When Mark Hughes plays Arsenal his teams specifically target Vermaelen as a weak spot in the defense because of his willingness to come out from CB to tackle the oppositions CF if he's stood in front of the defense. More defensive drilling would remove this, but it's definitely a weakness.
Is the problem that we have CBs who prefer to nick the ball rather than tackle ? Its this trying to get in front of defenders pursuit that then leaves them out of position if they don't win the ball.
This is true. We rarely have a flat back line. Verm or Kols always come out of the back line. Its not a good thing. Its why barca create 30 chances a game vs us. Its such easy pickings vs top sides. Other sides can shut barca down. And dont give me about the 2-1 at the emirites last year. It should of been 6-0 after 10 minutes. We got completely battered early and then our midfeild picked it up second half with a great performance. But whenever they had attacking possesion they ripped our back line to pieces. You cant win the title or even get close to winning the title when you are relying ons coring 5 goals to win games. This year and last year me and mates had always said we dont feel safe till we have 3 goals. That isnt right. Look at the big games this year. Even the ones we have won we have conceded goals.
Here's a good article on PL defending, with a slant on Arsenal http://www.eplindex.com/10846/solid-premier-league-defence-epl-opta-stats.html One of the most interesting points here is that we are second worst in the league in terms of conceding goals from successful passes in the final 3rd. i.e we are carved open way too easily - when teams actually do have possession in our final third they find it easy to score compared to almost every other team in the league. Only Bolton are worse. There may be a number of reasons for this, but my view is that we are caught out of shape to often, leading to fairly simple passes creating good chances for the opposition. I dont think it is the players as such - its the system and our over commitment to players going forward
its the loss of possession (of course) that costs us. We do not cover well when guys go foraging forward.
I agree that we leave ourselves exposed because of our reliance on an attacking strategy. It's fine to attack but we need a defensive strategy as well which I think is where we come short compared to the great sides of our past. Then again, this manager for all his attributes is not given to honing a defensive strategy. I think we need to have players cover for each other which means more tracking back is needed. It's not good just to concentrate on an attacking strategy because the goals do not always come and when they don't we need to ensure we keep them out of reach of the back of our net too.
Since the 1st of October we have the third best goals against in the league and only 2 more than Manchester United. I'd say most of our early defensive frailties were due to our full back injuries and our midfield not really used to defending as a unit. The man city defense has had a really good year but, apart from them, I'd say we are looking good.
It isnt this year though its every year we concede goals. Also united have had more defensive injuries than us over the year possibly. Their star cb has been out all year basically, and they have a new keeper bedding into the league. We have a ton of possesion and yet still concede goals. It makes no sense. We must have poor defenders. I would say the other team have possesion vs us less than vs any other team in the league.
We had the FB issue all the way through to Feb. We've actually got a pretty good home defensive record - joint second best in the league behind City. I think our defensive issues are tied more to our style of play and how the opposition approach the game - we have more possession at the Emirates with teams sitting back, whereas they attack us more when we play away. When teams attack they find it pretty easy to score goals (comparitavely). Only 1 team in the top 11 have a worse 'goals conceded away' record. This is bourne out in the link I posted. Only one team in the league is easier to score against than us when opponents actually have possession in the final third of the pitch.
We still concede too many needless goals from set pieces and opponents know this. Wenger just doesn't seem to set any store by good defending.
Man U have had most of their defence out for the season, bloody hell - even Carrick was drafted in to play CB at one point.
Arteta--Song--Rosicky is a solid midfield with better defensive qualities than many of our previous teams. They may not have the offensive quality of the likes of Fabregas, Nasri etc.. but defensively and in terms of workrate they offer more protection than previous systems. 44 league goals concede is an awful record.(with two games to go) Our defence is not as good as people are making out.
I dont think any sane person would say we had a good defence - but teh discussion is whether its the quality of the players or the style of the team. I ould lean more to the latter.
I'm sure you posted this before and I am sure I asked you to name the previous teams that had worse defensive qualities as you claim. A midfield of Song - Rosicky - Arteta do not provide much in the way of defensive cover, how is Arteta defensive ? Rosicky can takle but you would hardly say he provides defensive cover - in the way Valencia does for Man U for example or Park. As for Song, well, he was a crap DM when played as a DM so I don't see how his defensive qualities have improved now he is playing more offensively, nuff said.
I did post it before but NO you did'nt ask me that (just checked). 1. 2008. - (Our most common midfield was this.) Walcott--Fabregas--Flamini--Hleb 2. 2007- Again only 2 in the middle. Reyes--Fabregas--Gilberto--Hleb 3. 2011. - Fabregas--Song--Wilshere better offensively than our current midfield but inferior defensively. Arteta has given us more stability and a revitalised Rosicky is a good all rounder and is pretty robust for a 'creative' player. I think it's fair to say that most our defensive problem are down to the back four.
hmmm, I am not sure that is fair. I think it is the team as whole who fail to defend properly... the back four do seem to be exposed an awful lot from fairly simple passes. Doesnt matter how good a defender you are, if top players have space to pick out passes and other have space to run into the opposition is in big trouble.
Arteta has good positional sense. Way more then the likes of Diaby and Denilson. And while Jack did do well in that role, he is not as experienced as Arteta when it comes to playing in midfield.
