Where is our possession ?

There are some changes in our play this season.. I am no expert in this.. Most of us thought it had made the team better.. But in the past we had a definite gamestyle and players suited to the system.. I cant understand the roles of many players in the current system.. I still believe we thrive on possession and midfield..

Stats may say that we have the two best midfielders in the league in Arteta and Cazorla.. But i feel we have always struggled to create enough chances or goals.. Forget goals scored against Southampton and Coventry with terrible defence.. Most of our goals came from counterattacks.. and whatever few chances we create get wasted by poor finishing of Giroud and Gervinho..

The midfield before this season..
they were technically very good.. good passers.. better dribblers.. had better creativity combined.. holds possession under pressure.. and does not give away the ball easily.. cant remember any teams dominating the midfield against us except Barcelona..

Now..
technically weaker.. cant hold possession against pressure.. how many times we see us passing the ball back to the goalkeeper... entirely dependent on Cazorla to create a chance.. have never seen us doing this in the past.. neither we create many chances against teams parking the bus like Sunderland, Stoke, etc.. nor we can hold possession even against lower teams who apply slightest of pressure like against West Ham, Norwich.. and even at Anfield they had more possession..
we are not able to play through the centre and are forced to play through the wings which was never our strength..

and too many players upfront who dont fit in our possession style of football and who dont have definite roles..
Podolski on the left.. He is uninfluential majority of the matches.. He tracks backs and helps defenders.. But there is less need of this if we dont give away possession easily..
Gervinho on right.. i too have given up on him.. too headless.. spoils all the buildup play and hardwork..
Ramsey.. what is he..? he is no good as true DM or AM.. and we expect him to play him as CM in a fluid formation where he has to do both wisely..
Ox is also not ready as a CM.. Coquelin also not enough to play b2b..
All these players cant keep possession, play a good pass or create a chance..
And we thought we wont miss Song much..? Wrong.. Eventhough with his defensive lapses he was a physical presence in midfield.. Something Arteta and Cazorla cant offer.. all our midfielders are too small and weak.. also no one strong enough to win back the ball in midfield.. the only answer is diaby who plays 5 matches a season...

I am not sure whether i am successful in conveying my thoughts.. I feel we are trying to play away from our strengths.. not sure this counterattacking stuff will work.. and i prefer the old beautiful Arsenal who dominated all the teams, created tons of chances, even though we end up conceding in the last 10 minutes to drop points..

Just need to have Jack and Diaby fit and firing then we will be alright in the future, Ramsey is not a an attacking mid or deep lying player maker. He is an all rounded midfielder with decent passing and an eye for goal. He just doesn't have the ability to be an attacking midfielder or a deep lying playmaker but that doesn't mean he can't become a good player for us in the future.

Arteta is great at doing what he does and Cazorla is a brilliant little playmaker, but what about the third guy in there? That third midfielder is supposed to be a box-to-box type player who has enough energy to cover the ground and aid the defence but also be a driving force going forward, providing a little extra penetration. It's a demanding role.

There are two, maybe three, players at the moment that I think can do it: Diaby, Wilshere and possibly Rosicky. The team that was so good with the ball a couple of years ago either had Wilshere and Diaby in midfield alongside a deep-lying player (Song) and a playmaker (Cesc).

Last year, we had a variation of this set-up with Arteta as the deeper player and Song performing the other role - say what you want about his defensive ability, he was vital unlocking defences with his vision.

Ramsey works incredibly hard and has good skill, but he's lacking in the other departments. He's not great defensively and he dwells on the ball too much. He's not someone who drive forward with the ball, either.

I think things will improve when Wilshere or Diaby returns to the side.

Possession? Song and RVP took it with them, as they were never properly replaced. Coquelin is still far too raw, Ramsey seems to have regressed mentally and Diaby while good is still Diaby (always frakkign injured...). Giroud is not the same sort of player.

Arteta and Cazorla are perfect. I know once Wilshere comes back the midfield will look a thousand times better. I don't know if with Arteta as a pseudo DM, or if with Diaby, but he's the only other midfielder smart enough to rely on to recycle possession, while having the eye for a killer pass and the workrate necessary, apart from the already mentioned players.

The problem is not so much in midfield, IMO. It's all in the attack. RVP missing is a huge, huge problem. Apart from the idiots who think he was all goals, they are missing the massive part he played in build ups. He regularly dropped deep, distributed, worked hard, passed with both feet... your good ole trequartista. Giroud has still not adapted yet, and I can't fault him because it's a big job. He's not the same sort of player. Gervinho is all dribbling and pace, but 0 brains. Not good enough for the lone striker role. Walcott, you already know my thoughts on him playing centrally.

On to Godolski... he also still has not adapted, but give him time. It's understandable him coming from a different country and league. Koln weren't exactly known for their possession, but mostly park the bus and a very direct football. He has the skills and the brains, so it's only a matter of time before he clicks completely, IMO.

At least the fullbacks have progressed nicely and do help out in a very positive way. Can you imagine Djourou trying to recycle possession?

Basically it's all down to RVP missing and the frontline not clicking, plus the missing midfielder. All fixable, but very worrying nonetheless... This team still needs further investment, because apart from Wilshere there are no standout youngsters in the Fabregas or RVP mold.

I don't really mind not having that much of possession. What worries me is lack of chances created per game. It's ridiculously bad.

Our midfield last season:

This midfield created much more chances per game that the one we actually have. Probably worse on paper but still. At the moment only Cazorla and ironically Giroud are creating chances for the team.

I have to disagree about us not having as much midfield creativity now. We've scored a lot of goals this season, played many games that we dominated, and we are missing players atm. We also keep having to mix-and-match our midfield players, which surely won't continue for the whole season. I think it is naive to look back on previous seasons and act like we used to be better at making chances - I can still remember vividly pulling my hair out in several games where we just passed the ball around and couldn't break down the opposition at all, even in the days when we had Cex. Every team has off-days, even if Norwich was an exceptional off-day.

Perhaps not having a striker that is as creative with the ball as the midfielders is making adapting hard, but I'm not concerned. We just need the players to figure each other out. Also, I have to disagree with the thought of going all-out at the expense of defence being the better way to go. We aren't a counterattacking team at this point anyway, and our defence has been the primary reason for our lack of success in recent years, so the current formula is an improvement IMO.

Eman wrote:I have to disagree about us not having as much midfield creativity now. We've scored a lot of goals this season, played many games that we dominated, and we are missing players atm. We also keep having to mix-and-match our midfield players, which surely won't continue for the whole season. I think it is naive to look back on previous seasons and act like we used to be better at making chances - I can still remember vividly pulling my hair out in several games where we just passed the ball around and couldn't break down the opposition at all, even in the days when we had Cex. Every team has off-days, even if Norwich was an exceptional off-day.

Did we really dominate these matches? With dominate I mean create a lot of clear cut chances. Aside from Southampton who arguably have the worst defence in the league and West Ham 2nd half, we struggled to create and relied more on individual quality in every other game. Podolski doesn't create, Gervinho and Ramsey don't aswell, that leaves us with Giroud and Cazorla.

Besides I don't really remember last season having problems to score most of the time, even if we didn't score it was more due to lack of finishing than creating chances and passing the ball around.

This will obviously improve when Jack is finally back but I'm fearing that more injuries will come soon and it'll become worse.

Many say that this season we say we play more as a team.. may be.. But we depend entirely on Cazorla to create chances.. When he has an off day, the team goes down..
Past Cesc used to be the creator.. But there was significant contributions from Cashri, Song, Rosicky, Benayoun and RIP.. Good understanding and interlink play.. They dont give away the ball easily in the final third.. These days the buildup play ends in the hands of Gervinho or Giroud or Ramsey trying his skills..
Midfield does not look good enough even after having two top quality midfielders in Cazorla and Arteta.. Whenever we talk of Arsenals midfield we talk about 5 not 3.. So the problem is not limited to the third cm ie Ramsey.. Includes both the wide players and also the lone striker who takes active part in the gameplay.. None of the players other than the two mentioned are contributing..
Hopefully the situation will be better when Rosicky and Wilshere returns..(and i am reluctant to believe that Diaby will return and play a whole season like RVP..)..
If this was the situation we should have kept Benayoun for one more season..

Possession isn't the problem. We have out possessed all of our opponents so far this season. And we stand 4th in Europe according to the stats

However the problem is not making the possession count. You don't get points for keeping the ball, you get points for winning the game and out scoring teams.

Against Norwich, They were actually happy to let us have the ball. They were far more safe with US having the ball rather then THEM having it because if they had it, they would have lost it and we would have countered and create opportunities.

What we need is to be quick with our passing, be more threatening in the final 3rd. Constant pass and move and clever little passes which we are known for but have lacked in few games this season. I am sure With Wilshere coming back this will be solved in some way or another but the problem is when he isn't there or when cazorla/arteta aren't there.

Podolski Giroud Walcott
Rosicky Cazorla Artetta
Gibs TV Per Jenkison

I would actually like to see this lineup get a run of games. I think that it is the beast that Arsenal could actually field right now. Not silverware winning, but the best to stay in the top 4. There are many here that would have Wilshere as a starter but at Arsenal we do not have much luck with people returning from long term injuries and being able to regain there form. I would also like to not see Gervinho and Ramsey on the pitch at the same time. Not only for the issues that have been mentioned above. I also think that the two of them roam the field too much following the ball and creating issues with our spacing cutting down on our passing lanes and creating areas of even more compacted defense.

RealGunner wrote:Possession isn't the problem. We have out possessed all of our opponents so far this season. And we stand 4th in Europe according to the stats

However the problem is not making the possession count. You don't get points for keeping the ball, you get points for winning the game and out scoring teams.

Against Norwich, They were actually happy to let us have the ball. They were far more safe with US having the ball rather then THEM having it because if they had it, they would have lost it and we would have countered and create opportunities.

What we need is to be quick with our passing, be more threatening in the final 3rd. Constant pass and move and clever little passes which we are known for but have lacked in few games this season. I am sure With Wilshere coming back this will be solved in some way or another but the problem is when he isn't there or when cazorla/arteta aren't there.

thats the problem.. none of these guys other than Cazorla and Arteta can pass or hold the ball under pressure.. if they cant play a brilliant pass, they should atleast keep things simple and avoid giving away the ball.. once the opposition crowds the central area and marks Cazorla we have no clue what to do.. we dont have the brilliance to play through the centre and ends up giving the ball to Gervinho or Gibbs in the wings and then nothing happens.. and how often we have seen us passing the ball from the right wing back to the gk.. too much..

Calling a potential midfield of Arteta Wilshere & Cazorla "technically weaker" seems to be both incorrect and harsh.

Whilst TransferMarkt.com say that Arsenal are the Premier League's top possession side so far this season ( http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/premier-league/ballbesitz/wettbewerb_GB1.html ) with 58.5%.