What Formation Should Arsene Wenger Employ? - Part 1
The fans that were once singing praises of the legendary Frenchman are now calling for his head. Why? Because of the fact that he has been stubbornly adopting a youth policy the Arsenal manager has failed to bring home any silverware for six years now. The
fans who chanted, “In Arsene We Trust” now doubt the professor to the extent that numerous debates have sprung up discussing a potential replacement for the managerial job.
Several key questions have been raised about the Arsenal manager and his tactics, his youth policy and his way of going about transfers. Arsenal have been on numerous occasions unable to beat defensive minded teams like Sunderland, Blackburn and most recently
Stoke City. This inability to split open well organised defences has put into question the tactics that have been employed by Wenger with many of the view that a tactical change-up is what’s most needed.
After the humiliation http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Arsenal-c38429 suffered at the Britannia Stadium against a weak Stoke City side fired up many debates on whether Wenger should return back to the formation that had helped him to the most honours; the 4-4-2 formation.
Right now Wenger is adept at the 4-2-3-1 formation (rarely has he used any other formation this season) which uses the false nine striker which on most occasions is http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robin-van-Persie-c31380. The Frenchman has been very firm about his tactical rigidity and does not
like to change it often. With the players he has got, he feels this formation best suits the team.
In front of the four defenders sit http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jack-Wilshere-c17463 is the deep laying play-maker who is the transition
between defence and attack. He receives the ball and then makes deep forward runs often interchanging positions with Cesc Fabregas who plays as a central attacking mid-fielder behind the Dutch striker. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Samir-Nasri-c32360 are the two wingmen and flank
Van Persie on either side.
With the current 4-5-1 formation, Arsenal has gone on to win big matches against the likes of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 and Manchester United. But this same formation has found it exceedingly difficult to break open defensive minded teams like Blackburn, Sunderland
and Stoke.
In every other season, the big matches have let the Gunners down but in this season, surprisingly it has been the lower ranked teams that have caused the Emirates faithful the most heartache. The sharpness was found lacking in high quantities in such matches
for the team and also they weren’t able to find that killer instinct in front of goal if a key player or two had been out injured.
The lack of pressure in the opposing third has the world calling Wenger to adopt a policy of flexibility and freshen up the formation with some tactical brilliance. This tactical leverage will require Wenger to go on and spend money on someone like Karim
Benzema who can impose his presence in the final third and can create that cutting edge in front of goal that Arsenal lacks.
Article Continued In Part 2 of What Formation Should Arsene Wenger Employ?
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