With the introduction of the new formation 4-5-1 as you all know I detest the 4-5-1 formation employed by us lately, and our last game only reinforced that feeling. I thought this was temporary but unfortunately that doesn't seem the case, so I'm going to vent my anger a bit.

First of all we are using the best player in the world as a lamppost to play passes off. What is that all about? Instead of concentrating on getting in behind and scoring, Henry is now doing flicks to midfielders every time he receives the ball. It pisses me off even more because he always tries to do one touch stuff and 9/10 times bleeps it up. It's just not what he does best. The effects on the man are starting to show themselves as well. He missed a sitter today that he normally would have scored with his eyes closed. But I don't blame him. If you spend the entire game doing little passes, you lose your instinct for the goal. You have to do things often to do them well.

Then there is the issue of Cesc. It's true that he can stuggle physically against big nasty oppositon. However his worst game this season (apart from the second Zagreb game) was in a 4-5-1 and he has never been more outmuscled in his life. When there is only one striker to pass to Cesc needs more time on the ball. He then often passes sideways and receives it back instantly, putting even more pressure on him. How is this helping? If he honestly thinks he is playing in a 4-3-3 he needs a CAT scan. Is Hleb a forward Cesc? Thought so.

Then there is the issue of creating chances. We all saw today what chasing the ball early can do against crap teams. More often than not they will give it away, resulting in big chances. With two strikers you can do it more often and not be isolated all the time.

Finally, 4-5-1 is a formation for scared teams. Scared to concede, scared to lose the ball, scared to get stuck in. We were playing Charlton ffs, Charlton! Are we really afraid that Gilberto and Cesc can't handle the crapness of Kishishev/Faye and the other numpty who is so bad I can't remember his name? If we are then it's an embarassement. We need to ask ourselves a question: are we looking forward to score or are we afraid to concede? For me there is only one answer.

To cut a long story short, I would like the gunners in the house to tell me what they think the formation offers.

sil u again
is there a reward on nairaland for the highest number of threads opened by one person? or is it just u running against urself to open threads

u created the "WINNING BIGGEST CLUBS" thread today. a topic that could easily be discussed in the gunners numerous threads (unfortunately).
now u come with this 4-5-1 brouhaha. cant this too be discussed in any of the arsenal threads? no, u chose to create a special thread for it,

anyway, so u wont see me as a trouble maker-----i'm outta here

was jus sayin ma mind.

@ justkunmi
I love men like you because you give me the courage to bring up threads, not just threads but good ones. Hope am doing what a fan is suppose to do.
Although that wa suppose to come from a gunner and not,

@sil
really tot u were goin to go all out and dish out all abuses on me
but that was manly of u
didnt mean anything bad and i'm sorry if it sounded rude
be good

sil did you copy this from someone's blog?

Finally, 4-5-1 is a formation for scared teams. Scared to concede, scared to lose the ball, scared to get stuck in. We were playing Charlton ffs, Charlton! Are we really afraid that Gilberto and Cesc can't handle the crapness of Kishishev/Faye and the other numpty who is so bad I can't remember his name? If we are then it's an embarassement. We need to ask ourselves a question: are we looking forward to score or are we afraid to concede? For me there is only one answer.

we played charlton a long time ago

and 4-5-1 served us well last season esp away in the UCL

I was wondering myself too, i had to go check the date of creation of the thread when i saw reference to Charlton

hahahaha

I think you guyz should go think when we started the 4-5-1 and feel what am up to. see something must of you think i go copy this from some place but i wana tell you that am a real GUNNER rite from time i think i know everything about GUNNERS.

Just tell them what you think about and not to keep thinking of where do this guy this threads from. Thanks

Don't be fooled. That 4-5-1, is really only 4-5-1 when they lose the ball. It's more like 4-4-1-1. Very few teams have their full backs and even defenders join the attack as readily as the gunners do.

I think we gunners have to be patient with Arsene's poliy of playing only Thierry Henry upfront i hink he know's why he is emloying such a formation but i think he sholud come out and explain to the arsenal faithfuls why he is using the 4-5-1 formation

He knows why he is doing so, just be patient it will soon yield something good

Hmmn

Yea.

just be patient.

Has it not been yielding before?

It suits all well last season, so why not this season

I can understand ur frustrations. But in my opinion 4-5-1 is arsenal's best formation. Its with it that arsenal got to the final of the champions league. The problem i think this season is not the formation but the personnel. Henry plays better with a partner but he is such a great talent that he can adapt nd i believe he is, remember he no longer has dennis. The problem is what arsenal do with set pieces.The way arsenal attack corners is a shame compare to chelsea nd manu. If arsenal is dangerous at set pieces teams will not stay back the way they do nd it will also offer an option to scorin. Thats just the problem not the formation