Tactics?

[Mark]

We all know our last few results in the premiership have not been good enough. Too many draws. It seems that some of these teams are working out how to play against us. I'm wondering if we need to change some things around.

1. Henry - he hasn't scored in the premiership since leeds. in all fairness he has set up goals and he also didn't play against leicester, but today in particular he didn't really have any support upfront, all the defenders were on him because they didn't really need to be on anyone else. When Freddie and Pires actually both made runs into the box we got our goal, but that was the only time they did this in the game i think. We either need a new striker or we need Freddie and Bobby to be more positive.

2. Midfield - not creative enough. Gilberto is far too ordinary and with Vieira not fully fit at the moment, I would rather see Edu play in midfield. His passes are very good and I really think he would provide us with something Gilberto doesn't.

3. One goal leads - okay, it worked against Blackburn. But against Leicester and Bolton we have gone far too negative after going a goal up, and it clearly doesn't work. We have so many good goalscorers on our team, I would to see us go for a second goal with more desire to really seal the game.

4. Cygan - he has been pretty good, but the Leicester's equaliser and Bolton's equaliser were both, in my opinion, quite largely his fault. He is a good squad player to bring in when someone is injured or suspended but I don't think he is consistent enough and doesn't really have what it takes to be a starting player. I'd like to see Toure move back to CB and either put Lauren back at RB or recall Volz who has been impressive this season for Fulham.

That's my opinion anyway. What do the rest of you think?

 

[XxGoonaStuxX]

Yes in the way of midfield we definetly need more creativity. With Vieira not fully up to it and Gilberto aswell, maybe Edu could come into the team for a game.
Also, we do need a new strike partner. Bergkamp plays too deep, and Henry is on the left making chances for others. Come January expect a new striking partner for Henry. Today was a day our BIG players didn't rise to. I really do expect them to rise to the occasion against Wolves on Friday.

 

[Mark]

exactly. if bergkamp is playing deep, and henry wide on the left trying to create things, we need pires and ljungberg in the box more, but they didn't do that enough today, if theyre not going to do that we need a new striker to do that.

 

[XxGoonaStuxX]

Yup. The question really is who, and if Wenger is going to make a signing in January.
There has been lots of speculation over who's coming but no one from Arsenal FC has really come out to acknowledge or say yes/no if we are going to be buying in the window.
Maybe this is a ploy so that they actually get who they want. Cause if they went about saying it then people would increase prices etc.
I just hope we do get someone in.....

 

[Mark]

players like angel, forsell and saha are impressive, all young but are experienced in the premiership. i think they could do well at a club like ours.

 

[XxGoonaStuxX]

Yeah, I don't about Angel coming. He's had an impressive run of games for Villa but I doubt whether they would sell him and als if they did there fans would murder the clubs management.
We really do need a signing though. I would prefer someone with a bit of experience and also strong.

 

[siddharth]

We either need a new striker or we need Freddie and Bobby to be more positive.

we need both however a top striker seems to be the foremost priority.

Midfield - not creative enough.

Agree. This is the main reason for our failure in champions league and our struggle against stubborn above average EPL teams.what we lack is the AGGRESSION shown by manu players like giggs and scholes.we need a PLAYMAKER who will create panic in opposition defence and create chances for the strikers. Also we need a setpiece specialist in the form of a midfielder.

Defending One goal leads

It has been our problem but apart from AC milan and Manu i don't know of any other teams comfortable doing it.It is a art which should be mastered.good defenders alone are not going to do it.The defenders need to perform as A UNIT.

Cygan - he has been pretty good, but the Leicester's equaliser and Bolton's equaliser were both, in my opinion, quite largely his fault.

Disagree.
At leicester we paid the price for cole's rash behaviour.If cole was there he would have been marking hignnet although i admit that cygan is very SLOW and his marking questionable.
Against bolton it's unfair to blame cygan.I thought even campbell struuggled to cope with davies.I don't remember davies failing to win a header against campbell.
Alright we were POOR against Bolton but i feel that we really missed Ashley Cole

 

[satan_beckham]

yep we missed ashley cole,clichy performance is very horible,in fact if u see,most of bolton attack comes from our left flank and clichy just couldnt do anything.toure should go to the left next game adn lauren return to the right.either gilberto or viera should be drop,we need a attacking centre midfielder,sadly wenger dont see so,and its not a good idea playing bergkamp and henry togerther,both drop deep so theres no one in attack,there are a few moments when henry got the ball and wants to cross it,but sadly theres NO one in the box!!!

 

[KoLo28]

play toure at left back? jesus the poor guy wouldn't know what his role is in the team. just settle down a bit, clichy wasn't as bad as you are making out. i think the problem is further up the pitch, we should play edu and gilberto in the middle and put vieira in reserves, and upfront we should start with kanu and henry.

or bring jeffers back and actually start him..

 

[Mark]

i don't think clichy did anything wrong. he may have struggled but he didn't make any stupid mistakes in my opinion. i think he will get better. playing him against wolves would be a good idea since wolves are useless anyway. but i do think we should rest bergkamp and definetly put ali upfront with henry for the wolves game, we can be sure ali won't be playing deep, he'll be in the box and can make the most out of good passes from players like henry and pires.

 

[Andrew]

play toure at left back? jesus the poor guy wouldn't know what his role is in the team. just settle down a bit, clichy wasn't as bad as you are making out. i think the problem is further up the pitch, we should play edu and gilberto in the middle and put vieira in reserves, and upfront we should start with kanu and henry.

or bring jeffers back and actually start him..

Don't take it too seriously, but I think you should go and support Everton seeing you are such a Jeffers fan. I just can't see Jeffers coming back.

 

[Mark]

we've discussed this many times. jeffers does not fit in well with this team. he can't keep wengerball moving. he may be a good striker but not for this club.

 

[JazzG]

Play Jeffers lmao He can't even get into Everton's first team let alone ours

Really think Kanu should start, Bergkamp has been very poor recently and he should be dropped.

Put Paddy + Parlour/Edu in the centre. Gilberto has had more than enough time to prove himself and he hasn't. No matter what anyone says Paddy starts. Wenger is a great manager because he knows how to deal with players going through bad patches, he doesn't just drop players because of a few fans going OTT over a bad performance or two. If he had listened to these fans he would of got rid of Henry+Pires a long time ago :roll:

 

[Adam]

Always play Ray Parlour. He motivates the other players.

Aliadiere can play against Wolves. Kanu is going to the African nations cup so settling him into the team is potentially dangerous.

 

[bobbypires]

we need pires and ljungberg in the box more

Pires - 8 goals & Ljungberg - 5 goals
I think they are well.

 

[Mark]

i'm hoping with kanu going to the african nations cup ali will get more chances.

 

[Adam]

Some would argue that if we had a right winger - we could play Ljungberg up front and reinforce our right side.

 

[Mark]

well pennant is probably a better right winger than freddie, but the thing with freddie is, he makes his runs from deep so no one really marks him. if he played upfront he wouldn't be as effective.

 

[Andrew]

Some would argue that if we had a right winger - we could play Ljungberg up front and reinforce our right side.

But Ljungberg does really well to help out in defence. Yesterday he was getting back tackling, blocking shots etc. I think that we should only consider Ljungberg changing positions if someone else can do that as well as he can.

 

[Adam]

He leaves us defensively indisciplined down the right with his central forays. It's okay when we are on the backfoot all the time (he is forced to play a disciplined RM) role. But generally we have no right threat, and recovery down that side defensively is not so good when Ljungberg leaves that area vacated. It's unfair on the RB.

Toure has reinforced the area significantly and can cope, but Ljungberg and Lauren on the right is too weak physically and defensively.