The Soccer Blog: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Songinho?

Tuesday, 7 December 2010

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Songinho?

By: Sairax | December 6th, 2010

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“Song is a bit naturally high up because I want him to be.” I believe when I read those words from Wenger, my reaction on twitter was “Son of a…..! Wenger no!” I’ve gotten over my snap reaction from yesterday, but there are still concerns that arise from these comments and also our defensive performances this season.

62697712 Firstly, Song doesn’t think he’s Kaka. Before the season started, he mentioned how he would like to score more, but he’d be mental to just abandon his position and start rampaging forward if he was not given that kind of freedom from Wenger. The change in Song’s role arises from our change in formation. Last season we played 4-3-3 with the occassional shift to 4-1-4-1. This required Song to sit in front of the back 4 and provide cover using his strength and acting as a sweeper. This season Wenger has shifted the formation. We currently have been employing 4-2-3-1 with 2 holding midfielders and a target man up front in Chamakh. The reasons for this are most probably down to the fact that we simply conceded too many goals last season. We scored 83 goals in the 2009/2010 season, but conceded 41. Contrast this with Manchester United who finished 2nd last season scoring 86 and conceding 28, and league winners Chelsea who scored 103 and conceded 32.

So has this change in formation helped Arsenal? Has the creation of “Songinho” been beneficial for the team as a whole? We should recognize that we are prone to noticing Song’s forays forward mostly because of the fact that we so rarely saw it last season. What should be noted is that when Song goes forward, then his midfield partner needs to hold. Generally, this has been Wilshere, but Denilson has also played that role this season. Conversly, Song has to stay back if Wilshere decides to go forward. This can be helpful in our attacking play while still providing cover defensively. But has it been working?

My issue is that I don’t think Wilshere can take on the responsibility of holding on his own. He has only become a first team regular this season and playing a deeper role is not necessarily his preferred position. I thought Song was great in the defensive role last season and when he was out injured, we missed him terribly. Denilson does a good job overall as a holding midfielder. He doesn’t quite have the same muscle as Song, but he makes up for that with his sense of awareness and positioning. Also, Denilson is great at keeping possession when we need to control a game. People note that he does not pass forward, but sideways. This is because his duty is to make sure we don’t lose the ball, not to make incisive passes, which is generally the role of Fabregas (or whoever is playing the Fabregas role). I think that Wilshere has done a great job this season, but he is not at that level where he can shoulder the responsibility of holding in front of the back four on his own.

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As for Song, he is not an attacking midfielder. Requiring him to go forward at times is disrupting his game. His skill and compsure on the ball is not at the same level of our attacking players. His passing and close control in tight spaces is not at the level it needs to be in order to keep our fluid style in the final third. He also is not a particularly quick player so getting back when defending on the counterattack can be a problem.

There are positives to be found. Song has contributed to our goalscoring this season. He has 4 goals in all competitions, one of which was the winner in our match against West Ham. However, he is not necessarily the player you want the ball to fall to in a goal scoring opportunity. He doesn’t get many shots on target (17 shots, 6 on target, 4 ended up as goal) and he only has one assist in all competitions. Contrast this with Wilshere, who has only 2 goals, but has had 10 of his 21 shots on target. He also has 7 assists in all competitons this season, which is quite good for such a young player.

61674752 It’s not that I don’t think a 4-2-3-1 is an effective formation. Looking at the World Cup, many teams used the formation in the summer, including the finalists Spain and the Netherlands. The difference is the personnel used on the pitch. With the Netherlands, you have Nigel de Jong and Mark van Bommel, two players with reputations as “destroyers” with their comanding presence and tough tackling. What is less noted is their skill on the ball. Both are good ball players that can pass the ball well, including in the final third, though their forward runs are more sporadic than what we are seeing with our team. You can see van Bommel in this position next to Bastian Schweisteiger at Bayern München, a player with great skill and dynamism. With Spain, you can see Xabi Alonso and Busquets playing in front of the back four. Alonso also has played in this role with Real Madrid with various players including Lass Diarra and Sami Khedeira.

The technical ability of all these players, their sense of awareness on the pitch, and their understanding of their teammates is what makes them successful in the 4-2-3-1 formation. I believe we have the attacking players to pull this off. Most recently against Aston Villa, we saw Rosicky in behind Chamakh with Arshavin and Nasri on the wings. You could see the freedom and fluidity in their movement, which caused all kinds of trouble for the opposing players who were supposed to be marking them. If we can keep Song back more often, with his ventures forward slightly more limited, with Wilshere or Denilson being the main player who goes forward at appropriate times, I think it could be a very effective formation. (And think of when Fabregas and van Persie are fit and ready to slot into their natural positions.) At the moment, Song is going forward too often and does not seamlessly interact with our attacking unit. It is an unfamiliar role, and one that he did not have to play last season where he grew so much in such a short space of time. To ask him to change his role seems to have disrupted his ability to even do his defensive duties properly, as he is often caught out of position at the back and his tackles often see him conceding free kicks and earning yellow cards.

DV871464 If we had a solid central defensive partnership, perhaps I would be less critical of what we have been seeing on the pitch, but the fact is that we have two players that are very new to the Premier League, one with experience and has done an ok job and one who is still very young, inexperienced, and slight of frame. Djourou has come back from injury well and has been improving his game every week, but Wenger is bringing him back into the team with caution. Too often we have rushed players back from injury only to see them stunted in their recovery (see: Fabregas, Gallas, van Persie) and Djourou was out for a very long time and is still quite young, so I understand Wenger’s approach with him. Vermaelen is by far our best defender, but he has been out with an Achilles injury for most of the season. We should also remember that Vermaelen has a tendency to roam forward himself, leaving us exposed at the back on certain occasions, so bringing him back into the starting eleven should be interesting. With our fullbacks also bombing down the flanks as often as possible, I think if we are to have two holding midfielders, they should focus more on defending together and breaking up attacks rather than who will join our forwards and who will stay back to hold down the fort. It should also be noted that with our change in setup, we have only conceded 2 less goals than after the same number of games last season and have also scored 7 goals less. This can be attributed to a lot of things, but I think that our change in formation has not necessarily benefitted us on the whole this season. Perhaps there just needs to be a slight tweak, or maybe our defensive frailties are not due to lack of cover from Song, but the defensive weaknesses of our current back four. Whatever it is, our habit of being exploited on the counterattack and our penchant for conceding needless goals has not been sorted out. Wenger may want to revisit the drawing board.

**Note: I am not a tactical expert, I just play one on tv

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Category: Alex Song, Arsenal News, Denilson, Jack Wilshere, Randoms, Rants, Tactical View

Tags: Alex Song, Arsenal News, Denilson, Jack Wilshere, Randoms, Rants, Tactical View
« Arsenal – Fulham Highlights | Home | Injury Updates, Gunners in Suits, and Almunia Could Leave in January »SairaxCheck out Zonal Marking's analysis of Arsenal's CL campaign http://www.itv.com/sport/footb.../

Mentions the double pivot used by Germany (damn how'd I forget that one!). Difference is they played more on the counter so Khedeira and Shweinsteiger didn't venture forward much. Good read.

PLUS he mentions that the 2 games Nasri and Cesc have started together were....the thrashings of Braga and Shaktar at homeHomey_MillsI think the problem with Song started when Martin declared him to be world class.MartinAll part of my secret 26-step plan for Spurs winning the league...Darren_VSairax should fire youSairaxAnother team that pushed their fullbacks forward, had two strong holding mids and had a crazy good attacking trident was Brazil 2002 (loved them). Though they werent playing a 4-2-3-1, it seems Edmilson was more a third centreback, like Darren was mentioning about Busquets. I think that Kleberson and Gilberto tended to stay back more and let the 3Rs do their thing, which is more what I'd rather see with our team.

Reference Zonal Marking: http://www.zonalmarking.net/20.../MaxPVery good analysis of the problem. I agree with you, but I think even if Song does stick back where he should be, we still need at least one more good central defender. The two that were brought in the summer just don't cut it. Vermaelan is out until January and even then he will need to be brought back slowly as you suggesed for Djourou.SairaxHey everyone, great comments today :)

I'll just add that defending needs to be a team effort. It needs to start from the front. I believe I read a stat after Barcelona's 08/09 season (I must have missed maybe 2 of their games that season) that said Henry, Eto'o, and Messi made more tackles than the Barca back four. We need to cut down on the amount of work our backline has to do by having our front attacking players constantly press, close down, and successfully recover the ball. At the moment we are still very inconsistent and disorganized with our pressing. We have pulled it off, and when we do we look great, but we don't get it done nearly enough for us to be dominating they way we want to.

We also have been losing possession way too easily at times this season, which needs to improve. As long as we have the ball, it means the opposition don't, which means they cannot score, full stop.MarkRelax guys... he had a bad game... everyone does. Not so recently he was netting against City and playing magnificently front and back.... Lets judge him after a few more games. If anything I think he needs commendation as he has been the constant whilst personnel have changed around him.MartinI love Song, but if you have been reading regularly this season, you know that Sairax and I have been really hammering this point home about Song since Day 1. If you go back and read through his player rating explanations for the season, it is a season-long issue. It's hardly judging him on one bad game.

I don't know whether to be more relieved or exasperated that we now know that he's being told to play like that. It's good in a way because it shows that it's not down to lack of discipline or intelligence on his part, but it's worrying because Wenger doesn't seem troubled by all the Grand Canyon-sized spaces that are being left open in front of a patchwork backline.RedCapedWonderThe picture looks a bit sepia, so it looked like an old movie (the article) :P :PDarren_VI wonder why Wenger hasn't used a more similar tactical approach like Barca uses actually. When Barca has the ball, you often see their shape change to a 3-5-3-1, so that Busquets ends up as the CB, Puyol and Pique move over, and their fullbacks are pushed higher up on the flanks a wingbacks basically. It solves their lack of width, allows their creative players in the middle of the pitch more room, and gives them an excellent passer in Busquets at the middle, intiating attacks. To me that is where Song should be going, and Wilshere alittle higher up the pitch.

Either way... Song that high up the pitch just simply doesn't seem like a bright idea, not matter how you look at it.Andylowe14but the statistics also say wilsheres 20% scoring rate 2 goals from 10 on target or Songs 66% 4 goals from 6.. personally i think he adds something going forward when we already have a lot of small players, songs power can sometimes make the difference in the box as we have seen with his goalsAshwin91I'm just thinking.. when van Persie comes back and lines up behind Chamakh... maybe the new Bergkamp + Henry?rci see in the papers that scott parker is up for potential , sale, @8 mill he could be what our defence needs, ie some protection!!MartinCan't ever see Wenger paying that much money for a 30 year-old English player who has already washed out at Chelsea and Newcastle.RedandDreadGood analysis. I think the one thing all Gooner want for Christmas is a water tight defence. The team' formation is in transition yet again with players in those pivotal defensive positions all being new to the formation, the club or both it has led to some bizarre results to say the least. All I can say is that we are top of the league and that is the best we can do. TV & Koz are out till Janaury at least so lets hope a stable duo of Djourou and Squillaci can pull us through a difficult next 4 weeks. Songinho and Jack will need to be at the races against MANU & the Chavs if we are to defeat the big dogs. Hey we are in the best position of them all, so lets get behind the team and hope they can prove most of us wrong and win this damn thing!!

A couple of good results over the festive seaosn should give us confidence entering the new year. A couple of clean sheets would be most welcoem and inspiring also.TomAfter watching the game against Fulham, the 2 biggest problems I saw, were the ease in which Fulham could play a ball past our defense, I thought all Fulham needed was a lucky break from the linesman, but it turned out our central pairing gave it to them instead. Time and again though they just played a few simple passes in the middle, then hit a long ball over the top of our defense. In Koscielny and Squillacci we're meant to have 2 players who 'read and understand' the game, but, as we saw when Djourou came on, all we need is a player who can actually head the ball and head it somewhere that's not an opposition player!

The other thing was Song, I didn't even think it was his forays forward that were the problem, he just seemed to be a bit off the pace and definitely hasn't hit the heights of last year. I think he needs a rest because he wasn't his usual hustling self, Wilshere/Nasri/Rosicky/Chamakh, even Meerkat were all pressuring but Song seems to have lost that ability somewhere.
MartinWith the usual caveat that the boss has forgotten far more about the game than I'll ever know, this just seems crazy to me.

I just don't see Song having the skill or energy to be a true box-to-box presence like Petit, Vieira, or even Flamini. And I don't see the point of having Song move forward, which forces Wilshere to cover for him -- Wilshere is the guy with the kind of creativity and on-the-ball skill that should be carrying the ball up to Cesc and the forwards, and Song has the strength and tackling technique to stay back. It's like having your chef take people's orders and your waiter in the kitchen making the souffle -- why not tailor your tactics so that each player is doing what they are best at?Gigi_manand no offense and all but our defence was really, really a solid wall back with Petit Vieira no?Gigi_manI read that commenta from AW and was about to ask you if we could discuss that, my old friend (a 58 years old guy who was born next to highbury and was given no choice by his familiy but to be a gooner) told me he had enough of AW...

Off subject but very important; I saw a link by you or Martin with videos of the hoghlights, and I wanted to send the link to EVERYBODY I know, but I cant find it anymore...SairaxTry this and let me know if it works http://www.soccerclips.net/vid...Gigi_manThx!blog comments powered by Disqus