The Arsenal Thread XX

Southampton value Schneiderlin the same way they value Lallana, Shaw, Lovren, etc. He will go for £25M-£30M and Southampton can play hard ball since he has 3 years left on his contract. It would not be a cheap purchase by any means.

We're not buying Khedira for the sake of a pure CDM we're buying him as an upgrade on Arteta which isn't such a bad thing.

Sure he's a bit expensive but we've been moaning for years about how we weren't splashing out the money on players so now that we finally people lose their minds. Not the best player but he's been solid for Real madrid and you have to take into account his injury this season. Still, I'm sure he'll be one of the first to be injured next season too

What ever happened to the Debuchy deal...

There's no way wenger wants all the players pushing forward kamikaze style with the full backs going forward as well as the "dm" leaving only merts and kosch behind. That would be suicidal in the big games if he doesn't tell the full backs to stay reserved.


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What ever happened to the Debuchy deal...

I know a lot of people don't rate him, but Joe Allen would have been a great DM signing, too. I don't think Arsenal are looking for a box to box guy like Vieira was, so the DM role is going to be an unsung hero and they are available for much less than is being touted for Khedira.

I think most people criticising Khedira have only seen him for 1 or 2 matches he managed to be fit for in the CL this year

The same Joe Allen who plays for a team who finished two places above Arsenal and is not a DM?



Lol, I've seen him for a number of years. Tenacious player, unimpressive on the ball, can see his standard dropping as he takes a step down from Madrid just as Ozil's did. Not the best at positioning himself defensively either. He's just another Ramires type, although maybe with a better brain and slightly more consistent on the ball - guess I don't watch him week in week out. His best position is as a box to box midfielder in a system where there's no attacking output required from him. Could Wenger mould him into a proper DM? Not if you take Arteta as a case study.

Schneiderlin kinda reminds me of Koscielny.

We don't need him to be a pure DM for us. Think the reason he bombs forward so much is because he can without much responsibility. At madrid he has Alonso and for Germany there's Scweinsteiger who is much more defensively minded. I've mentioned before he's not the best of players nor a world beater but he's definitely a massive upgrade on Arteta right now. Lack of a pure CDM won't hurt as much as long as we don't run suicide tactics like last season,

Well, not really imo.

Last year in the big games you played a very high line. This was to negate the fact that you didn't have a pure DM. When you play a high line there's less space on the pitch and essentially all of your standard midfielders become the DM at different points. This is because they're working in a compressed space, and so they're not too far away from tracking the run/doubling up with the fullback whenever it's required, ie doing the normal DMs jobs.

Whereas when you're playing a deeper system, there's a lot more space in front of the defence for the opposition to play in. Different midfielders are then assigned different roles and have to stick to them, because they're further apart. This means a specialist DM is needed.

Look at Mascherano, as conventional a DM as they come, playing for Argentina in the WC, and then Busquets/Schweinsteiger, much more unconventional ones playing for Pep's Barca/Bayern.

^that's how it was explained to me anyway.

The issue with your suicide tactics was that a) your fullbacks, especially your left back, were awful at coming back on the counter, or at choosing when to go forward, b) Mertesacker just does not fit into a high line, c) Arteta didn't do anything at all - didn't push up properly because he can't, and staying deep does **** all really in a high line because it makes it easier to beat the press and d) the ball was given away in compromising positions far too easily. Opinions?

Not really how it was at all. The reason we played a high line was because we needed to be winning the ball higher up the pitch as all our players with pace were injured.
We offered no counter attacking threat and so had no choice but to press up the pitch where we continuously got caught out on the counter. Had we had a fit Walcott and Sanchez last season we could have sat deeper and countered ourselves. Full backs didn't help us last season on the counter, but it certainly wasn't the lack of a DM that led to those mullerings.

Ox has pace. Plus there are ways around not having pace and yet not playing a high line. It's Wenger's fault essentially (I edited to say this).

It wasn't outright a lack of a DM, it was mostly complacent dispossessions, lazy fullbacks and a high line.