People have rightly slated Wenger for not signing a CF, but I think potentially there is also a disaster waiting to happen if anything bad happens to Coquelin. Arteta simply can't play that posistion and cover the ground Coquelin covers, no chance. Also at his age with all the injuries he had last season, the guy is a shadow of the player that arrived at Arsenal in 2012. As for Flamini, we have tried to get rid of him all summer because he is awful, but that bastard always sees out his contract and leaves on a free everytime. So according to the people that still back Wenger, there was no top CF available, so Wenger was right not to spend, but what is his excuse for not buying another DM?
Good luck with getting any responses from some people on this topic. They deem any criticism on Wenger a blasphemy. Any sane person would view this as a screw up and WE WILL see our team struggle due to this shortsightedness. The DM position was a very gettable target and it would have really strengthened our team in the middle and allowed our attacking game to flow more. Now everything hinges on Coqs form and fitness, any one of these two fail will see us drop points and struggle to keep us in contention. We have a fair amount of cover in most areas and even the shortcomings of Giroud can be made up in some way with Sanchez and Walcott. But there are no comebacks for the DM position.
As I mentioned on the other thread, my main gripe this window is the DM position. I kinda understand with a ST you need to get real value for money and there were no top quality ST available. But the DM position pissed me the fck off. Kondogbia, Schneiderlin, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Wanyama, Moutinho (younger and better version of Arteta), Carvalho, etc... These are players that may not be necessarily better than our Coq but to provide competition and cover.
Yup totally agree, absolutely criminal to neglect the DM position. Arteta isn't good enough to fill in for Coquelin and Flamini is finished. Plus he's in the last year of his contract and he's hardly getting any game time as it is. I really can't fathom how Wenger can possibly think that Coquelin, Arteta and Flamini are good enough as our defensive midfield options. If Coquelin gets injured or goes through a bad patch, we are screwed. Ridiculously careless.
What are you talking about?.. There is ALOT more criticsm on these boards than there is praise of Wenger and our current situation than there is praise on these boards. Use the search function and look for threads with Wengers name. I guarantee there will be considerably more negative threads than positive ones. It depends on Arteta. Wether he really is 'past it' like some are saying. Coquelin has been impressive for eight months.. I don't supposen Wenger deserves any credit for playing him though? Our striker situation is embarrassing but I think there's a good arguement to be made for not needing more midfielders.
It's more a matter of the type of midfielder. Coq is the only one of a defensive persuasion in the squad that is good enough. We aren't just asking for any midfielder. What good is it having all these midfielders with no one protect the back 4 if something happens to our Coq?
Surprised you guys didn't go in for Khedira. Or maybe you did and he just chose Juve. But he would have been a decent fit, and free too.....
I'm referring to the few who refuse to criticise Wenger even when he's made clear mistakes that are avoidable. As for giving Wenger praise, search for my posts and you'll see them. But I refuse to ignore when he's made mistakes and I will continue to highlight them, especially when he's getting a considerable amount of money managing Arsenal and have a very large transfer kitty available.
Yeah if I was manager I would agree with you but I would imagine Wenger is thinking. His plan B is just a change of shape rather than a like for like swap. Real Madrid and Barca have both gone through multiple Seasons without any Real traditional DM's in their squad. Chelsea only really have Matic.
We have seen over the years how we have suffered for this particular reason. Not playing a DM. Alex song was not disciplined enough. Gilberto was the last one we really had. We stumbled upon Coquelin. This even made it more apparent. Wenger plays one way. It is obvious that it will get more success with a DM in the side. Notice that recently our possession %ages have dropped. The PL has improved. Teams will have a go, therefore we will most times need a DM. 2 on big occasions. Barca always play a DM in Busquests, Yaya was a DM in Barca. Alex Song played a disciplined role at Barca. Mascherano deputizes there. Real had Xavi Alonso for years. They had Sammi Khedira. Notice how Kroos and Modric play deep pivots with Modric the more defensive of the 2. Wenger is not as flexible tactically as you put across. Not to me anyway. If plan A is not working he removes the DM and throws on a ST. He throws on an extra defender to hang on that's it. Oh and Chelsea have Mikel. Bourinho sometimes throws Zouma in there
This bit right here is absolutely spot on and I have never understood why he does this because it is counter-productive. If you put on a defensive player, you end up dropping deeper and putting your defence under more pressure from the opposition. If you put on an attacker or a wide player, you can stretch the opposition and pin them back because they won't want to get hit on the counter but it means you have an outlet when you go forward. Even when we have seen out a game when he puts on a defensive-minded player, we have scraped through by ending the match with our backs against the wall.
It's an interesting debate. You might be right about Wenger however I do think its been shown that an attacking side doesn't have to field a DM if the whole team presses correctly. On the Real/Barca thing: Busquets he's a DM but his strength is retaining possession, he is not an enforcer or particularly defensively minded. Mascherano IS a proper DM but he gets more games as a centreback. Khedira is a 'box to box' midfielder and Alonso is not a traditional DM either.
But do we press properly? We know our team by now. We are always vulnerable and likely to give the opposition a few chances. We play with BFG at the back. Having a mobile DM is vital to protect him. I can accept some games we could afford to play with Ramsey and Arteta. Ramsey+Santi for me is a disaster waiting to happen (my opinion). With most of the teams playing without fear, on a bad day in the office we will pay for it. Remember vs Liverpool we were ****. Guess who was key to keeping us in it. a proper DM. My point is this Arsenal team is at its best with a DM assuring the back line.
I said on the 10 strikers thread that DM was more of an issue that wasn't addressed. Schneiderlin, Kongdobia and Vidal all moved this summer, so there was a chance to sign any one of them. The idea that you either completely slate Wenger or back him unequivocally, isn't accurate or helpful. I think most fans sit somewhere between the two stances and call it as it is. We should have sign a DM this summer, but I do remember you Sanj saying that it would be difficult for Wenger to go out and buy a top DM after Coquelin had such a good season, basically telling him that he was no longer first choice.
I said it complicated the matter for Wenger, especially when it came to the signing of Schneiderlin who wanted more money and his transfer fee was also expensive, but there was a lot more DM's out there, who would have been cheaper and offered a lot more competition than to Coquelin than Arteta or Flamini.
I think Wenger should have bought a DM and I agree that there were players that he could have got. I think Coq has deserved his starting place, but we need decent cover. Arteta has been a good servant for Arsenal, but he's way to slow for the style of play we need and Flamini is well and truly on the downward curve.
That's what I thought, but we dodged a bullet with him, the guy is out injured again, he's become very injury prone so he's not at all what we needed.
Yeah but he got injured playing for Juve, if he had been at Arsenal he wouldn't have been in that game and wouldn't have gotten injured. Then again, Arsenal's injury record is atrocious so maybe he still would have been injured. Who knows.
Has nothing to do with playing or not, he would get injured anyway, he has become an injury prone player, so there's nothing about 'who knows', we do know, we just have to look at his recent injury record to see he is broken, his injury with Juve just proves that.
I already knew Arteta was not a good enough back up, but **** me I did not think Arteta would be as bad as he was last night. Can't blame him, really. He is old and has picked up loads of injuries, only one man to blame. Currently Coquelin is our most important player.
