With players returning from injury and results improving with each passing week, Arsenal fans can finally be optimistic about the rest of their club’s season.
However, Arsene Wenger still has one final problem to solve – one which very few can agree on – and that is how we can best utilise all of our attacking talent in one side.
With the likes of Mesut Özil, Santi Cazorla, Tomas Rosicky and Francis Coquelin all producing performances of the highest quality, Wenger suddenly has more top quality midfielders than his formations allow.
I have therefore decided to look at just a few of the formations Arsene could deploy in order to give each of his star players a place in our starting eleven. All of my tactical set-ups are designed with two things in mind. The first is that there must be a no.10 position available for Özil, and the second is that we must be able to field a minimum of three central-midfielders alongside him. It is also worth noting that none of my line-ups are intended for games against world-class opposition. Instead, they are a selection of formations that I think would work well against teams we are expected to dominate.
Without further adieu, here how I would accommodate all of Arsenal’s attacking options:
The ‘False Full-back’ 4-1-4-1 / 2-3-4-1
My first formation is inspired by Pep Guardiola’s ‘False Full-back’ system, in which both full-backs move into defensive midfield when their team is in possession.
In order for this system to work, you need to have two players who are capable of playing both as a full-back and defensive-midfielder; and Wenger has the perfect players for this role – Coquelin and Chambers.
Coquelin has been outstanding in midfield in recent games, and he played exceptionally well at both right-back and left-back before leaving on loan in 2010. His intelligent positioning would help him transition between full-back and defensive-midfield with ease, and this system would also allow him to start alongside club caption Arteta, without forcing us to play too defensively.
Chambers should also be able to excel in this role, and if either he or Francis were injured, Flamini, Monreal, Wilshere, or even Ramsey could potentially play in their place – with the latter two acting more as central-midfielders when we have the ball.
With our defence covered by a three-man midfield wall, we would be able to have two players act as attacking-midfielders. One of them would, obviously, be Özil, and the other place could go to Cazorla, Ramsey or even Rosicky. With Olivier Giroud ahead of them and Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott out wide, this could be an extremely offensive set-up, with excellent possession retention and attacking threat, and since our defensive shape would still be a 4-1-4-1, our tactics while out of possession wouldn’t have to change.
4-2-3-1 Dummy Right-back
Much like the previous formation, this set-up would act as a 4-2-3-1 when we are defending, but would switch to a much more offensive 3-3-3-1 formation when we have possession.
In order to achieve this, one full-back – the right-back in this case – plays like a normal defender when his team don’t have the ball, but then moves into the holding midfielder position when his team win possession back. As he begins to move, the three remaining defenders begin to shift over, creating a triangular back three that is excellent for possession retention.
Coquelin would be extremely well suited to the dummy full-back in this formation, and we would be able to play him while also fielding the likes of Aaron Ramey, Tomas Rosicky etc. ahead of him, with Mesut Özil sitting in the no.10 role.
As for the front three – these are interchangeable. Olivier Giroud or Danny Welbeck could be deployed as our centre-forward, and then any of our wide-players could feature on the flanks.
This tactical system was often used by Barcelona in the days of Johan Cruyff and towards the end of Pep Guardiola’s reign.
4-3-3 False 9
The 4-3-3 False 9 formation is very well known in modern football. Heavily used by Barcelona and Spain, it relies on a dummy striker who moves into midfield when his side are in possession, which then allows the two wingers to make diagonal runs towards the opposition’s goal.
This system would suit Alexis and Walcott, as it would give them the freedom to play both out wide and closer to goal, depending on how they felt the game was going.
The false 9 role would allow Özil to play as an attacking-midfielder when we are in possession, and it would also mean he wouldn’t have to contribute to our defensive work when we lose the ball. Behind him, we’d be able to field three players in midfield, which would give more chances to the likes of Wilshere and Rosicky, due to the fact Mesut would no longer be taking up one of their positions.
This set-up would work well if both Giroud and Welbeck were out injured – something which may well happen in the near future – and a lot of low level teams have proven to struggle playing against a team that uses this tactical system. Although it isn’t the most attacking on the list, it is certainly worth considering if certain players are unavailable.
Now you know how I’d attempt to accommodate all our attacking players, let us know how you would in the comments below.
*’Gabriel’ refers to Gabriel Paulista, who is expected to sign for Arsenal before the end of the January window.