Arsene Wenger, who left an experienced central defender on the bench and played just one centre-half in his back three, says that he was disappointed with the centre of the Arsenal defence during the 1-0 defeat to Stoke on Saturday evening.
With Per Mertesacker left sidelined, the Arsenal manager asked Nacho Monreal to anchor the back three, flanked by Shkodran Mustafi and Sead Kolasinac.
The Spaniard’s hesitation played a part in the Stoke goal after we’d given the ball cheaply away in midfield, and afterwards the Frenchman was asked which aspect of the winner disappointed him most.
“First we lose the ball in the middle of the park, and after that we gave them too much freedom at the back through the middle and basically gave them a goal.
“You need to improve the connections with the players but I was not convinced by our central defence today.”
Wenger was also unhappy that those further forward couldn’t make a telling contribution either.
“I believe it’s the kind of night when you are angry because not only did we not score with the chances we had, but we made stupid mistakes centrally.
“First by losing the ball and then we didn’t defend properly.”
Far be it for us to advise a man who has managed so many games, but if central defence is unconvincing, we could try and play some central defenders there.
Just a thought.
Retro arses reference to open things up: D0000000000000000000000000M.
Ramsey messed us up. He was the furthest player forward when Xhaka most the ball. Pathetic.
I love how it’s Ramsey’s fault Xhaka made a bad pass. Hahaha!
Listen, if you want to blame someone for where Ramsey was at that time, look squarely at Wenger, who uses Ramsey tactically as a box-to-box midfielder, with an emphasis on (charging into) the opposition box. That’s how he’s used, and sometimes it’s very effective for our attack. If you don’t like the freedom he’s given, that’s hardly on Ramsey’s shoulders.
There were three things wrong with the Stoke goal. The first was when they initially break past Xhaka, there’s an opportunity for an Arsenal player to make the cynical tactical foul to stop the move on the halfway line which we don’t do; the second mistake for me is the Ox, if you watch the goal the Stoke attacker in possession literally bursts down his channel and isolates Mustafi out wide – in one of replays you can see the Ox is literally just lightly jogging back watching his teammate getting taken on, when everyone knows he has enough gas… Read more »
The Stoke player literally burst forward? Ewww
Same could be said of Leicester’s second goal. Nacho didn’t go with the ball straight away and it gell on Vardy’s feet and Sead ended up on the wrong side of the striker, which is expected tbf. So Wenger’s idea of employing three at the back to deal with ariel balls and knock downs does work. But playing a full back in the centre of three CBs just doesn’t work, left or Right CBs may be but not in the midlle. so stop unnecessary experimentation please.
If your role as a DM is playing simple passes and keep things ticking I agree, but Xhaka is our chief playmaker. It is unrealistic to expect him to do that and also not to be given any cover if he loses the ball. Every great playmaker in great teams have had someone to protect them.
Its not the expansive passes that are the problem at the moment its just bringing the ball out from the back. Last week his turn over he tried to play the ball forward and right instead of back and left to the open defender. Exactly the same thing today although it wouldn’t have been a problem if he didn’t rush up to try and get the ball striaght back, but instead stay aware positionally and covered the space in front of his defence. If he just dropped back and covered straight away instead of closing down today there is no… Read more »
Thought Ramsey was probably our best player today…
Ramsey was our most dangerous threat today. Forget your personal agenda and try to be objective. I’m a fan of the following three players but they were all at fault for our goal; Xhaka, Ozil & Monreal.
It’s Ramseys job to get beyond the front players and cause havoc in the box, like how we won the FA cup, yeah? It’s Arsene’s job to ensure we have a defence suitably set up to deal with the opposition breaking forwards if Ramsey is then out of position after one of his forays forward. The 3 at the back formation is there for protection for that very situation, but you need the right guys there. I was expecting to see Mustafi on the right side Per central and Nacho on the left side, I was fuming when I saw… Read more »
Ozil stopped tracking back ( too lazy ) and Monreal hesitated .
Rambo was outstanding against Stoke , Arsenals best player by far.
Cech
Holding Mertesacker Mustafi
Oxlade. .Kolasinac
Ramsey. Xhaka
Özil. Giroud. Lacazette
Surely this is the most balanced team from our available players to play against a team like Stoke which just sits back. Ox and Kolasinac can both cross the ball. Giroud is obvious target and brings Özil, Lacazette and Ramsey into play with his little lay offs. Welbeck and Walcott are good for tiring back lines. The main point though is PLAY THE PLAYERS IN THEIR ACTUAL POSITIONS…
You forgot Alexis 😉 He should & would play next week, Its a must win match for us.
Having thought about it, I would actually drop Ozil, play Ramsey in the number 10 and drop Coquelin in the hole for added security.
I was not convinced with wenger selection of 2 left backs at the centre.
I was not convinced with wenger selection of bellerin on the left, ox on the right and welb as starter.
I was not convinced with wenger making subs after 66th minutes.
I was not convinced he can manage a football team nowadays.
I am not convinced by Xhaka’s slack passing either. Led to mistakes last week and cost us a goal today
Oh please. When he lost the ball against Leicester, we had 4 defenders to their 2 attackers in the box and Vardy managed to score. Today Jese just brushed aside Monreal like he wasn’t even there. Yes, Xhaka lost the ball, but the defenders made themselves look a bunch of amateurs.
Yeah nah. Any other team would see the DM trotting back, not chasing forward like a man possessed. Other teams don’t have defenders that look that desperate because they don’t have to be desperate with extra cover.
Seriously well said @Jammanthon.
You don’t give any team especially a counter attacking team that much space between midfield and defence in a 3 on 2 and then blame the defence. If we scored that goal we would have been raving about its quality.
That is the most dangerous space on a football pitch and there was so much room for them to work the ball forward. DM needs discipline and Xhaka is not showing it right now.
Xhaka isn’ a DM. He plays a deep lying playmaker position.
Oh so that excuses him of defense? Did Santi have discipline in the role? would he drop back and cover the space when he played that position? We all know the answer to those questions
Monreal isn’t a Cback.
We have Per, Mustafi available in the middle. HOlding made mistakes but clearly he can cover right side as Calum who had a decent showing pre-season.
Monreal is better left side of back 3. Kolasinac is wasted as part of back 3 but put there to accommodate both Bellerin and Ox. Honestly those 3 have to get used to rotating.
I agree. Kolasinac has to become a defensive midfielder. It will happen.
It doesn’t help when our second central midfielder is the furthest player forward either. After Xhaka was bypassed, we didn’t have a single player in the centre circle and Ramsey was our furthest player forward!
I’m not convinced by Wenger either. He will never learn.
Me neither
Lads let’s take a look.Wenger says he was not happy with the defense today who changes the defense today?.May I add against a very bad stoke team.Answer Wenger and the management team.
I was equally unconvinced by our attack. And midfield. And management.
Manager has never entirely convinced tactically.
He is prone to bizarre choices.
Not to say he is entirely poor tactically because he has beaten some managers deemed the best by the press.
BUT he needs to buy enough to cover up his flaws.
Is he going to do that? He still has some of the window left to add unless he convinces himself he can fixed the current squad …as per usual.
Not convinced? He fucking played them there! Fuck man. So frustrating.
Surely losing the ball in midfield shouldn’t result a goal every fucking week.
Exactly! People slating xhaka, and yeah it was sloppy, but we should be able to deal with a misplaced pass in midfield without conceding every time
Well surely we shouldnt loose the ball in the first place. Have you seen a team playing total football loose the ball as frequently as we do in the middle? The defence is at fault but thats just careless from Xhaka
This is pretty unbelievable. Holding with Mertesacker and Mustafi/Monreal would have been fine. Sead and Hector playing in their proper positions to give Ozil someone to pass to. Iwobi would have been out there for me too, he’s not a finisher but neither is Welbz.
Risible
I’m not convinced by Arsene’s ability not only to motivate players but to organize them properly anymore, especially in defensive positions. Plus placing players out of position has become a norm it seems. He’s a shadow of the manager that was more than a decade ago.
The whole playing players out of position is quite typical of Wenger. It would be an amusing quirk of management style if it didn’t at the same time cost us points every season. This loss today comes down to many factors, but a big one is how he used his squad today. Poor.
I cannot think of many premier league footballers who do not know their best position. The ones who I do know all play for Arsenal
I still don’t get why we didn’t played a proper central defender instead of monreal. I commented the same thing on the team lineup page . Mert holding were all good to play. And we should play a kolasinac or monreal on left wingback .Shoehorning ox on left is doing no good for us. He does whatever he can with the position taking on players and all but as expected none of the crosses from left found a man . At least with a left footer we can expect good crosses and team will have extra natural defender. Once again… Read more »
Did you watch the game??? Ox was on the right whole game. lol
When will this pointlessness stop? Another season of bollox, we all know it. Why pretend?
mustafi mertesacker koscielny is all i want to see in epl now.
and steve bould ?? what is he exactly contributing to the team??we used to concede same amount of goals without him and that too with squillaci at defense!!!
Doesn’t Bould report back to you everyday? How dare he!!
Ah, Mr Pocklington, we’ve been expecting you!
Mustafi is a complete liability.
Yep, dives in like a fucking idiot all the time.
Today was perfect for Per. Based on these comments, what’s the bets on Arsene playing him against Liverpool and him getting torn to shreds by their pacy players?
He is only diving in because the other teammates are not doing their job.
Assinine comment to say he is a liability.
The goal stemmed from Monreal not covering tight enough.
Mustafi put in a great tackle which had it been Koscielny some people would deem world class.
Remember Koscielny conceded penalties, own goals and received reds in his first season. Mustafi did not.
utter nonsense.
No, he dives in because he can’t help himself. That tackle on Pieters was out of control and he was lucky to get a touch on the ball.
He’s just one of your favourites, similar to how you have a personal vendetta against Elneny. The fact that you have proclaimed him to be a defensive panacea means you’ll never see any wrong in him.
Maybe he is rusty. Just his first game and didn’t have preseason
Or sub those who play like pants o’toole. Or have a style of play that is secure in the modern era. We are suffering group delusion. This is what being Liverpool is.
I mean blogs’ comment absolutely nailed it, but really what did they do wrong even for the goal? It was on Xhaka. Maybe he should have added something about that (it wasn’t the central defenders/LBs posing as CBs that turned the ball over). And maybe add something about trying to turn a world class RB into a LB despite being very right foot dominant and a RW into a RB…oh yeah and the whole LBs as CBs and strikers as wingers…GK as a, wholly $hit our GK played in his correct position…
But look –> Chelsea did it and it worked for them .. where are the original ideas !? Other than the original idea of playing pretty much everyone out of their natural position
Possibly an odd game to single out Ozil in, but I can’t help feel that he’s a tragic figure. A more than useful player for sure, but he could have been the best number 10 in the world. Unfulfilled promise is depressing.
Because he makes chance after chance for our strikers to fuck up, the frustration is growing and there’s no way he’ll ever sign a new contract with this shower of shit going on. Arsene is to blame because he always expects one or two really good players to carry his useless favourites. When Mesut gets the ball, very often there’s absolutely no movement ahead of him, or he passes the ball to someone who loses it, trips over it or has a feeble pot straight at the keeper. I love Mesut and will be very sorry when he leaves, but… Read more »
I disagree. We don’t play Giroud to accommodate him so we can play Welbeck and Lacazette. We also have Bellerin and Ox playing wide and Ramsey who likes making runs. The team is set up offensively to accommodate him so blaming others for some of his average performances is deflecting
Agree with Vonnie. It struck me recently after watching a compilation video of Wilshere’s passing–the first TEN MINUTES of which was him putting attackers through and them failing to convert–that no one whose primary talent is creating chances should want to be anywhere near this team.
Not doing himself any favours is he.
HE IS HIS OWN WORSE ENEMY 😀
Why didn’t you play Kolasinac as left wing back you dick?
We are going to have this issue till close of window as he tries to placate Ox (Bellerin) before the window shuts.
Alexis is gone.
Ozil looks 50-50.
I think we should not wait on whether PSG want to sign him. Just get the replacement in cos Lacazette is only half of it.
AND we need to bring someone into midfield now. All options have their odd idiosyncracies at the moment. Granit is crucial to our game and he takes him off.
…which means Ramsey’s benefit is nulled since he has to sit deeper.
Inexplicable.
Soft goal.
Lots of control from us but I thought our movement in the final third very pedestrian. With Ozil, Ramsey and Xaha I’d like to see more of those chips into the free spaces in the box for our forwards to run into and try to connect. At least they would generate more movement and maybe more opportunities against such heavy banks of defending.
Finally, I like Xaha, he plays some lovely passes but really he is too slow and immobile for the PL? We are desperate for a better CM.
Oh really?….if you’ve been listening to the fans since pre season the comm shield and against Leciester we would have told you that…
You can exchange Chambers and £35m for Van Dyke now rather thanmaking empty excuses..
He would probably play him at left back in any case.
SMH yeah sure lol You think Southampton thinks CC is worth 40m? lol
This man! How can you put a lopsided team together, lose the game, and then analyse the team like a pundit? This man!
Maybe I’m over reacting. But I’m so sick of this same old shit. How are we not prepared to start the season properly again? It’s base incompetence.
I honestly wonder what the players think when he says stuff like that. He picked defenders and played them out of position. Worried for when we play the top sides
Completely agree. People say that AW is great at defending his players, well today he well & truely threw his 2 LWBs to the wolves in his team line up. He then says he “was not convinced”. Good God man! No one was convinced before the game even began!
No top 4 if we don’t sign a CB, CM and a wide forward. I’ll keep on saying it. This has got to be the most frustrating loss in a while. Welbeck gets into positions where he should square the ball, but he instead tries to shoot. Ramsey and Hector does the same. Don’t get me started on Wenger’s tactics and subs. Starts with Kolasinac in the middle instead of lwb. I don’t care what you told Bellerin…he is in dismal form. He MUST BE DROPPED. What do we have Chambers and holding for?? Chambers should’ve started today alongside Monreal… Read more »
It’s not about signing players. It makes no fucking difference if they’re all played on the basis of some random position generating algorithm.
At least these signings will cover the deficiencies in the side. Wenger is as frustrating as ever. Dude thinks he can turn anyone to whatever player he wants. Watch people downplay this as just a “bad day in office”
Who says these signings will even improve the squad honestly what cb is so much better and available that will come straight into the team over the other 5 we have and sort the squad out
What we really need to invest in is coaching for the current defensive players as Steve bould clearly isn’t doing it.
He should be the first person to tell wenger that his defence v stoke was a fucking retarded idea
FFS
Jesus wept.
Hahaha Give this Admin a medal! Perfect idea!
Nothing will change with wenger in charge, unfortunately he needs to be forced out of the club.
Same old shit. Always blaming his players but himself. Arsen is a f****** loser.
@Glen Helders left earlobe That’s right, ready the banners and the twatty aeroplanes….let’s make our games as toxic and miserable as they possibly can be….with a bit of luck all our best players will leave as result…. @Rico You are a f*****g loser, you classless tw*t. It’s only football…and it’s meant to be enjoyable and fun. The main reason I dread losing now is because of all the negative/abusive supporters rearing their ugly heads after every defeat. To lose so early in the season means we’ll have to endure these idiots for the whole season. As a supporter of 33… Read more »
I’m not convinced by : 1) His picking of Monreal for Central defense. Per Metersecker seems tailor made for Stoke. Monreal should be left of back 3, Kolasinac is wasted in that position. 2) Leaving Giroud as a “plan B” and then relying on him to dig us out of a hole again with less minutes to affect a game. Immediately when he came on the French man was effective carving out golden chances one of which welbeck again conspired to miss and the other the ref disallowed. Giroud starts for France for a reason and it is clearly no… Read more »
Taking Xhaka off was such a poor decision. With so many players in the box, there was no playmaker to direct our attacks, we were unable to open them up or have someone creative to find passes.
A right back at left back, 2 left backs at centre half and a wide right midfielder at right back. Who’d have thought it would be sub optimal. More Wenger BS. Really, enough already.
We conceded once. Away from home. It’s really not about the defence or the personnel at the back. We should be winning the games if we concede only once. Even the goal wasn’t any of the defenders’ fault. Today’s performance was lacking inspiration and ruthlessness in attack, and nothing else. (Actually some things were lacking as well but we lost because we didn’t create enough chances and we didn’t convert the ones we did create).
Spot on. You can’t win a game if you don’t score. First half we didn’t take our chances. Second half didn’t get the ball into danger areas quickly enough. Thought we brightened up when Iwobi came on to move the ball a little quicker…
…I am really not convinced by Walcott
Really Arsene. I haven’t been convinced for 10 fucking years. How about doing some defensive coaching. Or delegating to those who can.
Some things never change. Wenger being one of them. Nevermind, only 2 more years to go.
Picks defence. Unconvinced by defence he picks.
I’m unconvinced by Wenger.
Stick it up your arse, Arsene. You need central defenders in the centre of defense. For every game of the season. There was a long way to go after Xhaka lost the ball. I am sick to death of having my hope stamped out before it even gets going
Wenger’s decisions are just truly mind boggling sometimes. Let’s flash back to the FA Cup final. He played Monreal/Mertesacker/Holding as a back three and we looked very organised and fairly secure against a potent Chelsea attack. Mertesacker was clearly available, as far as I know Holding isnt injured? Why not go with something that has worked before? I think he is at the point now where he just plays pin the player on the starting eleven before the game. Steve Bould puts a blindfold on him and then spins Wenger around for 30 seconds, sounds like a hoot.
Do you remember at school. One of you would turn around and someone else would give everyone a number. Then the turned around person shouts on numbers and that’s how you pick teams.
Think that’s what Wenger does.
I do remember that actually. It was good value!
just hoping the Nigerian tycoon’s oil refinery will be completed soon
This is right up there with Theo’s “not wanting it as much as them” postgame. Jeee-zus Count-of-Monte-Christo this is mind blowing.
I’m convinced that you shouldn’t be the Manager anymore. Wenger Out.
Funny enough he can play Holding and Per there alongside Mustafi and can play Kolasinac/Monreal at LWB, but hey, i’m Arsene the genius, i will prove to you that i can make player play out of their position, this manager really try his best to piss the fans
All of the players were culpable. A bad day at the office.
Game # 2 of the season, & you can kind of see why certain players are hesitant on signing new contracts (it’s not always just about the money…but money no doubt is a key factor).
Sorry AW you got today all wrong. Yes attacking wise certain players should have done better…ahem Danny boy…but it is Danny boy, & whilst I like him he’s yet to convince infront of goal. Defensive wise though, we were a mess, & that was mostly down to team selection.
8 years since we won the first 2 games of the season 🙁
Mr Wenger.
Playing Belerin on the left and losing Kolasinac as left foot to play as left winger is your foolt. I stand of that the better idea was to play Belerin on right back, Mustafi on center, Monreal on left and wingers Kolasinac on left and Ox on the right. Today is your foolt. Lets think about it…..
Instead of concentrating on the league maybe we should be realistic & concentrate on the Uefa cup. Sell Alexis, Ozil & Ox if they won’t sign new contracts + the other dead wood.
Time for a team rebuild.
Except no one wants our dead wood, would you pay Gibbs 75k a week? Or jenks 50k? Never gonna sell them, gonna have to give them away. We’ll end up like leeds, they’re still paying robbie Fowler’s wages…
So he left 3 central defenders out and sold the other. Played 3 full backs out of position and says he is not convinced by the central defence…..
And can some please tell Ramsey to stick to his position, he is not a striker FFS
As per above, would not selling Gabriel and then actually playing him and moving Kolasinac to LB not have yielded a better result? Or does Wengers crusade against Stat DNA matter more? Who runs the club? It all smacks if the scene in Apocalypse Now when Martin Sheen’s Captain gets off the boat at the Do Long bridge and says to the first soldier he sees: “Who’s in charge here, soldier?”. To which said private replies “Ain’t you?”.
What I fail to grasp is why on earth does Wenger leave his captain who had a good preseason on the bench knowing that we are short of CBs. On top of that we had Chambers and Holding at home. I can understand dropping Holding due to last week perfomance but what is wrong with Chambers. He did good at Middlesbrough last season and kept Holding out of the England under 23 team. He came back at the same time as Holding and earlier than Mustafi. If those two can play why not Chambers? Wenger is totally past it, now… Read more »
I’ve been going for long enough to know that we won’t play well every game, let alone win every game and that’s fine But this man seems to think it’s okay to start at a handicap of playing a load of people out of position and give everyone a fair or chance. Fuck me I support Arsenal,not some Corbynian vision of sport as an expression of helping those less fortunate. Enough of this shit. Play the best 11 in their best positions. If unavailable, replace with the next selection. Still in their best damn positions.
This! 4-2-3-1 was the most obvious solution today. Play 2 CBs, a left back at left back and a right back at right back and hey presto i’m sure our defence would have looked better
I take issue at the idea that corbyn invented helping those less fortunate, he’s never done anything that ducking useful.
Overrated Ballerin out of position ,he was terrible ,run Forest run…poor passing poor defending poor crossing ,like always … Xahka terrible ..Monreal and Kolasinac CB’s ??? Why ?? Where is Rob ,Mertesacker?? Who understands Wenger anymore
I really hope we pull out the league somehow – but this is the same squad that finished 5th place last year – plus Lacazette & Kolsoniac. I still think we need at least a new central midfielder to compete with Ramsey/ Xhaka & if we can get him Lemar as an upgrade on Theo/Welbeck. Yes we had a great 11 game run last year to finish the season – but the league is all about consistency and at least from the first 2 games it’s hard to see us doing anything other than challenging for 4th again.
Yep, play players in position not out of position would be the first thing to do.
The failure of the defence in convincing Wenger of their ability to defend pales to insignificance compared to most fan’s lack of conviction in Wenger’s ability to lead this club forward.
I think it would be best to write us off now…
I see no reason to write the season off. We have the players. Someone in the hierarchy needs to get a grip on the manager and tell him to wake the fuck up.
Having the players is more than just filling positions – they have to be good enough and none of them are good enough. If you have no standards of achievement and are content with just watching regardless of the result or performance then there is no reason to write the season off. If you want Arsenal to compete and play well you will look at this team and especially this manager and you will know they are not good enough. After all the shit last season he STILL has not changed or left – this will not change until we… Read more »
why would they do that? They’ve just given him a contract extension after his worst performance in nearly 20 years
Nooooooooo.
Someone needs to show the manager the exit door and then boot him through it
Left back.
Monreal is not a CB. He should be dropped for life for being a soft ass and playing the ball out because an opponent was too lazy to get up. Pussification by Arsene Wanker.
At this point were a fucking pointless fotballclub, the management is absolut shit!! LB for CB, RWB for LWB and no ballwinning skils in midfield. Arsenes tactics are bellow youre average FM/CM player.. Fool!!