George Walker
A fresh season brings fresh optimism: this season was no different. With RvP leaving, would we become a stronger team collectively? Wasn’t he just injury-prone anyway? Would Steve Bould instantly solve our defensive issues? Of course, some of these optimistic theories were plausible, but most were born out of hope - the hope that always swirls amongst the gloom at the beginning of each trophy-less season. Our loyalty never allows us not to have this hope. Despite what we may say about the board, the manager and the players, we want all that they tell us to be true.
For a while, some of our wishes were granted. The ‘Steve Bould Effect’ appeared to kick in, and greater defensive solidity was the result. We kept clean sheets; it looked like all the frailties of our backline had disappeared. The harsh reality is that many issues still remained, and it’s only now that they are beginning to be exposed. Some of these issues have remained ever since the break-up of The Invincibles; some have come about more recently.
Chief of these issues is our lack of organisation. I say ‘lack of organisation’, as opposed to just ‘poor defending’, because I think that anybody trying to justify saying the likes of Verminator, Kos, Sagna, BFG, Jenko and Gibbs are all bad defenders would have a hard time. It is how we defend as a unit, not as individual defenders, that is the root cause of our defensive woes. This is an issue that runs deep in the philosophy of the team. It cannot be solved by simply splashing money on one stand-out centre-half. We already have defenders who possess excellent ability, but it is the mentality of the team as a whole that must change. It must be said that this lack of organisation does not exist purely on the defensive side of our game; our attacking play of late has also lacked some needed cohesion, purpose and structure.
This lack of structure and cohesion has been particularly apparent in our recent games against Reading and Fulham, where we have allowed the games to ebb and flow and turn into frantic, scrappy affairs, not asserting any presence or authority over either match. In possession we do still play some exciting, scintillating football. But too often we give the ball away cheaply, often costing us dear à la Arteta against Fulham. In defence, we see some fantastically- executed sliding challenges and many timely interventions, but too often we switch off from a set-piece, or give away a needless foul. This is not a case of individuals though; this is a case of philosophy.
The work-rate from some individuals in our squad can be below par at some times. Players such as Arshavin, Chamakh or Santos often don’t pull their weight when they play, leaving our team unbalanced and lop-sided. This is, again, an issue which relates to the philosophy of our squad, and its work-ethic as a whole.
Another problem is that we often seem to lack concentration. This is a mix of training, priorities and undoubtedly individual errors. I can’t help but feel that some good traditional drills - especially for the defence - would help eradicate some of these errors, with everyone knowing where they needed to be, what their job was, who they were marking. I strongly believe that this would reduce the amount of free headers and soft goals we allow. Another possible antidote for this may be greater tactical and positional awareness, understanding the formation we are playing, the system we are playing and how we plan to win the game. A ‘plan’ is one thing I believe we lack significantly in some games, which leads me on to my next point.
We sometimes appear to be tactically naïve. If this is because of the manager, the way he communicates his ideas to the players or the player’s lack of tactical awareness, we cannot tell. The reality is it’s probably a mixture of them all. We find a certain system we like, and play with that system, week in, week out, regardless of opposition. It seems that we create an idealistic way of playing, and try to do it every week, with varying degrees of success. This is based on the model of Barcelona, who replicate the same system every week with a lot of success. The problem is, we aren’t Barcelona.
Compare this to United, who constantly change their system, formation and personnel to suit the situation, and it is clear that this may be a major factor in our lack of success and their abundance of it. Remember when they played the Da Silva brothers as wingers and beat us 2-0 in the FA Cup at OT? That worked a treat. Can you imagine us displaying that tactical creativity? I doubt it.
These are some of the major problems and I’m not saying that if they were solved we would win the league, but we would play to our full potential, which I believe means that we could challenge for trophies. In terms of blame, I do not believe one individual is at fault. The players clearly have a responsibility to ensure they are playing consistently at their top level but the manager also has to take responsibility for the way the team are set up to cope with specific challenges. The board could also be blamed for not providing the funds to bring in the necessary players, although as far as many of these issues are concerned, I see that as a lesser factor.
So to summarise, yes - Arsenal have a squad which is not as good as many of those we have had in the past. But if we changed our approach slightly, we might be able to get more out of what we have, which is still a talented group of footballers.
