Declan "Deccers" Rice: Page 46 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Declan "Deccers" Rice

Claudius

Qwiss agree with all of this. The big thing is he’s finding himself in advanced areas, and getting onto the end of chances. The goals will follow.

Speaking of which, I’ve been wondering why we commonly think this team is so boring. I keep looking at our numbers. For the last three years, we’ve basically matched or outscored all prior Arsenal teams. So the team scores a ton. I think the difference lies in just how much of the ball we have in advanced areas. And so there is a perception gap. We are near the goal, and our conversion of that that possession into shots doesn’t seem high relative to our positions. But in general, over this period we’ve actually been quite good at generating shots in general. Just a thought.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Claudius it's the lack of central attacks that makes us a bit boring. It's mostly aesthetics. We take no risks, we don't attempt off the cuff freestyle shit in zone 14. Remember the Wilshere vs Norwich goal?

Even Slot's Liverpool do it sometimes.

flobaba

Claudius there is no perception gap. We keep the ball, pass it from side to side, our forwards make very few incisive runs, putting little to no pressure on central defenders. And when they do, our midfielders (bar Odegaard) don't pick em out. I'd wager our defenders have more goals/assists than anyone not named Odegaard/Saka. All we do is play to the wings and try to cross it in or find the cut back. Very predictable. Very boring when our best players are out of form or out injured. And now we are struggling to contain counter attacks... Even against the fish farmers from Zagreb yesterday, we were dominating and in control but I had to switch to the City game. It's such a chore watching us these days

Qwiss

Claudius check our open play chance creation and you get the answer. We create a lot but way more of it comes from set pieces than we are used to.

Personally I don't really care that Artetas football can be a bit boring. I don't really care that its focussed on safety first. I think all that is fine if we sort out the options in the front line and have a strikers who will shoot and score when the chances present themselves.

RocktheCasbah

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert think you have to remember all of the automatisms which have been built up in the team have been smashed to pieces this season. The revolving cast at left back, no consistency in central midfield and the White/Ode/Saka triumvirate has had fuck all time on the pitch together.

Imagine the Invincibles with Cole/Pires/ Henry missing three months each - we wouldn't have been the Invincibles, I can tell you that for sure.

Gazza M

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert it's because it a high risk zone. certain managers see that zone more as a source of turnovers than a source of creativity. guys like arteta, mourinho, simeone are the same. to an extent theyre right. flicks barca are an excitement machine because they are very brave with their passing into the central corridors, but they definitely pay a price for it with how much they get stung by counter attacks. aside from ode, we don't have any other elite operators in tight central areas, which is a reflection of our recruitment priorities and a reflection artetas attitude towards that area of the pitch. we've gone for robustness over technical mastery, essentially the inverse of wengerball circa 2007-2011. our players avoid the area by design, imo to the extent that it's overkill. there are some easy passes between the lines that our players just don't make because our passing patterns have become so rote, so over time our players have it drilled out of them

Claudius

RocktheCasbah spot on. Every single game the guys are looking around and trying to make sense of what to do. There was a game recently where Timber was up with Sterling on an attack on the right flank. Timber instinctively passed the ball centrally expecting a cut in the way Saka does, but Sterling went down to the corner flag. Possession lost. We have so many of these moments. These last few games we’ve played Sterling, Martinelli, Trossard, Jesus and Nwaneri at right wing.

flobaba

RocktheCasbah it's not just the injuries buddy. I was asking about the "picture change" actions we used to be so good at 3 seasons or so ago when we still had Xhaka. Attacking down one wing and then switching the focus suddenly to the other wing or through the center causing opponents to have to scramble and react. The line breaking runs and passes into a space in the midfield which a player is running into and doesn't currently occupy. They don't happen anymore. The chaos factor is non existent. It's something you create with your tactics or with the quality of your players (think Jesus when he just arrived). Our players no longer provide it (apart from Saka/Odegaard), and our tactics have not been adapted to or able to do so either. Nowadays the bulk of our threat comes from set pieces. That's one of the only times I perk up during our games as it's fun to see teams struggle against what we are trying to do when we get the execution/delivery right. Otherwise, yaaaawn.

Claudius

flobaba there is no perception gap. We keep the ball, pass it from side to side, our forwards make very few incisive runs, putting little to no pressure on central defenders. And when they do, our midfielders (bar Odegaard) don't pick em out. I'd wager our defenders have more goals/assists than anyone not named Odegaard/Saka

Our G+A leaders in order are Saka, Havertz, Martinelli, Trossard, Jesus, Rice, Odegaard. Big Gabriel is 8th. You’d lose a lot of money on your wager

RocktheCasbah

flobaba flobs, I get what you're saying tactically and agree to an extent, but I think you can't quite write off the injuries as a factor. Especially with the same small group of players having to play every three days. Do you remember Arteta saying a few weeks back how great it was to have 19 players out on the training pitch? That didn't last long!

I'd also say that I think you're being a little dramatic. Sometimes, the football hasn't been great, sure, but of the games I've been to recently - five over the Christmas period, the only one which was genuinely deflating was Newcastle. And even that was just about not taking chances.

Coombs

Havertz makes like 55 incisive runs everytime we're in possession, but we only try to play him in once or twice. When he fumbles 50% of his 2 through balls, he looks bad, but the real problem is that the boys behind him just play it safe and wide too often.

Sicario2

Colossal

Sicario2

Coombs

Looks better on the right.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Just a really good all rounder.

FEBravo

Yeah he stepped up in the second half when we needed a leader. I still think most of the issues at the beginning of the year was fitness related. Overplayed with euros (like Saka) and then an injury

Gazza M

rice has quietly found some equilibrium in the last month. looks strong and effective again

Sicario2

JazzG

Earlier this season looked a bit off physically but now looks right back to his best. Beast of a player.

Sicario2

JazzG we haven’t lost a big 6 game in the league since we signed Rice. That speaks volumes. The best thing he’s done is raise our floor massively.

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