can go right and drop deep and the pace of Gervinho allows him to get to the byline right and cut inside left....Song and Arteta can hold and distribute and we have pace on the counter attack and a target upfront with a brilliant touch, heading ability and finishing skills who is also a very good passer of the ball.... IMO AA has lost it out wide, he can come in for AOC in his NATURAL position and Wilshere and Ramsey can slot in for Arteta with Coq and Frimpong as backup for Song.......this formation would be more fluid and make us more dangerous with the middle 2 holding and supporting the defence....AOC is a hard worker and would help protect the middle.... Opinions? Ideas?
sagna could do with some help, hleb used to track back but he is an excellent fb in form, he just isn't atm
http://www.givemefootball.com/premier-league/french-tactician-plays-down-arsenal-link gourcouff snr on why we send our players there coq, sunu and joel campbell
Lets relax about starting Ugly Theo. Id rather him just get spot appearances here and there. I feel that really killed our last generation.
That's what happens when you don't have depth, dudes get thrown in too early and you see all their bad points magnified. Sorta like running in on your girl before she waxes instead of waiting for her to get the proper brasilian. Feel me? Timing is everything
AOC is 18 and has played 2 games, let's not get ahead of ourselves thinking he is an automatic starter. what we should be talking about is how badly this team need a good #10 playmaker.
aoc is the real deal, Rooney started at 18 and this kid has the tools to change our stagnant attacking play. Arshavin and rosicky should not be starting for us, give the kid a chance, he is direct...which is what we need, want to see myachi get some sub appearances too, sounds promising and quick
ding. ding. I literally laughed out loud when I saw him in the middle winged by two guys with no first touch.
pace on a counter, gervinho has a decent first touch, this formation alows players to move around the top spaces and interchange, making our predictable attacks less predictable aoc is a quality player and i think he needs to start atm, arshavin is awful and i would rather se him out there
He is 18 He is really good and I think he is a much better footballer than Theo and will eventually pass him (maybe this season), but let's not give him a starting job right now.
just playing devils advocate here, but if hes better than theo he plays simple as. no one demanded wilshere be benched at 19, and there is not a whole lot of difference age wise. personally i think AOC has the tools, but lacks a bit of composure. yea he scored, but any good defender wouldve put a boot through it as soon as he saw his first touch got away from him. he did well to take it on anyway and we got a goal out of it, but to proclaim him a starter off two performances against shrewsbury/olympiakos is a bit short sighted. wenger has already stated he is more likely to fight for that ramsey spot, necessity pushed him out wide, which he is also capable of playing. we also have benik and aneke who could make the jump, one a wing forward the other CAM, so its hard to say what our team will look like in even two years. personally i think we are better off with a 4-5-1 starting formation. we need short term defensive stability, if we get a couple of 0-0 1-0 results going forward, i think we then can look at employing the 4-2-3-1. as the match progresses wenger can tactically shift into that formation anyway, but id rather most of the match played at 451.
I dont think he is better than Theo I said he is a better footballer, but he is still very young and need a bit more experience. He was a threat offensively, but he barely did any tracking back last night. Theo doesnt do much either, but Ugly Theo was actually worse. Not only that but The Ox has only done it against Shrewsbury and Olympiakos. No premiership club, yet. Lets relax on throwing him into the mix. I mean many are already starting write off Ramsey.
the midfield trio of song/ramsey/arteta gets overrun, and ox was tracking back last night, he was not worse than theo who rarely does it i just want to mix the team up, currently we look stale....we need more mobility in the side
yeah, i just want to see him behind the striker, he seems naturally to want to play thise 1,2's and that would work with rvp.....ideally this side needs either a holding midfielder or another box to box player to move with attack/defence as the load on songs shoulders is big
pretty sure ox was tracking back...but i was watching on a stream so who knows. just remember him making tackles around our own 18.
I think we'd do well to try to counter more with our current team, especially given our lack of defensive prowess.
We def have the players for it... Players who can pass out of the 'shell'... Arteta/Ramsey/Wilshere/Song/Arshavin/Rosicky Players who can make the runs and possibly score.. Gervinho/Walcott/Chamberlain/