Who should start on the right?

lenear1030 wrote:with the setup i proposed podolski wasn't up front. he was on the left. i think he'd work there because from what ive seen he's been willing to track back and defend a bit.


for our fullbacks not producing going forward, you must have forgotten about santos. the formation would really benefit his game. but if he plays podolski wont be on the left anymore.


of course this is just hypothetical, and wenger would never do it to start a match

Tracking back from an advanced position and helping a fullback defend is something I'd expect most players who play wide to be able to do. If you can do it, great, but it doesn't mean that they can play as a wingbacks.

Podolski has played as a forward all his career. I very much doubt he has the ability to be position himself correctly, to tackle, to mark players and just about every other defensive duty a wingback must carry out. I doubt he even has the desire to play that sort of role.

Also, be it wingback or fullback, I wouldn't start Santos over Gibbs. It's probably not saying much, but Gibbs is just a better defender and is more athletic.

The current system is fine. I don't see a need to change it.

I personally would like to see Ramsey start on the right. He doesn't have the pace, but like you guys said, he'll give us workrate and smart runs in the advanced area. Also with him in the lineup, it'll give us total control of possession..he can easily tuck into the central area, and free up even more room for Cazorla . I thought he was very effective on the right against City and it resulted in a extremely impressive 1st half performance away from home.

I feel Theo is just too much of a hit and miss player, and when he misses, he can be invisible for the whole game. He's a much better super sub anyways...he rarely disappoints when he comes off the bench.

Ox for me is too tactically casual. He can track back well enough, but his positioning is very suspect and it leaves as open to counters. His decision making is also questionable and his poor performances have been covered up by poorer team performances

It's not as easy to decide as it seems.

First of all, Balance is the most important aspect in our new-ish tactics. I am not sure if Wenger is keen on starting A heavy attacker in Oxlade or Walcott at RW in big games. He prefers a Utility/Play Maker on the wings for such events, like last year Benayoun or Rosicky. This year Ramsey.

I am not against Ramsey starting on the wings. He has given us some good performances, however he can be limited in there as well as he obviously isn't a wide forward or a winger and hence will drift inside. This is why i would prefer Walcott on the right as i have always been a fan of him. But if he isn't interested in signing a contract, then i guess or choice is limited to Gervinho and Oxlade. Gervinho on the wings is good but better as a CF. Oxlade still needs to improve his game.

Therefore i would say that we shouldn't have a permanent player on the right wing. Or front 3 as a whole. I mean Gervinho has excelled in a False 9 role this season, while Giroud is picking up form too. So as long as we keep changing the players suited to the different tactics, we shouldn't have much problem.

Jack Wilshere

@RG All that shifting and rotation might not be good for the team.

I think we need a stable and consistant starting 3 upfront. With simple rotation every now and then.

I think what RG meant was that with hot/cold players like Walcott and Gervinho in our team, we'll never see a consistent front 3. We need to adjust to our opponent and set up our team accordingly.

That's my opinion of course.

Who knows, maybe we'll look back at how foolish we were to exclude Gervinho from our starting 11 at the start of last season.

Can we play a dynamic 4 4 2 like how we use to up untill 2007? We did not exactly have traditional wingers then Pires and Ljungberg).

I think there have been few proposals regarding one of Wilshere, Or Ramsey Playing on the right side. I can see the Front 6 looking like this.

---------------Giroud
---------Gervinho
--------------------------Wilshere
Podolski
---------Cazorla-----Arteta


---------------Henry
---------Bergkamp
--------------------------Ljungberg
Pires
---------Vieira
------------------Gilberto

Cazorla and Arteta would not do very well as a partnership. It relies far too much on Arteta doing all the defensive work, since Cazorla, as tenacious as he may be, isn't very aware defensively. I know these two are often the standouts in our midfield trio, but you can't underestimate the influence of having someone like Diaby and, eventually, Wilshere in a midfield with those two. It just gives it that extra balance.

Moreover, there's no point in playing Cazorla deeper from his current position. Cazorla is thriving in his current role and can do so because he has the protection of two midfielders behind him.

I have reservations about Wilshere anywhere other than the middle of the pitch. He needs to be in a position to get on the ball as often as he can and to influence the game and playing on the right flank limits his ability to do that; likewise with Cazorla.

Given our current set of players, it has to be a three in midfield. Unfortunately it means certain players he may want to play centrally or who are better centrally will have to play on the flank.

I want to say Walcott...seeing as I like him and I believe that his qualities can be harnessed.

But he needs direction...his job should be to do one thing and one thing only. get behind defenses and score goals or make the most simple passes.

And you can't do that when you're playing as far away from the goal as I've seen him play this season in his short late game cameos. Goonerjay explained it adequately...but that doesn't changed what it is.

So I'd say Gervinhio at least when Giroud is playing.

This is a tricky question to answer since the problem extends beyond just the personnel. Arsenal's attack in recent years tends to rely on one flank and neglect the other. Last season we had Walcott consistently starting on the right and scored several goals down that side, but used four different players on the left and could never settle on one.

This season it's the reverse. We had Podolski on the left and are creating the majority of our chances from that side, but have already used four players on the right flank.

I'm not entirely sure why there's such an imbalance in our attack but it is there.

I think that if we were to look at stats per minute played. Theo's would be the best on the team. I think that our best 3 up from are Podolski Giroud and Theo and I would like to see that group get a run of games.
Theo is a tuf one though, as I see it we should be playing him as much as possible. If he plays and scores it will drive his value up during the winter break and hopefully start a biding war for his services. Or we will decide that he is worth keeping around and get a contract he will sign. If we don't play him I would imagine that the interest in him will be less and any offers we receive will be from teams he really has no interest in playing for so he will not want to come to terms with them. Now I could be wrong but if he is not sold in the winter window I think that he will then be free to start to negotiate a pre-contract with anyone. Since we run as a business the thought of loosing an asset for free is a bad idea.
If he was not going to be given a contract he would sign he should have been sold in the summer. I just don't think that not giving him playing time is really doing anything good either from a business point of view. Or from Theo's point of being convinced that he should stay. I also would not think that showing the world that we will not pay top wages for a top player and that we can be vindictive is not a good recruiting tool.

Can we use Rosicky on right wing?

I find him played very well when I use him in Fifa

Rosicky could be left isolated on the right wing imho. While his workrate is great, his stamina and pace aren't what they used to be. Think he should be Santi's understudy so to speak.

Although his crossing and passing could be exploited to the max with Giroud upfront.

Rosicky simply doesn't have the legs to play on the wing anymore. Just contrast his performances on the left last season to his performances in the centre. Like night and day.

At this point I'm all up for just buying a new player.

Ryo unused sub?
cant we recall him and send him somewhere else
he is not as close to that level i wanted him to be

exactly

we can give ryo more minutes

Would like Antonio Valencia on our right in an ideal world. But will never happen.

Navas is class, but will never leave (homesick reasons).

Watching Gervinho on the Wing is just depressing

After all we have seen..
Lets give Arshavin a few chances..

After 30 minutes of Arshavin starting a game, this place will meltdown asking why we have him still on our wage bill.

A few injuries and one loss has brought a forgotten player into the fans' starting XI.

srigooner wrote:
After 30 minutes of Arshavin starting a game, this place will meltdown asking why we have him still on our wage bill.

A few injuries and one loss has brought a forgotten player into the fans' starting XI.

lets give it a try as we have few options.. atleast he can put some dcent crosses for Giroud..
Wlacott and Ox are injured..
Do you want to see more of Gervinho ? These days i cant enjoy watching an Arsenal match even if we win or lose because of him.. too irritating.. and i have given up on him improving his brains..

I wouldn't be surprised if every player on that list actually ended up playing on the right this season. We've already used Gervinho, Walcott, Chamberlain, Ramsey and Gnabry, to a certain extent. May as well use the others as well just to make a complete set.

Should try Coquelin there as well

I'd quite like to see a Sagna/Jenkinson duo on that side one day.

GoonerJay29 wrote:I'd quite like to see a Sagna/Jenkinson duo on that side one day.

reminds me of the days Eboue played as a winger for us. In fact Wenger played Eboue and Denilson as central midfield pairing once

GoonerJay29 wrote:I'd quite like to see a Sagna/Jenkinson duo on that side one day.

Them precise crosses