Better late than never

So, after some busy weeks I've once again found some time to reflect and present some thoughts about what's going on at the club. This time I'll be looking at the latest performances, Wilshere's injury and the coaching situation:


1) Recent performances

One thing that has been obvious has been how our on-field troubles in half a year has affected players' mood and self-confidence. However, it is not hard to understand why players find it hard to make those quick combinations, pass it wide, make a diagonal pass, finish the tackle, attack the aerial ball in the defence etc. We have simply made too many mistakes (also) in those areas. So it is really an evil circle. We need to develop skills as well as regain confidence in those skills. Sounds easy, right? I know it's not, but nevertheless this is something we HAVE to work on. An we need to bring back the joy of playing football, to unleash the creativity we knot the players possess.

In the recent games this has given us so many problems, which has led to an embarrassing defeat to one of the worst teams in the league (Blackburn), a heavy beating by Manchester United and a thin win against Swansea. We have been so far from looking like a top 4 team.


However, against Bolton we saw a second half where it seemed like we did enjoy to play. We made the right decisions, and more important, the midfielders were able to move without the ball, and the roles between Song (who got back to his favoured position), Arteta (who didn't drop as deep as before the brake) and Ramsey (who started to make correct decisions with the ball) became more clear. The half time talk seemed to be spot on.


2) Wilshere's injury

And oh dear, we really need to get that midfield going. After the initial prognosis of Wilshere being ready by late September, he is now deemed out untill March/April. It was hard to play without him, as we haven't won enough battles on the midfield, but now these latest news are extremely frustrating. Let's look at the caretakers: Ramsey has been a disappointment, and has proven to be anything else than the hard worker we need. Diaby is injured, and besides not a hard worker either. Arteta is a fine playmaker, but not a hard worker. Benayoun is pretty much a joke in that position. Then we have some hard workers in Frimpong and Coquelin, who I would actually prefer, to win those midfield battles. Problem is, that they lack a little in the offensive aspects.

Was it €30 mio. for M'Vila? That surely doen't look expensive now..



3) Wenger's refusal to bring in a new coach

One thing that has been so obvious was the need to revise the defensive training. As I mentioned here we really really really need to build in that defensive organisation, mutual understanding and role clarity. That cannot be solved on the transfer market.

In an article by John Cross Wenger stated that he would not be bringing in a new coach. In an other article apparently an unnamed player complained about the lack of defensive training, hvilch is really not that strange. Having earlier linked to insight by Dixon, here are Winterburn's words:

Despite Arsenal's now-perennially leaky defence Winterburn states that Wenger's philosophy is not to drill his back four separately. "No. Arsène Wenger's training is all about possession of the football, movement of the football and support of one another. Then he really expects you to be able, when you lose the ball, to organise yourself and dictate to players around you in what areas you want the opposition to go," he says.

This approach is in direct contrast to that favoured by Graham, under whom Winterburn won two league titles. He says: "We still did small-sided drills of two against two, three against three [under Wenger] which is a bit like a defensive situation, but Arsène Wenger doesn't do anything like George Graham did. George worked many hours with the back four, sometimes with no opposition there, just moving into position. Then, he would introduce the youth team: five, six, seven, eight, nine players against that back four."

It is so obvious what is needed, and so frightening that Wenger doesn't respond to that!

The worst defeat in more than 100 years

We've just experienced the biggest defeat in Wengers history - and the worst defeat in more than 100 years! 8-2! Eight - Two! I have NEVER seen the team performing so badly. Not even the 6-1 defeat was as bad. They were better at every simple aspect: Finishing, defending, pressure, tactical, physical, passing, tackling etc.


I'll try to give three (out of MANY things) that went wrong.


1) The pressure from the midfield was horrible


We started with Coquelin as the holding midfielder and Rocisky and Ramsey in front of him. While most people were worried about him, he actually did quite well. I know that some people have a hard time figuring out how a defensive player on a team that lets 8 (EIGHT!!) goals won't get flunked.  Bu he worked hard, won his share of tackles and interceptions before he was substituted (an I'll get back to that HUGE mistake) and replaced wit Chamberlain.


Earlier I have mentioned and criticised the total lack of pressure on the opponents from our players, and especially Rosicky and Ramsey. Any oh boy, yesterday was no different. A LOT of times you could see Ramsey walking around watching football while United-players passed and combined in front of our defence, while Coquelin single-handedly tried to cover the area where there were always 2-3 United-players. And this was already happening before the break!


As ZonalMarking described it:

The problem with pressing meant that Arsenal frequently had no pressure on the ball in midfield – despite the fact that they could afford Coquelin sitting, because Aaron Ramsey and Tomas Rosicky could close down Anderson and Tom Cleverley. Somehow, and again arguably due to fitness reasons, this failed – Anderson and Cleverley got time on the ball and could hit passes over the top.

Must be said, that I don't really buy the fitness-excuse. Again, this was happening in the first half. I really cannot understand how such a problem can occur against United. Why aren't the players chasing the ball and closing down space? One theory is that it is a result of Wenger's lack of punishment when players don't perform or work hard enough. We've seen the same thing with Diaby, who's laziness has cost us so many times. We do have som hard working midfielers, especially in Wilshere and Song, but the work ethic MUST be a team thing, as it is at the opponent who just beat the crap out of us.


I really hope that a new midfielder can solve some of the problem, but I'm getting afraid the root of the problem lies with Wenger, and the culture.


2) Wengers tactical choices

As I've said before, Wenger is really not a strong tactician. This is clear when observing the lack of defensive structure, the unorganized pressure and the use of playmaking wings in situations where we need the deep runs to stretch the opponent. And most obvious of it all it can be seen when he makes substitutions. 

Yesterday he (again) made a horrible mistake. After 62 minutes (3-1 to United) he substituted Coquelin with Chamberlain. With the problems Ramsey and Rosicky caused in the defence, it was no surprise that it would be disasterous. In app. 30 minutes we conceded 5 (FIVE!) goals, which could have been 7-8 goals, had it not been for Szczesny. Instantly space opened up, and United had even more space in front of our defence.


He has done something similar before. In games where we need to wing the midfield battles, he withdraws the hard workers and replace them with offensive players - and often without any idea about how they should be organized.


Again we were punished.


3) Clinical finishing...?

To be fair we have never been clinical in front of goal. Even when we were the best team in the Premiership we wasted many chances. Yesterday we had eight shots on target, and created two goals. 25% of SoT converted to goals. United had 14 SoT and scored 8 - 57%. So far in the league, we've had an average of four SoT per game.

Before people stated, that while we weren't able to defend well, we were brilliant in the offence. Now even tha last part is untrue.

I'm about to lose confidence in Wenger entirely, to be honest.

Three learnings from the first games

So, at this point we have played three important matches. Two in the league against Newcastle and Liverpool and one Champions League play-off match against Udinese. Bu what have we learned from this so far? 


1) We still need a midfielder

While Ramsey undoubtly is a great talent with great vision and reading of the offensive part of the game, he still has a lot to learn. He is still some way off from having the required level. Especially the physical part of the game gives him big trouble.

Against Newcastle he was dispossessed five times. Only Tioté was able to match that. He made four turnovers, which no other player could match.  In the defence he made just one tackle, and no interceptions. Against Liverpool he was dispossessed four times. Only Nasri topped that, with worrying nine times. Moreover he made two turnovers (Frimpong managed 0+0). In the defence Ramsey again made just one tackle, but had two interceptions.

Unfortunately I don't have the excact numbers against Udinese, but the story was the same. He simply proved he doesn't have the needed level at this moment. We lost the midfield battle in all three matches, because we didn't have physical presence, and we were not careful enough in the passing. And here Ramsey was also a sinner. When he lost the ball high up field, he wasn't to be found in the right positions afterwards.

I know we have missed Wilshere on Ramsey's side, but that can't be used as an excuse. Wenger must buy that strong midfielder, så we can get the physical upperhand on the midfield, that made us so strong in Wengers first years.

2) We (still) make too many silly mistakes

We saw it against Newcastle and we saw it against Liverpool. An Arsenal-player couldn't control himself and recieved a red card. And in fact we should've had two against Newcastle (Song tackle). Why are the players so afraid to tell each other to pull themselves together? I don't buy the "lack of natural leader"-argument. It is simply a cultural thing, perhaps developed through experiencing a manager who is over-protecting. We have Vermaelen, who can instruct co-players. We have Wilshere who, despite his age, is not afraid to take responsibility. We have Van Persie, who is now our captain.

Back in the days you'd see Keown, Adams, Henry, Bergkamp etc. taking affair, when other players weren't  fighting hard enough or made silly tackles. There seemed to be a mutual understanding, that it was okay to tell each-other to focus, work etc. The only way that can come back is by implementing a new culture, where it is natural that actions have consequences. Unfortunately I don't believe in seing that while Wenger is in charge.


3) Arshavin is done

Despite some people misusing statistics on assists and goals, it is clear for most of us, that Arshavin should be sold. While he, surprisingly enough, has started working harder when the ball is lost the overall offensive contribution is poor. He simply makes too many stupid decisions when he has the ball. The necessary offensive runs without the ball is a rare thing to see from Arshavin, who has started to move more inside the pitch, perhaps as a result of fever dribles against the back being won.

Against Newcastle he only managed to complete 59% of his passes (Gervinho 79%). He won just one dribble (Gervinho four). He was dispossesed three times (Gervinho one)  and had one shot against target (Gervinho 0). Against Liverpool he completed 64% of his passes, made one dribble, was dispossesed three times and had one shot against target.

Not the kinds of figures you would expect from a player, who was supposed to be one of the strongest players, is it? Being one of the players with the highest wage doesn't make the situation any better.

Selling Arshavin would be an obvious solution. And we don't need Mata's or Hazard's to be better off.   

Three tactical readjustments - defence

So, Premier League is about to take off. I can't really figure our how much I look forward to it actually. My optimism is at an all time low at the moment, as I have only little belief that the major defensive problems (set pieces and the structure) will be solved. I've had that belief earlier. But i guess that if you get disappointed too often....

In this blog I will take a look at the latter mentioned defensive problem, and more specifically look at three aspect: Defending according to the system 4-3-3,  adjustment of the lines and roles of the backs.

1) Defending as 4-3-3/4-5-1 instead of 4-4-2

As I have mentioned earlier, we've had some defensive problems as a direct result of the use of Cesc. More specifically we have been outnumbered on the midfield. If you look at the graphic, this visualizes what we have been seeing during the last two seasons. Van Persie and Cesc often tried to put hight pressure on the centre halves, resulting in a opponent midtfielder dropping back in the space behind, have opportunity to draw back an attacker or letting a winger cut in, leaving us outnumbered.


Figure one: Classical Arsenal structure

I really don't get the tactical idea behind this, unless we are talking about a ball loss high up field, where the opponent is still not structured. We need to be more patient. Why don't we let the opponent centre halves have the ball? Even though some moderne defenders are quite capable on the ball, it is MUCH preferable comparing to opponent midfielders having finding space. This leads us to the second bullet:


2) We need to adjust the pressure.

We saw it in big parts of the games against Barcelona, and also when we beat Manchester United. When pressure is calibrated, and the space between the lines is minimized we almost look strong. If we let opponent centre halves have the ball, the opposing team must either move a defender forward (which especially in the coming seasons will be to much joy for our pacy wingers) drag en attacker back or play the ball long. If space between the now more flat midfield and the defence is minimized, it will be incredibly hard for the opponents to find space. They will have to try deep balls. But as we have quite pacy defenders, we will win those balls. Koscielny has showed several times, that he is suited to this type of defending. Against Manchester and Barcelona he was excellent.

Look at the figure below. It really shows how space is minimized when the pressure is calibrated:


Figure two: The optimal structure

It will take no time to close down players and space. To exploit this, our full backs can contribute:

3) Our full backs must send opponent wingers inwards, not outwards.

Well, we know it from when we have met well structured opponents which have forced our wingers to move inwards: The play becomes too tight. We can do this as well. In the prime of our defence, Dixon and Winterburn were taught this. They KNEW that the centre halves would simply eat the small wingers, with the helt from our center midfielders, if they were forced to cut inside.

With space between midfield and defence being minimized, the wingers cutting inside will be shut down without other key areas are left exploited.

I know this is not easy to implement. But it surely must be the way to go. Unfortunately this requires that the defensive training is changed, as a tight structure requires stop n' go corrections - an probably A LOT of them for us.

Almost there, yet still stuck

Alright, back again from a great trip, that kept some of the more annoying feelings towards Arsenal away - or almost at least. I have managed to get some input about the last friendly games, before EPL kicks off.

Not surprisingly (AT ALL!) we have thrown away leads against opponents we should be able to control. And again our defence apparently looked quite terrible. How can Vermaelen (who was seen as THE one missing last season) lose a physical challange against a curly-haired midget?

I think we are in for another frustrating season.

This leads to the first bullet:


1) The trust is gone

For several years the perhaps most well-known mantrum "In Wenger we trust!". And it would be unfair to claim that he hasn't done a lot to earn that trust. When he arrived, he managed to re-design the entire sports setup, implementing more sophistic physical training, nutritional programme and even designing training facilities. Moreover he managed to put creativity into the game, allowing players to develop those more "sexy" sides of their game. And of course his ability to spot and nurture talent cannot be forgotten.

However, in the last seasons there has been a growing dissatisfaction  among Arsenal-supporters. In a recent survey conducted by AST, 42% of the respondents stated, that if Wenger fails to deliver a trophy in the upcoming season, the board should reconsider its confidence in Wenger. Moreover, more than 60 percent believed that Wenger's philosophy had taken too much precedence over the objective of winning trophies. I general it seems like people believe that Wenger has simply lost touch with reality.

And it is not really hard to understand why. During the last seasons we have seen the same mistikes repeating over and over again, an mainly in the defensive area. Each summer Wenger has claimed, that there was focus on the defensive area, but the only solution has been to buy a couple of defenders. Again this year Wenger stated that the coaching setup would not be changed.

The Nasri/Cesc-situation doesn't make the situation any better. We have two profiles, who seem very little interested in staying and fighting for the club. As I wrote earlier, selling them will not be catastrophic. Actually we can get stronger. Yet Wenger seems to be keen on keeping them.

If Wenger does not bring silverware to the club this season, he MUST be replaced. The excellent Tuchel could be a solution. But I'll dig into that issue once it seems like Wenger is about to either quit or get sacked.

2) Bartley - a future Arsenal hero?

When Bartley arrived from Bolton, it was obvious that he had some of the classical tool, that could contribute to an Arsenal-team that lacked such attributes. Tall, physically strong, strong in the air and quite pacy, he soon became an integral part of the of the reserve team. In 2010 the Blades secured a loan deal for the remainder of the season, and later the first half of the 2010/2011 season. In the period Bartley proved to be mature and commanding and became a favourite. Later he went to Rangers and continued to impress, also performing quite nicely on the defensive midfield.

Now he is back at Rangers. As Wenger seems to have a strange confidence towards the ever worrying Squid, this is at least better than selling. At some point there was reason to fear that Bartley would move elsewhere on a permanent basis. But apparently Wenger has convinced him to extend the contract. And I like this! He has all the tools to be a great defender for us.

3) Countdown

Less than one week to go. In the beginning of the summer I could not wait until the season got started, but as weeks have passed by I fear for another replication of what we have seen so many time before. Unfortunately I have little belief that we will not again experience loads of frustrations. Wengers comments on the training setup and the preseason matches have given little reason to regain optimism.

In August the schedule is this:

Newcastle away
Udinese home
Liverpool home
Udinese away
ManU away

Against Newcastle we need to wash away the shame from our last meeting. Luckily we won't have to struggle with Carroll, but on the midfield they look stronger, especially with should've-been-an-Arsenal-player Cabaye. Against Udinese we'll miss Nasri and Van Persie, as they are banned. Moreover there are still doubts over Wilshere, Nasri, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Walcott and of course Cesc.

I can't wait to get the season started.......or over with.

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!