Tag: wengerball

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

TotalArsenal
Super Santi had a great first season for Arsenal!
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.

All ingredients for success are here, just a certain Dutchman is missing

TotalArsenal
Arsenal's 'Russian Dolls of Evolution'
Arsenal’s ‘Russian Dolls of Evolution’

The 25th of June 1988 – exactly 25 years ago – was a very special day for Dutch football. On that day, Holland won the European Championship in Germany by beating Russia by two goals to nil. Gullit had scored a goal worthy of a final, but the one that Van Basten scored was simply sublime, or I should say, other-worldly/ from a different planet. One that will be remembered forever, and not just in Holland.

I remember that day really well. Living in a medium sized town along the German border, we had already celebrated our semi-final victory over Germany, by driving our cars, bikes, motorbikes, scooters, etc along the local German border road. It was a brilliant sight: for a few kilometres, there was nothing but one thick, slow moving line of beeping, shouting, singing, Oranje supporters – all trying their hardest to let the Germans know that we had beaten them.

Many of us did not care that much about the final at that moment in time: overcoming the Germans on their own soil was far more important than winning the Euros back then. But on the day of the final, every Dutchman who cared at least a little bit about football was desperate to win, so we could finally lift a trophy.

After the (almost) golden years of the seventies, in which Holland reached the final of the World Cup twice in succession, the Dutch entered a seemingly eternal period of darkness, when they did not qualify for the 1982 and 1986 World Cup Finals.

But Holland stuck to its philosophy of how the game should be played, and finally it paid off. The master of Total Football, Rinus Michels, had a second stint at the national manager job, and Holland were lucky that a number of world class talents, such as Koeman, Van Breukelen, Rijkaard, Van Basten and Gullit all came to the fore around the same time. The rest is history.

Although Arsenal did not suffer a dark period as bad as the Dutch National Team did in the early to mid-eighties, it is fair to say that we have been going through challenging times since the completion of the new stadium.

But just like the Dutch, Arsenal stuck to their long-term philosophy of how to play football (and how to run the club properly), and there are strong signs now that Arsenal will enter a new period of success. Even Johan Cruijff has been singing the praises about how Arsenal football club is being managed, and that is saying something. Somebody ones said that Dutch society revolves around three ‘JCs’: Jesus Christ, John Calvin and Johan Cruijff, and there is more than a bit of truth in this! 😛

But, as 17 Highbury Terrace often likes to put it: all planets need to line up favourably for Arsenal in order to win silverware again; and in my view, this is starting to be the case now.

Gazidis believes Wenger will sign a new contract and the club is entering a number of new and improved commercial deals. There is a good group of players who have learned to work for each other and grind out results when needed, and who also have learned to spread responsibility throughout the team. There is a good mixture of early twenties promising talents and a group of quality, experienced, and hungry for success, mid to late twenties players. The club does no longer have to let players go to balance the books and has now enough funds to attract quality players, year on year. Early signs with regards to the club adding a few quality players to the team are more than promising.

So, almost all ingredients are here to make the next step to winning silverware in style again, and hopefully consistently so. But for me, things are not complete until Bergkamp returns to his real Home of Football. Dennis would be the perfect bridge between Arsene’s vision and the on-field execution of it. He would be the super-mentor who would enable the likes of Cazorla, Wilshere, Ox etc to get the very best out of themselves. Together with Bould, he would also be the best long term guarantee that Wenger’s vision and work will be carried on once he decides to leave.

The Iceman’s return might not happen this season, but  it will happen rather sooner than later, of that I have no doubt. And I know I am not the only one who cannot wait till the day he does.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

The best of the Iceman in eight minutes:

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

TotalArsenal
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.

Jose16_573445

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.

Is the need to qualify for the CL killing Arsenal’s style of football?

TotalArsenal

cropped-henry-dog-008.jpg

I was on a French campsite when Holland played the final against Spain in the 2010 World Cup. The bar was full with Dutchmen wearing the national colours and I was one of them.

The whole tournament had been quite a surreal experience for me and many fellow Dutchmen. Van Marwijk, the Holland Manager, had somehow managed to make the Dutch play like Germany used to do: save, solid and efficient. It was nevertheless an incredible feat to get this Holland team to the final with a defence consisting of Stekelenburg (GK), Van Der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathijsen and the veteran Van Bronckhorst (C).

In order to do so, Van Marwijk opted for a wall of steel and menace in front of this brittle defence: the notorious Van Bommel  and De Jong. Basically Holland played with two groups of players: seven defensive minded players with some licence for the full backs to roam forward, and four attackers to somehow between them bring home the bacon. It worked well, and Holland did what Germany used to do: get to the final without playing brilliant football, except for the quarter final victory against Brazil perhaps.

But Holland just was not Holland, as for generations of Dutchmen the national team is expected to play attacking, flowing, total football. It felt to a large extent that Van Marwijk had been denying our identity: our raison d’etre in the International football scene.

However, being in the final of the world cup is still a very special moment for most nations in the world and especially for a weeny one like Holland, and of course most Dutchmen wanted Holland to finally win a world cup final; this was the third attempt after all.

We all know what happened in the final: the footballing team won deservedly and Holland lost – not just the final but also quite a bit of its decennia old reputation.

The response of most Dutchmen in the campsite pub was both one of disappointment AND relief. Once again we finished runners-up, but at least we did not have to watch Holland play in such an unnatural, and mostly unattractive way again.

What has all this to do with Arsenal? Two things come to mind.

Firstly, the way we played in the final part of last season. In order to secure CL football next season, Arsene and Steve decided to sacrifice the style and philosophy of our football and play with two defensive minded midfielders in front of our brittle looking defence. It seemed  a similar solution as Van Marwijk had done with Holland. It resulted in a great return  of results but our football was hard to watch at times, as just like Holland, Arsenal played very un-Arsenal-like.

Secondly, I feel that our constant need to qualify for the CL is holding Arsene back to experiment with the team properly, and give our up and coming talents more chances to break through in the first team. Once again, I believe this is holding us back from playing attractive, attacking, Wengerball football.

Since the departure of Cesc, Arsene has been trying hard to get the team play some sort of Wengerball again, especially during the first five months of last season and  the season before. But for the second season running he has not been able to achieve this, as he had to revert back to result-orientated football during the final part of our seasons in order to secure CL football.

The big question is: will he get Arsenal back to playing a form of attacking, total football again, and if so, how is he going to do it?

Wirtten by: TotalArsenal.

What if Arsenal bought no new attackers but promote Gnabry and make Theo CF?

TotalArsenal
Theo in front of a proper nr.10 could be realised next season?
Theo in front of a proper nr.10 could be realised next season?

This is the third and last post about the potential scenario of Arsenal not buying any new players this summer. The first post focussed on not buying any new defenders and the second one on no new midfielders arriving during the transfer window (TW).

Like almost everybody else, I would like us to buy a couple of quality players this summer. However, I am also excited about the team that we have, and I have been writing these posts to evaluate, together with fellow BKers, both how strong our current squad is and how much potential for further growth there is within the squad.

I am a big believer in Arsene’s ability to build a team from scratch through coaching and making everybody play a particular style of football. Furthermore, I believe he has been severely hampered in  recent season by the continous loss of the juicy fruits he produced from his hard labour.

This summer it should be different. Nobody should be leaving and there is no WC or Euros. Wenger has both a young group and an experienced  group of players, and a part of me would like to see how far Wenger and Bould can push these two groups into something special next season and beyond.

In the first post about defence, I concluded that if Arsenal were not to buy a new defender or goalkeeper we would probably be fine, although a PL experienced back-up keeper would be ideal. In the second post I concluded that if we were to stick with the end of last season’s more defensive playing style – with Arteta and Ramsey focussing mainly on protecting the defence – we would be ok in midfield next season.

However, if Arsene wants to return to Wengerball footie, he would need to invest in a DM and a nr10 sort of AM.

How would we fare, though, if Arsenal were not to buy any attackers this summer?

For me, this depends once again on what sort of football Wenger wants to play next season. If he were to stick to the two defensive midfielders scenario (with a strict remit), I feel he will need to invest in a 20 PL goals a season striker. With such a formation we will not dominate play all the time and often also not produce many chances – as was evident in the previous ten PL games. So we could really do with a Centre Forward who can do effective link-up play as well as having a high chance conversion rate. We could also do with a very effective, natural winger who can both score and produce a large number of assists.

So, if we were to stick to a more solid but conservative formation, we don’t necessarily need to buy defenders or midfielders, but we could do with a classical CF and Winger.

If, however, Arsene wants to return to Wengerball, I reckon he should be concentrating on midfield. Get a beast of DM so Arsene can release Jack, Mikel or Ramsey as a full-on box to box midfielder, and get in a typical nr.10 midfielder/attacker of a similar mould as Bergkamp once was: somebody who is the focal point in attack (for which he needs both stamina and physical strength), can shield the ball really well, finds the through-balls, and finishes off changes really well. Ideal candidates for this role are Fabregas, Jovetic, Rooney; whilst Cazorla has many of the required qualities, but not all, and Jack is likely to grow into that role gradually.

I don’t believe we would need to buy any attackers if we bought a DM and AM/nr.10 this summer. Say we got Jovetic to play in the hole, we could play any of Giroud, Podolski or Theo in front of him. I have a gut-feeling that Arsene is looking for a nr.10, Bergkamp kind of player, at the moment, and will try Theo to play in front of him.

But if it is not Theo then it will probably be Pod or Giroud and that would be fine too.

Under a new Wengerball formation/line-up we would create a lot more chances than we did recently, and I reckon that Pod, Giroud, Cazorla, Theo, new Nr.10 would score a lot of goals between them.

No doubt, I would prefer us to return to Wengerball footie, but I would also be happy to sacrifice our style/beautiful football for a whole season if it would mean we have a better chance of winning something, whilst building the team into something really special for years to come during next season. A switch to more attractive, typical Wengerball footie can be made mid-way through the season or even in the following season.

But what if Arsene would buy nobody this summer (other than a few youngsters): would we cope?

I honestly think we would cope and even make further progress, but we would have to stick to our ‘defensive midfield’ formation.

A whole summer with the same squad and Wenger and Bould working hard could get our current team to step it up again next season.

We would need a bit of luck: Jack and Pod having an almost injury free season would really help for example. We could also do with Ox properly breaking through next season, and Giroud making a big improvement in his second season in the PL (as he did in his second season at Montpellier).

We would also need our engines in midfield and attack – Arteta, Ramsey, Santi, Giroud – to stay fit and as committed as they have been in previous season; and we could also do with the likes of Gnabry, Coquelin and Eisfeld forcing themselves into the first team on a regular basis.

Especially Gnabry could be a fine wild card by Wenger next season: somebody who has a lot of promise and could be very effective on the wing for us.

Wenger could also work hard to get Theo ready for the CF position and make the team work towards providing him with the best service.

But if we want to see a return to Wengerball again next season, investments will have to be made; and for me the first priority would be a beast of DM. The second one is a nr.10, so Santi can play on the wing – in a free role – and Jack can develop further in the box-to-box role. We would  need to see real quality added to those positions in order to get back to playing another variant of total football again.

Arsene has the money and I genuinely believe he is looking for the right players to come and join our team this summer. But as we all know, he will not spend for the sake of it and if he cannot find/get the quality he requires, we are likely to fall back on how we lined-up and played towards the end of season, and maybe add a top striker towards the end of the TW.

That’s what I believe will happen this summer, but what do you say?

Written by: TotalArsenal.

What if Arsenal bought no new midfielders and promote Coquelin, Eisfeld and Frimpong?

TotalArsenal

Jack-Wilshere-Theo-Walcott-Arsenal-training_2902643

What if Arsenal bought nobody this season?

I know this is sacrilege to the transfer horny hordes out there, but it is a necessary question to ask in my opinion. The paint on the old season has not even dried and everybody is talking greedily about the players we need to buy – and I have been as guilty as anybody. We all feel we have £70m+ burning in our holsters! 🙂

Yet, I feel there is not enough recognition for the incredible feat our boys have achieved since our painful loss against the Spuddies.

In a previous post I discussed our defence, and in this one I would like to focus on the midfielders we already have. It will be hard to do so without discussing our attack as well, but let’s give it a try.

Ever since Fabregas and that other guy left Arsenal two seasons ago, Arsene has been struggling to get his midfield – the most important ‘department’ of ‘Wengerball’ – to play the football he wants to play.

This season, Arsenal’s midfield has been our weakest area, either not supporting our defence sufficiently enough and/or not contributing to our attack enough. If we take out Cazorla’ goals, our remaining midfielders – Arteta, Ramsey, Rosicky, Diaby, Wilshere – have only scored a handful of open-play PL goals, and the assists-count is also nothing to boost about.

However, if we look back at the last eleven games (including BM away) our team has done very well: winning nine out of eleven matches and conceding just a few goals in  the process.

So, if Arsenal were not to buy any new midfielders, how would we cope?

It all depends what Arsene is planning to do next season. If he wants to return to more attractive, attacking football, he will have to invest in at least a DM and possibly a nr.10 midfielder/attacker as well.

With the imminent return of Mourinho to these holy football shores this summer, no team will be able to compete for the big domestic prices without having a mean defence. Even if he did not, it might be best for Arsenal to continue with two defensive midfielders who operate under a conservative remit, which has been one of the main factors of Arsenal stopping to concede unnecessary – and often early – goals.

If Arsene decides to continue with this – un-Wengerball-like – unadventurous double-DM pivot next season, he does not have to buy anybody, as the likes of Arteta, Wilshere, Ramsey, Coquelin, and possibly Frimpong, can all play there with decent to very good effectiveness.

This would leave us with the third midfield position in Arsenal’s 4-2-1-3 formation: the ‘1’, also known as the ‘player in the hole’ position, or simply AM. Many believe Cazorla is the best man  for this position, others prefer Wilshere  in the hole, or Rosicky, or even the Ox.

If Arsenal were not to buy another midfielder, and simply stick to our end-of-season formation, we would probably cope quite well in midfield, as long as the emphasis is on defending and not making play from that area, as well as scoring far more goals than our midfielder did last season.

We would see a battle, this summer and at the start of the season, between Wilshere, Cazorla, and maybe Ox, to claim the AM position (I expect Rosicky to remain a back-up midfielder next season).

Jack is best suited to conduct play in midfield: to give us shape and find the  deadly through-balls. However, he appears unready to score a decent number of goals in  that position next season.

Santi is best suited to play close to the box, where he can find through-balls for his fellow attackers and can shoot at goal as much as he likes. However, his positioning there often leaves a big gap between the DMs and the opposition’s box, and this might be the main reason why he has been played more and more on the wings as the season progressed.

You would say that Ox is the most intriguing player in terms of determining his potential AND the most suitable position for him. Next season, we should see him make a big step forward, especially if Arsene is not to buy another attacking midfielder, which for this post I am assuming he isn’t.

Can Ox develop into a player who can do to a large extent what Wilshere and Cazorla can do: bring the ball forward from midfield and produce through-balls – ala Wilshere – as well as score goals from outside and inside the box – ala Cazorla?

I reckon he might well get there and it looks like Arsene is slowly developing him into an all-round AM. But next season is probably too early for him to take on the AM role as our main man.

So, although Arsenal have some fine players for the hole position, we are currently missing a candidate who has it all.

Eisfeld is a very promising talent who is both good at pushing forward from midfield/producing through-balls and scoring goals/producing assists. It would be good to see him getting more and more games in the first team, but he clearly has a long way to go.

If Arsenal were not to buy any midfielders, we could still cope well, even though our AM position would continue to be a work in progress. It would probably not be pretty, but if Arsene sticks to two defence-minded DMs, we could go on a very good run in the new season.

However, if Arsene wants to return to Wengerball, he will have to look for one or two additions. Firstly, a more traditional ‘beast of a DM’ (who can play a bit of footie as well): the DM should enable Wenger to reintroduce a proper box-to-box midfielder (ideally Jack if fit), and as a result play with a more attacking, flowing style of football.

Secondly, an experienced, more a Bergkamp type AM/nr10, who can set up attacks from midfield through speed, physical strength, great overview of the game, and ingenuity; produce a large number of assists and score double figures PL goals himself.

The key question, fine fellow Gooners, is: do we want Arsene to return to Wengerball OR, for the sake of stable progress and possibly the best chance of finally winning something next season,  continue with, and build further on, what he and Bould have established during the latter part of the season?

The former could come at the cost of results/winning something; the latter at the cost of our enjoyment of our football (and winning something is not a given either).

Let’s see what will happen in the TW this summer: it will tell us a lot of what direction Wenger and Bould will be taking with our team.

Written by: TotalArsenal.