The switcheroo

Have we accidentally stumbled upon a new tactic?

Are Myles Lewis Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri already first team regulars? Neither are necessarily playing in their best positions  and I am not sure what their best positions are. Seemingly Lewis Skelly is a midfielder and Nwaneri a 10 but is that the reality? Is Saka a full back? That’s where he broke through into the first team. I feel that the Merino situation has transfixed the fans. People are arguing that Calafiori should be our striker. Everything is in flux regarding positions but our team are near the top and a strong run now could even get us the title, but only with a Liverpool collapse that is unlikely to happen.

Myles Lewis-Skelly. But where should he play?

Two areas that we are happy with though are Myles and Ethan. They look superb.  They could get fast tracked into the England side. They look certain to make a major contribution there. And yet in what position? And is it really necessary to have a fixed position? Supposing we had five six players that could play many positions, is that not a great asset? How could opposing managers figure out their tactics if they don’t know where our players are playing? Maybe that is the next tactical switch to come? We no longer use fixed positions but change them up several times during a match? A bit like Tyson Fury switching from southpaw to orthodox and back again during his fights.

We switch and we win

At the moment I feel that along with Mikel Merino, Lewis Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Jurrien Timber, Ricardo Calafiori, Kai Havertz and Declan Rice could play several positions from attack to defence. Could you imagine the chaos caused by four, five or six players switching during a game and switching back again repeatedly? The opposition would be mesmerized.

Ethan Nwaneri - could he be the new Ian Wright?

Can you imagine the commentators the first time this was tried? They would say what’s going on here, lots of players are out of position?  Have Arsenal lost their minds and players are running wherever they want to. Arteta will have a heart attack. But it would be actually Arteta’s plan. One player being in an strange position happens all the time in football and normally someone tries to cover  but what about as a deliberate policy?  You would need players capable of playing several positions at a top level but I feel that is possible for certain players.

Heart attacks for defenders

Maybe tiki taka and the high press has had their day and something new needs to be tried? A truer version of total football that is dynamic, and capable of instant change. Havertz goes into the centre strikers position, then Merino, then Nwaneri, etc. Defenders would be wondering what to do, and who best to take what player.

Kai Havertz - nobody knows what his best position is.

What do you think? Could it work? I don’t see why not. It could give us access to that most crucial of margins, goals in our favour. Maybe this striker injury deficit has thrown up a new way of thinking about the game. We are looking at all our players in the strikers role, it seems but what about the rest? The only changes  we sometimes see at the moment in football is sometimes teams switch wingers when they feel a fullback is giving a winger a hard time. But can you imagine many switches regularly throughout a game? Goalkeepers and defenders having heart attacks would become the norm. They might even get frustrated and lash out at our players and get sent off.. That would be a nice change with other teams getting the red cards.

Same old Arsenal? Never

Of course Arteta would be accused of cheating again as he is with the set pieces. Pundits-and I am looking at you two Carragher and Neville, would be saying this is not fair, we don’t know what positions Arsenal’s players are playing in, they keep changing them, it’s not fair.

Mikel Merino - will he stay in the middle?

But would us fans care if we kept winning? Of course not. I even have a name for this new tactic and it is the Switcheroo. The moans from all the non Arsenal fans would be deafening, same old Arsenal, always cheating.

Ricardo Calafiori - the new Roberto Baggio?

C’mon Mikel Arteta, listen to this Irishman, bring on the Switcheroo and let’s win all our games until the other teams catch up and start copying you. We might get a few years particularly if Per Mertesacker starts training all the Academy players in the Switcheroo. And hey, I don’t want any money for this but a nice club level season ticket for free would be nice.