This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
Arsenal need a strong, starting formation.
Unai Emery set his team up in a 3-4-1-2 formation against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium and struggled to truly break the Foxes down.
They had eight shots on goal to Leicester’s 19, with just one on target. Brendan Rodgers’ men had seven. The home side also had more possession, won a higher number of aerial duels, made more tackles and also had more corners.
Thus, one has to surmise that Arsenal’s formation limited their attacking capabilities.
Perhaps it was designed to smother Leicester’s attacking capabilities but, really, it gave Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira too much to do in midfield – they completed just one tackle between them – and isolated Mesut Ozil, who did not manage to have a single shot on goal.
The strike partnership of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struggled, too, with the latter having just one shot and the former sending two off-target.
Emery, though, has been trying to find an antidote to his side’s struggles in recent weeks and has routinely chopped and changed his formations.
Per WhoScored, he lined his team up in a 3-4-3 for the 1-1 draw against Vitoria in the Europa League, a 4-3-1-2 against Wolves in another draw, a 4-4-1-1 for the crazy 5-5 Carabao Cup draw with Liverpool and a 4-4-2 against Crystal Palace. That game also ended in a draw.
In their wins in all competitions this season they have lined up in the following formations: 4-2-3-1. That’s it. The 4-2-3-1 has taken them to eight wins in all competitions.
Sheffield United have beaten them in that formation but that is their only loss with the system. In the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool, they lined up in a 4-3-1-2. Meanwhile, they set up in a 4-3-3 for the draws with Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United and a 4-1-2-1-2 for the draw with Watford.
This is too much, and the uncertainty is killing this football club.
To count these games is to count seven separate formations. Only one has taken them to any prolonged success.
But as soon as the defeat to Sheffield United came, Emery was far too reactive and switched it. He has been searching for the correct answer ever since.
He hasn’t found it yet and he won’t. The 4-2-3-1 formation offers width in both defence and attack, a solidity in midfield and gives the attackers a proper playmaker to run off.
Sure, Aubameyang may have to play on the wing but his pace is frightening and his finishing ability proves that he can make it work.
Emery has some time to think before the Gunners take on Southampton after the international break but the answer is simple: He needs to go back to what was working, and ditch what hasn’t been. It might just be something that stops them from continuing to go backwards.
