Is this team now strong enough to win something?
Personal opinion, winning of the minor trophies are random luck, last season's FA cup winners got relegated, countless carling cup squads did too. I believe we've had bad luck (seeing things accumulatively, and ignoring the detail... like the 89th minute on the league cup finals... or getting knocked out of cups by teams like bradford).
You could correctly argue about some *insert intangible buzz word here* being missing from the squad, but when we've been doggedly chasing champions league football (again, correctly IMO - if you think Ozil would have even considered joining us if we had come fifth... HO HO HO) it seemed like we just didn't have had enough *insert intangible buzz word here* to really spare IMO.
Maybe... just maybe... things change with Ozil and Flamini...
1)
I think I cracked the moment Flamini joined. At that point I felt that the symbolism reflected a club that had truly submerged into self parody. Age, injury record and technical performance from his stint over at Milan seemed like someone who'd be only slightly better than a big bag of money blocking the near post.
However... At spurs, his work rate, discipline and perhaps, even leadership kind of impressed me, and if he's able to replicate that every match he plays in, he will take a load off the shoulders off Wilshire and Ramsey who I believe were red-lining themselves and probably close to stress injuries of their own. Sure, we don't have a big powerful *Viera type* but we saw just how clumsy and immobile such a player could be in the NLD.
In a 4-2-3-1, the 2's are more about the engine, tackling, positioning, and not playing hospital balls. If you have all of that, it shouldn't really matter how tall and muscular you are imo. If Flamini has that, then we might just have enough to do more than just scrape for 4th atm, at least in that position...
(Arteta, Ramsey, Wilshire, Flamini)
2)
Yes we definitely needed a striker or a natural winger more and i'll come to that point later however...
OZIL
Not as two footed as Carzola (favours left) but he does have pace/acceleration and intelligence abundance. Some may consider him to be the most self indulgent of luxuries, but in the 3 part of our 4-2-3-1, we don't have very many options, especially with the injuries we currently have.
Theo's typically going to be on the right, Rosicky in the middle, podlski on the left. Beyond that, AOC, Carzola and OZIL are what I like to describe as liquid midfielders, IE, the players for whom Wengerball was designed.
Going forward I'd imagine whenever Carzola and Ozil are on the pitch, they'd be designated as wingers on the team sheet but generally given free reign. Until AOC or Podliski returns, I'd imagine Ozil spending more time between the left, with Carzola shifting to the center and Walcott on the right....
A natural, pacey left sided, left footed winger would have been good for a number of options...
One, we could rely less on Walcott's pace to break and get ourselves out of holes.
Two, we'd put more strain on opposition full backs in that area of the pitch - as it seems like far more successful crosses into our box come from the left.
Three, just having a natural left winger who makes the pitch larger, gets to the byline and crosses early would be a revelation, I don't think we've had one of those for ages. I do wonder if Miyiachi can wise up and pick up some of the slack in terms of pacey, break out of jail card... at least on the right wing... We'll see...
The bottom line however is, OZIL is OZIL, WENGERBALL 3.0 fast approaches and may be the best version yet.
http://i.minus.com/iYRyXvvxKZ5nw.gif
3)
I think Giroud is a good striker. I like him. However...
There's two problems he has to overcome.
1) Will he be fit for +40 games?
2) Will he win us games when the rest of the team inevitably plays shit.
I have no illusions about his potential... One the one side, he scores all most all of his shots on goal, wins headers and has good movement, on the other hand, he has too few shots on goal %, misdirects perhaps too many headers, and may not be fast enough for wengerball 3.0.
Unfortunately, he's not enough. Not nearly enough for a cup winning side, and I suppose few strikers are. However... with Podolski injured, the competitive pressure is off, and perhaps maybe that's a good thing for both Giroud and Sanogo...
So....
Between now and Jan, I hope Wenger is whispering sweet-nothings to shrek, who would pretty much complete our first 11. Then maybe, just maybe, the quadruple may be on this season or the next.
:whacky:
