Have to say that I am impressed with Freddie’s first presser! Not only was he 30 minutes late but he also told the reporters that he will wear whatever clothing he wants. He was also open about his coaching plans and gave us some insight into his methods. Overall, it was a frank conversation in which the Arsenal head coach clearly conveyed his ideas to the press so that they could report them to the fans. Absolutely fantastic.
You may think I’m taking the mickey out of him for showing up 30 minutes late, I’m not. One of the members of the press tweeted out that he was late which I felt was in poor taste. I assume that the Arsenal backroom is in a bit of turmoil and it’s Freddie’s job to get everything set up, organized, and settled so that the team can succeed. He has minders, assistants, etc. If he was 30 minutes late, it’s because he was doing something important for the Arsenal. And the seagulls in the press can wait. Next time an hour.
And look at the questions he had to answer. Two questions about whether he was going to wear a suit on Thursday. Really? This is a “controversy” instigated by Paul Scholes, a man who is about as dumb as a can of diet soda. Pep Guardiola doesn’t always wear a suit! Half the managers in the League put on studs and a warmup. Pulis used to shower with his players! And most of the press show up to these meetings with curry stains all over their clothes. Even Scholes himself dressed down when he was coach of Oldham or whatever coaching job it was that he utterly failed at. Freddie had to shut this question down twice, first saying ” I will decide on a matchday what I will use” and when asked again a few seconds later “I will make sure you know what I wear”.
The actual important parts of his press conference were his answers to questions about what he saw as the things Arsenal did well and where they need improvement.
Of course there’s a lot of reflection after a game, I’ve watched it twice now. The general feeling is probably the same as I had after the match, we started extremely well, played very well offensively but had a problem transition-wise so they got shots on target and chances just from the transition of an eight-yard sprint, which we need to stop. So that’s something we will focus on. Other things is that my feeling that we got in behind their midfield and behind their backline a lot, has been backed up by data within the club, which we have been sky rocketed up to be one of the top teams in the league to get into the pockets and behind them. That feels very good that it has been backed up by the data and the feeling I had after the game, and of course we will try to keep on doing that. My feeling was that I wanted to win the game, very disappointed not to win it, but if we play a transition game like we did, we won’t win any games, so that’s something that I can coach and try to improve.
There are a couple of key points here. The first is that Freddie listens to the data. I know that there are a lot of “fekkin roon aroond a bit” folks left who watch football and who hate stats. And of course stats don’t tell the whole story – because to tell the whole story we have to go all the way back to the first moment in all of history – but only a fool refuses to use all of the data available to them. It’s one thing to question the validity of a piece of data, to ask for more information about that data, to poke at the data and see whether it stands up and another thing to just dismiss the information because it’s data.
I think the stat that he’s referring to here is “throughballs”. We know that the throughball key pass is one of the most deadly of passes and that Arsenal attempt the most throughballs per game (3). Now, I’m sure that the stats folks at Arsenal have much better detailed stats than I have access to but I think that’s the sort of stat that he’s referring to. Throughballs are key because they are the type of pass that splits defenders and sends a man in behind the lines.
The one thing that Arsenal need to work on here is converting those passes into shots. Arsenal currently only take 0.4 shots from their throughballs, City take 0.8 shots off 2 throughballs per game. I think that’s because under the Emery system, he wanted Arsenal to make one more pass (across or back). Personally, I’d like us to be more direct and just take the shots. But I’m curious to see how Freddie wants to develop this.
Along with my desire for Arsenal to be more direct I’d also love to see us take more shots in general. I think Freddie wants this as well and you can see from the game against Norwich that the plan was to keep the Canaries penned in their own half and shoot fairly freely. The Arsenal second goal was scored off of a rebound. More of that is good, especially with Aubameyang and Martinelli in the team. They are excellent at getting themselves into dangerous positions unmarked.
The second important thing that Freddie identified is transitions. We have already had that conversation on here every day for the last three days. So, what I will say is that I watched Man City play yesterday and basically they are the blueprint for how to shut down opposition counters. First and foremost, positioning. After that, pressing, winning possession, sticking close to your man, and if necessary even fouling.
Remember Guendouzi’s flying tackle? Come on! That was a brilliant bit of theater! Obviously we don’t want to do that 16 times a game but through drills and superior positioning (COACHING), Freddie can make Arsenal more compact and make it easier for guys like Guendouzi to close down on what Freddie called those 6-yard sprints.
For those two bits alone, it was a win for Freddie but Ljungberg also addressed this pernicious idea about the fans supporting and/or dragging the club down.
I think the only way to change an atmosphere in the stadium is by how you play. Like you said, the fans were amazing at Norwich. I felt like they got more and more energy the more that we played in the first half. We were on top of Norwich and I think the Arsenal fans got energy from that. That helped. But they were great, even when we went 1-0 down or 2-1 down, they were even louder and they helped us. That’s important for the players. When it comes to the Emirates, the fans want us to win football games. They want us to play good football and I think the only way to try to get a good atmosphere and get them going is to try to achieve that.
YES EXACTLY. Think of the fans as a slight boost or a slight drag. The fans can only effect things slightly, it’s the team that has to give the energy to the fans. Once that happens they feed on each other and can create a slight boost to the overall performance. Conversely when the energy levels drop on the pitch the energy levels drop in the stands. The team’s play sets the stage for how the fans are going to react. Come out and play hard and the fans will cheer – we have all been there when a good tackle, a good pass, a cracking shot energizes the fans. That’s what we need on Thursday. So, I hope the team are ready for the game from the start and that the supporters are in full voice in return.
I love the new energy that Freddie is bringing to this team: not taking any crap from reporters, looking at data, working on specific problems, and not blaming the supporters for the team’s performances. I also watched the player’s practice this morning (well, clips) and again, I love it. They look like they are working on short passing and pressing. The two things that this team most needs at the moment. Two things this team has needed to work on for about 8 years.
I remember when Pep was in his pomp at Barcelona and apparently all they worked on were rondos. The result of that sort of single-mindedness was that Barcelona team were one of the best passing and pressing teams in Europe. They had some flaws (TRANSITIONS) which Pep then worked on at Bayern Munich. And now if you see Man City play you can see the evolution of all of those ideas at once.
Oh, one last thing he mentioned that I loved. He said that he know how Brighton plays but he’s more focused on how Arsenal want to play. I don’t think this was a swipe at Emery – who famously chopped and changed to fit the opponents – but rather just his philosophy. He didn’t say he would ignore them and how they want to play but rather that the main focus would be on how Arsenal want to play. This feels extremely “right” considering the dual facts that we are the bigger club and we are at home. I don’t think we should spend hardly any portion of the training sessions working on how to counter BHA’s tactics when we have so much work to do on our own.
I’m not saying Freddie can turn this ragtag group of misfit toys into Man City. But I applaud him for trying to work on the problems that we have had at Arsenal for a long time and wish him the best of luck for as long as he’s the coach. For me, this first presser was awesome and a huge win for Freddie in my book.
Data is a wonderful thing in football, just ask Sam Allardyce. Percentage Balls!
He talks a good game does Freddy. If he starts with Luiz & Mustafi in defence tomorrow his walk won’t last long.
Good to see some positivity. Looks like Freddie may get until the end of the season to have a shot. If he is great- all to the good. If he is still learning- do whatever we can to get Diego Simeone.
“…but he’s more focused on how Arsenal want to play.”
This was the best line and the one that gave me the most hope for the rest of the season (I’m still pretty cynical about our long-term direction under Sanllehi/Edu).
From Miyamoto Musashi’s Book of Five Rings: “to know ten thousand things, know one well.” That one thing we need to know is who we are and how we want to play. From that knowledge, the path becomes clear – this is what we want to do, and how can we do it knowing the opposition’s predilections? As opposed to Emery’s we know what the opposition wants to do, how can we counter-act it? Both approaches are conscious of the opponent’s play (something Wenger was missing), but one is more assertive, the other more passive. And Emery lost the players because top athletes are not enthused to approach games passively.
And the suit thing? The question about Swedish managers? The press is really intellectually deficient.
I don’t think I will ever get behind the idea of the intentional foul being used to stop breakaways. If you want to play a high line and high press to win the ball back quickly that’s fine, but being vulnerable to a quick counter should be the price you pay for that approach. If teams are allowed to essentially cancel out this vulnerability through cheating (intentional breaking of rules = cheating) then it’s like having your cake and getting to eat it too. Breakaways and fast counter-attacks are high points of excitement in a game; listen to the crowd groan or roar in anticipation when they see one materializing. I think we should be encouraging that as a way to counterbalance the tippy-tappy possession stuff that everyone tries to play now that is SOOOO boring. We used to be devastating at fast counters…
I suggest implementing much stiffer penalties for these kind of fouls: first team offense: automatic yellow. Second team offense: automatic red. Subsequent offenses: automatic red and penalty awarded. And so on. Giving an automatic red for the “last man fouling to stop an attempt on goal” has taken that out of the game almost entirely. Players and managers aren’t stupid (John Terry notwithstanding). If the price they have to pay isn’t worth the potential gain, this kind of fouling will go away.
Rant over. For now.
It’s not cheating to foul someone. It’s a violation of the rules but it’s not cheating. Implementing your system would literally kill attacking football. Everyone would just play super conservative and it would be an incredible advantage to bad football teams.
Well we can argue semantics all day. If you intentionally break the rules to give yourself an advantage or take away an opponent’s advantage, that sounds like cheating to me. But call it whatever you like, it really irks me and I’d just like to see it more effectively “discouraged”. Would doing so also discourage attacking football? That seems a bit of a stretch. Teams and managers would surely find ways to play good football within the revised guidelines, without resorting to FatSamBall. After all, it’s not even changing the rules, it’s just choosing to enforce them more strictly. And doesn’t it seem fair to you that a team that has been laboring under the ManCiti cosh for most of the game, when they are able to manufacture a bit of possession for a quick break, should be able to follow through without Fernandinho rugby-tackling their winger on the halfway line?
If Fernandinho “rugby-tackles” someone he gets a red card.
Cheating is breaking the rules with the intention of avoiding getting caught or punished. Many a time I have deliberately fouled a player knowing I could not stop them. I fouled them in complete understanding that I would be punished i.e. a yellow card, free kick for the other team. I wasn’t “cheating”. I wasn’t trying to hide my offense.
As Tim writes, if you wanted to kill the game there’d be no better way of doing it than following your suggestions. When they had the golden goal in overtime it resulted in fewer teams trying to score in overtime, not more.
Look, cheating is defined simply as “to deprive of” or “gain unfair advantage through deception or breaking rules” (Oxford Illustrated Dictionary). Deliberately fouling (breaking the rules) to deprive (cheat) your opponents of their opportunity to attack, is cheating, whether you try to escape punishment or not, and regardless of whether it’s common practice. Whether you can justify it to yourself is a separate issue.
And I don’t understand why you and Tim are so certain a stricter enforcement of this type of foul would “kill the game” (gasp!). I think the most likely result would be that, just as with the “last defender” rule, you would just see less of this type of foul, because defenders would realize it’s not worth the price. Remember, the first incident would still just be a booking, only repeated offenses would bring harsher punishment. I’m genuinely interested to know how you (or others) see this as potentially bringing about the end of the game.
Massive difference between DOGSO and what you’re talking about. There is no “last defender” rule and we have actually seen that rule relaxed over the last few years. That’s something I agree with because it seemed like Arsenal were always getting red cards for that particular bit of ridiculousness.
I already explained how it would change the game.
Jayke – it would be a chain reaction of tactical revisions; you never want defenders 1v1 with forwards, so depending on how many attackers there are, a team would ensure that they always have that many +1 defenders sitting deep. Then you don’t want defenders stepping out of line to get in front of surging midfielders so you’d instruct one (or two) midfielders to sit deep for protection. Now you have fewer attackers and if the other team is of a similar tactical mindset then you’re playing Serie A football from the 1980’s, basically 3 attackers per team, the rest sit back and lo and behold a lot of dull 0-0 draws.
Awarding a penalty and red card for a third ‘tactical foul’??I’d say that is changing the rules quite a bit. I actually agree with you that systematic tactical fouling should be addressed, but what you’re proposing is insane.
You haven’t mentioned the obvious problem here—what is the criteria for what constitutes a ‘tactical foul’ deserving of an automatic red card and penalty? How do you distinguish the ‘tactical foul’ that is punished by awarding a goal and taking away a player from an ordinary run of the mill foul? Even if clear criteria could be established, the potential for mistakenly punishing a player who tackles a bit too enthusiastically or is just a bit clumsy is enormous. And a mistaken third ‘tactical foul’ with the consequences you propose pretty much kills the game for that team. There is much more gray area than black and white here.
Do we really want Mike Dean making these calls? I definitely don’t.
Further, it creates an enormous incentive for actual cheating—a dive anywhere on the field puts the other team down to ten men and gets you a goal, so long as the diver can convince the ref he was ‘tactically fouled.’
They already basically dive every time someone comes near them, which I think was the reason they had to get rid of the “last man” fouls thing.
Sounds like flag football. Maybe eliminate studs too.
I vacillate between hope and despair at the moment, the latter occasioned whenever I think of the monumental task before Freddy or any other coach who takes over this midfield and defense, the former whenever I think about what Freddy said before and after the game…and that first half against Norwich, which felt almost Wengeresque (in a good way, mostly).
But as with all new beginnings, the glass is mainly half full for me. Something had to change, and in my mind, I’ve already sort of written off this season, so that’s lessening the anxiety and antagonism. I really don’t think it’s probable for us to finish in the top four, but if we can start to see some better results in our defensive work, and some positive, fearless play, that will go a long way to mitigating our final league position as well as giving us something to get behind for the next season.
Finally, Scholes and the press should be embarrassed for talking and asking about Freddy’s clothes. But they won’t be, because Scholes, and whoever asked those questions, are juveniles with under-developed limbic systems. Absurd.
*Freddie
Here’s my question Tim: who at Arsenal is responsible for defining our style of play (our identity)? IMHO it’s still the coach even though we claim to have moved to a DoF model (and have four wanna-be DoF’s but that’s for another debate). If it’s Freddie WTF do Gaspar and Sanllehi contribute?
The coach defines the style for sure. Raul and them are there to take the glory and shield themselves from criticism using the coach as some sort of bodyguard. LOL.
No they are there to support the coach and to make the team better through smart purchases and sales, to increase revenue through smart contracts, to be the face of the team and club to business partners. Etc.
Cmon JAYKE , cheating implies doing something illegal covertly.
I don’t think shirt tugs or tripping players done in plain view of referees qualifies.
That’s what yellow cards are for.
I guess I’m in the minority here. I don’t think defining something as cheating is contingent on whether you try to hide it or not. The intent, the action and the result are the same, the rest is just style.
In the minority, perhaps, but not alone. And isn’t it a fascinating piece of cultural analysis; taking something as basic as cheating and glorifying it with the phrase “professional” foul. “Nah, Guv,” says the teller caught with his hand in the till, “that weren’t stealing. That was professional redistribution, that was.”
Yes, just because you need to do it (for the team) does not mean it is not cheating
Well, there’d be a lot of sports you’d want changed then – in basketball it’s a regular tactic at the end of games for teams to intentionally foul players and force them to go to the free throw line, which stops the clock and provides opportunity to get the ball back. That’d be outlawed in your view. In American football a quarterback throws the ball out of bounds rather than take the deserved sack. That’s got to be “cheating”. In hockey, icing the puck is an infraction, if it’s done intentionally to get a breather or shift change, that’s cheating.
Where does it end? The idea of ridding sports of tactical fouling or breaking of the rules is not only naïve, it would also require a level of mind reading and fundamentally change many sports.
Good points, interesting conundrum.
Every game has rules by which the players of the game are expected to abide. Intentionally breaking those rules in order to increase your likelihood of winning that game is, of course, cheating. Calling it a sport and paying professionals to cheat at it doesn’t change its fundamental nature. Watch any of those with a six-year old and they’re tell you who the cheaters are. Is it a case of them lacking the sophistication of an adult to tell what is and isn’t required to win a game? Or are the grown-ups just lying to themselves again?
Every foul is cheating? That seems like a rather broad definition.
If it’s intentional, then yes; yes it is. No need to hide from it. All professional teams cheat in order to win, even ours. But just because everyone’s doing it, doesn’t mean we should pretend it’s something other than what it is. Rather says more about us as a culture than we’d like to let on, I’d say.
Nice piece Tim. Good energy at club– and here too.
‘If he was 30 minutes late, it’s because he was doing something important for the Arsenal. And the seagulls in the press can wait. Next time an hour.’
Smack a rubber mallet to their collective foreheads.
This is a bullet point for me:
‘Arsenal currently only take 0.4 shots from their throughballs, City take 0.8 shots off 2 throughballs per game. I think that’s because under the Emery system, he wanted Arsenal to make one more pass (across or back). Personally, I’d like us to be more direct and just take the shots.’
Put the ball on frame– and good things happen. Scoring is the prize– but if it becomes a carom or deflection– still a great second chance on offer. Imagine City score quite a few this way.
Freddie has some serious deprogramming to accomplish– before his ideals take hold. Small steps first.
“Put the ball on frame..”
Pukki’s first goal in a nutshell.
I thought Freddie’s presser was great. He showed he has a good awareness of what we are doing wrong on defense and will work to address it. I like that we are going to respect our opponents but we are going to focus on what we must do to win games and not focus on what we must do to stop our opponents. We want to be that Arsenal all once feared and not the Arsenal that would somehow beat ourselves. Freddie was also not taking any shite about some imaginary BS dress code. Freddie gives me the vibe that these reporters are going to have to step up their game if they think they are going to catch Freddie out with stupid or inane questions.
We all know who Freddie should play, how we should play, what formation he should use, who should be on the bench, who should come off the bench but I feel that Freddie will see what’s needed and will try to get it right starting with Brighton.
Ya’ know, there’s much to like about Teemu Pukki; opportunist.
7G/3A in 12 starts. He’s on €500k at age 29. If we did find ourselves without Auba or Laca next season? Pukki might be one to bring in to compliment a mostly youngish strike force.
Great post Tim.
It’s never been a secret that we struggle with slowing the fast transitions of our opponents. We have been talking about it for 2 1/2 seasons. I am not sure what Freddie can do to change that but here’s hoping he can find something.
I fully expect the team to go on a 10-12 game run of good form and climb back into 5th and may be even into contention for 4th. We have have had about 1/2 season of good results basically every season in this decade and we are certainly due for that run of good form. It probably would have happened at some point with Emery just like it did last year. A good run of results will make the decision on whether or not to give Freddie the full time job very difficult in a similar way that it did for ManU last season.
It would not have happened with Emery
Tim
I agree that Freddie has to “listen to the data”. No manager can ignore the stats. However I think the stats we talk about are often misleading. If rumors are true we used stats to identify players like Mustafi, xhaka, Elneny and Lucas Perez and in all 4 cases the stats were clearly misleading with regard to how effective those players would be. Lucas Perez was actually the 2nd leading chance creator in in 17/18 when he was on loan at Deportivo and that stat obviously hugely overestimated his ability and effectiveness. I have heard a lot of people use chances created or key pass stats to suggest that Mesut Ozil was still as good as ever which is clearly not the case. On paper Pepe is a world class superstar.
I think stats in our football are a lot more prone to being misinterpreted and misleading then other professional sports. Part of the reason has to be the fact that just like with ref calls the way stats are recorded is very subjective. What constitutes a chance created, key pass or a successful dribble can be different depending on who is recording the stat.