ARSENAL boss Arsene Wenger has a massive decision to make — who to play up front at Old Trafford today.
Should it be Alexis Sanchez, just back from tiring international duty in South America with Chile, or should it be Olivier Giroud?
Keep up to date with ALL the Premier League news, gossip, transfers and goals on our club page plus fixtures, results and live match commentary
As long as Sanchez is fit, I think Wenger will play him against Manchester United.
Why? Because it totally changes the way Arsenal play to bring in Giroud.
And most importantly, it changes the way Mesut Ozil goes about his business. Giroud holds the ball up brilliantly but is a back-to-goal player. His first touch will bring the ball back towards his own goal instead of him being able to turn with his first or second touch.
That sort of forward doesn’t want runners going beyond him because it is hard to pass to them when they are over your shoulder, or to spin and ping the pass. So his instinct is to knock the ball backwards.
Ozil, therefore, drops into the hole behind the striker and looks to pick the ball up off Giroud and play the extra pass in behind the defence for runners from wide or midfield.
It is the third-man running technique. It is hard to pull off and with Ozil sitting that bit deeper, you lose that extra man higher up that he has done so well this season.
related articles
Sanchez plays much more on the turn than Giroud and can receive the ball, spin and play the killer pass — if he has a runner like Ozil going beyond him.
This means that rather than waiting for the ball to be knocked back to him, Ozil is on his bike.
Sanchez can also stretch the play by running the channels and putting the ball into the box for runners to score from.
This explains why Ozil — top of the assist charts last season with 19 but at the bottom end of the scoring table with just six — has been banging them in this season. He has three in the Premier League already. It also explains why he isn’t notching up the assists so much as he is finishing moves off himself.
It is not just Sanchez, though, who is helping Ozil and the other two players in the three of Arsenal’s 4-2-3-1 (usually Theo Walcott and Alex Iwobi) to get into goalscoring positions.
Since Santi Cazorla’s injury, Wenger has been playing two defensively minded midfielders (Granit Xhaka and Francis Coquelin), who have formed a protective shield in front of the two central defenders.
They sit close together forming a square with the two centre-backs.
This is solid and hard to break down but leaves them vulnerable down the wings.
The midfielders, therefore, have to move wide to cover if the full-backs, a key part of Arsenal’s attacking strategy, are caught up field.
This saves the central defenders moving wide — something neither Laurent Koscielny nor Shkodran Mustafi are too comfortable with — as we saw when Heung-Min Son embarrassed the German for pace in the North London derby.
Spurs, for example, bring Eric Dier back into defence and push centre-halves Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen wide as they are comfortable as full-backs, where they’ve played for Belgium.
Each to their own.
Wide Awake, Jose
WITH Wayne Rooney potentially out through injury and Zlatan Ibrahimovic banned, Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has his own decisions to make in attack.
He could opt for Marcus Rashford to lead the line but must make sure he is supported by pace from wide areas.
United played well at Swansea last time out, with Ibra leading the line and the midfield four — Rooney, Paul Pogba, Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata — supporting.
Rashford (right) plays right on the shoulder, so will be looking for through balls. And unless he gets support from wide — Jesse Lingard or Anthony Martial, for example — he could have a lonely day.
Magic Mesut is the top Gunn
ALEXIS SANCHEZ is nominally Arsenal’s centre-forward but on many occasions this season Mesut Ozil has been playing further forward than the Chilean.
As you can see from our Opta pitch map (left) showing average player positions, against Sunderland earlier this season, Ozil (No 11) is further upfield than Sanchez, playing as the top man.
That is one of the reasons Germany star Ozil is more prolific in front of goal this season.
Tweet @Higginbotham05
Leave a comment