What Wenger must do to turn it around at Arsenal
If Arsene Wenger does continue on as Arsenal manager, one thing is obvious: he just cannot continue on in the same way.
The 67-year-old is someone who completely trusts his vision of the game, and has been so determined to be vindicated, but surely the current situation must convince even in him that something is fundamentally broken with that vision.
The gradual decline of the team proves it. And, if he has indeed spotted ways to fix it, there will never be a
better time than now.
For one, it seems that Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez - the two star signings that were supposed to complete this side - could be leaving, buckling Wenger’s grand plan anyway.
It would evidently not be enough to just try and replace those two, especially given the difficulty of doing so directly. That should give cause for thought about restructuring the side, as well as a lot else around it, including the manager’s ideas.
So, what does he need to do?
1. Use this window to start reshaping the profile of the team
Over the past half decade, as Wenger has seemingly settled on an idea of a sleek side that can generally move between a 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3, it is often as if he only buys players that can fit into specific roles in that system. It helps explain why Arsenal persistently seem to have an excess of certain types of player, but are lacking in other areas.
And, when Wenger goes outside the template - like with Granit Xhaka - things look just even more out of shape. That should not be call to just bring in more of the same, though, since the approach only ever takes Arsenal so far.
They need to break the ceiling they have been hitting, and that involves breaking up this squad and thinking about a new formation. Wenger should seek a different profile of player, for a different style of teams. That seems most obvious in central defence and midfield. It also involves tough decisions elsewhere.