Still scratching my head at that team selection yesterday.

[Mo Britain less Europe]

I think someone on here said that 3 at the back seems to have helped us stop being so easily counter attacked. I couldn't really see that as in all the games so far, we have been caught stone cold on the counter attack in every game. The problem is clearly how quickly we empty out the midfield. There is a total lack of discipline on the pitch so formation changes are not going to have a great deal of impact if we cannot do the basics. Referring more to Stoke and Leicester (which I watched), we conceded goals because we gave the ball away and we were very quickly outnumbered in the final third. I can only assume that yesterday was more of the same?

I see Ramsey getting lots of **** but Xhaka loses his position very easily as well. He was brilliant in the cup final and did everything correctly but seems to have gone back to the indiscipline he showed far too frequently last season. If Ramsey is going to go forward, Xhaka must stay put. This is what does not seem to be happening. Of course there are serious question marks about why Ramsey is bombing forward at Liverpool at 0-0 when we are struggling to get a foothold in the game?

Three at the back does help against counter-attacks if you play the right three players at the back and if your wing-backs do their defensive duties. Gives you the extra man down the middle basically. Your 3-5-2 - if that is what it is - quickly becomes a 5-3-2

[SWv2]

Three at the back does help against counter-attacks if you play the right three players at the back and if your wing-backs do their defensive duties. Gives you the extra man down the middle basically. Your 3-5-2 - if that is what it is - quickly becomes a 5-3-2

Bellerin and Chamberlain are as much a part of the problem as any of the midfield protagonists.

[Alberto Balsam Rodriguez]

Three at the back does help against counter-attacks if you play the right three players at the back and if your wing-backs do their defensive duties. Gives you the extra man down the middle basically. Your 3-5-2 - if that is what it is - quickly becomes a 5-3-2

I'm going by the evidence to date.

[Mo Britain less Europe]

I'm going by the evidence to date.

It won us the FA Cup against a better team.

The problem is when players don't follow the system correctly, when you play them out of position and when you don't play the best players you have for those positions as opposed to those you think are the best players. Bellerin should never play on the left but he doesn;t want to drop Ox. If Bellerin had played right and Kolasinac left wing-back we might not have been embarrassed yesterday. But there were other things wrong with the selection such as not playing your best centre-backs or strikers.

[World's End Stella]

It won us the FA Cup against a better team.

The problem is when players don't follow the system correctly, when you play them out of position and when you don't play the best players you have for those positions as opposed to those you think are the best players. Bellerin should never play on the left but he doesn;t want to drop Ox. If Bellerin had played right and Kolasinac left wing-back we might not have been embarrassed yesterday. But there were other things wrong with the selection such as not playing your best centre-backs or strikers.

That's a pretty astonishing bit of analysis, Mo. 4 sentences and not a single mention of central midfield where Xhaka and Ramsey were appallingly bad and the source of the majority of our problems.

Impressive.

[Alberto Balsam Rodriguez]

It won us the FA Cup against a better team.

The problem is when players don't follow the system correctly, when you play them out of position and when you don't play the best players you have for those positions as opposed to those you think are the best players. Bellerin should never play on the left but he doesn;t want to drop Ox. If Bellerin had played right and Kolasinac left wing-back we might not have been embarrassed yesterday. But there were other things wrong with the selection such as not playing your best centre-backs or strikers.

The point, Mo, is that the formation is irrelevant when players do not do their most basic of jobs. Getting caught on the counter time and time again is not a symptom of the formation.

The basic rule of defending is that you do not want to expose your last line of defence to your opponents. Whether it is a back 3, a back 4 or a back 5. The players that sit in front of the defence have a very important job to do and without them, our last line of defence is exposed. If you do not expose the last line of defence to your opponent, it makes it harder for them to break it down and makes it harder for them to score. Seems very obvious but we are failing to uphold that at its most basic level.

[Mo Britain less Europe]

That's a pretty astonishing bit of analysis, Mo. 4 sentences and not a single mention of central midfield where Xhaka and Ramsey were appallingly bad and the source of the majority of our problems.

Impressive.

Thanks. But I wasn't trying to analyse all the reasons why we lost. I was mainly referring to why the three at the back is a better option.

In point of fact the only other options in central midfield were Elneny and/or Coquelin. So what would have made sense is to go with three central midfielders and two up front or 3-5-1-1 BUT that would have meant dropping one out of Ozil and Sanchez neither of which he wants to drop because he's trying to persuade them to stay or (Sanchez) trying to make a statement he will not be sold this summer.

Only connect.

[redgunamo]

Welbeck instead of Lacazette Holding who he dropped down to the U23s only a week ago instead of Mustafi Bellerin at LWB instead of Kolasinac Chamberlain even being in the team

They aren't even debatable ones either, they're ****ing mental.

I know Wenger can't really win here; damned if He changes things, damned if He doesn't. But it's difficult to see which bits of this selection He felt would, or could, actually work. We were poor, but what was He expecting to happen even if we'd played well,

[Bergkamp Was Best]

Good to see another Cowboys fan on the Forum WES. Like you I'm not confident with Zeke's appeal, maybe a game or two reduction of the ban is the best we can hope for. Hopefully we can still beat those pesky Giants in the season opener.

[Ash]

Welbeck instead of Lacazette Holding who he dropped down to the U23s only a week ago instead of Mustafi Bellerin at LWB instead of Kolasinac Chamberlain even being in the team

They aren't even debatable ones either, they're ****ing mental.

The Mad King?

GOT reference for those unfamiliar