Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Tony Attwood

Playing in four competitions puts a strain on players.  Further, there is a suggestion that some of our players get targeted in terms of injuries so that all our injuries tend to fall in one section of the squad.

So it is just possible that as a way of coping with year after year of injuries we might now being seeing the end of the classic “two teams” approach (that is four full backs, four central defenders and so on through the team) so that we are actually going to have three sets of players who can play in the first team.

Of course there is a bit of problem in that we are only allowed 25 players in the Premier League – but that is 25 plus the under 21s, so taking that 25 up to 33 is not actually impossible.

I know this sounds crazy, but if even 1% of the transfer rumours have got any truth in them, we are going to sign and sign players.  And then some.  So it looks like we are heading that way.

OK maybe we won’t, but just stay with this for a moment.  If Arsenal do look to have something akin to 33 players who could seriously take their place in the first team, then most of them will need some kind of experience on a regular basis.

And the solution to that looks like we might abandon the old “first team” approach and instead have 33 or so players which a team is selected according to who we are playing, who isn’t worn out from last week or the mid-week match, and who isn’t injured.

Which means we might end up with three teams:

• The First First team – those people like Vermaelen who you really want in the side if at all possible
• The Second First team – good players but they might need special consideration (having just come back from injury) or may be selected only for certain occasions, or simply can come in and do a good job.   This means that is we are up against an Allerdyce type team you pick a different team from when you are playing Man City.
• The Backup team – they will step into games when the ravages of injuries do their stuff, but otherwise play in the League Cup, FA Cup and easier Champions League games, or to meet certain circumstances.

So the numbers of players who are always going to be on the pitch unless ruled out through injury or cards, will decline as the club moves over to a process of protecting top players from playing two games a week, and from being clobbered to bits by the more agricultural teams.

So here is a new version of the 25

Homegrown players

1. Johan Djourou
2. Kieran Gibbs
3. Vito Mannone
4. Alex Song
5. Theo Walcott

Non-homegrown players:

1. Mikel Arteta
2. Yossi Benayoun or replacement
3. Marouane Chamakh or replacement
4. Abou Diaby
5. Lukasz Fabianski or replacement
6. Gervinho
7. Laurent Koscielny
8. Per Mertesacker
9. Chu Young Park or replacement
10. Tomas Rosicky
11. Bacary Sagna
12. Andre Santos
13. Sebastien Squillaci or replacement
14. Robin van Persie
15. Thomas Vermaelen
16. Podolski

That is just 21 players, so we have four left (plus of course replacements if any of the above noted as possible departures do go).

To that we need to add the under 21s who have come of age this year.

Under 21 according to the “25″ rules last season (I haven’t checked which of these are now qualified as being 21 – please help if you know)

1. Szczesny
2. Oxlade Chamberlain
3. Ramsey
4. Wilshere
5. Jenkinson
6. Coquelin
7. Miquel
8. Frimpong
9. Ryo

Even if all of them are over 21 on the exact qualifying date we would only have 30 players registered, and that just means losing a few of the people listed as possible departures.  But I am sure they have not all turned 21 according to the Uefa rules.

But what about the kiddies?   This year we seemed to be loaning out players who had looked at one time like they might make it, but in the end were not quite there.  I think of Vela, who could score fabulous goals – but just didn’t seem (at least last time we saw him) to be at the highest level all the time.

So if these players go, we will have our fourth team – the Loanees – spread across Europe.  It means that people like Joel Campbell can come back, passport permitting, and get few games.  The Loanees will be doing the job that served Coquelin so well – a serious spell playing in a decent side.

After that we have the reserves and the youth teams (teams five and six).   There has not been much talk of late about the youth or under 19 Champions League, but last time I heard of it, Arsenal were on the list.  If you have seen anything more of late, do let me know.

And that’s why it is just possible that we will buy more players this summer.  So here’s another guy now on the radar (or recently made up by the Daily Mail, whichever you choose)…

Alan Yelizbarovich Dzagoev  (Алан Елизбарович Дзагоев) who is a 21 year old midfielder with CSKA Moscow who have rather oddly let his contract get to a stage where it ends at the end of this year.

He played in the second division, was Young Footballer of the Year and now is with CSKA.  Real Madrid were supposed to sign him – but then he said he preferred Chelsea – which might well put him out of the running – but still nothing has happened.

What makes the story in the Mail seem wrong is that Arsenal are now watching him, according to the paper.  But Arsenal don’t do that.  They watch players 20 times  through a season before signing them – so if Arsenal have only just taken an interest then we won’t sign him for another year.

He played in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers and scored two goals in Russia’s opening game in Euro 2012 and one in the second game.

Then we have defensive midfielder back on the radar.  Yann M’Vila says he wants to come to Arsenal, and is apparently saying “come and get me” which might be true, or might be the fact that someone like Liverpool has put a bid in, and M’Vila’s club Rennes is trying to up the fee by saying Arsenal are interested.

But given that we have Frimpong, Song and Wilshere, do we need him for £17m?   Well, yes if you are going to play Song more forward and use those extraordinary passes, which are restricted if he has to stay further back.

Meanwhile Giroud is still there pecking away – but we’ve covered him lots of times already.

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