Put the tape on erase
Rearrange a face
We always liked Picasso anyway
If you live in a small town
You might meet a dozen or two
Young alien types who step out
And dare to declare
We’re through being cool
We’re through being cool
Eliminate the ninnies and the twits
DEVO – Through Being Cool, New Traditionalists
If we include the Europa League and the Milk Cup Arsenal have played just 11 competitive matches under Unai Emery. At times they seem to have struggled for an identity which has caused problems, not on the score sheet (where they are winning), but in the minds of pundits and fans. Every time Unai Emery makes a substitution, changes the lineup slightly, or makes a player play in a weird position, folks are left asking “why?”
Most football fans are conservative. I don’t mean this in the political divide between left and right* but in the sense that I think most football fans want to preserve the old ways. You may not see it that way for yourself but the majority I think would rather have almost no changes to the laws of the game (VAR, etc), bemoan the capitalization of the game, and pine for days when the game was simpler and fewer people talked about such things as “stats.”
This basic conservatism in sport leads to some pretty strong reactions when managers don’t adhere to the norms. “Why is Emery playing Ozil on the right” is a question I have wondered for a while. “It’s not his natural position”, “it’s not getting the best out of him.” I will say. All of which are pretty conservative ways of thinking: it assumes that there is one way to play, that Ozil is best when he plays it, and that Emery is wrong for not playing that way.
I don’t want to veer into telling you how to react or how to think about what’s going on with the Arsenal right now. But I will share my own feelings and you can do with them what you will. It’s a sad state that I even have to say that. My writing should always be taken as my own view. But these days people are so touchy about any perceived criticism that they immediately seem to take everything personally and leap to the attack.
My own very personal feeling that you should in no way even remotely take as me suggesting you should believe is that Emery is simply being radical. I think he’s breaking down our old structures and introducing new (and very weird) ways of playing. I don’t know when (or even if) the dust will settle on this project but there is only one thing to say for certain about the Emery project, it’s under construction (inset old internet joke about guy digging, or new joke about EU nationals, Brexit, and builders).
Probably the most vexing change for me has been Ozil. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why Emery is playing Ozil wide right where he’s barely involved in play and where he is forced to either abandon Bellerin to play on his own or sit stock still and do almost nothing on the right as the team play mostly procedes down the left.
More confusing was the fact that he deployed Ramsey in the #10 spot. And of all the 11 matches played thus far, he has only started Ozil once in that position, against Chelsea. I know that I get stick when I say this but Ramsey is not a creative player. He’s good at it in spurts (that through ball for Aubameyang’s second was highly underrated) but he’s not a real number 10 – think of the players we’ve had there like Cesc, Bergkamp, Ozil, Cazorla. He’s much more interested in finishing moves than starting them and his passes to forwards are often meant to be the start of a return pass. These aren’t criticisms of Ramsey. This is just his playing style.
It struck me during the Qarabag match where at times Unai had Elneny in the number 10. I complained on twitter and then a fellow Arsenal supporter pointed out why: Unai is going for energy in the #10. If he needs to change things (or wants to change things) he can, he’s always got Old Faithful, he’s got Mesut Ozil.
But until then, he wants to play a player with high energy, to help close down when the opposition have the ball. Ramsey is not only one of Arsenal’s most industrious players but he’s also the best creator/finisher in that group of players. So, it suddenly makes sense that Unai is playing some rather unusual players in the #10.
I think we are in for the treat of seeing a lot of subtle changes like this under Emery. And next time I watch a match and wonder “why is he playing him there” I’ll try to remind myself to step back a second and think about whether I’m just being a traditionalist?
*As an aside, I think that the big problem between the left’s left-leaning base and the majority of the left party is that the left is too conservative. They seem keen to preserve the institutions (trickle-down economics, big government, the police state, the military industrial complex, etc.) which more radical leaning leftists want to abolish. Whereas I don’t think of the right as conservative in any sense of the word – unchecked free-market capitalism, zero environmental protections, unchecked wealth accumulation, attacking the free press, winner-takes-all at any costs in the courts and in the houses of government, the destruction of social norms, and other policies of the right are profligate rather than conservative.
Hey – I thought you were taking a break! Not that I’m sorry to see this post, but just thought you deserved some down time during the interlull. That said… Seems like Emery prefers to score with guys like Mkhi and Iwobi creating from the channel and passing to overlapping players who cross/pull back. Saw some footage of the team practicing today, and it was just this kind of movement they were working on. Ozil is a bit more of a guy who cuts teams open from the middle. And if Emery wants more pressure from the 10, to win balls and feed it to the guys in the channel – that is not Ozil’s game, for sure. So maybe it’s not Ozil OR Ramsey in the 10 in the long term. It is fascinating – keeps us wondering and much more engaged than last year.
PS – Thanks for the Devo blast. Brings back memeories of a concert I saw back in the 80’s. Their cover of Workin in a Coal Mine was the show finale and it brought down the house.
“Saw some footage of the team practicing today, and it was just this kind of movement they were working on.”
Track back and you will see this style of videos on .com right from the day 1. Not that he can’t play another way. But in my opinion bringing structure to attack was emphasized from the start. Moving away from instinctive moves and creativity to playing direct and simple.
I will look back, but yes that makes sense. That was clearly the strategy vs. Chelsea, and it worked – minus the finishing.
Energy at #10 position also important for high press. Wild thought… Can Welbeck be used in that position. He has energy, effective high press, for tackle and creating turnovers, to win aerial duels and fluid to switch to 4-2-2-2 (attack) or 4-4-2 (defense) when required.
Stillman’s article suggests that’s exactly what Welbz is doing!
https://arseblog.com/2018/10/smashing-pockets/
Whereas I don’t think of the right as conservative in any sense of the word – unchecked free-market capitalism, zero environmental protections, unchecked wealth accumulation, attacking the free press, winner-takes-all at any costs in the courts and in the houses of government, the destruction of social norms, and other policies of the right are profligate rather than conservative.
What you describe is a bowdlerized version of neoliberalism. You can be a traditional (ie Burkean) conservative and have a different position on all of these issues.
“I don’t think of the right as conservative in any sense of the word – unchecked free-market capitalism, zero environmental protections, unchecked wealth accumulation, attacking the free press, winner-takes-all at any costs in the courts and in the houses of government, the destruction of social norms, and other policies of the right are profligate rather than conservative.
________________________________
Spot on. The clue is in the derivative… “conserve.” Defend institutions and norms. Britain’s Tories, although not a loveable bunch, manifest that conservatism much more accurately. They are very EP friendly, and believe in what their US counterparts would describe as socialised medicine.
In the true sense of the word, Trump and Mitch McConnell aren’t conservative at all.
You can be but they are not at all in the majority of either party in the USA.
Tim, you’ve described some kind of anarcho-capitalist belief structure and it’s caricature of the right, not reality, and that adds to the problem in dialogue between the two sides.
In the Burkean tradition, conservatism strives for balance, stability and rational government because conservatives believe there is no lasting prosperity or happiness without those three.
The Left strives for fairness, openness and activist government because leftists believe that there is no societal progress made without those three.
In the end, both are required as a sort of yin-yang, part of an ecosystem of ideas that if there were some agreement on common goals we could have a discussion about methods. But we’re probably headed for a real dark period in history because we don’t even want to acknowledge the usefulness of the other side. The Left regards right-wingers as evil and stupid, the Right regards left-wingers as naïve and self-destructive. It’s a shame.
I was stating the reality we are in, not the desired state. I don’t hate right-leaning people or right-leaning thinkers who are rational and reasonable and willing to compromise as you have so eloquently described. But you have to admit that the party of Reagan is dead. The Dems (the left) are closer to 80’s Republicans than ever before and the Republicans are now some sort of quasi-philosophical party of people who will do and say anything to maintain power for rich white men.
“As an aside, I think that the big problem between the left’s left-leaning base and the majority of the left party is that the left is too conservative. “
This is stil a center, center – right country and with the Citizens United ruling you can hardly blame them for trying to appease the special interests while at the same time represent the little guy.
I don’t blame the dems although most of the time they are lame and scared of their own shadow and bring knife to a gun fight.
I don’t blame the R’s either for being duplicitous and dishonest in their machinations. That’s who they are.
Of course Dems get outmaneuvered by Republicans.
Who needs to be better at their job, milk, or snake oil salesmen?
I blame the uninformed voter often times too stupid to vote their own self interest.
If I hear someone say “the enthusiasm gap” in relation to elections again Im gonna throw up in my mouth.
Get off your a$$ , do your research and vote your self interest.
That’s an interesting point about sports fans being conservatives. I want VAR, I don’t believe that the manager should conform to one style of play, or explain his every move.And yet, I guess I am conservative. I want VAR because I want football to be fairer, like (I believe) it used to be. I don’t question the manager’s every decision, because I want to just watch the play rather than necessarily understand the play. And in any case, supporting the players and the manager at your club is what I think it’s supposed to be. So a conservative position.
Also, following our brief exchange on Twitter, I wanted to add the stuff you say about the Dem party being too conservative (upholding the system, refusing to introspect) even as I called the left more ‘extreme’. I guess what I really think is that the normal left, the left of centre left has been pushed out and is not given political space. Or maybe the political support isn’t there? I wouldn’t know but I think that Bernie Sanders sort of occupied that space and he seemed to have a groundswell of support. So, it’s probably just money power keeping the politics going as they are rather than actual people based politics.
Shard–
As a former-politico here? Yours is a fairly accurate assessment of the Sanders phenomenon 2 years ago. The Democratic Party was far too accommodating to accept a one-time-only (D), slicing their resources and their support in two– in doing so.
As such, liberals of my demographic (just-post-Boomers) are getting screwed pretty bad as far as (R)s controlling all 3 branches of our government– rolling back things I’ve worked most of my life to see enacted (during Obama’s admin).
So? I’ve got little to say about what happens next. The generation of liberal or (D) voters in the age bracket behind me and further? I had hoped I could count on them to carry the torch forward. But their Smartphone-ADD® attention spans have allowed the worst possible circumstances to occur.
I had noted a growing cynicism in Comedian George Carlin as he began to age. As I happen to be now, I’m realizing why. And I’ll close with some Carlinisms:
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.
Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.”
Selah.
jw1
You know, despite his cynicism, I don’t think Carlin ever lost his idealism or hope. That’s why he was out there still talking about those things, and the fact that he was successful shows that people also connected with and the saw the truth in it.
Personally, I think the trick is to take a little distance from it all and realise that in the larger scheme of things, the issues that seem so important or difficult to us, are really not as all-encompassing as we feel. True social change has to be slow and seen as maybe even being beyond our own lifetimes. To rush it through is normally a recipe for frustration, if not for failure.
Classic No. 10s — of which Ozil is one — are a dying breed. Creators, like you said, have to bring energy. And hard work.
Look at Madrid, for example. Casemiro is DM, Kroos is their orchestrator (their Xhaka, if you like), and Modric is their creator. Luca Modric is almost maniacal in his workrate. My head was almost spinning watching him last weekend. He was creating, hustling, harrying, throwing himself into slide tackles. He was sometimes in the Santi role, sometimes more involved creatively further forward. They also play another hard-working creator, Isco, in a kind of freer role. Kroos isnt a mucker, but no one shirks hard work. And they’re all highly accomplished players technically. Creative players today are expected to work hard every game. Hazard does. David Silva does. Chtistian Eriksen does.
Mesut can bring hard work and hustle (a slide tackle on Eden Hazard in the FA Cup final a couple of years ago will live in the memory), but he does not do the hard work consistently enough, in in fulfilment of the demands of the modern role.
Agree about Ramsey on both counts — not a creator, but one of Arsenal’s most industrious players. And therein lies the answer to the riddle about why he plays there. Yes, he’s leading the team in assists with 3 so far, but in that department, Mesut is in a league of his own, and might have had double that, if he played there consistently. The coach is weighing up what he brings, versus what he doesn’t. And yes, there’s a logic to it.
Overall, Emery’s done good, and there’s every indication that in time, he’ll have this team much improved. I’m marking him down slightly for the quality of our defending and the sheer number of shots and good chances we’re allowing. By the law of averages, we’re due a bad day at the office. Play the way we have been doing defensively (except for the last two games where we defended well), and high energy teams likLiverpool and City will give us a spanking.
Sometimes, it’s not about the coach. We were killing Chelsea on Bellerin’s side in the 1st half, and if we hadn’t finished so poorly and had taken our chances, we’d have taken all 3 points. That, incredibly, would have put us top of the league at this stage.
I agree that an old-fashioned 10 doesn’t fit Emery’s style. But what I see is Emery trying to find combinations of players and formations that can beat a particular opponent. Horses for courses makes a lot of sense, especially when you have a roster whose attacking players are 28 and older. The players get more rest, and are slotted in with a supporting cast that compelements them and matches up well against that day’s opponent. I would be surprised if Emery tries to play Auba, Ramsey and Ozil in the same XI going forward. I think they will be employed in different games and slightly different formations. What worked against Fulham won’t necessarily be right for Leicester or Pool. Keeping everyone guessing makes this season way more entertaining for fans, and much more difficult for opposing coaches.
“Why is Emery playing Ozil on the right”
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Maybe I am simplifying it too much, but I had the feeling that the reason for this is because, at least in the first Unai’s steps in the club, his system, his formation has been the leading one. Starts from the 4-1-2-3 (or 4-1-2-2-1, or whatever you call it), and then fit the available people to the slots. This can explain why he still sticks with Xhaka* (as Guendouzi and Torreira seem more similar to each other), but also why he puts Ozil to the right. The front-left is clear: two of the Lacazette/Aubameyang/Welbeck/Iwobi bunch, the rest are left on the bench.
So we are left with the “number 10” and right attacker positions, and Emery has Ozil, Ramsey and Mkhitaryan to fit in. All of them can play in the center, Ramsey is maybe the one least capable of playing to the right, butthe first question is who to bench. Considering some soft factors, like contract situations and squad status, the most obvious choice seems to me the Armenian. Then Ramsey coms in the center, and Ozil goes to the right, because the other way round would have been even worse (curious if it has been considered and tried in training though).
Now, in the last few matches, we see that the team is getting more comfortable with the new tactics (not only the scheme, but the whole pressing/positioning/tackling thing), and we see that Emery starts to try new approaches, to develop himself tactical alternatives. Like five at the back, or two strikers. This means that now, when he got to know better his team and individual players capabilities, we might start seeing more tweaking the system to accommodate and benefit from the unique individual abilities of particular players.
All what I am trying to say is that I expect to see in the future Ozil more often involved in a central midfield position. Especially if Ramsey is being dropped, or at least stripped from his status of a must-starter.
* I was thinking in the last couple of days what will happen with our midfield once AMN is back from injury and hopefully fit.
1) Nothing, he will remain on the bench as a fourth choice (probably taking over Elneny)
2) He gets involved in the first team action as a partner to Xhaka, rotating/replacing Torreira and Guendouzi
3) He becomes alternative of Xhaka. The “issue” here is that, although often deployed on the left, Ainsley naturally is more of a right-side player, so playing with him and Torreira, for example, should switch the whole balance more to the right, compared to the Xhaka-Torreira pair. Which shouldn’t be a bad thing, unless he current visible focus on the left is a deliberate intention, rather than a side-effect.
I am just looking at how we are developing. I have tried to see what we are supposed to become and I still do not see where we are headed. I have advocated for a 4222 before and I was very happy to see us play that way against Fulham. I know all of these questions about the team might seem like conservatism but we are allowed to ask which path we are headed in. I do think it’s a bit too early to judge, but you can’t avoid asking questions.
I have asked why Ozil is being played out wide when he has put up league leading creative stats throughout his time at Arsenal? why Aaron is being played at 10 for his energy when we are not really pressing? why are we playing Ozil and Aubameyang wide when we have Iwobi and Mkhi who are better in those positions? Majority of our players suit a 4222, only Ozil and Ramsey are at their best outside that system and Ramsey is leaving, why aren’t we looking at building towards playing a system that best suits us, with our highest paid and best player looking to acclimatise to it?
We are a big team and we aspire to be bigger, but this chopping and changing according to each team is unbecoming of what we aspire to become. Arsen might have overestimated the quality of his players, but he never took on such a small club mentality. I believe a big team has it’s philosophy of how the team plays, and then you can alter minor details to match the opposition. I do know that if we continue with this way of playing, we will only get short-term gains, just like we seem to be doing right now.
On the Ramsey front, I agree that he is not creative. He is better off the ball than he is on it. If you watch us play, you will notice that we rarely play through the number 10. Elneny in that Europa league game only touched the ball about 5 times after moving into that position. A striker like Welbeck taking up that Ramsey role makes more sense than Aaron.
On the right-left political question
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When using the these terms we are of course trying to put so much content and nuances in two very simple words, but I personally have always used the following rule of thumb when trying to define if something/someone is “left or right”:
The “right” puts the goals of an individual (family/company) first, and the interests of the society come second, or simply as an effect of content individuals. The “left” looks first from the perspective of what is good for the society/community as a whole, and then the individuals and entities should follow, starting from the assumption that long-term happiness of people is possible only in a healthy society.
This approach of mine acknowledges that “right” and “left” practically means very different things in different parts of the world. American “left” looks quite centrist from the perspective of an European, and European “right”, “conservatism” and “nationalism” has quite different content than in America. And of course the whole Asia is a completely another thing, with their history of community-driven societies.
So from this perspective, I think that the GOP still remains the more “right” one in the US. Although that the contents of the term “conservatism” has being modernized with time (pardon the pun), they are still being more driven by the self-interests of the individuals.
I really like this post. Mainly because i think it touches something that ive been pondering. I think Emery, and hes been kinda saying that explicitly, is pushing people. Pushing them into unconfortable positions. Pushing them to do more. I think he even said that we suffer and that he likes us to suffer. I even wonder whether he maybe even thinks that we would win this games, so he made it harder. I think he even said that he league 1 was too easy for PSG, so he made the maches harder. Then they had better chance against stronger teams in CHL (that obviously didnt work out) You know, pain leads to growth or something.