First and foremost, we were poor against a poor Brand United side and got no more than we deserved.
However, in my humble opinion, Arsene Wenger got it wrong on two counts. One which was blatantly obvious, one maybe not so.
Firstly, the obvious one, Wenger makes the brave decision to give a Premier League start to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain over Andrey Arshavin, whose done nothing all season and is basically looking for the exit door. The decision looks a bloody good one. AOC is lively, beats his man regularly, picks the right cross (Theo take note) and gives the Manure full-backs a run for their money. Ox then sets up Robin van Persie for the equaliser and we look like we may even go on to win the game. Then, to everyone’s dismay, Arsene takes off Alex for Arshavin! Even RVP looked on in utter disbelief!! To cap it all off, Andrey’s only contribution to the game was to not tackle back and aid United in scoring the winner.
Secondly, the not so obvious one, the first half was dire – no urgency, no creativity and we were being run ragged in the middle. Johan Djourou was having a particular shocker, especially for Valencia’s goal. At half time, Arsene makes the decision to give another debut youngster Nicholas Yennaris, who did nothing wrong, but we were losing and the game was going away from us. This is where I believe he should have brought on Benni, gone three at the back and dropped Alex Song a little deeper. This would have given us an extra man in midfield and allowed AOC and Theo to better support RVP, who was looking increasingly isolated up front. It would have been a bold move, but at that stage we had nothing to lose.
As it was, events transpired and got what we deserved, nothing.
With Wenger seemingly not looking to reinforce the squad this January, we must hope that the return of Jack, Mikel, Geo and any of our full-backs can inspire the team to overhaul Chel$ki (pretty much forget about catching Spurs!!) or we must prepare for life in The Europa League next season, at best!!!
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No he should have taken off Theo and brought on Yossi. Theo couldn’t make a 5 yard pass all game, he’s actually REALLY horrible at passing in general which is why he can only hit 1 good cross for every 50 he tries.
Yossi is a tidy player who retains the ball well, passes and dribbles well and has a knack for scoring important goals. Ask Liverpool how many last gasp goals he’s pulled off for them. Leaving The Ox on and taking off Theo for Yossi would have been my sub but then agaiin I’m not the manager though ours did just lose 3 in a row and hasn’t won anything in 7 years…..so maybe I do know more than Arsene.
really? If united can rape us down that right side (their left), what makes you think playing with three at the back would be any better? Surely that would just allow more space, and hence the creation of more opportunities from wide positions.
The first tactical mistake wenger made was to play (what was essentially) a 433 formation when he himself has said that the success of the 433 or 4231 system is so reliant on having good, quality attacking full backs whose (note appropriate usage) natural attributes allow them to balance their attacking and defensive responsibilities.
A manager as ´intelligent´ as Wenger should be able to come up with a pragmatic solution which takes into consideration the players at his disposal and the strengths of the opposition.