Per Mertesacker : Page 12 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Per Mertesacker

Rex

Villa were very clear in their game plan of letting Per be the one to make the decisive pass out from the back. He does not excel at it, but was decent enough at it yesterday. Poor movement in front of him didn't help.

Klaus

Always looking for Arteta with the pass regardless of whether he's under pressure or not. It's clearly by design.

Mirth

Villa did their home work. At set plays they tried to catch us out, they tried to target Koscielny and Gibbs, they put pressure on Mertesacker and Jenkinson on the ball.

It's a good thing their players are shite otherwise they could have scored.

MistaT

Yeah, clear instruction to put pressure right on Jenkinson/Mertesacker when they had the ball and to limit passes to Koscielny. Can understand why when its clear that Koscielny is far superior in passing and dribbling out of the back.

Credit to Per for his tackle in the box - twas a beauty.

Rex

They didn't put pressure on Per though. The only one they were comfortable letting have the ball.

Ricky1985

Koscielny had lots of the ball in the second half with very little pressure on him, and for every decent pass he played or run he made, there were stupid balls played into players that really didn't want the ball played to them at that moment. He's as much of a liability to us when he has time on the ball as he is a danger to the opposition, in my opinion.

Rex

He attempts higher risk passes through the lines, yes. He is usually a very good passer though IMO and he has a decent enough success rate with those passes to warrant that he keeps on attempting them.

Klaus

Doesn't matter whether it's Kos or Arteta or Vermaelen who distributes the ball this season. We're often misplacing or losing it because people don't show for the pass. Cazorla shows for a pass. Ramsey does it. Chamberlain sometimes when he plays. The rest go into hiding. Our movement both on and off the ball is nonexistent.

Rex

Agree with that.

asajoseph

Who isn't showing for a pass then? Wilshere? Walcott? Giroud?

Mirth

I just think the movement and understanding isn't good enough.

And the reason is because most of this team only met a couple of months ago.

Rex

Who cares whether Giroud shows for a pass from the back? He really, really has a worse first touch than Bendtner most of the time. When he does show for a pass he usually comes too deep and gets dispossessed about half the time. Half of the time when he ISN'T dispossessed he then mishits his next pass.
Walcott shows for passes, but mostly with runs behind the back 4. In the first phase when the ball is with our back 4 he is as invisible as the rest of them.
Wilshere hasn't really found his role yet in that first phase IMO. He looks a bit lost to me where he is supposed to go.

Bold Tone

But Rex, against Villa, Giroud was the only guy who was able to receive and protect the ball though. Caz is a given but he had nobody to lay it off to as Ox was struggling, Arteta and Ramsey were holding positions and Podolski was not making runs into the space vacated by Giroud

asajoseph

The real problem is that Arteta has been quite poor for about half the season.

The movement in the team isn't too bad, when we've had the right players on the pitch this season. There are plenty of players who show for the ball, and up front we have several who get themselves into good positions. Our passing through the lines has been hit-and-miss, often because Cazorla has been and we've tried to make things too intricate, but on the whole we've done ok . Problem is, Arteta's got his role to play and hasn't been as consistently good at it this year as he was last year.

lorddulaarsenal

I think he's done physically.

He's carrying more weight too.

asajoseph

I don't know about that, but I just think his level of consistency was remarkable last season and has been less so this year. I'd be quite surprised if he wasn't physically up to it any more.

Ricky1985

I don't think Arteta has been poor at all. I think he's done his job well for the most part, but it's caught up with him a little in the last few weeks. Needs a rest.

Timbob

Agreed Rick. He's held the midfield together by himself for long periods this season.

Bold Tone

Monreal made a great point about playing for the NT when he said something along the lines of "everyone is so comfortable on the ball, his job is so easy as there is always someone to lay the ball off to and the person has the ability to get out of any situation". Unfortunately i now cannot find the source as i read it about a month or so ago. That is why Carzorla (and Arteta, if picked) is much more effective when playing for the NT.

spacemanspiff

On Arteta: To be fair to him, he isn't exactly a traditional defensive midfielder, but I'd be surprised if he doesn't have the highest number of tackles/minute in our midfield. Too often he has both to press forward and cover space in behind, and I agree that it's caught up a bit (especially since he's undroppable given the squad constraints)

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