Squad Analysis 2017/18

[WhatAFC]

hardly

Sorry but it's up there. Bellerin has just turned 22 last month, he's been rushed back from injury at the time which has coincided with the worst form the club has seen for the last 20 odd years.

How many 22 year old full backs start practically every game for any top club? Defenders are almost never consistent nor defensively sound at his age. Ashley Cole was pretty poor when he first broke through and he has a lot of the same attributes at bellerin.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Get rid - Ramsey, Coquelin, Gibbs, Oxlade-Chamberlain

Promote - Ainsley-Maitland Niles, Chris Willock, Riess-Nelson

Buy - A rounded CM who can support Xhaka, a pacey wide player who can stretch opposition defences with pace and dribbling ability

 

[mm76]

Sorry but it's up there. Bellerin has just turned 22 last month, he's been rushed back from injury at the time which has coincided with the worst form the club has seen for the last 20 odd years.

How many 22 year old full backs start practically every game for any top club? Defenders are almost never consistent nor defensively sound at his age. Ashley Cole was pretty poor when he first broke through and he has a lot of the same
attributes at bellerin.

Ok, I admit it's extreme but I don't recall Cole being this raw at that age, and we'd get good money for him - one thing's for sure, as long as Wenger's here there's no point in keeping him because he won't be in an environment to improve

 

[krackpot]

Özil is playing CM. That's the level of poverty we have come to. Unless Ramsey improves, we should get rid, and buy a proper English CM.

I'd love to see Chambers brought back and given a full season

 

[Wilshero]

Özil is playing CM. That's the level of poverty we have come to. Unless Ramsey improves, we should get rid, and buy a proper English CM.

I'd love to see Chambers brought back and given a full season

No English CM is of the required quality tbh, and with the state the national team currently is in I'm struggling to come up with any English players I'd want to recruit to this team bar maybe Kane.

 

[Batman]

If you look at our dominant years from when Wenger took over to 2004 it becomes obvious that you need 4 players in a spine that you can build around.

The first obviously is a top class keeper and he has to do everything well. He needs to command his area, be a great shot stopper, organize your defense AND distribute the ball well. The amount of goals we scored off of fantastic throws to start a counter from Seaman and Lehmann would probably surprise people. This is where Cech is sorely lacking.

Next you have to have a big, physical, disciplined CB in the mould of Adams and Campbell. Pace is a bonus but in my opinion it's secondary to aerial dominance and the ability to bully attackers. Point is, you have to have a guy over 6 feet tall with some heft to him who plays like it.

In midfield it is absolutely imperative that you have at minimum one player who can perform every function in midfield. The Vieira role. Now we know that we haven't seen anyone like Paddy since he retired but there are players like this out there. You can't find a Vieira but you can clearly find and Alonso or Kante or Modric. They don't have to be 6'4 but they have got to be able to be strong in the tackle, comfortable on the ball, positionally disciplined, adept under pressure with a strong passing range. They don't have to be a track star but they've got to combine intelligence and mobility well enough to make an impact box to box.

Finally, you have to have a reliable goalscorer who can create something when nothing is on as well as get his teammates involved. In a perfect world they've got pace to burn like Henry but if you surround them with pace and they've got world class technique and timing then you can get away with someone less rapid like RVP.

Now what you do with the other 7 players is of course important and how you set up the XI definitely matters but if you have these 4 players as the spine of your team then you give yourself a chance in any match in Europe and certainly have the blueprint for winning the PL. The other 7 positions you can rotate personnel based on opposition but these 4 positions should be the nailed on starters who you play every single week for as long as fitness allows. It's obvious that the squad needs to be rebuilt. I think it can be done in 2 summers with us focusing on 2 of these roles and 1 or 2 complimentary players in each of the next summer windows.

So for example, this summer we could go MF and ST and next GK and CB depending upon availability. We have to come away with 2 of the 4 though. I think our budget needs to be 150m each of the next 2 summers which is absolutely doable with the assumption that we'll cull some of the serial underperformers. Assume 100m to fill those 2 roles and 50 to invest in the less essential ones.

 

[The_Playmaker]

Seems like our squad is tailor made for a 3 4 3 strangely.

Gk: Cech Ospina Martinez
Cb: Gabriel Muarafi
Cb: kos Mert
Cb: holding Chambers

Rwb: Ox, Bellerin
Lwb: Monreal Gibbs
CM: xhaka cazorla coq
Cm: ramsey elneny

Rw: Özil Wilshere
Lw: Alexis Iwobi
ST: Welbeck, Giroud, Walcott, Perez

 

[pikey2000]

Seems like our squad is tailor made for a 3 4 3 strangely.

Gk: Cech Ospina Martinez
Cb: Gabriel Muarafi
Cb: kos Mert
Cb: holding Chambers

Rwb: Ox, Bellerin
Lwb: Monreal Gibbs
CM: xhaka cazorla coq
Cm: ramsey elneny

Rw: Özil Wilshere
Lw: Alexis Iwobi
ST: Welbeck, Giroud, Walcott, Perez

When you lay the team out like it seems clear to me that we are overstocked with mediocre players

1) ST - Put simply not one of those is of a good enough standard to be a starter for a team pushing to win the prem, furthermore you don't need 4 strikers in your 1st team squad when you only ever play 1 up front. Sell 2 of them, don't care which and get a top striker FFS! Its like we couldnt find a top striker so just thought we would chuck 4 strikers at the one position and hope for the best

2) CM - Again, overloaded with mediocrity, we have potentially 7 CM's if you include Wilshere and the OX and if I was being particularly harsh you could argue that none of that list are good enough to be starting for a side with title and CL ambitions. You could make a case Caz was/still is and Xhaka may develop into a starter but the rest of average, could sale at least two of them and go into the market for genuine starting level CM's. No way we should be setting our team up with 1 CM who is over 30 and coming back from a major injury and Xhaka who may or may not develop into the CM we need.

3) Wingers/Wide Forwards - beyond Alexis our wide options deceivingly poor

Wilshere - Not a wide man, is AM/CM. Injury prone, inconsistent form.
Iwobi - again, not a wide man and lack consistency.
Özil - clearly not a wide man, if we are to persist with 3 at the back doesnt really fit into the lineup.
Walcott - one trick pony, reaching the end of his career. Injury prone and inconsistent.
Ox - Probably the closest to a traditional winger we have at the club but his end product is inconsistent & he's injury prone!

For me we need a top class ST, 2 top class CM's and a top class winger.....we will probably end up with two more AM's and a 3rd goalkeeper

I did think of one positive though....Chambers would probably work really well in a back 3 on the right hand side - there is light at the end of the tunnel

 

[Makingtrax]

Ledley King and Thierry Henry talking on Sky . . . . agree that Sanchez is the only Arsenal player good enough to get a place in the Sp**s side.

 

[Kobi]

Ledley King and Thierry Henry talking on Sky . . . . agree that Sanchez is the only Arsenal player good enough to get a place in the Sp**s side.

I'd say Kos as well for whoever plays with Alderweireld but that is probably it, how f*cking depressing, they're not even that good.

 

[karl]

Ledley King and Thierry Henry talking on Sky . . . . agree that Sanchez is the only Arsenal player good enough to get a place in the Sp**s side.

That kind of talk is all window dressing and makes me tired just thinking of them going on. The Spuds haven't won a serious trophy for over a quarter of century and most of us were not even born when they last won the league on back & white tv.

 

[mm76]

That kind of talk is all window dressing and makes me tired just thinking of them going on. The Spuds haven't won a serious trophy for over a quarter of century and most of us were not even born when they last won the league on back & white tv.

absolutely - i don't watch tottensh*te of course , but i'm sure there's a good few of our guys that would be at the right level to compete with theirs - atm i can only assume they're playing a system that works for who they have plus K**t and Walli are clearly in decent form, so you need to compensate for our being badly managed and some players being out of form

 

[Jasard]

Iwobi broke up with his missus.

Is this why he looked like he had been bawling on the bench at the weekend?

Really reminds you how young he is

 

[mm76]

Clearly it will change over time and people can modify their lists but here's my dream list of people we would sell in the summer:

Sadly about 50% of them at least are probably on Wenger's 'must keep' list...

1. Ramsey - not delivered but hopefully some club will remember the Wales performances and pay something decent for him

2. Theo - not delivered either but hopefully someone will see his stats and pay something for him

3. Ospina. Whilst Cack may have one more season in him, it's preferably as a back-up. Martinez is decent, but we need a top-quality first-choice keeper and Osipna would get a decent price IMO

4. Sanogo - for a decent price - i.e. two pints and a packet of crisps (please )

5. Wilshere - sorry but he's just not going to make it here i don't think, and again i think we'd get something decent from a lower-table PL side

6. Giroud

i reckon if you add up what we'd get plus the savings on wages we're talking about some decent funds for 1-2 top players

 

[GDeep™]

You must consider some won't be easy to sell due to their contract, Theo etc, while guys like Jack won't attract interest due to injuries, though we would look to keep him anyway.

- I would sell Cech and sign a better keeper.

- I would look to offload both Kos and Per, and sign one top replacement.

- Get rid off Coquelin.

- Look to move on Giroud, Welbeck and Sanogo, and sign a new striker.

 

[El Duderino]

Clearly it will change over time and people can modify their lists but here's my dream list of people we would sell in the summer:

Sadly about 50% of them at least are probably on Wenger's 'must keep' list...

1. Ramsey - not delivered but hopefully some club will remember the Wales performances and pay something decent for him

2. Theo - not delivered either but hopefully someone will see his stats and pay something for him

3. Ospina. Whilst Cack may have one more season in him, it's preferably as a back-up. Martinez is decent, but we need a top-quality first-choice keeper and Osipna would get a decent price IMO

4. Sanogo - for a decent price - i.e. two pints and a packet of crisps (please )

5. Wilshere - sorry but he's just not going to make it here i don't think, and again i think we'd get something decent from a lower-table PL side

6. Giroud

i reckon if you add up what we'd get plus the savings on wages we're talking about some decent funds for 1-2 top players

Isn't Sanogo out of contract this summer?

I'm up for selling Giroud. Don't really hate him as many others do, decent back up and plan B, but with Lucas and Sanchez leaving I'd wait for the future of those to to clear up before selling our handsome french man.

Don't think there'll be a major clear out of players anyway. If you add Lucas, Sanchez and Özil to that (and discount Sanogo), it makes for 8 senior players leaving the club. Just don't see it happening.

 

[GDeep™]

Özil will extend, and Sanchez will see out his deal and move to City, Chelsea or Utd in 2018.

 

[GDeep™]

I'm looking at the first team, we have issues down the spine, so let's move on the starters from there and sign better guys. Cech, Kos, Coq, Giroud aren't good enough.

 

[mm76]

Cech, Kos, Coq, Giroud aren't good enough.

Yes, no, yes, yes

Kos is consistently one of our best players he's been kicked about so much this season he's probably a bit rougher around the edges right now but one of the very first on the team sheet still for me.

 

[mm76]

with Lucas and Sanchez leaving

really hope not - if he sells Lucas and keeps Giroud Walcott etc that will really p**s me off

as for selling sanchez, he must know the signal that would send unless we replaced him with one or two VERY good players