Who among Ramsey/Özil/Cazorla should be dropped?

[Prawn Sandwich]

Santi or Rambo.

Really has to be Coq and one of the other two starting with two proper wide men. No forcing the three in at the expense of balance.

On current form I would say pick Santi and Coq: Drop Ramsey.

Will also add Rambo's enthusiasm and athleticism may be useful off the bench if needed; and if he gets his form back there is no reason why he can't force a starting berth back from Cazorla.

 

[Big Poppa]

At the moment, Ramsey. Might do him some good, because we're having the same discussion that we had last year, and the year before. He's turning 25 this season and he needs to get the basics right.

Wenger put Szczesny on the bench once after some **** performances, maybe it's Ramsey's time. Going to miss his engine, but he needs to step it up big time.

This is Wenger's chance, now that Wilshere is out as well, to finally play some wingers where they belong: the wing. Get Ramsey out, stick two of Ox, Alexis or Walcott on the wing and quit the Pires experiment with every single midfielder we have.

I 1000% agree with your final paragraph. Infuriating that Wenger treats width with such disdain. Just when you feel the penny is starting to drop, he puts Cazorla out on the left again. Bonkers.

 

[Gooner n Proud]

Coquelin
Cazorla---Ramsey

Should be the midfield trio tbh and Cazorla in that set up has everything set up for him to shine at his best level perhaps we should sign a box-box midfielder to keep Aaron on his tose and hopefully brush up on his tactical weaknesses. Özil doesn't do enough for me to warrant starting as our no.10, a lot more courage and taking the responsibility to be our creative hub should be required before Wenger begins playing him up there.

 

[Bould14]

If we don't drop Ramsey it has to be Özil. He can go to France for all I care if he doesn't step it up this campaign.

 

[Penn_]

Cazorla's goal threat has really dried up, shame Wilshere is injured again he offers a nice mix of the two.

 

[scytheavatar]

Ramsey is way past being transformed into a DM. It would be like have Song there x 1000. Ramsey would go run-abouts every other minute. I'm afraid his desire to score and get forward is too ingrained in his mind right now- it would be near impossible to convince him to stay as our DM all game.

To me, if that's the case then we should just sell Ramsey ASAP. Why should any player who cares more about his individual glory than working hard and being disciplined for his team be allowed to wear our shirt? Such a player should be playing for Sp**s. Even Özil and Cazorla have been trying to change themselves and up their pressing and defensive game, they aren't perfect players and have bad games now and then but you can't ever accuse them of being selfish.

 

[Stoneh]

Ramsey. Absolutely no question. He struts around as he is a superstar and cant be touched. Poor shooting.. even worse passing terrible decision making glory hunter. Not forgetting he is bad at positional dicipline. Dropping him would be beneficial for his game..and us.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Ramsey was talking about wanting to play for Barcelona... Delusional.. No wonder why we never turn up in these games...

 

[Clrnc]

Ramsey was absolutely awful today. Worst player on the pitch for me. The biggest problem is that he bombs forward too much leaving Coquelin stranded alone. If it comes off, he score some goals and all is fine, but not everyday is Sunday. We often lose our midfield shape when he does that. He needs to go back to his disciplined self like what he mentioned last november about staying back to help out our team shape more often.

His passing today is pretty off once again, but I really dislike how he slows everything down by taking too much unnecessary turns and touches.

Wenger took till the 60th minute to change things and re-install Cazorla to the middle. By the time it was pretty late to get 2 goals back but we regained control of the midfield structure and started to be on the front foot. Giroud's head clash changed our entire flow and we lost the impetus late on.

 

[Nyctophobia]

Cazorla's goal threat has really dried up

Özil having taken over the number 10 spot I think it's only natural Santi would score less, Santi will probably notch a few goals during the season, although him being further back I'm hoping he'll be able to keep setting up assists coming from a deeper position, he got 15 (11 in the league) last season so that's pretty good.

The pressure is most on Özil and Ramsey to perform, Santi has proven himself several times.

 

[The_Roadrunner]

Ramsey is the one who needs to be dropped on current form.

Caz works better next to Coquelin and can't play wide anymore. Özil really needs to be in the hold at no.10. Ramsey just doesn't offer enough when he plays wide unless he is in scintillating form which he hasn't been for a while.

Ideally, Ramsey can find some consistency this year and take over the CM role but I think we need to play with actual natural wide players. Can't do with this Santi or Ramsey out wide garbage.

Should have used Ox and Theo out wide today.

 

[Gooner n Proud]

Ramsey didn't hide today unlike Özil who never once today took up the responsibility that comes with being the no.10. I felt Koscielny, Cech, Mertersacker, Monreal, Coquelin and Cazorla were also worse than Aaron who was actually one of our better players today especially in the second half as he began to Initiate more attacks but there was no sharp-clever movements ahead of him from the forwards and Ozils link up play was terrible throughout the match.

Everyone's passing was off today, Cazorla and Coquelin with his Xabi Alonso attempted Hollywood passing constantly got dispossessed, its not fair to pick on one midfielder when the majority of players were collectively guilty of losing the ball. The only one that was a constant threat was Chamberlain.

Ramsey was absolutely awful today. Worst player on the pitch for me. The biggest problem is that he bombs forward too much leaving Coquelin stranded alone. If it comes off, he score some goals and all is fine, but not everyday is Sunday. We often lose our midfield shape when he does that. He needs to go back to his disciplined self like what he mentioned last november about staying back to help out our team shape more often.

His passing today is pretty off once again, but I really dislike how he slows everything down by taking too much unnecessary turns and touches.

Wenger took till the 60th minute to change things and re-install Cazorla to the middle. By the time it was pretty late to get 2 goals back but we regained control of the midfield structure and started to be on the front foot. Giroud's head clash changed our entire flow and we lost the impetus late on.

 

[Clrnc]

Ramsey didn't hide today unlike Özil who never once today took up the responsibility that comes with being the no.10. I felt Koscielny, Cech, Mertersacker, Monreal, Coquelin and Cazorla were also worse

Özil didn't take responsibility? Now where did you get that? He was equally awfully like Ramsey but he played with most urgency when we are chasing the game and look to have as much of the ball to create openings as possible.

What did Kos and Mert do wrong in the match? Sure Kos got outmuscled in the races to loose balls by Sakho but other than that he was okay. Monreal was one of our better performers in an awful match I'm surprised you even mentioned him. I have talked about Santi and Coq in the other thread so I won't go on again but I suggest you should watch the match again to see how awful Ramsey is.

This can be a one off for Ramsey because in the last 3 out of 4 seasons he started with some diabolical matches, especially in the first half of those seasons. He generally gets better though.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Don't even think the problem is Cazorla/Ramsey/Özil.

The problem is we are playing with defender up top. This problem is ignored by A-M for reasons I don't know why. But Giroud takes our creativity down to zero. Only Wilshere can make Giroud work and that is like once in every hundreds.

 

[scytheavatar]

Don't even think the problem is Cazorla/Ramsey/Özil.

But how do you fit all three and Coquelin together in one team? One of these guys either have to be dropped, or played out of position.

 

[The_Roadrunner]

What did Kos and Mert do wrong in the match?

What both goals again. On the first goal Neither Kos or Mert or Cech for that matter organized the line. Kos and Mert had woeful positioning there. They were marking space statically while Kouyate was entirely free. Looking at a replay of that first goal its obvious that Kos and Mert were both sleeping for that free kick. It was a schoolyard mistake. One or both should have been far more aware positionally making sure Kouyate wasn't free, blocking him out and putting some muscle in. I don't think Kouyate even touched an Arsenal on his run to the header, that was shambolic set piece defending really and as our two senior CBs that falls on Kos and Mert (and Cech). Coquelin also wasn't on the right line at the back and basically played several West Ham players onside which neither Kos or Mert was aware of.


For the second goal it was a comedy of errors. Per was poorly positioned too far to the right. Coquelin went to ground completely unnecessarily. Ox was chasing around like a wild turkey and got muscled off the ball waaaay too easy. Kos was far too static standing like a lampost instead of challenging and closing down the angle.

Oh and for both goals Cech was playing like Almunia with happy feet charging out at exactly the wrong time and looking like a pub player hungover on a Sunday morn.

Sure neither goal was solely Kos and Mert's fault but as our two center defenders both of them looked clueless positionally on both those two goals when you re-watch them. In summary I would say that Kos, Mert, Coquelin and Cech were all at fault for both goals.

 

[Matimo]

Ramsey imo. Runs to hot and cold and can be very selfish at the wrong times. One of them players when he scores everyone raves about him when he doesn't people think he did nothing. Also moans to get into middle which is something wenger ignored last season but changed today. It's either ramsey, jack or santi with coq and özil no.10. Anything else is wenger giving into player power.
The team hard working ethic from last season was missing today...west Ham had it and won!

 

[Clrnc]

Oh and for both goals Cech was playing like Almunia with happy feet charging out at exactly the wrong time and looking like a pub player hungover on a Sunday morn.

Sure neither goal was solely Kos and Mert's fault but as our two center defenders both of them looked clueless positionally on both those two goals when you re-watch them.

I hear you on those issues but for me it's pointless to look at that when your keeper make 2 absolute howlers. For the first goal no matter how badly we defend if Cech stays on his line it's an easy save. Not to mention wasn't he supposed to be the one organising our defence for defensive set pieces?

I won't even get started on the 2nd goal...

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

But how do you fit all three and Coquelin together in one team? One of these guys either have to be dropped, or played out of position.

I would drop Giroud first and not only for one game, for a few months. See how that will go.

 

[The_Roadrunner]

I hear you on those issues but for me it's pointless to look at that when your keeper make 2 absolute howlers. For the first goal no matter how badly we defend if Cech stays on his line it's an easy save. Not to mention wasn't he supposed to be the one organising our defence for defensive set pieces?

Yeah I still can't get over how awful Cech looked. He is really going to need to sharpen up his mentality as that performance was the most troubling I think of the whole team.