Problems to solve

[NEVILLEB]

Only three games in and lots of new players so no real worries yet.

But watching our first few games.

1. Soldado doesn't look like a lone striker - he's quite small and doesn't involve himself enough in our link play.

2. Paulinho and Dembele - which one of these two is supposed to be supporting Soldado? They don't seem to know their roles yet. One of the two has to take the lead as our attacking CM.

3. Danny Rose has poor positional sense - he's still learning the game but we haven't spent £100M+ to watch him develop. A replacement is needed at LB.

4. We're probably not going to play well for about 10 games. Just like under Ramos, a team overhaul takes time to bed in. Defensive responsibilities can be learned quickly but patterns of play that create goals have to be learned through trial and error.

5. AVB needs to get 4-3-3 working - he's now got the players he wanted so he has to get the formation to deliver.

My main concern is Soldado as I think we'll definitely get a LB. He looks a great player but Drogba he ain't. Hopefully when Dembele or Paulinho take responsibility he'll get better service and prove himself.

 

[amathews3416]

Soldado needs the ball at his feet. Right now we have nobody linking our midfield to Bobby, so we resort to try and hoof it up to him. He is going to look like a shit striker playing that way. Remember, he comes from Spain, when is the last time you've seen the Spanish national team or teams in La Liga play that way? Getting Lamela, Eriksen, and Holtby and you will see the best in Bobby.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Going into the game today I thought Dembele - Capoue - Paulinho was a good idea, but considering Arsenal had 3 creative players in the middle, it was basically 3 defensive minded guys against 3 attacking ones. We had nobody to trouble them between their centre backs and midfield, it was too easy for them in their.

As mentioned Soldado needs service, he can't create his own chances and spending £26m on him u would think the club knows this.

If you look at our 5 midfielders today, Chadli - Dembele - Capoue - Paulinho - Townsend there is very little creativity in there, and only Townsend and Chadli have created chances for him against poor EL opposition.

So how do we solve this problem? Well I'll start by saying that if Arsenal can play with no defensive midfielders thenI ccertainly don't think we need 3. If we're playing 433 at home against Norwich for example, I'd change the look of the midfield completely and add Holtby and Eriksen.

Holtby - Sandro - Eriksen, or Paulinho for Eriksen if he's not ready yet but I'd prefer to see Eriksen in there. That would weaken us defensively but immediately make us more creative, we need to do something to look like scoring from open play. It's not like we played top teams.

 

[Harry Barber]

Soldado needs the ball at his feet. Right now we have nobody linking our midfield to Bobby, so we resort to try and hoof it up to him. He is going to look like a shit striker playing that way. Remember, he comes from Spain, when is the last time you've seen the Spanish national team or teams in La Liga play that way? Getting Lamela, Eriksen, and Holtby and you will see the best in Bobby.

Agree. And that greedy f@#*er Townsend don't help his cause either.

 

[Syn_13]

Only three games in and lots of new players so no real worries yet.

But watching our first few games.

1. Soldado doesn't look like a lone striker - he's quite small and doesn't involve himself enough in our link play.

2. Paulinho and Dembele - which one of these two is supposed to be supporting Soldado? They don't seem to know their roles yet. One of the two has to take the lead as our attacking CM.

3. Danny Rose has poor positional sense - he's still learning the game but we haven't spent £100M+ to watch him develop. A replacement is needed at LB.

4. We're probably not going to play well for about 10 games. Just like under Ramos, a team overhaul takes time to bed in. Defensive responsibilities can be learned quickly but patterns of play that create goals have to be learned through trial and error.

5. AVB needs to get 4-3-3 working - he's now got the players he wanted so he has to get the formation to deliver.

My main concern is Soldado as I think we'll definitely get a LB. He looks a great player but Drogba he ain't. Hopefully when Dembele or Paulinho take responsibility he'll get better service and prove himself.

Soldado played lone for Valencia, as far as I'm aware. I could be wrong but he's done it for them and for Spain. The problem is he's getting no service at all. He actually does well holding the ball up and trying to bring in others, much better than Defoe I'd say. However, not once since we've signed him have I seen us thread a ball through for him in a competitive game like the way Holtby put Defoe through on goal on Thursday. This is why I'd like to see Eriksen, Holtby and Lamela sit behind him.

As for the Paulinho/Dembele thing. I think both are too comfortable playing from deep to want to take the attacking role. Neither of them are attacking mids. If they were both anchoring behind the front 3 I mentioned earlier then we'd be pretty solid. Also, although we don't play it, they'd be excellent as the 2 centre mids in a standard 4-4-2 system. In a 4-3-3 though I think we need to sacrifice one of our power players for a creative one, like I mentioned in someone else's thread just a minute ago.

 

[EQP]

Agree. And that greedy f@#*er Townsend don't help his cause either.

I wouldn't slight/blame townsend for his selfishness today, it seemed we lacked that spark and energy to play with speed and intensity. He looked to be that spark.

 

[fortworthspur]

a competent attacking mid and we are golden. I assume one of Ericksen/Holtby/Siggy can get it done. Dembele is not an attacking mid.

 

[Harry Barber]

I wouldn't slight/blame townsend for his selfishness today, it seemed we lacked that spark and energy to play with speed and intensity. He looked to be that spark.

You have a point. My fault really, as i've never been sold on Towsend.

 

[Dick Dastardly]

I think we need to play 4-2-3-1 to get the best out of our players, particularly Soldado. For me I would go with:

Lloris
Walker Kabs Verts Rose
Sandro Paulinho
Lamela Holtby Eriksen
Soldado

 

[dooey123]

We've been this way for years, we find it difficult to play quick one touch passing in the final 3rd and rely on the wings too much. I had deja vu today with the crosses going into a smallish striker as we did it loads to Defoe in the past. We need to get through the middle with some pass and move and have at least 3 people attacking the box when we go forward to give us more options. I'm optimistic for the future though, we didn't fold and let in 5 and had we got an early goal things could well have been different.

 

[ILS]

Left wing is my issue. Chadli is this year's Dempsey. Decent squad player but not a regular first team. We either play Lennon and lamela interchanging or we get another in.

 

[muppetman]

Our midfield 3 didn't work well together today. With hindsight we should have had someone more attacking on through the middle - either Holtby or Gylfi (Holtby for me) but the plan to stifle their midfield wasn't a bad one. It just didn't work and the sub was bewildering - I'd have brought Holtby on instead of Defoe but easy for me to say.

1. Soldado vs Mertesakker was never going to end well with Dawson hoofing it up.
2. I think the midfield 3 are meant to rotate more so as one bombs forward the other(s) drop back to fill the gap - obviously the relationships and trust will take a while to develop.
3. In many ways even though Rose has been around forever he is also still learning - will he be given time to do so? Time will tell.
4. Totall agree and I hope the fans (particularly in the ground) will be patient. Spending money is great but you also need time to make things work.
5. Agree and we need to move the ball much, much quicker but I also think this needs time.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

Little bit underwhelmed with Chadli. I know it's early days, but other than a couple of nice touches, he's contributed little else.

 

[fozzi44]

For me u either play dembele or Paulinho not both. Please play Holtby. Rose is weak link.

 

[parklane1]

Fans who are not patient enough to give all our new players time to settle before jumping on a band wagon.

 

[dagraham]

Don't believe in the fabled 4-3-3. The only way you can make it work in the PL for me is if you have two absolutely world class players as the two WF's. We had one but he's gone. Lemala is only 21 and can't be expected to smash it immediately.

We need to play 4-2-3-1 and utilise a proper No.10 behing Soldado otherwise it was a waste of time smashing out transfer record for him imo.

I said in the middle of last season that we couldn't really judge AVB while Bale was around and now we're going to find out.

 

[Darth Vega]

Give it time and we'll be alright. All the ingredients are there now. Soldado isn't a target man and without a proper no.10 the gap between him and the midfield is absolutely massive. When Eriksen comes in that problem is solved.

Looking at our squad the only real issue is full backs. Walker at the very least needs someone to challenge him so he can get his arse back into gear and Rose will never be a world beater.

 

[Andre_Serrano]

AVB get players he wanted, what a joke. He wanted Moutinho and Willian, not a tons of Fulham level players.

 

[Samson]

AVB get players he wanted, what a joke. He wanted Moutinho and Willian, not a tons of Fulham level players.

Exactly. Eriksen because we can smell the resale, Lamela the same, a few squad players, most of whom we'd have bought regardless and his 3rd choice striker. With virtually no net spend despite the TV bonanza.

 

[double0]

I personally feel the team needs to gel and we should persist with the heavys in midfield, the creativity has to come from the front three, theres no need to panic imo.

Arsenal parked the bus we had more possesion a defeat was a good thing for the players to learn.