Your Arsenal XI

Given that there seems to be a lot of question over whether Wenger knows what his best side is, imagine a scenario where everyone is fit who would be in your first choice XI.


Mine would be

Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Gibbs, Xhaka, Elneny, Ozil, Sanchez, Perez, Walcott (the front three would be interchangeable as all can drift from wide to playing up front and i think this works for Liverpool).

The only pick i wasn't sure about was Elneny and whether depending on the opposition I would play Cazorla in there instead

I would also favour playing Cazorla in the Ozil role as we know when played in a more advanced role, he is a goal threat and he would be a more traditional CAM than Ozil. That wouldn't be about dropping Ozil it would be about squad rotation and picking a side that works not only to our strengths but the weakness of the opponent (something alien to Wenger who just wants to shoe horn his favourite players into position).

Cazorla starts every time for me when fit, he's still our best centre mid in my opinion.

Yep. Elmo and Xhaka are not really cute enough in tight areas, we lose so much guile in midfield without Cazorla.

They're not bad players but they're very much safety first.

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

Yep. Elmo and Xhaka are not really cute enough in tight areas, we lose so much guile in midfield without Cazorla.

They're not bad players but they're very much safety first.

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Wenger won’t learn when it comes to getting the right combo for central midfield. It dates back to the years we had Cesc, Nasri and Rosicky in the squad. Instead of playing Cesc and Nari/Rosicky in the central midfield, like we’re seeing today with Ozil and Cazorla, he kept playing a combo of Cesc/Denislon/Diaby or Cesc/Denislon/Song, with Cesc playing the number 10. The two behind would often struggle with creativity and it was far too conservative.

The problems we’re seeing in the squad now, without Cazorla, has always been a problem for us. Also, we must not forget that we stumbled upon Cazorla being able to play there after an injury crisis. I would have thought he’d have had some sense to buy a younger version of Cazorla. Someone with similar qualities but he’s paid £35m for Xhaka. It’s early days but I’m not holding my breath. Unimpressed by his footwork, how he defends, his movement, he lacks the sort of engine we’ve seen from Elmo and Rambo…..reminds me of an Arteta downgrade.

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Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory

Wenger won’t learn when it comes to getting the right combo for central midfield. It dates back to the years we had Cesc, Nasri and Rosicky in the squad. Instead of playing Cesc and Nari/Rosicky in the central midfield, like we’re seeing today with Ozil and Cazorla, he kept playing a combo of Cesc/Denislon/Diaby or Cesc/Denislon/Song, with Cesc playing the number 10. The two behind would often struggle with creativity and it was far too conservative.

The problems we’re seeing in the squad now, without Cazorla, has always been a problem for us. Also, we must not forget that we stumbled upon Cazorla being able to play there after an injury crisis. I would have thought he’d have had some sense to buy a younger version of Cazorla. Someone with similar qualities but he’s paid £35m for Xhaka. It’s early days but I’m not holding my breath. Unimpressed by his footwork, how he defends, his movement, he lacks the sort of engine we’ve seen from Elmo and Rambo…..reminds me of an Arteta downgrade.

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I don't think he is a downgrade on Arteta but i would agree with you that in buying Xhaka that's exactly what Wenger was trying to replicate.

I think like any player he needs time in order to establish himself in the side, but i think before Arteta's legs went he gave us something in terms of ball distribution that Xhaka now gives us.

Was he worth the money we paid for him?....No of course not, but Mustafi wasn't worth 35million either....it's just what we had to pay.

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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie

I don't think he is a downgrade on Arteta but i would agree with you that in buying Xhaka that's exactly what Wenger was trying to replicate.

I think like any player he needs time in order to establish himself in the side, but i think before Arteta's legs went he gave us something in terms of ball distribution that Xhaka now gives us.

Was he worth the money we paid for him?....No of course not, but Mustafi wasn't worth 35million either....it's just what we had to pay.

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I think Arteta, although not the strongest, was a more disciplined player when it came to defending. We were able to play him straight away when he arrived because he was ready for the Prem. I think the defensive and positional part of Xhaka’s game is keeping him out of our squad. If he covered and tackled well, Coquelin would be out of the squad. But saying that, I don’t know why Wenger isn’t playing him alongside Coquelin more often either.

I think Mustafi is a different story to Xhaka in terms of the fee we paid. We had an injury crisis in our defence with both Merts and Gab out injured. We had no choice but to pay that fee or go without a solid starter. Xhaka was our first signing of the summer and he seemed like a player we were scouting before the actual deal. I’m not sure what they had in mind for him when signing. I would have preferred for us to go for a player similar to how Santi plays especially after losing Rosicky. But what’s done it done.

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Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory

I think Arteta, although not the strongest, was a more disciplined player when it came to defending. We were able to play him straight away when he arrived because he was ready for the Prem. I think the defensive and positional part of Xhaka’s game is keeping him out of our squad. If he covered and tackled well, Coquelin would be out of the squad. But saying that, I don’t know why Wenger isn’t playing him alongside Coquelin more often either.

I think Mustafi is a different story to Xhaka in terms of the fee we paid. We had an injury crisis in our defence with both Merts and Gab out injured. We had no choice but to pay that fee or go without a solid starter. Xhaka was our first signing of the summer and he seemed like a player we were scouting before the actual deal. I’m not sure what they had in mind for him when signing. I would have preferred for us to go for a player similar to how Santi plays especially after losing Rosicky. But what’s done it done.

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I tend to agree that we need a more attack minded player in future to replace what Rosicky gave us and in recognition that Cazorla has been out injured for a month because of a silly determination to play him game in and game out (and when i mentioned about Cazorla becoming leggy it was dismissed).

I think the fact that Wenger didn't is because he believes he has that creativity in players like Ramsey (he doesn't) and Wilshere (Wilshere does have those attributes but i think it's daft to show faith with a player who has been as injury prone as he has).

Xhaka does have more defensive discipline than i have seen him show for us, i was quite impressed with what i saw of him at Borussia Moechengladbach and for Switzerland....and this is why i am inclined to say that perhaps he needs time.

I think as much as anything else we don't have enough depth in wide areas and those we deploy in wide areas have a tendency to cut inside all too often, but we know with Wenger that he is more keen on shoe horning his favourite players into the XI more than instilling positional discipline.

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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie

I tend to agree that we need a more attack minded player in future to replace what Rosicky gave us and in recognition that Cazorla has been out injured for a month because of a silly determination to play him game in and game out (and when i mentioned about Cazorla becoming leggy it was dismissed).

I think the fact that Wenger didn't is because he believes he has that creativity in players like Ramsey (he doesn't) and Wilshere (Wilshere does have those attributes but i think it's daft to show faith with a player who has been as injury prone as he has).

Xhaka does have more defensive discipline than i have seen him show for us, i was quite impressed with what i saw of him at Borussia Moechengladbach and for Switzerland....and this is why i am inclined to say that perhaps he needs time.

I think as much as anything else we don't have enough depth in wide areas and those we deploy in wide areas have a tendency to cut inside all too often, but we know with Wenger that he is more keen on shoe horning his favourite players into the XI more than instilling positional discipline.

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Cazorla's injury is the same Achilles injury he had last season and it's because he was kicked during a game. If we didn't lose him midweek during the CL, we'd have lost him somewhere down the line. Also, considering we've recently bought two new CM's and saw how crucial Santi was to our midfield last season, I would have thought we'd be well prepared for an injury in that area.

We have zero depth in our wide areas. It's a worry. We also have to really rejig the way we play if Ozil picks up an injury. Iwobi is the only one I can see playing a similar role but that means pulling him off the flanks.

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Originally Posted by Gooner23

Cazorla starts every time for me when fit, he's still our best centre mid in my opinion.

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Yep, the minute Caz got injured I said we would struggle and we have. We have NOTHING in central midfield without him, we're a mess there.

Worrying thing is...and it's been stated by P'n'G and others in this thread...we have spent money on Central Midfield (on the wrong type of player?) and we haven't actually improved the position.

We need a Santi replacement.

Cech
Bellerin, Mustafi, Kos, Nacho
Xhaka
Santi/Elneny, Ramsey/Elneny
Ozil
Theo, Sanchez

Wenger has misused Xhaka. He thrives sitting deep and playign quick balls to start attacks. Wenger tries to use him further up the pitch. He has misused many players because thats just what Wenger does.

Using a diamond gets the best out of Ozil, Ramsey, and Xhaka. Also keeps the speed in attack. Really need to improve on Theo, but it is what it is at this point. Alexis and Theo are basically a partnership now anyway.

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Originally Posted by selassie

Yep, the minute Caz got injured I said we would struggle and we have.

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we struggled before Cazorla got injured.

Burnley, Swansea, Middlesbrough, Southampton, and most of the PSG match.

SAnti def helps and makes us better, but a team that breaks down because of one player even though there are top quality players who can step in is a sign of a system failure.

We might as well be playing a diamond formation. We'll have to get width from our wingbacks but that's usually the case with us anyway.