Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Arsene Wenger is paid the big bucks to get things right; whether he delivers on those depends on your expectation levels and opinion. Therefore, my next statement purely depends on your viewpoint but, for me, Le Professeur certainly isn’t earning his wage when it comes to the formation.
Against Aston Villa we returned to the 4-2-3-1 formation that clearly favours our personnel and adds greater balance to the midfield. It certainly isn’t a coincidence that the game at Villa Park saw Mesut Ozil return to the assist and scoresheet.
Given our comfortable performance and win over Paul Lambert’s side, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to see Arsene Wenger send the side out against Tottenham Hotspur in the 4-1-4-1 formation. The 90 minutes that followed was a direct result of the formation; the performance highlighted all the flaws with the chosen formation: a lack of understanding of each player’s position and role, a lack of impetus/drive due to players getting under each others feet and an all round lack of leadership.
Again, the Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey combination continues to hinder the side. It’s a lovely sentiment that Le Professeur wants the British duo to work at the heart of the Arsenal midfield but it’s negligent and foolish to keep persevering with it, especially if you aren’t going to play the right players around them.
If Wenger wants Rambo and Jack in the middle, you can’t then play Mesut Ozil on the left hand side of midfield because, naturally, he will come in and eat up the space of Jack and Aaron. Furthermore, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is someone Arsene views as a centre-midfielder so, no doubt, Ox wouldn’t have had the instructions of get wide, use your pace and explode past the full-back – the former Southampton player is built to be a superb wide player but that’s for another article.
I’m all for Wenger experimenting with formations, trying to fit our wonderful array of midfielders in but, as Einstein once said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Mr. Wenger is confused.
Wenger is not a tactician.
well said, arsene wenger has lost his tactical acumen. for 8 seasons or so, he has stick to the same ideal of buying number 10 players and convert them to winger. also he doesn’t know how to analyze or read game. What he does, is just send players into the pitch and tell them to pass the ball around till they score.
I wonder if Wilshire is more danger to our opponents or to our own team, losing the ball too often when an early pass would have been more effective, then falling over to try and get a free kick, sitting o his a**e waving his arms in the air instead of getting up and getting goalside. I wonder what the stats are on his ability to lose the ball i the final 1/4 of the field allowing the opposition to run straight at our defence. I’m not anti JW I’d just like to see him as a team player rather than a headless chicken.
Football is getting too tactical for Wenger!
I couldn’t agree more with you.
For me wenger has been struggling with game plans and tactics for years now and should have moved on years back, in some respects I think he has held us back.
AFC……. Mark
thanks for the closing of the short article. the madness displayed every time at Arsenal is so tiring. get players to play where they’re cut out for. I’m sick and tired of AW trying to convert players into what they are not.