31/10/2012 near enough at full strength. Your strongest 11?

[pikey2000]

I don't get this Cazorla/Wilshere/Artete don't work/are crap together theory

3 games together, co-inciding with our worst form in years and its the midfield trio that is making it crap?

For me the defense is a shambles, shaky and looks unable to cope with run of the mill crosses/set pieces/corners

The strike force has little movement off the ball as the wide forwards are burdened too much with tracking back to help out our full backs which act more like wing backs

and then people start trying to shift the blame onto our midfield trio....honestly?

So many times I look at our matches recently and I see a midfielder with the ball and nothing going on expect a full back charging up the pitch for them to lay the ball off too.

You can't blame them for attempting to pass between themselves when there isn't a viable option going forward.

If there was an option to play someone in, I'm sure it would be taken, fact is they are few and far between at the moment.

 

[Tourbillion]

Our midfield patterns, roles and positional understanding (including on-the-ball) have been poor for years now. Not convinced Arsène really understands how to make the 3-man midfield work.

 

[evoh_1]

Arsène is a world class sporting director and coach and a bored sunday league level manager, simple as that.

 

[DanDare]

Arsène is a world class sporting director and coach and a bored sunday league level manager, simple as that.

Preposterous post.

 

[Anzac]

It's NOT that AW is poor as a coach / tactician etc,
it's just that he's too much an idealist & won't compromise on that philosophy to become more pragmatic regarding his resources.

Me thinks he understands very well the combined impacts of his methods of training, player development via game time etc and the persistant annual asset stripping from the team,
but at the same time he understands that the current bottom line is in the quality of our general play & ability to provide entertainment,
far moreso than our ability to succeed in terms of winning silverware.

In many ways it's similar to our own position - we understand much of the what & why & we don't like it,
but whilst we understand that we can't do anything about it we also don't have to 'accept' it in any compromise of our persuit of titles as supporters.

For AW acceptance doesn't mean that he's prepard / needs to change his ideals/philosophies/approach to be more realistic/pragmatic, as that may compromise him and his capabilities.

That said IMO AW has tried to compromise & as a result we've lost our way in that we've become too conservative in style, patterns & roles & now in our capability.