Ryo, Bendtner and Mata

So, after a couple of weeks, where we have tried to figure out what is happening in that old French head of Wengers, we are now closing in on the first real signs of what will happen: Emirates Cup. As the excellent Tim Stillman wrote in his occasional visit at Arseblog, it is hard, perhaps even pointless to make any conclusions at this point, and transfer gossit is once again sucking all life out of otherwise excellent thinking creatures. However, I'll still make a few comments on three of the most discussed players these days:

1) Ryo is a star in the making!

Admitted, at first I expected that the Japanese fellow was just another T-shirt, but after reading some of the descriptions from YoungGunsBlog and hearing a lot of stuff from Netherlands, and even seing him a few times, I think otherwise.

Ever since Pires left the club we have needed at strong left wing, who had pace, could use boths feet, who read the game well and could keep out wide when needed. We have tried with Rosicky, Reyes, Nasri and Arshavin. Even though the latter had some good periods, he is simply not what we are looking for at the moment. Ryo will soon be. He is a clever player, about as fast as Theo, can use both legs, challenges his opponent and can keep wide. Obviously he still needs to learn. But when also including his really great attitude towards the game, it is obvious we have a star in the making. It took him no time to settle in at Feyenoord, which means he is a quick learner. The soming weeks will show whether he will have the work permit or not. If he gets it, he will play a role in the squad.  If not, there is room for him at Feyenoord, where technical director Martin van Geel has revealed he is ready to take Ryo on another loan spell.

2) We will miss Bendtner

There are a lot of opinions about Bendtner. Mostly about his comments to the press and his impressive self confidence. For some, these opinions have unfortunately been included when evaluating the contribution on the pitch.

In my opinion, there is no doubt that Bendtner has been a decent player for us, providing us with physique, aereal threat and important late goals (look at these stats: Mins/goal involvement last 3 seasons - RVP 84 Cesc 113 Adebayor 134 Bendtner 139 Arshavin 140 Theo 164 Chamakh 168 Ramsey 169). 

And this is not all: He always tries to make things happen. Often he fails, but so many other times something DOES happen. Defenders are dragget out of space. He succeeds with a 1-2, he delivers a good croos etc. When Bendtner moves on, we have Chamakh left. He started out well, but has since then been absolutely rubbish. Even in pre season. Where Bendtner has the courage and is opportunistic, Chamakh is the opposite. When coming in, nothing really happens. He is strong in the air, he is good at recieving the ball at link up (this is where Bendtner still needs to develop) but he simply doesn't give the attack that extra and unexpected. So, Bendtner will be missed, stupid comments or not.

3) Mata is not the most needed signing, noor centre back.

It's simple. If we sell Cesc, we still have creativity from Nasri, Rosicky, Ramsey and Wilshere. Moreover, with gervinho we will once again get those runs at the back line that we have missed, which will give us space to the midfielders. As a backup Arshavin is decent, And we also have Ryo. So on the wings we actually look fine. Arshavins wage is one of the highest in the club. Should he be 3rd choice then? No, of course not. He must either be sold or used. We can't afford to have fringe players on such wages.

Well, to get to the point: We have a defence that doesn't require signings to be strong. It requires traing (as I wrote in my last blog). We have a fine selection of wingers. What we do need is still the strong box-to-box player. We have now missed out on Vidal, Witsel and Cabaye. 

While I wont really be upset if Mata doesn't join us, I will if the midfielders (besides the holding role) consists of only Wilshere who is commanding in the defensive aspects. Nasri is okay (but nothing more) in the defensive work. Diaby is too lazy, Rosicky too, Ramsey is too easy to intimidate.

Anyway, that was the jabber of today. I'm taking off to Netherlands today, to attend a birthday, but I hope I will have some time to watch some Emirates Cup.

Enjoy the weekend!

The very first post!

So, 'I have now entered the world of blogging, it seems. Whether it is a reaction on the boring interlull, I don't know. Anyway, here I am!

In the very first blog, I'll try to come up with a three point (well, that's the whole idea about the blog) recipe for success in the coming seasons. And yes, I know there are many layers beneath the bullets.

1) We need to rethink our focus on the defensive training. 

The defensive problems have not really been hard to spot. We are unorganised in the pressure, we make several personal mistakes and on set pieces we are horrible. But why is that so? Last year Lee Dixon explained how Wenger at first seemd to be satisfied with the heritage from Graham. Moreover, Dixon has explained, that Wengers does not believe in stop n' go adjustments. This means the Wengers entire philosophy is that you develop as you play. Unfortunately we have seen evidence that this is NOT the point. And especially when we have so many players who have not been growing up in a culture where there is a strong focus on the defensive and tactical aspects.

The obvious reply to this is "hire a new defensive coach". Although I agree, it must be mentioned that Adams actually refused such a role, because he would not have the required freedom in the training. As he explained, Wenger has full control over everything, which will reduce any trainer to a puppet.

Remember the defence in 05/06? This was (as far as I know) the last time where we had a person who should focus on the details in the defence. Keown worked for us as an advisorer, where he guided our young team. In that season we saw Eboué perform quite strongly on the back, we saw a really strong Senderos and even Flamini performed quite nicely on the left back. The mechanisms worked. Keown left, and here we are.

So what should we do? The answer is Gazidis. He MUST change the role of Wenger, and get him to realise that he cannot control everything. Look at Manchester United. Ferguson is most of all an administrator, having different people controlling different aspects of training. It's fair to say that it works for them. We once again need a coaching specialist, with the required freedom to do his job.

With the proposed implementation we will not be talking about which defender to buy. Besides, buying new defenders will not organise the defence.

2) Cesc IS expendable

One question that really divides people these days is what to do with Cesc. He is our captain and probably most skilled player. His vision and reading of the game is simply amazing. So, why is he expendable?

There are several reasons. First of all, the use of Cesc does have it's downsides in the offense. His role has developed into something similar that Henry had in the last two seasons. ALL play goes through Cesc, and apparently the players has gotten used to that. This means, that if the opponent manages to close Cesc down, we become frustrated, we lack ideas and the creativity is gone. And with the number of (hampstring) injuries that Cesc runs into, we are really affected by this. Second of all on a 3-man midfield, Cesc simply doesn't contribute enough in the defensive work. He often put a high pressure  (along with the front man), but once opponents manage to play through them, the two other midfielders are left outnumbered. This leads to the third point.

3) We need to reorganise the roles on the midfield.

The last game against Manchester United last season actually indicated what needs to be done. Without Cesc on the field, we started with Song as a dedicated holding midfielder and Ramsey and Wilshere in front of him. Where we had mostly player a 4-2-1-3, we now played a 4-1-2-3. The roles of Wilshere and Ramsy were very much alike. Their jobs was to contribute both the the defense and offense, with none of them being an actual playmaker. This meant two things: There was much less space on the centre of the field, as both drew back, once they could see that the first high pressure couldn't hold. And the offense was vivid, creative and really hard to read, since there was not one clear playmaker. We had pace in our play, and we defended well.

This cannot be done with Cesc, unfortunately. He is simply born as a playmaker, and with Wengers laissez faire approach, this will not be changed.

Selling Cesc won't necessarilly weaken us. Actually we have an opportunity to make a tactical adjustment, that can strengthen us. Obviously we still need to have the right player next to Wilshere. I don't think Ramsey is really there yet. He is still too easy to intimidate physically. Unfortunately it seems like Juve is running away with Vidal, who would be the optimal two-way player. But there are others.....

Hope you new readers enjoyed the blog. As I'm still new to this, it will develop and be better. Don't worry!