Artetaball Tactics Thread: Page 17 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Artetaball Tactics Thread

Burnwinter

Ødegaard is playing a fair bit deeper this season, isn't he? Or at least it seems so.

We should play Ødegaard on the left and Havertz on the right a few times. I do feel the lack of experimentation and change tends to demoralise the bench and allow the first XI to go stale.

Qwiss

RocktheCasbah I watched him last night, he was sort of full of shit. Said we hadn't been having any injury issues apart from Smith-Rowe.

RocktheCasbah

Qwiss I've only seen this clip so can't comment on the rest of it; obviously if he did say that, he's wrong!

Sicario2 - Tier 1

flobaba

Sicario2 - Tier 1 it's a bunch of what Biden would call malarkey.

If we really wanted to break down a parked bus, we could increase the intensity of our press (selectively), and try to turn the opposition over earlier, in midfield. We have one of the best ball winners in world football in Dec, and some of the hardest working attacking midfield / forward players in Ode, Jesus, Saka and Martinelli. Then we have to be quick to counter and take advantage, as we did well for the most part last season. Instead, when we get the ball we are satisfied with taking our time, passing it backwards and settling down into our own structure.

Of course once we do that, opponents also have time to get back in defensive shape. We can't eat our controlball cake and have it.

JazzG

Sicario2 - Tier 1 He’s right, even last season when teams sat deep it was hard. Against Brentford it there was no space in behind.

One thing we haven’t done enough though is start bright and go for it early. A lot of that is down to having such an injury disrupted start, once our players return I think we’ll be a lot more fluid.

Coombs

Arteta needs to get a bicycle.

goon

He does seem to favour the driving analogy.

goon

There’s always solutions. I think the best solution is to just score early. Something we were doing regularly last season and not doing at all this season.

I don’t love that Arteta answer but I suspect he’s just being cagey.

Gazza M

goon fast starts are key with our style of play. it's worth taking on more risk with our attacking in the early part of the game, getting the goal, then absorbing and picking teams off over the course of the game.

banduan

My personal pet theory is that Citeh's more stifling brand of football was actually partly due to Arteta. They haven't been that intense since Mikel left.

Clrnc

banduan Kinda good shout. Might be onto something.

But then again after Arteta left Pep was the one who decided to do with playing 4 CBs and moving Stones to midfield in a revolutionary move

goon

Since our fab four have been back together, we've generated an average of 2.6xG per game and the eye test also suggests we're playing better football. The first halves against Wolves and Lens were probably comparable to what we saw last season.

So what's everyone saying now? Are we still maintaining that it has nothing to do with personnel and we've been instructed to be boring and not create chances?

QuincyAbeyie

goon Are we still maintaining that it has nothing to do with personnel and we've been instructed to be boring and not create chances?

Is the alternative that we're incapable of creating chances and not being boring (your words) if one out of four players aren't playing?

Burnwinter

goon Are we still maintaining that it has nothing to do with personnel and we've been instructed to be boring and not create chances?

Hang on a second ...

Who's "we"? What's happening at the moment, with Jesus back, Havertz emergent and Øde and Saka starting to play reasonably well again, looks very much like what I've been expecting.

I'm more interested in whether we can avoid the jadedness that was such a feature of last season's downturn.

Coombs

goon we've obviously also given up a ton of control by attacking like crazy against Sevilla, Lens, and now Luton. Our CL tactics have bled into the PL, that's all.

Qwiss

goon we've clearly changed our tactical emphasis again having dropped Jorginho for rotation between Trossard and Havertz instead. I think Arteta realised it had become to stagnant and decided to throw more men at it.

Don Pacifico

I definitely observed a least one occasion early on where we had the opportunity to counter but the intensity in getting forward was really laboured with people jogging behind whoever was on the ball. This for me typified how I think we've evolved this season to not commit as much in transition in order to create more control.

I'd agree there does seem more fluency in the final third with the front four back but I do also think we're managing games differently as per the above. We also shouldn't be as reliant on all four playing to create chances so that has to be something to improve on.

goon

Still winning games without them (and topping the league) is what I would call not relying on them. I don't think you can lose several of your best players to form and fitness and then claim you should still be creative without them.

goon

QuincyAbeyie

Incapable? No, Just less likely. Even less likely when you're missing two, and moreso when all four are struggling with form and fitness.

This doesn't even account for the fact that Zinchenko has been out of form for a lot of the season and that Partey hasn't been available.

Don Pacifico

goon I agree that you should expect a drop in quality when the first choice players are out but let's not ignore the fact that a lot of our wins in the league this season (7 out of 11 to be precise) have been by a single goal. It's great we're still winning those games but it's precarious from where I'm standing. Yes, our late goals are a strength (resilience of character, superior fitness etc.) but for a number of reasons, we can't rely on that for a full season.

goon

Don Pacifico

The season Liverpool won the league, 8 out of 14 wins at this stage was by a single goal.

I look at it as a good quality rather than a bad one.

Mirth

Don Pacifico I view it with optimism as we can go up a level in the second half of the season which is what the likes of Man City always do. I certainly don't feel like the attacking football we've played for most of this season is reflective of our ability.

I'm also not concerned by our defenders, they're extremely organised and capable for the most part.

It's really just the goalkeeping situation and lack of depth that I can't think of a bull case for.

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