Claudius wrote:
qs! wrote:
Completely agree. Thats why I don't even like playing Jack deep. Ramsey and a big burly athlete who can play a quick simple pass is what we need.

Conversation should end here. Simples

Some of you are missing the point IMO

The reason we are incapable of building up from the back against pressing teams is not because we lack giants, we simply lack enough good footballers (yes not enough good footballers like Wilshere). Our clueless/suicidal tactics have nothing to do with lack of giants either.

Main problem IMO is, Wenger wants us to play a style of football that we are simply nowhere good enough to play. It would take a complete overhaul of our playing staff (starting from the goalkeeper up to the likes Sagna, Mertesacker, Flamini etc) for us to successfully play that way and compete at the highest level. People keep telling me we have enough footballers in our backline yet we struggle to play from the back as soon teams press us.

We have to play that 'ugly' football that Wenger doesn't like to get the best out of this squad. It's less difficult and more effective way of playing for a team with so few top footballers. Even an amateur coach would have told our defenders yesterday to boot it upfront and the rest of the team to drop deep to form a low defensive block. What do you think Chelsea would have done, commit many players forward ahead of the ball? Yeah right. A Mourinho team never commits more than 4 players ahead of the ball in the big games. And what damage could 4 players have done to us? We defended brilliantly against a top class attacking team like Bayern, it could have been far easier against that 1 dimensional Chelsea side. Game would have most likely turned into a cagey affair and their most likely source of goal could have been from a set piece or a cock up from one of our defenders.

Not 100% sure Wenger has completely settled on which direction he wants to take this team. We have a #10 in Ozil who excels in a counter attacking set up, but a striker who's at his best in a possession team - that's a complete mismatch. You also have someone like Cazorla on the wing who is a possession player but backline who are not suited to that sort of football, I could go through the whole team like that. I think he has to settle on which direction he wants to go and bring in players that fit that style.

I no longer want to us set up to play on the counter with a front 3 of Cazorla, Giroud and another slow attacking midfielder out wide. Buying players that fit how you play is the 1st big step to having a successful team. If I want to play a highline and 1 v 1 at the back I'd rather buy an overall far lesser defender like Vermaelen who fits my style than a top defender like John Terry who'll be a disaster in such a system. We tend to do the complete opposite. Barca are cunts but I admire how they do certain things. For years people couldn't understand why they persisted with a 'clown' like Valdes in goal, but they simply did because he's a fucking good footballer who fits there style of play. Most other keepers who are far better than Valdes in other areas would kill their game, therefore they stuck with an overall lesser keeper who improves the way they play. It's no surprise they are heavily linked with a Pepe Reina (Liverpool reject) because he's one of the best ball playing keepers in Europe.

If Wenger thinks he wants to play open, attacking, possession based dominant etc football, then he needs to take his chequebook out and spend big, I mean really BIG! It is the most expensive and difficult way of playing at the highest level, it's no coincidence hardly no top team( beside Barca and Bayern) play that way in Europe. There's no underdog in the history of the game that I know of that played such an attacking brand of football and won anything of note at the highest level, you have to have a fucking amazing team to pull it off.

Personally I think we should go with a game based on a pressing and quick transitions. No tiki taka nonsense. It's a simple but effective way of playing. Look at Liverpool; Rodgers was spouting a lot of nonsense about playing Barcelona football when he 1st joined them, but realised 6 months into his managerial career there that he was wasting his time playing that way, they are now all about pressing and quick transitions. Even David Moyes' United team manages more ball possession per game than them. Wenger's successful teams of the past were also based on quick transitions.

I'd ditch all these slow possession players that we have (Santi, Giroud etc) and go for fast, strong, tall etc footballers who are deadly on the counter, and I don't just mean 1 dimensional runners like Remy or Aubemeyang, but good footballers too (good passing, vision etc). Players like Sanchez, Draxler, Reus etc is the way to go. Bring in more tall players, set pieces should also be one of our strengths.