PL: Arsenal v Fulham | January 1, 2019 15:00 GMT

[HBL]

he has a point.
We are playing five at the back against Fullham at home.

We have four senior attacking players available, one of those is Ramsey. Not exactly a shock.

 

[OnlyOne]

Might win now Torreira is benched.

 

[HBL]

Either Özil is being frozen out by the manager, or he has actually had all of these reported minor injuries. Almost doesn't actually matter which one is the truth, in both cases we're not getting value for money.

He would've played against Fulham at home if he was fit.

 

[2Smokeyy]

how much of a crisis can potencially erupt if we lose this game?

No crisis. Remember “Emery hasn’t brought in his players”.

 

[MaraDon]

It might seem annoying but when you think about it, there's not many other options unless you want to throw Saka in there. If Özil was still interested in playing for Arsenal we could've played 4-2-3-1 but outside of that, Emery's hands are tied due to injuries and the imbalanced squad he inherited.

Plus our 3 center backs can all use valuable game time, I agree with you.
Still it looks weird and it speaks volumes about our sheet administration this season.

 

[MutableEarth]

It might seem annoying but when you think about it, there's not many other options unless you want to throw Saka in there. If Özil was still interested in playing for Arsenal we could've played 4-2-3-1 but outside of that, Emery's hands are tied due to injuries and the imbalanced squad he inherited.

He should just play Saka then. Why have him in the squad just to be fodder? Is his name Elneny?

 

[celestis]

Haha that showed me. I'm seeing things in my rage.

Glad Maitland is playing , be good to see him develop .

 

[OnlyOne]

Hope Iwobi has sorted out his touch this year.

 

[A_G]

He should just play Saka then. Why have him in the squad just to be fodder? Is his name Elneny?

It's really a shame that Smith-Rowe is injured, Emery has name dropped him several times this season and I think he'd be getting serious PL minutes if he was available.

 

[Arsenal1508]

Glad Maitland is playing , be good to see him develop .

He has goals in his locker. Shame his first goal came in a 5-1 defeat.
But, hopefully he will look to shoot more.

 

[Ceballinhos]

Emery is playing 3 at the back to allow the wingback to be more offensive and bring some width.

We have also played 3 at the back when we've score 4 goals to Tottenham btw.

 

[nas7232]

Laca and auba with xhaka in mid field and some crosses from klosanic... i see alot of goals today. Decent line up with what we have tbh

 

[progman07]

Guendouzi is mos def not a DM
Xhaka is critiqued for not being one by most here.. Kola to is critiqued for being not so great defensivly (i disagree but that is another debate...)

So 352 or whatever with 3 at the back is not inherently defensive!

Kolasinac has definitely shown his capabilities in attacking, but I don't see a change in his game when we are playing 4 at the back compared to when we play 5. Xhaka-Guendouzi, I agree that they are not defensive midfielders per definition, but they are not exactly attacking-minded either. Two holding midfielders who are good at the same things - circulating the ball and playing an occasional through ball.

It just feels like we could play 4-2-3-1 if Ramsey wasn't out of favour, such as:

Laca
Auba Ramsey Iwobi
Xhaka Guendouzi
--Defense--

But it defenitely shows as well that our squad is terribly short, we cannot replace Özil-Ramsey-Welbeck with any decent backups, so instead we play with more defenders.

 

[OnlyOne]

Cannot wait to watch Mustafi's through balls go out for goal kicks.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Kolasinac and AMN are both far better going forward than defensively, same with Guendouzi, while we're playing both our strikers with Iwobi in their too. It's hardly that negative.

 

[Mohamed7]

I hate to be Micheal Owen but we cannot afford to drop points

 

[razörist]

Glad Maitland is playing , be good to see him develop .

Mmmm hate to say it but he will never fully develop playing left back, right back, CM and right wing. Needs a run of games in the same position.

 

[HBL]

Mmmm hate to say it but he will never fully develop playing left back, right back, CM and right wing. Needs a run of games in the same position.

Kimmich and Roberto disagree

 

[Tourbillion]

Is Kolasinac the only tactic Emery has for us this season?

 

[Notorious Big]

I hate to be Micheal Owen but we cannot afford to drop points

If we don't win we won't get 3 points ?