Arsene Wenger: Our Game Was Better When We Switched To A Back Four

By The Editor
on 14th September 2017

Arsene Wenger pleased with tactical change…

Arsene Wenger has his say on Arsenal’s win and the crowd troubles at the Emirates pic.twitter.com/9IKhrXf6JU

— ITV Football (@itvfootball) September 14, 2017

Arsene Wenger hailed our performance after we switched to a back four against FC Koln with goals from Sead Kolasinac, Alexis Sanchez and Hector Bellerin completing the comeback.

It’s the third time in four games in which Wenger has switched back to the old system in order to chase a game, and it worked out for him once again.

Our record with a back-three was impressive towards the back-end of last season, though it’s difficult to assess how much the formation affected results given that many of our opponents had little to play for.

Wenger stuck to the system religiously during pre-season, and it’s been far from convincing this campaign with the likes of Leicester City, Liverpool and Stoke City punishing us defensively.

“We had a bit of a problem to start the first-half, our game was a bit too slow,” Wenger told ITV Sport.

“On top of that we were shocked by their opener, they scored a great goal.

“I changed the team at half-time, and in the second-half our game was better balanced – quicker, sharper, and overall we won in a convincing way.”

It seems Wenger is now persisting with this system just to prove that he’s not one-dimensional, but it’s certainly not calming fans when we’re out of possession.

The system looked under-coached, and our boys resemble an overwhelmed group of players whenever we lose possession and are tasked with quickly get into shape.

One wouldn’t be surprised to see another in-game switch on Sunday at Stamford Bridge.