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With the amount of errors I see leading to goals conceded, personnel definitely is a factor.
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Well all - liderally all - of our conceded goals are from open play and itās usually a case of more than one error compounded that leads to each goal. Some of the criticism is harsh but then weāre judging by league title challenging standards.
Many of our āteam defendingā errors start in midfield or higher up the pitch so Iām loathe to always keep nailing Mustafi and his mates for it.
Some tactical errors have been extremely obvious in recent times, eg Kolasinac getting caught way too high and Xhaka or the left-sided midfielder in the diamond not being able to cover him. This seems to happen quite a lot
Mustafi loves to dive in and when it works it looks great but when it doesnāt it usually leads to a strong goalscoring opportunity for them, so thatās why I wish we had someone more rational and intelligent than him at the back
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Iād like Arsenal to concentrate on developing a defence with the players we have. We played well against Chelsea and could have a real chance of keeping clean sheets on games but we look confused as to attack or defend. A simple rule is when we have the ball we attck, when they have the ball we defend. If we only work to that simple strategy the style will develop.
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Itās both but If I have to choose, Itās player based and not just defensive ones.
We have a poor attack which canāt reduce the strain on our poor defensive players leading to more mistakes.
Clubs like Barcelona, Bayern etc have so much attacking potency that opposition is always on back foot and hardly come through the match with more than 6-7 forays towards the opposite end.
We need an overall system of an effective attacking & defensive play from the front, which can only be built with superior players
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Pretty spot on tbh. The composition in midfield has never felt right all season which ties into the fact formations have felt off too.
I thought weād transition to resemble peak Emery Sevilla where two DMās holding was the basis of both attacking and defensive transitions.
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Iād love to have superior players but we got no money to spend this season so we have to make do. If we could make our ground a fortress for our home games it would go a long way to giving confidents to the attacking players we have. Itās not perfect but letās get a system in place and make sure we stick to it.
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Mentioned this in the other thread:
Lukaku, āWe knew Arsenal would leave space when their full backs go forward. I think we could have scored two or three more goals to be honest.ā
ā Chris Winterburn (@cmwinterburn) 25 januari 2019
We can talk about personnel all day.
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Interesting. This is Emeryās tactic isnāt it?
Usually heād like Xhaka to protect the CBs but Xhaka is bad at that and itās on Emery for trusting him with that job tbh.
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really wouldnāt put much stock in this sort of bs banterā¦ we all know we had massive issues in that game and the injuries cemented it. Xhaka at cb? Are you having a laugh?
Which is why the Per/Kos axis from a few years ago was a solid partnership. Kos was the frontfoot CB; aggressive in nature whereas Per was best placed as the reader and could usually intercept balls being played in behind us. Not the most elite pairing in the world however more functional than anything else.
All the CBās we possess right now are all frontfooted or aggressive. We donāt have a Per in our ranks. Koscielny, Sokratis, Mustafi, Mavropanos and Holding.
I think we need to look for a different type of CB in the future. It definitely is a bit of both, personnel/system.
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Itās a combination of both, not sure what else I can add.
Give some ideas Oz. Who can potentially come in? Who should leave? How should we change our style of play specifically?
This always seems like the perfect, tried and tested foil, doesnāt it?
Sol and Kolo. Rio and Vidic. Terry and Carvalho. List goes on
Sigh. Itās not just this one game or banter from Lukaku. With this he confirms what we have been seeing for the whole season.
Well regardless of players we have we need to give up less space in dangerous areas which has been a problem for a number of years.
I think neither of our full backs are good at defending but both are good going forward, Iād stick with Bellerin but we need to find a better LB. As for Centre backs maybe we could get away with one of Sokratis or Holding starting next to a top quality CB.
Our midfield also needs to be more accountable and give better protection to our defence, which has also been a problem for years.
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I donāt know what Emeryās game plan was against Man U, but if it was to get our FBās to bomb up the pitch and leave ourselves wide open at the back so the pace and power of players like Pogba, Sanchez, Lukaku, Lingard, and then Rashford, when he came on, could attack us and out number us with ease, then our defensive issues are clearly with Emery.
If our defenders and midfielders are being coached properly into a strong, cohesive defensive unit but are too stupid to follow instructions, then it is the players that are no good.
So Emery has to either get a defensive coach in, who knows what heās doing or start buying players that can follow instructions and keep defensive errors down to a minimum.
I realise that Emery has been left a group of players by the previous manager, who treated defensive discipline with the contempt he thought it deserved, but this has gone on long enough and the same mistakes are being repeated, which is something else Wenger excelled at.
But when you are letting in so many goals, and getting caught on the break so frequently at home, and nothing is being done about it, then maybe Emery should be taking some of the blame.
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I agree with all of your post but when you said, āmaybe we could get away with one of Sokratis or Holding starting next to a top quality CB.,ā I think this is exactly what has got us into this mess.
The board and Wengerās attitude has always been, āweāll probably get away with this,ā or ātheyāll do,ā but never, letās shift out all the high paid dross and get two quality CBās, which is what we need.
We arenāt going to sort it out in this window but I can guarantee our defensive issues wonāt be sorted out in the next window either.
Iād be surprised if we bought more than one CB and FB, which is the bare minimum, and even then the quality will be limited to, at best, adequate.
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Yeah I think we need 2 starting CB in reality, I probably just said that because I know weāll never buy 2 starting CBās in the one summer haha.
If Iām being honest we need GK, LB,CB, CB, Winger, Xhaka replacement. Think we need 6 starters thatāll likely cost 250-300 million quid for us to get to title contender level.
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As well as Ramsey and Ozil replacements 
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