Last night’s defeat to Borussia Dortmund was one of those evenings that made me ashamed to be an Arsenal fan.
I took to Twitter to vent my anger but frustration is an emotion that is becoming all too familiar when Arsenal play a big team away from home. I wanted to explain further why I am worried about Arsenal and so should other fans. We are a long way from winning a title with these outdated tactics.
It was an encouraging performance against Manchester City, however, the embarrassing away form in the big games and persistence to force the Arsenal team into this new formation is the big worry.
On paper that Arsenal team should have made light work of Dortmund last night, but Wenger once again failed to adapt his tactics to the opposition.
Dormund boss Jurgen Klopp outsmarted him. The puzzling selection of out-of-form players like Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil whilst the fresh duo of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Santi Cazorla watched from the bench confuses me. Oxlade-Chamberlain came on and changed the game, he immediately put Dortmund on the back foot and his energy and commitment was admirable.
Wenger has so many options in midfield but when a player is out of form, he tends to play them until they perform again. What message does that send to the substitutes?
Ozil is the best footballer in the Arsenal team. To get the best out of him you must build around him not push him to the side and let his form suffer further. I do not like the German’s lack of effort in some games, but I blame Wenger for his form, not Ozil. It kills me to see such talent wasted on the wing game after game.
The most frustrating thing? I know Arsene will pick Ozil on the left on Saturday and will probably play with a very similar starting XI. The formation doesn’t work, he sticks to it. Players performing badly, he keeps playing them. The manager has become so stubborn at times, it’s frustrating to watch.
Some fans will point to Ramsey to tell me I’m wrong and that Wenger knows what he is doing. But ask yourselves, how many points were lost by playing Ramsey through that bad form, and how many points are we going to lose by doing the same thing with Ozil?
Not only was this performance a defensive shambles, the Gunners still lacked a clinical edge. Danny Welbeck deserves time to impress, but he missed two big chances and substitute Lukas Podolski rounded the keeper before mis-controlling the ball.
Three clear goalscoring chances were squandered and even though we were awful, there were chances to get something from that game. That’s not the fault of tactics, but it could be traced back to Wenger’s reluctance to purchase a world-class clinical forward.
Source: Metro UK
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