re: Arsenal 2013/2014 Season Long Thread

after his performance id like ox to stay on the bench. But he is def needed in case we need to sub.

it's the right decision. clear goal scoring opportunity is what it is, not what a player thinks it is.

yeah, just said the same thing on twitter.

the fact we've lined up like that and gotten hammered by 3 rivals on the road is already a pretty big indication he doesn't recognize the problem. his words only pile on the pressure.

i thought he learned his lesson when he came out with the arteta-flamini axis against 'pool in our FA Cup meeting. unfortunately, until Rambo is back fully healthy, that pairing is probably our best bet from a defensive shape standpoint.

i think per and arteta are pretty similar in that, when in the right scheme, they are both excellent players. if they aren't put in a situation to succeed though, things can get quite ugly. personally, considering where i'd like to see this team go, i think we need to upgrade both.

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the fact we've lined up like that and gotten hammered by 3 rivals on the road is already a pretty big indication he doesn't recognize the problem. his words only pile on the pressure.

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It's hard for a manager at the top level to adjust. The first game against Man City you can write off as an outlier. Koscielny gets hurt and we give up four goals in the second half. The second game against 'Pool we get destroyed on two set pieces and move up the pitch to get those goals back, and then are destroyed the rest of the game by the fact we pushed up. The third game I still haven't seen, so I can't comment on it.

My point here is that from Wenger's point of view, it's not a crisis, it's bad luck. The rest of us see that playing Mertesacker and Arteta in a system where their lack of pace are exposed will result in a thorough defeat. Both are excellent players, but they require a system that doesn't require a vast amount of mobility. Hopefully the Chelsea game is a turning point where Wenger sees the reality of this team, where we need to compensate for Arteta's mobility by moving him further up the pitch and playing Flamini between he and Mertesacker. In big games Arteta has to be sacrificied, because the deep line we play is supremely hard to break down.

If we think about formations moving up and down the pitch, there are four basic phases. Their is the offensive phase, where team that has possession moves the ball in front of the opposing team, the defensive phase, where now the opposing team has the ball, and the transitions from both the offensive phase to the defensive phase, and the defensive phase to the offensive phase.

In my view, we are a great team in the defending phase, where we are set deep in our block with players behind the ball. We rarely give up goals from this position.

In the offensive phase we are the best we've ever been. We've broken down more teams with ten and eleven behind the ball than ever before.

In the transition from defensive to offensive, we are excellent as well, as we can counter attack at pace, especially with Theo.

It's the offensive to defensive transition where we've struggled ever since moving away from 2 strikers. It's been a long term problem, made more apparent by the fact that nearly all the top teams employ similar systems, or have the ability employ similar systems, and all are extremely adept at the defensive to offensive transition.

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It's hard for a manager at the top level to adjust.

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It's really not. Wenger just isn't as great as you wish him to be.

Just glad they can both play tomorrow. Our depth is bad enough right now, without those two...

Ouch..

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i don't mind the red card because that was such a close call, there's no way he could have called that in real time. i'm glad there's no suspension though because as razor thin as the call was, it wasn't an obvious goal scoring opportunity.

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Fair enough and I agree with no suspension. Hope your boys come out ready for redemption Saturday.

same squad except tv5 for kos and flamini for poldi. really think we should have rotated more (gnabry and sanogo for instance) but maybe AW will Saturday. hope it's not the same old shite of running players in the ground, particularly rosicky. he doesn't need to start 3 games in a week.