This article was a comment on this morning’s piece on Arsenal trying a 352 with a partner for Lacazette. Dave suggested Giroud or Welbeck but an old Gunners Town writer got in touch suggesting an interesting alternative.
Ozil a free riole up front?
I agree with pretty much all about the formation and midfield, but ideally we would keep Ozil who could still stay, and play him as the striker with Lacazette, bringing Wilshere in as the 10. A few benefits:
1. Ozil having as much defensive responsibility as Alexis (virtually none) and a similar average position (beyond the no 9) could bring back the Ozil who dovetailed so beautifully with Alexis at 9, when he could exploit the space created by the Chilean’s movement. A huge part of his less than ideal performances has been the need to drift so far from goal to receive the ball since the loss of Cazorla.
2. Jack is a midfielder at heart, a ball carrier and someone who can grease the wheels are bit by dropping deep and helping with ball circulation.
3. With Wilshere (drawn to ball) Ramsey (forward runner, facilitator) combination, Xhaka can sit deep enough to have the space to distribute, and not be caught on the break as much, as he has 2 doing work ahead of him.
Get the best from Jack
4. The combined intelligence and technique of Wilshire, Ozil and Lacazette takes the technical pressure of Ramsey and Xhaka. It’d be harder to stifle us. I fear that asking Lacazette to play an ‘on the ball’ game may not play to his strengths, which could be why he doesn’t do it for France with Ollie… yet. He seems lethal but you want him finding pockets when others have the ball or running off the shoulder
This all stems from my personal opinion that Mesut Ozil has suffered the most from our pedestrian midfield. He’s still doing great chance creation numbers but he’s a fish out of water at times. Wilshere behind him, bringing the ball forward under control, would liberate the world class Ozil that we see on rare occasions at present.
Food for thought?
Accra based. Big picture, always. New writer as of June 2013. Always tries to understand why Arsenal makes the unique decisions that we do. Haven’t really watched the trophy clock, prefer to sit back and watch the alchemist at work…It’s more fun that way.
Views are my own.
Real visionaries are rarely appreciated during their time… Arsenal has one right now. I’m just glad to have noticed early.
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