5 Issues Arsenal Need to Work on During November International Break
There's no doubt that Arsenal are in crisis mode at the moment. Nothing seems to be working for them this season, Arsene Wenger has not come up with any answers and they play Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund in their next two games.
The international break represents an excellent opportunity for Wenger to consider solutions and test them on all the players who have not journeyed to foreign lands to represent their respective countries.
Let's look at five things Arsenal need to focus on.
Rotation
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Arsenal's current starting XI is clearly not working right now, yet Arsene Wenger starts almost the exact same group of players every game.
He absolutely needs to try different players and a different balance—perhaps slotting Aaron Ramsey alongside Mikel Arteta to form a double pivot or giving neglected players such as Tomas Rosicky a chance.
Rosicky recently expressed consternation and bewilderment about his lack of game time to Denik.cz (h/t Arseblog), and he certainly has a case. He will not be at London Colney for the next couple weeks, but Wenger should plan to insert him into a new-look team when everyone returns.
Defensive Balance
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Arsene Wenger has recently decided to deal with Laurent Koscielny's injury by moving Nacho Monreal to the center of defense and putting Calum Chambers at right back, where he played for Southampton last season.
The result is an awfully imbalanced defense, with a natural left back trying to anchor the team and a player more suited to the middle trying to keep up with speedy wingers on the right.
Chambers played excellently when deployed as a center back earlier in the season. Shifting him there would entail putting the very raw Hector Bellerin at right back, but the Spaniard has shown he has considerable talent and would be better there than Monreal is in the middle.
Fitness
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This is a very important period for Arsenal in terms of getting key players back. The wounded have a couple of weeks to heal and hit the gym without injuring themselves in any real games.
According to Arsenal.com, Mikel Arteta should be back by the end of the international break and Olivier Giroud is set to join training while his teammates are away.
They will make the team noticeably better when they come back. The Gunners are desperate for a disciplined midfield leader who can calmly distribute the ball, while Giroud gives Arsene Wenger a plethora of attacking possibilities.
Formation
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Arsene Wenger has repeatedly tinkered with Arsenal's formation this season but nothing has produced genuine cohesion thus far.
He began with a peculiar 4-1-4-1 formation, with which he persisted for far too long. Occasionally, he turned back to Arsenal's traditional 4-3-3 and now seems to be experimenting with an old-fashioned 4-4-2.
Wenger should use the players he still has on hand during the international break, along with game film, to think of a better way to set his team up. Clearly the same old stuff won't do; there has to be more of a focus on defensive solidity and protecting the makeshift back four.
Luckily, the returns of Giroud and Arteta give him options.
Defending Against Themselves
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Interestingly, Arsenal have not recently blown leads against blunt, unimaginative teams like Stoke City. Rather, their two most proximate collapses were against Anderlecht and Swansea City, two teams that play with more or less the same style that Arsenal do.
Both are mostly composed of small, speedy, pugnacious, technical players who attempt to wear their opponent down through efficient passing and movement. That's the kind of team that Arsenal want to be, but they have obviously failed.
Perhaps the defense would benefit from playing against their teammates and drilling themselves that way. One wouldn't want the forwards to have it too easy, though—they need to train as well.
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