Large Ground equals Better Defence? Yes, IMHO.


For a long time, Highbury's small zippy pitch has been Arsenal's strength in attack. Most opposition teams found Highbury's pitch too small for their liking, and were amazed at the speed with which Arsenal attacked, while they themselves struggled to break Arsenal's defence. Yeah, yeah, they did it by attacking Arsenal on set pieces, and so on.

Unfortunately, this small pitch spoilt the defenders. As we all know, there is a huge amount of tolerance for errors made by forwards and midfielders, but little for defenders (and rightly so). Arsenal's defenders have got used to playing on the small pitch. They would struggle at Old Trafford, or any other larger pitch.

This trend will now go away. The defenders will now start positioning themselves better. Expect better results at grounds like Old Trafford, Anfield, Stamford Bridge, and all types of grounds all over the world.

Is it time for Arsenal to try out the 3-2-3-2 formation?

This is a formation that is very common among Spanish teams. You might have seen Mexico play with this formation.

Consider a hypothetical 3-2-3-2 formation:

Lehmann
(Lauren/Eboue) (Toure/Senderos) (Djourou/Traore)
(Gilberto/Flamini) (Lauren/Fabregas)
(Hleb/Van Persie) (Rosicky/Fabregas) (Ljunberg/Reyes/Aliadiere)
(Henry/Walcott)
(Adebayor/Bendtner)

For a very defensive formation the formation looks like this:

Lehmann
(Flamini) (Toure/Senderos) (Djourou/Traore)
(Gilberto) (Lauren)
(Hleb) (Rosicky/Fabregas) (Reyes/Ljunberg)
(Henry/Walcott)
(Adebayor/Bendtner)

The key idea: The back three are static, and don't move up and down the pitch. This is the reason why Lauren figures just in front of the back three. I am reluctant to put Flamini in a midfield role, because he commits to a tackle too early in midfield. This would have been alright, if he were as precise as Vieira; but he is not, and the overcommitting to a tackle usually leaves him stranded, as we have seen in many matches. However, it is precisely this nature that makes him a good leftback.

I would like the back five to defend more, and leave the responsibility of attack completely to the front five. This would mean the presence of players with an ability to interchange positions, quick passes, and presence of creative midfielders upfront. We have two creative midfielders, whose presence is a must: Rosicky and Fabregas. Apart from these two, we need one midfielder who can make incisive runs like Hleb, Ljunberg, and Reyes.

A hardworking striker, who may operate slightly deeply as and when needed (Adebayor or Bendtner), and a centreforward like Henry or Walcott complete the formation.

For an aggressive formation we can switch to the following:

Lehmann
(Eboue) (Toure/Senderos) (Lauren)
(Gilberto) (Fabregas)
(Hleb/Van Persie) (Rosicky) (Reyes/Aliadiere)
(Henry/Walcott)
(Adebayor/Bendtner)

Here the LB and RB are wingbacks. However, once they move to the other half of the pitch, the two players in defensive midfield position (Gilberto and Fabregas) must stay back to defend.
At any time during the play, four people would remain behind. So, if Fab decides to have some adventure up the pitch, Gilberto and the 3 defenders, must stay back and defend. We might concede goals due to the light-weight Fabregas being in defensive midfield, but we'll score more goals than the opposite team.