Arsenal need a change of direction

I think to move forward Arsenal need to change manager. Arsene Wenger is a legend, without doubt, but his time has come to go. Either that, or change his philosophies but that isn't realistically going to happen as he refuses to adapt to the way the game is now.

We've lost our best player and another key creator this summer, so something in our style had to change as playing with a centre midfield playmaker was never going to be as effective without Fabregas, as there is no-one better than him at this. The 4-5-1 formation is dead, we need to change to 4-4-2.

We have the players now to do this, Walcott is now ready to play up- front for example. We have brought in players like Arteta and Benayoun who are suited to a 4-4-2, as would players like Wilshere and Diaby. It would make us a better team going forward and bring out the better in Van Persie rather than him being isolated and marked by 2 centre halves every game. Look at Man Utd, they player Hernandez AND Rooney up front which gives the centre backs two forwards to worry about, rather than just ganging up on one. Plus, if one has an off day, you have another one to keep you going. Look at Tottenham even, they had Defoe AND Adebayor up there, giving Arsenal two players to worry about there as well as threats from midfield in van der Vaart, Bale and Modric. They had threats from out wide, in the middle and even at full back in Walker. We should return to playing 4-4-2.

We also need to change tactics in defence. I don't think our defensive problems are individual, I think they are collective. We need to be a more organised team at the back and this comes from coaching and tactics used my the manager and coaches. Of course, we miss Vermaelen but you look at the defence today and think; Sagna is a world class right back, Mertesacker is a very good centre half, Song is and Gibbs is a very good left back. So I don't think we have a liability in there, I think it's a collective thing and a leadership issue, but I think that will be solved more by Vermaelen returning from injury.

I think the only way our tactics are going to change is through a change of manager, I can't see us moving forward with the way we defend at the moment, we need a manager or coach to come in and deploy a different philosophy of defending. A more tight, communicative, no- nonsense, compact way of defending where the priority is 'to get the ball away from the danger area'. Because we just invite problems at the moment. Add this to how much potenntial going forward we have that is hindered by the 4-5-1 formation.

Time to say thanks Arsene or time for Arsene to change the tactics and bring in a defensive coach who will have a senior role at the club in terms of how the team defend and the tactics of this.