Five stars for Arsenal's five-man midfield

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
17 Sep	4:00 PM	P	Manchester United (A)	1	0	Win

I was impressed once again with the way Arsenal looked in a 4-5-1 formation, as the change of tactic saw them win their first Premiership game of the season 1-0 against Manchester United.

Last season we saw how it brought the best out of Cesc Fabregas and Alexander Hleb in particular on that wonderful run to the Paris, and up North in Manchester on Sunday, it once again seemed to suit our players better than anything else so far this season.

As I said in my article yesterday, Gilberto, Fabregas, Tomas Rosicky, Hleb and Adebayor looked much-improved in this system, all putting in a confident and assured display to outplay Man United and win us the game.

However, I think this is the last we'll be seeing of it for a while, barring any more injury problems to the extent of those we had yesterday.

Wenger has many times said he is not a fan of this formation, and even now he insists he only chose it yesterday because of the lack of strikers. He actually did something that I've criticised him for not doing enough before; he adapted and changed his tactics to suit the situation.

"I don't know if I'll use it in all away games," said Wenger of this tactic. "I did it today because I thought it would suit the players I started.

"I did not have van Persie or Thierry Henry but normally we have a lot of strikers. I have to find the model that is best adapted to the players.

"We know Adebayor has the ability to play up front but Thierry is a world-class player and we need him. This is a team sport and we never can forget that.

"However Adebayor brought what we needed today. He went in behind always and kept the ball so that the others could join in.

"The system also allowed us to control the middle of the park with Tomas Rosicky, Cesc Fabregas and Gilberto."

It must be said that, although Adebayor played the target man role almost perfectly, he would no doubt be displaced by Thierry Henry as the lone striker once he returns, and rightly so - but I would like to see more of Adebayor.

He impressed me when he first joined in January, scoring the most un-Arsenal goal ever on his debut; poaching on a deflected cross to scrappily head home at the far post to give us the lead at Birmingham City. Straight away he gave us a different option, particularly away from home, combining well with Henry as our awful away form of the season improved slightly towards the end.

Robin van Persie hasn't had the best start to the season, so for now if we are to go back to 4-4-2, I'd be very much in favour of giving Adebayor a run in the team alongside Henry. Like former favourite Kanu in style and stature, he is also like Kanu in that he is a confidence player; his confidence dropped a bit towards the end of last season as he missed some sitters, this continued into this season somewhat, but scoring the winning goal at Old Trafford will surely give him a boost. If he's confident, I think he can produce.

Back to the midfield issue - I do think though that while two central midfielders worked for us in the past, it is perhaps not the right system to get the best out of Fabregas. The more defensive duos of Patrick Vieira and Petit/Gilberto in the past were strong and effective to our style of play back then, leaving more freedom for the wingers like Overmars and Píres as the main attackers from midfield.

But Fabregas is different. So are Rosicky and Hleb. They work well as a central attacking trio, as shown yesterday. Fabregas benefits from being allowed to play further forward, with more support around from Hleb and Rosicky in the middle. In a 4-4-2, Rosicky and Hleb are forced to play more wide, which neither suits them nor Fabregas, who then cannot attack as much.

And if we don't play Fabregas like that, we could really miss out; his ability in that role was illustrated perfectly in his assist; winning the ball far up the pitch, going on a little run forward and playing in Adebayor with a perfect through-ball. His increased creative freedom won us the game, it also won us games against Real Madrid and Juventus last season (a goal and an assist at Highbury against Juve) and it could win us many more games this season.

It's certainly a dilemma. If we get another stupid draw against Sheffield United on Saturday with the 4-4-2 we will no doubt use, then maybe that will be enough to persuade Wenger.

I am sure we will at least see it a few more times this season. I like that Wenger seems to be improving on his knowledge of when to change it and when not to. Would be stupid not to trust his judgement.

User Comments

Rombosia

Posted on 20 Sep, 2006 at 01:42 PM - Reply

Jesper Ur crazy. Adebayor is 21. How can he not get better? He will! He was top scorer in African World cup qualifiers, ahead of Drogba, Diouff, Okocha, Kanu etc. Give him time.

Give credit to the team they were giants on Sunday. I even wonder why we wanted other defenders, where will we take Djurou when Senderos n Glichy are healed? The boy is learning fast and getting better all the time. Gallas has started settling on the left and as usual, he's quite comfortable. Rosicky, Hleb and Fabregas seemed to be in a zone on Sunday, they were beautiful to watch.

What we need now is to go on rampage against Sheffield United. Send a warning to all others.

GO GUNNERS!!!!

Sean

Posted on 20 Sep, 2006 at 02:16 AM - Reply

To say Ade will not get better is insane. Thats to me like saying Henry when at Juve would not get better. He in my opinion has the best striker in the world to learn from. I think he should get more game, however Persie is fantastic and will show even more talent as time goes on. Wenger knows what he is doing so i have complete confidance in this young team. The formation works though so i hope he fiddles with it some more later maybe. With the midfield we have it suits.

GunnerSG

Posted on 19 Sep, 2006 at 02:09 PM - Reply

Giving the entire credit to the formation is not a just call...We have to admit...every player who wore an arsenal shirt on sunday pulled his weight and gave that little extra as they knew the clubs title credentials were on the line that day...If week in week out every player stuck himself in and committed himself to every tackle every forward attack and every bit of defending we wont be seeing a slump in our premiership campaign as the quality of players is already there....it was more of the pasion and spirit i saw in the players than the formation.....but still i can never deny the effectiveness of this formation with our current squad..

jesper

Posted on 19 Sep, 2006 at 01:57 PM - Reply

I do not understand the doubts on Van Persie, I think he should play to find form because he has the talent to become almost as good as Dennis. Adebayor is OK but he will not get better than he is now. Althought I do agree the 4-5-1 suits the midfielders better and in that formation there is no place for Van Persie

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