EPL | Hull City v Arsenal | 17th of September at 15:00 (GMT)

[carlito'sway]

Wait a minute, I read on this very forum that Wenger was:

1. Clueless for playing Alexis as a striker and
2. "Doesn't do tactics".

Now I'm reading that he had a strategy all along and a good strategy at that.

Seriously thought, I thought we looked very good against Hull.

I've no special insights into how tactics work at the highest level but for me it was encouraging to see that Hull tried the sit-deep-against-Arsenal tactic and were still battered into submission.

True and some said much more. That is the brave new world we are living.
I can bet with you the most vocals before the game are not here now. Most of them have been silent since yesterday.

Anyway, I posted a series of tweets on Arsenal tactics in the aptly named tactics thread. They are very interesting and well thought. Check them out.

 

[law90026]

Good win but I wasn't really impressed tbh. Could be down to CL exertion but the performance felt flat for very large parts. Plus this Hull side is really **** and down to 10 men.

Sanchez as a striker really doesn't work. He's all over the place and we do not have a focal point upfront when he plays.

Walcott and Iwobi both had very strong games I thought, good to see.

Coq and Cazorla as a midfield isn't going to work, not with this current approach where Coq is going to press so high. A better team tears us to shreds I think.

The defence looked good though. Mustafi had a good game and the pairing with Kos looks like it's going to be really good.

 

[chessygoal]

Wait a minute, I read on this very forum that Wenger was:

1. Clueless for playing Alexis as a striker and
2. "Doesn't do tactics".

Now I'm reading that he had a strategy all along and a good strategy at that.

Seriously thought, I thought we looked very good against Hull.

I've no special insights into how tactics work at the highest level but for me it was encouraging to see that Hull tried the sit-deep-against-Arsenal tactic and were still battered into submission.

Hull didn't press in their final third, defended awfully on the flanks and didn't even try to play out of defence properly. Nothing to learn with such a game but hopefully it will boost our confidence.

 

[carlito'sway]

Hull didn't press in their final third, defended awfully on the flanks and didn't even try to play out of defence properly. Nothing to learn with such a game but hopefully it will boost our confidence.

Ha, got it. We won convincingly because Hull was really crap not because we played a very good game.

 

[logic DC]

after seeing how the likes of United, Liverpool struggle to get results away to these sides I now appreciate how we go on about our job against these lower clubs even when we are not playing our best football especially away, so efficient I like .

 

[ferrarif50hunt]

Good win but I wasn't really impressed tbh. Could be down to CL exertion but the performance felt flat for very large parts. Plus this Hull side is really **** and down to 10 men.

Sanchez as a striker really doesn't work. He's all over the place and we do not have a focal point upfront when he plays.

Walcott and Iwobi both had very strong games I thought, good to see.

Coq and Cazorla as a midfield isn't going to work, not with this current approach where Coq is going to press so high. A better team tears us to shreds I think.

The defence looked good though. Mustafi had a good game and the pairing with Kos looks like it's going to be really good.

Yeah we looked pretty poor for large parts of the match, the 1-4 scoreline definitely flattered us tbh. We definitely deserved to win but the score was not an accurate reflection of how well we played.

With the midfield, you're right, it doesn't work. Wenger clearly wants Cazorla to be the deepest of the two, and Coquelin to play a more box to box role. The problem with this, is that Cazorla is really not good enough off the ball to be the deepest midfielder, and Coquelin is almost useless going forward.

I'm hoping that Wenger will try Xhaka and Ramsey in those roles. Xhaka can play the deep lying role just as well as Cazorla, is more of a physical presence and better off the ball... whilst Ramsey can play the B2B role a lot more effectively than Coquelin.

 

[ferrarif50hunt]

Playing a false 9 is really not the best idea when you also have a number 10 playing behind him. Whenever Alexis drops back, he's occupying the same space as Özil and they just end up getting in each others way.

Same thing with the wingers. Alexis has a tendency to move out to his preferred left wing position, and Iwobi wasn't really moving inside to fill the space he vacated. So if you include Monreal pushing forward, we end up with 3 players on the left and no striker.

The whole thing just looks very disjointed and unbalanced.

 

[razörist]

Playing a false 9 is really not the best idea when you also have a number 10 playing behind him. Whenever Alexis drops back, he's occupying the same space as Özil and they just end up getting in each others way.

Same thing with the wingers. Alexis has a tendency to move out to his preferred left wing position, and Iwobi wasn't really moving inside to fill the space he vacated. So if you include Monreal pushing forward, we end up with 3 players on the left and no striker.

The whole thing just looks very disjointed and unbalanced.

I agree with everything you say. It looks like it's here to stay though so we should just give it time. I think Özil-Alexis will be fine, it just takes time to adapt I think. Alexis looks very hungry and I really don't like Giroud.. (sorry).

 

[Batman]

I had similar feeling during match, especially on second half. Although we were in solid lead at 2-0, we huffed and puffed by making way too many errors and wrong decisions on final third. Unfortunately despite having a man advantage, we were never ruthless enough to put the game beyond sight early on.

If we played with same rhythm as in second half at v. PSG, we could've win this by 6-7 goals.

I think you've both got it spot on. I remember in 2009 when the Yankees won the world series, it was the first year in quite some time that you fully expected them to win every game and you could tell that the team expected to win every game as well. Now this team is not loaded like the Yankees were that year or like the 2001-2005 teams were. Still, we very rarely play a complete match. Even when the results are good there's instances of being wasteful in front of goal or silly defensive lapses. When we were a real force those things just simply didn't happen. When we won comfortably it really was comfortable and the full time score usually reflected that. Oddly we've put together bits and pieces of the elements you need each of the last few seasons but just not together. A couple of years ago we got off to a great start and destroyed all of the teams we should have but got dismantled in the big matches. The next year we got off to a dreadful start and finished strong while cutting out the shocking results in big matches. Last season we were the best team in the league against the top 4 but dropped tons of points to absolute dreck. We need to put together complete matches which will lead to complete seasons which will lead to trophies.

 

[carlito'sway]

Playing a false 9 is really not the best idea when you also have a number 10 playing behind him. Whenever Alexis drops back, he's occupying the same space as Özil and they just end up getting in each others way.

Same thing with the wingers. Alexis has a tendency to move out to his preferred left wing position, and Iwobi wasn't really moving inside to fill the space he vacated. So if you include Monreal pushing forward, we end up with 3 players on the left and no striker.

The whole thing just looks very disjointed and unbalanced.

I don't know but that is not what I (and others) have seen. There was a deliberate strategy for the wingers (Theo & Alex) to tuck inside and take up the space between the Hull defense & MF while Bellerin, playing almost like a winger providing width. The positioning and passing network demonstrate the above as well as the players respective heat map.

This guy covered it at length in his twitter account.

 

[logic DC]

but shouldn't we play this new fella so he gets sharp, if we expect him to get goals for us?

 

[carlito'sway]

but shouldn't we play this new fella so he gets sharp, if we expect him to get goals for us?

They will have ample time to get minutes...Games are coming fast and furious. In the meantime, I also understand with a new partnership in the back, Arsène decided to go same in MF with a tried and tested pairing. Eventually, Xhaka will start as well and Perez too.

 

[Preacher]

Another insightful twitter account about Arsenal tactics to follow:
https://twitter.com/ArsenalColumn

 

[carlito'sway]

Another insightful twitter account about Arsenal tactics to follow:
https://twitter.com/ArsenalColumn

Indeed good one. He has the same understanding of the new tactics as well.

 

[redanddread]

Yeah we looked pretty poor for large parts of the match, the 1-4 scoreline definitely flattered us tbh. We definitely deserved to win but the score was not an accurate reflection of how well we played.

With the midfield, you're right, it doesn't work. Wenger clearly wants Cazorla to be the deepest of the two, and Coquelin to play a more box to box role. The problem with this, is that Cazorla is really not good enough off the ball to be the deepest midfielder, and Coquelin is almost useless going forward.

I'm hoping that Wenger will try Xhaka and Ramsey in those roles. Xhaka can play the deep lying role just as well as Cazorla, is more of a physical presence and better off the ball... whilst Ramsey can play the B2B role a lot more effectively than Coquelin.

Coquelin did start the move for the 1st goal (by winning it back high up the field - which is why he is playing there) and also won the penalty but hey, don't let that stop you...

Oh, and I think he had a very high passing accuracy also as well as all the defensive work he puts in.

 

[carlito'sway]

Coquelin did start the move for the 1st goal (by winning it back high up the field - which is why he is playing there) and also won the penalty but hey, don't let that stop you...

Oh, and I think he had a very high passing accuracy also as well as all the defensive work he puts in.

Funny part is arguments (the ones you are responding to) like that are so easily disproven by facts.....But hey, who cares about this pesky things called facts when we want to make our point.
Coq (and I am not his biggest fan) had a 98% passing....We have 24 shots and an xG of 2.8, so the score is totally logical and reflective of the game.

 

[yybecause]

I love how some people love to say other team played like **** and thats why we won... 90% of the time teams are playing **** because their opponents make them.
Hull did try, and they started well, but soon they realized its gonna be a long afternoon for them as we toyed with them. It tires up opponents, physically and mentally. Thats why they start missing passes and lose concentration.

 

[Doom]

True and some said much more. That is the brave new world we are living.
I can bet with you the most vocals before the game are not here now. Most of them have been silent since yesterday.

Anyway, I posted a series of tweets on Arsenal tactics in the aptly named tactics thread. They are very interesting and well thought. Check them out.

I read them thanks.

The new set-up looks interesting and dynamic which is very refreshing.