If I were the Arsenal manager

Last year we took a look a close look at who our starting XI would be for the season. We used the current in and outs of the club to review and discuss what the best lineup for Arsenal was. As the year went on, for the most part our optimal XI panned out. On the pitch, the team of Szczesny, Sagna, Clichy, Djourou, Koscielny Fabregas, Wilshere, Song, Walcott, Nasri and RvP showed that when the cared enough – they could beat anyone.

Sure that lineup had some tweaks. I don’t think anyone could foresee the long term injury to Vermaelen or that Wilshere would emerge so quickly. Anyway, the year is gone. There are a slew of whole new issues and the likelihood of comings and goings persists. So I thought it was time to explore what I would do with the team if I were manager.

But I am going to do it a little hamstrung and give my self the following challenge –

• I am going to assume that the club has sold Nasri and Fabregas and because of the timing, suitable replacements could not be had and the team has to be made up of available players.

Woo hoo – I am up for it.

The Defence

This is the most maligned part of our club. And as of today our starters on MY team are going to be – Sagna, Vermaelen, Koscielny, and Gibbs/Traore.  I am not sure who to start at LB. Gibbs has pace and is good on tackles. The problem I am having with Gibbs at the moment is that he is showing his inexperience this offseason by being caught out of position and letting attacks develop from the left. He got exploited all match against Cologne.

In goal I am starting with Szczesny. While he is still young, he is confident and he takes charge at the back. One of the things we have been lacking in both Almunia and Fabianski is a vocal leader who isn’t afraid to dictate to defenders. Goal keepers in my opinion need to be demonstrative. They need a presence and they need to be absolutely vocal.  These are things Szczesny has in abubance. In addition he is confident in the air, his ball distribution is quick and for the most part he makes good decisions (there was that Brum thing but we’ve moved on).

Overall though, I think what needs improvement is the idea of total team defence. Not just leaving to the 5 guys who sit behind the line. Defence has to to start with every single player, even the offencive minded. To me, the system we need should employ a pressing style defence that attacks the player with the ball with one or two players immediately going to the ball. Barcelona have perfected this. They simply seem to not be able to stand it if they don’t have the ball. When they lose it they converge on the player who has it and force an error to get it back. We need that style ALL the time.

When we did this last year, we did it with effect. Ask Chelsea. The goals that resulted in the 3-1 drubbing at the Emirates were because we played a dogged defence chasing down every ball and forcing errors up and down the pitch. Two of the goals were direct results of mistakes made because of the pressure. That style of pressure also allowed us to eke out 1-0 win against United at the Emirates because we simply did not allow the Mancs to play their game.

The problem that exists is that we didn’t do it enough through the season. We figured that against lesser teams, we didn’t need to do that  because we would have the ball forever. The problem here  is that some teams found that when they had the ball the could score on us with efficiency. I think we can combat long balls over the top first, by attacking the man the ball and not giving him the time to tee up the long shot.

Secondly, to address the long balls over the top, I want to work on the high line. While against teams who “will play with us” this is fine. It is not good against teams that are going to lump the ball forward. With Koscielny and Vermaelen in the back we have two defenders who are good at bringing the ball up from the back and distributing  it where need be. However, what I want to do is see one of them sit back more when the ball is down in the opposing end, just for the odd chance that the ball gets lofted forward to a lone striker. What I noticed last season is that we get positionally turned around with our high line which makes defending a streaking striker hard to defend – just ask Darren Bent in that last game against Villa.

I’m not a tactical genius but I do think the way you combat this is that only 3 of defenders are so far up the pitch and one of the CBs sits back and for me that is Koscielny. While not a beast in the air he is very good positionally and reads the play well. From a slightly back position, he hopefully would be able to see a play develop – especially a long ball and react to it.

Finally set pieces. Honestly, I don’t know anything that can improve the set pieces except to be more aggressive on them and learn to stay on the man you are set to mark.  Too many times our players let opposing players roam in the box freely on set pieces, giving them free reign to get to the ball and have shots on goal. And by aggressive I don’t mean overly, enough to make sure that any player who isn’t wearing your kit  doesn’t roam freely in the box.

The midfield

I have two options I want to explore with a Cesc-less and Nasri-less midfield. The first is to continue the nurtured partnership of Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey – along with Alex Song as the DM. Ramsey and Wilshere are showing real promise as a tandem that can command the midfield and set our forwards free.

Wilshere has shown himself to be a bright young talent with an eye for a good pass and soft touch but that  hides his physical strength , grit, and ability to get the ball back and pester opposing players. He simply is the next great English star and we should nuture that.

Aaron Ramsey is showing no ill effects of his devestating ankle injury. He is showing quite the opposite – that he wants to make up for lost time and get back to the place he was before Shawcross took him out. He is already showing that promise and has consistently been a bright spot with energy and ability that is only matched by his midfield partner.

Lest we forget these two lads played with each other in the reserve set up. They know each other well and are familiar with the others style of play and that cannot be underestimated.

Alex Song while not everyone’s first choice is a solid DM and will hopefully only go on and continue to improve. Again, we shouldn’t read too much into the pre-season but he has been one of the better players this summer and it looks like he is developing a nice support partnership to Ramsey and Wilshere.

But the one thing I might tinker here – again assuming the squad is the squad we have today without Cesc or Nasri, I might consider bringing Andrei Arshavin back to his natural  creative midfielder role and see what he can to unlock some of those tricky defences we encounter.  It’s a thought right? I mean if there were anyone in the team ready made to replace Cesc Fabregas (to an extent that he can be replaced) it’s Andreivich isn’t it?

The Forwards

Using my primary formation of 4-3-3, I would lineup Gervinho on the left and Walcott on the right with Robin van Persie as our middle man. With Van Persie’s penchant of sitting back a little and playing deep he might be able to feed the speedsters from the side.  Additionally, his scoring rate will (provided he stays healthy) only get better with service in from two players like Gervinho and Walcott.

Walcott has really impressed me with his ability to set up the goal. He is using his speed well now to get behind players and his passing has been deft enough set up some of our more natural goal scorers. 

Gervinho and Walcott together also gives speed on both wings which in turn keeps opposing teams defences honest. With speed on either wing, defenders with a penchant for getting forward to support an attack would be hard pressed to do so if they knew they could get beat by a speedy forward.

The Formation

As I insinuated, my base formation is a 4-3-3. Especially for like minded attack oriented teams. But in the case of teams that want to  flood 10 me behind the ball I am switching to a 4-4-2. No change in the defending line. My midfield though becomes, Arshavin, Ramsey in the more attacking roles and Song and Wilshere in the DM roles. Up front, I am likely to go with Van Persie and Gervinho up front. Rotating that front tandem with Walcott and Chamakh.

Subs:

Mannone is my number 2. While not as commanding a presence as Szczesny he is better in the box than the other two options available.

Jenkinson is my RB sub. He has shown good presence on the ball. Is good defencively and is HUGE.

Djourou is my back up CB just because his name is not Squillaci.

Depending on whether Ramsey or Arshavin starts the other is my midfield sub

Lansbury is my other midfield sub

Chamakh is my forward sub

There you go. Yeah, I know I am no tactical wiz. I am just looking at a what if situation and trying to make the most of it.  This was not an exercise on whether or not we could win the league with this team. It was what do I do with what I have to get the best possible results. When I look at it, its not great but if its all we got, this is still a better lineup than most teams in the league and I think could do a job on the contenders. Whether or not they could win the league. That would depend on so many different factors and that wasn’t the purpose of this discussion.

Oh and finally – if I was the manager – I’d be buying Cahill and Sakho for the defence. Mata and M’Villa for the midfield and Benzema for up front.  Again, that’s if I were manager and could do it!!!

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