Looking at our squad

Twoism wrote:Feel like some gunners here will be disappointed yet again this summer , the more we build up, the more let down we will be I'm afraid.

The cynical me says it will be: 1 WC player, another Viviano (if he stays, we can cross this one off also), another Sanogo (maybe not even that as Joel will be back) & another Kim for the winter (after all the fans get sick of Arteta part 2)

And if that WC player turns out to be "Draxler" or  "Mandzukic"   although I don't mind both though, one is not enough

    

EL Patron wrote:

MJGunner wrote:Sturridge was Chelsea's "left overs"

Look how that turned out for Liverpool.

He wasn't   

They tried to keep him but they couldn't guarantee him first team football in his favourite position.

They tried to give him minutes and he didn't do enough to justify getting more. I'm sure Ba would perform much better if he played more, just as Sturridge would have.

Hint of Wenger staying ...

@Arsenal: Wenger: "Ozil had a jaded period but I will put him on the list to be Player of the Season next season" http://t.co/mGj14Wa8RV #HCFCvAFC


Im not against him staying but a change is much needed.

Doesn't really mean he meant he'd be still in charge. He just said that he thinks Özil will be one of the players of the season next season.

GoonerJay29 wrote:Giroud now has 20 goals despite playing most of the season without Walcott and Ramsey to provide chances for him.

Really don't see the point of selling him.

Maybe I am wrong, but Wenger is playing Giroud so he can cash in in the summer?  

"I enjoy my stats because when you are a striker you think that we are looking for the stats and assists as well," Giroud told Arsenal's official website.

"I am OK with my stats but I know the team will need me again for the last [four] Premier League games. So I need to score again and again."

Great post, Jay.

Think I'll analyse our squad after the FA Cup final. A lot of the things I think have already been posted in the thread.

Most of us are on the right track, with the right ideas - just hope Wenger identifies our weaknesses and strengthens us adequately.

I think we aren't going to do anything until the CL qualifications imo even though it shouldn't come as an excuse, it will. Also the World Cup, we should do something before the World Cup aswell, like Chelsea are doing with Costa.

Main reason why we dont win shit ...

In a general sense, the weaknesses of our squad is there for everyone to see. The season is done and we can go back from the first match to the last to analyse our shortcomings which are thankfully very easily fixable. Most of the flaws are pointed out by Jay in the OP as well as the solutions and I agree with all of that so I won't repeat any of it.

Squad(note, I won't mix this thread with the transfer names as it's better to make a separate thread for that)

GK: Szczesny, New GK
CB: Mertesacker, Koscielny, Vermaelen, New CB
RB: New RB, Jenkinson/Bellerin
LB: Gibbs, Monreal
CM: Ramsey, Wilshere, Arteta, Flamini, New DM/CM
AM: Ozil, Rosicky, Cazorla, Potential new young CAM or promote
RW: Walcott, Chamberlain, Gnabry
LW: New LW, Cazorla, Podolski
CF: New CF, Giroud, Sanogo

Goalkeeper

Well Fabianski is gone along with Viviano so we definitely need a goalkeeper. Some random rumours suggest that the club wants Martinez to be the back up keeper but I don't know if that's viable. One of the biggest reason we won the FA Cup was because of Fabianski's experience. It's not to say Martinez will flop in every match but it's time to have a keeper who is experienced. GK is one position where there are A LOT of options. The market is supply heavy.

Defenders

We have to target a RB obviously with Sagna leaving. I don't know what they think of Bellerin in the youth level but he was someone we all thought would be our future at RB. But with recent links with Aurier and jung, It doesn't make sense to have 3 RBs who are all young. However Aurier is experienced I guess.

Still, I would honestly prefer a RB who is 28-30 IF Bellerin is as good as we think. Otherwise I am all on for someone 20-25. Hard to find someone really good though.

We also need a CB. Think Vermaelen will stay. But last season Wenger considered Sagna as an option at CB and he is gone now so we really do need a CB.

Midfielders

Think we are all together in this one by saying we need some physical gifted midfielder in our ranks. A Gilberto, Vieira, Petit, Senna-esque player. Who is that? Who knows

Won't mind a young CAM or two as well

Forwards

This is a very awkward situation. Awkward in a sense that I slated Giroud time and time again but his end of season form and International friendly form has been so good that I feel ashamed of criticising him.

But I also remember the time where he was terrible. However it can be justified by saying that he was overplayed. Definitely overplayed. So therefore we can agree that a forward is absolute necessary. But a starter or a squad player?

If we can get Benzema or Cavani then we need to get them at all cost. 40-50m. Might as well do it. It only strengthen us. But if we can't find anyone of that calibre then what?

Someone like Benteke? or maybe Remy? A forward who can play around Giroud and is actually very good. Reus is a dream but SES?

I'd say we need a main out n out ST who is different to Giroud and a Wide forward. Both needs to be direct and goal scoring.

Promotion

Akpom will get more minutes hopefully
Gnabry as well
Ryo we need to sell
Bellerin hopefully gets more minutes
Zelalem as well
Won't mind Crowley on the bench in one of the CoC matches

but don't think anyone will be promoted to the first team?

Overall

-------------------------Szczesny(New GK)-------------------------------
RB/Bellerin/Jenko-------Mertesacker/New CB-------Koscielny/Vermaelen-----Gibbs/Monreal
------------------------New DM/Arteta--------Ramsey/Wilshere/Flamini--------
Walcott/Gnabry/Oxlade--------------Ozil/Cazorla/Wilshere-----------------LF/Podolski/Cazorla/Oxlade
------------------------------Giroud(New ST)/Sanogo/Akpom-------------------

Style of Play

Over the course of the season, we played a bit more direct. Think the pace we had with Ramsey, Oxlade, Walcott, Ozil and Wilshere helped us with our counter attacks and we deployed it. But we are still a team who likes to have the ball and build the play vertically. We have to decide whether we want to mix it up or go either way. And taking that in mind we have to target players who suits our game. Getting Remy to play him in a creative role won't work for example. But SES is creative and technically excellent, just like Griezmann. Similarly, getting Sissoko as a DM would be catastrophic. Arsene hates players who are good for only one thing. We would love a physical DM but we also need to take in mind that he is good with the ball, not decent but good. Someone who can actually escape from pressing unlike Arteta.

What Arsenal need this summer – Part 1 (at the back)
http://arseblog.com/2014/06/what-arsenal-need-this-summer-part-1-at-the-back/

My Vital Arsenal colleague Amos wrote a thoughtful piece some weeks back on how the transfer window has come to be viewed. In it, he contests that transfer windows are portrayed and perceived as a contest in themselves. You can see it pervade many discussions around a club’s transfer activity. The actual footballing value, in terms of tactics and player personalities, of new players has given way to the impression of activity or ‘making a statement.’

To borrow a Wengerism, a new signing has effectively become ‘like a trophy’ (not for everyone of course, but for many). A temporary lift during the summer months, something to parade in an act of one-upmanship in lieu of actual results. How you amend and improve your squad is incredibly important, but the pitch is the only arbiter that determines improvement and the training field has a role to play as well as the transfer market. Arsenal’s most important player last season was one we’d bought in 2008 that improved markedly with training ground vigour.

Many definitively judge the success of a window on deadline day without waiting to see how activity translates on the pitch. In reality, nobody knows for certain whether they’ve had a successful summer until the end of the season. Squad improvement should be the first and only condition of your activity and that tends to work best as an incremental process. The work carried out in pre-season at London Colney will prove to be just as crucial.

This is when battle lines are drawn and the shape of a team is largely decided. During the season, games are so relentless that training sessions become more of an exercise in physical recovery. So what are Arsene Wenger’s primary concerns once he reassembles his troops for pre-season training? In a two part piece, I’ll be considering the defensive element of the team this week, with the midfield and forwards to follow next.

One of the first orders of business for Arsene Wenger has to be the acquisition of a goalkeeper with Lukasz Fabianski having joined Swansea City. Damian Martinez is highly rated but still untested at the top level. Wojciech Szczesny signed a lucrative, long term contract recently and you’d imagine the question of Fabianski’s replacement will have cropped up during discussions. The Pole has the club’s trust and I think his improvement last season was reasonably obvious. At his age, the potential for further improvement is there.

I would imagine Wenger will look for an experienced back up, perhaps somebody in the twilight of their career that can act as both deputy and mentor to Szczesny. Of course the manager could really throw the cat amongst the pigeons and buy a top quality keeper in his prime to challenge Wojciech, but I’m not sure I see that happening. More experienced keepers tend to make for better back up because they are less likely to stagnate and are probably considering a coaching career anyway. A goalkeeper sitting on the bench in his prime is potentially destructive for his career and I can’t see Arsenal investing heavily in two goalkeepers with the likelihood that one will either leave or rot.

It seems fairly obvious that Arsenal require a centre-half or two in the market. Thomas Vermaelen’s future will determine whether it is a solitary signing or a couplet that is needed. Out of favour, and with a year left to run on his contract, it is unlikely that the Belgian will be inclined to pen a new deal. Likewise, Arsenal don’t seem to have enough faith in him to continue to make him of the best paid players in the squad. The risk of losing him on a free next summer is very real but Wenger should not agree to let him go until he has acquired a replacement.

The club are in a position now where footballing considerations can take precedence over fiscal factors. Numerically, Arsenal need another centre-half even if Vermaelen stays I think. One can’t help but feel that the ‘business’ issue with our captain’s contract wouldn’t be as prevalent had we addressed the need for another central defender more urgently in preceding windows. If it ends up becoming bad business to lose him on a free, that would be a consequence of failure to plan.

How and who we buy in this area is the rub. Koscielny and Mertesacker is a well established partnership for good reasons. However, in the outfield positions, I’m generally not a fan of buying a player with the intention that they are 3rd or 4th choice in perpetuity. That way lays Squillaci and Silvestre territory. Obviously there are budgetary constraints and logistics of squad harmony that prevent us from buying from the absolute top shelf every time, but I think we should look at somebody that harbours realistic ambitions of challenging the Mertescielny axis.

In the past, Wenger has used an apprentice as his 4th choice centre-half. A young buck with potential looking to learn on the job. The likes of Upson, Senderos and Djourou have previously occupied tea making and photocopying responsibilities in the defence, but given the lack of progression in each of those players, maybe another work experience lad isn’t such a good idea. There’s quite a lot more circumspection required in squad building than just liking a player and buying him.

A few weeks ago, I analysed the task of replacing Bacary Sagna in depth. Arsenal have to think very carefully about the sort of right back they buy, assuming they don’t appoint Carl Jenkinson the man of this particular house just yet. Links to Serge Aurier have been constant, but I’d be quite surprised to see us purchase a roving right back, given Wenger’s preference for caution in his right full back. Historically Wenger prefers his left backs to provide the thrust (Santos, Clichy, Cole), whilst the right back (Lauren, Sagna) is a little more defensively secure.

Of course, we could counteract the presence of two roving full backs if we purchase the sort of defensive midfielder that can nestle in between the centre-halves and create an auxiliary back three whilst we attack. It’s the sort of function that Busquets has performed so effectively for Barca and that Luiz Gustavo does so well for Brazil. That said, as the right sided centre-half, Mertesacker’s lack of pace would become an issue without a more conservative right back next to him.

Asamoah Gyan for instance, had Mertesacker on toast in the channel in the recent Germany v Ghana match with Germany’s right back committed upfield. Sagna was very good at ensuring that no interlopers from the opposition’s left hand side were able to engage in a straight foot race with the German. Lusting after a player isn’t always as easy as admiring his qualities and hoping that they transplant into your team. A good side also makes allowances for its weaknesses and ensures they are offset.

I think this is arguably the area of the pitch that requires the most surgery in the market. Arsenal will need to buy and induct a new right back that is ready for the starting XI because I don’t believe Jenkinson is quite ready yet. At least one centre-half will be required. Project internal solution isn’t realistically actionable here because there’s nobody of note coming through the ranks in central defence. Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs and Szczesny are a well calibrated unit by now but Arsene will need to make sure they have support, competition and a suitable right back to complete the quintet. LD.

What Arsenal need this summer – Part 2 (midfield and attack)
http://arseblog.com/2014/07/what-arsenal-need-this-summer-part-2-midfield-and-attack/

Last week I considered some of the summer chin scratchers facing Arsene Wenger with respect to his goalkeepers and defence. This week, it’s the midfield and the forward line that come under the microscope. Whilst I think the squad needs some bolstering numerically at the back, there are some more nuanced questions about how the coaching staff tinkers with the formula further forward. Perhaps more linked with the defensive constitution of the team, I think a holding midfielder may be near the top of the Arsenal shopping list.

Wenger trusts Mikel Arteta and he Mathieu Flamini and both are considered senior lieutenants in the squad. However, both are now north of 30 years old. Arsenal were sniffing around Luiz Gustavo and Lars Bender last summer. Once it became apparent that Arsene could not secure his principal targets, Gareth Barry and ultimately Flamini were caught in his cross-hairs. Given the respective ages of Barry and Flamini, it seems obvious that the manager was coveting a short term solution until he could procure a worthy successor to Arteta.

I think this is part of the reason Arsenal passed up on Cesc Fabregas. Not only would it have required, in my opinion, a transition period to blend Fabregas into our team, but I expect the manager already has thoughts of a starting XI ready holding midfield player. Wenger quietly warned Tottenham last season that bedding lots of players into your team represents a “technical risk.” It seems the manager has decided that Özil, Ramsey and Walcott are the “chain” of his team.

They dictate the tempo – the three suns around which the rest of the attack faithfully orbits. I don’t think Wenger saw Fabregas fitting into that equation without unduly altering the mechanics in the engine room. If Arsenal are also looking to induct a new holding midfielder to provide the link between defence and attack, simultaneously making another big step change in your midfield points to another transition period. I don’t think Wenger signed on for another three years to park his boots under that particular bed again.

What Arsene Wenger does with his forward line has been the subject of debate for some time. I think it’s reasonably obvious that we can’t go through another season needing 50+ games from Olivier Giroud. Tellingly, in his summation of where Arsenal fell short in the title race last season, the manager said, “To be completely honest, a team like City scored 100 goals so you have to say their offensive potential has been absolutely brutal and fantastic, Liverpool as well. We have scored 66 at the moment, that is where we have room for improvement.”

Concerted, if ill fated, efforts to sign Gonzalo Higuain and Luis Suarez as well as the long, fruitless flirt with Julian Draxler suggests that improving the attack has long been a priority. If smoke reveals fire, it would appear that Alexis Sanchez is the doyen of Arsene’s affection this summer. Sanchez, or a player like him, would make sense on a number of levels. A player that can operate all across the front three solves a cluster of problems for the manager in one fell swoop. For a start, Giroud needs competition and support.

As an Arsenal fan, I’m contractually obliged to refer to Yaya Sanogo’s charms as “raw.” Really the young Frenchman ought to be ironing out his creases in League Cup encounters or F.A. Cup ties against lower division opposition. Not huge cup games against Liverpool and Bayern Munich. Olivier Giroud is quite the physical specimen. Every game is a war for him yet he’s almost never injured. But we’d be taking a carefree slash into a tempest to rely on him for another 50 games or more. That’s leaving aside the “shouldn’t we be looking to improve on Giroud?” question.

A couple of months back I suggested that Arsenal have lacked a left sided ‘schemer’ since Robert Pires sashayed out of the exit door. Arsene has searched for a wide forward for the left hand side ever since. Walcott fills the Ljungberg role quite nicely. But the likes of Reyes and Rosicky never really compensated for Pires’ qualities as intended. Lukas Podolski was meant to be the wide forward offering penalty area threat, but he doesn’t provide enough penetration with the ball.

If you give him the ball in some space, his delivery and finishing are faultless, but he does too little to actually create space. Wenger saw Gervinho as a panacea for our lack of penetration on the left. A nippy, dribbler capable of getting the byline and committing defenders, pulling back fours out of shape. Like many of the man’s actions on the pitch, Gervinho was a good idea in principle that didn’t quite work out. Once van Persie left, his effectiveness dwindled and his ‘unpredictability’ became more frustrating.

Cazorla is an excellent footballer, but playing as a kind of wandering left sided midfielder, he often plays much deeper than you’d like him to. With Ramsey and Walcott (and Podolski) fed by Özil and / or Cazorla, Arsenal have runners and passers. But they could probably do with the sort of player Gervinho was meant to be. Somebody that can bring the funk with the ball at his feet. Someone that commits defenders in the dying yards of the pitch.

Olivier Giroud has worked very hard on his movement across the face of the six yard box during his time at Arsenal. Despite not being anyone’s definition of a pure goal scorer, he’s surprisingly good at taking up these positions, as you can see from these goals against Norwich, Everton and Spurs. The issue is, that Arsenal don’t have a player on their left that commits players and makes it to the by-line.

You only need to look at the way in which Pires and Ljungberg used to combine to see what Wenger’s thinking might be. Indeed, the connection Walcott and van Persie enjoyed was borne of Walcott’s ability to get to the by-line. It’s a signature move of Wenger’s Arsenal but, especially sans Walcott, Arsenal don’t quite have enough penetration in the final 20 yards of the pitch to make it happen as much as the manager would like.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is capable of those lung busting surges to the goal line (exhibit A and exhibit B) but the manager seems to see him as a central midfielder in the future. It’s important for Arsene to introduce some variety in the attack next season and a player of Sanchez’s ilk gives us diversity in terms of tactics and personnel. It was partially Suarez’s ability to play across the front 3 that made him so coveted by Arsenal.

The prospective return of Joel Campbell could offer us another option in reserve, with the Costa Rican stepping into the sizeable shoes of Nicklas Bendtner. I think Campbell has had a good World Cup, but I do think the ravenous desire to see another striker worthy of the name at the club has led some Gooners to overrate his contribution. It’s the same itch I think that causes many to criticise Giroud far too harshly. He’s clearly a very good striker, but because people want to see better (understandably so), they convince themselves that Giroud is awful, which is irrational in my opinion.

It is very important that Arsenal increase their goal threat and their options in attack. Aaron Ramsey is going to be very closely watched. Ramey’s goals actually dried up in the short period where both he and Theo were fit last season, so they’ll need to find a way of alternating their threat effectively once Walcott returns to fitness. I think Wenger will add a more penetrative, wiry element to his attack this summer, as well as a new holding midfielder. How Wenger makes these puzzle pieces fit at London Colney will be one of his most fascinating challenges this summer. LD.