After a disappointing draw today against Swansea this leads to Arsenal’s fixture congestion being worsened and more reliance needed on Arsenal’s squad in the up and coming weeks, the question is do Arsenal have a strong enough squad to survive these challenges?
Arsenal’s fixtures in the up and coming weeks are
Sun 13th Jan Home-Manchester City- League
Wed 16th Jan Home- Swansea City- FA Cup
Sun 20th Jan Away- Chelsea – League
Sat 26th Jan Away- Brighton -FA Cup *DEPENDENT ON ARSENAL BEATING SWANSEA*
Wed 30th Jan Home- Liverpool – League
Sat 02nd Feb- Home- Stoke – League
6 games in 3 weeks and none of them easy, with 2 ties to top 3 clubs, potentially 2 FA Cup games and tricky ties versus Liverpool and Stoke.
There is no question that the same 11 can play every game, with the pace and intensity of the modern game they can’t. Arsenal’s first 11 is enough to win most of the games but can our squad players come in and make the difference when asked.
Our first team is very strong with our usual line-up something of the likes:
Szczesny, Sagna, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere, Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud, Walcott
If we look at each position and who could come in and if they could do a job we soon see we are lacking depth.
Goalkeeper- With Fabianski seemingly perpetually “injured” all the time our number two is Mannone. He has been shown to be slightly out of his depth this season with performances ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous throughout the season. As we don’t need to rotate the keeper we could survive till the end of season with Mannone as number two but an injury to Wojiech could be detrimental.
Defence- Right-Back is one posistion we have solid cover with Jenkinson putting in some superb performances earlier this season and with Sagna’s recent form many have been calling for him to get a second opportunity.
At left-back Santos was shown to be inadequate earlier in the season and was dropped for Vermaelen. Vermaelen can’t cover at left-back always as will be needed in the centre so this is an area that needs addressing.
At centre-back with Djourou leaving on loan we have 3 good CB in Kos,Vermaelen and Mertesacker and we can rotate the partnerships depending on who we play. However I would prefer to have another strong CB as if one player gets injured as arseblog says were then only another suspension/injury away from Squillaci/Miquel.
Answer: Arsenal’s interest in Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa seems ideal as he can play anywhere across the back four and even defensive midfield, long term we probably need to shift on Santos and get another young left-back maybe Luke Shaw as understudy to Gibbs whos form can be erratic and is injury prone.
Midfield
In the centre of the park we have Arteta and Wilshere playing the deep roles with Coquelin and Diaby(if fit) in reserve. Wenger doesn’t seem to trust Coquelin too much as Arteta has been over-played and this is a worry. Last season we only won 1 game, our last of the season, with Arteta injured. He must be near the limit having played almost every game this season. We can’t rely on Diaby fitness too much, Diaby is great when fit but not reliable to be fit. We could do with another body in the centre of the park.
Attacking midfield we look set with Rosicky’s return to fitness meaning he can rotate with Cazorla and Ramsey could fill in if needs be
Answer: Another body who could play in the deeper roles or attacking would be ideal I’m talking a Fellaini or Cabaye. If not one of those a defensive midfielder who is strong and with a bit more pace then Arteta.
Wing
With Walcott potentially moving upfront this is tricky to analyse. Today he was suppose to be a RWF but often drifted centrally and we were lucky Swansea didn’t attack more down the flank. If Walcott is now a striker we are short as have Podolski and Chamberlain and then Rosicky could fill in if needs be. Wenger sees something in Ramsey as a winger but in reality he isn’t. I doubt Wenger would but if we called back Miyiachi he would be useful for the last 6 months of the season.
Answer: If walcott is to move central we could do with another body outwide, whether this be Lopez/Villa who can also play upfront who knows.
Striker
Again tricky to call as Walcott is finishing his transition to striker but we have one big hold up player in Giroud and a small nippy striker who looks to get behind in Walcott. Ideally we need another striker even if Walcott does move central, teams have to score to win matches so you need plenty of players who can do that in your squad as if one is one form and another injured we are left with no-one at the moment. Podolski can fill in if needed but were already short outwide.
Answer: Again Lopez/Villa would be ideal.
Overall: A couple of injuries to key players in positions with little cover such as Winger,Striker, CB, LB or DM could see Arsenal stretched. It would be good as I mentioned to sign versatile players who can plug gaps well. Otherwise I think we will either end up playing same 11 most games and drop points due to them performing below expected as tired or be caught out when key players get injured like when Santos filled in against Schalke. As ever like to hear your viewpoint, for more Arsenal news follow me @ArsenalMez
wise ideas but the stumbling block is arsene wenger,you could see when others have arleady bought players,he is only thinking about profits,about getting someone for 500 000pounds,he has run berseck,we need a new manager to train players not to audit finances,
yeah I do find it worrying that most players we have linked to are either definitely not moving or have joined another club.
Llorente- Won’t be off till summer supposedly
Huntelaar- Signed a new contract
Ba- Chelsea
Falcao- Won’t be off till summer
Zaha- Looks as joining tottenham now but i didn’t think we needed another talented youngster.
Villa- Barcelona have apparently blocked move unless its permanent and £16 mil which a) he isn’t worth b) we wouldn’t stump up
Lopez is looking a bit more likely now but only due to other players being unavailable. I’m sure Lopez may be a good player but rather we made a stellar big name signing. Though Wenger shipping out Djourou in my mind increases as getting Yanga-Mbiwa which I think would be great due to his versatility.
Depth we do not have the starters never mind depth. I say the day way back in 2006 that Arsenal lost the CL final and failed in all cup competitions and league should have been Wenger’s Last season at Arsenal NOT Henry’s. We should have moved heaven and hell to secure a deal to keep Henry (as well as a few other’s) and replaced Wenger. But that would have meant having Club management that accepted NOTHING but league titles and Winning the CL as success instead of finishing second best and top 4. Let’s not forget Wenger got his job only 3 years after his predecessor won a league cup double. So we have given him 7 years now since a trophy of any kind we even lost the damn Emirates cup to the New York Red bulls in 2011 for gods sake and it is our own Per-season tournament)
funny you only mention Arteta as being over played and not having cover for him never mind he should not even be playing in the holding role to begin with unless Welshire some how can become a box to box dominator in midfield (ala Gerrard in his prime) Now I know all you England fans are hoping and praying for him to become just that HE is NOT he is too small and just not good enough (at the moment anyway and I doubt just throwing him in to the deep end and say swim is going to improve him) He has been given the reins since his return from injury and he has not done the job he claims he is not 100% yet well if he has more potential (which is debatable) then he he damn sure better get to 100% because he is far from good enough at the moment. But Why should a team like Arsenal have to me struggling because players like Ramsey and Wilshere coming back from long term injuries (and Diaby who can’t seem to come back at all without a relapse) are simply not good enough. I have a different opinion on this I really feel a player that is really top class coming back from a injury assuming they are physically fit need nothing more then a few games in the reserves and a few weeks training with the squad to get back to form. If they can’t them there is really something wrong with how the team is training. I have heard it said before a player is not match fit that is rubbish if your really training hard you should expend as much effort everyday in training as you do in a match and if you have the talent and footballing brain you never loose that. I know 47 year olds that play with me on sundays that can pass better then some of Arsenal’s youngsters NO they could not cut it in the EPL for fitness or against the best in the world but the excuse that a player returning from a long term injury who has access to the best training facilities available and is still very young in comparison is not 100% and that is why he is missing passes and can’t make a tackle is bull shit. they just where not good enough to begin with.
As I have said before Arteta isn’t a DM and it would be useful for Arsenal to buy a DM.
Your comments on Wilshere seem farfetched. He has come back from injury and hadn’t played too much football, just one full season, before that. He has had good games and bad games but I think 95% of the football world would agree Wilshere is a star he is 21 year’s old but missed a season and a half due to football so has a lot of potential. I don’t think Ramsey has recaptured his form pre-injury and would agree maybe we don’t need him but you need to give Wilshere more time. He will show his quality, against West Brom he picked up the ball and carried it half the pitch beating 2 or 3 players how many Arsenal players can do that. Wilshere is our only player bar Diaby who can pick up the ball in the centre of the park and beat players with it.
Guner r d most club i don c.
Wat we fans dont know is dat wenger lack character and quality of a good coach.wenger has killed arsenal flow by changing d formation dat won arsenal many tropies at highbury stadium.Arsenal departin or droppin 4 4 2 formation has really messed arsenal competing wit manu,man city and chelsea.d problem is wenger trying to emulate barcas style of play.wenger needs to change d formation back to 4 4 2 formation.d ideal of playin cazorla behind d attacker is totally wrong becos he is a winger,he played on d wings at his previous clubs.wenger should play dis players at d position they played at there previous clubs,d way alex fergie do play his players.i believe playing players out of position is also wat is contributing to arsenal poor performance.let any arsenal fan should tell me which player alex fergie bought presently dat is playin out of position.
Sorry Wenger led the way with a formation change that most clubs in england now employ. If we were to play 4-4-2 who would play on the wings, the only two players who could play lm or rm are oxlade-chamberlain and rosicky. Walcott, Podolski, Gervinho and Cazorla do not track back enough nor do they have the defensive prowess to play there.
4-4-2 is an option but we would need some new personal, and I don’t know where Cazorla would play in a 4-4-2. 4-3-3 is a viable formation, I agree Wenger like Ferguson should change it up sometimes play 4-4-2 sometimes 4-3-3 so the opposistion doesn’t know how Arsenal will line up and can’t prepare for certain formations. In the past we use to switch between 4-5-1 and 4-4-2 regularly to great effect as stops opposition setting up for us.
Yes Cazorla use to play on the wing but his ideal role is behind the striker, Arteta is a very good player and thus he has been able to do a job at DM but I agree we need a proper DM.