Tag Archives: She Wore

Arsenal’s far left problems

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There is currently a massive problem at Arsenal Football Club. One that is being quietly spoken about amongst friends. It has not yet reared it’s ugly head on the terraces, but it is getting to a point where the crowd are on the verge of turning. Arsenal have a problem with their left hand side.

The weakness on our left hand side is becoming more and more problematic. It is simply not working. From both a defensive side and an attacking side.

In the summer, there were massive reports linking us to many a left back. From reports that we were set to trigger Ricardo Rodriguez’s minimum release clause to interest in Leicester youngster Ben Chilwell and Celtic’s Kieran Tierney. In the end, we stuck with what we had, Nacho Monreal and Kieran Gibbs.

Even reports that we were after a left sided centre back who could then cover full back failed to materialise as we ended up with Shkodran “I am still having to Google his first name” Mustafi – a right sided centre back.

So it left us exactly where we were last season. Two solid left backs of similar level.

Now it was easy in the summer to make a case of why we should not go for a new left back. A centre back, defensive midfielder, right winger / striker were more important. We signed one of each.

But 3 months after the window shutting, left back has now arguably become our weakest link.

I have been a massive fan of Nacho Monreal in an Arsenal shirt.

Not blessed with the extreme pace many a full back now has, he has always been more of a Bacary Sagna of the left. Or a Pablo Zabaleta. Someone who recognises their job is to defend, and understands how to go it. A strong defender, using positional and game awareness.

But this season he has had a bit of a shocker.

He has been beaten numerous times too easily on the outside. Average wingers seem to be blasting past him without much effort. And he seems to be diving into challenges with poor decision making. Perhaps a sign that he lacks confidence in himself. Committing early on to the challenge in the hope if he does not win the ball, at least he is being beat high up the pitch.

I do not know the stats, but I would hazard a guess a lot of our goals this season have come from our left hand side.

Of course, it is not just about the full back, you work in pairs, so some of the blame has to go to whoever has been ahead of Monreal for the season.

Against Manchester United, a game where their opener came from our left hand side, it was Aaron Ramsey. Not a natural left winger.

For the majority of the season, Monreal has played behind Alex Iwobi.

Iwobi offers little defensively. You rarely see him busting a gut to get back, chasing his opposing full back, leaving Monreal in a 2 on 1 situation too often.

Even when Iwobi get’s back, his lack of defensive positional awareness becomes exposed. He does not seem to know when to show a player outside or in, who to pick up, what run to follow, or where to stand to cut out the pass. He offers nothing.

Of course, he is just 20, so has a lot to learn, but with Monreal out of form, Iwobi needs to be helping his full back out more.

Football is all about partnerships. From centre backs, to midfielders, to strikers. Leicester City won the league last season because their team was greater than their individuals. Better players in other teams failed to link up with team mates as well as Leicester. We see that on Arsenal’s left hand side. Defensively, Monreal & Iwobi have no gelled.

Then we come to going forward.

Alex Iwobi has started 8 of 12 games in the Premier League for Arsenal this season, and 3 of the 5 Champions League games. Of those 11 games, he is still yet to scored, and has made just 3 goals.

Some would say he has gone backwards this season, that he has been ‘Wengered’ (what the hell does that even mean?), but the truth is expectation is now higher this season.

He has been a first team regular, and he has simply not done enough this season to justify his continual selection. He is not ready for week in week out at Arsenal’s level.

And as a partnership going forward, Monreal and Iwobi have not linked up.

Monreal is very different going forward to Hector Bellerin on the right. He makes shorter runs, hits the bye line, and gets dangerous balls in. He is also a very good passer, even in close situations. But Monreal has done little going forward this season. He has simply not been a threat.

Part of this might be due to his lack of confidence in his current defensive form, so he does not want to be caught out high up the pitch. But what this results in is the opposite of Iwobi not defending.

Monreal not attacking leaves Iwobi isolated. Often with the opposing full back and winger surrounding him. He cuts inside and has a central midfield in his face. 3 on 1. Normally, having dragged 3 players inside, he could flick the ball outside to Monreal in space. But Monreal is not there.

Nacho Monreal and Alexi Iwobi are not linking up. Not gelling. Not performing. They are playing like two individuals with no confidence. They are not a partnership.

And even when they have been rotated out, it is not much better. Kieran Gibbs has not done enough this season in his handful of appearances to usurp Monreal. But he does perhaps deserve a bit of a run in the team. Maybe start him against Bournemouth, mid-week against Southampton, and take it from there. It will then give him 3 games in a row, at least.

And then forward of Monreal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been inconsistent, and the likes of Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey should not be considered on the left. So what options does this leave Arsene Wenger?

The most obvious one is move Alexis Sanchez back to the left hand side. He will give Monreal (or Gibbs) the cover they have missed. Also attack is the best form of defence. A full back will not be bombing forward when they are faced against Alexis Sanchez like they are against Alex Iwobi.

Of course, this then has implications upfront, where Sanchez has performed exceptionally so far. Return Olivier Giroud back to the forward line on a permanent basis.

The other option would be to give Oxlade-Chamberlain a chance on the left.

A new partnership of the Ox & Gibbs would be worth giving a go.

In the last few days, Arsenal have been heavily linked with Hull City’s teenage left back Josh Tymon and forever linked Julian Draxler.

Over the next 2 transfer windows, Arsenal need to sort out their hard left, before it plunges the club into crisis.

Note: This blog was written before the Bournemouth victory which saw us win 3-1 with Nacho Monreal crossing for one of the goals. He also gave away the penalty. We did however look a lot stronger with Monreal & Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Keenos

 

What has happened to Arsenal’s sleeve tradition?

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I never want to become one of these who moans after a game just for the sake of moaning. We know what these people are, very bitter angry young men. A quick look at Twitter and Facebook at half time saw the boo boys already putting out their agenda.

People blaming Arsene Wenger at half time for it being 1-1:

Don’t blame the time of year, blame the stubborn blind fool in the dugout. Wenger Out.

It’s 1-1 at half time, a decent Arsenal performance, and their equaliser was from a very debatable penalty. But some silly-billies just can not wait to moan can they. Sitting behind their laptop watching at home on their sofa. I guess having a go at Wenger stops them beating their wife.

I never want to become one of these people. So Let’s start with the positives.

A 3-1 victory keeps us up at the top of the table with the other 3 sides in the title race also winning over the weekend. Nothing gained, nothing lost.

4 point gap between us in 4th and Spurs in 5th as that lot up the road failed to go unbeaten for the season of autumn. We need to look upwards, not downwards.

Another 2 goals for Alexis Sanchez and a poachers goal by Theo Walcott – in fact all 3 goals were poachers goal – with Olivier Giroud coming off the bench to add another assist to his season statistics, things are good at Arsenal.

Even with playing Gabriel at right back having seen Mathieu Debuchy limp off, Arsenal were never in any real trouble. Another day, another referee, Arsenal would have been out of site at half time with Bournemouth struggling to keep 11 men on the field.

Now on to the moan.

What has happened to the old Arsenal tradition of the captain picking the sleeve length?

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It is fairly clear Theo Walcott is wearing short sleeve shirts, Nacho Monreal long sleeve. So what has happened to this tradition?

A few weeks ago it was raised that Arsenal players were no longer wearing the same sleeve length. It was justified when a club official said that all players were wearing short sleeve, but some players were wearing a long sleeve base layer.

Back in 2013, Mathieu Flamini created a massive furore within the club by cutting off his long sleeves to turn his shirt into a short sleeve one. He was allegedly given a dressing down by Wenger  and publically promised never to do it again.

Fast forward 3 years and the tradition is well and truly out of the window.

In the first half, Theo Walcott was wearing a short sleeve shirt with a base layer underneath.

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You can see above by the blue line that go’s around the cuff of the long sleeve shirt. Mohamed Elneny and Alexis Sanchez are both in long sleeve. Theo Walcott in short sleeve. At half time Walcott removed the base layer, exposing himself as wearing a short sleeve top.

It was not just Theo Walcott, Gabriel and Mustafi also wore short sleeve shirts (although you could make a case for Mustafi’s being rolled up.)

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I for one am very disappointed that this piece of Arsenal tradition seems to be left in the past.

Of course, in the grand scheme of things, sleeve length does not win you the league. You would always prefer players to be comfortable if it means they perform. But it is part of Arsenal’s history, Arsenal’s tradition, Arsenal’s class. The captain picks the shirt length, and everyone else follows. It shows unity, togetherness.

To finish on a positive, Arsenal won 3-1.

Granit Xhaka was excellent.

Keenos

Arsenal missing diminutive midfield star

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Four games without a win in the early start of 2016. 3 draws and a defeat. That is what derailed our title challenge in 2015/16, dropping us from 1st to 4th in just a handful of games.

The key factor of our drop in form? The absence of Santi Cazorla.

29 November 2015. Norwich away. A 1-1 draw. On the face of it, not very significant. In the grand scheme of things, an away draw in the Premier League is not a game which loses you a title.

But it was the injuries Arsenal suffered in the game that would define the season. Alexis Sanchez hobbled off after 60 minutes, but it was not the diminutive Chilean whose absence would be felt by Arsenal. It would be the diminutive Spanaird that would be missed.

Arsenal's Santi Cazorla goes down injured against Norwich City.

Cazorla went down with injury in the 46th minute after being fouled. After a minute or so delay whilst he received treatment, he hobbled back on and actually completed the 90 minutes. It was only after the game that Cazorla was diagnosed with knee ligament damage. It rules him out until April. He would not actually bee seen until the last game of the season.

In the short term, Santi Cazorla being out did not really damage Arsenal. After the draw against Norwich, Arsenal won their next 3 games, and 6 of their next 7 in the Premier League. FA Cup and Champions League wins saw this go to 8 wins in 9. The talk at the time was for all the love and praise for Cazorla, his absence was not really felt.

But it was over the long term we started to notice his absence. The short term form was great but, after the run of 6 in 7, Arsenal would only go on to win another 6 league games when Cazorla did not play. 6 out of 17. Awful form. Not title winning form. We were lucky to finish 2nd.

In the 2nd half of the season, Arsenal struggled to transition the ball from defence into attack. No deep lying ball player who could pick the ball off the centre backs and launch it further up the field accurately.

In Francis Coquelin and Aaron Ramsey, we had plenty of willing running, but not much subtile play. The play that Santi Cazorla gave us.

Arsene Wenger actually stumbled on playing Cazorla deeper when he was asked to do a more defensive job in the 2-0 away win against Manchester City in January 2015. He was Man of the Match. Ran the game. City could not get close to him.

What Cazorla gives you when playing deep is exceptional. Pirlo-esque. Maybe even better.

Having someone so talented play so deep gives Arsenal so many more options in attack. It means we can go from defence to attack quickly. It means Mesut Ozil does not need to drop deep to pick up the ball. And with Cazorla being two footed, it opens up both sides of the pitch.

Cazorla can get involved in the short passing, intrinsic play, but also hit it long if needed. He is a double threat. And also impossible to mark.

When someone is so deep, with so much ability, it gives opponents a conundrum. The attacker midfielder (someone like Ozil) is not going to work hard to get around a defensive midfielder to stop him playing. This leaves opponents in a conundrum.

Do they push forward a defensive midfielder to get around the deep lying ball player, to stop him, which in result will leave less protection in front of the defence, more space for the likes of Mesut Ozil. Or do they keep disciplined, don’t chase Cazorla, and end up letting him run the game.

Pirlo did it brilliantly for years for club and country. Cazorla does the exact same job. The main difference between Cazorla and Pirlo is that Cazorla is two footed.

Whilst I think we do clearly miss Santi Cazorla, I also think there is a little bit of getting better when not playing.

We see it in football, we see it in cricket, sportstars get better when they are not playing, if the team is struggling. By Santi Cazorla not being involved when Arsenal’s 2015/16 title challenge went up in smoke, it made people put two and two together. It made people put him on a pedastool.

We have seen them same at Manchester United with Michael Carrick. The more he does not play, the better he seems to get. The same with Paul Scholes for England.

There is no argument that all 3 players are (or have been) brilliant players. But there is certainly some part that they were made to seem even better when they were not playing.

This season he picked up an injury in the 6-0 victory over Ludogorets. 6 wins in a row before his injury. 3 wins from 7 since his injury. We miss Santi Cazorla.

At 31, with 2 long-ish terms injuries in 12 months, and his contract coming to an end (allegedly) at the end of this season, Arsenal have a decision to make on Santi Cazorla.

Do they stick with him in the hope he gets injury clear, and has a long career like Pirlo. Or do we look at the over 30 data and injury record and start planning to replace him now.

But it is not easy replacing a player like Santi Cazorla. Especially his two footness. It can not be underestimated how key opening both sides of the pitch from the middle of the park can be.

I see names such as Isco banded about. Or playing Ramsey and Granit Xhaka in tandem. But sometimes we have to accept some players have such a special  gift that they are irreplaceable.

Is Santi Cazorla irreplaceable?

Keenos