Arsene Considers His Options
Apr 7th, 2008 by 'holic
As I start writing it is just twenty-four hours before what has become THE biggest match of the season for Arsenal, and what must the players be feeling like? I can’t wait for it to get here.
The strange thing is that given how small our squad is supposed to be after injuries to Sagna, Rosicky, and Eduardo, there are a number of selection posers for Arsene Wenger. I wouldn’t mind betting he is not one hundred percent sure of his starting line-up, even at this late stage.
No doubt Manuel Almunia will start but directly ahead of him I think only William Gallas and Gael Clichy are guaranteed to be there at kick-off. History suggests that Arsene will plump for Eboue at full-back and Kolo Toure alongside Gallas.
I would differ in only one respect, and expect to cause a few raised eyebrows when I suggest I would start with Senderos. I genuinely feel we have an issue with neither Toure or Gallas being comfortable attacking the first ball when paired in the centre. Whatever you think of the big Swiss, he will go for everything and Gallas will be more comfortable covering around and behind him.
The other bonus from that pairing could be to free Toure for a role further forward. Any problems Arsene has at the back pale into insignificance when compared to the decisions to be made in midfield.
Robin van Persie may be in the squad, but I suspect will only be risked as a last resort. The lessons of PSV a year ago have surely been learned. Everything we have seen from Arsene in big games in the last couple of years suggests we will go with a five behind Emmanuel Adebayor. At it’s best that formation has required Alex Hleb in the hole just behind Togo’s finest.
Under normal circumstances that would leave only Theo Walcott and Abou Diaby to operate on the flanks. Let me make one thing clear before I continue. I think Diaby has a future as a central midfielder. As a wide player, however, he is about as much use as an ashtray on a Harley Davidson.
My solution would see Theo switched to the left hand side and Kolo Toure played on the right, with Cesc and Matty Flamini in the engine room. I know the Flamster looked tired on Saturday but he just has to start, and if and when he burns himself out I would consider using Alex Song ahead of Gilberto from the bench. We all know why, don’t we?
That all makes perfect sense to me. Of course if you ask fifty Arsenal fans to name their side at the moment you would get at least a dozen variations. Still. that’s half an hour spent on a fairly useless exercise committing mine to print!
In order to strike third time lucky, I’m punting on us to win 2-1 at Anfield, which we will achieve with Arsene’s team, not mine. Frankly, I don’t care how we get through, or who plays, just as long as we do. We can go back to being the prettiest football team in the world on Wednesday. Until then winning ugly will do very nicely, thank you.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS!
8 Responses to “Arsene Considers His Options”
Good reading, and I feel a 2-1 away win in my bones, my partner alawys says we will win 2-1 regardless, and she is always wrong!
Tomorrow will be her night to be right….
My team is similar to you
Almunia
Eboue (though it pains me) Phillipe, Willy, Gael
Toure (stop torres)
Hleb Cesc Flamster Theo
Ade
Subs – Bendtner, Song, RVP, Diaby, Gilberto
Lets go get at them, and if need, win ugly
no van persie will play he plays in a 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 for holland so i think he will play him i think his only decision is at right back/centre half and i think liverpool will play on the break so i think the back four will be aboue-toure-gallas-chlichy
and it will be walchott/diaby-flamini-cesc-van persie
with hleb in the hole behind adebayor. after saturday i would have a think about gilberto as he was our best player and he could sit in the hole were steve g sits and then play a 4-1-4-1 formation with hleb flam cesc and robin across midfield and let the fullbacks bomb on that would be what i would do as liverpools wide men would end up marking our fullbacks and with gilberto we would always have 3v2 if they were to break what do you think of the latter
my team almunia. clichy toure gallas ,eboue[no one else,hes gotta come good sometime]midfield-willcot left, hleb right;fab and flam midfield centre. ade and bentner upfront and just go for it . high balls anything just walk of the pitch havin no regrets. from the first minute , non of this sussing them out first half. we know how they play.
almunia
eboue, senderos, gallas, clichy
hleb fabregas, flamini, RVP
walcott, adebayor
Arsenal to win 4-5
Please not Eboue to start but does the Prof have a choice? – no! Others are simply not strong enough yet (and how we miss wonderkid Sagna, for me the Prof’s top buy of last summer). So, Alumnia, Eboue, Toure, Gallas, Clichy (looking before he crosses), Walcott (playing into the centre as provider and distraction for Fab/Flam – with Toure locking in behind Eboue if he makes useful (hmmmm) forward runs, Flam, Fab, Hleb, Bentner, Ade. Please let’s have 4-4-2 because Ade needs a partner for a game where we have to score… Bentner and Ade have to bury the hatchet and play for each other. Most of all let’s get back to those days when we broke out of defence fast and beat their defenders to the penalty box (Toss it out Alumnia, and use Theo’s speed). Please, many many more shots at goal. And attack in numbers or Carragher will one again stop Ade from facing the goal. I think that if Hleb can make himself MOM, we can nick it… We need giants out there tomorrow playing with the passion that Gallas showed on Saturday… I predict 2-1 and one of them a penalty. Well, some ref or other has to be honest with us for once… Come on, let’s go!
No i dont think we’ll be winning with a 1 goal cushion..unless we score in the last minute..like at bolton…
i feel it should be a long ball effort today that can win us the game…i would ideally like a san siro repeat performance today but Liverpool are not milan for us to play our free flowing football…this argument is also supported by how the Liverfools have handled us in the last 2 games
So adebayor needs to have his headers sorted & ensure that he is onside to gael clichy’s long ball crosses…
but the set up should be :
———Almunia————
toure,senderos,gallas,clichy
walcott,flamini,hleb
——–fabregas———–
RVP, Adebayor
fabregas NEEDS to play just behind the strikers…& if hleb continues his poor form..i dont mind seeing Song in action…
i feel he deserved a place on saturday..
I would play the same 11 ‘holic, although I would swap Eboue (RM) and Toure (RB). Wenger has been reluctant to play Theo at LW, preferring Diaby there instead, so it will be interesting to see who he starts with.
4-5-1, for me. We need defensive solidity and this formation sees us being creative as well, coz of Hleb playing behind Adebayor.
Can I be the first to say I’m glad to be out of this piece of shit competition?
For once not a bad performance and of course there was the obligatory bad refereeing decision. But overall: so what?
I could refer to how essential it was for us to win it so we can at least match the achievements of Forest and Villa (God help us . . .) let alone the mancs and the scouse. But I won’t.
Similarly I won’t be banging on about why I think the CL is utterly worthless – it is; but I won’t bore you with the detail.
I could also make the point that the fact this was the last trophy available to us at this stage of the season was not a cause for excitement but for pointing fingers of accusation at those who have brought us to this. But there again . . . .
No, I won’t be dealing with those things because what’s done is done. What concerns me is that AW said his prime goal was the League but ultimately he lied as the last 2 months or so (both in terms of team performance and selection) have instead demonstrated a total focus on the CL.
Something that when push comes to shove I really don’t give a fuck about.
I. Want. To. Win. The. Premiership. Simple as that. The rest is all just smoke and mirrors.
After 40 years it’s certainly not the first time I’ve seen us toss the league away; but this time really is something special. It all seemed to go wrong when a young team, 5 pts clear with easy games to come, was allowed to focus on Milan and lose sight of the bigger goal.
The result at the San Siro was wonderful; everything else was not.
The last 2 months have been a disaster – Bolton being the only ray of hope.
Frankly the hype surrounding that victory was always hard to swallow. Yes we hate them, yes we’ve not had good results in recent times, but this is a different team and different manager and they’re both shite. Never mind the result; to go 2 down to them was appalling and yes I do know what happened to the mancs there . . .
To claim we still had a chance at the League and then to send out the team AW picked on Saturday is beyond disingenuous. Basically it’s a lie.
Yourself and the other “responsible†blogs, namely Arseblog/ Goodplaya/ Gunnerblog/ etc, and most sensible fans, are generally singing from the same sheet.
The youth project is all very worthy but it isn’t the complete answer, especially when the likes of Van P and Rosicky spend most of the season on the treatment table. Over the last 3 or 4 seasons injuries generally have been a major problem. The squad has to be bigger.
We don’t need to buy “bigâ€. We just need some competent back-up who, for once, are willing to sit on the subs bench, take their pay and bide their time – rather than whinge like Diarra.
Everyone else has them, why don’t we? It might also help if Wenger didn’t have such a blind spot with regard to the likes of Eboue – surely the worst player to don the shirt since George picked up Eddie the Eagle from Palace
I’m sorry to say that I’d prefer us to end up 3rd (or even worse, which the team seems more than capable of on current form) on the basis that just perhaps it might get through to AW that a new approach is required. Anything less will clearly go over his head.
I’m not calling for Arsene’s head, nor do I subscribe to the Ade/Senderos/Hleb/etc are crap mentality.
AW however is not perfect and probably needs someone stronger alongside him than Pat Rice.
Keown did a great job in assisting us to the CL final. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to try him out and might address the issue of succession, which is one area of forward planning which is significantly missing from the current agenda, not to mention our defensive frailties.
What worries me is that Arsene is falling into the same trap as Graham. Ok, the playing style is totally different but both enjoyed early successes followed by a fallow period which they refused to address as they thought they were right and everything would come good.
Frankly if we buy no one during the summer and then indulge in the usual last minute brinkmanship then we can kiss next season goodbye and I won’t be making many appearances at The Grove. I’ll just watch the last few seasons DVDs at home. Déjà vu is the same wherever you indulge in it . . . .