⚽ Villa away Satters 12:30: Page 28 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

⚽ Villa away Satters 12:30

Coombs

Pepe LeFrits One of Partey's primary strengths, which is his ability to cover large spaces, is negated higher up. Only way I want to see both him and Jorginho on the pitch is to close out games as a twin pivot, or in the 2nd leg of a European knockout game in which we're ahead on aggregate.

KingslandBarge

I am not as keen with Partey there as first order experiment either, though admittedly winning back possession high up and nullifying counter threats early is a strength that could work favor in there. I am more interested to see Viera and Smith-Rowe in Xhaka's position. Xhaka occasionally overlaps Martinelli and I think that would be so much more effective if it was Smith Rowe. For the kind of next 5-6 opponents we're going to be facing, I'd prefer Smith-Rowe over Viera.

Pepe LeFrits

JazzG Be interesting to see how that works because we used to play Xhaka deep and Partey higher up, neither really did well in those roles.

True, I think that's more of a reflection on Xhaka's limitations as a pivot though. I think Partey's athleticism and ball carrying abilities would lend themselves pretty well to the 8 role in certain games.

goon

He can definitely do it, after all it's how he made a name for himself. But I don't think we should be messing with the system too much unless we need to and Partey at 6 is a pretty essential part of making our system work to it's full potential.

As @KingslandBarge said, Vieira and ESR are the ones who could take on the Xhaka role and potentially add to it.

Pepe LeFrits

Potentially, haven't seen much evidence that they're capable of doing the amount of defensive donkey work Xhaka gets through every 90 though.

goon

We might lose a bit at set pieces but as long as they can learn to nail the counter press they'll be fine. The potential upside in terms of goals, assists and overall attacking threat far outweighs what we might lose imo.

Tam

goon There might come a tipping point though where we have too many compromises in favour of squeezing more overall attacking threat and progression into the team. An overly attacking midfielder with less defensive focus, particularly on the left, might just be a step too far when combined with a single pivot and a defensively shaky Zinchenko. Each compromise introduces more risk and at some point Artera's lightbulb might blow.

Coombs

Tam An overly attacking midfielder with less defensive focus, particularly on the left, might just be a step too far when combined with a single pivot and a defensively shaky Zinchenko.

This is my concern as well, though it's more about the discipline to cover for a roaming left back than anything.__

goon

Tam depends on your perspective I guess. I don't really look at it as defensive stability vs attacking threat, the two go hand in hand. If they improve the system as a whole in terms of the type of football we want to play I'd wager the defence wouldn't look any weaker and we'd instead play the football we want more frequently and more effectively.

Qwiss

Tam it depends on the full backs. White has gotten a bit licence to overlap lately but thats not the norm in our system. If you were playing with an more attacking 8 then I think he goes back to his regular role and adds more stability.

Clrnc

Meatwad

Clrnc

damn, it didn't take long for jorginho to get outpaced by the ref in an arsenal shirt. leave that shit at chelsea like the sideways passing.

Doc

Seen it a number of times now still cant decide if its genius or incredibly naïve 😆 bit of both probably

RowJimmy

Doc It was clearly entirely intentional.

QuincyAbeyie

It seems like Aston Villa had 8 shots that in total amounted to 0,4 xG. If that's so then even getting two goals flattered them from their shots (or, to be fair, their finishing was good). But this shot in particular was indeed not a great scoring chance, so it might've been the right call from Vieira.

Doc

RowJimmy

I don't doubt that it was intentional. Initially he sprinted to the guy off the ball which was the smart thing to do as there was still half the pitch to cover but I think he should have then closed down the guy on the ball a lot quicker.

We are lucky that the villa player on the ball continues running in a straight line instead of coming inside as could have been a different story

But it worked so hey ho, not going to complain about it!

Tam

In hindsight I think so too, but at the time I was shouting at the tv and I'm not normally very vocal. Looking at it now, it's probably almost exactly what you would do in the best case scenario outcome in that situation, I just don't think anyone would have expected our flaky Portugese import to come in with his lack of game time and play that situation like a prime Maldini.

Gurgen

I think the initial decision to cut off the pass was great but he should have gone over to the guy with the ball a lot earlier.

FEBravo

How do we feel about Saliba's defending on the first goal? Could he reasonably have done better? Just a good finish from a tough angle from Watkins?

JazzG

FEBravo I think he made two mistakes, he plays him onside initially. Watkins then take a poor touch and instead of getting tight he backs off him allowing him to get himself sorted. After that Watkins is able to get a shot away but he should have dealt better with it.

mohan

JazzG I thought he would have gone tighter once he pushed watkins away from goal. He backed away a bit more than I liked allowing watkins to take a shot. He learnt because there was a similar chance for watkins in the 2nd half and he was way more closer to him and did not allow the shot.

Clrnc

It was a very bad defending no 2 ways about it. Way too easy for Watkins to score there.

If it was Gabby making the same mistake you will never hear the end of it

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