I assune you watched the Liverpool vs. Arsenal game last weekend like the rest of us, so this question should be simple: Do you believe that if Oleksander Zinchenko had defended well against Mo Salah, the Egyptian star would not have scored and Arsenal would have left Anfield with a win, even if it was a slim 1-0 win?
Paul Merson insinuates that could be a problem. In fact, he has now admitted that Mikel Arteta should be wary about his left back.
The Arsenal legend is concerned about the Ukrainian international’s defence and believes Mikel Arteta’s tactics have to be changed. While playing “better teams,” he believes Arteta should consider benching Zinchenko.
“This could be their problem: the left-back. That is poor defending [against Liverpool],” said Merson. “That is my worry. I think they need Zinchenko for games against bottom-half teams, where they can go and play and dominate the game, but when they play the big boys…”
The ex-Leeds defender Micky Gray, like Merson, also identifies Zinchenko as Arsenal’s weak link, as he said on talkSPORT, “I’ve got to be honest with you, and I’ve seen him not just this game, and it was a huge game. I think he might cost Arsenal the Premier League.
“That’s how big of a problem it is. That’s not me criticising him saying he’s a terrible player because he’s not; he’s played for Manchester City, been there, done it before.
“He’s certainly done it at Arsenal, and it’s quite hard to criticise him at times when you think over the last year and a-half, what he and I suppose his family and everything have been through. But judging on football and what I’ve seen, I think he’s a problem for Arsenal.”
However, with Takehiro Tomiyasu out injured and also scheduled to participate in the Asian Games Qualifiers, Zinchenko is unlikely to be benched. Prior to his injury, Tomiyasu had emerged as the player who could emulate what the ex-Manchester City star could bring.
Truthfully, despite his defensive flaws, Zinchenko is an important part of Arsenal’s game plan, as he uses his outstanding technical skills to coordinate the Gunners attacks at times. With Tomiyasu out and Zinchenko struggling defensively, Arteta may have to contemplate using Jakub Kiwior at left back, as it might be a razor-thin margin that decides Arsenal’s league title.
Jack Anderson
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I definitely agree. Lack of defensive stability means zinch will always be targeted in the big games. Either arteta comes up with a tactical tweak to cover for his frailty at the back, or we need to get another left back in January.
For the record, as good as tomi is at performing that role, his injury record is a cause for concern. That can equally derail our title challenge. If I had the choice, I’d buy a reliable left back, then, after January when tomi is back use zinch as midfield cover
Zichenko not an hindrance, though he isn’t effective in what he is been used for. In my opinion that isn’t his fault let’s ask the gaffar why he has refused to use Kiwior? Zinny would play well left side of the midfield because that’s he plays for Ukrain his country and even scored in their last int match. I ask again why is Kiwior not used?
Agree. Kiwior was acquired for roughly £21 million and he has looked more than sufficient defensively when playing left back (certainly much better than Zinny has imo). Zinny was the only option in the game plan which MA chose for the match. If MA doesn’t rate Kiwior for whatever reason(s) now, we need to acquire another left back in the January window.
I’d also like to see Zinchenko in the left-sided AM position and Kiwior in the inverted-LB position, while Timber and Tomiyasu are still injured
No he’s not, in my opinion. Sure he has defensive lapses,but the team is designed to cover for these weaknesses, with Rice and Gabriel patrolling that area of the pitch. I feel like what he brings to the team outweighs the risks. He helps us control matches in the middle of the pitch(evidenced by consistently having most touches in a game)- this is something Kiwior,for instance, has not shown he can do. Against Liverpool we had near equal possession to Liverpool and Zinchenko was a big part of that. One could argue that if Kiwior played, we wouldn’t have had the level of control we had,meaning more of the ball for Liverpool,making them a greater threat. Zinchenko’s playmaking is also underrated-he’s always looking to drive forward and make things happen.
Salah is one of the best footballers in the world currently. He’s scored against top fullbacks. He probably scores that goal no matter who was marking him. The guy skinned the entire Man City defense to score a brilliant goal last season I think. A few seasons ago he skinned Tierney(who is regarded by many as a good defender) throughout the game. Tomiyasu is probably the only Arsenal defender I’ve seen limit Salah.
Finally, I don’t think it’s a massive problem because we dominate the ball probably 7 times out of 10 – Zinchenko is suited to such games. 3 times out of 10 is when we face the Salahs of this world and those are the games where I believe either Tomi/Timber would start over Zinchenko. Unlike Kiwior,they are right footed which makes it easier to defend against inside forwards like Salah who look to shoot when isolated with a defender. It’s just so unfortunate that we two Zinc alternatives are injured at the same time. For me Zinc is a maverick, like TAA – both brilliant footballers who are not defensively elite. You just find a way of maximizing his strengths and minimizing his weaknesses. And I think the team has done that to a large extent,otherwise we wouldn’t have the best defensive record in the league.
Great analysis Onyango.
Without Zinc we get dominated and our possession game reduces. Zhaka used to cover him, we need a midfielder who is aware of zinc’s weakness,
Interesting analysis Onyango. Refreshing to see a new perspective of Zinchenko issue.
I find English pundits to be static and parroting each other in their views. It’s like they are following unwritten script.
It’s laziness considering their knowledge of the game.
This is not actually a new perspective, although Onyango is one of the few that actually seems to understand modern football concepts on this site.
All too often we have fans and pundits putting forward and parroting outdated ideas of what a player’s role is. Alongside this is a remarkable lack of understanding of how the interpretation of the role affects the dynamics of the game.
People need to go back and watch what Salah did to Tierney who some people on this site consider a near world class defender.
The fact that we limited Liverpool for so much of the game is related to the setup with players like Zinchenko in it. Zinchenko has some limitations in one on one contests but in a hybrid role he is one the best at enabling control of the game.
“People need to go back and watch what Salah did to Tierney who some people on this site consider a near world class defender.”
I’ve said before there is a bit of a myth around tierney’s defensive ability – he’s a better defender than zinchenko, but he’s not great either. As a total package (defense and attack) Tierney is a very good LB, but people do get a bit carried away sometimes.
He helped us keep control at Liverpool for much of the game and without that sort of control, Liverpool will hammer two or three goals past teams.
He made one mistake and was not the only who made one for a quite brilliant goal, several others could have done better but he gets the blame.
I like Zinchenko but he’s far too easily beaten with balls over the top or through the channel and if he plays tonight, Kudus will have a field day. Kiwior might not be be as creative going forward but he’s a proper defender and I think should play tonight.
Probably the worst left back in the Premier league, yes he does look great moving into midfield so that’s were he has
To start if selected to start the game . Even then I’d like to
See him move the ball much quicker . However maybe play
Three at the back and use him as a left wingback ? ? ?
Now, now, we can’t have our best available defenders defending.
He played against Luton but was not that great
For me Zinchenko is the reason we lost the league title last season. Sure, Saliba’s injury was a huge setback but our defence began unravelling as soon as Tierney was replaced by Zinny. Zinchenko can create many chances but we concede more from his mistakes. He is not worth it.
“…our defence began unravelling as soon as Tierney was replaved by Zinny.” That statement just isn’t true QD. I don’t remember Tierney being replaced by Zinc. Tierney was always on the bench if I remember correctly.If anything, Zinc was part of the preferred 11 that went on that unbelievable run from the very beginning of the season. In fact,our preferred 11 last season,which included Zinc,didn’t lose a single match whenever they played together. I also think it’s unfair to single out Zinchenko for mistakes towards the end when it wasn’t just him making errors. Thomas Partey arguably made more errors leading to goals and there were errors from the goalkeeper too,to name a few. Holding wasn’t making errors but you could argue that his presence made the defensive unit weaker in some ways.
100% – zinchenko was in the team ahead of Tierney from beginning to end. Tierney barely played at all.
Zinchenko was a major part of our good run on the first half of the season and was part of our eventual downfall – he had some bad games towards the end, but he wasn’t the only one at all, so can’t be said to be the reason for not winning the title.
OZ is not a hindrance. But MA could be a hindrance IN SELECTED GAMES if he picks OZ @ LB instead of AM position. Put Kiwior @ LB and we become strong.
OZ is currently the best passer in the team apart from MO.
The only way OZ @ LB works is we have an extra holding midfielder so that DR can drop into defence.
Exactly.
The issue with having Zinc in AM is that you lose a lot of physicality and height in the middle of the park,leaving Rice with too much work. With Zinc and Odegaard both under 6ft and neither defensively great,a midfield of Zinc-Rice-Odegaard likely would be physically outmatched by most EPL midfields.Havertz,for all the flak he gets,does his fair share of defensive duties.
You always lose and gain important abilities when you replace a player, KH and OZ included. It’s just a matter or which player is most impactful to the result in the given circumstances.
But we do play trossard and Vieira in that position at times – imo zinchenko gives better defensive balance than either of them. Maybe your assessment makes sense for certain games, but i don’t understand why zinchenko has never played there for us.
Zinchenko just can’t be our number one LB. Like someone suggested, he’s a great backup, a RollsRoyce type player we can use when we are winning or playing weaker opposition. We cannot rely on him against top-6 teams.
To be frank, even Mesut Ozil was better when it comes to defending.
He is not a hindrance. He is a great option to have but up to Arteta when to use him .
It depends whether we want to keep playing with an inverted full back but nearly everyone who plays that role makes mistakes as it is so demanding. TTA has made howlers, Trippier too and the various players who have tried it at City
Are you insane? This is the most juvenile reaction to 2 bad passes and being beat once by the #1 winger in the world. Gimme a break.
Zinchenko defensively is poor, very poor but has good quality on the ball. Why he has not been tried in the Xhaka position, which i believe he coukd excel, is beyond me. We do need a better LB.
As others have said, zinchenko is not our only option at left back. It was looking like arteta was happy to rotate him with tomiyasu for certain games, which makes a lot of sense – horses for courses. I actually think Tomi would have started at LB vs Liverpool if he’d been fit. For some reason, arteta doesn’t seem to trust kiwior in that position so much – possibly he’s a bit less mobile and not as good with the ball as Tomi, I’m not sure.
We all know what we get with Zinchenko – hard worker, excellent on the ball, tactically intelligent, but he’s not great defensively, poor 1v1 and prone to the odd costly mistake (though he’s not quite as bad as is often made out imo). It’s up to arteta how he uses him.