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The problem is the rotated players are often Eboue, Arshavin and Denilson. These three also happen to be the most apathetic members of the squad when it comes to workrate, defensive awareness and closing down.
The only Ipswich tactic last week was to kick the ball at or over eboue's head and let Wickham win the header everytime or run behind Eboue whilst he watches the ball in flight.
Arshavin as he did with Clichy now leaves Gibbs painfully isolated making Gibbs look an average player, as did Clichy with Andrey.
Denilson is.... well Denilson. His strengths are that he can make a pretty sweet 7 yard square ball every single time and be completely oblivious to any opponents running around and away from him. Either can't tackle and can't header or doesn't want to tackle or header, both are unacceptable.
That leaves the Gk, CB, CB and LB who can actually defend but as previously stated the LB can't defend without help from Arshavin so we're left with The GK and the CB's who want to/can defend.
There's no balance between attacking and defending which is why the second squad has been so poor recently compared to the first best XI.
The best XI has the GK, both CBs, RB-Sagna who is the best in the world, LB- Clichy who looks excellent again with Nasri in front, Song- who might just be one of the best DMs in the world now, Jack and Theo who work hard to get back and cover like Nasri. That's a team of talented attackers defending BUT when you replace Sagna with Eboue you're replacing the best rightback in the world with an average right midfielder that can't and doesn't want to defend. You replace Song with Denilson and go from an elite DM with excellent and natural defensive skills to one that still fails to comprehend the importance of heading, tackling, positioning and run tracking mostly because he isn't and has never been a DM but also because he has just failed to develop that side of his game at all in 5 years. Arshavin for Nasri not only limits us offensively nowadays due to Andrey's form but much like Denilson, has zero understanding that defending is part of the game.
All of this means that although a team with Gibbs, Eboue, Denilson and Arshavin should be stronger offensively than one with Clichy, Sagna, Song and Nasri IT ISN'T because we don't win the ball back quickly enough, the opposition always create chances against them thus slowing down our momentum, as seen at Wigan, home to Leeds, away at Ipswich. They all created more chances and limited our chances, not through our lack of attacking quality but because we couldn't win the ball and thus the oppostion were allowed to get 10 men behind the ball everytime we had it because the only time we won the ball back was when our keeper or CB got it in or around our area, 90 yards from their goal.
Wenger's a smart guy, he must realise all of this and I would expect Denilson and Andrey to be gone come August which is a shame because they're both good players offensively but the're just not grasping the new team ethos that you have to earn the right to attack through defensive workrate.
The only Ipswich tactic last week was to kick the ball at or over eboue's head and let Wickham win the header everytime or run behind Eboue whilst he watches the ball in flight.
Arshavin as he did with Clichy now leaves Gibbs painfully isolated making Gibbs look an average player, as did Clichy with Andrey.
Denilson is.... well Denilson. His strengths are that he can make a pretty sweet 7 yard square ball every single time and be completely oblivious to any opponents running around and away from him. Either can't tackle and can't header or doesn't want to tackle or header, both are unacceptable.
That leaves the Gk, CB, CB and LB who can actually defend but as previously stated the LB can't defend without help from Arshavin so we're left with The GK and the CB's who want to/can defend.
There's no balance between attacking and defending which is why the second squad has been so poor recently compared to the first best XI.
The best XI has the GK, both CBs, RB-Sagna who is the best in the world, LB- Clichy who looks excellent again with Nasri in front, Song- who might just be one of the best DMs in the world now, Jack and Theo who work hard to get back and cover like Nasri. That's a team of talented attackers defending BUT when you replace Sagna with Eboue you're replacing the best rightback in the world with an average right midfielder that can't and doesn't want to defend. You replace Song with Denilson and go from an elite DM with excellent and natural defensive skills to one that still fails to comprehend the importance of heading, tackling, positioning and run tracking mostly because he isn't and has never been a DM but also because he has just failed to develop that side of his game at all in 5 years. Arshavin for Nasri not only limits us offensively nowadays due to Andrey's form but much like Denilson, has zero understanding that defending is part of the game.
All of this means that although a team with Gibbs, Eboue, Denilson and Arshavin should be stronger offensively than one with Clichy, Sagna, Song and Nasri IT ISN'T because we don't win the ball back quickly enough, the opposition always create chances against them thus slowing down our momentum, as seen at Wigan, home to Leeds, away at Ipswich. They all created more chances and limited our chances, not through our lack of attacking quality but because we couldn't win the ball and thus the oppostion were allowed to get 10 men behind the ball everytime we had it because the only time we won the ball back was when our keeper or CB got it in or around our area, 90 yards from their goal.
Wenger's a smart guy, he must realise all of this and I would expect Denilson and Andrey to be gone come August which is a shame because they're both good players offensively but the're just not grasping the new team ethos that you have to earn the right to attack through defensive workrate.
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