Clrnc wrote:
Rohit wrote:
We aren't giving up (m)any clear cut chances. We are making it hard and it isn't pretty but we haven't looked this comfortable before with men behind the ball. Whatever Arteta is doing in training is working.
While watching it, I was thinking there's a clear structure and pattern in both our games against City and Liverpool in our deep block defending.
Can't have learned that from Pep, never see a Pep team defend like this before. It actually reminds me of our 2-0 win at Ettithad under Wenger few years ago.
Not just in terms of the deep and narrow block. IMO in both games Arteta conceded the flanks by making us hard to play through the center. This forced them to try to cross into the middle or the have to keep passing across the top of the area. Emery had the same idea v LFC but the wrong shape to make it work with this squad.
If the game you're thinking about is when we lined up in a 4141 with Coquelin as DM, the was talk the players made that call themselves in a meeting they had without any staff members including AW. AW wasn't too impressed and we didn't play that shape & roles again, and AW tried to convert Coquelin to playing a high ball winner role, much like Emery and Torreira.
