Arsenal Should Play A Weakened Team At Bayern
Arsenal should prioritise the FA Cup and play a weakened team against Bayern in the second leg. Is weakened the right word? With Ramsey and Walcott injured aren’t we playing a weakened team every week? Heck, even with Diaby injured we play a weakened team when Ramsey and Walcott are available. Ignoring his injury laden career, Abou Diaby makes it into our best 11 when fit on pure talent and influence. When he plays we are a completely different beast. It is the same with the other two guys, the team really misses them and in my humble opinion Giroud is taking the flak for the team not compensating for that – but that is another story for another time.
So if we aren’t playing our best 11 in every match are we technically playing a ‘weakened’ team? Maybe we are playing our best available 11? So if we play our best available 11 against Everton in the FA Cup should the same team play against Bayern 3 days later and Spurs 5 days after that? Surely they are going to get tired?
Three games in 8 days shouldn’t really be a problem but you have to consider the circumstances. The match against Everton represents an opportunity for a trip to Wembley and to be just 180 minutes away from lifting a piece a silverware – for both clubs. This is going to be a lively match and both teams will expend a lot of energy in giving everything defensively and making the most out of the attacks they get.
Bayern is going to be a very lively match – or has the potential to be. Either Bayern score twice early or they get one, or it says level, and Arsenal go all out looking for three goals. It is an insurmountable task, there is no shame in admitting Bayern are better than us and we are unlikely to score that many, but one that will drain every ounce of effort out of the players for as long as they think they could get something out of it.
So that would be two games on the trot where everything has been given to win the match and we’re going to do that for a third time in 9 days against the old enemy? I don’t see it.
Teams I’d choose vs Everton (home) & Bayern (away)
It’s a shame but it is also a reality; something has to give in these three games. We have to prioritise two games over the other one and for me the loser is the Bayern game. If it had stayed 0-1 I would be singing a different tune but attempting to score three goals with a maximum of one reply against the best club side in the world is, for me, too big a request. I would be inclined to play a ‘weakened’ team. If they lose it is no big deal as we’re pretty much out already, if they win they are heroes. We have nothing to lose in this game but everything to gain so why prioritise it over the FA Cup and the league?
We simply have to beat both Everton and Tottnum. We need to make it to the semi-final of the FA Cup and we cannot drop any more points in the league.
If we prioritised the Champions League over the FA Cup, which frankly is more likely than us writing off the Spurs game and going for the two cup games, and get past Bayern we still have 5 more games to play before we lift a trophy. I’m sorry to seem so pessimistic but our squad doesn’t have the depth to cope with 15-18 more games.
Everton aren’t an easy team but if we get past them, which we really should be capable of, then our only real competition left is City and they do have the depth, and ability, to overturn their CL tie against Barca, which, if we get past Everton, I will be willing them to do. The more games they play the better for us when we inevitably come up against them in the FA Cup (assuming we get past the Toffees).
I don’t agree with the view a performance against Bayern would be better than rest. Feeling proud of yourself does not replenish energy or reduce fatigue. What if we give it everything and still get spanked? Then we are tired and deflated. You play a ‘weakened’ team and they go out you have an “excuse”. The team can comfort themselves, they can shrug it off. You cannot shrug off muscle fatigue.
So why not consider a ‘weakened’ side against Bayern as us playing the best available 11? Think of it as only choose players with over 100% fitness. The Football Manager and FIFA players out there are well-versed in rotating out players with “orange” health. I am loathe to compare real football with video games but there is a reason they do that. The games are programmed to increase the likelihood of injury to players whose stamina is running low but are forced to play. This happens in real life. If we play our best technical 11 in every game we are risking losing yet another player to injury.
Against Everton I would play our best 11 and against Bayern I would play our fittest 11. It may seem like giving in but I’m past the point of caring about the Champions League. We are in it every year but rarely get close to winning it despite prioritising it over other, more winnable, competitions. So why not sacrifice it for one year? We have a good excuse – going out to the best team in the world, even with your best players available is no tragedy.
Why not prioritise the FA Cup this year? Why not do what City did and use it as a foundation for future success? Why not give the FA Cup everything, deepen and strengthen the squad in the summer and give the Champions League a proper go next year? Why tire the team out chasing rainbows and then try to pick them up when they fail?
This team has responded well to pretty much every set back this season and I expect them to do so against Everton but we can’t rely on just the mental strength of the team, they need some physical strength too and for me that means sacrificing a competition we are honestly quite unlikely to win this season anyway.
What would you do? Leave me a comment.
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I agree with you totally on this, Daniel.
I think we have the players for that but, what am worried about is the inconsistence of the players and the poor tactics of the manager which a times let us down.
We are out of Europe effectively and the Premiership as well – the fight for fourth place is all we have in regards to the premiership.
I just don’t see any change from last season or the season before that. Arsenal still have the same issues, the major one being that an ineffective, incompetent manager is still at the helm of the club.
The players are not good enough – Wenger signed these players
The squad is not big enough – Wenger signs players
The lack of transfer activity, specifically the search for a new striker cost us dearly – Wenger is responsible for signing players.
The tactics are tired and predictable – Wenger chooses the tactics
The players lack fight and motivation – Wenger manages the team
There is a clear pattern here yet as usual Wenger is held up on a pedestal and escapes responsibility.
Agreed. Had we won against Stoke, my priorities would be (1) the Prem and (2) the FA Cup. Doing well against Bayern would have been #3 without any real ambition of advancing in the UCL. NOw, much as I hate to admit it, we should rest key players against Bayern in order to focus that much more on the Prem and FA fixtures.
On one hand, few of us would have predicted back in September that we would even be in this position. It’s a sign of how quickly expectations can grow that we’re now so downcast about our prospects. There’s still time to rebound, but reprioritizing is now tantamount.
I agree with you…no point chasing shadow !
Eh! Does it really matter? You’re not winning EPL anyway. Go LFC!
Well done on turning an FA Cup blog into one about the league. And March into May. That’s some crazy magic right there. Dynamo has competition.
Hi Daniel,
That makes good reading and is a well constructed and persuasive case for fielding a weakened team, as the needs dictate.
I have also pondered this conundrum for a while too, and have found it difficult to arrive at a rational conclusion.
My gut instinct is to field the ‘best’ possible team at all times, and that probably speaks more to my personal characteristics, which others may perhaps describe as dogged foolhardy.
Common sense tells me that even the best athletes pace themselves and, like the tortoise and the hare, they soon catch and pass the ‘dogged and foolhardy’. (see above) 🙂
There is certainly a case for saying that if we chase too many rainbows we will end up catching none and the reward of the jug of gold at the end may never be ours.
The Bayern game is a case in point. Many will see that tie as a lost cause, and that it would be the height of folly to waste our limited resources on a vainglorious pursuit of an impossible overall victory. And frankly the common sense and rational decision would be to put out a team shorn of our better players and save them for more realistic challenges.
Anyway, all these considerations mulled over, my personal view is – to hell with all that, and go for it with our best team in all competitions and give it our all.
If you do not try when given the opportunity, then you only have yourself to blame when you inevitably fail.
A dogged foolhardy approach? Possibly – even probably, but I would not want to die wondering ‘what if” or ‘if only’! 🙂
We should go for it on all fronts and the devil take the hindmost!!
Hi Henry, thanks for visiting the site and leaving a comment. In principle I agree we should always play our best team which I why I felt I slyly worked around that in my thinking for the Bayern game. If we play our best available team at Everton we can argue that players rotated in and out for the Bayern team represents our best team as they are in fact the fittest players 😉 As with all opinions, it is about perspective and context 😛
Quite right, Daniel.
I expressed it a little differently, but the ‘best’ team is, of course, a moveable feast, as it will depend on other factors such as injuries, and selecting players better suited for certain strategies against particular teams, etc,.
We seem to concur! 🙂
I will visit your site again, but in the meantime be careful not to use ‘smileys’ to convey intent on Positively Arsenal, as I am probably going to be banned (again) for using them, and previously for being too smart for my own good – apparently! 🙂
Nothing like a good bit of censorship, judiciously applied!! 🙂
I don’t really do censorship here. I sometimes change the content of someone’s comment if the original comment was extremely abusive like this 😉 http://northlondonisred.co.uk/the-striker-arsenal-have-longed-for/#comment-88841
ps – I tried to reply to your email but your address is not recognised.
Daniel,
Do not worry about the email – I am having problems with Yahoo at the moment.
When I get a minute I will give you an alternative address. (i have switched providers and changed my laptop – Yahoo seems to have taken exception. 🙁