This weekend I got into an argument with someone on twitter over Jagielka’s red card in which he told me vehemently that I’ve never watched football. Over and over, he kept saying this, until I muted him. Earlier in the day, some guy called me names and then blocked me. I’ve also already been told that I have an agenda, which is news to me.
And somewhere amongst all of this toys out of the pram childishness, Arsenal lost 2-0 to Man City. Oh yeah, and people are blaming Ozil for the loss.
Football is back, baby!
Unai Emery surprised the world by including Matteo Guendouzi in his starting lineup against Man City but if you’ve followed him and his career you know that he loves to give chances to young midfielders and that he usually plays with a double-pivot. Guendouzi also offers raking long balls which I assumed we would play to Aubameyang up front. And given that the young Frenchman had an exciting pre-season and Torreira is still a bit short of match fitness, it wasn’t really a surprise to me that Matteo started. Plus I love his mopish curls.
What was a complete surprise, though, was that Emery started Aaron Ramsey at center forward, pushed Aubameyang wide right, and put Özil behind Auba in a right sided midfield role. That didn’t work, at all.
Ramsey had one good move where he pushed the ball past his defender and ran, then before he even got into the box, did that drag-back pass which is really not intended to create a shot but rather a pass-back to him. And he had one shot, from a long way out, rather tamely.
Ramsey isn’t to blame for his starting position. Nor should we blame him for looking like he was playing that position for the very first time. That’s all down to Emery.
It was such a strange selection that several supporters on my timeline proffered conspiracy theories like: Emery started him there to reduce his weekly wage demands, etc. My theory is a lot less conspiracy and more practical. He wanted Ramsey up top to press Man City.
But incredibly, no one has asked him why he started Ramsey as a CF. That would have been my first question as a reporter, “you chose Aaron Ramsey instead of a 20 goal a season striker, a player with proven hold-up abilities, a player who is vastly experienced, and who shows that experience in his movement, and a player who clearly has a great working relationship with Aubameyang, why?”
If I can indulge myself a little conspiracy theory, it was such a strange and amateurish starting lineup that it kinda looked like Gazidis or someone in the front office made the call, rather than Unai. Obviously, I don’t know what happened and probably never will. So, the safe thing to assume is that Emery wanted a more defensive, hard working, midfielder up front to press the opposition. Instead of, you know, a striker.
Maybe I’m being overly negative, but I have to admit that I was furious during the match, until he brought on Lacazette. Once Lacazette was on the pitch, the Arsenal’s attack picked up. We still struggled to get shots against the best defensive team in England but at least the attack looked more fluid. Ozil was also unleashed from his weird position and even Mkhitaryan woke up.
A lot of those players have come in for criticism but I’m not on board that party bus. If you start a crazy attacking lineup, with three or four players playing out of their normal positions, against the best defensive team in the League, you’re going to look poor.
Emery also insisted on playing out from the back, which was also kind of a poor choice but I understand why he did it, because this is “the process.” I’m starting to think that Wenger left a much bigger mess behind than we thought. In his post-match interview, Cech mentioned that Wenger’s systems were different from Emery and that this is all going to take time.
So, here’s Emery, trying to wrestle with Ramsey’s contract situation, with a back line that’s been torn apart by injury, with midfielders who may not entirely be up to snuff, with a team that received very little tactical training, with defenders who have been very poor for a few years, and also trying to fit Lacazette, Aubameyang, Ozil, Ramsey, and Mkhitaryan into some kind of cohesive attack. No wonder Emery looked tired in his first post-match presser.
It’s clear that there’s a ton of work to be done. Mustafi got turned inside out by Sterling, he was left kicking at empty space and I guess we should be happy that he didn’t give away a penalty and that Cech saved.
Bellerin handed Sterling off to Guendouzi who also got beaten off the dribble and then scored what was one of the most anti-climactic goals of the weekend. Cech didn’t save, he did that thing he now does on penalties when he knows he’s beaten and just kind of collapses. Bellerin pointed at Guendouzi (literally) and Arsenal supporters came to the immediate realization that maybe this wasn’t going to be our day.
Guendouzi also mistimed a clearance and that set Aguero in and Cech produced another great save.
Xhaka looked completely lost, though he did do the one thing that Xhaka can be counted on doing: he deliberately fouled a player who beat him off the dribble.
And Lichtsteiner and Sokratis combined to just let Silva walk over to the penalty spot and kick the ball into the net. That looked like a communication problem which is strange because those two players have a combined 58 years of football experience between them.
The Arsenal attack is all over the place, the defense looks like a pile of scrambled eggs, and we already have an injury crisis at left back. Yep, it’s going to be a long season.
Don’t know why you are so exercised/baffled about the Ramsey thing. He plays in a similar position for Wales (or at least has). I heard someone say he looked to be trying to play him in a way similar to how Dele Alli plays for Spurs, which makes some sense. Now it didn’t work, but I don’t think this was a crazy idea at all.
Also think you are being to harsh on the defenders, they didn’t do much egregriously wrong.
Basically you have to accept right now that Man City is just better than us from all angles. We didn’t play that bad, but we aren’t coherent enough a team right now and we don’t have all-world talent across the board.
For me I’m embracing the novelty – looking forward to seeing how things develop over the course of the season.
He plays as a 10 for Wales in a counter attacking team where he is required to defend the middle of the pitch. This was a flat out number 9 position. What makes it baffling is that Arsenal have two experienced number 9s, both of them fast, killer goal scorers, who understand how to move to receive the ball and create overloads for their teammates.
We may need to entertain the notion that Ramsey wasn’t doing what he was told to do. Think about it – he got yanked at 53 minutes and didn’t seem to be in distress or suffering. I’m thinking he got a talking to at half time, went out and didn’t show any signs of wanting to adhere to the game plan and Emery had had enough.
My explanation for that is much simpler:
a) We needed a goal and Rambo is not a striker, he was playing there primarily so he could initiate the press
b) He is carrying a calf strain and they may have subbed him off regardless as a precaution
Any of the bellyaching about his contract this/that/other is pure speculation and only likely to give us all an ulcer.
Im normally loath to get into tactical second-guessing of a coach who sees much more of the players, and knows his day job better than I do. But the Ramsey deployment apart, I thought that Xhaka’s deployment was also strange. He was the furthest back midfielder, the one receiving the ball off the defenders, effectively the back 4 screen. And one thing we learned these past few years is that he doesn’t do that job particularly well. He’s not only slow-footed… he’s slow thinking.
He plays the game at Serie A walking, strolling pace. So when he got the ball from the keeper or CB, he’d take two touches, pirouette, and pass it back to Cech. By that time, the City press is more advanced. Here’s where Guendouzi kills him by comparision… a quick, progressive vertical pass from back. Bang! Forward or advanced midfielder hit. Torreira came on showed him, effortlessly, how to do that job.
Xhaka was rank. And Miki wasnt much better. He kept crowding the middle, and his final ball was terrible. He didnt look great in pre-season either. I think Iwobi is knocking. My beef with Ozil is that he’d try to keep threading it from now till midnight. A bit like Spain against Russia in the world cup. He needs to start taking more goalscoring responsibility.
Laca did make us look better and got into good positions, but his finishing was rushed and poor.
I thought that the defenders did ok, and was particularly pleased with Mustafi. But I want to see Sokratis more assertive in shot blocking. None of this half-arsed half-turn. Block the the thing
I agree with Xhaka – think Torreira needs to replace him. Disappointed in Mikhitarian, I like him as a player, but he was ineffective yesterday. I’d bring in Laca for him next game.
I made that same Iwobi point on another blog yesterday, the point being that he plays so very well with AMN, offering the type of back up that Ainsley didn’t get from Mkhi. Also Alex just keeps on running.
Slight correction… as Tim noted, Emery was playing a double pivot. But of the two, Xhaka tended to be the one sitting and screening, and I reckon (could be wrong) he got more feeds off Cech and the CBs. Of course on one of the feeds to Guendoizi, he passed back and Cech nearly kicked it into his own goal. The City defender was really tight on Guendouzi, and he couldnt turn him or pass out. Cech also should have used his weak foot, his right, fora simple square pass to Mustafi.
Playing it out from the back requires
(1) quick, progressive, accurate forward passing, and/or
(2) someone to securely ferry it. This is where Santi was so, so good. And he was two footed. So you couldnt shield him onto his “weak” foot. He didnt have one.
Emery showed his tactical nous and it was fairly successful/unsuccessful depending on how you view it. But isn’t that what we have been crying for with our new manager? Roll back to our previous city games especially the cup final (the ultimate low point I ever say Arsenal under AW), we hardly broke their possession and created chances. From a side hanging our heads last season to fighting till the end in a 2-0 game is THE CHANGE. I am not giving a free pass to Emery for the whole season but lets see a collection of games and come to judgments.
Clearly Emery has his work cutout. How will I fit Ozil? Auba or Laca or both? What I do with Xhaka? Can he press,defend, and pass at the same time? Do I choose Cech’s stopping quality vs leno’s passing and distribution?
Saying same old Arsenal feel harsh. Result might look that way but an unbiased view of the game shows encouraging signs and I choose to take the optimist view of it.
Yes, it was encouraging to see Unai talk to Guendouzi and for the young player to play significantly better after that.
It was also encouraging to see him haul Ramsey off in the 53rd minute, which is a change from Wenger’s 70th minute subs. But he also could have changed that system up a lot earlier without resorting to hauling Ramsey off.
Guendouzi talk was one of my fav actions from the game. He cud have changed with ramsey earlier. Guess he is still figuring out player roles and would like to do changes in future without needing always a sub to be the difference in the game. This article (probably you read it already) shows Emery’s failed battle plans with Pep.
Impressive part is the fact that the plans were close to being successful.
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/english-premier-league/23/blog/post/3591545/arsenals-unai-emery-and-manchester-citys-pep-guardiola-set-to-renew-tactical-chess-game-in-england
That was incredible to see. Whether it was Guenzouzi or the coach who initiated the chat, it was hugely instructive to see that it was the young Frenchman who was getting the tactical instructions. Not Ozil. Not Xhaka. Guendouzi. It’s quite clear who Emery views as the team’s orchestrator, heartbeat and tempo-setter. And it’s kind of extraordinary when you think about it.
Granted he’s the most inexperienced new player and needed more instruction than others, but the fact that he stayed on while Ramsey and Xhaka were subbed off spoke volumes.
Tuchel’s PSG started also started a 19 yr old Frenchman in midfield yesterday in their season opener, Antoine Bernede. The midfield game is changing fast.
I feel like we could be overstating the importance of that moment. Guenzouzi initiated it during the lengthy stoppage of play when AMN first went down injured. Bellerin also came over for a word.
Usually a mess before it all comes together.there should be less tinkering against chelc.Ramsey waas tasked to mark fernandnho and move with the attack. Ramsy on jorgnho is next
No conspiracy regarding Ramsey – watching him I had the distinct impression he was ignoring the tactical scheme, or rather, following it when it suited him. He was taken off maybe because he was not listening. He’s not re-signing, it behooves him to pump his stats with shots on target and goals and get a bumper deal next year.
I feel for Emery – it feels like the year Wenger shunted Ozil out wide left in a 4-1-4-1 so he could shoehorn Wilshere and Ramsey into the same center midfield. It didn’t work until Wilshere got hurt and Ramsey was shoved out right (and Santi found a new role as a DM). Same thing here. By my thinking two of Ozil, Mhyki, Ramsey and Xhaka are going to need to become subs, all four in the line up imbalances the starting 11. Three attacking midfielders best played in the half-channel and one deep lying midfielder who can’t defend.
But that said, City are probably the best Premier League team of all time (yes, sacrilege, I know) and we still seemed to have positive moments.
How do you like us setting up to a 4-1-4-1 with xhaka-ramsey ahead of torrira with micki and ozil as LM and RM? This way, when we progress to attack we can have ozil and micki operate on the half spaces while the full backs overlap. Torriera slots between CB’s while Ramsey and Xhaka occupy the midfield.
Xhaka may be limited to 3-1-4-2 set ups like Juve used. If you situate him behind 4 athletic midfielders who can screen for him, he has Pirlo-esque qualities.
I dunno. I was a Xhaka booster at the end of last season but I’m turning a corner and don’t know if he has the engine to play for a high pressing team.
Dino’s suggestions sounds perfectly sensible, though at this point I’m tempted to say Guendouzi should start ahead of Xhaka, until the Swiss proves he’s presently the better player. The way I see it, MG has all of Xhaka’s passing range, and a lot more to his game besides.
I used to think of the same role for Xhaka but his defensive frailties mean we need two torriera’s next to him. Also, I dont trust Xhaka’s ability to keep ball when pressed during our build up play. This is why I like Torriera (assuming he is more secure) in the deep lying midfielder role.
I think it’s going to be an interesting season. We’re going to find something new in every match.
We played very narrow. I can only conclude that the idea was to press them in the centre and push them out wide, whereby we close them, or win an interception and counter by playing the ball into the wide spaces. For whatever reason, Ozil and Miki were trusted to do a better job defending out wide than Ramsey. I think speed might be one of them. Ramsey isn’t slow but he’s not as quick as any of the other 3.
Still a crazy idea because when they went wide, they caused us so many problems with their fullbacks overlapping.
And yet.. They scored a goal they shouldn’t have. And we had them worrying a bit once Lacazette came on. Maybe the idea was as simple as keeping it tight in the centre early on, and then bring on a goal threat as they tire (and Ramsey tires) City were wasting time, and giving the ball away at that point. If Lacazette had scored, we might have had a different result.
But they’re just stronger than us. I was disappointed that our passes didn’t match the runs, but system-wise, I guess you could say it sort of worked?
(Also, VAR would have given us a penalty. Not a huge decision in the circumstances but still)
Forcing the opponent to play wide IS Emery’s preferred defensive tactic (and it’s not a bad tactic.)
The issue was two fold:
1. We needed a specialist left back
2. It’s Manchester City FFS!
It is clear that we are going to play a different game this season from last and that the players still haven’t got used to this. I’m confident we’ll get there this season but what position we are in the table when it clicks is another matter – Guardiola didn’t exactly set the league on fire in his first season either.
I was expecting the defense to be a mess, and it was. And while it may get better as time goes on, I’m not sure it will get a lot better with the current group. Too many are either old, oft-injured, or just not good. Kos was good, but may never come back to 100% from a bad injury like that. Monreal has been good, but again is getting up there. Bellerin has been good in a wingback role similar to what City has. But it can leave the rest of the defense exposed.
The bigger problem for me was the attack. Ozil had a decent WC, where he was hardly responsible for Germany’s issues. And he’s had some excellent times at Arsenal. But as I think the best paid player, he’s got to be able to carry the team sometimes and make a difference. And he hasn’t done a lot of that lately. And while we functioned better with Lacazette in there, it still wasn’t great, against what frankly was a pretty bad City defense.
One theory/observation I have is that our attacking quartet of Auba-micki-ozil-ramsey are instructed to be more quick and direct in their transition. May be I am wrong but I think we were used to slightly slow and different buildup under AW where we move the ball more (in terms of passes) in the final third to pull the opposition defense. This takes a little getting used to. Once they develop a rhythm between them considering Auba and Micki are fairly recent arrivals, our attack will be more potent.
Bingo… overloading the center and looking to play 1-2’s from a cluster of creative players, or finding a fullback on the overlap for a cutback was Wengerball 101. Emeryball is all about spacing the attack such that someone always stays wide and that opens space for other runners to exploit, which if done well ends up looking like a version of the Suarez-Cavani goal at the world cup where they played the 1-2 from Mars and back. The two could not be any more different and Ozil in particular is still deeply scripted in the Wengerian approach, not to mention the difference in how often they’re going to win the ball in advanced positions due to the press. I’m excited to see how that develops.
I’m a little surprised at all the negatively, to be honest. Did anyone expect anything different?
We were always going to lose this game. The question was, will we put up a fight? Will there be noticeable changes in how we play, how we act?
I had hoped for more, but feared far less. We got beaten, mostly comfortably (although we had our moments, and had the ball in the back of the net twice). The formation was strange, but Ramsey at CF was clearly an experiment designed to use his energy to press early. We didn’t get embarrassed, which is the biggest positive. We should forget this game and move on. It came too soon.
Let’s also not forget that City are the kind of team that will make you look worse than you actually are.
I Torreira to start against City, with Ramsey playing in a more traditional MF role. Xhaka will complete the midfield, but that may not be a long-term thing – it depends if Guendouzi continues to impress and he continues to disappoint.
I liked Licht. He wasn’t perfect by any means, but his poop-housery is very, very welcome.
Lot of people bemoaning Ozil’s poor touch at that one time, but why Lacazette left it is a complete mystery. It was a perfect pass, frankly, and he was well onside.
We should also keep in mind that this is Emery’s first experience of this team in a match that matters. Wenger always talked about mental strength, but you can’t gauge that until the pressure’s on. This will give him a better idea of what to expect from the players individually and the team as a whole.
I also very much doubt Ramsey was ignoring tactical instructions. The fact that his role looked so different from under Wenger (when the suspicion was also that he was ignoring tactical instructions) – so few touches, so few passes – suggests this WAS the tactical instruction.
You’re the voice of reason 🙂
Lacazette most likely left it because his back to goal and he didn’t realize there was another defender behind him. So he probably thought he was offside, and thus decided the better option was to leave it to Ozil.
Tim i dnt want to blame emery too soon but I felt his tinkering was too much too soon.Ramsey centrally with auba upfront would have done damage. Ozil n miki lacked the legs to help our fullbacks.
In retrospect, perhaps watching the film “89” the night before the league opener fostered entirely incorrect expectations…
This just shows the difficulty in finding a way to use Ramsey and his undisciplined running without completely unbalancing the team. He can’t manage the defensive responsibilities of a midfielder, and he’s also below average when it comes to building play and controlling possession. He likes to make a lot of runs into advanced positions, but as we saw yesterday, he can’t really play farther up the field as a forward either. How do you accommodate a player with such a narrow skill set? And is the return that you get from him really enough to justify doing so?
Tim, I think you might want to think about getting off of Twitter. Speaking for myself, I immediately experienced a significant quality of life improvement as soon as I put paid to that little addiction. You already sound jaded by the idiotic narratives we’re all subjected to on that platform and it’s only the first game.
I do agree that Emery seemed to outfox himself with some of his selections. You are exactly right that Ramsey could only have been deployed so high as part of the front 3 was for his energetic pressing. He was also man-marking Fernandinho and if the emphasis is on structure without the ball then this is a highly defensible tactical ploy. Where it fell flat for me was that right behind that, you had three players more noted for their work on the ball rather than off it, and none of them are noted as ball winners. This is incongruous with the forward line’s aggressive nature. Guardiola moved Mendy centrally to overload Xhaka and Guendouzi, then tested Ozil’s mettle on the cover by repeatedly making overlapping runs. Ozil kept up gamely for the most part but that’s not his game at all. As many have already pointed out, Xhaka was atrocious in both phases but unlike many, I don’t see that as being a fair reflection of who he is as a footballer. I don’t think he was served by being asked to partner a rookie and Ozil against that City team. It became very readily apparent as well that Maitland-Niles is a long way from being able to play fullback at this level and the team looked immediately better with Lichtsteiner, who, by the way, showed excellent pace up against Mahrez. Age is just a number, folks. He’s still a fine athlete. I thought he and Sokratis had excellent debuts.
Others have said this too but the weird thing about this game was not how we defended, which was actually decent for the most part especially given some of the quixotic choices by the coaches, but that the forwards were so often out of sync with one another or just showed poor decision making and even uncharacteristically poor technique. Ozil in particular was culpable of several such moments when a little more composure would’ve probably seen him set up a high quality chance. Aubameyang was also guilty. I can’t see that continuing for very long and I have to think it was a consequence of the nerves all around given the “new era” feel, the new faces, the new tactics and the obvious quality of the opponents.
A few easy tweaks will immediately make the team better; moving Ramsey further back to partner Torreira and Guendouzi will immediately improve the balance of that unit. I have always thought Ramsey is more dangerous making late runs or creating overloads from a deep midfield position, and if Emery sees so much value of his high pressing then he should start players who are similarly minded behind him. Lichtsteiner will stick at left back and and I imagine Lacazette has earned the start against Chelsea as well.
Agree with much of this, especially the Twitter part. Now the transfer window is over I’m off twitter again. I don’t read the blogs, don’t watch pregame, halftime, post game or any of it. This, Arseblog occasionally, F365 sometimes, and 90 minutes is all I ingest, and I’m happier for it.
Things that happened on Twitter today:
Bayer Leverkusen attacked Petr Cech, he responded with a reasonable and well-thought out response, they responded that “it’s just a joke m8”, and then some clown ass got in there and tried to mix it up with Petr and he publicly shut the man down.
WTF is actually going on in this world???
Twitter, enabling our worst impulses since 2008. I used to think that by following only certain verified accounts I could rise above the madness and not be sucked in. Not so. This kind of stuff proves that.
Totally agree. Twitter does little other than bring out the worst in people and play to a tendency to think that all issues, no matter how complex, are best addressed remotely with an extremely brief blurb. We’d be much better if it had never existed.
I don’t know. I’ve never been a social media guy, and maybe it’s just that I’m new there, but I’m enjoying Twitter. I’ve been blocked by a guy I would maybe have considered a ‘friend’ because his patience for alternate views is low, and that was amusing to me (because he identifies as a liberal), and you come across some weird and even ugly stuff. But for the most part, it’s not been annoying or infuriating to me.
Not following Twitter, are you mad?
How else would one know what the leader of the free World is thinking about while he’s taking a dump at five in the morning?
Just like the Ozil sipping gif that British hacks lost their head over, Leverkusen posted a video about how to play out from the back…. a smooth move initiated by goalkeeper resulting in a goal. The goalkeeper was Bernd Leno. Yes it was a bit of dig, but as digs go, it was mild and good humoured.
Problem with twitter, and social media in general? People take it too seriously. And it’s a great equaliser. Any bloke with 27 followers can yell at Kanye West with his 28m. And speaking of Trump supporters, the platform is polluted with brain dead MAGA-heads… they with their conspiracy theories and naked bigotry. It’s a pit. It’s also got people like Chrissy Teigen who regularly make you laugh out loud.
Twitter is where the usually thoughtful Ben Shapiro tried to troll Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, and she handed him his head.
Don’t let the boo boys win. You dont have to engage with everyone looking for a verbal scrap. I enjoy the during the game tweets from 7amkickoff and others. Sometimes they point out something interesting that you havent noticed.
And oh, the best thing on twitter last night was Wayne Rooney turning defence into offence and rolling back the years with a moment of magic. Actually two moments of magic.
I find the concept of “hatewatching” most corrosive. Users get immersed to obviously stupid and ignorant enviroments that do nothing but slowly chip away one’s sanity. There’s no filter or gatekeeping so there’s little help given to process all that toxicity.
‘…I can’t see that continuing for very long and I have to think it was a consequence of the nerves all around given the “new era” feel, the new faces, the new tactics and the obvious quality of the opponents.’ Anxiety and fear. You put it most succinctly, friend. We will be better against Chelsea.
Doc,
“A few easy tweaks will immediately make the team better; moving Ramsey further back to partner Torreira and Guendouzi will immediately improve the balance of that unit. I have always thought Ramsey is more dangerous making late runs or creating overloads from a deep midfield position.”
Yep.
That’s the midfield I’d go with, with Ozil, Auba, and one of Miki or Laca (or maybe even Iwobi in the short term, if he’s the form player?) further forward.
I’d just add that Ramsey can be a key part of our press from a proper midfield position (look at Klopp’s ‘Pool midfield for evidence).
Also, isn’t it likely that Monreal will be fit to play against Chelski?
Reasons to be cheerful:
1. He’s happy to sub the more senior players, when they’re not playing well., and to sub tactically. Maybe Rambo was precautionary but he wasn’t commanding or dictating, while Laca came on and made an impact (just a shame it wasn’t more). Xhaka looked Xhaka-esque, so anybody would have been an improvement, but Torreira was especially so. I thought Iwobi would have been a good alternative for Ozil or Mhiki too – not their best games by a long chalk
2. We looked (re)energized: altho’ City were good from the off, we were closing them energetically and well at the start. And there was an air of self belief, not only from the new players, but I thought from most of the Wenger era players (especially Hector), who seemed to want to cast off the old perceptions of them
3. We’ve bought well – Torreira looked sharp and bustling as soon as he came on, Guendouzi was brave, tenacious and positive with the ball, Socrates was solid – outmanouvered by a brilliant attack but solid, and Lichsteiner was fiery, combative, in your face aggressive, and not slow. It augurs well for future recruitment.
But mainly I’m with Dino – it was exciting because it was different, and good different IMHO. Roll on the rest of this preparatory season!
When you lose ultimately the buck stops with the manager.
In the end Emery’s tinkering didn’t work to our advantage but imagine if he had set up in a predictable way , like say…
two banks of four and Aubameyang a lonely striker.
Chances are City would’ve had a70% possession and still would’ve won.
I’d much rather see an effort on Emery’s part to try to throw a curve ball at someone like Pep, who btw looked anything but calm and confident during the game for all the City dominance, than roll out the old and trusted.
My bigger concern is with the Wenger era players who had been wrapped in wool for so long that it might take a shock treatment to get them to play certain way now.
Take Bellerin for example.
His piece of defending on Sterling goal was poor but his ball watching on the Mahrez free kick would make someone like Simeone pull his fricking hair out.
Laporte even gives him a little nudge from behind while he’s rushing Cech for the rebound and Hector is just watching happily as if to say “you clean up your own mess”
If I were coaching Hector, I’d have him watch tapes of peak Barca’s Alves all day long.
The Brasilian would stiff arm Sterling on his way across the box knocking him off balance,
It’s only the first match and it’s not going to get any easier for us on Saturday when a certain Belgian #10 will probably start for Chelsea.
The next eight matches look better on paper, until that 1st Saturday when we host Liverpool. We are still far from sorted in the back but we’ll have a good idea by then – 10 games in – what identity this team develops.
A long season indeed.
Long, but I don’t care. I look forward to being surprised. I look forward to new ways of being impressed, and new ways of being disappointed. I look forward to different sound bites, of pundits finding different ways to criticize our manager. I look forward to watching SEVEN new players on the pitch together (5 plus Mkhi and Auba, who are still new in my eyes). I’m looking forward to new debates about new problems, and old debates about old problems in a new light.
Bring it on!
If I’m Emery, my goals for the first 2 games are:
1. Show the players and fans that I will pick and substitute players based on the values I want the team to reflect — hardworking, disciplined, and dedicated to our tactics.
2. Know my best formation and players for that formation.
3. Get some rotation based on form, fitness, hard work through the week, and specific matchups.
My personal bet is that we’ll end up with some variation of a 4-4-2 because that way we can both play it from the back and over the top — and our pressing doesn’t suffer. Midfield is interesting and the balance of creativity, steel, and engine makes for some interesting potential combinations.
When xhaka recieves the ball from cech he needed others to make runs so he could find them but most were static.xhaka isn’t mobile like guendoz. That makes our forwrd tactics more bizzare. You use xhaka with runners off the ball
Hi All,
I’m way late to the party this week, so apologies if someone else has made this point, but it’s late and I can’t be bothered to read everyone else’s comments:
Dear Tim,
I too thought that it was strange how far forward Ramsey was playing, but I think you’re off the mark. Here’s how I see it:
1. He wasn’t playing as a CF. He was playing as a 10, though an especially high pressing one.
2. Auba was playing as our CF (thought this was fairly obvious).
3. Ozil was playing as a (perfectly standard) right-sided attacking mid in a 4-2-3-1
4. Ramsey was playing high up in part because he was tasked with triggering the press, and in particular putting pressure on Fernandinho. No doubt this was down to Emery’s instructions, but *when we had the ball* Ramsey was then too often too far forward, rather than dropping into pockets of space to aid in the build up.
Thing is, Rambo isn’t great at dropping into the half-spaces to receive the ball, which is why he’s not a natural fit at “10”. His first instinct is to make runs away from the ball rather than towards it. So when the deep lying midfielders or CB’s have a moment to look up and play a pass, too often he’s looking for them to play the low percentage long ball over the top rather than the on-the-ground, line-breaking through ball from low to high midfield.
In short, Ramsey just pushes up too often and too early, so that when you play him as an 8, he looks like he’s playing 10, and when you play him as a 10, he looks like he’s playing 9 (yes, this is a harsh overgeneralization–one could find plenty of individual counterexamples–but it makes the point).
5. Meanwhile, Ozil is quite the opposite, typically (though not exclusively) looking to offer himself in spaces where his teammates can play it to his feet. So when you play him on the right wing, against a team like City who are bossing possession and hemming you into your defensive third, Mesut’s going to drop very deep looking for the ball.
This, combined with the fact that City’s overlapping wing-play forced him back to play a lot of defense, led to Mesut looking like he was playing in a weird defensive right mid role. But he wasn’t. City’s dominance just made our shape look all contorted.
So there you have it:
It was pretty standard 4-2-3-1, but Ramsey was too often stranded too far up the pitch, while Ozil was too often receiving the ball deep on the right side in his own half. And Auba was largely anonymous (definitely not superlative at traditional CF hold-up play), which made it look like he wasn’t our starting CF but was largely hanging out somewhere on the wings (he was pushed wide left when Laca came on).
This is exactly how Ramsey plays. Thanks for summing up his game, this is why I think he should play elsewhere. This is the conundrum named Aaron Ramsey.
Don’t know if anybody else noticed it, but what was that between Pep and Arteta throughout the game? Seemed to me like Pep was giving Mikel the old “you’re better than him-they don’t know what they passed up on” back and forth.
I think it was Mikel who picked the team. As he did the last match against us.
There’s absolutely no evidence to support the assertion that Arteta picked the team. On either occasion.
To Ahmad, seems to me that Pep was hugging a member of his coaching staff for tactics gone right. As he always does.
There was an article written a while back by a journalist who covers City stating that Arteta picked the team against us last year (or was it the season before, his first with Pep? I can’t remember). Maybe the journo made the whole thing up. Obviously you’re welcome to be skeptical. But, if he’s got any journalistic integrity at all, his evidence came from sources at the club. So his piece is (indirectly) evidence to us that this happened.
As far as I know, there’s no evidence it happened again on Sunday. I do suspect (admittedly without evidence!) that it was more about “you shoulda got the job kid!” We won’t know until Mikel writes his memoir one day….
Yes, absolutely that was happening.
The Tottenham stadium situation is funny. It, and even the Wembley reconstruction, shows how well Arsenal did to deliver our stadium on budget and on time.
It’s supposed to be against the rules to play in two home stadiums in one season and the PL said they wouldn’t allow it. They are awfully silent right now.
i agree with pfo’s assessment of ramsey’s utilization. no way would anyone ever deploy him as a center forward. before yesterday, emery didn’t know just how awful at cam that aaron ramsey is. we saw it in van persie’s last season after cesc and nasri left. ramsey lacks the skill and guile to be a cam and he needs the game to be in front of him. bottom line for me is that ramsey doesn’t fit at arsenal. things have to be too perfect in order for him to produce. a few weeks ago, i asked do we prefer ramsey’s stats or more balance in midfield. my opinion is unchanged.
but…….it’s still all about guendouzi, suckas! yeah, he’s young and far from perfect but that kid is talented and bold; exciting.
i like what i saw from torreira yesterday but the jury’s still out. categorically, i said i don’t believe he’s better than what arsenal have in center mid, ie. xhaka. we still don’t know. he came on when arsenal were two goals down and chasing the game. that’s a different situation than when you’re being overwhelmed by that man city attack. the move kdb did on him at the very end of the game made torreira look like he was being picked on at the playground. in fairness, kdb can do that to a lot of folks but it looked like bullying when he did it to torreira. we’ll see.
as long as arsenal keep ramsey out of the attack, it looks sick. that front four is going to play lots of pretty soccer this season. they just need a platform that enables them to perform. in fairness, i think lucas perez’ talents would have been a welcome addition but i remember watching him in the boreham wood game and thinking to myself, “he doesn’t look very popular among the boys”. well, come on joel campbell. likewise, if mkhi allows his levels to drop, up step iwobi as i think cam is his best position. arsenal could further integrate the likes of nketiah, smith-rowe, and nelson. we’ll see.
Ah, Josh. Contrarian, coach? 🙂
You can’t decide if Xhaka or Torreira is better? I’d suggest that that is your contrarian talking. The coach would probably agree with what Im about to say…
Xhaka is a slow of thought and slow of foot, and against City he didnt even do the single thing that he does do well. Distribute. Was part of the defensive breakdown for both City goals. No attempt to block Sterling’s shot (although a collective failure between Hector, Guendouzi, him and Sokratis, he was in the best position to effect a block), and strolling (strolling!) in our box and making zero attempt to cut out the pass to Bernardo.
Torreira is several orders of magnitude better. It’s not even debatable. I’ve given up on Xhaka as someone who should start games for us. Absolute worst thing about him? He doesn’t read. You can’t play in his position and not read the game. That was most egregiously on display for the 2nd goal. I don’t think he decided to take a Sunday evening stroll in our box just like that. He was slow to be aware of what was going on around him.
Guendouzi is Xhaka’s direct competitor as orchestrator, and is going to supplant him sooner rather than later. Torreira is going to hold, and as he showed, he can hit attacking passes as well. We looked far more secure with him there in place of Xhaka, irrespective of how late in the game it was.
Ramsey is important to Arsenal’s attack, being second in both scoring and assisting last season, and is one of the best attacking midfielders in the league. Why would Arsenal “”keep Ramsey out of the attack”, given the productivity that he brings? That’s a troll-level comment.
No forward player played well against City. And for all the praise Laca correctly deserves for geeing up the attack when he came on, I thought that his was a cameo in awful finishing. Arsenal’s least effective forward player was Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who narrowed the pitch, and couldn’t hit anyone with a pass. He gave no help to AMN either. Look again at who Kyle Walker leaves running in treacle when he runs at AMN. If we didn’t have to make an enforced change in AMN, i think that Miki too would have been yanked. Iwobi isnt a great alternative, but on the basis of Miki’s indifferent pre-season form and his performance in this game, I’d much rather see him wide left against Chelsea.
Claude, ol’ buddy ol’ pal,
I agree that no forward player played that well for us (Laca was decent), and I didn’t mean my initial comment to lay the blame at the feet of Ramsey, just to argue against Tim’s claim that he was initially deployed as our CF (I intended to add a longer clarifying comment to distance myself from outright Ramsey bashing, when I got free time later today).
However, I don’t think you do your position any favors by branding Josh’s perfectly legitimate opinion as a “troll-level comment”. That’s implicitly attacking Josh rather than his views. Just because Ramsey does (when on form) bring productivity, doesn’t mean it’s irrational to think Arsenal’s attack would be better without him (same could have been said for Theo, e.g.). That is Josh’s take, and he’s argued for it, supported by reasons, many times on here. You might think those reasons are bogus and/or fail to adequately support his conclusion, but disagreeing with him doesn’t make him a troll.
“…..as long as arsenal keep ramsey out of the attack”
_______________________
We are trying to compete for a space in the Top 4 and (perhaps) win a cup or two. So let’s just leave our most effective overall attacking player out of the attack. Maybe you’re right about “troll level comment”being harsh. I should just have called it laughable 🙂
And I had no issues whetsoever with your comments on Ramsey. This is not about you, or anything you said, my dude.
Lots of stuff in there about Xhaka as well. What I said about his first Xi place being unsalvageable gave you far more to chew on, besides a few words in response to a too-glib comment.
Plus stuff on Torreira and Miki. Agree? Disagree?
I’ve looked at the playback again, and I’m re-evaluating Bellerin’s performance, which I initially liked. Pathetic attempt to stop Mendy’s pass (goal 2), or Sterling’s run across the 18 yard line (goal 1). Licht also lost Bernardo Silva on the run for his goal. Mustafi was marking no one, when Mendy clipped a ball all too easily between him and Bellerin, and Xhaka was daintily jogging back.
Lots for you to chew on
Claude,
1. Xhaka should be dropped (at least in the short term, to motivate him to improve) in favor of Torreira. LT and MG (potentially along with AR, depending on formation) should be our midfield in the coming games. So I agree with you. I think there’s actually a TON to love in that midfield three (provided Rambo decides to err on the side of being smart, unselfish, mostly-keep-it-simple, midfielder Rambo). For me, LT and MG are two of the most exciting signings we’ve made in ages.
2. I like Miki, but I’d consider dropping him for Laca or even Iwobi in the short term. So agree with you there too. I don’t love Auba out wide but in a fairly narrow front three of him, Laca, and Ozil I think it could work. But one thing I would hope Emery would consider at some point (and that I haven’t seen fans really bring up) is Auba through the center and Laca being the one to play just off him to the side (I think he’s better on the right, so Ozil could start from the left). Laca doesn’t have great pace, but he’s got more of the ball skills to help in the buildup in a wide attacking area, thus freeing Auba up to play on the shoulder of the last man. Anyway, for the Chelsea game I’d probably start with a 4-3-3, with Ramsey deeper in a more traditional midfield three, and start Laca instead of Miki. Alternatively, I’d drop Ramsey, and play 4-2-3-1 with Miki and Iwobi on the wings (with instructions to help on defense and to stay wide!), Ozil at 10, and Auba up front. But probably the first option.
3. I’d have to go back and look at the game again to decide what I thought of our back four. I thought they all did ok given the circumstances. I’m not the biggest Hector fan, so I’d probably find fault with him if I went back and looked. Adrian Clarke laid the majority of the blame (in his usual polite style!) for the second goal at Xhaka’s feet. No surprise there really.
yeah, I know you weren’t attacking me, and wasn’t trying to narcissistically make it about me. I guess I was just reflexively playing defense anticipating the usual backlash when I post a Ramsey criticism 🙂
By the way, for those who haven’t seen it (hope Tim doesn’t mind me posting a link to someone else’s Arsenal related tactical content):
https://www.arsenalvisionpodcast.com/the-library/2018/8/13/hd68z4vebs0qz2ma2r5684gwehitif
This guy pretty much nails it.
He better articulates what I was trying to say above, and makes a great case for thinking the truth is somewhere in between Tim’s take and my take with respect to Ozil’s and Ramsey’s respective positions, Emery’s initial tactics/formation, etc.
(I.e. Ramsey started as a 10 in Emery’s favored 4-2-3-1 rather than at CF, but because of the high pressing tactics he ended up looking like part of a de facto 3-man forward line a lot, whereas Ozil ended up more on the right in midfield–though whether that was mostly due to a clear instruction from Emery for him not to press, or because he was pegged back by Mendy while Walker would drop into a back 3 on the other side for City’s buildup, is an interesting further question.)
Everyone should read the whole thing (think he’s a bit too complimentary of pressing under Arsene, though).
I was going to reference that this minute! 😀
That is a pretty good, nuanced analysis of what Emery intended, and how it unfolded. And it kind of supports your contention that Ramsey was not a striker, but the 10 in a 4-2-3-1 — the middle man in the 3.
Tactically, it is A LOT for this group to take in. And as luck would have it, Test No. 1 arrived in form of one of the best, and best-coached teams in the world.
Yeah, and as if all that wasn’t hard enough for these players to take in, check out the tactical kitchen sink that Pep was throwing at them (assuming this guy’s summary is mostly spot on, as I think it is)!
https://pmanalytics.wordpress.com/2018/08/13/arsenal-0-2-man-city-match-analysis/
Interesting how Mikel Arteta has become more influential at Man City. See this: https://sports.yahoo.com/revealed-arteta-apos-tactical-tweak-070000430.html
I do think Mikel harbors animosity toward Arsenal over the managerial position. In fact, I watched him stare down Unai after the second goal and avoid shaking hands at the end of the game. Me thinks, not only did Mikel want the job, but he is still bitter about not succeeding Wenger.