Winter Transfer Speculation

[I am invisible]

If we are saying that nothing has changed on the pitch in terms of Wenger’s approach, then it makes sense to say that same about the training methods. We had the exact same team last season and this problem wasn’t there when it came to scoring so few, a similar amount of chances are being created, so it all comes down to nerve on the pitch. That is certainly an area the manager has to earn his keep but he isn't doing so. Alexis not scoring is a noticeable big miss for us, as is our general lack of goals from midfield.

It's the same squad of players (more or less), but that doesn't mean that it's always the same team - each season's casualty list kind of dictates what we end up with on the pitch at any given moment, so whilst the training methods stay the same, the challenges we face are always going to be different. That's probably a large part of the problem.

One of my biggest gripes with the coaching at the moment is that we have far too many players who have no defined role in the side, and who don't seem to be learning how to do any job properly? Guys like Walcott, Ramsey and Ox are all kind of drifting at the moment - we're asking them to do one job for the team, but instead of telling them in no uncertain terms that that's gonna be their main role, we allow them to carry on thinking of themselves as something else, and they end up not really mastering the specifics of anything. They don't see themselves as right-sided players - they just think they're filling in there for a bit, so they don't really commit to it. What's happening with Chambers? Is he a CB or a RB, or a defensive midfielder? What are we actually teaching him, and training him to be? Has anyone actually taken Flamini to one side and explained the role of a defensive midfielder to him? He talks a good game, but he still just seems to wander about wherever he wants. Have we nailed Wilshere down to long-term role? I know where I'd play him, but I'm not sure Wenger has made up his mind yet. I still don't even know what Rosicky's main role in the side is after all these years! I'm all for a bit of flexibility and adaptability, but I think that kind of intimate knowledge a specific role is important - it gives you something to fall back on, that you can almost do on auto-pilot because you've practiced it to death, when you're out of form, or just not up for it. It gives you confidence, and it can carry you through tough patches.

I also think we've allowed certain players to feel a little too safe and secure in their places in the side. I see a noticeable difference in guys like Coquelin and Campbell, who have come into the side after being farmed out on numerous loans, and look like they're playing for their Arsenal lives! They've been given any place in the side, and they look determined to make it their own, regardless of whether it's how they imagined their careers going when they started out. Iwobi is another one where you see a difference - he looks like he can play anywhere across the front 3, but whichever role you give him, he sticks to it, does the job well, and doesn't continually drift into other areas because that's where he'd rather be playing. This is his big chance, and he knows it. Bellerin is another good example of what you get when you focus a player on one role - there's no question that he's anything other than a RB: he does nothing but learn that one role inside out, and he's already starting to look world-class. That doesn't mean he couldn't fill in somewhere else, like RW, if we ever needed him to, but that flexibility comes second to his main role. If we could apply that same kind of focus and motivation to every member of the squad then there's a lot more that we can squeeze out of this group of players.

Which isn't to say that we don't need a massive spend-up in the summer, because we do. Regardless of all of the above, we're probably going to need at least one more CM and a new RB, probably a new CB and LB, and possibly a new back-up keeper, and that's just replacing players that will likely be leaving or retiring! My gut feeling is that we'll need either another CF or another world-class wide attacker, with one high-profile casualty making way, but I'd like to get a more complete picture of what's going on with the attack first before making that call - as it stands, I think a lot of players have been massively underperforming, and others have been going to waste, and I kind of fear the same thing happening to anyone new who might come in unless we get a grip on the coaching.

[I am invisible]

http://www.skysports.com/football/ne...t-granit-xhaka

Will Wenger sign him? Or will he go for Kallstrom? Seems like Kallstrom is the answer..

Bild seem to think the Xhaka deal is pretty much done, for whatever that's worth...

[alexander]

One of my biggest gripes with the coaching at the moment is that we have far too many players who have no defined role in the side, and who don't seem to be learning how to do any job properly? Guys like Walcott, Ramsey and Ox are all kind of drifting at the moment - we're asking them to do one job for the team, but instead of telling them in no uncertain terms that that's gonna be their main role, we allow them to carry on thinking of themselves as something else, and they end up not really mastering the specifics of anything. They don't see themselves as right-sided players - they just think they're filling in there for a bit, so they don't really commit to it. What's happening with Chambers? Is he a CB or a RB, or a defensive midfielder? What are we actually teaching him, and training him to be? Has anyone actually taken Flamini to one side and explained the role of a defensive midfielder to him? He talks a good game, but he still just seems to wander about wherever he wants. Have we nailed Wilshere down to long-term role? I know where I'd play him, but I'm not sure Wenger has made up his mind yet. I still don't even know what Rosicky's main role in the side is after all these years! I'm all for a bit of flexibility and adaptability, but I think that kind of intimate knowledge a specific role is important - it gives you something to fall back on, that you can almost do on auto-pilot because you've practiced it to death, when you're out of form, or just not up for it. It gives you confidence, and it can carry you through tough patches.

I was talking football with my barber on saturday who is a Spurs man. He was saying something similar. He said about how many good players we had, but he always sees them playing all over. He said that Spurs have a much more defined structure to the team. Maybe, like you say above we need them focused on one position. I have always thought that Wenger is still loving the `Total football` thing, where players can play anywhere. Maybe not the best example, but I remember when we had Bendtner about and he used to come on as a sub, Wenger often put him on the wing. I can remember saying to my old man that he needs to be played up front, that is clearly his best position (he was still shite, but Im using it to make a point!) and not on the wing.
There does seem to be a continuing saga of us trying to find our best formation and first 11.

[Power n Glory]

It's the same squad of players (more or less), but that doesn't mean that it's always the same team - each season's casualty list kind of dictates what we end up with on the pitch at any given moment, so whilst the training methods stay the same, the challenges we face are always going to be different. That's probably a large part of the problem.

One of my biggest gripes with the coaching at the moment is that we have far too many players who have no defined role in the side, and who don't seem to be learning how to do any job properly? Guys like Walcott, Ramsey and Ox are all kind of drifting at the moment - we're asking them to do one job for the team, but instead of telling them in no uncertain terms that that's gonna be their main role, we allow them to carry on thinking of themselves as something else, and they end up not really mastering the specifics of anything. They don't see themselves as right-sided players - they just think they're filling in there for a bit, so they don't really commit to it. What's happening with Chambers? Is he a CB or a RB, or a defensive midfielder? What are we actually teaching him, and training him to be? Has anyone actually taken Flamini to one side and explained the role of a defensive midfielder to him? He talks a good game, but he still just seems to wander about wherever he wants. Have we nailed Wilshere down to long-term role? I know where I'd play him, but I'm not sure Wenger has made up his mind yet. I still don't even know what Rosicky's main role in the side is after all these years! I'm all for a bit of flexibility and adaptability, but I think that kind of intimate knowledge a specific role is important - it gives you something to fall back on, that you can almost do on auto-pilot because you've practiced it to death, when you're out of form, or just not up for it. It gives you confidence, and it can carry you through tough patches.

I also think we've allowed certain players to feel a little too safe and secure in their places in the side. I see a noticeable difference in guys like Coquelin and Campbell, who have come into the side after being farmed out on numerous loans, and look like they're playing for their Arsenal lives! They've been given any place in the side, and they look determined to make it their own, regardless of whether it's how they imagined their careers going when they started out. Iwobi is another one where you see a difference - he looks like he can play anywhere across the front 3, but whichever role you give him, he sticks to it, does the job well, and doesn't continually drift into other areas because that's where he'd rather be playing. This is his big chance, and he knows it. Bellerin is another good example of what you get when you focus a player on one role - there's no question that he's anything other than a RB: he does nothing but learn that one role inside out, and he's already starting to look world-class. That doesn't mean he couldn't fill in somewhere else, like RW, if we ever needed him to, but that flexibility comes second to his main role. If we could apply that same kind of focus and motivation to every member of the squad then there's a lot more that we can squeeze out of this group of players.

Which isn't to say that we don't need a massive spend-up in the summer, because we do. Regardless of all of the above, we're probably going to need at least one more CM and a new RB, probably a new CB and LB, and possibly a new back-up keeper, and that's just replacing players that will likely be leaving or retiring! My gut feeling is that we'll need either another CF or another world-class wide attacker, with one high-profile casualty making way, but I'd like to get a more complete picture of what's going on with the attack first before making that call - as it stands, I think a lot of players have been massively underperforming, and others have been going to waste, and I kind of fear the same thing happening to anyone new who might come in unless we get a grip on the coaching.

I read somewhere this morning that Ramsey played more games on the right than in the centre for 2015. Ox gets switched from right to left and even the centre. Theo has only played one game up front since coming back from injury. Most of his starts have come as a left winger this season and the odd subs he’s come on as right winger. He’s hardly ever played on the left wing through his career so he was bound to struggle. But on the other hand, Joel Campbell gets dropped after a couple of good performances and never gets a chance to build on those good performances.

Wenger just doesn’t know his best team and it shouldn’t take injuries for him to see a player like Elneny is the better option over Flamini and Ramsey. It’s frustrating to watch us stumble upon our best team each year only for injuries to disrupt it and then having to fumble our way through until we stumble upon a winning formula again. Last year it took injuries for us to play Coquelin and Cazorla in the middle. We were mucking around with Arteta, Flamini, Ramsey and Wilshere for ages and it was clear that none of them were playing well in the centre no matter the various combinations we tried. But what’s really annoying is the fact that he’ll try those same players again and again if we pick up more injures and they’re his first point of call when they should be the absolute last resort.

The Giroud situation is another running joke. We’ve been stumped again by his dry patch and loss of confidence. Why didn’t Wenger react earlier? It’s not as if we haven’t seen Bif like this before. He needed to be dropped much earlier. Why not experiment with Walcott or Sanchez up front again? Campbell is supposed to be able to play as striker as well. Where are our young players from the academy? How comes they get shipped out without a chance to play up front? Why not try two up front? I’m looking at Liverpool’s situation with Benteke and Klopp has cut him out quickly because he doesn’t fit the style. He’s trying Origi and Firmino instead. Even trying two strikers if that what it takes. Wenger’s inflexibility for certain troublesome areas always turns out to be our undoing.

[Power n Glory]

I was talking football with my barber on saturday who is a Spurs man. He was saying something similar. He said about how many good players we had, but he always sees them playing all over. He said that Spurs have a much more defined structure to the team. Maybe, like you say above we need them focused on one position. I have always thought that Wenger is still loving the `Total football` thing, where players can play anywhere. Maybe not the best example, but I remember when we had Bendtner about and he used to come on as a sub, Wenger often put him on the wing. I can remember saying to my old man that he needs to be played up front, that is clearly his best position (he was still shite, but Im using it to make a point!) and not on the wing.
There does seem to be a continuing saga of us trying to find our best formation and first 11.

Exactly. How is Bendy playing on the wing when we're chasing a goal in the last few minutes. He'd be whipping in crosses instead of getting on the end of them.

[I am invisible]

I was talking football with my barber on saturday who is a Spurs man. He was saying something similar. He said about how many good players we had, but he always sees them playing all over. He said that Spurs have a much more defined structure to the team. Maybe, like you say above we need them focused on one position. I have always thought that Wenger is still loving the `Total football` thing, where players can play anywhere. Maybe not the best example, but I remember when we had Bendtner about and he used to come on as a sub, Wenger often put him on the wing. I can remember saying to my old man that he needs to be played up front, that is clearly his best position (he was still shite, but Im using it to make a point!) and not on the wing.
There does seem to be a continuing saga of us trying to find our best formation and first 11.

It's got to be one or the other. Total football works if you train every one of you players to play the same way, like the Barcelona of a few years ago, and your position more or less becomes a zone that you occupy rather than a specific job - anyone can do a decent job anywhere in that kind of set-up.

Or you go for something more structured, with more specialist, traditional roles and more reliance on planning and tactics - not quite as spectacular at it's best, but probably a far safer bet.

We seem to be stuck somewhere in the middle though - half the team have defined roles, the other half just kind of do whatever, and everyone has their own unique playing styles. I can see the appeal of a 50/50 approach - an interchangeable total football surround grafted onto a defined core of essential roles - but in practice it's very hit and miss, and it gets exposed quite badly when the injuries start to mount up, and we have to shuffle the back. The players who have the defined roles cant really cover anyone else, and our total football utility men, or whatever you want to call them, can't really cover the defined roles properly without thorough training.

[I am invisible]

I read somewhere this morning that Ramsey played more games on the right than in the centre for 2015. Ox gets switched from right to left and even the centre. Theo has only played one game up front since coming back from injury. Most of his starts have come as a left winger this season and the odd subs he’s come on as right winger. He’s hardly ever played on the left wing through his career so he was bound to struggle. But on the other hand, Joel Campbell gets dropped after a couple of good performances and never gets a chance to build on those good performances.

Wenger just doesn’t know his best team and it shouldn’t take injuries for him to see a player like Elneny is the better option over Flamini and Ramsey. It’s frustrating to watch us stumble upon our best team each year only for injuries to disrupt it and then having to fumble our way through until we stumble upon a winning formula again. Last year it took injuries for us to play Coquelin and Cazorla in the middle. We were mucking around with Arteta, Flamini, Ramsey and Wilshere for ages and it was clear that none of them were playing well in the centre no matter the various combinations we tried. But what’s really annoying is the fact that he’ll try those same players again and again if we pick up more injures and they’re his first point of call when they should be the absolute last resort.

The Giroud situation is another running joke. We’ve been stumped again by his dry patch and loss of confidence. Why didn’t Wenger react earlier? It’s not as if we haven’t seen Bif like this before. He needed to be dropped much earlier. Why not experiment with Walcott or Sanchez up front again? Campbell is supposed to be able to play as striker as well. Where are our young players from the academy? How comes they get shipped out without a chance to play up front? Why not try two up front? I’m looking at Liverpool’s situation with Benteke and Klopp has cut him out quickly because he doesn’t fit the style. He’s trying Origi and Firmino instead. Even trying two strikers if that what it takes. Wenger’s inflexibility for certain troublesome areas always turns out to be our undoing.

Yeah, I really don't get the way he stands by so many of his senior players - we're talking about a man who ruthlessly canned off a legend like Ian Wright for an 18 year old here, so why this current bunch of do-nothings get so many chances, I have no idea. Maybe he's just been stung once too often by high-profile departures or something, and it's all just a misguided show of loyalty to the players who have stuck by him (seriously Arsene, the money these guys are paid is plenty!), but whatever the reason, we need to get back to being a meritocracy again, and cut out all the free rides.

I think a big part of the problem with Giroud is that he can literally only play one position - he almost retains the mantle of CF by default when we start losing wingers and wide attackers to injury, because his competition for the role can all provide cover for the wide areas, whereas he becomes little more than a £130k-a-week paperweight if we're not playing him there.

It'll be interesting to see what happens now we have Campbell and Iwobi as additional wide options though - that instantly reduces the need to play Walcott and Welbeck on the flanks (and Ramsey and Ox for that matter), and gives us a bit more flexibility to play around with Sanchez. I think Giroud's going to find the competition a lot fiercer from now on, even if we make no new attacking additions.

I can also see there being a very disappointed trio of Walcott, Ramsey and Ox next season, if they don't wake up and see what's happening with those wide roles - Campbell and Iwobi are making a much stronger case for them right now, and they're just letting them go without a fight. That's a massive mistake, IMO - they're probably looking at it thinking it's great news, because they can finally play their preferred, central roles, but I don't think any of them get close to starting as a CM or CF at the moment, with everyone else fit. They may not like playing on the right, but that's by far and away their best route to a guaranteed place in the starting XI...

[Bumble]

when does winter speculation transition to summer speculation?

I would play Welbeck up top... I don't think we need a striker just find goals from midfield. I would look to sign Kante to play alongside Emo. Iwobi will press to play more next season. Campbell has done well but I still think he is more of a squad player than regular first teamer. But I do think like IAI that one of Ramsey, Ox or Walcott will be very disappointed and probably look to move on. I have always been a fan of Walcott and always wanted him to do well but he just seems to be regressing instead of progressing and at 26 that shouldn't be the case. The Ox still has time on his side and has more natural ability I think. he just makes bad decisions and struggles with injuries both things that can be overcome as the player gets older.

I would sign another centre back as well.

[Kano]

Spring Transfer Speculation?

Absolutely, positively, 100% need a striker. Giroud is limited and Welbeck is still far from proven as a guy you can rely on. He’s full of energy and looks useful at the moment but we only need to look back across recent times to see how frustrating he can be. Plus he has a poor injury record. We need someone who can move us on from Giroud upfront, a key figurehead we can rely on throughout the season. Then some goals from midfield would be very handy again too.

As Iai said earlier, a new CB (van Dijk would be nice), LB (if Gibbs goes), RB (Debuchy out the door), at least one CM (Rosicky/Flamini/Arteta going), a striker and a useful wide player. Quite a bit to do in the summer. The smart money is on quite a lot of it not taking place.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

That's about the size of it yes....