By 1970’s Gooner
First mistake: No width
This issue was covered in my match preview and the inability of Diaby and Denilson to provide it at the Riverside made Arsenal too narrow and congested the midfield too much.
Also in the second half when we needed to stretch the play and get beyond Boro’s defense we couldn’t do it with a large percentage of Arsenal’s attacks going through the middle.
This weakness on the wings was further aggravated by Wenger’s decision to play Robin van Persie way too behind Adebayor almost as a fifth midfielder. This congested the middle even further and on many occasions left Adebayor without support.
A five man midfield is a tactic that is normally utilised in very difficult top four Premier and Champion’s League away games. Does Arsene fear the opposition too much these days or does he not trust his midfielders any more?
Second mistake: Fabregas played too far back
I believe it is the latter. For in the process of playing a five man midfield by van Persie dropping back it meant that Fabregas was pushed back into Arsenal’s half of the pitch even further.
This inevitably resulted in two things.
First Fabregas was mostly involved in areas where he couldn’t weave his magic and when this happens we all know the whole team just doesn’t function really.
Second it meant that the player that by default was left to make the play and distribute the ball was Song; and that is unacceptable to me.
This was corrected in the middle of the second half when we had to go for the winner but it didn’t work out.
The formation should have been 4 4 2 from the beginning with van Persie playing further up alongside Adebayor and with at least one genuine winger, as for example Vela who was on the bench, in order to give width to the team.
Still only Aston Villa won during this weekend which makes this point look not as bad. I don’t think that Villa can sustain a viable challenge for fourth place.
I also think that Arsenal will become a lot more efficient in the second half of the season when Eduardo and Walcott will provide genuine quality options.
And width.
P.S Johan Djourou will be Arsenal’s centre half for a long long time
Arsenal’s lack of width Vs Boro’s makeshift defence
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14 comments:
Good analysis. keep faith..
http://arsenalspot.wordpress.com
The tactics were determined by the players available. With Walcott and Nasri (and of course Rosicky) out there is a shortage of players who can play wide comfortably. Maybe a chance for Eboue to come back?
Who would you have played out wide? As second anon said we are out of wide players at the mo.
Only one thing worse than an armchair fan - and that's an armchair manager. No width? Really Genius, your powers of perception are staggering. Nothing to do with all the wide players being out of course. Bet you're one of the morons that booed Eboue and then complained why he wasnt playing 'wide' at Boro.
Go away fool & take your tragic little blog with you
The only thing posetive about this season is that Djorou is really close to his big breakthrough ^^
The only thing posetive about this season is that Djorou is really close to his big breakthrough ^^
don't underestimate villa. they are solid in defense and their strikers/attacking mid.s are on fire. i can see us struggling this season....
what sticks out a mile to me is that without walcott we have no pace... counter attacks just stall as they take too long.
Villa are a far better side than this current Arsenal team.
Any fool can see that!
You didn't watch the live match. Arsenal played 4-4-2 not 4-5-1. I'm guessing you were watching MOTD highlights.
Villa are not better than Arsenal and I think in the next few weeks you will see the real Arsenal. We are improving steadily from the start of the season now especially as we are starting to find a better balance. Yes it is not perfect without real wingers but the football is starting to flow.
Have faith.
good analysis. fab needs to play way farther up and I discussed the width problem before the match on my own site, agree with you 100%. without quality on the wings, sagna and clichy arent able to bomb forward as much either, so we get even less width on top of less width!
hopefully thisll be sorted in january...
Most of what you have said i do agree with , yes no width and yes Fabregas was playing to deep ( this has been the case when he has played this season ) mainly because of his partner in midfield.
Is it me or is anyone else getting tired with Diaby on the left ? It never seems to work and he looks like he couldn't give a shit too!? I would love to see Vela on the left i am very confident that he can do a better job and play with a little heart! Thoughts anyone??
I am hoping for a winger and center mid in jan too...........
we really miss theo...
i disagree it has nothing to with tactics,the fact is arsenal strikers are far to inconsistant and they are missing pace and width all of there wingers are injured and everyone knows that pace is huge asset something is missing in arsenal right now,the performances are not at its best but so what how many times have chelsea played crap but grinded out result,the fact is arsenal need more pace in the team plus they miss edwardo so mush, the fact is january is far away now,everyone knows that arsenals midfield is not that strong but nothing can be done about wright now, but there some pluses the defence is looking very solid, the midfield still creat oportunities rvp and ade need to start comming good soon i think they will and they are only 8 points behind which is just 2-3 games and chelea,and liverpool are going drop points. this month is cruciul
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