Should Arsenal Adopt A Diamond Formation?

Article by Kingsley Okiwelu
 
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For those of an Arsenal persuasion, last weekend could scarcely have gone better. A convincing performance and result against Villa, coupled with watching Manchester United and Liverpool lose against unfancied opposition and City and Chelsea pummel themselves into submission, provided that infrequent mix of satiation and schadenfreude that represents the closest thing to football nirvana for the football fan.

There were plenty of positives to take away from Arsenal’s performance against Aston Villa. The most obvious, considering the vitriol that has come his way over the last few weeks was seeing Ozïl come back to form. It was also extremely pleasing to see Danny Welbeck put in what has to count as his best performance in an Arsenal shirt and dovetail brilliantly with Ozïl. The inevitable comparisons have already begun to be drawn with Arsenal legend, Thiery Henry and whilst Arsène Wenger was understandably eager to avoid putting pressure on the (still) young Arsenal Striker by comparing him to a player whose goal scoring record of 228 goals in an Arsenal shirt really does take some beating, he accepted that attempting to emulate the Frenchman may not be a bad idea for the English International.“

From a tactical standpoint, two things stood out. One was the reversion to last season’s formation and the other the implications for the teams forward play of having Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain(instead of Alexis Sanchez) deployed on the right side of a 4-2-3-1 formation. There appears little doubt that playing in this more familiar system appears to offer Wenger’s side a better balance between its offensive strengths and defensive limitations. Arteta is much less exposed in his defensive midfield role as he has Ramsey beside him to provide some much needed energy and cover for his lack of athleticism. The defence is also less vulnerable as witnessed by the absence of the gaping chasm in that space between defence and midfield so horribly exposed in the midweek encounter against Dortmund. The efficient working of this system however, still leaves Wenger with two knotty problems; firstly, how to accommodate his best players within a workable formation, and secondly, how to instil a more aggressive pressing ethos without affecting the balance between attack and defence and exposing the team’s deficiencies.

It will be interesting to find out what happens next weekend when Spurs visit and Sanchez is inevitably restored to the starting line-up. Against Villa, his absence seemed to afford Mesut Ozïl more space within which to operate as Oxlade-Chamberlain more or less hugged the right touchline. This freed up more space within the middle and enabled Ozïl to operate with more freedom and link up beautifully with Wellbeck. Part of the reason why the gunners’ forward play has lacked fluidity of recent has been the tendency of most of the midfield four ahead of the holding player (Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozïl, Cazorla and Sanchez) to covet the same areas in the middle of the park just before the opponent’s penalty area. The lack of preparation time as a consequence of this being a world cup year has no doubt affected the ability of the players to generate the needed understanding.

With the success recorded against Villa, Wenger is now faced with a dilemma. Does he stick to the current formation, or change tack in order to accommodate the likes of Wilshere and the returning Sanchez?

There is a lot to be said for continuity and playing it safe ahead of what will be a tough encounter against a wounded Tottenham Hotspur team next weekend (naturally, this is discounting the midweek capital one cup tie against Southampton as this is likely to witness lots of rotation and thus is unlikely to provide a true barometer of where the team stands in terms of tactics).

Considering that we face league leaders Chelsea after that however, the game against Spurs may provide an excellent opportunity to try out a new formation that may succeed in keeping that much needed balance between attack and defence as well as helping the team maximise its attacking potential ahead of the Chelsea game.

With this in mind, the adoption of the diamond formation that has been used with such success (in the recent past at least) by the likes of Liverpool may be well advised. Like every other system, it has its drawbacks, most notably exposing the full backs and maybe depriving the team of one more “body” in midfield, however considering the players currently available to Wenger, it may just be best suited to bringing the best out of the team’s attacking potential. This is owing in large part to its potential to allow the team play with two strikers, Welbeck and Sanchez, whilst affording Wenger the opportunity to field a midfield quartet of Arteta, Wilshere, Ramsey and Ozïl. Playing such a formation will simultaneously ensure that Wenger can have his best eleven on the pitch at the same time whilst letting every player play in a position where he is comfortable. Thus Ozïl playing at the tip of the diamond can build on his nascent relationship with Welbeck whilst allowing Wilshere and Ramsey provide some robust protection for Arteta on the sides of the diamond. One thing that stood out in Welbeck’s eye-catching performance against Villa on Saturday was his mobility and the ease with which he was able to drift out the left (much in the same way incidentally, as Henry used to do). The second goal partly came about as a result of this as he combined beautifully with Ozil and Ramsey on the left before timing his arrival with perfection to connect with Ozil’s cross. Using a diamond will allow him to drift out to the left, and if he keeps up his impressive work-rate, put in a bit of shift there defensively. Sanchez has already shown that he likes to cut into the centre from the right and playing this system will allow him do this whilst keeping him in a predominantly higher position up the pitch and thus preventing him from interfering too much with Ozïl’s preferred position in the centre.

As with all good theories, this formation may simply fail to work in practise. However, it’s certainly worth the try considering Spurs is likely to provide a much stiffer challenge and deprive the gunners of the time and space that they were able to exploit with such efficiency at Villa Park. If it works, it should provide Wenger with an excellent solution aimed at keeping his squad happy and his best players constantly involved. If it doesn’t, he can always revert to 4-2-3-1!

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