Is Wenger building a team around Fabregas?
Written by Jonathan Chong on Friday, 30 December 2005 7:34 AM
Is Wenger building a team around Fabregas?
Arsenal's victory over Charlton on Boxing Day highlighted the start
of a change in direction with Arsène Wenger's tactics. The Arsenal
manager has been labelled by many as stubborn, notorious even, for
his refusal to change a winning formula.
Wenger's philosophy of passing the ball at all costs, the
opposition will eventually open up and crumble. Score the first
goal, and the opposition will open up and attack, exposing their
back lines for the likes of Henry, Reyes and van Persie to exploit.
How many teams pass the ball out of defence when the opposition are
packing the penalty area after a corner? Most teams just kick it up
field, clearing the danger but that is not the Wenger way, for it
gives the opposition the ball back.
For his highly-successful tenure at Arsenal, the above held true.
Arsenal play a brand of football that many envy, even the
opposition on the receiving end of a footballing masterclass.
Arsenal's now lightweight and relatively fragile midfield have
struggled to cope with the physical approach the opposition employ.
Too easily are the likes of Francesc Fabregas, Mathieu Flamini and
surprisingly, Gilberto Silva, are muscled off the ball. So much so,
that many fans (everyone is a football manager when the chips are
down) are willing to break up a successful central defence
partnership in Sol Campbell and Kolo Touré and play the latter in
midfield.
The physiques of Edu and Patrick Vieira are clearly missed, players
who stood at 6'4" and who could win the ball in the air, pass it to
feet on the ground and disrupt a rare forage by the opposition into
the Arsenal half with a thundering tackle. Thundering tackles and
aerial dominance have been ominously missing from Arsenal's play
this season.
The Charlton game saw the Arsenal manager willing to deviate from
his free-flowing 4-4-2 formation and provide extra protection and
strength to Cesc Fabregas, by coaxing him between two other central
midfielders who would be willing to graft and win the ball.
Fabregas' strength is in his range of passing and his vision. In a
tight midfield where tackles come thick and fast, Fabregas has
often been unable to get Arsenal's passing game going. Fabregas is
quick becoming Arsenal's fulcrum, and if he can't get his range of
passing going, Arsenal's passing game breaks down in the middle of
the park.
Against Charlton the extra cover was provided by Gilberto and Hleb.
This allowed Fabregas freedom to distribute play to runners and to
attack the opposition penalty area.
Fabregas has said that he does feel more comfortable with a 4-5-1
formation: "As you saw against Charlton, I could go more in the
box, I could play more passes and that's the way I like to
play.
"Of course the team needed a couple of games to get used to it, but
I think the boss realised we were not having the best time and he
realised that when we play away from home we should be stronger in
the middle of the park.
"Maybe with three men in there we showed it was better and we
showed we can compete against anyone.
"I don't know if it will change for the next game, that is the
boss' decision."
Arsenal reverted back to their 4-4-2 formation at home to
Portsmouth, but Fabregas was left out of the Arsenal line-up. It is
probably a sign of things to come, when the Arsenal manager, so
staunch in his belief of a 4-4-2 formation, is willing to chop and
change according to the opposition.
Manchester United needed time to get used to their 4-5-1 formation
in Europe, deploying one Sebastian Veron in the middle of the park.
Arsenal previously had Robért Píres as the fulcrum in Europe,
playing in a 4-4-1-1 formation.
Wenger may have found that this rarest of footballing gems, for
that is what Fabregas is, might be Arsenal's answer, and is already
building the team and formations around his young Catalan.
http://www.arsenal-now.com/?page=articles&article=981126&from=rss&title=
