From Poet :
Balance is far more important than talent, as we all know.
If it wasn’t so, the Madrid Galacticos would have won far more than they did.
Our balance is simply not right, and we need the balance to be right in order to compete because we have less talent in our squad.
Most of the focus has been in central midfield. Since the arrival of Ozil, the question has been how to bring out the best in him.
Back in 13/14 we had Arteta/Ramsey. It combined the passing and control of Arteta with the running and box-to-box nature of Ramsey.
In 14/15, we stumbled upon Coq/Cazorla, where Coq did an even better defensive job than Arteta by having running power of his own, and Cazorla providing the passing and control, and even adding individual ability to carry the ball. Obviously, it lacked the box-to-box ability of Ramsey, especially his goal-scoring threats.
Ramsey is the key component here. He is potentially our best central midfielder, and the only one that provides the unique style of box-to-box goal-scorer. Ozil and Giroud don’t score enough goals, so we need Ramsey in there if we want goals from midfield. Ramsey can’t control the midfield, so the last 1/3 need to be able to do so.
However, the ones that can, Arteta/Cazorla are too weak defensively. The one proper defender we have, Coq, is very limited with the ball at his feet.
The question becomes, how do we find a balance that includes Ramsey and Ozil in central midfield?
Obviously, in the perfect world we’d have someone who can combine the defensive energy of Coq with the control of Arteta, so we can play said player with Ramsey. However, we don’t have Busquets or Alaba, so we have to make do.
That’s where we have to look at the team as a whole, and how they combine, and not just the central midfield.
I think we can learn a thing or two from how other goal-scoring box-to-box midfielders have been successfully deployed. Lampard and Gerrard had their best success when they had two others behind them.
Gerrard had one of the best deep-lying playmakers and one of the best defensive midfielders behind him. That combination of balance and world-class talent allowed Liverpool to dominate midfields all over the country on their way to becoming the highest goal-scoring team in the EPL in 08/09, IIRC.
Lampard had Essien and Makelele behind him. Once again, a combination of world-class talent and balance. At first sight, the balance seems off because there isn’t a playmaker or a controller in that midfield.
However, Chelsea played a very different type of football than other top sides. While Lampard was also a very accomplished passer, Mourinho’s first Chelsea team was based on energy and counter-attacks. So instead of a midfield that can control the tempo, he needed a midfield that can out-compete any other midfield and get the ball forward very quickly to 2 wingers who can carry the ball and do something special on their own (eg. Robben,) and a striker whose main task was dropping deep to serve as a pivot, by once again, out-competing opponents’ defenders (eg. Drogba.)
The modern goal-scoring box-to-box midfielder in England was Yaya Toure in 13/14.
Once again, the balance seems a bit off because there wasn’t a playmaker in City’s central midfield, and there were two strikers.
However, the balance is achieved by having two wingers in support roles. City’s wingers played deeper than the wide-forwards we see all over Europe these days. They score less goals, and are more fundamental to the team’s build-up, especially when Silva was played out wide.
By the way, this was also true for the old Man Utd teams. They were very reliant on their strikers to get the goals. Scholes were only able to push forward to score goals along with their strikers because Beckham and Giggs started far deeper than the modern wide forwards, and were both heavily involved in the buildup play.
When Scholes became a deep playmaker, Fergie already moved on to the continental front three, with wide-forwards and roaming striker.
Back To Arsenal, and Ramsey. As has been mentioned above, we have a bit of a balance issue. The balance issue is this: We want to play Ramsey in central midfield, but he has to be behind Ozil. The question becomes, how do we connect our backline to our attackers?
Arteta or Cazorla can do the job, but that leaves us defensively weak, since Arteta no longer has the athleticism to do the job consistently (not that he was ever great for us, but he was a good fit for our team.) Playing Coq gives us a better defensive spine, but leaves our build-up play slow, predictable, and disconnected.
If we had Cesc instead of Ozil, we wouldn’t have this problem, but that’s another story altogether. If all we cared about is just balance then I’d say Cazorla/Coq is the way to go because that at least gives us the combination we need for the midfield to work. However, that’s not a good enough basis for an aspiring EPL winner. I think any long-term solution should include Ramsey. This seems like an unsolvable problem, but this is where, as I’ve mentioned, we have to look at the team as a whole, and not just the 3 in central midfield.
The solution, I believe, must be to return to our roots of building our attacks down the flanks. We can’t build our game down the middle with Coq/Ramsey, so we need to use our wide players instead. I think we need to do a reverse Invincibles; we need to focus our play down the right flank.
Sanchez, who is our best player, plays down the left.
He is too direct and takes too much risk to be reliable in our buildup play. Our question should be, how do we get the ball into his feet as much as possible in the final third?
On the right, we need a pair who can do the job that Pires/Cole did on the left.
Obviously, we have none who come close to that pair. However, we do have a pair who can try and imitate. Ox is a two-footed dribbler with speed and power needed to carry the ball forward.
Bellerin, while being unable to defend as well as the best left-back of the 21st century, is our best attacking fullback, and can combine very well with Ox. Neither are good enough yet, but their style is the right one.
Playing down the right-flank allows Ozil, when he drifts wide to combine, to more naturally cut inside into his left foot, and release a through ball. It’ll also release Ramsey from tempo control duty, which he can’t do, to off-the-ball duty, which is where he does most of his best work.
If we return to Coq/Cazorla, we have to push Ox further forward, or even play Walcott wide, since we now have a playmaker in central midfield, but need more punch up front.
We have a balance issue in central midfield.
We can’t find that perfect balance with the players we have, so our team must achieve balance some other way else. Without an addition of that mythical central midfielder, I think this is our best bet.
Of course, we can always just sign a world-class striker, and hope he does what Suarez did for Liverpool..
Myles says:
Coquelin thought he was a playmaker and wanted to be like Zidane.
So the manager, thinking Coq was more like Makelele, sent him on loan to Charlton.
When Ramsey was injured, Wenger brought Coq back and played him as an anchorman at Man City and they won 2-0 and the rest is history.
There is only one Luis Suarez.
Nobody else I’ve seen in the last 20 years has his desire, his raw appetite in every single game, his warrior instinct, his durability and competitive inventiveness.
Marc Overmars won the title for Arsenal by scoring Ian Wright goals from Ian Wright positions after Anelka came into the team to replace Wright.
Overmars was electric off the ball as well as on it.
If Alexis Sanchez can make runs and look for passes played in front of him, he’ll score far more than 16 league goals this season
Sanchez is a similar animal to Suarez, but not a similar footballer.