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 PÃres 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=
...esp when Chelsea's midfield and Man u's attack is strong..can anyone tell me if he play 4-5-1 against lesser teams?i nvr watch Arsenal play most of de time 