Team Tactics Is Costing The Gunners More than Players’ Weaknesses By I
This Arsenal team is getting found out consistently in this campaign. Opponents realized that once they put two defenders on each of Martinelli and Saka, they are able to tame the majority of the gunners’ attacking channels. They have found out that the team is tame at attacking through the middle.
The key problem in the team is the way the team is set up from the midfield. Arteta seems to underrate opponents’ attacking abilities. That is why he is isolating Rice while expecting a fullback to support him at the base of the midfield, as the other two midfielders who primarily are attackers are positioned to press like number tens.
When the attacking midfielders receive the ball from deep, opponents understand so well that they have few options with the ball, hence they mark the wingers and press the supporting fullback. This set-up does not allow fast and incisive passes which are some of the major strengths of the team last season.
Without the ball, the team’s center forward is deployed in a deeper position to add body to the middle. When the team attack, the forward is hardly the target of the final passes.
Arteta need to change some personnel in the middle to create stability. He should deploy a capable midfielder to partner Rice in the middle so that Rice can have the freedom to roam when necessary. And let the fullbacks focus on their main duties as fullbacks. While the attackers will have the freedom to focus on attack knowing the the double pivots would shield them from sudden breaks from opponents.
With the injury to Partey, either Jorginho or Elneny should partner with Rice. They might not be our favourite players but they are the most natural players available to play the missing role. This shows that the team is short in the holding midfield position. Jorginho especially has long passing ability which can field our pacy attackers from deep.
The issue of a tall and good finishing center forward is important too. I doubt if that can be sorted in this window. I expect a short term fix by a loan if the coaching team are interested. Such an attacker would give the team several options to attack.
If Arteta does not fix the problems in the team as soon as possible, he should forget about winning any trophy this season.
by I
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Yes our tactics are bringing us down more than the players. Our fullbacks are supporting the midfield more than the wingers. Odegaard tries to make up for it on the right by almost playing like a second winger, leaving us with less options through the middle.
Havertz lacks the playmaking in the middle and doesn’t help much on the left. Martinelli has to do it on his own. We are playing right into the hands of teams who plan to shut us out on the wings and let us have loads of possession
Very true.
Bring in that Rice Partner.
Arteta’s 3-2-4-1 tactic is good, but it lacks variations in the final-third
If we don’t use Havertz’s aerial ability, I think it’d be better to try Zinchenko in the left-sided AM position
Klopp signed the big Nunez and Gakpo to fix Liverpool’s previous problems, but Arsenal chose to stay loyal to their diminutive CFs in previous summer transfer window
Maybe because no club could meet Arsenal’s demand for Nketiah
Don’t recall Havertz scoring any headers despite his supposed aerial ability. There were a few misdirected ones and a couple of soft ones straight at the keeper. That said, I’m open to trying him out as CF, so that a better playmaker like ESR can take over as left CM and hopefully lessen our woes on the left
Arsenal rarely made lobs for Havertz’s head, hence no header from him. But he scored some goals with his head for Germany and Chelsea
@gai, Havertz actually scored one header assisted by Saka.
Arteta’s inexperience shows sometimes when playing against coaches with vast knowledge of the game. However, considering his antecedent Arteta is quite a very intelligent gaffer. I expect him with this Epl break to come up with a solution to Arsenal poor form in front of goals.
I suggest Havertz be tried upfront with Saka rested and Jesus used in wide areas. Zichenko in left midfield or brink Jorginho back to central midfied and use Rice as NO8. Just tried something new and make us unpredictable.
I’d like to see that experiment too
I think we should give a try Odegaard dropping back and partner rice, allowing harvetz to play as a single no.10 playing to/off Jesus. Either that or Odegaard stays where he is and harvetz is dropped with someone else partnering rice.
I agree with the article but not with the suggestions for change.
We could recall Norton-Cuffy for the RB role as I rate him higher than Ben White. This can then push White into midfield giving us a double pivot if necessary.
I think we need to change formation to a 3-5-2 just like Conte did for Chelsea after subsequent defeats which led him to the title but with a subtle difference in that our current wingers tuck in a little bit as wide strikers allowing Jesus and Odegaard to make late runs into the box.
GK: Ramsdale Ist choice. Raya 2nd choice.
3: Saliba + Gabriel + either Tomiyasu or Kiwior.
5: Zinchenko/Sousa, Jesus/Trossard, Rice/Partey, Odegaard/ESR, White/Norton-Cuffy.
2: Saka/Nketiah and Martinelli/Havertz.
Proper rotation as you can see we have 2 for each position except CB.
I was also thinking how a 3-5-2 would suit the players natural abilities more than the current one.
Sometimes,any teams needs a moment of individual brilliance when the tactics do not work,who can do that at Arsenal?
Pride and simple matter of overcharging and killing players natural to think and take advantages of situations.
About 5, 6 matches ago, I see Arsenal players dithering forever and overthinking simple throw ins with the score at 0-0, 1-0, or 0-1, and 8 out of 10 times, we lose the ball almost immediately to the opponent or end up passing it all the way back to Raya which is the hoofed away into the rafters. Excuse my French, but please wtf is that??? We never did such rubbish last season and everyone saw how good we were in possession and in transition!
Pride goes before a face splat!
***over-coaching
Excuse the autocorrect typo.
Send the backroom coaching staffs away a months long holiday.
Get a:
1. New Corner Kick Coach
2. New Throw In Coach
3. New Freekick Coach
4. New GoalKeeping Coach
5. New Through balls Coach
6. New Strenght and Cardio Coach
7. New Substitution Coach
8. And definitively Ball Striking Coach
Cos as of right now, only the middle side of our defense is working. The rest are shyte!
I am sure I missed a few, someone else will figure it out.
Rent out serious coaches from the German League.
No 1 really is a priority.
I also realise that lately we’ve been bullied physically in some matches most of which we’ve lost or drawn.
Ideally the epl has become more physical than before.Teams like Liverpool and mancity have taken note and most of their recent acquisitions have an aspect of either height or well built to deal with this.
We also need to adress this in subsequent transfer windows to add the much needed physical presence in the team.
Let’s put it this way….MA is extremely lucky Saliba was signed before his time!!! Very very fortunate because he’s definitely not a player he would’ve signed himself! He’s been a absolute stand out player despite the tactics.
He’s held us together defensively almost all season, without him we’d probably be somewhere around 6th-8th on the table.
I can’t disagree with your comments regarding Saliba, PJ-SA. He’s been a rock for us. I will say though, had Timber been fit this season, We would have been even more solid. Zinchenko has been quite weak defensibly. Tomi has been laden with injuries. Gabriell’s for has also taken a dip recently. We’ve needed Saliba more than ever. I hate to think how many goals we may have leaked without him.
Just maybe Kai in the left back role could help solve the missing link.
Meanwhile, Arteta sees only competitive decline and general difficulties, but for no real reason.
The singular decision to sign Havertz instead of a box-to-box/creative LCM to replace Xhaka is bitting us hard. As for Partey, who knows? Maybe he’ll still be playing right back if available (which would’ve made us worse).
Arteta has got a lot of decisions wrong.
I hope he’s able to see things the way they really are and save Arsenal’s season.
Well summarized
If we’ve been found out tactically, then why is it that we create so many scoring opportunities, and that Raya rarely has a lot to do?
They can’t understand.
So true and I agree with Vamos they can’t understand we are topping the scoring opportunities table.
I agree with you too. He has rarely anything to do except letting goals through.
It’s all subjective this theme that we have been found out tactically. If we had put our chances away against Villa and West Ham and won those games nobody would be saying this. Despite our change of play from last season generally we have been creating chances but just haven’t been clinical enough. Look at Liverpool, they are conceding goals but because they are scoring as well defensive lapses aren’t highlighted so much. We just aren’t clinical or ruthless enough in mentality.
After close on 700 mil spent on this team, we are struggling to find a consistent way of playing. We still have massive holes in our team. Goalkeeper, Left Back, Midfield and Striker, are all a problem. I think Rice apart, the signings in the summer have been a let down. Our play is too predictable and Arteta is/has been found wanting with his team selection and tactics. Arteta is not the proactive coach we all hoped for. We are picking up points better during a season but how much of that is Arteta and how much is the 700 mil invested? We are not over achieving that is for sure. We are nothing special. We dont look like we can win a major trophy.
We may have spent a fair bit of money, who hasn’t by the way, but remember that the vast majority of that spending was about trying to close the gap on City and Liverpool, and not to consolidate our position.
Can you stop with the blatant lies
We have the worst net spend in the EPL over 5+ years, even worse than Chelsea
Get it, got it, good!
So you think the squad needed little investment because it was good enough to challenge for the league when MA arrived?
Talk about lying! Unless you’re delusional enough to think that Kolasnic, Ozil, Mustafi, etc were top quality!
Care to mention all the wasted transfers? Or all the players we could’ve sold but didn’t? Or the players MA trashed the values of instead of selling? Or the players we bought out of their contracts because MA can’t handle his ego being challenged and can’t understand each player doesn’t need to bow to your will? Facts don’t fit into your delusions do they??
Funny how we won the FA Cup with Emerys rubbish players 🤣 the same players MA was desperate to get rid of
MA can’t train players up, can only buy players and hope the tactics don’t blunt them 😅 if they aren’t naturally brilliant themselves then they get worse.
Sorry for ruining your delusions boy
I think you need to check the facts.
Nett spend past 5 years (as listed by Transfermarkt.com). Currenct is Euro:
Chelsea – 788.88 m
Man U – 697.41 m
Arsenal – 645.14 m
Spurs – 513.13 m
Newcastle – 486.38 m
If you then look at how each club’s value (team value, has developed over the past 5 years from December 15, 2018 to December 15, 2023, you will see that Arsenal by far is the club, who has increased the value of the by the most. Arseanla is the only club to have increased the value by more than 500 m.
So, I am afraid the numbers/facts tell a completely different story, than what you so desperately want to be true 😉
Those numbers are wrong 🤣 go check your facts! See you’ve been hiding for the last few days, same with all of you that are fans of MA and not Arsenal!
Funny how we won the FA Cup with Emerys poor squad isn’t it?
Sorry remind me again what an increase in squad value wins you? What major trophy do you get for that? Waste of time dealing with the naive denialists here, can’t believe people like you are happy with our performances and defend them, my word 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Funny how Anders snd Jen completely ignore all the multiple truths I said to focus in on only 1 very slightly incorrect statement (still very close to the top) out of many many statements!
That must mean that there’s no rebuttal for the rest of them 🙃
You dare to call someone delusional after your ridiculous rant that has no basis in fact.
Pats been waiting for a gap to have a go for days, definitely not happy with what’s being said by MANY on here that are now starting to see the truth 🙃
Thank you
I think AndersS just shut you up with hard facts PJ-SA.
Your pathetic child like rant proves you know absolutely nothing about Arsenal and other Premier League clubs.
If I were you, I’d apologise, and go off and do some research before commenting again.
PJ-SA I can’t help but nodding in agreement with your last paragraph. I have noticed it too that the players our boss depend on the most are brilliant themselves. A good example Saliba.
Two of those you mention havexwon a world cup?
Despite the World Cup, I wouldn’t consider Ozil and Mustafi as top quality players when Arteta took over. He did inherit 3 players, Saka, Martinelli and Saliba, who are indispensable now. Could have been 4, if you he didn’t wrongly offload Martinez
They still won the premier country competition, wether you or I rate them.
Saka valued at £105,000,000
Martinelli at £85,000,000
Saliba at £75,000,000
Anders, there’s over £250,000,000 of the growth in the clubs valuation of it’s players and MA wasn’t involved in recruiting any of THEM.
Now add the £800,000,000 plus spent since he joined the club and you can see the reasons why our squad “value” has increased.
Apart from the three players I named above, what players have actually INCREASED in value under MA’s management, apart from Martinez of course?!
I never mentioned Liverpool or City. Im on about the 700 mil spent and the team still has BIG question marks over 1st team positions that are costing us now.
Reggie, I can’t believe that someone quotes the increase in The Arsenal squad valuation, without drilling down and listing our most valuable playing assets!
Apart from Rice, a fantastic buy at £105,000,000, the next three cost just about £30,000,000 and MA had NOTHING TO DO with their purchases.
The only other player who could be considered as growing in value is Odegaard and, in my opinion, he’s worth around £10,000,000 more than we paid for him.
Let’s look at the players who value has fallen :
Tierney – ESR – Ramsdale – Viera – Pepe – Partey to name a few.
The only reason our value has increased is because of the likes of Martinelli etc and the £800,000,000 plus layout.
As PJ SA said, having the second most valuable squad has won us what exactly?
Just double checked the Internet Reggie and the figure spent on players in the last five years by The Arsenal is quoted at £706.6 million pounds, so you WERE correct.
Still only won one major honour of course and that was before the Kronkies opened up their wallets, so I, once again, see what PJ SA is getting at.
Does Arteta have an experienced team of coaches helping him?
Are the comments made here and in other platforms finding their way to him, or his staff.
Arteta picked his Coaches.
Am happy, most fb analylists have seen that arsenal is overrated. Saka is never criticized and never substituted despite not generating much whether a cross, assist, not even mentioning completing a forward pass.
Ordigaard in the creative role doesn’t produce either but not substituted.
Mcneal from everton can close Xhaka’s position and will give you more defensively. Bakayoko of PSV eindhoven can help Saka, while TAKE from Real Sociedad can play better than Ordigaard.
The bench is feeble; Beina of villareal is better than Viera
Play Martinelli – Trossard – Saka and buy Onana and Bakayoko
This is where the absence of Partey is so much felt. Partey would shield the back 4 and allow Rice to function at his best. It is impossible to replace Partey so in my opinion Arteta should employ a 4-2-3-1 formation, with a double pivot of Rice and Jorginho/Elneny shielding the back 4 while Odegaard/Havertz play the no.10 roles. We should not be using the inverted full backs since our personnel are not suited to that.
Well written article. Agree with the double pivot in the middle. Harvetz coming in has unfortunately made this impossible. Unless Odegaard drops back (a position I think he can play) then harvetz must make way. Either that or he takes Jesus’s or martinellis position upfront.
Anybody that is following me will always hear my cries about Arteta’s poor tactics! I’m not making a mere suggestion about things he’ll do, BUT I DO HARP ON THINGS HE’VE DONE AND IT WORKED PERFECTLY, BUT HE DELIBERATELY ABANDONED THEM! Arteta started Smith Rowe directly below Nketiah and Martinelli in the attack, as an attacking midfielder, against Sheffield United where only Havertz started, we pumped five goals into there net. Till today Arteta has never started Smith Rowe in the attacking midfield again!
He forget that even if you bring Cristiano Ronaldo, Pele and Messi into our attack, provided the duo of Havertz and Odegaard start at once in the central and attacking midfield, that team is dead!