Wenger needs to drop Toure

felirox

25 Mar 08, 22:19

on Tuesday, 25 March 2008

If Arsenal are to climb back into the title race then manager Arsene Wenger needs to make tough calls starting with the dropping of Kolo Toure from their defence.

Only last month The Gunners were five points clear at the top of the Premier League table, but a run of poor performances now sees them sit in third place behind Chelsea and Manchester United.

Last weekend's defeat to Chelsea was a crushing blow for the North Londoners, not only because their city rivals overtook them in the league but that when the pressure came on in a high pressure game they simply couldn't cope.

Many people have wrongly pointed to the double substitution by Blues boss Avram Grant as the turning point in the game, but it was just coincidence that the Arsenal dam cracked when Nicolas Anelka and Juliano Belletti trotted onto the pitch.

Chelsea did not change their tactics with those switches, despite what many reports would have you believe, instead they just kept launching long balls into Didier Drogba and pushing a nervy Gunners defence right back into their own penalty area.

Drogba took advantage of poor positioning by William Gallas and Kolo Toure for both goals that he scored. There was no midfielder dropping back to help them out, yet they should still be held accountable for their poor decision-making in those two incidents. Toure, in particular, was embarrassing in how he tried to defend the second goal with his wild swing at the ball making Gunners fans blush every time it is replayed.

Those two goals highlighted the fragile partnership that Gallas and Toure share in the centre of defence. Both should be suited to play alongside each other as they are strong, quick, good tacklers, and committed to clearing their lines at all costs. But it doesn't work.

Sometimes they are too close together, which invites pressure from the opposition and sees them challenging for the same ball. Then at other times they are too far apart and fail to communicate properly as they are pulled out of position - which was the case when Tuncay Sanli found Jermaine Aliadiere to score in the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.

Despite not being the complete defender himself, Philippe Senderos is actually a far more solid partner for Gallas to link up with. The Swiss centre-back reads the game well, encourages those around him, marks his man very closely, and is often on hand to help a fellow defender when they are being doubled up on. It was obvious that Wenger would drop him once Toure was back to full fitness, but it was the wrong decision to make.

The difference between Toure and Senderos cannot be judged on statistics as the Ivory Coast international has clearly played more games than Senderos. However, it is curious to discover that when Senderos has started in the league Arsenal have won seven times and only conceded six goals, while Toure has been involved in fourteen wins and seen nineteen goals be conceded.

Those stats don't mean much though as the level of opposition needs to be taken into account, what happened in the particular games (i.e. if someone was sent off), and neither have an advantage of helping the team win more as both defenders have scored two league goals each.

Yet for anyone who watches Arsenal on a regular basis, it will be blindly obvious that Toure and Gallas does not work as well as Senderos and Gallas does. Gallas is the mainstay in this equation because he is the club captain. Toure might be a better individual player, but Senderos is a far better team player. So Wenger should go with what works for the team and not just rely on the individual ability of each player.

Senderos is a player that constantly gets mocked in the media for being a huge liability, which is born from two poor performances when he was marking Drogba. However, any defender that comes up against the Chelsea powerhouse seems to struggle, as Toure and Gallas both did last week.

Toure left for the African Cup Of Nations, where he was terrible for Ivory Coast even though they reached the semi-finals, earlier this year and has not performed well for Arsenal since returning from that tournament. If a player is not playing well then they shouldn't be playing - Arsenal learnt that last year with Thierry Henry, but could be making the same mistake all over again.

With Bacary Sagna limping off in the defeat to Chelsea, Toure may be asked to fill in at right-back which would see Senderos restored to the heart of the defence for the next match against Bolton Wanderers. Unless the volatile and undependable Emmanuel Eboue is chosen as cover for Sagna, but let's hope that that isn't the case.

798

25 Mar 08, 22:33

sad to say.... Toure is not the same man he used to be after dat ACN competitions.

stellazio

25 Mar 08, 22:38

Precisely, the first report that i've read to take away credit from Grant. His "attacking football" did not win the game for Chelsea, the 2 goals we scored was basically a reminiscent of the old Mourinho times, which is launching of long balls.

But funnily though, our local papers seems to say that Gallas was the main culprit.

felirox

25 Mar 08, 22:58

The first goal was indeed Gallas's fault..while the 2nd was Toure. Yeah Toure wasnt the same man we knew before the ACN. Time to bring Senderos. Even though Senderos is clumsy at times he make it easier for us by winning air balls. Toure and Gallas likes to push up alot that is why I find them too similar.Senderos is defensive minded. You rarely see him pushing up except during dire situations or corners. But dear old stubborn Le boss will insist on using Toure.

798

25 Mar 08, 23:02

Originally posted by felirox:

The first goal was indeed Gallas's fault..while the 2nd was Toure. Yeah Toure wasnt the same man we knew before the ACN. Time to bring Senderos. Even though Senderos is clumsy at times he make it easier for us by winning air balls. Toure and Gallas likes to push up alot that is why I find them too similar.Senderos is defensive minded. You rarely see him pushing up except during dire situations or corners. But dear old stubborn Le boss will insist on using Toure.

for me, i will still stick to toure n gallas.

think the weakest link r our midfielders esp wingers as there is no one dat can replace pires. most of the goal assists r contributed by sagna n clichy (bear in mind, they r playing more like wingers). eboue n diaby r dragging the team behind.

felirox

25 Mar 08, 23:11

Yeah indeed. Eboue can deliver a good cross when the ball is laid to him...But there are times he can just shoot but he opted to dive or pass to someone else. Its irks me at times to see that guy play. I just cant wait for arsenal to be back in good shape..but right now..I dont think they will

BrUtUs

25 Mar 08, 23:43

Originally posted by 798:

for me, i will still stick to toure n gallas.

think the weakest link r our midfielders esp wingers as there is no one dat can replace pires. most of the goal assists r contributed by sagna n clichy (bear in mind, they r playing more like wingers). eboue n diaby r dragging the team behind.

x2 agree.. cant blame sagna or clichy cos they are playing 2 roles due to crap performance by eboue and sagna... tink eboue should be returned back to right back and wenger bring in 1 top winger with promoting another reserve winger as standby for rosicky... diaby can play his preferred center when resting flamini...

glacer

26 Mar 08, 06:32

Originally posted by 798:

for me, i will still stick to toure n gallas.

think the weakest link r our midfielders esp wingers as there is no one dat can replace pires. most of the goal assists r contributed by sagna n clichy (bear in mind, they r playing more like wingers). eboue n diaby r dragging the team behind.

thats the job of wing backs, to cross in and assist. diaby kinda useless while eboue is not that bad at right back so he can swap postition with sagna on the right wing