Arsenal vs. Ludogorets on Wednesday at 745 PM: Page 15 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Arsenal vs. Ludogorets on Wednesday at 745 PM

Rex

In fairness, we spanked Chelsea with those two bossing it.

Rohit

Yeah, think it was more Koscielny and Mustafi in the first half with errors in judgement and misreading the game than Cazorla or Coquelin leaving holes.

Bold Tone

They clearly targeted our LB slot as our weak point in a difficult first half.
I was glad Gibbs played as i worry about Monreal facing pacy players.
Even then we were uncomfortable as Kos was being forced out from the centre leading to more errors than normal.
After we adjusted Coquelin to a more defensive role on that side of the pitch, Kos was able to remain central and they became toothless.

Clrnc

Impressive how many strong linkups Ozil had with the entire team.

Qwiss

Gazza M wrote:
Qwiss! wrote:
Obviously when you win 6-0 those details get lost in the celebrations but it looked pretty dodgy defensively for a while in the first half. Massive gap in between the defence and the midfield.

i think it comes back to the coq-santi pairing needing someone with an engine to tuck in from the flank and make a 3, like ramsey has done in the recent past. when playing a strong opponent, it would very risky playing santi-coq with 3 attack minded players in front of them

I just think Coq needs to sit a bit deeper when he's playing with Santi. His all action ball winning style leaves us a bit exposed if he's caught out of position. Xhaka sat much deeper and while his performances weren't as good as Coqs individually pretty much nothing came straight through our middle when he was in there. Coq just needs to play where Xhaka was playing and we'd be impenetrable.

goon

A lot of our best attacks come from Coq winning the ball high up the pitch though. It's give and take.

Qwiss

A better team than Ludogrets will punish is if we let them play in that area though. Its zone 14 ffs.

MistaT

In the past we've seen Coquelin, and Arteta for that matter, favor defending the left flank as the right flank was less porous with Sagna and then Ramsey/Bellerin. Bellerin and Walcott have been able to form quite the defensive understanding and so I would like to see Coquelin resume that shift (with Santi more central/right sided) as having him ahead of Kos means that side is very well protected.

Seemed against Ludo that Coquelin had that going in the second half (when he pulled off a lot of his nice interceptions/dribbling) but in the first he was a little more scattered. I would like to think that was addressed at half, or that Coquelin has the wherewithal to understand why protecting that side is important.

Bold Tone

It seems clear Wenger has made a tactical transition of Coquelin's game by pushing him high up the pitch.
Wenger’s started using him as the more advanced of the 2 mids last season as opposed to the rigid DM role he won a lot of plaudits playing in the 14/15 season.
He has had to adapt his game with fewer interceptions and tackles to the more intelligent pressing (cutting out passing lanes) and tracking runners with the added benefit of less risk of a yellow/red card which, overall, benefits the team more.

MistaT

What I like about that shift / tactic is that Coquelin can provide value when we're controlling a game by winning the ball up field, but if the game turns sour he is a great shield closer to our goal. I think Wenger is recognizing that our team (players) needs to function in both manners and that may be why Ramsey will struggle to get back into our starting XI. Think Ramsey is great in games where we're on the front foot but his all action style and loose touch, plus in my opinion his defensive game, are often found out in games where we aren't controlling the gameflow.

est

Bold Tone wrote:
He has had to adapt his game with fewer interceptions and tackles to the more intelligent pressing (cutting out passing lanes) and tracking runners with the added benefit of less risk of a yellow/red card which, overall, benefits the team more.

Think this has more to do with the good work our coaching staff has done on his tackling, rather than a difference in position. Doesn't throw himself into tackles nearly as much as he used to. We've Arteta-ed his tackling technique, so to say.

I reckon Wenger has the same in mind for Xhaka.

Bold Tone

MistaT wrote:
What I like about that shift / tactic is that Coquelin can provide value when we're controlling a game by winning the ball up field, but if the game turns sour he is a great shield closer to our goal. I think Wenger is recognizing that our team (players) needs to function in both manners ...

Yup.
Perfect example was in this game when he was able to counter Ludo's attempt to overload our LB slot.
They are small fry but the same principle should work against the big boys as we had no answer when barca/bayern overpowered our midfield a few years back with Wilshere the only one of our CM players to come out with distinction.

Bold Tone

est wrote:
Bold Tone wrote:
He has had to adapt his game with fewer interceptions and tackles to the more intelligent pressing (cutting out passing lanes) and tracking runners with the added benefit of less risk of a yellow/red card which, overall, benefits the team more.

Think this has more to do with the good work our coaching staff has done on his tackling, rather than a difference in position. Doesn't throw himself into tackles nearly as much as he used to. We've Arteta-ed his tackling technique, so to say.

I reckon Wenger has the same in mind for Xhaka.

Although he can tackle, i don't think Xhaka has the pace/dynamism to catch up to pacy players as shown by his recent red card.
I would prefer to see him play the role more like Xabi Alonso.

est

Sorry for not being clear enough. I meant that we're trying to improve Xhaka's tackling rather than move him higher up the pitch.

Bold Tone

My bad, i misunderstood.
I think that he, more than any of our current first team, is best equipped to take over Santi's current role.
His physicality would be the trade off to Santi's quick feet so we should be fine even without him tackling a lot.
That's why i introduced the Alonso comparison.

Cannon

Where is today's match thread.?

« Previous Page