Formations, Tactics, Analysis, and Statistics

[EliteKiller]

I like the idea of three at the back, I think the problem then becomes having four "wingbacks" who can spread the load of the toughest role in the modern game.

No surprise City already have five and are looking to upgrade a couple, Liverpool have the best pair in the EPL with backups, Spurs are buying two more to swap with two of their current crop, Chelsea are on the hunt ... it's not rocket science.

Everyone in the top four is looking for upgrades at wingback and they already have far better squad depth than us.

Playing a back five requires a squad that right now we simply don't have. Square pegs Round holes how many times will we rinse and repeat?

[Power n Glory]

I think a back 3 will be our plan B formation.

[Arsenal Tone]

I think a back 3 will be our plan B formation.

Go a goal up and bring on saliba for odegaard. Sounds like a plan!

[coolaa]

We Saliba, Gabriel, White, Tomi, Holding. We can easily swap between 3 or 2 at the back. Especially if we keep Tavares, then he can play LWB and Tierney as LCB.

We just have a much better squad this season.very confident making Top 4. I honestly see only city and Liverpool are ahead of us, but if our starting 11 can stay injury free for most of the season, then I think we r as strong ad Liverpool. Jesus, Saliba and Zinchenko are so valuable addition to the team.

[VCC]

We Saliba, Gabriel, White, Tomi, Holding. We can easily swap between 3 or 2 at the back. Especially if we keep Tavares, then he can play LWB and Tierney as LCB.

We just have a much better squad this season.very confident making Top 4. I honestly see only city and Liverpool are ahead of us, but if our starting 11 can stay injury free for most of the season, then I think we r as strong ad Liverpool. Jesus, Saliba and Zinchenko are so valuable addition to the team.

Key is Jesus staying fit

[theHotHead]

We Saliba, Gabriel, White, Tomi, Holding. We can easily swap between 3 or 2 at the back. Especially if we keep Tavares, then he can play LWB and Tierney as LCB.

We just have a much better squad this season.very confident making Top 4. I honestly see only city and Liverpool are ahead of us, but if our starting 11 can stay injury free for most of the season, then I think we r as strong ad Liverpool. Jesus, Saliba and Zinchenko are so valuable addition to the team.

We had a better squad last season .. than the season before ! Look what good that did

[CrimsonGunner11]

We Saliba, Gabriel, White, Tomi, Holding. We can easily swap between 3 or 2 at the back. Especially if we keep Tavares, then he can play LWB and Tierney as LCB.

We just have a much better squad this season.very confident making Top 4. I honestly see only city and Liverpool are ahead of us, but if our starting 11 can stay injury free for most of the season, then I think we r as strong ad Liverpool. Jesus, Saliba and Zinchenko are so valuable addition to the team.

Key is Jesus staying fit

^

[Arsenal Tone]

and Partey

[ag6789]

Even w/o Partey we have Elneny and Zinchenko to play at the base. Less worry now.

[ag6789]

We have more options now:
4-4-2: Ramsdale
Tomiaysu White Gabriel Tierney
Odegaard Partey Zinchenko ESR
Martinelli Jesus
4-3-3: Ramsdale
Tomiaysu White Gabriel Tierney
Odegaard Partey Zinchenko
Saka Jesus Martinelli
3-5-2: Ramsdale
White Saliba Gabriel
White Odegaard Partey Zinchenko Tierney
Saka Jesus
4-5-1: Ramsdale
Tomiaysu Saliba Gabriel Tierney
Saka Odegaard Elneny Zinchenko ESR
Jesus
And others....

[TedLasso]

Our flexibility across the defense and front 5 makes us far more difficult to gameplan for. That was a massive issue last season when teams learned they could just sit back and counter and we simply didn't have the players to adjust.

I would still love more strength in midfield though.

[ag6789]

We still have Vieira and possibly Patino and Azeez as midfield options. Untested and unknown but massive possibilities in all of them. So no worries in the midfield either.

[CrimsonGunner11]

Midfield still needs to be addressed.

[theHotHead]

Midfield still needs to be addressed.

Absolutely, we are inconsistent and the gap to the backup players is too wide.

[theHotHead]

We still have Vieira and possibly Patino and Azeez as midfield options. Untested and unknown but massive possibilities in all of them. So no worries in the midfield either.

Mate, how does that make any sense to you ?!!! You admit that Vieira, Patino and Azeez are untested and unknown but go on to say no worries in midfield ! Potential means nothing, we have lived through that story umpteen times under Wenger, potential only means something if the players fulfil that potential, for the most part they never do.

So YES, midfield is our biggest area of concern, especially because Xhaka is still here.

I'm not sure of your target but Patino and Azeez and possibly Vieira aint getting us top 4 if we have to rely on them right now.