Arsenal: Arsene Wenger is creating a brand new position

Arsene Wenger is at work trying to innovate again, this time it looks like he is creating a new position with his Arsenal extras. It’s not working. Yet.

Arsene Wenger is known for his quirks at Arsenal. Some of them have been brilliant. Turning Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie into strikers for instance – textbook success. But he has had numerous failures at similar conversions as well. Theo Walcott.

Now, Wenger has created a brand new recycling program at Arsenal. In this program, he takes defensive midfielders that aren’t good enough to cut it in the first team and he retools them to be what I will from now on call the DM Floater.

We’ve already seen it with Mohamed Elneny, but the confusion surrounding what formation Arsenal were using against Manchester City (3-4-3 or 4-3-3?) lead to the new delegation. Because it’s clear that both of these players were not defenders, but they were also not midfielders.

It’s odd. Previously, that central defender role has been for the communicative coordinators of the back line, but not it’s doubling as a DM Floater, who does exactly what his new position title suggests – he floats.

Elneny’s use of the role has been giving my the nervous twitches. That may come down to the talent around him though, as it’s been far from sturdy.

Francis Coquelin was given the job against Manchester City and it was a 50/50 return. Defensively, it made total sense, as Coquelin was superb at dominating that dead zone between Arsenal’s attack-hungry midfield and their passive defense.

But when it came to Coquelin actually having the ball, the problems arose. Go figure. Coquelin just does’t know how to pass the ball with any sort of effectiveness.

Clearly Wenger realized his new position wasn’t ready for a grand unveiling because he took Coquelin off in the 55th minute.

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Now then, about the long term prospects of the position? That’s tough to say. Coquelin would be ideal to audition the role if he could learn how to pass a ball. But it’s a stretch to ask that of him, so not like we can bank on that. Meanwhile, Elneny is too slow.

Assuming we get the right midfielder to do the role – and N’Golo Kante type – then it could be masterful. My big question(s) comes in terms of logistics.

It requires so many moving parts in terms of coordination. For instance, who takes charge when this DM Floater pushes forward and the back three becomes a back two? And is this floater in charge of communication when he is in the back line? Because that requires a whole new breed of midfielder.

It’s like a pivot before the actual pivot. Which is just one more added step between getting the Gunners from attack to defense. This aspect of the game has been a major problem for them in recent years, but is adding another step really the answer?

Essentially it would be like changing a big stride to two baby steps. In a sense, it may be safer, but it also doubles the chances that something could go wrong.

Next: 5 Things Learned Against Manchester City

I don’t want to give up on it yet. I saw the potential it has from Coquelin’s handling of the role. However, I have also seen how self-destructive it can be. So maybe we wait until there is a more logical candidate.

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