PL: Crystal Palace v Arsenal | Sat 21st Feb | 15:00

[The_Roadrunner]

Why did we change?

If you are talking about the lineup up itself the answer is clearly rotation. Wenger got a lot of stick several years ago for persisting in an unchanging starting lineup and overplaying players into exhaustion. Now that we are getting back to having some decent depth (at least in attacking positions) it certainly makes sense to rotate considering we have PL, CL, and FA games in next month.

 

[Jury]

Nah, not rotation either tbh. That doesn't even make sense when you consider nobody is actually being rotated! Caz has been on the go for ages for a start, as has Coq. This is the opposite of rotation.

What we've been doing lately is playing ALL our strikers (Welbeck and Giroud) and ALL our creative midfielders (Caz and Özil).

Rotation would have seen ONE of Özil or Caz play, and ONE of Welbeck or Giroud play as we, as you say, have depth to do that.

 

[Mitch]

Also don't understand criticism of Welbeck he won the penalty and it was a good run for the second and his shot was rebounded into the net. Granted I haven't seen the whole match but he has in recent games been heavily involved in our goals. Not sure what else is expected of him other than him putting the ball into the net himself.

I agree, Welbeck had a good game in my opinion.

 

[Rex Stone]

I thought Welbz did really well actually, had good hustle as always. Must admit I had to laugh when he fell over after he shot for the second goal. Was imagining Jury going mental at his tv.

 

[a_fourteen]

You don't rotate players when they are on fire. Taking Cazorla off right now is stupid specially when every game is equally important.

 

[The_Roadrunner]

Nah, not rotation either tbh. That doesn't even make sense when you consider nobody is actually being rotated! Caz has been on the go for ages for a start, as has Coq. This is the opposite of rotation.

What we've been doing lately is playing ALL our strikers (Welbeck and Giroud) and ALL our creative midfielders (Caz and Özil).

Rotation would have seen ONE of Özil or Caz play, and ONE of Welbeck or Giroud play as we, as you say, have depth to do that.

Thats the way *you* would do rotation.

As we all know Wenger doesn't rotate based on what we think is logical.

 

[onetowatch]

It's clear we are changing our style of play over the last couple of years. The counter attacking potential in this side is scary and it's not long before we see us devastate teams consistently. Had Alexis taken that chance, it would've been up there as one of the best counter attacks in the PL all season.

 

[onetowatch]

As for rotating, we're approaching the business end of the season. You want your best players on the pitch, especially when they've been out injured so long and are already rested.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

Not sure what those stats show, they are a select few games over a number of years. For me, Wenger will always prioritise possession. In the odd game we may surrender it and utilise our counter attacking potential, but in the main we'll always look to have the majority of possession.

Arsène's selection shows this, he's tried to get Özil and Santi both in the team whenever they've been fit. I think if we were truly dedicated to a more counter-attacking style we'd start Walcott and Sanchez every game, which we've not done often, perhaps once?

Interesting Swansea pop up twice in that list, their possession is between their centre backs, Ki and Shelvey, a lot of pointless possession really.

 

[onetowatch]

The stats show that 6 out of the 8 lowest possession matches that we have played since the start of the Invincibles season have happened in the last couple of years. That's not coincidence IMO.

It'd be interesting to see the number of matches expanded to see if the trend continues and I'm pretty sure it will. We are no longer the pure possession side we were during the Cesc era. That's clear just by watching our games.

We can still dominate games by keeping the ball 65% of the time but we are more willing to concede possession. Palace, Sp**s we had less than 50% too.

 

[Jury]

Nah, not rotation either tbh. That doesn't even make sense when you consider nobody is actually being rotated! Caz has been on the go for ages for a start, as has Coq. This is the opposite of rotation.

What we've been doing lately is playing ALL our strikers (Welbeck and Giroud) and ALL our creative midfielders (Caz and Özil).

Rotation would have seen ONE of Özil or Caz play, and ONE of Welbeck or Giroud play as we, as you say, have depth to do that.

Thats the way *you* would do rotation.

As we all know Wenger doesn't rotate based on what we think is logical.

No, that IS rotation. You're just making stuff up now. Wengers illogical rotation now, is it?

You have no evidence to suggest Wengers lineup against Palace was him 'rotating'. None at all. Whereas Ive given strong evidence to the contrary. Im done here anyway. Im reading madness tbh.