Predicting the Future<\/h3>\n
We have been given a few hints to help us predict the formation Emery will play. \u00a0He has stated that he would like to build the team around Aaron Ramsey, and we believe he is close to signing Lucas Torreira from Sampodoria who is touted to partner Granit Xhaka in the defensive midfield position. \u00a0We have not heard much about how Emery plans to utilize Mesut Ozil<\/a>, but we would assume the highest salaried player at the club will be in the mix come the end of summer. \u00a0So just to fit these players into the centre of midfield it is difficult to see how a 4-3-3 formation could be implemented. \u00a0It would require two of the four aformentioned players to be pushed out wide, which would not favour their natural constituency. \u00a0Additionally, there have been implications that Torreira is to partner Granit Xhaka in the central midfield position, which would obviously not work with this formation.\u00a0 So we can dismiss this formation as being very unlikely to be utilized.<\/p>\n More likely Emery will use his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation.\u00a0 This is also the formation Wenger championed at the end of his career, and the formation the Arsenal\u00a0 players will be most familiar with.\u00a0 It is understandable how a partnership of Xhaka and Torreira makes sense with this formation and it fits in one more central midfielder as well. \u00a0I would prefer Ozil in the number 10 position, but given Emery’s admiration for Aaron Ramsey I have predicted him to play here, with Ozil played out narrowly on the left. \u00a0As Ramsey is more of a box-to-box player and Ozil thrives behind the striker, I will hope this prediction is wrong.<\/p>\n As with the 4-3-3 formation, the 4-2-3-1 also leaves the dilemma of how to play Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre Aubameyang together. \u00a0Both of these formations play a single striker, which would require one of them to be pushed out wide if Emery were to try and play them simultaneously.<\/p>\n Arsenal spent \u20ac53m on Lacazette last summer, then dropped\u00a0\u20ac64 on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the winter transfer window. \u00a0Lacazette was slow to settle at the club finding goals hard to come by. \u00a0By Christmas the Arsenal ship was sinking and a top four finish was already looking unlikely, and so in desperation Wenger pushed through the purchase of the Gabonese international. \u00a0But panic buy or not, Aubameyang is a proven goalscorer, and at age 29 he needs to be utilized immediately. \u00a0Lacazette at 27 is also in the prime of his career, and there is no reason to think he won’t be able to settle in nicely and should also be on the pitch as much as possible.<\/p>\n Which brings us to the 4-4-2 formation. \u00a0This is not a formation Emery has favoured, and it has been almost a decade since we have seen two strikers played by Arsenal, but Arsene Wenger did have considerable success with this set up in his earlier years. \u00a0The obvious advantage of playing two strikers is that it would allow Emery to play Arsenal’s two most expensive transfers together. \u00a0I think fans were surprised Wenger didn’t partner Lacazette and Aubameyang in the latter stages of last season, especially considering they really had nothing to lose by that point. \u00a0Although this formation would solve one issue, it does not answer the problem of how to pack Arsenal’s plethora of naturally central players into the midfield. \u00a0The 4-1-2-1-2 variation of the 4-4-2 plays a much narrower version however, and could be the solution.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/football2020.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-05-at-4.30.21-PM.png?resize=435%2C565&ssl=1\")
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