Winter Transfer Speculation and Shit.

[Power n Glory]

That was such a cool finish. A bit of that would be sweet. But I’m also thinking about tight games where we don’t have that sort of space. I think of the Newcastle goal where he dinked through a host of players before that confident chip. Or his first ever goal for us against Chelsea where he’s slipped in and bends the ball in. A simple one two combination with Diaby and his touch was slick enough to buy himself space and time. With Giroud in the squad playing one twos, we could probably get way more out of both Theo and Podolski. If we won’t play them as strikers then lets at least get them playing closer to Giroud as support strikers/wingers.

[JonasTC]

You basically wanna see some of this.

Exactly! I really dont get why we just dont try it out, we dont have any players who's reserving the left wing position anyway and Cazorla can play on both wings aswell, so just switch them around and watch Walcott getting assists all day from Cazözil

[Master Splinter]

Playing on the break and having the luxury of players like Ozil and Cazorla providing ammunition will free up Theo even more. In matches where we have space, he should be able to operate behind Giroud and latch on to his balls (yes homo) and through-balls from the midfield. He'll be staring on the right, yes, but as we've seen with some of the aforementioned goals, he does have the freedom to play across the front line. It's in tight matches against packed defences where he'll always struggle and the same old questions about him will be brought back up. As long as he gets the +1s and bullies the weaker teams, it's mostly good. He's playing with better players in a better team now so he can only improve his efficiency in the final third. The majority of points come against lesser teams anyway and that's where Ronaldo and Messi score their twice-weekly hat-tricks.

[Penguin]

I would love Draxler here, but how do we fit him into our already stacked offensive midfielder line?

He's only what 19/20 isn't he? He could be a long term replacement for Rosicky.

Squad rotation based on form, fitness, injury, suspension and general tactics? It's a long old season when you look at all 4 competitions (plus internationals), so I'm sure there's more than enough starts and subs appearances for all - we don't have to shoehorn everyone into the same XI for every game...

I haven't seen much of Draxler.. if he offers us something different then go for it.

But if he's another ball playing CAM in the mould of Ozil and Cazorla we don't really need him. Yes it is a squad game but if we've already got the depth in one department it's much smarter to beef ourselves up in the positions we're weak in. Draxler wont come cheap (there were figures of £25m+ thrown around when we were linked with him in the summer) so it doesn't make sense to spend a significant part of our budget on him.

[Munchies]

That was such a cool finish. A bit of that would be sweet. But I’m also thinking about tight games where we don’t have that sort of space. I think of the Newcastle goal where he dinked through a host of players before that confident chip. Or his first ever goal for us against Chelsea where he’s slipped in and bends the ball in. A simple one two combination with Diaby and his touch was slick enough to buy himself space and time. With Giroud in the squad playing one twos, we could probably get way more out of both Theo and Podolski. If we won’t play them as strikers then lets at least get them playing closer to Giroud as support strikers/wingers.

Just remembered that first goal of his... fuck Drogba the cunt

Atleast we don't have to rely on Bendtner now. If needed, Theo up, Gnabry on the wing. Really have been impressed with Gnabry, he is a special talent with the ball at his feet.

[milla]

I would love Draxler here, but how do we fit him into our already stacked offensive midfielder line?

If Wumger buys Draxler next summer, he would convert Draxler into a CF. The boy got all the ingredients to be a prolific striker.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

At the sort of angle Theo comes in at when approaching goal, a shot veering away from the keeper will often result in a miss. The amount of goals he's gotten from that position shows how good he is at finishing. He's having to drive them low and hard into the side netting. It's not the swerve that beats the keeper it's just the sheer pace when he's coming in from a tight angle. Keeper can't get low quick enough to stop it.

Found some good articles worth reading. Helps explain things in more depth than I can.

http://www.footballparadise.org/blog/inverted-wingers/



http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blo...de-out-wingers

Some really good articles on this.

When you consider the fact that we play with a lone striker that's good at linking up play, one twos, we rarely cross the ball and it's hard to find a sole striker unmarked when you do cross...I can't see why we play two deadly finishers in positions where they're constantly being forced down the byline. We've never been a team that whips in crosses, neither Podolski or Walcott are great ball carriers and hardly stretch play when driving to the byline, they hardly look to get down the byline these days and hug the touchline so I can't see why we can't switch flanks. We use overlapping wingbacks......would like to see how it works. Otherwise, with the money we have, I wouldn't mind us bringing in a winger like Di Maria. Someone that can get goals and create. Since we have the money, I have a feeling those two positions are vulnerable and open to improvement despite the good stats.

It sounds like you are arguing the case for inverted wingers. I don't think you need to.

My precise reservation is the case for Theo playing as an inverted winger rather than the principle behind it in itself.

The articles are a little secondary to the fact that we have precedent for the inverted winger at this very club in Pires....if you will excuse the fact Pires was not so much a winger as he was a wide midfielder. The point is, we all know it can work.

So the question remains....if the manger was one of the first on these shores to really put faith in it and he has done it before, why would he not do it with Theo?

It should also be stated that we cannot really be sure Wenger has not tried this out in one of his many short training drills/exercises/games. It strikes me that it is a thing to do in training/preseason and we don't know that Wenger hasn't actually given it a trial behind the scenes.

For all his sins, he's not exactly the most closed manager to the idea of playing players in a position they haven't always played.

[GP]

Pires was brilliant though. One of the very best we've ever seen.

Theo is a pace merchant who won't always be given space by a suicidal high back line.

It worked for Pires because he was a magician.

[Marc Overmars]

Pires was a special player.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

That is partly my point. The players operating in inverted positions tend to be very good ball playing players indeed. Not least of all the dreamy Pires. I've yet to see a player perform the role well, who isn't a good ball playing player.