Jamie Carragher advises Arsenal on one key area they have to work on to change their situation.
Arsenal’s 3-0 battering at the hands of Manchester City over the weekend has put the club back into the limelight for the wrong reasons.
Arsenal has now won none of their last six home games in all competitions, but Carragher believes it would be different if the Gunners do better work on their defending.
The former Liverpool defender reckons the way Arsenal press their opponents when they are without the ball is very poor and allows their opponents to hurt them.
In their game against City, Fernandinho was allowed to stroll with the ball from City’s defence into midfield before producing a defence-splitting pass that Gabriel Jesus used to setup Kevin de Bruyne for the opener, this was just two minutes into the game and it set the tone for how both teams played for the rest of the game.
Caragher also criticised Arsenal’s off-the-ball movements and marking and insisted that they have to do better when they want to win back possession.
“From Arsenal’s point of view, it’s so bad,” he said per The Express.
“Using Callum Chambers as a shield and bend it round him, but Arsenal can’t defend like that.
“They just drop off and drop off. Go to the ball.
“Every time I watch them play, every time the ball comes in on the attack they just drop off.
“Remember the Norwich goal where Mustafi and Luiz let Pukki get it and turn?
“It’s something that needs to change on the training ground.
“Keep the line and press. I said on commentary about it.
“They drop off when they should press, they press when they should drop off. It’s like they don’t know what they’re doing.”
Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Well, not for the Arsenal defence it seems. I mean, this is really basic stuff and yet for some reason it is beyond the grasp of the Arsenal players.