The formation doesn't seem to work right now, many have highlighted the lack of pace the ineffectiveness of our front 3 whoever Wenger has chosen. Santos is a liability at Left Back but is decent going forward...with TV not in great form at Centre Back why not switch him to Santos's position and push him forward then slot Kos back in next to Mertersaker. Podolski is in poor form so give him a breather on the bench Theo has to start, I know he can be frustrating but right now he's our best winger Giroud has made decent runs but had poor service and with Theo and Santos there might be better balls into the box With Wilshere out for a game I'd unfortunately guess Wenger will slot Ramsey there but I think he should go with Coquelin or the bigger gamble in Thomas Eisfeld who I think is going to be a top player for us and the natural replacement for Wilshere when hes not playing. Cazorla has been subdued of late (despite a cracking last minute goal) so maybe pushing him even further forward well help by making it harder to mark ...being more is that gap between the opposition midfield and defence ARSENAL TEAM vs. FULHAM .....................Mannone Sagna.......Mertsaker........Kos...............TV Theo.........Arteta......Coquelin/Eisfeld....Santos ......................Cazorla............................. ......................Giroud............................
I would like to see us go with 4-4-2, actually. Mannone Sagna Mert TV Gibbs AOC Wilshere Arteta Cazorla Giroud Walcott (I am assuming that Gibbs and AOC are both ready to return from injury)
Nah, he needs games. I have been pleasantly surprised by his two performances since returning to the first team.
ala 2007/2008...i agree 100% .......................Almunia Sagna.......senderos......gallas..............clichy eboue.........fabregas......flamini......diaby ......................hleb..................... ........ .....................adebayor...................... ...... we won 2-0 at the san siro using the 4411
No sorry but 4-3-3 is the only formation is can see us going forward with, i remember we reverted to a 4-4-2 in the past and we looked really bad, we couldn't get on the ball and control the game. Changing the formation is not the answer, and i know that after a bad run of form fans will be looking for a number of ways to fix it. But the reason we dont have pace in wide areas just now is because gervinho and oxo are injured and walcott played 120 mins on tuesday so he didnt start yesterday. We have a few home games in the league now and hopefully we can put a run together and next week spurs play man city and liverpool play chelsea so there is another chance that the clubs above us will drop points. We need our forwards to start scoring in order to take the pressure off our defence and against man utd every player was extremely nervous on the ball and taking one more touch than they should. Any news on when gibbs diaby oxo and gervinho will be back.
Pointing to home games isn't a plus as our home form has been utter sh!te. Out of our last 15 home league games, we've only won 6. In our last 7 league games we've won only 2. I wouldn't be surprised if we drew to Fulham, and either lose or draw to Spurs, our home form has been woeful.
I want to see the 3412 Szczesny Koscileny-Mertesacker-Vermaelen Sagna-Arteta-Wilshere-Gibbs Cazorla Walcott-Podolski
This looks quite good tbh. The defence should be very solid with 3 centrebacks having two fullbacks supporting them and the midfield trio Arteta, Cazorla and Wilshere won't be broken up. Up front two excellent finishers with pace, who will be deadly on the counter attack. h I would love to see us play like this once to see how it goes, perhaps even at Schalke and hit them hard on the break.
That's a good team. I'm a fan of three at the back with two wing backs. The only difference I'd make to that team though is to play Sagna at the back instead of Kos and play Jenkinson as a wing back.
Don't Wigan play with this? I actually quite like it, Would give us good defensive cover and set us up well for the counter attack, which would certainly solve the issue of our attacks being slow.
I've been saying for about 5 years that 3 at the back will be the future formation, and more and more teams are starting to use it. The lack of natural defensively gifted full backs in this era is becoming apparent and more and more attacking 'fullbacks' are taking over. But it leaves a huge issue that they are defensively weak and cause far too many problems for the centre backs, thus, conceding too many goals and costing teams points as they are easily exploited by quick wingers. It always reminds me of that brain dead moron, Andy Townsend, who called Lukas Podolski a cheat during Germany's game with England at the 2010 World Cup, because, "He'll be waiting on the half way line for Johnson to attack so he can get into the space behind him, he's a cheat!". Not only does it add incredible stability at the back, but it works wonders going forward. Especially with the right personnel. The only issue that I see with the team that I posted, is Mertesacker, although he is a very gifted defender, normally in this formation, the central CB plays as a sweeper, so it's normally the best option to go with a defender that can pass well and and can take the ball forward, our best player for that is Koscielny, a lot of you will say Vermaelen purely down to his high attacking instinct and that he often shoots from distance, but that is it, and that's not really what you want in this position as it requires quite a lot of discipline, and Koscielny is better at passing and taking the ball forward. But we can't put Mertesacker as the RCB because he isn't quick enough for this role and the whole purpose of this formation is to have CB's that cover the 'fullbacks', hence why there is 3. All though, in his defence, Mertesacker is ok at playing the ball, and he is intelligent when on it, but not the greatest at playing it forward, but playing him there isn't something that would cause major issues. The midfield works as a line of four, that is both very defensively minded, and very attacking minded. Sagna, a very gifted defender that likes to get forward and chases back, Gibbs, not as gifted as Sagna in the defensive department but gets forward well and tries to make it back most of the time. Then you have Arteta and Wilshere in midfield, one currently plays as our holding midfielder, the other in his breakthrough season played the defensive box to box midfield role. Both are incredibly ideal for this midfield. Then you have Santi Cazorla in the 'free role', enabling him to drop back into midfield to support and then tearing teams apart on the attack, be it from the left or the right as well. Then there's the quick attacking that would thrive on through balls all day long, and cut backs from the wings. I believe that Wigan employ this type of formation, all though I never watch them, so I don't know how they go about it.
