Arsenal take on BATE Borisov in Belarus this eebening in the first leg of the Europa League Round of 32.
A good win to take back home would be very pleasing, and here are the official line-ups.
BATE Borisov: Scherbitski, Filipovic, Dragun, Hleb, Skavysh, Rios. Filipenko, Stasevich, Volkov, Baga, Milic
Subs: Chichkhan, Yablonski, Berezekin, Dubajic, Simovic, moukam, Bessmertny
Arsenal: Cech, Koscielny, Mustafi, Monreal, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Kolasinac, Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Lacazette
Subs: Leno, Elneny, Lichtsteiner, Torreira, Suarez, Nketiah, Aubameyang
Three at the back again. :\
3-4-3, 2 man midfield. Dig in and try to absorb the mighty attack, hope to nick one on the counter. It’s all going according to plan.
I can’t believe we’re not playing a back 4 against a team that hasn’t played in months. Why are we so scared? Is is just because of Mustafi?
That’s a pretty good reason to be fair
Pretty much
Don’t think Emery trusts Mustafi, which is fair tbh. He was playing four at the back when we had Sokratis.
It might also be because of no Bellerin.
What I don’t get is why would we go with a weak 2 men in the middle of the park and push all our playmakers out wide? With Lacazette, not the tallest striker in the world (though he does admirably well despite it).
We totally gave control of the match to Huddersfield that way.
It’s like he has no intention of controlling the play. Just play the weak team model of defending, conceding and bypassing the midfield, and hacking crossing balls in.
*Not saying Xhaka and Guendouzi are weak, I mean structurally / tactically less bodies in the midfield.
I think it’s mostly going to be 3 at the back because we don’t have an RB Emery trusts or even a proper LB (Kolasinac struggles, Monreal can’t be risked).
We survived with Reiss Nelson at right wingback last season, I don’t see why AMN can’t do well against Bate, unless we play small team football and give them the initiative to expose our weaknesses.
3 at the back is primarily to give freedom to the wingbacks, our main source of creativity and danger. It’s not a defensive formation necessarily.
Yep. A club with Laca, Auba, Mkhi, Iwobi, Ozil, and Ramsey, but Kola and AMN are our main source of creativity and danger.
I agree with you, that is the reality today. Especially with Ramsey and Ozil out and Auba probably still recovering. But it just sounds so odd.
I’m sorry, but the way you say it makes it seem like a shallow statement…
Wingbacks have many tactical uses. They can create overloads, they can be used for combinations with wingers for overlaps/underlaps, they are much harder to mark or predict, they can offer width, can if technical enough they can be regarded as additional midfielders and goalscorers…etc. The possibilities are endless.
Essentially they are a part of modern football. And see as how we don’t have any good wingers, they are more important to our style of play than ever.
well if you’d rather argue about it, fine.
Why would you move the goalposts on the topic to start an argument? ?♂️
Never said a thing criticizing the use of wingbacks. That is SOO Far off it’s ridiculous.
Maybe if I changed my name to “A Brick Wall” or “An Empty Room” this interchange would make more sense.
You listed a punch of players and showed sarcasm about creativity from wingbacks. hence I had to say that there is good reason dor creativity to come from these 2 roles.
you also made it look like a bad thing, which it is not.
at least that is what i got from reading your post.
Just go back and read what I wrote. I wrote that it’s odd that with so many recognized and established creative attacking midfielders, they’re not our main attacking threat. Instead we’re relying on AMN, a young player out of position, and Kolasinac. I never once said wingbacks are a bad thing. You know what that’s called? A Straw Man argument. A cheap debate trick. Putting words in another person’s mouth, and then trying to discredit it. Once you review your work you’ll also notice I AGREED with you that they are a lot of our creative threat right now. But… Read more »
exactly. three at the back is not necessarily a defensive formation. Look at the defensive midfielders we have xhaka and guendouzi both good at keeping and progressing possession. And also because we dont have a dependable right back to play with.
No, it’s not inherently. Most formations are convertible from defensive to attacking.
But as an observation we seem to be frequently absorbing, bypassing midfield on the wings, mostly the left, and playing in from there regardless of formation.
Chicken?
Strong line up, should be able to beat a team with a chicken on the bench
And a man – Hleb – with chicken legs in third first 11.
??
Why do we have Torreira, Suarez, and Aubameyang only on the bench?
Would have preferred all three to start.
Me: at least the starting line up can’t be as conservative and disappointing as the Huddersfield game
Emery: hold my beer
So how many trainings did Xhaka have to be a starter? Because 2 is not enough to travel. So i guess at least 3… or? Sorry, just trying to understand.
Nobody cares. Xhaka is an essential player in this squad and more consistent than many.
Ozil is not good enough. therefore I see a decent man ( Unai ) sparing the blushes to our most expensive player.
As Xhaka has noticeably been missed it’s good to have him back. His passing ability is the best we have.
It’s like you’re trying to make a point Alex but not say it straight out. Whatever could it be I wonder ? Cos you make so many varied points about different Arsenal subjects on here it’s hard to keep up…
Would be nice to see some big performances from Kola and Maitland Niles, hopefully Mhki and Iwobi can build on their showing at Huddersfield and add some real clinical end product! COYG
we should sign Chicken to Arsenal
It’s fitting, Chicken would certainly feel comfortable around some of the Turkeys we have.
I fancy Iwobi for a brace tonight, can see a big score with a late avalanche of goals.
Bate 0-6 Arsenal
so… no one is gonna talk about the chicken on the bench for BATE?
Its funny that its not that urgent for me to leave work to see Arsenal anymore. We will be playing for a result, and I can be as happy as someone who watched the game about a positive result without fear of missing out on the experience of watching good football. So here’s to the result. I hope we win and win well, but I know it’s not really worth leaving work to watch us play. I did last season for our so called “BSide”, but it was worth it to watch the performance and get the result as well.… Read more »
Devlin, you enjoyed the ‘good football’ in our 2 games v red Star & the 1-0 defeat away to Cologne last season ? Hmmmm….
Far better than any of our games this season. At least we could say we deserved to win those games. To play the calibre of teams that we surrendered the initiative to this season, has been really hard to take. Especially when people say that we don’t have the quality to play well, then we go out and get dominated by a teams with lesser quality than us. Wether you watch or not. The result will always be there, and I can be just as happy/sad as you are about it. Sadly our play is going to be predictably conservative.… Read more »
Sorry but all 3 of those games were rubbish to watch. You’re only saying otherwise to ‘prove’ your point.
The football we’re playing isn’t really all that different than what we did last year – it’s been several years since we played Wengerball. If the frustration is that Emery is too conservative then I get that 100%, but it’s not like we were a great side to watch last year and weren’t getting the results either.
Our best team! Love that team.
Not the most exciting lineup but I fancy a 3-0 win.
Yeah…
To Bate Borisov…
Who lead 1-0 already.
Worst Arsenal side in decades…
I think we are showing no respect with that starting line up..hope they prove me wrong.
How can the coach pick Lacazette and not ElNeny? We will get battered by them. Could do with two more bodies in the back. Would have rested Iwobi and Mkhitaryan and started Lichtsteiner and Leno on the wings
Why won’t he start Torreira and Xhaka together anymore? We played our best when they were starting together every match.
Do NOT question mighty Emery, he is specialist in Europa League. If playing like shite and losing in Belarus will help us win Europa League, so be it.
He puts in Torreira… and takes out Xhaka, so they don’t play together yet again.
Wow, we are finding a way to actually lose to Boris Badenov.
To be fair, they might feel Xhaka is not ready for a full 90.
Could have started them both and had them play together for an hour or so.
True.
1:0 down ? What a strong Squad
Get Emery out now. He is absolute failure.
My god this is embarrassing!! We can’t lose to this lot can we???
Hang on a second.
I am enjoying this !
What ever its name is they are a better team than Arsenal.
Not difficult really but they are.
I would love to see them progress beyond Arsenal.
Arsenal are so one dimensional and predictable it is beyond pathetic.
It makes me feel I want to throw up watching this – knowing how much these cunts are paid.
Arsenal were MILES BETTER under Wenger.
This is the truth – Emery hasn’t got a fucking clue.
Arsenal are a joke.
I want Wenger back….
Why does every discussion have to turn in to an argument about Emery versus Wenger? I think we’re shit under this manager, just as I thought we were shit under the last one. Can’t there be another option/
The problem is we’re just a little bit shit
It’s Emery, the Weingut Guy. The Long winning streak was luck…
And Arsenal fans want to see them in the Champions League next season? Do you really want to see this bunch of spanners up against the likes of Barcelona, Real or Bayern? What kind of a club is Arsenal? How shit have we become? For the appointment of chief scouts, directors of football we are still utter garbage on the pitch – where it matters… I don’t want Arsenal to equalise. Let them get humiliated. And hopefully knocked out. I’m tired of this bollocks – the ONLY trophy we are competing in and he still does not name a full… Read more »
Oh well, at least it makes the second leg more interesting than if we were 5 up.
That will be 90 minutes of your life you will never get back…
It’s that or not see anything from the season tickets I paid!
That’s how time works, unless you’ve got a time machine.
I couldn’t care less how boring we are or whether we ‘deserve’ to be in the Champions League. The more time out of it we spend, the longer we’re likely to take getting back in. We’re losing £40m+ a year by not being in it, with players on stupid wages with no ‘no CL’ clauses included and an owner who won’t invest anything into the club, plus we’re running out of saleable assets on the playing staff (as well as letting a load of potential income walk away for free). We’re essentially fucked unless we get a genius manager pronto,… Read more »
If only we had someone capable of generating a lot of scoring chances…
Well if we had played Ozil, we might have conceded a goal!
Emery said its too cold for Ozil to play. Maybe he will play in London, weather permitted ?
Wenger always said – the team plays better when the ball is passed quicker. Tonight they moved the ball so slow or predictable
Stupid red card for Laca – frustration at crap team performance
Lacazette’s red card.
His only contribution to the game.
What a fucking donkey….
Hopefully Emery will see the light in the summer and leave Arsenal.
The worst possible choice for manager.
He has actually made Arsenal worse….
2 shots on target yet again….. ????
Sack this froud
So disappointing and embarrassing.
Emery said there will be no excuses but I am looking forward to hearing them.
The problem is you get shot of all the human detritus at the club you will only be left with a couple of players.
What a shambles we have become….
I’m not bothered if we progress or not…