I don’t know about you but I’m glad that the defeat to Swansea came as we headed into an Interlull so we’d have little or nothing else to talk about for the next couple of weeks.
There are reports this morning which suggest some of the coaching staff are at odds with the manager about the way things are going, but rather than that being a negative I’d suggest, if the stories are accurate, that it’s probably a good thing. If the Arsenal coaching staff were wandering around with their head in the clouds thinking everything was all right then I think we could be really worried.
I mean, who hasn’t seen us this season and not expressed some kind of reservation about how we’ve been playing, or how vulnerable we are in certain areas and situations? Why would the coaching staff be any different? If we have players like Mertesacker and Arteta lambasting the team to various degrees then it’s no surprise to me that people behind the scenes are concerned too.
The issue, of course, is how we fix it. In the very short-term there’s nothing we can do about the players we have available to us. Our defensive line-up in particular doesn’t lend itself to much in the way of change, but it might well be possible to alter things slightly there. I suppose the manager has to weigh up the pros and cons of moving Calum Chambers to centre-half and Hector Bellerin to right back.
Pros
- Chambers is a more natural centre-half that a right back
- He’s certainly a more natural centre-half than Monreal
- Bellerin is a natural right-back, with plenty of pace
- You have a more balanced back four
Cons
- Chambers is still very much a rookie and is still learning the position at the top level
- Monreal is quicker and has the kind of pace that works with Mertesacker
- Monreal is a more experienced defender in general
- Bellerin hasn’t even played five games for us and is very raw
Yet when you look at the cons it feels like it might be worth a go. Despite the fact Monreal is more experienced, he’s a left-back and he’s been exposed for that a couple of times already. As for Bellerin being raw and inexperienced, there’s only one way to change that, and that’s to give him games. I hark back to what Mikel Arteta said about him a few weeks ago, so the potential is there, it just has to be realised. Come on, Arsene, stop leaving Beller-out, get Bellerin.
Yet simply changing the back-four is not going to be a panacea to all our ills. As we discussed on yesterday’s Arsecast Extra, in Alexis and Welbeck we have two of the hardest working forward players we’ve seen at the club in a long time. Both of them with chase and harry and do their defensive duties, so the key issue is the fact that the midfield is dysfunctional. It’s midfield that’s getting bypassed.
When you look back at the move that led to Swansea’s free kick for the opener, it’s hard not to remember this article from the week before the game in which Mathieu Flamini spoke about the importance of winning the ball high up the pitch. In general, if the ball is there to be won in the opposition half I’m all for it because it’s when an attacking team is most dangerous and the defensive one most vulnerable. Let’s face it, we know how often we’ve been punished, or come close to being punished, for losing the ball in a dangerous area.
I’m almost certain that this mindset is what saw him charge towards the ball when Ramsey was tackled. He wanted, and is probably under instruction, to try and win the ball back as quickly and as high up the pitch as possible. But in that particular situation if he’d simply dropped off and covered the space he could have done a lot more to prevent the Swansea player making progress towards our goal.
The manager’s desire to create an attacking team has come at the expense of defensive solidity. He’s now got the kind of players he likes to work with. Skillful, quick forwards – Alexis, Ox, Welbeck, plus Theo on his way back. It’s been a long time since we had that kind of pace in the side and we know that Wenger is a manager with an attacking mindset. If he had to go back to basics in the past it was reluctant and, in part, because he knew he didn’t have the players he needed to play the kind of football he wants to play.
Yet these attackers can’t flourish unless what’s behind them is solid enough to give them the platform they need. It’s why I think he needs to go back to having a midfield duo who, for the most part, sit deeper than our midfielders do right now and act as a shield for the back four – particularly when there’s been no effort made to restrain the full backs who push on at every opportunity (and again you have to think that’s something they’re told they have to do).
The suggestion that Wilshere and Ramsey could form that double-pivot was put forward on the Arsecast Extra yesterday, and neither of us thought it a good idea. My hope is that after the Interlull Arteta is fit again, and can stay fit, because despite the fact people have concerns about him, he is our best deep-lying midfielder. Put Ramsey or Wilshere alongside him with the express directive that their first duty is to help anchor the midfield, not to bomb forward at every opportunity, and maybe we’ll see a solidity to the team that hasn’t been there at all this season.
Of course, that’s just me. Whether the manager decides to do anything differently remains to be seen, but given the next opposition have a range of mobile, hard-working and effective attacking players, to continue with the gung-ho approach we’ve stumbled through the season with would be the equivalent of burying our heads in the sand.
As a wise man* once said, “Don’t be an ostrich”.
* probably
