Those were our problems going forward. But on several occasions where our team built a substantial lead, our defence found it an extremely difficult task to maintain it. Both our league matches against Spurs are perfect examples, where two goal leads were easily thrown away. This I felt was largely down to our defence pushing higher up the field.
When possession is dominated like we regularly do, the only way to effectively play against us is by defending patiently and counter attacking quickly. When teams are trying to get you on the counter, it is wiser to defend a bit deeper as a high-line defence has more chances of conceding goals, especially on the counter.
A lot of our goals conceded especially in the second half of this season were because of us pushing too high up the field, or failing to hold a line when trying to play the opposition offside. Against technically inferior teams like Blackpool, pushing high up the field creates a lot of pressure, ultimately leading the opposition to crumble. But against teams with pace like Tottenham, the more we push up, fast players like Bale and Lennon will have better chances of getting behind the defence. In such situations if Arsenal adapt themselves to defending deep, players like Johan Djourou and Laurent Koscielny, who are technically sound and are good on their feet, will have a better chance of stopping the opposition. Still, defending set-pieces remains our greatest weakness, and I see no way of getting over them other than signing the right players (tall players as Wenger put it).
Arsene Wenger will have to be brave enough to play two strikers at home because most teams come to the Emirates to defend. They come prepared to take the few chances they will manage and sit back for the rest of the match. In such situations an extra man in midfield is a liability. It means one of our midfield misses out for a striker, but it gives the opposition more to think about. It is not always about playing your best eleven, but about playing the eleven that have a better chance of getting a result – look at Manchester United. Though they always play a 4-4-2, when we visited Old Trafford, Sir Alex put an extra man in the midfield to cut off the space for our players to pass the ball.
We have never seen any such tactical changes let alone any tactical surprises this season from Wenger. It is always the 4-2-3-1 (a fluid version of the 4-3-3) system with five in midfield and a lone striker upfront. Even the substitutions were just a change of personnel, nothing to alter the course of the game.
I hope he remembers that Arsenal experienced its best years under Wenger by playing a versatile 4-4-2 formation, which suited our style of play best. Wenger has to return to the tactics that gave him the results. Those tactics were brave, attacking, aggressive and still attractive to watch.
With Wenger starting a 4-4-2 against Fulham in the last weekend of the season, and also claiming that he is in the lookout for world-class players who will improve this team, one hopes that Wenger makes some bold moves in the summer transfer window and is proactive and braver with his tactics next season.
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thats why i love Arshavin, n eboue
risk taker, always trying to do something else
Don’t forget Diaby and (I’ll get lynched for this) Bendtner…
all we need is for nasri and cesc and RVP to take more long range shots. They’re more than capable of getting shots on target and even scoring. They will win corners, and could score on rebound.
But our players feel like crossing into a box where we have one striker against 3-4 oppsosition players. And even when they get into the area they keep passing, that’s why we either need to buy a greedy striker, or get our current players to be a bit more greedy.
Arshavin was so greedy an hence had an amazing first season.
the writter know how to talk about football i agree with him totally
Thanks a lot mate. Nice to hear that.
para mi arsenal fc tiene dos fallos uno degensivo y otro ofensivo, el primero la forma de adelantar mucho la linea defensiva y ser muy arriesgados al jugar al fuera de lugar y marcar mucho en zona en los tiros de esquina, y la segunda es, que arsenal debe jugar un juego inteligente si ellos forman una pared atras, darle un poco el balon y despues atacarlos despues usar su toque no como metodo exclusivo de ataque si no como metodo de defensa y de desesperacion para el rival, es sencillo es cuestion de mirar a los invncibles
Writing or talking about football is different from the real thing on the pitch. The players play at such a tempo that most times they ve got a fraction of a second to make that needed pass. The author probably took more than an hour to do this analysis but there is no disagreeing the fact that our players ve to shoot often.
Ok, when his style of football works it is great and very entertaining, but the problem is when it doesn’t work then he is slated and we are put in trouble, look at the final 3 months of last season. We must learn to adapt our style or forget about winning anything.