Brazil show how to break down defensive minded teams
One of the major talking point of the previous season was the inability of Arsenal to break down sides. This was at its peak when Fabregas was absent and the side struggled to find any sort of attacking cohesiveness to dismantle the ultra cautious approach of the opponents we faced.
Particularly frustrating was the game against Sunderland when the Black Cats felt they never had it so easy at an Arsenal ground in recent years. And they weren’t the only ones as Fulham and West Ham got relatively easy draws. What they all did, Sunderland in particular was this; most of their players packed themselves in a block meaning there was space on the wings.
The lack of any decent wing play coupled with no semblance of aerial threat meant that opposing teams were happy to let us cross the ball because they backed themselves to sort that out.
Back to Brazil, they faced a similar problem in the final against USA. Whenever they tried to almost bulldoze their way through the centre, they were promptly stopped by the Americans and were left vulnerable by the two attacking players high up the pitch.
This is similar to what Fulham did against Arsenal at the Emirates. The difference with Brazil though was that they had quality on the wing which threatened the USA team enough in the first half and then exposed that same defence to come out winners.
Why would I try and link the Brazil win to any future Arsenal success? It is because talk has been growing about a possible switch in tactics, perhaps a 4-3-3 system which is used at Barcelona. Whilst I like the concept and believe it can be really effective, you cannot underestimate the value of quality wingers.
I remember the match when a certain Gary Neville was left traumatized at the Emirates in the league match and Bendtner had the game of his life arguably creating plenty of confusion between Ferdinand and Vidic.
The Brazil-USA final is a timely reminder of what quality wingers and aerial threat can provide. It is something that has to be worked on as this was not at its very best last season. The players are still developing and hopefully they will come good.
The thing about the US is that it took a great deal of luck to get past Spain. Tikki-takka football still works – Spain had their chances, didn't take them. It's still possible for a creative, passing side to get it through the middle; you just have to be really, really good and have lethal finishers at the end.
In the case of Arsenal's season, if Adebayor was cooler in front of goal, if the strikers worked harder off the bal, if the midfielders (apart from Cesc) showed more ambition in their passing, if Arshavin was allowed greater influence on the team, it wouldn't matter how played, we'd still be a side able to challenge.
oh it does work, but the team needs to have close to super human understanding, thats why we were so good when we had the the likes of Pires, Vieira Henry.
Adebayor is cool, he is too cool that is his problem. The dude never gets worked up enough. Cesc needs to show less ambition for me. Towards the end of the season, in couple of games his passing was comfortably blocked off.
Also Wenger I feel is not too keen on wingers in the orthodox sense as he always likes the wide men to drift inwards so in effect we have four central midfielders with the width coming from the left and right backs.