Arsenal
Will Arsenal Come up Short in Defence?
Can he kick start Guns'
By Boris Mellor
August 12 2009
With an away to trip Everton to start Arsenal's season it is pertinent to ask if the Gunner's defence will improve on last season. Arsenal's defence was joint poorest of the top five last season, and the worst of the top four.
Both Everton and Arsenal conceded 37 Premiership goals last season, no team that concedes 37 goals is anywhere near being a contender. Nor do teams that finish 4th rise to first the following season.
Yet Arsenal finished with 9 more points than the Toffees, the reason for that was that the Gunners scored 13 more goals. Although Everton are not a serious contender for the championship they are still capable of testing Arsenal's vulnerable defence.
Last season they took the lead with a Cahill headed goal, it was a match that Everton dominated. If the Toffees had a decent striker they may well have won, but RvP snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat with a last minute wonder goal.
However, the main issue the game demonstrated was that Arsenal often tend to concede first, and then struggle to equalise. Man U and Chelsea's superior points tally was achieved by good defending, they didn't outscore Arsenal.
Thus any improvement to Arsenal's league position must result from an improved defence. I must agree with Almunia that height is not the reason why the defence comes up short. Kolo and Gallas are not midgets, and Djourou is taller than both. The partnership of Djourou and Gallas did not stop Cahill's goal.
Our defence suffers a multiplicity of faults, yet individually they are all talented. The problem is that they don't work as a unit, and often get little support from the midfield. They often lose concentration and position, Gibbs was not the only one out of position for the disastrous Man Utd CL goal. They also refuse to attack the ball in the air, get conned at corners and set pieces; and have numerous other faults.
Will Vermaelen improve matters?
Well at 6ft he will add nothing to the height of the back four; he is also to most of us an unknown quantity. Sure Wenger will have watched him carefully, as he did with Reyes, and there lies the rub, for players who play well in European leagues do not necessarily translate their form into English.
Wenger will not have bought him for height reasons, so why play a zero sum game of swapping him for Kolo. What is to be gained (apart from £5 million profit)? He is probably no better or worse in the air than Toure. I can only assume that Wenger is looking for someone who can organise the chaos that is the Gunners defence.
Arsene knows the defence has to be improved or nothing can be achieved. Whether this is the right move only time will tell, and even if it is a lack of quality defensive cover may undermine its effectiveness. Wenger is also looking for a defender that has pace and can play out from the back. Something that the defence has become increasingly ineffective at.
The Belgium has a track record, he has during his time with Ajax, won the Dutch League Championship in 2003/04, also winning the Dutch National Cup on two occasions (in 2006 and 2007) and the Dutch Super Cup twice (in 2006 and 2007).Last season he captained Ajax, hopefully he can help the back four organise, I have no evidence that he will succeed in doing that, but I assume that is what he has been bought for, if he can't then it will be another trophy less season.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:08:16:18:19:07 by Padre Pio.
Vermaelen or Gallas cannot use their 6ft height as an excuse if they lose a header because they will have come up against shorter strikers and still lost a header in the past, and beaten taller strikers/defenders to a ball.
Arsenal have the worst organisation in the Premier league I would argue, that seems pretty obvious to me.
Quote:Tom14
Arsenal have the worst organisation in the Premier league I would argue, that seems pretty obvious to me.
Bit extreme aren't you. As stated in the article, we have the joint worst organisational skills in the top 5, hardly as bad as boro' are we!!
Nobody can be worse than Toure in the air
I quote from article "I must agree with Almunia that height is not the reason why the defence comes up short. Kolo and Gallas are not midgets, and Djourou is taller than both. The partnership of Djourou and Gallas did not stop Cahill's goal."
The title is a pun - as above quote says I dont think height is the reason. Gallas and Djourou had enough height but failed to rise to the ocassion.
So it appeared that you were saying that the article was arguing it was about height.
besides everton are a really good team considered to have a good defence, who play defensively and they still conceded the same amount as us. obviously we should be aiming for liverpool, chelsea, united's level but it isn't height that's going to achieve that, it's having good defenders
Their also seems this attitude of "he is not my man so if he scores its not my fault" in far too many of our players, too many want only to play football, and not work for the good of the team
But organisation is also a factor, how many times does our wall fail to stop a free kick going in, indeed it often aids it as all it does is block view of keeper.
Also our defending from corners and throw ins often results in a cheap goal.
It seems to me that Wenger is also at fault with his high line strategy, yes I understand the need to push up, but its no use when its the opposition that benefits.
Does the defence understand the high line strategy? Are they too slow? Whatever the reason the misunderstandings need sorting out or we will remain victim to the ball over the top.
Most Prem teams have learnt how to mug us, nothing to do with violent play, just an understanding that we cant cope with high balls, balls over the top and a good free kick.
Dealing with high balls has nothing to with height, but positional sense, which once again we lack. With defenders as talented as ours we should not be conceding 37 goals a season.
Finally we need to defend as a team more, less of a flat back four with acres of space between it and the midfield.
If Wenger doesnt sort it we are doomed to another barren season. What I have seen form pre season, and I know its hard to judge, is that it has not been sorted yet.
1 - No more ehadless chicken antics under pressure, especialy with Kolo disrupting the organisation of defence.
2 - No more lazy git refusing to defence up high and refusing to harass oponets once ball is lost.
3 - Van Persie is presently taking up the role as 'Lone Striker" plus instantly harassing opponent when he lsot the ball. That is, Van Persie is helping by defending in oppoent's half.
4 - Once Kolo lost his pace and quickness, he became a liability in defence due to his lack of positional sense and lack of organisation ability.
AFter Feb 2008, you lot ever see any of Kolo's past "ants in the pants" performance? And all I see is a Kolo blowing like a whale before half-time.
5 - Agreed. Our downfall is simply that the whole TEAM did not defend as a UNIT.
6 - Plus opponents had cleverly exploited our disunited TEAM by:
- a quick hoofball to bypass our defence and allow pacy forwards like Keane and Aglonlohar to run directly at our defence.
- a quick bypassing our defence to flanks where pacy wingers had a clear run at our FB in CLichy and Sagna.
And why opponents easily atacked us down the flanks is simply that Sagna and CLichy are not haivng the ebst of season and worse, being exposed with no help from Walcott (Sagna) or Diaby or Nasri (CLichy).
This TEAM will work if:
..................Almunia
...Sagna.....Gallas......Vermaelen.....Clichy
.......Denilson.................Song
..................Fabregas
...Van Persie........................Arshavin
.................Eduardo
Eduardo as "Lone Striker" with a good work-rate to harass opponents when ball is lost.
Van Persie to help out protecting right flank high-up on teh ptich, with Fabregas helping out.
The key is Fabregas as a complete MIDFIELD GENERAL with defensive steel high up the pitch, with Denilson-SOng sweeping behind him, as well as responsible for their respective flanks.
A high rate is needed from both of them.
Denilson's anticipation and interception skills are needed for this 4-3-3 to be successful.
It will be total defence DURIGN FREEKICK AND CORNER with Van Persie and Arshavin bakc defending as well as to setup immediate counter-attack with Edaurdo near centre-circle.
The job for Van Persie, Denilson, Fabregas and Arshavin is to prevent the likes of Terry, Essien, Gerrard, Ballack, et al to run from deep and head in all those corners and hanging ball from freekicks.
And there is where we need Denilson's anticipation skill to block off all those running channels.
Defensivly, we should be OK as Fabregas, Denilson and SOng ahd improved from last season.
And it si criminal that Wenegr repeats the same defensive fragilities as of last season and leak in more than 20 goals thsi season.
We are supposedly had developed INTEGRATION by retianing the "core" of alst season squad.
One more year of playing togetehr and developing better team understanding.
Verdcit sis til out buy a Vermaalen-Gallas pairing is way way better than a Kolo-Gallas pairing with a clearly declining Kolo without hsi pace and quickness, missing Engine and no more energetic and perpetual running "ants in the pants" performance.
i am not hoping for anything this season cos obviously the club has changed their priorites and we fans have failed to realize that.
Yes he bought a few bums but look at the good ones:
Lauren, Sagna, Lehman, Kolo, Campbell,Gallas, Almunia, Clichy
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