Who is your least favourite CM at Arsenal?

Wenger has played teams hich change formation when we attack and defend for years. If you watch his play it looks like Ramsey has been told to concentrate on getting forward when we win the ball. He drops back in when we lose the ball and adds a player to the defensive line, but by all appearances that is a secondary duty with getting forward being the primary one.
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Well neither of us know what Ramsey has been told. Wenger is in the wrong either way as he has either told Ramsey to bomb forward and constantly leave us exposed, or he hasn't but can't bring himself to drop Ramsey.

But either way, you can't disagree that Ramsey takes no responsibility for defending, positioning, and tries to do the spectacular half the time. Either he has no awareness, or is so obsessed with grabbing his goal that he doesn't care.

Think Ramsey needs to be put on the right side of MF or AM He can still make them forward runs but he doesn't need to do as much defensive work (not like he does.anyway) so hopefully we won't have gaping holes in the CM.

Maybe need to try out Xhaka and Coquelin with Coq given specific information about not passing he halfway line and staying in front of the CB like he was doing a few seasons back.

----Xhaka--Coq------
Ramsey-Ozil-Alexis
------Lacazette

Xhaka has looked the worse recently, but Ramsey really doesn't help him. He is no where near Xhaka when he receives the ball from the back. He's always basically on the 18 yard box, usually even further forward than Ozil, which leaves Xhaka very isolated and easily tackled. If Ramsey did his job better, our CM pairing would look more solid. He seems only interested in trying to score himself

But we have 3 CB's, 2 wing backs and a deep lying of which maybe only one at a time should go forward. we introduced an extra CB which should release Ramsey to be able to go forward. Yet we see so many of our fans who want to commit a 6th player to be a defensive player.

Ramsey keeps getting the blame but when we have that many defensive players and a deep lying CM who does nothing defensively I think the finger is being pointed at the wrong person.

At the end of the day, there are many valid ways of resolving our defensive issues, I just dont like parking the bus.

comment by Sömeday_693 - Elneny will be our salvation (U8892)
posted 39 minutes ago

But either way, you can't disagree that Ramsey takes no responsibility for defending, positioning, and tries to do the spectacular half the time. Either he has no awareness, or is so obsessed with grabbing his goal that he doesn't care.
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Ramsey has 5 tackles so far. Xhaka has 1, Even Ozil has 2.

Who is not taking responsibility?

I dont like Xhaka, others dont like Ramsey and the other players. It was a genuine article to try to gauge what the proportion of fans on here that dislike each is and what qualities in a player they like and dont like. Of course I will give my bias to it and you clearly are as well.
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Yeah but you've been banging this 'Xhaka 1 tackle' drum for days now. You've just posted it again above.

Besides, I think you're missing the more culpable factor which is Arsenal's terribly porous system (and by extension, Wenger). Xhaka is NOT a defensive midfielder. So, using him as your deepest midfielder, then instructing his midfield partner to play high up the pitch and leave him to fend for himself is suicide.

While most teams have a debate on whether to play 2 or 3 in midfield, our genius of a manager genuinely thinks he can get away with 1

Anyway, tackles tells you nothing about positional discipline. It's possible for Ramsey to both make more tackles than Xhaka, and also be absent from the CM position at the same time.

Look at the Stoke goal or the first 2 Liverpool goals. They literally involve opposition players strolling through our midfield facing either one or zero CMs. How can any serious top level professional football team play like that? Arsenal's problems are 95% systemic and Xhaka/Ramsey are merely casualties of this amateur-ish style of play, not the cause of it.

comment by renoog (U4449)
posted 9 hours, 38 minutes ago
Anyway, tackles tells you nothing about positional discipline. It's possible for Ramsey to both make more tackles than Xhaka, and also be absent from the CM position at the same time.

Look at the Stoke goal or the first 2 Liverpool goals. They literally involve opposition players strolling through our midfield facing either one or zero CMs. How can any serious top level professional football team play like that? Arsenal's problems are 95% systemic and Xhaka/Ramsey are merely casualties of this amateur-ish style of play, not the cause of it.
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10000000% agree.

Dicipline is the most important thing especially in midfield.

Absolutely no problem with your comments. You want 3 CB's, 2CM and possibly a wing back or 2 behind the ball.

Thats fine if you want to play like that, I however think its parking the bus and too defensive a set up. That would leave just Laca, Sanchez, Ozil and maybe a wing back attacking. Not the style of play I want to see us utilising, but if you do thats fine. Personally I would look to a change of formation and tactics and take the weakest defensive player out, Xhaka, and add a bit of strength there to release the other players to get forward and do the creative stuff.

In a 3-4-2-1 you have 5 players in attack - the 2 wing backs should in theory always be ahead of the ball providing width. Chelsea and Spurs had the most goals scored in the league last season. A formation is only as attacking or as defensive as you want it to be. With Arsenal's personnel and Wenger's philosophy, it would obviously be the former.