It Doesn't Have to be Intentional

Everytime someone complains (usually the great Arsene Wenger, and quite rightly) about unfair, violent tackling and over the top physical play, the response usually is, "So he wants us to stop tackling? That's ridiculous!" Or, "So he's suggesting that players go out to intentionally injure their fellow professionals? That's ridiculous!"

B0th responses are strawman arguments. They create this ridiculous argument out of thin air (a strawman), something that has nothing to do with what was originally said, and is easy to knock down. And then, they laugh at it and smash it to bits.

No one's ever said that tackling needs to stop. Every time Wenger criticizes bad tackles, he mentions that he likes the physical battles and the "commitment" in English football. He understands that this is part of the game.

No one's ever said players intentionally try to injure other players. It doesn't have to be intentional. If you drive recklessly on the road, you might not be trying to hurt yourself and others, but there is a good chance that you will. When managers send their players out with instructions to kick and foul and the opposition players, there is a good chance that you will injure them, sometimes badly.

The player doesn't have to be an axe murderer either. If he's going out there sliding in studs up with two legs then he's bound to hurt someone. Maybe Shawcross et al aren't bad people. Maybe they are just stupid. Maybe they don't understand how dangerous their actions are. Either way, they are unfit to play the beautiful game until they change.

I'm glad Danny Murphy has spoken out. I hope more players do. And I hope mindless pundits, managers, and players don't get away with these pathetic excuses.

Our Defensive Combinations and Attacking Defensive Midfielders

Two things I'd like to touch upon.

One, our defensive combinations. We saw against Partizan, Koscielny was rested (or dropped?) and in came Djourou who played with Squillaci.

Although the Koscielny - Squillaci combo resumed on Sunday against Chelsea, I think what Wenger really wants is to have at least one of Djourou or Vermaelen playing together at any time.

The reason is that Djourou and Vermaelen are very good on the ball, and their distribution from the back is excellent. Koscielny and Squillaci, while not terrible, aren't as good with their passing. This might be part of the reason why we struggled to keep good possession against both West Brom and Sunderland.

Toward the end of last season, we had to play Campbell and Silvestre together, and we sorely missed the ball playing abilities of our first choice center halves as Campbell and Silvestre both kept hoofing the ball clear and inviting pressure back onto themselves, or just making awful passes into midfield and losing possesion. We saw a bit of that against West Brom on Saturday, as well, with Squillaci in particular playing some bad passes into midfield.

As the season wears on, our first choice CB pairing might end up being Vermaelen and Djourou (just like pre-season 09). But that depends on the fitness and form of Djourou, who so far has been a bit error prone but that could be mainly down to lack of match fitness.

I just thought of this and decided to share, I don't know if the statistics back this observation up sufficiently. I will check if I get the time, hopefully. Maybe Santry could help us?

---------------------------------------------------

Now, a lot of people have been complaining about Song pushing forward too much. I may be blind as a bat with red tinted glasses, but I have noticed that as well. I don't see much wrong with it either, to be honest.

The key to understand Song's new role is to understand our new formation. We still play a 4-3-3, but the triangle in midfield is sort of switched, and we now have 2 midfielders sitting deep, while one is given the freedom to go forward.
I wouldn't call it a 4-2-3-1 either because Fabregas, Nasri, Wilshere have a habit of going everywhere and if needed they drop very deep to pick up the ball. So there's no AM or second striker, but one of the midfielders moves up to take up that role at times.

But anyway, now that we have switched from a 4-1-2-3 (or 4-1-4-1 as Wenger described it) to a 4-2-1-3(?), Song has more support in midfield, with the other midfielder dropping in line with him to help out with the defending.
This means Song can make forward runs more often, knowing that there is another player there to cover for him.
So unlike what people have suggested, he is not leaving a gaping hole in midfield, but rather alternating with his midfield partner to attack or defend. As we saw against Partizan, Denilson was often times the deepest lying midfielder.

But is Song any good at this? We've seen in the past that he is extremely good at driving forward with the ball. He uses his size and strength well to guard the ball.
Maybe with Diaby or Wilshere alongside him he should do less of this, because they both like to dribble forward, but if someone like Denilson is playing beside him then it makes perfect sense for him to make these runs, because Denilson doesn't do that.

The only problem with this is that Song isn't the best passer. He goes forward and too often tries the killer pass which most of the time doesn't come off. Also, he can't shoot at all (although he can finish well from close range). I'd rather he lay it off to one of his teammates and try to work 1-2s. Or just work on his passing/shooting.

Song's new found attacking mentality isn't a bad thing. It gives us another attacking option if things aren't working well, and is one of the positives of this new midfield set up this season.