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Sunday, February 16, 2014

Wenger gets the tactics right. That’s why he didn’t buy another forward


By 1970’s Gooner

This time Wenger set up Arsenal to defend a little deeper giving respect to Liverpool’s fast forward players in Sturridge, Suarez and Sterling.

This meant that through balls behind Arsenal’s defence for the on rushing speedsters was a lot more difficult. It also meant that Liverpool were getting crowded out in front of Arsenal’s back line.

Wenger made another important decision and that was in team selection. One he doesn’t make normally as he likes to have only one defensive central midfielder complimented by a more creative one.

On this occasion he went with two defensive players, Flamini who was magnificent and Arteta who was solid. They sat deeper than normal and swept up in front of the defence.

This change of approach allowed Arsenal to play on the counter attack. The Ox was the one detailed to sail down the right wing and he stretched Liverpool’s defence time after time.

He scored the first goal and set up the second by a delicious run behind the full back and an intelligent cut back for the on rushing Podolski who looked sharp until his mistake for the penalty.

What was also impressive was the fighting spirit that was evident throughout the team. They set a high tempo and were full of running both on and off the ball not letting the Liverpool players any moment to themselves.

More importantly they wanted to win and get the revenge they felt they deserved.

Yaya Sanogo had in my opinion an excellent game. I was taken aback as I had watched him in the summer play for the France U 21’s and he looked a bit sluggish and ponderous.

He was a revelation tonight! He was getting most of the headers from long balls just like Giroud does. He was also able to accept the ball and pass it to a team mate. The Liverpool defenders often had to foul him as they couldn’t out muscle him when they went up for the high balls together.

He created the first goal by chesting the ball down inside the box and hitting it goal wards. It would have gone in had it not hit a defender rebounding to the Ox to score.

Is this the reason that Wenger was so reluctant to sign another forward in the recent window?

Or is he waiting for RVP?

 

 

 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

He won the match, credit to him. However, the point about tactics is a little questionable when Flamini was suspended for the loss at Anfield and was available for this match. One could say it was tactics, but one could also say it was about player availability.

Anonymous said...

Wenger doesnt normaly play flamini and arteta together. He should play them in the big games

Unknown said...

Whether if it is a tactics or an availability of the player its still part of the game.

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