In what could turn out to be the biggest bottlejob Arsenal have produced
in the Premier league under Arsene Wenger, Arsenal were effectively rolled over
by a Manchester United team missing a number of key men, one that had no
natural central defender and a number of inexperienced players in the XI. You
look at the teams on paper and it was almost a no brainer to go for an Arsenal
win but for those of us that have been following this club for long enough, we
all know of the x-factor of this club which is the ability to produce
bottlejobs literally from thin air.
Starting with the lineup yesterday, we were supposed to be lined
up as a 4-2-3-1 and I guess defend in a 4-4-2 as we have been doing for a while
now but however, due to the personnel involved yesterday, we effectively had a
4-2-4 and left the 2 in the midfield pivot with a sea of space to cover which
left us basically crying out to be counter-attacked and that turned out to be
the case with the 3 goals conceded coming from effective and quick transitions
by United and fairplay to them for how well they ended up playing but I feel we
really did basically play into their hands. There was an interview recently
where Olivier Giroud said we are our own worst enemies and its hard to disagree
based on this evidence.
It is very easy to point at players and say "You know that
Aaron Ramsey guy is shit you know, Barca robbed us for Alexis, Walcott is a pub
player etc". The fact is looking back today after removing myself from the
flood of emotions that came after the match, I realised that our squad is full
of what I call niche players. These are players that thrive either only with a
certain type of player next to them or within a particular gameplan/system
basically. I'm a big Aaron Ramsey fan (and yes I know he was terrible yesterday
even lucky not to be sent off) but its clear he is one of these niche players.
Think of Aaron at the peak of his powers, you see him receive the ball in the
second phase of play, make a clever pass to advance the move, arrive later from
midfield to finish the move. Notice I said second phase, as its quite obvious
Aaron is not suited to being in charge of the first phase of play as he is not
what you would describe as a controller thus meaning he has to be partnered
with someone ready and able to do that job as we saw was the case when he was
partnered with Mikel Arteta. Francis Coquelin and Mathieu Flamini are nowhere
near this ilk thus its no suprise Ramsey struggles beside any of them. They
(like Ramsey) long to have a distributor beside who is happy to receive the
ball from the defence and effectively play passes in between the opposition's lines
to the likes of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez to allow them attack the
opposition's defence and thus create chances/take shots. Speaking about that
defensive midfield position, I wrote about the importance of the position a
while back on this site Here. I personally feel that in order
to move forward though, we need a defensive midfielder in that deep lying
playmaker ilk to take charge of the first phase of play because in a team like
Arsenal we are going to have more of the ball than our opponents in at least
70% of the games we are involved with which makes the first phase of play very
very important. Quite frankly it is mind boggling that we do not have such a
player in the squad and that has to be another string to the "Wenger
Out" movement's bow. The jury is still out for Mohammed El Nenny as from
what we've seen, he is seen at the same level as Mathieu Flamini which is
worrying. Although, El Nenny's cameo yesterday was a bright spot in the whole
disaster.
Now, Theo Walcott, my goodness, his performance yesterday would
be the outcome of an experiment to create a diabolical performance in a lab. He
had just 17 touches, lost the ball 10 times and made only 6 passes, also didn't
take any shots. However, is there anything that was suprising in all honesty?
Theo is limited and is the definition of a niche player. What he is good at, he
is quite good at but offers nothing much more. Theo is good at attacking space
and latching on to through passes and slotting home but he doesn't offer more.
The fact he is our top earner is quite shocking but again surely this has to be
on the manager because we all know his limits. In the 12/13 season, The team
was built to service his strengths and he delivered 21 goals in that season.
However, I feel there is no way him or in fact Giroud should be first choice at
this club if we are to reach where we want to be.
Now, there's a feeling from a large number of Arsenal fans that
if Cazorla was fit, everything would be alright based on our 2015 form. I
really disagree because I feel that front 6 of Coquelin-Cazorla
Ramsey-Ozil-Alexis Walcott was flawed because the midfield pivot could not
function without a central midfielder out wide (anyone who disagrees should
watch and compare our 2 matches against Bayern Munchen) which then forces us to
need our left winger and centre forward to be outlets and from close
inspection, Alexis doesn't seem to instinctually want to be an outlet and then
Walcott, my previous paragraph is enough for his case. It was just a system
that just didn't seem sustainable at all as it just could not cope with injury
or loss of form to any of those players as without Cazorla, we could not build,
without Coquelin we could not defend, without Ramsey, the pivot was exposed. To
be fair that team sort of has the feel of a patch job. Ultimately again, you
have to feel that we need more investment for where we are trying to reach in
European Football.
Now, this season, Honestly, I feel like the dream of winning the
Premier League in this season that has done everything to spoonfeed us the
title is gone and ultimately I do not feel that there is any case to defend
Wenger's position because it is literally the definition of insanity. I would
love nothing more than to eat the words I just typed and drown myself in
alcohol and joy in May but ultimately I feel we should at least review the
situation in the summer even if we do win the league. I think questions have to
asked about where we are trying to reach in the game and what steps we are
taking to reach that point. However, we have a board with hardly anyone who is
a footballing man that can try to hold Wenger accountable and try to shepherd
the club to where we want. Ultimately, I feel that Arsene is someone right now
who would rather not do anything than risk making a mistake. Look at our
transfer business and team construction over the past few years and you see
that Wenger has essentially stumbled upon things by accident, the current squad
agrees with that, the likes of Coquelin and Bellerin support that notion in the
sense that they have done well but let's be honest, no one would have counted
on them when planning for the season and rightly so. It becomes a case that
maybe the wrong signings like Santos, Gervinho, Park, Squillacci, Podolski and
Arshavin have scarred him and this is a job where any ounce of cowardice should not
be entertained. We are actually trapped in a vicious cycle of do well, hope for
the investment to push us, Wenger lets us down, we bottle in a key period and
around and around we go. It’s quite sad. However, it should be noted that with
the kind of board we have, Wenger leaving could leave us off worse as he
virtually does everything in the club. Maybe we should consider bringing in a
Director of football but I guess my point is things should be looked at at
least at the end of the season because at the end of the day, it’s the fans
that are left to suffer.
