As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Against the weaker teams in the Premiership it will pay dividends and he got much credit for it when we smashed a woeful Everton at the start of the season and were scoring three or more against Wolves and the like.
However, we saw at Man City, Spurs, Man United and Chelsea that it will always leave us wide open. He can't see that, and it's an obvious fact. The only team in the top six it worked against was Liverpool - a team who have abandoned playing wide men and sit with a defensive, central midfield layout.
Still, Arsene knows. Lets sleepwalk into 4-3-3 against Man City at the Emirates when Bellamy, Wright Phillips and the overlapping full backs will rip the heart out of our fullbacks again. And we can all sit and say "Hmmm.....I wonder why that happens in the big games"
The problem wenger now has is he doesnt have a good enough defensive midfielder in our squad that can play in a 4-4-2. Flamini was the last one we had, he had pace, he would fight for every ball, he knew when to make a foul and he could move the ball on quickly.
All our central midfielders including cesc lack pace, so when we push all the way forward none of them can get back and defend and the defensive midfielder either song or denilson cannot either get wide and help the helpless fullback or get to teh ball quick enough to make a challenge. They are both good at reading the game however and making interceptions
Do you watch football? Eboue is the one who should fuck off not sagna
^^^
**** I do enjoy having the craic on here with you buddy but you are bang wrong tonight. Sagna is a zillion times better than that cheating ivory coast pussy playing in front of him and while I agree that his crossing is poor at times his main job is to defend and you will not find many defensive right backs better than sagna mate. I would be well pissed off if sagna left
Against the weaker teams in the Premiership it will pay dividends and he got much credit for it when we smashed a woeful Everton at the start of the season and were scoring three or more against Wolves and the like.
However, we saw at Man City, Spurs, Man United and Chelsea that it will always leave us wide open. He can't see that, and it's an obvious fact. The only team in the top six it worked against was Liverpool - a team who have abandoned playing wide men and sit with a defensive, central midfield layout.
Still, Arsene knows. Lets sleepwalk into 4-3-3 against Man City at the Emirates when Bellamy, Wright Phillips and the overlapping full backs will rip the heart out of our fullbacks again. And we can all sit and say "Hmmm.....I wonder why that happens in the big games"
The problem wenger now has is he doesnt have a good enough defensive midfielder in our squad that can play in a 4-4-2. Flamini was the last one we had, he had pace, he would fight for every ball, he knew when to make a foul and he could move the ball on quickly.
All our central midfielders including cesc lack pace, so when we push all the way forward none of them can get back and defend and the defensive midfielder either song or denilson cannot either get wide and help the helpless fullback or get to teh ball quick enough to make a challenge. They are both good at reading the game however and making interceptions
Yes, we also had two others in Diarra and Gilberto that left the club within the same six month spell. Still when you get a combined £6.5m from selling all of them and replace them with Ramsey and Coquelin in the same position, who can be worried eh ?
Against the weaker teams in the Premiership it will pay dividends and he got much credit for it when we smashed a woeful Everton at the start of the season and were scoring three or more against Wolves and the like.
However, we saw at Man City, Spurs, Man United and Chelsea that it will always leave us wide open. He can't see that, and it's an obvious fact. The only team in the top six it worked against was Liverpool - a team who have abandoned playing wide men and sit with a defensive, central midfield layout.
Still, Arsene knows. Lets sleepwalk into 4-3-3 against Man City at the Emirates when Bellamy, Wright Phillips and the overlapping full backs will rip the heart out of our fullbacks again. And we can all sit and say "Hmmm.....I wonder why that happens in the big games"
The problem wenger now has is he doesnt have a good enough defensive midfielder in our squad that can play in a 4-4-2. Flamini was the last one we had, he had pace, he would fight for every ball, he knew when to make a foul and he could move the ball on quickly.
All our central midfielders including cesc lack pace, so when we push all the way forward none of them can get back and defend and the defensive midfielder either song or denilson cannot either get wide and help the helpless fullback or get to teh ball quick enough to make a challenge. They are both good at reading the game however and making interceptions
Yes, we also had two others in Diarra and Gilberto that left the club within the same six month spell. Still when you get a combined £6.5m from selling all of them and replace them with Ramsey and Coquelin in the same position, who can be worried eh ?
Arsene knows mate
diarra was the one, he should of been loaned to pompey not sold. but thats no excuse we have had 4 transfer windows since to find a replacement for that type of player and we havent.
This is why wenger now plays a 4-3-3/4-5-1 because he doesnt have a good enough midfielder to do the defensive work on his own.
Even gilberto had vieira helping him out, but now playing a cesc type player that is toally offensive in the middle we need a stronger, quicker defensive midfielder for a 4-4-2. Im not sure even gilberto in his prime could play with cesc in a 4-4-2 formation.
Against the weaker teams in the Premiership it will pay dividends and he got much credit for it when we smashed a woeful Everton at the start of the season and were scoring three or more against Wolves and the like.
However, we saw at Man City, Spurs, Man United and Chelsea that it will always leave us wide open. He can't see that, and it's an obvious fact. The only team in the top six it worked against was Liverpool - a team who have abandoned playing wide men and sit with a defensive, central midfield layout.
Still, Arsene knows. Lets sleepwalk into 4-3-3 against Man City at the Emirates when Bellamy, Wright Phillips and the overlapping full backs will rip the heart out of our fullbacks again. And we can all sit and say "Hmmm.....I wonder why that happens in the big games"
The problem wenger now has is he doesnt have a good enough defensive midfielder in our squad that can play in a 4-4-2. Flamini was the last one we had, he had pace, he would fight for every ball, he knew when to make a foul and he could move the ball on quickly.
All our central midfielders including cesc lack pace, so when we push all the way forward none of them can get back and defend and the defensive midfielder either song or denilson cannot either get wide and help the helpless fullback or get to teh ball quick enough to make a challenge. They are both good at reading the game however and making interceptions
Yes, we also had two others in Diarra and Gilberto that left the club within the same six month spell. Still when you get a combined £6.5m from selling all of them and replace them with Ramsey and Coquelin in the same position, who can be worried eh ?
Arsene knows mate
diarra was the one, he should of been loaned to pompey not sold. but thats no excuse we have had 4 transfer windows since to find a replacement for that type of player and we havent.
This is why wenger now plays a 4-3-3/4-5-1 because he doesnt have a good enough midfielder to do the defensive work on his own.
Even gilberto had vieira helping him out, but now playing a cesc type player that is toally offensive in the middle we need a stronger, quicker defensive midfielder for a 4-4-2. Im not sure even gilberto in his prime could play with cesc in a 4-4-2 formation.
Absolutely, but again the Wengerites on here will tell you about what "a rotten egg" he was and how he "refused to play at Spurs" (a point that has been subsequently proved to be utter shit). The fact is we lost Diarra, Flamini and Gilberto in six months. You can make whatever justification for that that you like, but the bare fact is that they all left and we brought in Ramsey and Coquelin
4-3-3 has been a principal reason we have improved this season (and yes we have improved albeit not enough). As stated Song can't play in a 4-4-2 due to lack of mobility and Cesc doesn't get to attack enough to be truly effective. Basically with the lack of two all round quality central midfielders to dominate the midfield we need the extra man in there to avoid getting bullied by more physical teams.
Controlling midfield is more key than what happens to the full backs. However the issue there is execution not the system itself. In this system to protect the full backs the wide attacking players have to work hard either to close down moves at the front like Barca do before they even get going or to go backwards and help the full back out in defence like Chelsea. Not stroll around and wait for the ball like certain ones of ours who play there do.
We're not compact enough and haven't been for years in either system. That needs changing not a reversion to 4-4-2 which no one really plays at the top level in its basic form anymore and which certainly won't suit us.
