Dennis Bergkamp claims that Mikel Arteta needs to work on his Arsenal side’s positioning, citing the gaps between the midfield and defence is an issue.
The Dutch legend was a key member of the famous Invincibles side of 2004, and has his own statue at the Emirates Stadium, and remains a keen follower of the club.
Bergkamp admits to watching Arteta’s first game in charge, where we lost to rivals Chelsea 2-1, and claims that there is some issues that need working on.
“I watched Arteta’s first game in charge at home (against Chelsea ),” Bergkamp said.
“In that game it was clear to see what his intentions were with the team. The front four would chase the ball and put pressure on the opponents, but the midfield stayed behind. There was a big hole.
“I don’t know if you remember the AC Milan of Arrigo Sacchi, with Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard. In training, they’d have ropes between them, so the distance between the players was always similar on the pitch.
“That was fantastic in our team as well. There was always a connection. There were no holes.”
When asked if player positioning is an area the new coach needs to concentrate on, Bergkamp replied: “He’s working on it, but it needs time and maybe different players.
“Slowly you can see them trying to play a possession game.
“Everyone on the ball has three options, triangles on the pitch. It’s much better than before.
“But it’s a different culture which will take time. You have to put the hours in, like how we did with Arsene.”
We are thoroughly linked with a number of midfield options in the coming window, but with a limited transfer budget expected following the suspension of football and the Coronavirus pandemic, we may have to suffer through without as many changes as we would have liked.
Hoping that Stan Kroenke will give the club an injection of cash to give the club a reasonable budget to work with so that Arteta can get the midfielders that we need.
Our current options just aren’t cutting it really, and our most impressive midfielder is Dani Ceballos, who will be returning to Real Madrid at the end of his loan at the end of the season.
How many midfielders do we need to sign this summer? Can Torreira, Xhaka or Guendouzi step up under Arteta?
Patrick
This os what o have been talking !! Look at Xhaka and Matteo…in the pitch they create a big gap in midfield making defenders volunerable..we need two good midflders and one complete striker( box striker and CB.