would you rather he worried overly about countering the opposition and the team ended up playing like Inter Milan in the CL final a few years back, hitting the ball as far away as possible simply to retain shape? NO! we are Arsenal and we play good football. admittedly at the moment we are very slow and lacklustre, but as soon as we speed up our play we are back to winning ways.
I think we should stick to our best game, but I think we still need a couple more top quality players to do that effectively. I'd hate to see us adopt a 'park the bus' style of football. That said, whilst we're playing with a weakened team, I think sometimes we should pack the midfield in a 4-5-1, with a holding DM to protect the back four.
I'm using an extreme to make a point, but it is a dangerous game trying to play your game to suit the opposition. There would be a necessary compromise of attacking football for a team like Arsenal in this scenario. That said, I do think we need to be a bit more savvy in some games as we leave ourselves open too often. But I would hate to see us set up in a defensive style for games as I think it would simply invite pressure.
The trouble with inviting pressure is that you need to ensure that you can get a ball out of defense to an outlet, who can then turn it into an attack. Playing on the counter is okay when it works, when it doesn't you simply spend the whole game defending, where the likelihood of making mistakes increases.
Regardless of the squad being different, the team would have still played according to the tactics set out by Wenger. The same Wenger that is tactically clueless now? Strange contradiction I think.
Actually I haven't Aw tried to ease us into a passing game So yes your petty little insults aren't working
I think you misunderstood what I was saying. If you are defending more than attacking, the likelihood of making a mistake will be a defensive one, that's a consequence of inviting pressure. It's not true to say that we don't focus on defending. It's because we are an attacking team, that we are more open in defence.
I'm saying that setting up defensively invites pressure which increases the amount of defending overall, which in turn means that mistakes are likely to be defensive ones, which are costly. There is an old adage .... Attack is the best form of defence.
Er there are lots of reasons to blame Wenger, continually losing big games, the fact that our players have bottled whatever chance of success that they have had for 5 years, our squad being weaker than it has been in a long time and the inflexibility of our playing style and tactics. Do you want me to blame all those things on the board? I don't feel like I am scapegoating Wenger, if I avoid criticising him for obvious things like that then I would have to wonder if he is actually the manager of the team.
