Tag: Koscielny

Jenkinson, Gibbs & Koz excel – Santi is king – Fabianski impresses

TotalArsenal

Five conclusion from a faith-restoring victory over Bayern.

Violently happy Coz we love you! :)
Violently happy Coz we love you! 🙂

The boys did us proud tonight – I am absolutely delighted with their performance. If this team had been playing together for a while longer and we had just a bit more quality up-front,  we would even have nicked it.

Conclusion 1:

Our first priority is to get the defensive side of our football right; then we always have a chance, because we know how to play footie and score goals. The difference in performances of our defence during our home and away game could not have been much bigger. We hardly gave away any space behind our defence and between defence and midfield  tonight, and were confident in the air and on the ground. Koscielny was superb and his pace and energy gave Mertesacker a chance to organise the defence, and focus on his own positioning. The full-backs were magnificent, especially Jenkinson did us proud. They had drive and passion, speed and strength, and helped out up-front as well. Their performances give us real hope of what could be in the future.  Fabianski did everything right and did not flap once. I also really liked his verbal communication skills and willingness to give his fellow players an ear full when they deserved it.

Achieving a clean sheet against, and at, Bayern is a fantastic achievement by our ‘back-five’.

Conclusion 2:

Arteta and Ramsey did a great job defensively in front of the back-four. Yes, there were a few bad clearances, especially by Arteta at the start of the game, and some of the passes were not sharp enough, but they worked hard and denied Bayern space in the centre of midfield. Unfortunately, it meant that Rosicky remained isolated up-front a lot, but at least Ramsey tried to support him as much as he could; and it is exactly how we managed to create the first goal. Of course this will remain the seemingly eternal dilemma for us: 4-3-3, as in 4-2-1-3 or 4-1-2-3, can either make us too defensive or too attacking, and we need the right balance of players/skill-set to get it exactly right. We switched to 4-1-2-3 in the end, when Cazorla replaced Ramsey by moving towards the middle, and it almost worked out for us.

A big minus point of Arteta was his inability to keep his composure towards the end, leading to him giving away a number of avoidable free-kicks, which allowed Bayern to simply see out the game.

Conclusion 3:

Cazorla’s drive, overview and composure was magnificent tonight. He was at times absolutely faultless and never was in hiding throughout the night. For me, he was the best player on the pitch tonight  – Jenkinson and Koz were not far off either, though – and what a player Arsene has signed with him. On the other hand, Rosicky had a rusty night of football; plenty of hunger and willingness, but not much came off and he often lost out in the one-to-ones with the Bayern midfielders. However, he was often left isolated, and he did not play often in our team this season; which caused a number of his passes going astray.

Conclusion 4:

We lacked that bit of extra quality up-front to properly finish off Die Lederhosen tonight. Theo put a few great crosses into the box – one leading to the first goal – but he faded in the second half; and his  partnership with Giroud is still not working out properly. Giroud scored the goal and worked his socks off, but (still) lacks composure and physical strength; just that little bit extra that would make him a great rather than a good striker.

Conclusion 5:

The entire team was well organised, very focussed and disciplined, and played with great passion. After a number of negative, and often humiliating results recently, the boys did us more than proud. We probably were too defensive for too long of the game to complete the miracle, but it was the best strategy for us on the night.

As per the start of this blog, if this team had played longer together, and had  a bit more quality up-front as well, Arsenal could have completed the turnaround tonight. Alas, it was not to be.

Finally

I reckon this unexpected, and almost heroic away-win will do us a world of good. Our next game is away against Swansea and there is every reason to play the same back-five and same ‘double DMs’ as tonight again. It would be great if Podolski returns to the team against The Jacks and Cazorla can replace Rosicky in the middle. I would start Giroud centrally again, but maybe give the Ox or Gervinho a start on the wing instead of Theo.

Tonight, Arsenal regained tremendous confidence and our reputation in Europe, and at home, has been restored a bit again. A real shame we did not make it through, but we simply left ourselves with too much to do after our disappointing home game against the Germans.

However, as this is a painful and necessary transitional year for Arsenal, it is victories like these that will help us to gradually get back to the very top again. A couple more players of real quality this summer and we should be able to go all the way.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

Could Vermaelen or Koscielny solve our DM problem?

TotalArsenal

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Arsenal have three fine CB’s  in Koz, BFG and Vermaelen and to leave any of these three on the bench seems a waste. Of course, I recognise the need to have quality on the bench, and in that respect, long may it continue that we have somebody of the calibre of Koz ready to come on in case of injury, or somebody needing a rest.

My favourite CB pairing is actually BFG and Koz, but I can understand why Wenger wants to play his captain as much as possible.

I have also written a few posts recently on the need to add more steel in midfield: somebody who tackles really well, is good in the air, and somebody who reads the game well  and positions himself as cleverly as Arteta does.

On top of the above, I am a big fan of Miguel and I reckon he needs to be integrated into the first team now; starting with more cameos this season. With Djourou potentially leaving this January, there might be an opportunity to do just that.

So would it be a good idea to move either  Koz or Vermaelen into midfield, and make Miguel our first in-line CB replacement in case of injury or suspension?

Vermaelen would add a lot of steel to our midfield and I would be excited to see him have a trial in that role. But, I am not sure whether he would be good at reading the midfield game, and whether he would be good at making the right intervention decisions.

Koz would add a lot of steel too and his tackling is second to none, and I also find him a good reader of the game, who makes good intervention decisions, but whether he can do it in midfield as good as he does it in defence remains to be seen.

In our 4-2-1-3 formation, the deepest laying midfielder cannot just be a traditional DM who hoovers up everything in front of him and then moves the ball on: he also needs to participate in attacking moves, by moving the ball on quickly and picking a good pass regularly. Again I am not sure whether either Koz or Vermaelen are suitable for this. In his CB role, Vermaelen seems to be ahead of Koz in terms of picking a quick pass or steaming forwards to support our attack. And it is the latter, that makes me think that Vermaelen could work well in our 4-2-1-3 formation, especially if he plays next to Wilshere or Arteta who can stay behind to provide defensive cover if necessary.

But my gut feeling tells me that Koz would be the best option. Koz is a good reader of the game and has a great work rate (just like Vermaelen), and he also seems to have a good positional awareness which is so crucial for the deepest midfielder position. I also must admit that I like Koz very much as a player and I find it a waste that he has not been playing much recently, and is likely to be replaced by Mertesacker again this Saturday.

I have also not given up on Coquelin, but for me he is more of long-term option. Would I like us to sign M’Villa or Strootman this January? Of course I do, but it is always worth looking at our own squad to see whether we can fill a key position from within.

And if Arsene were to move either TV, or ideally Koz, into the DM position, I would welcome that.

What do you think?

Written by: Total Arsenal.

 

Arsenal did not lack belief but shooting boots and the BFG’s defensive organisation

TotalArsenal

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For once, I am not agreeing with Gary Neville’s main conclusion in his Daily Mail article titled: ‘A lack of belief is all that separates the London rivals’.

No doubt, I am not the only one who needed 24 hours of reflection and a bit of distance from football in general, to somehow overcome the unexpected setback of losing to the Chavs on Saturday.

Our disappointment is not so much in the fact that Arsenal lost to the Southern Oilers, but much more in the manner in which we did it. After the game on Saturday, the initial, overriding feeling for many Gooners was deflation: expectations had been high before the game, but circumstances conspired against us and Chelsea proved to be stronger than we thought they would be.

But who would have thought Arsenal would lose out to the Chavs by handing them not one, but two of the softest goals in such a crucial match? It was a big shock to the system and boy did it hurt.

However, on reflection – and I would like to apologise in advance for the use of so many clichés in a couple of sentences – there is every reason to treat this game as a bad day at the office. The key thing is to learn from our mistakes, and especially, to shake off that feeling of disappointment and brush it all away with a fantastic performance against Olympiakos on Wednesday. The show must go on, and there is no time, as Andrey Arshavin put it so beautifully once: ‘to indulge ourselves in melancholy and self-pity’.

Having watched the game again on Sunday evening – the first time I could bring myself to it – I can categorically say now that Arsenal might have lost the game, but at no point were we inferior to Chelsea.

In my post on Saturday, I highlighted the importance of winning the battle of midfield, and as expected, we started with Ramsey on the right in midfield, in order to give us more balance. Chelsea’s midfield of five: two deeper laying midfielders and three attacking midfielders, made life difficult for us. They successfully disturbed our passing game and did not allow us to dominate the midfield, and as such, it is fair to say they won the midfield battle.

However, and this is very important to emphasise, Arsenal was more successful than the Chavs in getting themselves in front of the Chelsea box. Diaby’s enforced departure was a blow, and who knows what would have happened if he had played the full 90 minutes. And although Ramsey was nowhere near as influential as the Frenchman had started to be, Arsenal still managed to get more often than them in promising positions throughout the game. Unfortunately, other than Gervinho, nobody had put their shooting boots on against the Chavs.

During the first half both teams were equal, but we had to chase the game once we gifted Chelsea the lead. After conceding an unnecessary free-kick – Vermaelen, our captain, did not set the right example this season once again – we conceded the softest of goals for which Koscielny was mainly, but not exclusively, to blame.

We had to chase the game after that, but gradually we worked hard towards a deserved equaliser. Gervinho’s movement, first touch and finish were of the highest order and, as a result, we were right back in the game again.

During the second half we started well, but another catalogue of mistakes in quick succession – first Arteta by losing the ball unnecessarily in midfield when Vermaelen had committed himself forward, then Vermaelen by being unable to stem the danger without conceding a free-kick, and finally by Koscielny and Mannone, and the rest of the team, for not dealing effectively with Mata’s innocuous-enough execution of it – let to our second gift to the Chavs.

In top-football a team will not get away with conceding two utterly self-inflicted goals like Arsenal did, and that alone is why we deserved to lose on Saturday.

But, once again, Arsenal managed to get to the Chelsea box on a number of occasions after that second blow, and we created enough opportunities to get at least a draw out of the game: both Cazorla and Giroud should have been more clinical with their chances. Chelsea was happy enough to play on the counter after our double gifts, and you cannot blame them for it.

I say it again though: at no point did the Chavs outplay us: never were we inferior, and although they had periods of dominance of the midfield, it was Arsenal who was the most effective in getting in and around the Chelsea box. It was much more a case of us losing the game than Chelsea winning it, and although this hurts badly initially, the good news is that we can improve significantly on defending set-pieces over the next few weeks. And I am convinced we will.

I have also no doubt that Mertesacker will be our first-choice CB from now on, with either Koscielny or TV as his partner. We cannot do without his discipline, and his ability to read the game and organise our defence – so much has become clear this weekend, if it was not already. He is the true leader in our defence and the sooner we recognise that the better.

As a football commentator and analyst I rate Gary Neville very highly, and he makes a lot of sense in his Daily Mail article about our game, but I don’t agree with him that we lacked something as lofty as ‘belief’ in our team’s ability to win something on Saturday.

What Arsenal lacked on the day was the earthly tangibles of Mertesacker’s ability to organise our defence and a pair of proper shooting boots for Cazorla, Giroud and the Ox. Luckily, it is all already there for us, and soon we will be back to winning ways.

Keep the faith fellow Gooners and bring on the Greeks!

Total Arsenal.