Ian Wright has questioned Mikel Arteta‘s positive comments about putting crosses into the box during Arsenal’s loss to neighbours Tottenham.
Our manager insisted that his side were positive in attack, and putting plenty of crosses into the box as a stat used to highlight that positivity, but Wright claims that the team should be working the ball into the box in other ways, as neither of his strike options are known for headed goals.
“With the crosses as well, I think Mikel was very happy with 34 crosses,” he said on MOTD2 (via the DailyStar).
“But when you look at our two front men, 86 goals – not counting penalties – and they’ve only got seven headers between them.
“When you look at the way Spurs set up, they were very comfortable in those situations. Something has to happen – Saka is the only man on the half-turn that’s trying to create something.
“I thought it was a little bit better today. They’ve got to keep going because I think the manager is the right guy, but they’ve got to find something somewhere.”
We did look more positive on the pitch however, worked hard to get up the field, although when you analyse the match, Spurs allowed us to.
Jose Mourinho set his team up to soak up the pressure in defence and to hit us on the break, and his it worked a treat. Like it or loathe it, the Portuguese’s game plan worked perfectly, and Mikel Arteta’s didn’t.
I’d be interested to know just how many of these 34 crosses found an Arsenal player, and how many of those came in low down to be controlled by the forwards, but I don’t have access to such.
Is the decision to put crosses into the box out of desperation? Is the manager running out of ideas?
Patrick
Did Arteta come to us from Man City or Stoke City?
Asking for a friend 🤔
😂😂
This got me!
I think in wanting to fix our leaky defense, he ended up sacrificing our offense for it, which sadly he just can’t seem to sort out atm.
He is should drop xhaka and bellerin in the team. Stop your crosses create chances from midfield. Also the team is not good at all
I heard MA speak about crosses and I asked one of my friends to tell me honestly if it were MA or me who was delusional. Bamma’s weakest area of attack is heading the ball. His strength is running, which is why he is a better winger than old fashion complete striker like Giroud. Thank you Wrighty for noticing that MA is a bit drunk. It does not matter how many times MA try to deflect from the truth – ARSENAL NEEDS A NUMBER 10.
I don’t want sound like a negativestroke Nancy but this nonsense with crossing seems like a panic mode. We cant create enough chances so we suddenly start whipping in headless crosses? What was the success rate of these crosses again?
If we are to cross we shouldn’t cross from the byline but use the half spaces which de bruyne does for Man city as this style is more difficult for opposition defence to track
Crosses can be our best option for creating goal-scoring chances in the face of our lack of creative midfield players who can work the ball through the center.
But the crosses have to come low and hard across the face of goal.
But, tbh, I felt better watching Arsenal yesterday than I have felt for some time now. I could see some real effort and some zeal in our game unlike the lame, tepid performances of late
In the second half especially, we controlled the game reasonably well and limited Spurs ability to counter.
If this attitude is sustained, I can see some light in the long, dark tunnel.
Deluded. Tottenham gave us the ball knowing we where near their level to hurt them. They are years ahead of us.
I hope so corporate man. It was a better effort
Totally agree CM. We will turn the ship around soon.
Arsenal cross 44 balls into the opposition half but only 7 reached our players. I don’t think this method will work because we don’t have some one like Oliver giroud who is better with his heads, we have only got Aubameyan who is not good with his heads. We need a natural number 10 who is capable of playing those through balls.
It was part of Mourinhos gameplan to stop anything through the middle and force us to crosses. He knew, their defenders could deal with our attackers in the air.
That is why we got so many crosses, as I see it.
We all keeping saying we want a number 10, even if we get one, wats he going to do, with our static players?
If he gets injured? Wat next?
We need atleast 3 strong, fast daring and creative players to be paired with Maitland-Niles, Willock, Nelson, smith and Partey,
Such that we have game changers as substitutes,
If we could get Zaha, Szoboszlai (who I hear if we buy would be loaned back) and the guy from Norwich.
If MA want to keep Bellerin at the RB, he should be using Niles at RIght Attack, i am sure the two can cover for each other,
Or He can use Cedric and Willians or Pepe, not Bellering,
Being more Defensive, use Cedric and Niles at right, so simple,
True, Willian and one mid should cover wingbacks when they go forward. Its no secret Bellarin and Tierney like helping in attack and I dont see anything wrong with that as A Anold and Robertson do the same at Liverpool countless times
Oh Boy! Life is hard. Clearly MA is trying. He is also trying too much. He needs to go back to some basics.
1. Take each player for his advantage. Bellerin is a winger who operates as a wing back. He will always bomb forward. Have a cover in midfield who likes to go forward but defend (M-Niles) or play a defender and play Bellerin off the bench. Stop playing Bamma like a circus. If he is to play a #9 role then have a # 10 and an effective left wing. Calm down on the many crosses. We are not a tall team; and Bamma is not a header.
2. If you insist with crosses, barrow an old fashioned #9 from somewhere that is over 6.3 ft. Giroud is not playing for Arsenal anymore.
3. Be more confident. MA cannot listen to everyone. He moved Bamma to the centre and no one is feeding him still. We are in 2020 make the crazy changes and feed them into a computer and see if it works. MA cannot just listen to people who do not always have an answer.
4. Analyse the problems and solve them with the tools you have. Saka is the only player we have who can repeat Santi’s role. If you wish to experiment then try something that might work. Get Nico close to the goal so he can get 6 penalties and some goals. Playing people out of position destroys their confidence.
5. We are coming back to the stadium. We are now going to put pressure on you – so make a sensible judgement call soon.
It I s clear that this job is too big for Arteta. It is even more worrying when he talks about the number of crosses as a vital stat when every arsenal fan knows we dont have forwards who are good in the air. It is clear that whats Jose wanted after they had their goals. I hope we will not attempt this nonsense with Burnley as we will surely loose. Hope the board is looking for a proper manager.