From Carlos : Wenger’s tactics board
Hi Myles,
You might already know this but thought it was interesting. I went on the Arsenal Stadium tour today, and part of it takes you to the home team dressing room. On one wall is a tactics whiteboard.
“How many times has Wenger used it?” I jokingly asked.
“Twice in five years,” came the reply from the tour guide !
From Sean : Arsenal – Le Superb Academy
Hi Myles,
Even since I accepted your angle about Wenger, and the way AFC lets him abuse the club’s potential for Championship, I now see AFC with much clarity and no longer feel that frustrated – still not happy of course.
It is so clear that we are super successful – the most successful fiddle club for tomorrow’s superstars.
We have given the world, Anelka, A. Cole, Vieira, Henry, Cesc, and soon Wilshere. With the exception of the latter two, all of the rest have gone on and won Championships – exactly what they deserve & desire. We have never failed to produce transfer targets for ambitious clubs since Wenger arrived. As an academy, we will of course, for commercial reasons, sell players for a profit, and the board is fully supportive if this policy it seems.
I do not ask that much, why do we sell rather than buy world-class players these days? I also do not ask why Wenger keeps the crap players & play them ahead of proven players? And neither do I ask that much why Arsenal.com keeps posting articles on youngsters who have not won anything and yet tell fans “how much I have improved” or “how I did this or that…”. This is because selling players has been our business model for the last 5-6 years, winning a trophy has always been on a “good to have” basis.
I have you to thank Myles for shedding some light to me.
But I hate what I understand about this club that I have supported since 1979’s FA Cup final, 3-2 to Arsenal.
From Pat Tryon : A broader perpective please
Re-thinking the ManU game, I’m wondering if we were watching the same game.
I’ll grant you that we showed little cutting edge. On the other hand what did ManU create?
Nani slashed one across the goal mouth and Rooney tried to lob szcesxyzzyx. With a midfield of Carrick, Anderson and Fletcher they were never going to do anything other than protect Vidic and Rio. Offensively their job was to hit the long ball and hope Rooney could latch onto one and get Park or Nani to play off it. Squillaci and Koscielny did a good job of cutting those out.
Rooney, apart from his penalty kick, was completely innocuous. Got nothing out of that strategy. And apart from that I can’t remember them producing a thing. Park’s goal was a complete fluke. You could see by the look on his face that he was as surprised as anyone that it went in.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have issues to deal with but they are certainly not as dire as you would make them out to be.
I think the biggest thing this team needs to do is play faster. I’d love to see them play on the counter but that requires a a solid defence and we’re not there yet. It might also mean building the team around Walcott to take advantage of that speed. Given Walcott’s development at this point, I can’t see that happening.
Using RVP at the bottom of the triangle is hopeless. Too many touches, not enough vision and he can’t dribble his way out of trouble.Random thoughts. Offensively too many square balls, trying to pick their way through a massed defence. Teams pressure us by making the defence play facing the goalie. You’ve pointed out that they need to use more long diagonals from the centrebacks and I’d agree 100%. That means moving Chamakh out to the wing and having Nasri or Arshavin play off of him. Not something I think Wenger is fond of doing.
For all their problems, they are right in the thick of it and have as good a chance as any. Once they get over the hump of beating Chelsea, they’ll be the favourites. They’ve come closer to beating ManU so I don’t view that as big a problem.
Keep writing and keep a broader perspective, you’ll find it more enjoyable.
Michael Geraghty : An improvement, even in defeat
Dear Myles,
I thought I’d add my own musings to your inbox, it’s been a few weeks!
I seem to have a slightly different take on the match at Old Trafford, at least compared to the majority of your other readers. I think this was the first time in a few years that we tried to play sensibly in a big match. We’re weren’t carelessly gung ho in the first half, and the goal aside I thought Arsenal looked much the better team. United resembled a mid table team in many ways, a packed defense and midfield, their only attacking intent came via the long ball. Now I know that is more or less what we’d expect. BUT, United didn’t look up to much at all in midfield and it wasn’t just because of tactics. As for their wingers, Park is a player I respect probably more than most United fans. But he is no world beater. Nani is developing into a real threat, but he is not there yet by any means. That left Rooney, who won many of the long balls and laid them off quite well. But then again, virtually every other team we’ve played in the league can boast the same success against us.
Most teams we’ve played would have scored that goal or one similar. The only real difference between most other PL opposition was United’s superb defence. That aside though, they are unimpressive. That said I think United were deserved winners, as we didn’t really threaten after the goal for reasons well documented. However losing 1 nil at Old Trafford is never a terrible result. It’s the mounting losses against them and Chelsea that are damaging. At least however the naivety of recent seasons was absent. I think our next step forward is to figure out our best team for these occasions. I really rate Arshavin, but I think he is a luxury we can’t afford from the start against the big teams. At least not if we have a full squad to choose from. He also seems a lot slower than the Arshavin who lit up Europe 2008.
Now that RVP has returned, we need to figure out what to do with him.
I think the timing of his return along with Fabregas’s sudden absence was unfortunate. It left us juggling how to fit him in and replace Fabregas, too much of a shift with no time to get the blend right for the big game. Would he be useful on the left flank? I think moving Nasri away from the right wing was a mistake. He is in super form in that position and should have been left there. Rosicky’s goal drought is even longer than Rooney’s. Playing him so far forward was a mistake.
I really like Chamakh but I think he is more a link player than a real goal machine, so our forward line was a bit limp and it didn’t need to be. I think we should look at playing two strikers against the big teams, our 4-3-3 isn’t working, not with this personnel. Maybe if RVP was fit and we had him back in the middle, dropped Chamakh and kept Nasri on the right… but then we could just as easily have lost 1-0 anyway.
Whatever approach we take against Chelsea at home, we are going to have to start shooting. We have to do something with all the possession. I think our forward wingers should be under orders to shoot or cross from 80% of the time they receive possession. And we need to get at leastone of our midfielders to bomb into the box with every attack. Song needs to be told to stay put, like he did (and did well in my opinion) on Monday. Otherwise he gets docked a week’s pay. It’s time he learned to put the team ahead of himself in that regard.
Those are my thoughts on the Arsenal. Things are not rosy, but if we can get Vermalen back fit and set a few of the aforementioned points in attack right then there is no reason why we can’t flat track bully our way into a right title fight for a change.
Big “if”s I know… I know.
Kind regards.