Power n Glory wrote:@Elk
Try to answer the following.
- Should he stick with this formation or should he try a different formation or line up? Does he need to be more conservative with our passing or take more risks?
- What's the point in playing three at the back with two wingbacks that hardly ventured forward if there isn't enough defensive cover if we're still unable to take a bit more of risk on attacks?
- With Aubameyang and Lacazette both drifting to opposite flanks, does it actually make sense for Ozil to just stand in the middle waiting for a pass when both strikers are far to his left or right? How is he supposed to link play with nobody around and in an isolated position?
- He has to change formation every week to avoid getting smashed but our most consistent form comes when he sticks to a formation.....make it make sense.
Ok. Looks like we are going to go round in circles because you will not accept my point and something i have seen as a clear lack of awareness you have on the defensive side of the game.
Lets run through our 343 vs Leicester.
It was a very defensive 343 for the sole reason Ozil cannot press high and has no energy levels off the ball to help out a very poor defensive team in defance so his best position on defence was to be a false 9/attacking mid hybrid. This is to conserve his energy to just focus on we have the ball and he was poor aswell even when we had possession as his runs contradicted his central role.
Laca and Auba where wide attackers or even at times left and right midfielders in defence since we are heavily short in numbers in midfield and since these two are quite clearly by a distance our best players we need to play both of then and fit them into a effective system.
The 343 was taking into account again we are heavily short of quality in midfield. Ceballos injured, Xhaka still crying and Willock played full 90 on Wednesday so all we have is Guendouzi, Torreria as senior players. We lack height and strength in our midfield hence it gives the defence little protection so 3 at the back is a smart choice to have any solidity with the players we have at our disposal.
Going back to the front three. This attack was supposed to work exactly the same as how Werder Bremen have used their front 3 this season. Comparison:
Auba - Ozil - Laca
Rasciola - Bittencourt - Sargent
In attack the two wide players move into central areas and one plays as a striker/attacker, the other can also play as a striker cutting in or as a attacker with a free role as Auba did who either worked attacks from the wings while Laca moved centrally more.
Now for this to work this relies on the false 9 to stay in central areas to thread balls into the two players either side of him and work on linking the midfielders behind him along with the full backs going forwards. Its requires a lot of running and you have to have the technique to trap balls quickly, be able to dribble enough to evade all the tackles that will come in the middle and think fast.
Ozil isn't quick enough when he gets the ball to do this so he runs to the wings where there is space for him to do safe passes or tries to run direct in on goal. He's just scared to operate in central areas because he isn't good enough, his technique has dropped off also, he miss controls difficult passes more than he used to, he lacks any strength and resilience to ride or take tackles. He's dreadful in tight areas.
Werder don't have a powerful number 9 type to hold the ball up so their manager Kohfeldt has found a possession based method of attacking which suits his players. Emery did something very similar which as i said before if we used Ceballos who loves moving around in central areas, not even that, if we use Reiss Nelson there instead of Ozil to link the play, hell even Willock there the 343 could work very well. If we strengthen the midfield in January we could even use the 433 variation used by Werder this season with the front three using the same principle.
Now this all comes from the most basic of balance principles between attack and defence especially in modern football. Of the 10 outfield players you can only ever afford to have 1 player who can't defend. This answers you going round in circles with this 4231.
Power n Glory wrote:We’ve been pretty poor under Emery throughout but even this season, without Ramsey, we’ve gotten our best results from a 4-2-3-1. For this season in all comp, 7 out of our 8 wins have come when playing a 4-2-3-1. It’s all well and good saying we’d lose if using it against better teams but we’ve lost or drop points every time we’ve switched to a different formation this season. We’re lucky to have even won against Victoria otherwise I wouldn’t be able to say we’ve won 1 out of our last 7 games.
You say we have a poor and unbalanced team. I agree that there is a lot to be desired from what we have, but do honestly think the best way about it is to switch formations this frequently? Do we have the players with the mental capacity or discipline to switch their game and mentality from week to week? This crop of players? I don’t but you tell me.
We have two out and out strikers we are forced to play every game because they are our best players. In only 1 of the games we won using 4231 we used both Laca and Auba. All the other games had more balance to the 4231 with Saka/Pepe and Reiss Nelson on the wings. That game we won vs Burnley who sit deep so you don't have to worry so much about how weak our midfield was that day. Unlike away to a better side which Leicester certainly are, while Xhaka is much maligned however he's our strongest midfielder and he's essential to the team if we want to be solid and good opposition using just 2 center backs.
Mikhtaryan who played the first game vs Newcastle was loaned out which was stupid, Nelson has been injured, Pepe has been shit, Saka is just a kid. We have worn thin on effective wingers and lost a versatile attacking mid to even make a 4231 even work with good enough players to play in the wide areas let alone our defensive shitshow. Why you seem to persist which this without understand yourself the players good enough to work within the system is your own problem. This once again answers everything you queried me on regarding why we are changing formations so much.
Sticking to a system which is ineffective with the personal you have is stubborn and poor management. Changing things is what happens when players get injured and you previous lineups have clear deficiencies in player ability in certain areas.
All comes back to what i said before. The squad is shit and unbalanced overall.
Power n Glory wrote:Back to Ozil. He can be a problematic player. I’ve criticised him a lot and agree with some of your points on his weak areas but I’ve come to accept that he’s never going to shoot and run at players like he’s 24 again. If we’ve going to use him, we have to accept the player we have on our hands with all his strengths and weaknesses. If he started to flag around the 60 minute mark, why didn’t the manager sub him off for Martinelli, a player that has bags of energy to continue pressing?
Because he's feeling the pressure. Its why I dont mind at all if Emery leaves. Fans have reacted so badly to him being taken off before he's not just afraid of that. Ozil entourage has be the key people behind Emery out in the first place. He's dealt with dropping him very poorly and is now in the shit because Xhaka is still crying and falling out with everyone not ready to play and he's short on midfielders and now has no option but to use Ozil.
Its a testament to how shit this club is being run from from the top all the way throughout the club. Player power is out of control here.
Power n Glory wrote:elkanofan wrote:It's beyond your football awareness, that's why you don't understand, I suggest you learn more about the balance between defence and attack. Learn more about players defensive awareness off the ball. You really don't understand the defensive side of the game at all.Your convinced your right, i prove otherwise and you always react the same.
You say stuff like this but never actually tell anyone what a balanced Arsenal squad looks like or who we could get some semblance of balance from what we have. Educate if you're that enlightened. Don't sit on the fence and write and essay after the fact and it's a cop out to resort to 'we need better players' type answer. We don't have that as an option for the moment and we're analysing the game. There have been plenty of games where Ozil hasn't played and he hasn't pressed. Plenty where Ceballos has started. If you're going to suggest Ceballos would have better than Ozil, go all the way and give your full opinion on how you think we should set up and play instead of spending time breaking down any tactical suggestion I come up with. That's easy to do and anyone can say we just need new players.
Back to the formation....If we’re going with a 3 at the back with two wing backs, that should be enough cover for the flanks and middle of the park so we’re not getting dragged all over the pitch and getting exposed. Look at the Kola/Ozil pass situation again and you’ll see there is enough cover to deal with a turnover. That’s the point of playing with more defensive players behind the ball. I’d actually say we’re more heavy on the defensive side because we’re not committing men forward which is why we’re not creating shooting opportunities for our strikers. But despite having all that cover at the back, we’re still not stable at the back. It’s down to poor coaching.
A balanced top level squad who plays in europe has at least 3 players to play each position. At least 2 specialists for each position with the 3rd or 4th option being versatility.
Just look at City, Liverpool, Chelsea especially, even Leicester. United have better balance than us, they just have poor strikers! The filth are in freefall still have aabetter squad than us.
With us, with the situation we have with Xhaka crying and being all soft and emotional and with Ceballos injured. That leaves us so short in midfield i genuinely don't even know our best 11 anymore. Hence why i haven't put many formations down. I'm very honest about this and whatever i saw is Emery even going to care?
Away from home i like this setup we did vs Leicester and i think it can work with Nelson instead of Ozil, even Ceballos. I think the key is we need to at least get either player to operate and link our deep midfielders with our attacks coming in from out wide. Both players also wont be afirad to take players on and shoot along with their playmaking duties.
We certainly ain't good enough to ensure clean sheets but the defensive shape is enough not to make us difficault to break down unlike a 4231 which will make us easy to be played through the middle with the players we have. You need strength and height in the midfield in the EPL unless you have a team of highly technically gifted players like City have. We don't have that.
Playing 3 at the back may help this team grind it out till January where we need signings. We are going to have to be adapt to make it to January depending on who we have.
Power n Glory wrote:If Kola isn’t confident enough to play a simple ball to Ozil on his weaker foot out of fear of an interception when so far up the pitch, maybe Emery should rethink trying to play the ball out from the back. That’s a high risk game where there is zero cover when a mistake is made.
We can see the team is lacking in confidence and for Emery to put that right, he has to return players to their natural and most confident positions, stick to a formation and coach. He himself has said he prefers the 4-2-3-1 formation and the more he switches and shows indecision he’s just undermining his own coaching principles.
Ozil is a extreme one footed player and he's technically better than Kolasianc. Ozils whole balanced is so shifted to his left side he dosent even look over his right shoulder at all for him to make his safe passes. He only ever uses his right when in loads of space. This is our supposed cheif creator?
In professional football when under pressure from an opponent with no real space and you see someone make a run but is being tracked clearly by a center back behind him as Ozil was. Your still expecting a very moderate technical player as Kolasinac who is not a great passer even with his strong foot let alone his weak foot under pressure to make an 'easy pass'. You have to stop falling for the media bullshit about all footballers being super amazing in this era. That's crap to get you buy all the materialistic garbage sold by these corporations. Not every top pro is that good on their weak foot. Only certain players are and even still like Obafemi Martins, that doesn't even make you a technically gifted player, just competent. You can have two average feet like he did rather than one specialist foot and one competent one.
Now we can keep going round in circles here or you can look at what i have wrote and look and my main point regarding your views on our formation.
You really need to learn about how players defend more. Bar the comparison i made with Werder Bremen's front 3 which they have used a few times this season.
I have already said everything here already and I have to repeat myself constantly because you still dont get the defensive side of the game.