Sterile attack

[Grattade07]

My struggles from my first season have continued to rear their head at the beginning of my second.

It feels like my attack is extremely sterile in the way that I don't think my tactic is just not making good chances. After 4 games only one of furthest forward players has an xG of over 1 and my striker seems to be feeding off of scraps having only managed to get off 4 shots in 3 starts and no goals scored. My defence is excellent however considering their quality isn't great.

Is this a case of me needing to change roles/duties to make space better or am I doing something wrong in another way?

 

[jeerinho]

Make use of the team's high pace (probably the fastest team in the league after Man Utd) to play more quick but short passes into space.

[Bluebird123]

I think your flanks are too one dimensional, two wingers will start wide and come inside to do what exactly? The WB-A will go very high and very wide and throw in crosses but to who? Your AF is going to be lonely in the box. You could probably do with a IF-A/S on one of the flanks. 

I personally don't like the WB-A role, I feel they have a ton of hardcoded instructions which makes them really basic. They will always dribble up the pitch and cross from the byline, rarely are they involved in possession and building attacks (I don't know if you have a player who switches the ball to the other flank, if you don't I feel the WB-A roles are even more redundant). They aren't bad roles in isolation (I have great success using them in a back 3 system) but I do prefer the WB-S or the simple FB role. You have to account for the WB's aggression when defending, Bellerin isn't the best defensively so if he doesn't win the initial tackle your flank may be completely exposed, I'd keep an eye on that (the WB will position themselves a little higher than a FB to win the ball back). 

You definitely need to address the two attacking wingers though, both have pretty crap average ratings so they aren't contributing enough. Take a look in the analysis tab and see what exactly are they doing, are they getting the ball? If they are what are they doing with it? I also wonder why you have very high engagement and DL's but almost no pressing? Do you have individual pressing for some of the attackers? If not then you need to sort that out because you are exposing your defence to long balls. 

[raktim0699]

 ..   W(A)      F9(S)         IW(S)

         Mez (S)   RPM (S)

                    HB(D)

 IWB(D)                         WB(S)

I once used something like this for Arsenal. You could give it a try a see how you like it.

IW(S)- Saka/Pepe

W(A)- Pepe/Saka

Mez(S)- Smith Rowe

RPM(S)- Odeegard

HB(D)/A(D)- Rice

IWB(D)- Tierney 

WB- Bellerin

[raktim0699]

However, I also feel 4-2-3-1 is extremely suitable for Arsenal particularly for Odeegard who plays good in that AP role so, how about going for support role for him and two inside forwards and cancel the attack duty on wing back but maybe include overlap with narrow width. Select Be More Expressive and see. All are based on my opinion of playing with Arsenal