Failure always ignites doubt and with Arsene Wenger failing to bring trophies to Arsenal for the past six seasons, doubt has started seeping through to the minds of the fans who wish to see someone other than the Frenchman at the helm of Arsenal.
There have been several questions raised about Wenger and his transfer policy, his trust in youth and in his tactics. Arsenal’s new found inability and struggle to beat organized and structured teams like Stoke, Blackburn have raised several questions about Wenger’s formation and tactics against such teams and many are now growing vocal about the need to bring about a change in the Gunners’ formation.
Arsenal’s limp and disappointing show against Stoke City which resulted in a totally humiliating 3-1 defeat has sparked more debate on whether it is time for the Frenchman to revert back to the famous 4-4-2 with which he achieved great success at Arsenal.
Right now Wenger chooses the 4-2-3-1 formation and has used that on almost all occasions except in a few rare cases. Wenger has been rigid with this formation and prefers to spearhead the attack with a single striker who in most cases happens to be Robin van Persie. With the 4-2-3-1 in the current mould, it usually features van Persie as the central striker flanked by Samir Nasri and Theo Walcott. Cesc Fabregas, when fit, plays in the central midfield role but occasionally drops deeper when faced with a tight opposition who look to limit the time and space he has on the ball.
Alex Song plays in the holding, defensive midfield role with Jack Wilshere playing more like a deep-lying playmaker, making mazy runs up field and interchanging positions with Fabregas.
Using the current formation Arsenal have defeated teams like Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United and yet at the same time struggle to break down teams like Stoke and Blackburn.
This season for a change it is the matches against the weaker opposition that have ended Arsenal’s title challenge as they have lacked a cutting edge in front of goal and often look bereft of ideas and are clueless in front of goal when they miss one or two key players.
To end Arsenal’s lack of ruthlessness in front of goal there has been widespread call for Wenger to adopt a bit tactical flexibility into the team. This would require the Gunners to sign a new striker, maybe someone like Karim Benzema rather than a small but skilful player like Kevin Gameiro.
But the question that arises is: Is the 4-2-3-1 or the 4-4-2 better on the long run and which formation can bring the best out of the squad and help the Gunners fulfil their lengthy quest for a title.
Time for Change: Arsene Wenger must go for the 4-4-2
Arsenal’s game centres on short, intricate passing with a slow build up and quick interplay. In almost every match no matter the opposition, the Gunners tend to dominate possession. Against teams like Stoke, Blackburn and even teams like Chelsea and Manchester United.
It’s extremely rare to see the players shoot but instead they are always looking for that killer pass and most times than not they prefer to pass the ball into the net rather than shooting it. All this means that despite all of Arsenal’s possession and statistical domination, they have very little to show for it, both in terms of chances created as well as goals scored.
A common phenomenon when Arsenal are attacking is to see that there are very few players in the box to attack the ball and apply the finishing touch.
In Arsenal’s current formation, van Persie is the lone forward. But he hardly plays like a lone forward, often dropping deep or moving to the wings.
A forward usually remains within the confines of the box but in case of van Persie he often goes into the wings in order to receive the ball and he looks to opens up space for players like Nasri and Walcott. All this movement helps in drawing the defender out of position and makes marking very tough as the players interchange their position often.
But when van Persie does move into the wings, there is hardly any player attacking the ball in the box. When Marouane Chamakh was signed in the summer, fans felt that we would witness the return of the 4-4-2 with van Persie and Chamakh as the strikers but that was not the case this season as Wenger continues to persist with the lone striker formation.
Arsenal’s recent defeat to Stoke, clearly showed where the problem lies for the Gunners. Arsenal had no shortage of possession as they dominated the ball as usual. But when it came to creating chances and scoring goals, the Potters triumphed over the Gunners.
In the first half, van Persie drifted into the flanks and received the ball in that area but unfortunately there was no one to get on the end of the cross. Teams like Stoke and Blackburn, who have a very organized approach are now finding it easy to neutralize the threat posed by Arsenal’s players because of the lack of a target man who can actually threaten the defenders and look to contest for the balls that are thrown into the box . Players like Walcott, Ramsey lack any height in the box and their threat can easily be nullified.
The Gunners finally added some spark and threat to their attack when Wenger introduced Bendtner and Chamakh in the break and immediately there was some effect as the Gunners started to create chances and threatened the goal and scored a goal through van Persie.
In this case van Persie can afford to drop deep because even if he does so there remains Chamakh to attack the ball in the box. Adding a striker to Arsenal’s formation brings about a bit of unpredictability to the Arsenal set up.
Recent reports suggest that the Gunners may look to sign Benzema and adding a striker to the Arsenal formation in the form of a prolific goal scorer like Benzema would tremendously increase the effectiveness of Arsenal’s creative players providing them with the perfect outlet to finish off their attacking moves.
In such a formation, Song and Wilshere will continue to play the holding role while Nasri and Fabregas will line up as the attacking midfielders in front of them. Van Persie and the new forward would line up as the forwards.
Van Persie can fulfil the Denis Bergkamp role and play as a second striker. This way he can use his movement to great advantage as he can now move into the wings and drop deeper, assured by the fact that even if he does do this, a target man still remains for the crosses to be put into.
One problem would be the obvious lack of width since Fabregas is more suited to the central role and will struggle if he does move to the wings. This is where the benefit of having a player like van Persie comes in. Van Persie can drop into the wings and he can look to cut inside with his preferred left foot.
Very often, the Gunners lack a person who will actually shoot and by having an out and out striker, that problem will reduce giving the Gunners the ruthlessness required to complement their fluid and creative play.
Stick with the 4-2-3-1: A few signings in the same formation is all that Arsenal require
When Emmanuel Adebayor was sold in the summer of 2009, Wenger changed Arsenal’s formation into the 4-2-3-1 in order to bring out the best in Arsenal’s captain and talisman, Cesc Fabregas. Wenger to looked to build the team around Fabregas, using his creativity and vision as a launch pad for trophies, success and playing beautiful football. While the latter has been achieved, the former has been hard to bring about.
This season, Wenger has used the formation with mixed results but fresh in the minds of the supporters will be the results against Liverpool, Stoke and Blackburn, were the deficiencies of this formation were painfully shown.
Let’s not forget that it was with this very same formation that Arsenal were able to defeat teams like Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United. In previous seasons, the Gunners have struggled against these teams but this season they managed to beat them. This just goes onto show that the Gunners can beat any team with the 4-2-3-1 and need not alter their formation.
Altering the formation would bring about some problems for Wenger in terms of which personnel to use and who not to use. Some consider Van Persie the heir to his compatriot, Denis Bergkamp and there is no doubting the fact that van Persie does possess the technical skill that Bergkamp had.
But van Persie is simply of a different mould of Bergkamp. Van Persie has scored 94 goals in his Arsenal career which is just 11 less than Bergkamp despite having played 158 games less. Van Persie is of different mould of Bergkamp and he may struggle to play in the same role.
Another option would be for him to move into the wings but doing so would severely restrict his goalscoring exploits and his best position is in and around the box from where he can unleash his lethal left foot.
Also if the change in formation were to occur, then Wenger faces a crisis on what to do with Theo Walcott. While Theo Walcott does start as a right winger, he prefers to move towards the centre. Doing so lets him bring the defenders out of position and it gives the defenders a nightmare marking him as his fantastic movement coupled with his pace makes him difficult to keep track of.
By using the 4-4-2, Walcott will most likely not start and that represents a big problem for Wenger. This season we have been witness to the evolution of Theo Walcott has he has finally started to silence his critics and his 12 goals and 11 assists are an indicator of this.
Restricting him to the bench means that the Gunners will be missing his runs and his pace, something that brings goals to the Gunners. If Walcott is there in the team then when van Persie’s habit of dropping deep pays rich dividends as it opens up acres of space for the Englishman to run into. His goals against Newcastle and Tottenham were as a result of his movement into a more central role.
If Wenger were to move into a 4-4-2 approach, then neither will Walcott start so much and he will struggle to cause as much trouble as he is causing nowadays.
By changing the approach and tactics of the team, Wenger will face a slight problem in regards to his players and he might be taking a risk in changing the formation when the results while not great have shown promise and have been an encouragement when comparing with previous seasons.
Verdict
I feel that the key for Wenger will be to do two things this summer
One is to add a bit more unpredictability and variation into the current team. It’s time for Wenger to surprise the fans by adding a bit more attacking threat into the team and more importantly he has to start surprising the opposition. Right now it is all too easy for the teams to guess Arsenal’s tactics as it is virtually a foregone conclusion that the Gunners will start with the 4-2-3-1. These teams like Blackburn and Stoke, who have neutralized the attacking threat of Arsenal struggled a bit when the Gunners introduced some unpredictability into their team by bringing in Chamakh.
Wenger has to start doing this and on a more regular basis. That involves him buying an out and out striker, maybe someone like a Gameiro or a Benzema. Which one he signs depends on the next point I am about to make.
Wenger has to strike the perfect balance between the two formations. It’s important that he retains the current formation to a certain extent and at the same time he needs to change a bit. If he is going to use the 4-2-3-1 more regularly, then he has to sign someone like Gameiro who will be contend with bidding his time in the sidelines and making use of his opportunities.
If he wants to use the 4-4-2 more regularly then a proven striker, like Benzema will fit the bill.
Both formations have several benefits for Arsenal but the key lies in finding a perfect balance between the two.
If Wenger is able to manage that next season, then the Gunners can end their trophy drought.
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