It’s been a crazy few days and on top of our recent loss to Barcelona and we’ve finally lost to Sp*rs after ten and a half years of not losing to them in the league. In the light of recent performances, some questions have been posed throughout this site, throughout the media and more over throughout our minds. There are several reasons why we’ve had the losses that we’ve had throughout the season, drawn the games we’ve drawn and of course reasons why we haven’t won a trophy this season.
If we look at the squad, we have a big squad of players, multiple players to fill each position and a first XI that is a tough match for any team.
Let’s look at the first eleven:
Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen – Clichy
Song – Nasri
Walcott – Cesc – Arshavin
Van Persie
It’s a strong XI players, but is it strong enough? We know that we only started four of those players against Sp*rs, with Vermaelen not lasting even the first half. But those XI (tinkered with a Denilson or Diaby here or there) did play against Man United and Man City and Chelsea earlier in the season sucumbing to losses, so it poses the question of whether our first XI is good enough.
The next question is to question whether our squad is good enough…
The question after that is whether our formation is correct…
Then the next question is whether our coaching methods are correct…
And then of whether the tactics are right…
Before I got into my next piece – I wanted to pose those questions and review the line up above…
The first XI you reviewed above, I do believe has some deficiencies – the goalkeeping position has been scrutinised and it’s becoming more and more apparent that Almunia is not in the same class as other goalkeepers for clubs vying for the same trophies. The rest of the first XI noted above have an exceptional level of talent between them – unfortunately for us, they have never actually played together this season, and that’s a story of our season – a story of our last few seasons.
This article may not bring you answers, but’s it is a form of rationalisation.
Outside of the first XI, we have players like Denilson, Diaby, Eboue and Bendtner who have coming in and had to do a job. Are they good enough? Maybe they are and maybe they will be even better next season. Do we need better players in the squad, of course we do. Where do we start?
I don’t think Arsene will do anything in regards to the goalkeeping position, because he believes that the four keepers we have in Almunia, Fabianski, Mannone and Szczesny are rated by the manager – all for different reasons.
For the defence, let’s have a look at the players in defence then it’s clear that Silvestre should leave the club in the summer. Should Gallas? Definitely not – he is finally showing the form that we saw at Chelsea, he has an abundance of experience and could be a great mentor to a younger player. We have Djourou and Nordtveit to come in – returning from injury and loan respectively. Campbell was brought in during the January window as Silvestre’s performance early on in the season wasn’t good enough and Djourou had no chance of return before the end of the season. Campbell has done well and could be a useful player to have around next season, but one player I would expect Arsene to bring in is an established young centre back.
For the midfield, it’s been pretty obvious that without Alex Song, we lack any cover. Denilson has tried his best, but doesn’t quite have the defensive capabilities of his team mate. Diaby is a hit and miss player and with time he could become more consistent, but in recent performances, he has reminded us of his lack of decision making.
For the attack, the wingers, the play makers, we have a good crop of players such as Cesc, Nasri, Walcott, Ramsey etc – Rosicky looks past it and the attackers, the strikers – we have 2 useful ones from a possible 4. Eduardo has seemed to have regressed, Vela has seemed absent for most of the season, leaving Bendtner and Van Persie. The student and the master.
Basically, what I’m saying here is that our backup players aren’t quite up to it – and looking through the squad, and of similar sentiment to the comments from Deb’s post yesterday, 1 GK, 1CD, 1DM and 1ST all required…
But that’s not all that is required.
It was apparent through the Sp*rs game that the formation we played wasn’t effective – with Rosicky and Eboue on either side of Bendtner – the 4-3-3 turned into a 4-5-1. Now whilst such a formation works against teams better than us (well, it used to) but against teams like Sp*rs who themselves play a 4-4-2, was it right to persist with such a defensive formation? When Van Persie came on, we reverted to a 4-4-2 and immediately we became more of a threat. In the same vein, throughout the game, we were overloaded in midfield – Rosicky, Denilson, Nasri and Diaby occupied very much the same place.
I’m not saying that the formation for the season wasn’t the right one, but it works only with the right personnel in the right positions – it works with Van Persie, Arshavin and Walcott, but not with Rosicky and Eboue. And that’s why we need to be able to mix the formations when required throughout the season. With several strikers out injured throughout the season, I admit it is hard to play a 4-4-2, but moving Walcott up front and occupying another defender is a more attacking theory – with Nasri and Rosicky occupying the wings in a 4-4-2…
Sometimes we have to be more flexible with our formations, and play a formation that suits the available players. People say it’s not rocket science, but in reality it pretty much rocket science. It is true that Arsene knows what to do – I believe this season has been a massive learning curve for him in terms of the current squad. We’ve had some very very bad injuries and that’s something that surely can’t repeat itself again.
For all my rambling and all my thinking, I hope I have added some rational to the thoughts of the first team, the squad, the injuries and the formation. I haven’t posed too many answers here, just many questions… I’ll leave it at that for now…
Speak soon…
