4-5-1 It just ain't working

[Number 5]

Mickey Mousers, Away
Manure, Home
Aston Villa, Away
Newcastle, Away
Middlesborough, Away
Cashley's rich mates, Home
Trottspurs, Home

21 points available......12 points taken

The common theme? Each game RVP has not been in the starting XI, and possibly AW has had no confidence in any other foward than Number 25, so Arsenal have lined up in a 4-5-1. With the exception of the first 45 at Villa and the game at the Mickey's the performance of the team has hardly set the world on fire. Far be it from me to critique AW on his tactics but it really seems to me that the team just doesn't suit this style of play. Even AW has said he doesn't like this formation, so the valid question remains; Why does he line us up in it so often? Surely it would be better to take a punt with Nik-Nik from the start with No 25, or Theo even. Just for one game at least. I can see that only one defeat in that list of games (3 away from home, and 2 wins and a draw from 3 of our biggest rivals at home) points to a fairly successful formula, but I just feel we are better than that. Does the result count more than the performance? A tough question, I'd take the result every time but I really feel without the handbrake on this side can really rip into the heart of most teams.

I always was a bit gung-ho though, probably why AW does what he does and I order text books for students really

[sharpie]

Not many teams play this formation at home and it seems a little bit on the defensive with the midfield being packed, and one massive striker allows for a long lofted ball for him to hold up.
Arsene Wenger is a genius and no one can doubt him as a manager but surely we need to go 2 up top with a bit of support and Rosicky, Hleb and Fabregas pushing on?

Whether it is the case or not, COME ON YOU GOONERS, great win today over the spuds

[Chippy]

Anyone know why RvP wasn't even on the bench today?

[Justin-the-Gooner]

Anyone know why RvP wasn't even on the bench today?

Same I was very confused.

But about 4-5-1. I would prefer 4-4-2 to be honest. We have won matches with 4-5-1 and works at the start of big games but IMO 4-4-2 for me.

[stearmaster]

new SEXY tactics

[I Hate Hleb]

RVP PICKED UP A KNOCK IN TRAINING. NOT SURE HOW LONG HE IS OUT FOR BUT IT SAID ON THE RADIO THAT IT WAS A MINOR INJURY.

[stearmaster]

RVP PICKED UP A KNOCK IN TRAINING. NOT SURE HOW LONG HE IS OUT FOR BUT IT SAID ON THE RADIO THAT IT WAS A MINOR INJURY.

so that will be another 6 weeks then

[I Hate Hleb]

UPDATE ABOUT RVP TAKEN FROM 'THE TIMES ON-LINE':

Arsenal expect to be strengthened by the return of Robin van Persie, absent yesterday with a minor muscle strain, for the Boxing Day match at Portsmouth. “He could have played today if I’d really needed him, but I didn’t want to take the risk,â€

[Gunnerz4life]

Think the way we play the 4-5-1 formation is a lot different than most of the other teams. Im not sure if its a defensive ploy either. Im sure most of us remember the match at OT last season where we outplayed and outpassed manure with the 4-5-1 formation. Now with Hleb being on fantastic form and Cesc being the player of the season so far, theres a lot coming from the midfield. I wouldnt term the system a failure, it might come in handy in Europe as well.

Having said that i think sooner rather than later we have to switch back to 4-4-2 and we will when RVP gets 100 percent match fit. But id like to see Bendtner starting with Ade in some matches, I dont see how people think they are similar in their style of play.

[Magic Hat]

I prefer to think of it as 4-1-4-1 but it does hinder us, it doesn't suit Ade at all which surprised me, be interesting with Van Persie as lone striker as we tried in pre season and the midfield could do more to help out though would point out that second half against Aston Villa, against Newcastle and Boro we were also missing key midfielders. I don't mind the formation but not with Ade alone up there

I think once Van Persie is fit, we will see 4-4-2 again and hopefully next time Ade or Van Persie have a knock Dudu will finally be ready for a start

[augie]

Tell me number 5, do you call ade no.25 just cos you cant be arsed typing ade's name or are afraid to make a spelling error ? If its the latter then I wouldnt be too worried about it cos the only time anybody will pull you on it is if you get into a verbal fight on this forum - the bitches take the gloves off then

[REB]

i hate the way we play 451, it is not an attacking ploy and cuts down our attemts on goal by over half,
we played spurs on sat and they were without there centre backs and we should have gone for the jugglar instead of pussy footing around making life hard for ourselfs as we always seem to do when we play 451,,

we got away with it but for how long

[charliegeorgewhocanhitem]

I was really looking forward to seeing RVP play against the scum, just the kind of game he would revel in I think. I just hope he's used up about 5 years worth of bad luck with injuries in the last year and we can see a really good run in the first team from him, given that I think he's got the potential to be as good as Henry. Maybe not as prolific in the goals scored list but his quality of play can be just as good.

[Rilo II]

Mickey Mousers, Away
Manure, Home
Aston Villa, Away
Newcastle, Away
Middlesborough, Away
Cashley's rich mates, Home
Trottspurs, Home

I'm curious, which of those results where so bad other than Borough?

Taking a point at Anfield is a good result to me. When you consider what happened there in the league last season, and what they are capable of, I can see no way a draw is a bad result, especially when trailing for the majority of the match.
Taking a point off Man U is never a bad result, home or away.
3 points against a Villa side that had been on a good run.
A point at Newcastle who had been poor, but was always going to be a tough game.
Loss at Borough which was unacceptable
3 points against Chelsea who we have struggled against in recent years and had been on a great run after a shaky start.
3 points against Spurs which is always a tricky match, and in a game which most people seemed to view differently that I did. Yes, Keane hit the bar a missed a penalty which were huge moments, but did they lookeven slightly dangerous at any other time? I didn't think so.

Being negative seems to be a bit of a fashion with us recently. We probablyshould have taken 3 points against Borough, but other than that I don't see that any other games were bad results (being generous I'd say maybe we should have beat the geordies but that was never going to be an easy win). Anything more than we got in them was a bonus. The fact that wewon 3 of the games listed, and that two of the were very very tough games, really makes me wonder why these games could be taken negativly. We were never going to hammer Chelsea, nor would we have an easy time against Spurs or Villa.

I know we shouldn't get carried away by what's happened this season, but I really think people are being too negative. I see this run of results as pretty good all things considered. We weren't going to go unbeaten all season, and we will draw some games. If you were asked before that stretch of games what you would expect from them, I'm sure most people would take the results we got, other than the slip up against Villa and possibly Newcastle.

[Chippy]

On a positive note we are ahead of where we were in 2003/4 in no of points .
Back to 451. I am getting so frustrated in our wide players getting in a position to cross and not having a single player in or near the box. This has happened so many times recently it was like being back to the TH14 days without him