formation – Page 10 – Bergkampesque

Indonesia Dream Team v Arsenal pre-view: Miquel, Ryo, Gnabry, Eisfeld to shine?

July 13, 2013July 14, 2013TotalArsenal

I am looking forward to tomorrow’s friendly against ‘Indonesia Dream Team’: nothing is a better antidote against the poisonous Torture Window shenanigans than watching a game of football involving our boys. It will only be temporary relief, and as per the nature of early season friendlies, it probably won’t be much of a game to watch, but at least the ball will be rolling again and we can watch eleven Arsenal shirts in action for the first time in two month.

This is the 24-man squad for the Asia Tour (thanks JM for providing the data):
GK: Lukasz Fabianski, Wojciech Szczesny, Damian Martinez

DF: Kieran Gibbs, Carl Jenkinson, Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker, Ignasi Miquel, Bacary Sagna

MF: Mikel Arteta, Ryo, Aaron Ramsey, Tomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere, Serge Gnabry, Kris Olsson, Thomas Eisfeld, Chuks Aneke, Gedion Zelalem

FW: Olivier Giroud, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lukas Podolski, Theo Walcott, Chuba Akpom

The following players did not travel to Indonesia:

i) Santi Cazorla and Nacho Monreal (extended rest due to their involvement in the Confederations Cup)
ii) Yaya Sanago (still with France at the Under-20 World Cup)
iii) Thomas Vermaelen, Abou Diaby, Emmanuel Frimpong (injured/recovering)
iv) Gervinho (announced as “sickness” … or something more ?…. Linked with Marseille, Roma)
v) Joel Campbell, Wellington Silva (no work permit to play for Arsenal yet?)
vi) Chamakh, Bendtner, Santos, CY Park (on sales)

I have not got a clue which team Arsene will select for tomorrow’s friendly, which will be shown by ESPN at Sunday 2.45 p.m. If I had my way, I would start with a strong team, but give at least some of the youngsters a chance to show us how much further they have developed last season. I would love to see more of Gnabry, Miquel, Eisfeld, Olsson, Aneke, Zelalem and Akpom during this tour.

I don’t think Arsene will add more than two or three top players to the team this summer, and with a number of players who were regarded as surplus to requirement now departed – with more to follow – there is a good opportunity for some of the above mentioned youngsters to play themself into the squad for next season.

Your guess is as good as mine as in who is going to start in tomorrow’s team. This is a time for experimenting and it will be interesting to see how we line up, in terms of formation, and who will start/ play where. No doubt, Arsene will make many substitutions and it will be hard to pull any big conclusions from Sunday’s encounter.

I expect us to be in with the familiar 4-2-1-3 (4-2-3-1) formation and would like Arsene to start with the following players:

Let's attack with speed and invention with proper wingers, Wilshere and Eisfeld mastering midfield, and Giroud playing the holding striker role. — Let’s attack with speed and invention: with proper wingers, Wilshere and Eisfeld mastering midfield, and Giroud playing the ‘holding striker’ role, whilst benefiting himself from proper wing-service.

How would like Arsenal to line-up for tomorrow’s friendly?

Enjoy the game fine fellow Gooners! 🙂

Written by: TotalArsenal.

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Suarez, Theo & Cazorla behind Giroud in a 4-2-3-1 formation?

July 10, 2013July 10, 2013TotalArsenal

I cannot believe Arsenal continue to be linked with Luis Suarez. Liverpool’s Uruguayan striker is a great footballer and would fit into Arsenal really well. He could play alone up-front, behind a big striker as our shadow striker or in a fluid-three in attack. Suarez has got drive and stamina, great first touch and he is a good passer of the ball, he has an eye for an assist and is very, very attack-minded. His goal scoring record is simply fantastic: he scored 81 goals in 110 Eredivisie games for Ajax and 38 in 77 PL games for Liverpool, with 23 in just 33 games during last season.

We could play him in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-1-3 formation, and no doubt it would make us stronger up-front. Arsenal could continue with Giroud as our ‘holding striker’ – the pivot – upfront and the likes of Santi, Theo and Cazorla could form an awesome, fluid and multi-facetted attacking force around him. With Gervinho, Pod and Ox, Arsenal have three more attackers with whom Suarez could form very effective attacking partnerships in the above mentioned formations.

Arsenal could look like this:

But we all know that Suarez, the person, can be described as somewhere between a complex and unstable character. His repeated racist abuse of Evra, for which he was rightly severely punished, and bites into footballers’ body parts tell us he struggles with controlling himself on the pitch.

It is not extremely likely Suarez will make racist remarks on or off the pitch again, as he will have learned his lesson now, even though I don’t think he has much, if any, regrets about what he did. The latter will unlikely fit well with the club’s strong focus on inclusion and equality, on and off the pitch and in the community.

Suarez’s bite into Ivanovic’s arm this season was not without precedent, as he did the same to Otman Bakkal of PSV Eindhoven (shoulder) at the end of 2010. Clearly, Suarez is a player who sometimes suffers from red mist in front of him, leading to almost inexplicable behaviour which gets him, and the club he plays for, into enormous trouble.

I am a big believer that people, and that includes relatively life-inexperienced footballers, can better themselves and move upwards and onwards. But do we want a player who has shown little or no regret for his racist remarks against Evra and who continuous to perform vile, unacceptable conducts against opposition players at our club?

Under the guidance of Wenger and Bould (and maybe Dennis at some point 😛 ), there is a chance that Suarez would settle down a bit and only let his footie do the talking. But it is a big risk to take. The Uruguayan would cost Arsenal at least £35m and that excludes the big wages we would have to pay.

There remains a decent chance that Suarez will behave very badly again, and one more incident could be the final straw for his football career in England, and possibly the rest of Europe. He could bite an opposing player again, or one of our own players or a supporter. He could intentionally break another player’s leg, or head-butt a player or fan. And what if he gets involved in racial abuse, on or off the pitch, again?

Our club’s image would be tarnished and we could be stuck with an untenable situation and an unsalable player, which would come at a huge cost – in more than one sense.

I really cannot see Wenger being seriously interested in Suarez. It took him a long time to get rid of troublesome, disruptive players like Adebayor, Bendtner (still not gone), Nasri etc, and he has clearly been recruiting a different type of player (professional, well-behaved, highly driven and focussed) in the last couple of years.

Let’s hope Arsenal’s recent bid(s) for the Uruguayan are part of a wider strategy aimed at getting another key transfer target.

I say this, though, with some regret, as we can all see he would add great quality to our attack. But sometimes, we need to ignore the belly and listen to our hearts and brains. Suarez does not fit our values and he would be a big liability for the club. Some might say it is worth the gamble, but I beg to differ.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

Forget about Higuain, Fellaini or Cesar, Wenger’s biggest decision is which direction to take

July 3, 2013July 3, 2013TotalArsenal

“Alas,” said the mouse, “the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into.”

“You only need to change your direction,” said the cat, and ate it up.

A Little Fable by Franz Kafka

Like any other Gooner out there, I am excited about the calibre of players we are being linked with at the moment; experienced, hit the ground running, quality players, is what our squad needs right now.

After years of economising and having to let go of the fruits of his hard labour, Arsene finds himself in an incredible lightness of being right now. Ferguson gone, new managers/transitional issues at Chelsea, Man City, Man United and Liverpool, no more need to let our best players go, AND a canon full of gold coins.

In the meantime, football seems to be evolving again. Barcelona’s advanced version of total football appears to have been ‘decoded’. First there was the super-basic ‘park the bus’ approach by the Chavs, which relied mainly on a mega-dosage of luck, and then there was the physical/athletic all-over-the-pitch-we’ll-hunt-you-down-and-not-allow-you-more-than-two-passes approach by the Bavarians. And we have seen a very similar deconstruction of Spain by the rampant Brazilians, just a few days ago. The double-DM pivot with multi-skilled midfielders seems to be the way forward now.

No doubt, though, Total Football will strike back again; but it might take a while.

Ten PL games before the end last season, Wenger and Bould made a conscious decision to go back to basics: more discipline in defence, a change of leadership and making our double-DM pivot prioritise on protecting the back four first and for all.

It did not exactly work a treat, but oh boy was it effective: Arsenal secured 26 out of 30 points from their last 10 PL games, and somehow managed to finish above the Spuddies once again.

It was not Wenger-ball, but industrious, blood, sweat and tears, we WILL survive sort of football; once we were ahead in those fixtures, most of us were just clock watching, hoping we would somehow hold on and take the three points. It was all aimed at finishing in the top-four and it was a great feat, given how low the team had fallen.

Arsene and Bould now have to decide what sort of football they want to play next season, and it will be really interesting to see which direction they’ll choose, as this will determine who will become/remain key players and who will be bought this summer (and not vice versa).

No doubt in my mind that Arsene and Bould will want to return to a (new) form of attractive, attacking Wengerball, with less emphasis on being solid defensively as our first priority.

However, it is unlikely that they will be happy to jeopardize all the good work that was done on being solid at the back during last season. And with Maureen back at the Chavs, a mean defence might be even more important than a highly productive, and competition outscoring, strike-force.

It is also Arsene’s last year under contract and although the club appears very keen to give him an extension, our French maestro might have doubts whether to sign-up to it. Also, Arsene might want to see real progress now, and next season will be absolutely crucial for him.

He needs to choose the right style and formation of football that will give Arsenal the best chance of gunning for silverware. He will have to decide who of his current squad are up for it and where and how they should play. He will need to add quality players who can hit the ground running and fit quickly into the team. He will need to keep the entire squad motivated, despite increased internal competition. He will need to give this team the belief they can win silverware this season and ensure there is plenty of leadership and hunger throughout the team.

Of course, Arsene (and Bould) has already thought about all this and he will now focus on adding new players to his squad who fit with his vision/chosen style of football for next season. From who he will buy (and for which areas), we will know a bit more how we are likely to play next season, and how he will go about to make the last year of his current contract a winning one; maybe even a truly special one.

Maybe this time round, Arsene’s direction, and tactical, on-field choices will outsmart the cat. It is about time he did.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

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0.57 goals/assists per game: What’s not to like about Cazorla?

June 26, 2013June 27, 2013TotalArsenal

Super Santi had a great first season for Arsenal!

Cazorla is good for Arsenal, and Arsenal are good for Cazorla!

He possesses everything you wish for in a footballer: bags of talent, stamina, enthusiasm, assists, goals, team player and football intelligence.

Arsene likes to build his teams around football conductors of the highest order, and he is still looking for the player who can take over from Fabregas. He tried Cazorla and Jack, and both had some good and some less impressive games in the ‘hole’ position.

After a phenomenal first season for the LLanara/Spain born maestro, all eyes will be on him next season: will he become the very fulcrum of the team?

Personally, I am not convinced Cazorla can play the game-controlling and orchestrating ‘Bergkamp/Fabregas role’ to full effect. Rather than driving the game forward from the centre of midfield, Santi appears to prefer playing close to the opposition’s box, where he is most dangerous in terms of producing assists and shooting at goal himself.

And what fine contributions he has made for us last season: 12 goals and 16 assists in 49 games – 0.57 goals/assists per game.

Without any doubt, Santi was our best footballer in 2012-2013, and my favourite performance by the Spaniard was the away game against Bayern: he was simply outstanding during that game!

But Arsenal have also been very good for Santi, and the main reasons for this seem to be Wenger’s great coaching skills and the freedom he is allowed by the Frenchman to ‘express himself’.

The stats tell their own story:

Santi’s career stats prior to joining Arsenal: 47 goals and 40 assists in 304 games – 0.29 goals/assists per game; so, he almost doubled his average goals/assists per game return (0.57) this season. He has also improved on his Malaga stats, where he played just one season: nine goals and five assists in 42 games – 0.33 goals/assists per game.

I reckon Santi performs best in a free role, in which he is allowed to move everywhere and the opposition never really knows where he will be next, or what he is going to do next. The ‘Bergkamp/Fabregas’ fulcrum role needs to give structure and impetus to the team: it requires a player who directs play and who bosses the centre of midfield to a large extent, and for that a player needs vision, pace, dribbling skills and a great ability to produce through-balls, and of course, create many chances for others and score regularly himself.

We have seen glimpses of this by Cazorla, but I believe the conductor role does not suit him as much as his free role (on/from the left or right wing).

It remains to be seen what Wenger will do with regards to the conductor role: will he hope that Jack will finally have an injury free(ish) season, or will he move Cazorla back in the ‘nr10 position’?

Given the continuous links – however tenuous in some cases – with typical (4-2-1-3) AM/nr.10 players like Jovetic, Rooney and Fabregas – and many, but not me, will argue Fellaini is also this sort of player – we can say that Wenger might not be convinced his current players are (right now) suitable for this pivotal position.

Let’s get Higuain (could we get any closer??), sign up a DM beast, and then maybe put the icing on the cake with a top class AM/nr.10 conductor. Somebody who can hit the ground running and make a difference straightaway. And over time, the likes of Jack, Ox or Eisfeld can be readied to take over.

But regardless of where Santi is going to play next season, I for one, cannot wait to see the Spanish magician in action again!

Written by: TotalArsenal.

With the possible arrivals of Higuain and Fellaini, Gervinho should be kept at Arsenal.

June 24, 2013June 24, 2013TotalArsenal

Gervinho is a player who always gives his all. He is also a safe pair of hands when it comes to holding on to the ball and breaking through a defensive line from the wing, in order to make it to the by-line. He possesses skills that nobody else, except maybe The Ox, can offer to our team. He makes clever runs into the box, with or without the ball, as he reads the game better than most of us give him credit for.

This season, he played just 18 PL games for us in which he scored five goals and produced three assists: not great, but not a bad return either. He also played in six CL games, in which he scored two and also had two assists: a record he can be satisfied with.

Gervinho offers a good alternative to the likes of Podolski and Cazorla on the left wing, and he can also play on the right wing. He clearly needed time to settle in, and playing in two successive ACN tournaments since joining us from Lille, has not helped him much in doing so.

However, there is every reason to believe he will improve further next season.

It is fair to say, a number of bad, painful misses, against the likes of Bradford (away) and Blackburn (at home) for the cups, have done a lot of damage to both his image – and, subsequently, the support levels by the fans – and his confidence. Some fans are always looking to vent their frustration with anything Arsenal, and just like bullies do, they focus on the (perceived) weakest member of the squad. The season before last it was Rambo, and last season it was the Gerv. If there is anything I loathe about fellow supporters, it’s this.

His decision making and finishing are not always at the required level, and in general, he finds it difficult to gel with his team mates, and vice versa. With regards to the latter, it cannot have been easy for him last season, with new arrivals Podolski (German), Giroud (French), and Nacho and Cazorla (Spanish) all needing to settle into the team, as well as the PL in general. The Ivorian ball wizard appears to be an introvert person anyway, and he probably has limited command of English, let alone German or Spanish.

But once again, after a transitional season, there is reason now to believe that the (telepathic) relationships between all these players will improve significantly next season. The Gerv should benefit from this tremendously.

There are quite a few fellow Gooners who would instantly swap him for Nani of Manure. Nani, who played this season just 10 PL games, managed to score only two goals, and he scored none in four CL games. Nani scored a meagre 51 goals in 288 appearances, compared to 75 in 284 by Gervinho – that is about 50% more. They are of the same age, but if I had to put my money on who will make more progress in the PL next season and beyond, it would go to the Gerv.

Do I believe he is the best LW around? No. Could we improve on him? Yes. Do I believe Nani is the player to do? I doubt it very much!

It would be a big gamble by Arsene, and sticking with Gervinho for another season might be the far better gamble. I would like him to stay another season, in which he hopefully improves significantly.

With the now highly likely arrival of Higuain, and possibly another central midfielder/nr.10 – Fellaini, Jovetic, or Rooney (?) etc – we will see the likes of Cazorla, Theo, Ox and Podolski, or even Gibbs, playing a lot on the left or right wing. There will be no space in the squad for a top level classical (left) winger – which Nani clearly isn’t anyway – even if we were to sell Gervinho (a point which was made very well by fellow blogger AFC only a few days ago).

But when we play the ‘park the bus teams’ and we are just not getting through, there are very few players who accept sitting on the bench a lot during a season, and yet can come on and make a difference – a plan-B if you want – by breaking through the lines and feed the likes of Higuain, Giroud, Pod, Theo and Cazorla, etc.

To have such a player – at least on the bench – is a necessity for a silverware-winning squad. That player is Gervinho and for me he deserves at least one more season at the home of football.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

Fellaini – Arteta as DM beast, or Fellaini – Theo/Pod/OG as SS?

June 18, 2013June 19, 2013TotalArsenal

Marouane: a versatile Fella ini? But where should he play?

This article will serve as a continuation with TA’s recent theme of exploring how rumoured transfer targets would fit into our starting eleven.

If you are a frequenter of this blog, it should come as no surprise that the majority of us here are desperate for a proper, beast of a Defensive Midfielder (DM). Not only would this acquisition ensure that our back four are properly shielded, but it would also unleash the creativity further up field. Players like Santi, Jack, Ox and Arteta would become the indirect beneficiaries and be given the freedom to take risks, knowing that they have a capable and dedicated defensive midfielder behind them.

However, the player we have been most strongly linked to recently is Marouane Fellaini of Everton. So, what if we bought him and were not able to acquire a proper, beast of a DM? Would he be a good purchase despite our obvious need for a DM?

For one thing, Fellaini is Premier League proven, coming off a great season in which he netted 11 goals and 5 assists in 31 starts. He is an established, physical player, capable of exerting his “Presence!” on a game, drawing in defenders and forcing the opposition to devise strategies to defend against or take him out of the game. Fellaini is versatile enough to play as a DM, a B2B midfielder and as a Shadow Striker (SS).

While he may not be a dedicated DM, he is assertive in the tackle, efficient in the air and has decent ball control and pace for a man his size. His passing success rate of 79.3% is not outstanding, but good enough to succeed in Arsenal’s system, as one must consider that the majority of his playing time came at CAM, where pass success rate is generally lower than when played further back in the pitch. His 1.3 key passes per game and 5 assists are further proof that he has some ability in setting up goals too.

So, depending on the price, Fellaini could be a good bit of transfer business for Arsenal. It’s difficult to come by PL proven talents, who have as much presence, steel and ability as Fellaini does.

But where would he play?

The first scenario has Fellaini in the DM-pivot with one of Arteta/Ramsey. He’s played here in his earlier Everton days and is a capable defender, with 2.6 tackles per game, 1.2 interceptions per game, 2.1 clears per game and was only dribbled 0.4 times per game. At the-DM pivot, he could form a partnership with Arteta/Ramsey similar to the one Arsenal was successful with in 2011-12 with Arteta and Song. The two players interchange between offense and defense to make our attack less predictable and to provide more options in the offensive end than we saw towards the end of the season.

The second scenario would see Fellaini play as the SS behind one of Theo, Giroud or Podolski. By starting Fellaini up front with Theo, Arsenal would have two more than capable goal scorers and Fellaini’s skills are the perfect contrast to Theo’s. If Fellaini and Giroud are paired together, Arsenal then have two target men to utilize through long balls, crosses and set-pieces. Fellaini and Poldi playing up front together is perhaps the most interesting proposition of the three, mainly because Poldi is our most clinical finisher and is as good at setting others up, as he is scoring them himself. Fellaini and Poldi up front together would mean that we have two capable finishers and two more players capable of setting others up.

Personally, I don’t have a preference as to which formation Arsenal would play in if Fellaini is bought; I would just like to see it happen and go from there! All the scenarios are tantalizing because it represents variety and unpredictability to our line-up – a luxury we were not afforded last season. Fellaini as a DM would give us better protection and attacking from central midfield, and as a SS, he would give us more goals and act as an additional target man (something some fans feel is necessary and missing when OG is not on the pitch).

Which formation would you like to see Arsenal play in if Fellaini is purchased? Would you prefer it if Arsenal bought a dedicated, beast of a DM instead?

Written By: Highbury Harmony

Theo – Higuain – Nani up-front with Santi in the hole: it could work a treat

June 16, 2013June 17, 2013TotalArsenal

It looks more and more that Arsene is very keen to bring Higuain to the home of football this summer. According to various reports, we are preparing a lucrative offer for the Argentinian. Nothing will happen though, it appears, until Madrid appoint their new manager. Whoever that will be will have to decide whether he wants Higuain to stay or let him go. Unfortunately, until then we’ll have to remain patient.

We are also being linked again with Nani of MU. The Portuguese winger has a goal scoring record of one in five, both for MU and the national team, of which some have been simply superb. However, he lacks consistency and after two full on seasons, Ferguson has benched him mostly during the last campaign – allowing him to play in just ten PL games all season, of which some as a substitute.

Nani appears to be a player who needs a lot of trust by the manager and Red Nose’s management style did not do him much good. No doubt, Wenger could do a better job here, but I am not sure whether the signing of Nani would be good business for us. At times he can be mesmerising and deliver that bit of extra quality our team often needs, but I cannot get overly excited about him joining us.

However, he has PL experience and will relish giving his career a second life, and with Wenger’s coaching he could become a very useful player for us. Our apparent interest in him could be an indication that Theo is to be moved to the middle next season. Nani, who can play on both wings, would allow the Englishman to play centrally with receiving good service from a proper winger.

But, with our strong interest in Higuain, it could be that Arsene is thinking of a front three of Theo – Higuain – Nani. With Jack or Cazorla in the hole, this could become quite an attractive formation for us. It could actually work a treat!

Nani offers good close ball control and dribbling and lots of speed, and we know what Theo has to offer. Higuain, but also Giroud, would really benefit from proper wing service, and the likes of Santi and Jack would have plenty of options to conduct their multi-faceted attacking play – and often get on the score sheet themselves.

Although I see a DM and nr.10 as our biggest priorities right now, I would love us to sign an experienced, quality winger as well.

The question to ask fellow Gooners is: would Nani be a good singing for us and how would you see him fit best into the team?

Written by: TotalArsenal.

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Ox, Jack, Santi, Gibbs, Theo: all capable of igniting Wengerball, but is it enough?

June 16, 2013TotalArsenal

How can we get back to sexy football?

17 Highbury Terrace wrote during the previous blog: ‘Unless we change our personnel in MF I just don’t see us able to play anything pretty.’

I fully agree with 17HT’s statement: for pretty, sexy football changes have to be made to the midfield. The key questions are whether we have enough talent in our squad currently to do it and how long it will take to get there.

For me the current first team is a combination of a number of engines – hard workers who motor our team along: Arteta, Ramsey, Koscielny, Giroud, Jenkinson; a number of specialist – quality players who perform their roles really well in most games: Sagna, Rosicky, Szczesny, Mertesacker, Nacho, Podolski; and a number of players who have (the potential for) that little bit extra quality and magic: Santi, Ox, Jack, Gibbs and Theo.

The problem, and simultaneously the exciting thing, is that those who can offer the magic, which is a big – but not the only – part of pretty football, are still mainly young. As fans, we do not have much patience anymore, and with money burning in our pockets, it seems right to now go out and add the sort of quality players who can deliver straightaway.

There is good reason to believe that in two years from now Santi, Ox, Jack, Gibbs and Theo will make us play scintillating winning football. They need to be lucky with injuries so they develop their talents to the max in the next 24 months. If we had been winning silverware in recent years, I would argue more vigorously that we need to be patient, as I strongly believe that these five players will be among the very best in Europe in the next two to five years (and Santi is very, very close to being there right now).

It is really important now to add to the squad in such a way that the development of those five (potentially) extra-quality players is not held back, and yet instant progress is made during this and the following season. I know that many are in agreement that we need to add that extra bit of defensive steel in midfield in order to free up the more creative minded players in midfield. We have discussed this more or less to death, and the links with Fellaini, Wanyama and Capoue are at least good signs that Arsene is looking to recruit for this position this summer.

But the more difficult issue is what to do with the ‘hole’ position. Jack has great potential for this one, and so does Ox, and many will argue that Santi is the right player to hold the biggest role in Wengerball right now. If we get Rooney or Cesc, which remains a half decent possibility, the team would make a big jump forwards, but at what price in terms of development of Ox and Jack, and Santi?

Santi can play in a free role on one of the wings, Jack can play next to the beast of a DM Arsene is going to get us, but what about Ox? He could play again on the wing next season, but this just does not seem to do him much good at Arsenal.

It would be some gamble by Arsene but what if he started him in the hole next season? Just imagine AOC getting the freedom to make things happen in the middle of our midfield, whilst being supported by Jack and Santi behind and next to him! Would that mean the start of the rebirth of pretty, sexy Wengerball? Or is Ox still too young for this, and should Arsene look to add an experienced, quality player right now; and if so, who should it be?

Written by TotalArsenal.

How much is there still to come from late developer Oliver Giroud?

June 15, 2013TotalArsenal

Giroud has often disappointed many Arsenal fans this season. — Giroud: will he once again improve significantly during a second season at a club?!

I like Oliver Giroud. He works hard, plays with passion, is a late developer and combines a strong ego with the willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the team. He is not born with natural composure, something which only the very best strikers possess (Van Basten, Henry, Bergkamp, Messi etc). Giroud will always have to rely of his key strengths: stamina, hunger, power, decent technique and team play.

I reckon Arsene prefers his central striker to be a team player. Somebody who is happy to do the most unnatural thing for a striker: playing with his back towards the opposition’s goal for large parts of the game, and sacrificing himself for the team. He tried it with Chamakh and the Moroccan played his role a lot better than many have given him credit for. Before he was unceremoniously dumped for the recovered Van Judas, after Christmas a few seasons ago, Arsenal managed to score 2.4 goals per game: many goals came from our midfielders, and our 4-5-1, with the likes of Fabregas and Nasri enjoying themselves as they never did before, worked a treat.

Van Judas is a far better striker than Chamakh and Giroud: no argument there. But the problem with such a prolific striker is that slowly but steadily more or less all attacking play is narrowed down to the one and sharpest arrow. This quickly results in both an overreliance on that top striker and a reduction of goals per game. On average, Arsenal never got above 2.0 goals per game when the grey-haired broody woman led the line, which is not really enough to win the league.

I reckon Arsenal made progress last season by spreading the goals between all our attackers, and there is good reason to believe Giroud’s claim today, that more and better is to come from him, Pod and Cazorla, next season. I have no doubt there is more to come from Cazorla and a fit Podolski, but what about the Frenchman?

Ollie is a late developer and it looks like, every time, he needs a season to settle in at a new club, after which he makes a steep improvement. At Tours he went from 9 to 21 league goals in his second season, and at Montpellier he went from 12 to 21 league goals. If he could go from 11 league goals to 20+ next season, he will have done really well.

Moving from the French Alps to rural French towns and cities will not have been too taxing on him, but playing and living in cosmopolitan London and for a top European team, is a different ball game. All his overeagerness is not going to compensate for this instantly.

But, as per the start of the post, he has the characteristics to spur himself on and push himself to the top, and I reckon he will make that ‘second season improvement’ once again. His success should not just be measured through his goals and assists though; it is just as important to judge him on all the work he does to allow others to shine.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

The (self) Happy One Returns: How Will Arsene Respond?

June 10, 2013June 10, 2013TotalArsenal

Prepare yourself for Maureen's continuous shenanigans next season! — Prepare yourself for Maureen’s continuous shenanigans next season!

The self declared Special One returns. It was inevitable he would return to the PL this summer, and whether we like him or not, the PL will quickly find out he is back.

I remember a ‘rug-sack holiday’ in Portugal in the early nineties. My mates and I were eating at a seaside restaurant in Sesimbra, not far from Lisbon. My mate, Ron, detected a large fly in his soup. He was quite shy and was not going to say something about it. We spurred him on to get the waiter and when he arrived, Ron said: ‘there is a fly in my soup’. The waiter, who had a large, red, shiny boil protruding from one of his cheeks said without a care in the world: ‘you can eat it with the fly in it, or I can get you another one’. Ron wanted another one, which arrived 10 minutes later, handed to him with utter disdain by our Portuguese friend. It only took two seconds for Ron to cry out: ‘there are now two flies in my soup!’ Ron realised he was not going to win this, and as he was very hungry he ate the soup, which apparently was delicious!

Back to Maureen – our PL fly in the soup – and what his return will mean for Arsenal.

A bold statement: nobody will be able to win the PL conceding 43 goals in the process, like MU did last season, any time again soon.

We all know what Mourinho likes best, and it’s what he has done at Porto, Chelsea and Inter: being lean and mean at the back and very efficient up-front.

After the departure of Maureen in 2007, Abramovic has desperately tried to get Chelsea to play more attractive football, but since then, all seven managers have not been able to satisfy him; and their heads (except the interim ones) have rolled one after the other stuffed with lots of banknotes in them.

It looks like Abramovic wants stability (is he looking to sell the club in a few years, maybe?), and as he has seen and held the CL trophy in his own hands now, he appears to be willing to compromise on style in order to repeat the experience. Maureen’s ego is very low on strokes right now, and with the departure of Ferguson he will be bullish about his chances to become the dominant force in the PL.

There is little doubt in my mind that Wenger will now face one of his biggest challenges in his life, despite being in a better position than in any of the previous eight years (financially and no departures from his core team).

Will he continue towards developing another free-flowing, attack-minded Wengerball team next season, or will he adjust his plans in order to stop the exhibitionist from winning the silverware we so desperately want for ourselves?

If we want to win something next season, Chelsea will be our toughest competitor. Ooh, I want and need Wengerball football again, but I reckon we have to focus and invest first and for all in being a lean and mean defending machine next season, if we want to have a good chance. We have become one during the last quarter of last season, and by adding the much discussed beast of a DM, and a PL-experienced back-up GK, we can nail down that machine even more firmly.

We will also have to continue with the disciplined double-DM pivot approach, with the main tasks of keeping it tight in midfield and protecting our defence as much as possible.

And finally, we will need the sort of players in attack who are very efficient, as in not needing many chances to win a match for us.

We will need to be solid and safe at the back, play with patience, discipline and maturity throughout the entire team, and be able to grind results out on a regular basis.

Is this the sort of football we want? Or should Wenger just go all out and aim to beat Maureen with a more adventurous and attractive style of football?

Not easy to answer, me thinks, but as per the anecdote of Ron’s soup with the fly in it, Maureen is back and, one way or another, we’ll have to overcome him. We are famished for silverware and it’s our time to shine now: time to decide how we’re going to do it and stick with it after that.

Let’s wipe the staged, sickly smile of the self-declared Special One this season!

Written by: TotalArsenal.