Yesterday, Arsenal (checks notes) put in the most complete tactical performance of the last two years with (asks the producer to be sure) a group of players who have never played together before against an opponent (“are you sure about this?”) who played committed football for most of the match.
(Insert confused Nick Young GIF)
Let’s get the personal out of the way: I am so tired of talking about Unai Emery and Mesut Özil that I think if I have to endure another “hot take” or even another tweet on the topic my body might split open like Garrett Morris in the Stuff and all of my essence will pour out. Except it won’t be my essence, it will be the Stuff.
Do I wish this wasn’t happening? Yes. Do I think Özil has something to offer? Yes. Do I think Emery is doing what he’s doing with the blessing of the management team? Absolutely and moreover they are probably behind most of this. Do I fondly remember the days when Arsenal FC was more of a club and less of a billion dollar international business? Not really. And I don’t have the energy left to write another column inch about how Wenger would have treated this situation differently, and then refighting that whole war with the Wenger out crowd.
My opinion remains the same: neither Ozil nor the club/Emery look like adults here and both Emery and Ozil will be leaving Arsenal soon, so I won’t have to have this conversation ever again. Oh, also, please don’t waste time in the comments section on this topic. Really, please.
Oh hey, look, someone just threw a switch and this blog is changing track!
What a match, yesterday! It had everything!
- Playing out from the back successfully
- Fullbacks fullbacking
- Wingers winging
- Forwards scoring
- Midfielders midfielding
- DEFENDERS DEFENDING
- ARSENAL PRESSING (high up the pitch)
I didn’t think it could be done. Arsenal played like a unit. Arsenal played like a team with a plan. Arsenal looked calm, cool, and in control. Arsenal scored. Arsenal kept attacking. Arsenal defended when they wanted to and attacked when they wanted to. Arsenal played like they had an actual identity. It was, in short, the most complete Arsenal performance I have seen since Emery took over.
Why can’t the first team play like this? I have some theories.
Ceballos
With Torreira firmly ensconced in the defensive midfield role, Ceballos was free to play in the Cazorla role. He brings huge energy, dribbling, and his head is constantly on a swivel so he’s rarely surprised and caught in possession. He still plays football like a baby deer on roller skates but seems to wriggle out of trouble somehow nearly every time he’s pressured.
Imagine an Arsenal team with a real DM and a midfielder who can shuttle the ball forward with passes or dribbles. Wow. Probably, however, we will never see this again.
Ceballos completed 93% of 93 passes. He was 11/13 long passes. He had 4 key passes. He won 4/6 dribbles. And he scored a goal (I think he stole that hat trick, BTW). My only problem with this performance is that he was upstaged by…
Martinelli
Here’s what we learned about Martinelli. He is a fighter, he fights for every loose ball. He scores with his head – both literally and figuratively. In the forward position he has the same type of smart movement that we see from Aubameyang. And, he can play wide and deliver the final ball in some incredibly incisive ways. My man created 3 big chances for teammates last night.
Fullbacks
There was a funny bit on the Guardian podcast where Barry Glendenning made an analogy about how modern fullbacks are nothing like old-school fullbacks and not only do I not remember what he said but I didn’t get it because it cross-referenced something that I have no cultural context for. But the point is that modern fullbacks are not like old-school fullbacks and boy are they right!
Wenger’s Arsenal were highly dependent on fullbacks to fill in and make up numbers in midfield (to keep possession), to make most of the defensive stops, and to overlap and — ok this part sucked — cross the ball to each other because they were both all the way up the pitch at the same time which exposed the center backs to long passes. That last bit was less than ideal but it was when the fullbacks (Bellerin and Kolasinac) were targeted by the opposition that the wheels truly started falling off Wenger’s Arsenal.
The same has happened with Unai’s Arsenal. He uses them in attack in a much different way (they aren’t bombing crosses to each other) but they are responsible for buildup play (dur, all fullbacks are) and in the last two years when they have been pressured, they are the ones most likely to be dispossessed. It’s not a coincidence that the player who has lost the most possessions per game at Arsenal this season is Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
Maitland-Niles loses possession on 20% of his touches. That’s actually not that bad and counts all of his attacking passes (which result in turnovers) along with any other turnovers he gets for bad touch, being dispossessed, offside, etc.
Yesterday Maitland-Niles and Bellerin had a bit of a mare on the right side. Bellerin looks way out of shape and out of practice but that’s not a criticism, you try recovering from a year long injury and playing football. AM-N lost 42% of his 31 touches and Bellerin 24% of his 62 touches.
On the left.. Kieran “Tucks In” Tierney was 2nd on the team in touches with 94 but only lost possession 10 times, 11%. Kolasinac is also tidy in possession, he loses the ball just 13% of the time in the Premier League.
That’s only used to illustrate how important it is to have your fullbacks in possession, keeping possession, and getting involved in the game. Almost everything good that happened against Standard Liege came from the left. Whether that was Tierney’s crosses, Martinelli’s crosses, the Arsenal goals, etc. We mobbed them with talent on the left.
So, while I have often mocked the people who say “I’m going to wait to criticize Emery until he has his first choice fullbacks” by imitating them with that “meh meh meh meh meh” voice that Americans use to mock people, I also have to admit that Tierney is a big deal, ya’ll. He’s going to make a massive difference to Emery’s stupid football.
I’m not saying Emery won’t still start Tugboat Xhaka every game and play Torreira high up the pitch instead of starting someone like Ceballos in midfield and Willock high up the pitch (with Torreira in the DM role). I’m simply saying that even the ridic system Unai likes to play will hugely benefit from fit fullbacks like Tierney and Bellerin. Just the possession stats alone should get better with Tierney on the pitch and that should translate into fewer shots allowed, and fewer “shirt your pants” moments when Arsenal are dispossessed in their own half.
WHEN THE FARK DID YOU TEACH THEM TO PRESS???
My only complaint about yesterday is
WWHYYEIEHGSYJSHNDONTYOUPLAYLIEKLGSFGKEHTHISALLTHETITNMELEMEFUGSKSOYEGELEKGFSVGJMDKJEulGQ
When did Unai teach them how to play it out from the back without getting dispossessed? Standard Liege were pressing, folks, and maybe they aren’t as athletic as… uhh… Watford but there was literally only one bone-head pass out from the back in 90 minutes.
Also, the press up top was coordinated. This club has done that like twice in the last 15 years*.
It was coordinated. Imagine Judge Gen from the Good Place where she waves her arms in circles while saying something when you read that last sentence. It. Was. Co. Or. Dinated.
They have been working on it. They work on it in training. They train to press. They train to work together to press. I’m repeating the same thing over and over because it doesn’t make any sense when I watch the first team drop into two banks of friggin’ four while Aubameyang hares around looking to cause an error all by himself. And then I watch a friggin bunch of players who haven’t played together for 5 whole minutes execute an actual friggin press.
WHAT IS GOING ON?
Hey look, I don’t know. I don’t know anything and the sooner I admit I don’t know anything, the better. Maybe this has just been one long rope-a-dope by Emery and he’s going to come out punching now.
I friggin hope so.
Holy forking shirtballs. I don’t care who the manager is. I don’t care if players fail. I don’t care about anything at all about the soap opera behind the scenes. I just want Arsenal to play football like they did yesterday.
That is all.
*I like hyperbole. The real number of times is 3.
Yes, it was very enjoyable to watch for a change. My friend is a Man Utd fan and by comparison he was bored to tears with their match.
Part of the success playing it out from the back was Holding and Mustafi… Mustafi may be prone to bone-head defensive errors, but I’ve always considered him a pretty good passer and Holding isn’t bad either- there was one play where he was being pressed and he did a Cryuff turn to avoid the oncoming rush, then calmly played it to Torreira. Also – Torreira and Ceballos made themselves much more available for the outlet passes than Xhaka does. In my mind the midfield should be Torreira, Ceballos and Guendouzi every game, and let Torreira sit deep a la Coquelin.
And Martinelli – a few more goals and he’ll be worth gazillions on the market. If you watch him and Pepe on the same field you’d be forgiven for mixing up which one we paid 72m for.
From the insipid, anti football of the senior team at Old Trafford to swashbuckling excitement in the space of just a few days? I don’t get it either but The Kids Are more Than Alright if see this kind of play on a regular basis.
Is this a blip on the devolution to mediocrity, another false dawn or the the start of something?
Ok, no Ozil, but I’m afraid I’m going to Xhaka you, Tim. Sorry.
The midfield midfielded because we had close to our best combo. And as you said, Ceballos was playing very deep in the Santi role, although he joined the attack more and more as the game went on. He demands the ball… takes responsibility. My only knock against him is that his corners and set pieces are poor, and often fail to clear the near-post defender. That’s not good for someone who insists on taking them, but he’ll always be in my first choice midfield.
As would a combination of Guendouzi, Torreira and Willock. Sorry Granit. You’re our fifth best midfielder. The reason you play is that you’re the teacher’s pet. Emery ran to the SECOND ROW of the bench to high-five you and you alone, on one of our goals.
Torreira had his best game this season for us yesterday, because we played him in his preferred position — Xhaka’s.
I dont see how you leave out Martinelli, unless you plan on resting Auba some. He is the most hard-working forward at the club after Lacazette. And he allied that yesterday with top class predator skills. A Brazil squad call up can’t be far off if he keeps playing like that.
Pepe has to sit, not because I dont believe in him (I do, I think he’s a top player), but Martinelli is way outperforming him, and he can play wide. Even Reiss Nelson is outperforming the Ivorian, who looks at the moment like a man in a head muddle.
We did everything right yesterday. The back looked more solid and free of nerves than I can remember, and that started with Martinez. I think he’s close to a first team run. Leno is an exceptional shot-stopper, though, and will take come displacing.
Tierney is ready to start ahead of Kolasinac, but Hector is still rusty from his long layoff. Holding looked really good, but may be a couple of weeks of a competitive premiership return.
I meant 3 of the 4 of Ceballos, Torreira, Guendouzi and Willock; but I agree with Jack, it’d probably the first 3.
I noted the same thing yesterday after Martinelli’s first goal… Emery deliberately finding Xhaka to share congratulations on the goal. WTF?
Here’s the great thing if they’re truly tight; Emery leaves, gets new job and demands that new club bring Granit Xhaka in. Boom! One problem’s solution solves another problem.
ha!
One can dream.
I was impressed as well, and Emery has to get credit for the way the team pressed. The players might have been committed and had the energy to do i, but pressing isn’t just about running around a lot and harassing the opposition. Our pressing looked to have triggers, Martinelli was great as the leader of the press and the side was able to dictate the way standard played, by their off the ball exploits.
Standard aren’t just any side either, they are one point behind a side that could have beaten Real Madrid on Tuesday. The same with Frankfurt, that is a side that is no pushover and we made them look like one.
I would like to see more of this approach to games with the (supposed) first team. These game along with the Forest game is building a pattern, and if these boys continue performing this way in the rest of the Europa League campaign, as well as the Carabao cup (where Liverpool await), questions will start to arise about the first team players.
Al in all, Emery deserves credit for a part of football, pressing, that is taking lightly in how a coach can get his side to execute. It is difficult and this side made it look easy at times. that is all down to the coach.
How do you square the exactly opposite, awful, turgid football we play 99% of the time and this one game? How do you “credit” anyone with anything? It makes no sense.
Of the team that Emery would select bar the long-term injured — his usual back 5 (with Kola and AMN), Guen, Xhaka, AN Other, Auba and Pepe either side of Laca — there are maybe 2 players at best who are faithful harriers and pressers. Lacazette and Guendouzi. Auba tries, but that’s not his game. If Ceballos is the AN Other, he would, with great energy. Ramsey would, but we no longer have him. That’s, at best, 3, sometimes 4 out of 10 outfield players. And with Laca out, we suffer in this area. Luiz has it in him to do that, but he’s wary of making more mistakes.
You cant sustain a press with only 3, sometimes 4 willing bodies. Martinelli caught the eye yesterday, but…
Nelson played really well, and pressed relentlessly
Ceballos pressed non stop
AMN, freed of defensive duties, joined the press
Martinelli did
Torreira did, even though he played deep
Willock did, with great energy
That’s six fresh, young, eager pairs of legs pressing. It made a huge difference. Willock has the recovery speed to press and get back into position defensively when we dont have the ball. That gave great security of mind to Torreira, who played well.
Energy, mobility and speed are the key.
That’s how I saw it.
Pressing needs commitment to the cause more than anything. What I saw yesterday was Martinelli setting the tempo by sprinting, hard, to close down the goalie or CB’s and everyone else sprinting hard into the space he vacated, not waiting to see what might happen. And lo and behold, we ended up collapsing them into tight pockets where the only choice they had was to hoof it up the field where, to their credit, Mustafi and Holding challenged immediately for ball and Torreira was there to pick up the second ball. Over and over.
The problem with the first unit is a) Auba doesn’t press consistently, b) the midfield rarely if ever pushes up hard to take space away and c) the long ball outlet is only occasionally challenged by Luiz or Sokratis.
Play the same squad in the Prem then?
See what the Martinelli kid can do against the big boys.
4 goals in two games, how do you leave him out?
Just judging this game in isolation. My view on Emery is already on record about his flaws and the football he has produced. So our side playing this way is a small piece of joy that I look forward to.
I have tried coaching a press and its not as easy as just telling players to run and harry the opposition. That’s why its something I appreciate when I see it.
The only things is, I think this side might be Freddie’s side rather than Emery’s. The big difference in approach and tactics is too different to come from the same coach. What do you guys think? Or am I crazy?
Nobody’s crazy, even the people who think Emery might not be a total dunce.
It’s hard to make the case that Freddie should get credit for the coaching. He wasn’t a first team assistant until last year and while a few of these players were his charges at youth level, it seems like a big leap to say it was mostly him and not the actual head coach and his other assistants.
More generally, it’s one thing to read from the good book, listen devoutly to the man at the pulpit, and repeat the motions over and over in a training environment. It’s a totally different thing to execute all of that when the pressure is on, especially when confidence is low. Even City and Liverpool had their growing pains. Now they show up and expect to dominate everyone, but it’s easy to forget that didn’t happen quickly. I don’t think we have a ceiling like those teams because the investment in the squad hasn’t been as high and Emery’s never proven he can take a team to that level. Still, his track record with other teams is better than what he’s shown at times with Arsenal. The biggest thing that gives me faith that it will get better is that his players are clearly still with him and want to perform for him (except maybe Ozil!). And the fullbacks!!
I’m over the Ozil thing… at this point, seems it pretty much has to be that Emery has the support of ownership to push him out. And not worth spending too much more time on in that case.
And yeah, yesterday’s match is pretty clear evidence that the best mid-field options likely don’t include Xhaka. Either Torriera or Chambers would seem much better options, with Ceballos, Willock or Guend in front.
Not sure what to do about Pepe. On current form Martinelli, Saka and probably Nelson should start ahead of him, to say nothing of Lacazette when he’s back. But Pepe clearly did have some talent, and we spent quite a bit on him. The only way he’s going to get to where we thought he should be is playing time. It’s way too early to write him off entirely.
I’m all in on the fullbacks, Tim. In both phases. The difference between a fit Bellerin and anyone who has tried to play right back for Arsenal since he tore his ACL is massive.
Reminder that the team collected about 0.5 points more per game last season with Bellerin in the side compared to without him. Reminder also that Arsenal hasn’t had a LB who is a plus player with and without the ball since Ashley Cole, which is kind of shocking really.
I don’t think playing out from the back works without technically excellent fullbacks, nor can you pin teams back if they don’t need to respect your fullbacks offensively.
Obviously it’s about more than just the fullbacks. But that for me is a huge piece that hasn’t gotten enough discussion.
Seems like Gibbs had one season where he played very well and looked like the long-term future at LB, but that level of play didn’t stick.
He and Clichy were both hopeless in the final third. Santos was a terrific attacking fullback but didn’t have the stamina or the grit to mix it in both phases on a team not specifically set up to protect the space he left behind.
i don’t think gibbs was bad at all. it’s just monreal was slightly better.
it’s hard to compare anyone to ashley cole; he was world class.
Bad? No, in totality he was a perfectly serviceable player. He’s playing for West Brom in the championship and starting for them as their #3 (that’s about his level! Notice nobody has brought him back to the PL…) But he couldn’t do anything in the final 3rd and teams knew it. They kept letting us recycle the ball back to him and then standing off, knowing he can’t hurt them. Just not a good attacking player, and that is a real problem when you’re Arsenal’s full back. I’d say Monreal wasn’t just slightly better.
In addition to our pressing, Tierney and Bellerin provided forward threat. In Tierney’s case, that forward threat was especially potent. In the first half, every time he got on the ball it looked like we could score.
Tierney looked masterful with his crosses; Martinelli’s goal, the one Willock should have tapped in and then Ceballos header at the end. Put right on the money with pace and curl. Other teams watching this game will not want to give Tierney any space wide, that should actually open up the middle more for Laca and Auba.
FULLBACKS y’all
“I don’t care who the manager is. I don’t care if players fail. I don’t care about anything at all about the soap opera behind the scenes. I just want Arsenal to play football like they did yesterday.”
– Absolutely, that’s all I want as well.
i had never seen tierney before the last game and i was very impressed how connected, kinetic, and efficient he was. he should be close but i like the idea of seeing if arsenal can get a better performance from kolasinac.
devlin, you beat me to it. i was reading everyone’s post giving emery credit for the way that arsenal played but. all the while, i was thinking, it was ljungberg/bould’s team, not emery’s.
as for developing the press, my u19s do it well. in fact, they overwhelm teams with intensity and tempo. however, i can’t take credit. i’ve been watching klopp do it for about ten years and i simply copy what he does. the key is your back line has to compress the field. the average length of the field liverpool’s field players are on is 24 yards long; center mids are never far away from the ball. second, your strikers have to develop the situation by forcing everything to the central areas; fullbacks almost never get the ball. the average width is 24 yards wide; center mids are never far away from the ball. when you’ve got ten players defending a 24^2 yard space, it’s much easier to press than when you have a 120 x 80 yard space you’re trying to defend.
“…the key is your back line has to compress the field. the average length of the field liverpool’s field players are on is 24 yards long; center mids are never far away from the ball.”
____________________
We tried that early last season, and got undone by balls over the top for fast attackers to run onto. Particularly against Chelsea.
Works if you have defenders the calibre of Van Dijk and Alexander Arnold. We do not.
It’s also supremely tiring, and you’d better have good athletes. Nelson was wiped out on the hour. Martinelli, incredibly, kept it up all game. He has an insane engine, much like Aaron Ramsey.
it’s easy to defend balls over the top. that can be worked out on the training ground. arsenal have defenders good enough to do that. it just requires awareness and communication.
What happened in this game? Didn’t watch it but I don’t think it’s terribly complicated. The balance in the team was good, the determination and effort levels were good, and we scored two early goals in a friendly environment against a so-so opposition. Always a recipe for a nice day at the office. The players were able to execute all the things they were taught and it all came together nicely.
I wonder what the average age of that XI was? Mustafi was the elder statesman by some distance at 27 and Saka, Saliba, Chambers and Smith-Rowe weren’t even involved. I also wonder if that team + Auba wouldn’t have done better against Manchester United last weekend. Probably not. Very different type of game.
Hey Tim, I thing you’re not the only one. #emerytoo! Twice, I reckon, I saw an expression of ‘what the … is going on, let me try to understand this” on Emery’s face.
Let’s hope it’s the (re)emergence of player savvy and joyful football.
The difference was pace. Pure and simple. The team against Liege did things quickly, whereas the Sunday lineups have been carthorse slow. Watching Xhaka, Sokratis et al have to make 50 passes to get the ball over the half way line has been a bit like watching the paint dry. Even average teams like Watford and Brighton can handle that all day long. All they do is wait until Arsenal commit more and more men forward and then simply run up the other end and score. Simple. A Sunday pub side would work that one out.
This is a great website with sensible, balanced views, but this obsession with Ozil is really weird. Walk into any pub round our way and he is the last thing anyone is talking about. He’s history. That’s not just an Emery thing. I suspect behind the scenes, they’re all working overtime to get him off the payroll. £350k a week! Just think what you could do with that. The last thing they want is for him to pick up an injury. He has been known to “throw a sickie”.
One reason I think Wenger lost his job was because he became far too loyal to a core of senior players, who quite frankly weren’t doing it. If Emery does the same thing, he will go the same way.
I’m reminded of when George Graham took the managers job, the first thing he did was hose out Woodcock, Nicholas, Mariner etc and put in a whole load of kids. Thomas, Rocastle & Adams. At that particular time, it was the making of the club. Reputations meant nothing to him. You either perform the way I want you to, or you’re out the door. Emery needs to be brave and take a leaf out of his book.
just watching the spuds making brighton look like barcelona.. we have no worries compared to our middlesex neighbours.
a billion pound stadium in the championship would be too funny.
good to see the spurs looking so poor exactly the same players that reached the champions league final. football is such a mental thing.
Brighton 3 -Tiny Tots 0 @73 minutes. Made my morning….
Harry Kane to, I dunno,…Juventus? I can’t see their talisman sticking around much longer.
brighton looked sharp. they attacked tottenham, just like norwich attacked man city. they didn’t play conservative, cowardly football, ala unai emery.
Yep
Leicester unlucky not to take a point at Anfield.
I think Rodgers is underrated as a manager and we, Arsenal fans , are guilty sometimes of being a bit superficial and snobby ( I admit to it myself) making fun of him.
Good result for Arsenal though.
As we all said a few years ago, Tom, they couldn’t possibly sustain that form 🙂
checking out saha to see if we missed a trick not signing him
he looks like he’s no better than a settling in pepe. not feeling too jealous now.
(he’ll probably score now)
1-1 a good result for us if it stays this way.
Zaha is a trickier dribbler from a static position and a bigger unit that’s harder to push off the ball.
Pepe is better in a free flowing system of a lot of give and go Emery hasn’t been able to implement thus far.
Maybe that’s why he wanted Zaha.
strange results today.. norwich who recently beat man city are thrashed by a team we beat with 10 men last week..
the league apart from 96min penalty liverpool is very tight anyone can beat anyone if they get the mindset right.
Very exciting stuff. Agree with most said. Two thoughts. 1. Based on this game, looks like UE wants to be a copy Kloop (not a bad set up to emulate) and 2. Martinelli May also deserve and get some attacking midfield time.
https://www.transfermarkt.com/kieran-tierney/verletzungen/spieler/300716
Kieran is very traumatic((
Our 4-3-3 is a parody of Liv and City or is it suitable for our squad?
What do u think about returning to 4-2-3-1 with Willock or may be Ceb or Guendo playing 10?
A parody; also called a spoof, send-up, take-off, lampoon, play on, caricature, or joke, is a work created to imitate, …
Unai Graham.
Without the defensive coaching.
I liked what I saw in the first half. The pressing, the drive, etc. In the second half, the players really struggled to string together more than two passes, lost the ball too easily, etc. However, we defended well (Chambers did really well on a few occasions, as did Luiz), thought the subs made sense, and we held on for the three points. As usual, Emery is to blame for all the things, etc.
+1!
Why are we talking about trying to get the top 4? After today’s results, we should now set our sights on top TWO.
Those of us waiting on Torreira to start over Xhaka only have to wait for his inevitable 5th yellow card.
Today Luiz giveth 3 points as opposed to taking away 2 points.
Everyone was effectively okay today when Bournemouth laid back but when they stepped up their game, we became shaky.
Calum Chambers’s play today puts Bellerin under pressure before he even comes back into the team. AMN at RB now can become the answer to a trivia question.
Kolasinac played well but I think Tierney’s offense will give him the edge going forward.
VAR was mighty generous with that touch from the defender on the Pepe PK call.
Had that foul, and it was a foul, been committed on a Liverpool player, it would have been given a penalty by the ref.
If you had told me at the start of the season Arsenal would be one point off Man City after 8 games, I would’ve told you to get me some of what you are smoking.
Mr bun torreira sub to play on the wings made sense?
Not sure about that. I’ll have to go back and watch, but suspect if he was moving wide that it was for support or cover reasons. The Martinelli sub was fun, and I liked that Willock, a player who likes to run with the ball, came on for something different to Ceballos and possibly take advantage of Bournemouth’s tired legs. Don’t worry, I already know what you think of Emery’s decisions.
We didn’t win 4-0 playing beautiful football. That’s sad but true. But hey, we can’t all be City! Oh.
winning is a pretty good habit to get into, should build confidence.
3rd place and a nice break for a week.
good to see unai taking notice of the performances of players in the europa and LC slowly introducing them in, perhaps give pepe a little break when lacazette comes back.
he I would have thought would suit pepe rather than pea.
Great post Tim
The game Thursday was very reminiscent of the Carling Cup games during the project youth/early Emirates era. Unfortunately just like those Carling Cup games that that sort of performance probably does not translate to the PL. I suspect Thursday game was the way Emery envisioned playing when he was interviewing for the job and he was looking for the creative dynamic duo of Ozil and Mkhitaryan to dominate the midfield and he thought Leno Kos, Nacho Sokratis, Bellerin xhaka Torriera would be able to successfully “play out from the back” but unfortunately our creative midfield players were no where close to being as good on the pitch as they looked on paper and our senior players like Kos Xhaka Nacho were not able to do what Emery had hoped.
Well put
Lot of speculation there, Bill.
You have no way of knowing or ascertaining any of what you say about what Emery envisioned when interviewing for the job. And how is it, by contrast, that Wolves coach consistently has his players playing better than their reputations and price tags? You cant absolve the coach and coaching and put everything on the players. Of the players you reference, only Xhaka played today. They’ve all been shipped out, and Ozil’s case, sidelined. So what do you blame the for the turgid performance compared to Thursday?
Still, I half-agree with you. Personnel matters. I dont know anymore than you do. But we can all look to the available evidence and make a conclusion based on that.
One, fringe players tend in cup games to play out of their skin — because that is the nature of cup competitions — and to impress. Everyone saw what playing well did for Saka, so they’re trying emulate that. So there’s that… hunger.
Two, some of the “fringe” players are currently, on form (👈🏽keywords, “currently, on form”) better than the first-teamers, In a meritocracy, both Martinelli and Nelson would be playing ahead of the struggling Pepe, and Willock or Torreira ahead of Xhaka, who seems something of a teacher’s pet. Holding > Sokratis and Tierney > Kolaninac, currently, although neither is match ready. Goes without saying that Bellerin is our best RB option, although at the moment, Chambers is providing a defensive solidity and robustness that both he and AMN lack.
Third (and I posed about this earlier) the pressing numbers were higher and the dynamism/athleticism/running doubled on Thursday. That alters our style of play significantly.
Doc is right… an EPL contest is a completely different thing from a Europa League cup game, so simply asserting that Thursday’s team would play better than today’s against league opponents isnt a linear argument. But the factors that enabled us to look and play better on Thursday than we did today and Monday, are a combination of the 3 that I have outlined.
Emery is not going to make wholesale changes to his A team, and that is the right approach. So the youngsters have to continue to play well and force his hand in key positions.
Of course, it’s a 4 competition squad game, and everyone (except you know who) will get playing time across the competitions. But on the best Arsenal team long term, Sokratis is a placeholder for Holding, Kola is a placeholder for Tierney, and Chambers is placeholder for Bellerin. Willock and Torreira have got to change the coach’s mind about his big lump, and Nelson and Martinelli about Pepe. Plus, Laca is coming back.
So yes, personnal matters, but so does coaching that maximises your resources. The evidence of one whole season and about 11 games of this one is that Emery is a cautious to over-cautious coach, even against supposedly modest opposition like Watford.
But we are a totally different athletic unit with Ceballos/Torreira/Willock and or Guendouzi, than we are with Xhaka/Guen/ANOther. In fairness (as they say in Jamaica), he get to reap the sour and the sweet. After all it is he who picks and sets up the team.
Tim
I would guess Ozil may outlast “Emery. I am 100% confident out front office would have off loaded him if they could find a taker and its not going to get any easier to find someone to take him as time goes on. The other problem may be that Ozil is just not willing to leave. He has a big contract and he knows that he is not going to get another one so he does not have that to motivate him. He had a chance to go to PSG last winter on loan and try for a deep run in the CL but apparently he had no interest. If he or his new bride are happy living in London and that is more important to them then playing regular football we can’t can make them leave before the contract runs out.
Tim
I read your contribution to Arseblog regarding the Ozil/Emery dynamic and I think the reason Emery is not using him is because he has not been effective when he has played. Your table the other day about goals per minute that Ozil plays tells the entire story. Stats such as chances created and key passes make for great blog discussion fodder but the objective of attacking football is to score goals and making us better at scoring goals is Mesut’s job. However, no matter what any passing stats might say, your table from the post the other day made is abundantly clear that we have not been better at scoring goals when he is on the pitch. He does not add energy or senior leadership and he is arguably our least effective midfielder at pressuring the ball and playing defense. If having him on the pitch is no longer making the team more like to score a goal then why in the world would any manager use him?
Bill, do you think hat Ozil isn’t among the best 20 players at Arsenal?
But he’s nonetheless Captain No 5? On this matter, I’m absolutely surprizsed by your credulousness. In journalism we have this thing we call our bull**** detector. Seems like yours needs its batteries replacing 🙂
Unfair, Claude. You’ve called me out in my discussions with Shard. I see a similar pattern in the way you respond to Bill and (at times) Tom.
I called for love, detene and beers between you and Shard, though youve since expressed a preference for ice-cream, which, in my eyes, dents your manly cred. I exercised studied neutrality, and managed to agree and disagree with both of you. I just felt that it had turned overly pugilistic
Bill is thoughtful and civil, and I like him as a poster here. But he should defend his arguments, which, on a certain topic, can generally be boiled down to “pah! nothing to see here.” I really wish he’d answer the 2 questions I posed.
Tom? Gosh, we agree on far more than we disagree on, something writ large on this very thread.
That said, I throw elbows sometimes, and that’s something I have to watch. So point taken.
Honestly, the bit about drinking beer being manly and eating ice-cream unmanly is pretty offensive.
Especially to an alcoholic like myself.
Today was not the most elegant game of football but it was a big win and puts us in 3rd place and who would have predicted that.? Its always going to be very difficult for this squad to score when PEA is shut out. Right now PEA is the only person on the entire squad who is good at scoring goals and the only legitimate threat we have to find the back of the the net and if he is shut out its inevitable that we are going to struggle. However, we nicked a goal on a set piece and you can never lose when we can hold the opposition scoreless. Clean sheets have been in very short supply in the last decade and we need a lot more if Emery hopes to save his job.
Claudeivan
Mesut does not add much in the way of defense or energy or leadership and if he no longer makes the team more dangerous and more likely to score goals then why would a manager use him when he has other options?
My question was… do you believe that he is not among our 20 best players? You didnt answer, so Im asking again with a view to hopefully getting one.
And I’ll add another. Do you believe that his total omission from matchday squads (even ones for cup games from which senior players have been rested) is purely a matter of form, and is therefore totally routine?
I’ll bite.
Ozil is in the top three Arsenal players talent wise.
I would have to see him in practice to know for sure whether he deserves to be in the match day squad or not.
I don’t know any scenario where a player tells a head coach he’s no coach and keeps his spot unless he takes it back and starts busting a serious gut in training.
Emery made it clear to Mustafi he wanted him out.
Whether there were no takers or player didn’t want to leave or both,
he’s worked his way back into the squad.
Ozil could do the same but it seems to me he’s made a decision he was gonna outlast Emery on his terms.
And as much as neither of us knows for sure what happened and is happening, that I can go with.
At least youre not pretending, like Bill and Doc, that his omission even from entire Arsenal B SQUADS is routine, insignificant and threfore can be explained only on the basis of his waning influence.
He was “rested”, according to Emery, after playing an hour in our first 5 games of the season. Come on man. Lets not disarm our BS detectors. A lot, not related to his football, is clearly happening behind the scenes. We will know when one of them leaves.
And to be brutally honest with you, I hope that the coach goes first.
Arsenal’s mid is PL average at best.
Guen is a standout for sure but he’s got miles to go to be elite.
I would take freshly promoted Villa’s Jack Grealish over any Arsenal midfielder right now, including Ozil.
Having said that, we are so run of the mill average in the middle of the Park, that I can’t imagine Ozil’s vision and passing ability couldn’t be put to a good use against a club like Bournemouth.
“And to be brutally honest with you, I hope that the coach goes first.“
I feel like I have an indent the size of the Grand Canyon on my A$$ from having been sat on the Emery in/out fence for as long as I had.
But now that Im firmly off of it , I wouldn’t mind a change at the end of the season regardless whether Ozil stays or goes.
Do you think Emery survives this international break? Cannot switch in December when the rush of games begin.
Is this Emeryball, or was it the EL?
I’m glad Freddie’s taken Saka under his wing. Was even working with him during the warm ups yesterday. Emery’s ‘conservative’ approach is probably not ideal for a youngster’s confidence.
Yes, I’m giving Freddie credit over Emery. Even Saka does that. I really hope we replace Emery with Freddie soon, but as much as I want him gone, and will keep moaning about his football, I don’t believe the club will sack him.