Written by Mean Lean on Friday, 23 September 2011 11:59

A merry afternoon to you,

Well at least so far. It is funny I say that because above these current ramblings, on this very page lies an unfinished blog post that I obviously didn't finish and the start of said blog was far less merry, but time won the race and I didn't get to complete the article. I do hate when that happens, but perhaps I will come back to those points another day.

Today I draw open the curtains and the sun is placed in a slightly different position, there are a different number of cars racing around than yesterday and the world of Arsenal has moved on.

I must say, my heart skipped a beat with the rumours of Sir Dennis of Bergkamp returning to Arsenal as part of the coaching staff. It is just a rumour as far as I know but I would absolutely love Bergkamp back home. The last thing I heard was that Dennis was having contractual problems at Ajax and I haven't heard anything since, I am also too lazy to do my research to find that information out.

I would find it pretty amusing that every man and his dog are asking for a defensive coach for Wenger to shove two fingers in the air at his critics and bring in a forward as part of the coaching staff.

I remember reading a piece from Bergy about finishing, lobbing and physical condition and I was mesmerised, I didn't want the article to end. I would love the likes of Benik Afobe (poor lad), Joel Campbell, Theo Walcott to the more senior forwards Robin, Chamakh and Ju Park. Has there ever been a better professional in the game? Not talking talent but professionalism. I doubt it.

I will avoid jumping the gun though until something actually happens officially.

Arsene Wenger served up part of his weekly portion of quotes about the previous games and the Bolton game coming up. Two things stood out for me.

Firstly he was talking about why he reverted to 4-4-2 against Shrewsbury Town and contrary to popular belief he changed to suit the personnel we had on the night which is often criticism levelled against him for not doing. He also said that his two wide men were also able to do the job of midfielders which is not always the case. That is very true, when you have players like Gervinho, Andrey Arshavin and Theo Walcott who regularly play in the first team, it would give you issues playing them in a deeper wide position.

Then I guess comes the argument of Theo Walcott playing as a striker in a 4-4-2.I guess this would work wonderfully well if every week we faced opponents who played a high line as high as Blackpool did against us last season at their gaff and no pressure was put on our ball players.

Off Theo would spin into the lush spaces of green ahead of him and Arshavin could waltz inside and slide through passes into his path, the defenders red in the face trying desperately to make up impossible ground before the central defender lifts his head to see how far away this ridiculously nippy number 14 is, Theo has already picked his spot, wide of the keepers outstretched arm into the inside side netting for his 23rd goal in 26 games.

What's that term for being as overly pessimistic as possible? Ah yeah, I'm a realist.

The more likely story will be that Theo is faced week after week with two banks of four which we already face on a regular basis today without Theo's gifted pace in central areas. The ball will be fizzed into his feet with his back to goal more often than not and either the ball bounces off him or he turns into a crowd of players. He tends to do this a little too often when he is faced with one full back, perhaps even a doubling left winger. So imagine the congestion of two central defenders, at least one midfielder and perhaps a covering full back.

This new shouting Theo will turn into even more shouting Theo. But Theo is not a winger I hear you cry and that is the truth, even if you are not crying I still agree. His role has never been to twinkle toe past four players and bend it like Beckham onto Van Persie's head. If that was the case then he would be a success in a 4-4-2 on the right wing. He is actually playing in a less restricted forward role than van Persie's. The position that he keeps banging on about. His role is supposed to be about timing about making diagonal runs off the back of the full back and central defenders. He has scored so many goals for Arsenal by doing his job correctly. He wouldn't have scored many of those goals from center forward.

So my non expert advice to Theo would be to button it and keep getting into goalscoring positions from the position given to you. Plus Arsene Wenger has changed players positions more than most other managers, surely he would have moved him centrally by now if he had what it took. Surely?

How on earth did I get onto this topic? I have taken a wrong turning somewhere along the blog motorway.

Ah yes, Wenger's quotes.

Speaking about the teams defending Wenger said:

"The modern game is a team sport more than ever because everybody has to defend completely. All the big teams do it. You do not get away with just seven or eight and the rest watching"

Now this is a pet hate of mine. It has been something that has bugged me for a while now. A number of players such as Arshavin and Szczesny have spoken about the team working hard this summer on set pieces (which was going very well until Blackburn) and implementing a pressing game. It looked crystal clear during the Asia tour. When not in possession we have the defensive line pushed up the wide forwards drop back and our midfielders and attackers hunt the ball down and win it back quickly, we were then able to make quick, sharp forward passes to turn defence into attack. Since the season has started this has vanished into a puff of smoke.

Yes, we have brought in new personnel and it could take them time to adjust to it but to be fair, only really Mikel Arteta would have needed to hit the ground running in that area as it is not Mertesacker's job to chase people around the pitch trying to put pressure on them to lose the ball in the center circle.

As the very good Arsenal Report have stated many times, we have a habit of half heartedly jogging after the opposition and not really doing much to win it back. When we are at our aggressive best we can beat anyone.

It is no surprise that when we faced Barcelona, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea we gave.. to coin a Wenger phrase.. 'absolutely everything'

Perhaps two games a week doesn't allow us to do that, perhaps the new satellite navigation vests tells Wenger that it is a no no. I do not know the answer but I find it frustrating knowing that we do not always get the best out of our talent because for whatever reason we are not working as hard as we can.

Are you telling me that we would have lost at home last season to West Brom and Newcastle United if we had approached the game as we did against Barcelona? Not on your Nelson Vivas mate.

I would rather we rotated the squad more and ran our arses off in every game regardless of the opposition. This is of course from a view that isn't able to see the facts and evidence so ignore me, I am just moaning like a realist.

I read the Oxlade-Chamberlain interview and he really is as impressive off the pitch as he is on it. Feet on the ground, well spoken and humble.

With the early season boo's at the ground I found these quotes interesting from the player

"The fans helped because they were positive towards me and that helped. It does help when you have got the fans and the manager behind you. It does help your confidence."

Arsene has also thanked the fans for being behind the team at the Carling Cup. The only way we can help the squad is to get behind them and it is pleasing to hear that from our fans.

Mixed news on the injury front it seems. Aaron Ramsey and Bacary Sagna will be back for tomorrow which is great. Abou Diaby and Thomas Vermaelen will be back after the International break and if they can both stay fit then they will be massive players for us, especially Vermaelen.

Yossi Benayoun and Johan Djourou have picked up muscular injuries and will not play a part against Bolton tomorrow. Sebastian Squillaci is a week away from return *cue the jokes*

I just hope that Squillaci is ying to Djourou's yang which means we could witness the rebirth of a modern day Tony Adams mixed with the grace of Dennis Bergkamp. On a serious note though, we could see Miquel take a seat on the Arsenal bench as Djourou will be unavailable. I like the lad.

Anyhoo, my stomach is begging me to stop writing and pay it a little bit of attention, so I am going to do just that.

Back tomorrow

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Comments (14)

• 23-Sep-2011 12:13 | | MeanLean
  

  I've just seen on Sky Sports that Wenger will not be bringing back Dennis Bergkamp. *sigh* wasted a whole five minutes of my life writing that.

• 23-Sep-2011 13:19 | | Vuja De  - Keep Calm. And Carry On.
  

  Good write up Mean Lean.
  
  I, too, wish that "we rotated the squad more and ran our arses off in every game regardless of the opposition".
  
  If the team selected on the day doesn't run their collective arses off then I suspect that it's less to do with what the stats tell the manager & medical staff, and more to do with a psychological issue, one that we've discussed on this site many times in recent years.
  
  That is, why the players are generally able to get themselves sufficiently motivated in terms of their work rate for so called big games, i.e. against Utd, Chelsea et al, but much less so against so called run of the mill teams.
  
  If and when that issue is resolved, we'll be alot closer to winning silverware.
  
  I also agree with what Mean Lean has stated about Walcott's desire to play as a central striker. Walcott simply has not got the skill set to play as a central striker - irrespective of the formation - for an Arsenal team trying to play Wengerball 5.0.
  
  I suspect that we would effectively be playing with ten men if we attempted to play Walcott in that position with his current skill set, as he would be loosing possession of the ball in record time, repeatedly, from a central position, and putting our back five under unnecessary pressure from opposition counter attacks.
  
  Opposition teams, as Mean Lean pointed out, are tactically savvy enough these days to know how to deal with a player who game is based primarily on pace.
  
  If and when Walcott comprehensively learns his trade, and becomes a much more rounded, multi-dimensional player, one with a full set of skills in his repertoire, then at that point he may be able & ready to play as a central striker for a team playing the latest version of Wengerball.
  
  But Walcott is nowhere near that type of player, and is playing a dangerous game by mounting what appears to be a public campaign to persuade Arsene Wenger to play him as a central striker.
  
  The worst thing about this campaign is that Walcott seems completely unaware of just how much he needs to improve in order to realistically stake a claim for a central striker position for the Arsenal.
  
  My free advice to Walcott...learn your trade, stop talking to the media and do your talking on the pitch.

• 23-Sep-2011 14:06 | | dkgooner  - Bergie
  

  "I will avoid jumping the gun though until something actually happens officially."
  Erm - I think you just did.

• 23-Sep-2011 14:41 | | MeanLean
  

  Agree with all of the above VD. That shy and humble character seems to be disappearing a little. I suspect he has been hanging around the International scene a little too often.
  
  Everyone knows that Theo thinks he should be a striker, I wouldn't take too kindly to it if I was the manager and one of my players was banging on about it every other week.

• 23-Sep-2011 14:41 | | MeanLean
  

  Yup, was kinda thinking that while I was writing it

• 23-Sep-2011 14:52 | | pedantic george  - broken heart
  

  Where is Dennis?
  You spoke his name and that demands an appearance from him.
  Why would someone make up a story like that?It just leads to misery and heartache.
  
  Nice Blog Lean Mean
  You are missed over at Yogi's gaff. :

• 23-Sep-2011 14:54 | | pedantic george  - Where is my gavitar
  

  Well? where is it?
  I don't understand computermybobs

• 23-Sep-2011 15:12 | | MeanLean
  

  Cheers PG,
  
  I will find my way over there at some point. I've been a bit of a homer of late.

• 23-Sep-2011 16:01 | | Czarsenal  - The Czarsenal
  

  I'm increasingly sensing, seeing, and hearing frustration coming from Theo (who has 2 years left on his contract [courtesy of @bala_chn]). Especially so now with the arrival of wingers with just as much pace, but who seem to have the skill to take players on, directly.
  
  Theo's skills have always come from using his pace to get around defenders or to getting in to space for an opportunity. Its funny how much I've heard "oh look, now we're getting back to being a team with pace" after this summer's signings. Theo has had that kind of pace all along, but now its much more prevalent in the squad with the likes of Ryo and Gervinho arriving after the summer.
  
  So where does this put Theo? Competition is firmly in place from other wingers, and those wingers can take players on in ways Theo can not; more direct, and in a way that draws the defender to them. Recalling Theo's chances, how often did they result in a foul on him; not exactly in the script in terms of what we want to come about from our wingplay. Then there is the obvious shortcoming in terms of crossing. The 2011 new look Arsenal seems to take pace and directness, and a good deal of expectation of having some kind of result from crosses. With the wingback overlaps being so good at it (Gibbs, Sagna and Jenkinson are excellent crossers of the ball), Theo will have to learn that defensive coverage will become an even greater expectation, and that there needs to be end product from his crosses.
  
  The more he bleats about wanting to get a central striker role, the more I don't see a place for him in the squad. Shocking thing to say, and if you asked me last season if that would be possible I would of pointed out his pace and ability to get around defenders and in to open space, and being effective on the counter, as reasons for him to be in the squad.
  
  But he's no longer the only kid on the block with that ability. The more he complains, the more I see what he's not producing. 3 Goals in 8 appearances is good, but it certainly doesn't mean he's a striker. Time will tell how well the other forwards produce, both in goals and assists, but the more Theo expresses frustration, openly, the closer I see him heading or being herded out the door.

• 23-Sep-2011 16:53 | | TheoVanRamshire  - Excellent Analysis
  

  Really good stuff. I learned somethg here. Thx.
  
  However, the more people piss and moan about Theo, the more he will defend himself by saying "Play me in position as a striker".
  
  I seem to value/rate Theo's contribution a lot more than most. Didn't hear much after game about the very good 20 mins he played against BRFC putting in much improved Bend-It-Like-Beckham crosses...because we lost!
  Generally, his goals, assists and general terrorizing of defenses several times a game is his contribution.
  
  He needs to develop the thick skin for criticism and keep working on this game.
  
  In the meantime we need to get off his back. His is a valuable contribution and we should stop beating him up for what he doesn't do so well...yet.

• 23-Sep-2011 16:57 | | TheoVanRamshire  - He'll cut you up, bitches.
  

  AW is a big boy and can handle. Theo growing an ego is a good thing mostly. But it is also a reaction to all the criticism from those people who don't accept his particular strengths/weaknesses. We shouldnt throw out the baby with the bathwater hear.
  Who is it Barca/Guardiola always say could hurt them? Theo. He'll cut you up, bitches. Just give him some service.

• 23-Sep-2011 17:10 | | redboy
  

  Dont know if i can watch our piss poor defence try and deal with adebayor.get ready for another pitch long run to the arsenal fans once agian.YOU BEEN WARNED

• 23-Sep-2011 18:34 | | john  - Arsene the realist
  

  http://www.footylatest.com/wenger-the-defence-has-been-solid-but-were- unlucky-at-blackburn/23814
  
  And the AKBs say Arsene is not deluded. ha ha

• 23-Sep-2011 22:39 | | Asiwaju64  - Indiscipline in Arsenal
  

  I still dont understand why AW feels his boys are beyond reproach when they fumble on the pitch. If Gervinho had messed up the way he did against BRFC in MU jersey, trust SAF to bench him for life. Always caution them,and assist them with instructions based on observations as game progresses. Enough of siddon-look.

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