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VA10 Football God 4,806 pts

Too many midfielders

Posted by VA10 over 8 years ago · 5 replies

As things stand we have a lot of midfielders. I think Wenger even said selecting the Arsenal midfield is an impossible job. I was thinking about Cryuff's diamond for some reason the other day and thought we should we try it? 3-4-3 Diamond. Formation

5 Comments

Ix Techau Evil Mastermind 14,278 pts
Posted over 8 years ago by Ix Techau

Monreal does the job a as a CB so he'd help in that line up. Wouldn't have to go forward as much with 4 midfielders and 2 wide forwards..

True. Monreal + Koscielny + Gabriel would probably be a fine three-man backline. But again, the day Wenger plays a three-man backline is the day when Jimmy Savile wins a posthumous Unicef award.

Ix Techau Evil Mastermind 14,278 pts
Posted over 8 years ago by Ix Techau

Three-man backline with only one CB? Dream on haha. I'd love to see a diamond, but I'd prefer a 4-3-1-2. However, in reality we actually don't have that many central midfielders. Wilshere is always injured. Arteta and Rosicky are way past their due date...that leaves us with Ramsey, Özil and Cazorla, with Coquelin and Flamster as the defensive options.

So yeah, quantity-wise we have lots of central midfielders, but quality-wise there are actually not too many realistic options. Unless of course you play Ox in the middle (where he wants to play) and bring back Thomas Eisfeld to improve quality overall.

But seriously, I approve of your YOLO thinking in using a 3-4-3, but I'd much rather see Koscielny, Gabriel and Chambers in the middle, and then use Bellerin and Gibbs as wide midfielders to offer both defensive and attacking options depending on play.

A more realistic scenario, seeing as Wenger loves to emulate Pep's Barca, would be to use the organic three-man backline Barca used in their prime. In possession, full-backs pushed up to wingers and Busquets dropped down to an advanced CB role with the normal CBs pushing wide. Off possession the full-backs dropped down and Busquets moved up a bit, so it was a 2+1 defensive line in possession and a normal 4+1 when defending.

Ix Techau Evil Mastermind 14,278 pts
Posted over 8 years ago by Ix Techau

Monreal does the job a as a CB so he'd help in that line up. Wouldn't have to go forward as much with 4 midfielders and 2 wide forwards..

True. Monreal + Koscielny + Gabriel would probably be a fine three-man backline. But again, the day Wenger plays a three-man backline is the day when Jimmy Savile wins a posthumous Unicef award.

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