TV pundits overly harsh on Arsenal or spot on?

No, you’ve failed to grasp the difference between counter attack and defending deep. Mourinho is boring for a WHOLE different reason than that he plays counter attacking football. The reason I called you a fool is because you are being foolish – you NEVER give the ball away on purpose. The reason I will continue is because the only person talking in absolutes (beyond the concept of giving up posession on purpose…) is you. Please understand there is a difference between “inviting pressure” by retreating your backline to the edge of the box faster while initiating pressure on the ball closer to your own goal versus “giving up possession” which is what you initially stated. Your simple misunderstanding of that from the start leads me to the reasons you continue to fall short of tactical knowledge.

Firstly there are a TONNE of ways to break a defence down, not 1 or 2. The term stretch in itself covers many many options but each has a counter or a block which you then have to adjust to accordingly. Counter attack is one tactic that stretches the gap between midfield, defence and goalkeeper, but it is not necessarily correct in all circumstance because the opposition may not commit players forward to enable the counter to be effective (see Chelsea).

Secondly, as I just outlined, counter attacking football is rarely good if the opponents are not committing players. Often we find ourselves in matches where the opponents will not push up their wing backs and use a shielding DM, allowing maybe 4 or 5 players into the attack. This negates a counter attack’s efficiency and is the ultimate plan of MOST teams in the EPL when playing us regardless of if we play counter or not. If we change our tactics, it will not make the opponents alter there’s accordingly to suddenly let us win. If they want a draw and we allow undue pressure the result will be a draw, especially if our counters are just the standard pace and pass tactics.

Thirdly you totally misunderstand why Chelsea are boring and how they play football. Chelsea have two standard tactics and neither is particularly cavalier. Against big teams they hold their back four very tight and do not let them progress up the pitch. Usually one of the wing backs is allowed to go into a “deep” crossing position but most of the attack is done by the front 5. The DM and back 4 retain their defence. Against smaller teams the wingers are allowed more leniency and you usually see Chelsea leave only 4 players in reserve at a given time. This creates a boring game because when Chelsea lose the ball, they retreat back to defend, but are usually 90% set up already. They recycle the ball when they win it back and begin the slow knock on the door again. Rarely do they throw tooth and nail at a lesser team to get a goal…unless they’re losing. Against big teams they always set out to get a draw and nick it if they can. Same tactic – never get caught unawares, focus on letting the skill players play and the defence stays rigid. It’s simple football but relies on 5 players up top doing the job of 6 or 7 players. AND they usually manage it.

Now my final point is when you talk about Chelsea/Dortmund etc. playing against deep defences. I’ve NEVER seen any of these teams drop off and give up possession against lesser opposition and then counter. NEVER. I’ve seen them nick the odd goal that way but the normal tactic is play wide, play fast and let the skill players decide the game. I can think of plenty of games where Chelsea were frustrated by deep teams because they couldn’t break them down – the West Ham “did not want to play football” match of last year does spring to mind. The major difference between Arsenal and Chelsea against deep teams isn’t that Chelsea give up possession to sit on their box and then counter but that they have multiple ways to stretch and penetrate. Wide players getting in crosses to players, set pieces, big switches of play to isolate a defender 1 on 1 with a winger, direct runs into the box with good footwork etc.

Basically what I’m saying is – you’ve got some misunderstanding about the tactics you’re talking about and are advocating TOTALLY the wrong idea about fixing our current problems. I’ll be the first to admit counter attacking football and Arsenal should go together like cookies and cream but ever since the invicibles teams have refused adamantly to play high defensive lines against us and counters do not work if the opposition has a defensive 5 or 6 set up near the edge of their box when you finally get the ball up there. Counter is all about getting 1:1 against the opposition with them having to back peddle. If they are deep there is no space to go into and a higher chance of not reaching that 1:1 ratio. I am not saying counter attacking football is bad – I’m saying you’ve got the wrong end of the stick about how it works.