Arsenal: Contorting the positions, not the players, is needed

Arsene Wenger shifted Francis Coquelin into an unfamiliar and unsuitable centre-half role for Arsenal’s loss Manchester City on Sunday. But it needs to be the positions, not the players, that are contorted.

The implementation of the 3-4-3 system, for the most part, has been a successful process. Arsene Wenger stated that he initially made the switch to provide a tactical, on-pitch distraction from the uncertainty and criticism that threatened to engulf the Arsenal squad, his players, himself, and the club as a whole. But in carrying it on through to this season, there is obviously an element of it that he sees valuable.

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That is likely the added defensive cover that the third centre-half provides. When Wenger played a four-at-the-back based system, he would still demand his full-backs, recklessly, bomb forward to provide the team’s attacking width in advanced zones.

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Such demands inevitably left holes that opposing teams would regularly exploit, especially if they had quality distribution from a deep midfield position and pace in wide areas. The role of the full-back in a four, under Wenger, is very similar to that of a wing-back with a back three. So all that the 3-4-3 system changes, then, for Arsenal, is dropping a central midfielder into the defence, providing another centre-half who helps stem sweeping counter-attacks.

When that player is a centre-half, it works well. They have the positional understanding, the spatial connection, the sense of danger, the reading of the game, the play the role successfully. When it is an adopted central midfielder, as was the case in Sunday’s 3-1 loss to Manchester City, then the desired effect does not really take hold.

It was Francis Coquelin who was asked to play in the back three against City. With Shkodran Mustafi and Per Mertesacker absent through injury, and Wenger unwilling to trust Calum Chambers or Rob Holding in such an important position, there was no one else to turn to.

But while the personnel had to be contorted to the positions, perhaps what would have been wiser, is to contort the positions to the personnel. Coquelin, who completed just 65.2% of his passes, which is low no matter what area of the pitch he played, nevermind as a centre-half, where passes tend to easier and pass accuracy stats should be above 90%, would have been far more influential by playing in midfield, his more natural position, and Sead Kolasinac and Hector Bellerin dropping deeper as more traditional full-backs.

Wenger, though, has consistently preferred to shuffle his players throughout the team, rarely sticking to their best or most natural positions. Just this season, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Hector Bellerin have played at left wing-back, Mohamed Elneny has played at centre-half, and neither Reiss Nelson nor Ainsley Maitland-Niles have been afforded playing-time in their preferred roles.

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Wenger should be altering his formation and his strategy, not his players and their positions. If he is to persist with the 3-4-3 system, then he must do so with the right players in the right roles. Not with Coquelin at centre-half. Not with Alexandre Lacazette on the bench. With his best players in their best positions.