The Chapman pattern becomes clear – the outside right

By Tony Attwood

We are seeing a real pattern with Chapman.  In almost every position he had his man who could deliver the goods, and who would play the majority of the matches.   The only thing that kept him out would be injury to himself, or an injury to a key player elsewhere when he would introduce a bit of shuffling around.

One of the key areas where Chapman did swap players was his wingers – number 11 and 7.  Many is the player who worked both wings – Beasley in this list is a prime example.

  25/6 26/7 27/8 28/29 29/30 30/31 31/2 32/3 33/4
Hoar 21 2 6 1          
R’ford 1                
Woods 2                
Lawson 8                
Hulme 8 37 36 41 37 32 40 40 8
Haden   2              
Shaw   1              
Williams         5 9      
Jack           1      
Coleman             2 2 4
Beasley                 13
Birkett                 15
Parkin                 2

So that’s the index of players who played at number 7 – and the pattern is perfectly obvious. Indeed it gives us the clue to Chapman’s success – building the team player by player, brick by brick.  The settled side – one might say the settled side of all stars.

But there is a slight change that will be found in the next episode: number 8.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Replies to “The Chapman pattern becomes clear – the outside right”

  1. @Tony.
    According to my book ‘The Official History of Arsenal’ (which as a result of your efforts Tony I am beginning to think of as ‘The Official Myths of Arsenal’ Chapman thought that wingers were wasted. Instead of speeding down the line they should speed inwards like an inside forward and score. Which if I understand correctly Wallcot would like to do
    ) So the 7 and 11 lined up as normal wingers but ran in on goal with the ball. This (says my book)was unique to Arsenal and we must take into account that most fans of our opponents only saw this Arsenal style once so probably did not perceive what they were seeing.
    How many times have we seen a fast winger rundown the line only to find he only has opponents to pass to?

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