It's not a crisis, going out in both domestic cups by teams in lower leagues while fielding a strong squad is though.
The Arsenal Thread
- Thread starter Joss
- Start date
- Replies 21K
- Views 2M
It's not a crisis, going out in both domestic cups by teams in lower leagues while fielding a strong squad is though.
Imaginovskiy
Member
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2011
- Messages
- 48
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
David Dein back, might be a good start.
Signings too. I'm not saying we should spend £50m on Cavani or £40m on The next Lionel van Nas-re-gas, what we need is maybe £5m - £15m here and there. Maybe a Goalkeeper for competition, Center Back, Defensive Mid, and maybe and this is a big one, a Left Winger. Some depth in the squad wouldn't go a miss. Look at the CL as a prime example, Gibbs out and Monreal cup-tied, and suddenly we have to reshuffle an already shaky defence.
Cut that zonal marking **** in set pieces out. It doesn't work plain as day. You let the opposition get the run on you, obviously they will jump higher, it's simple physics.
Tactical Rotation is extremely important. We play a 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-2-1. Teams know this, and abuse it when they come up against us. They know who/how/what we'll play and it's costing us. Look at Fergie, against city IIRC he was expected to play a 4-2-3-1 as usual, the guy shows up with a 4-1-2-1-2 and City were confused.
Player choices. Against Bayern we knew it was going to be tough and we'd have to play on the counter. Saying that, Giroud should've been in a Central-Target-Man Role with Walcott shuffled out right and Cazorla sitting behind Giroud to bring Wilshere into play also. Playing on the counter we would've been better equipped had we have been able to punt the ball up to Giroud, who we know can hold it up and wait for reinforcements.
I'm probably missing something, but hey cut me some slack it's 1AM.
To start with, I think a shake-up is board level is needed. Bring in some fresh faces, because with fresh faces comes new ideas and that can't be a bad thing. Also, whilst on the topic of behind the scenes work, additional work on commercial income because we lag so much on the clubs around us in this aspect it's not funny.
Keep Wenger as manager, I think the job he is doing is the least of our worries right now. If he gets suitable backing in the market I'm confident he'll get the people in we need. However, I think some of the load needs to be taken off his shoulders and he needs to let other coaches do coaching. Have specialised defence and attacking coaches (Bould and Pimorac?) which lets Wenger just do what he did before and just focus on managing the team on the pitch.
Now for players. Get rid of as much deadwood as possible. Fabianski (very good keeper but wants to be first choice elsewhere), Djourou, Squillaci, Santos, Denilson, Arshavin, Chamakh, Park, Bendtner. In total thats maybe £10 million in fees + approx. £300k off the wage bill. If Diaby doesn't prove he can put a string of games together between now and the end of the season, cut him loose. If Sagna doesn't want to sign a contract extension, sell him.
As for the incoming players. A GK is needed, someone who will give Szczesny a real challenge (Begovic or Stekelenburg), if Sagna goes a RB would be needed (in honesty I don't know of any top-line RBs out there we could get, Aurier from Toulouse would be a good buy if we went for a young guy to give Jenkinson direct competition), a top-class CB is a must and should be number 2 on the priority list behind a striker. I'd look at Hummels but being realistic Nicolas N'Koulou from Marseille would be a cracking buy and would give us 4 top class CBs. A holding midfielder in the mould of Wanyama or Capoue is required. As for a striker, my ideal buy would be Jovetic. That leaves us with a superb starting XI with plenty of competition for places, although maybe an additional midfielder and striker could do to just add some more depth.
Tactics-wise, have a genuine Plan B. And I don't just mean play a big man upfront so we cross it a bit more, adjust the midfield - have the two holding midfielders sit deeper especially Wanyama/Capoue to break up attacks and quickly give it to Arteta/Wilshere/Cazorla to quickly counter the other team. Too often we go to the Manchesters and Chelsea and just assume we can play our normal game and it will be enough but other teams read us like a book. Shake it up a bit.
Oh and make Arteta captain with Wilshere his deputy. Captaincy has ruined Vermaelen and he shouldn't be guaranteed a starting berth because of it.
RB's I think best option who we could afford is Ignacio Abate from Milan. Was about to transfer to Zenit in january, but deal broke and didn't move. Somewhere around 10m. He's also bit older than Jenkinson.
Considering Sagna's form, his double broken leg and his unwillingness to go past a man, it should probably be a slot needing another player.
However you could also look at the CB position, the DM position, the GK and even another midfielder considering both Arteta and Rosicky are getting on a bit. However bringing in Podolski, Giroud, Cazorla & Monreal in a single season is a third of a new team, and those guys are all starters; so perhaps we can afford to be (a little) positive.
However you could also look at the CB position, the DM position, the GK and even another midfielder considering both Arteta and Rosicky are getting on a bit. However bringing in Podolski, Giroud, Cazorla & Monreal in a single season is a third of a new team, and those guys are all starters; so perhaps we can afford to be (a little) positive.
vlad-the-impaling-gunner
Member
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2010
- Messages
- 2,135
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 36
Szczesny's been playing so poorly this season. Some of his performances have been Almunia-like.
He wasn't actually that good last season if you compare him to other keepers in Prem. He shows his ability at times like that game against Sunderland, but he has problems with consistency.
vlad-the-impaling-gunner
Member
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2010
- Messages
- 2,135
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 36
I agree. He has talent no doubt but consistency is an issue. I also get the feeling he's become too complacent ever since last season and this season. If we did sign a experienced keeper, it might help him rediscover his form given the competition factor. Thank god for Cazorla though, he bailed us out.
Saved by Cazorla.
Most critical part of the season at this point. The next games coming up are:
- Spurs away
- Everton home
- Bayern away
- Swansea away
Lets call the Bayern game lost and assume it's about saving face. All those games are massive, especially the Spurs and Everton games. Could be a difficult few weeks if it doesn't go well!
Although on the upside Monreal looks very good at LB, Wilshere is somehow maintaining form despite his crazy amount of running.. I'm more concerned with the CB/keeper and who we have in the third midfield slot right now.
Most critical part of the season at this point. The next games coming up are:
- Spurs away
- Everton home
- Bayern away
- Swansea away
Lets call the Bayern game lost and assume it's about saving face. All those games are massive, especially the Spurs and Everton games. Could be a difficult few weeks if it doesn't go well!
Although on the upside Monreal looks very good at LB, Wilshere is somehow maintaining form despite his crazy amount of running.. I'm more concerned with the CB/keeper and who we have in the third midfield slot right now.
Yeap 11 games only left. If we can manage wins over both Spurs and Everton we'd be in great position for top 4. Past seasons 70 points has been enough. Not so sure now, but for that we'd need 8 wins from 11.
So how did we look today? I didn't get a chance to see the match due to work (which has been almost all of them lately). All I saw was on facebook where people said we had a shaky first half but dominated the second half like usual.
vlad-the-impaling-gunner
Member
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2010
- Messages
- 2,135
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 36
Ahh, sadly this is probably going to become the truth at the end of next season for us barring a miracle.
Not exactly impressed. Although perhaps Koscielny seemingly asleep and Gervinho more interested in getting snug in his coat than the goal pretty much sums up our season
To be fair, I think this is just slow reactions because I saw on MOTD they were all celebrating, particularly Koscielny who was on his feet.
Yeah, slow reactions, lol.
The... North Derby London? :/
Anyway, that **** West Ham defending in the last 15 is truly frustrating, would've been nice for us to have the chance to leapfrog Spurs on Sunday, but a win would still be absolutely vital.