This season I have started tracking matches in a little book. Filling the lines with handwritten notes on an Arsenal season, match by match. The experience of writing helps with memory, or at least it’s supposed to because it doesn’t seem to be working for me very well. But it does provide a handy reference for me when I’m writing these posts.
The notebook also helps with looking at the bigger picture of Arsenal this season and of how we are or are not progressing and also allows me to jot down any tactical oddities I notice in a match. For example, in the first four matches this season we have seen the opener against Fulham, which I titled “open/fun”, West Ham was “packed in”, Leicester “Scrappy-Doo”, and yesterday “Impossible.”
And it was an impossible task to beat the world champions at home when they are in their best form. To come to Anfield and make some tactical errors from the start and have the referees cowed into silence over some pretty huge and obvious calls didn’t help either.
To the former there were a lot of complaints about the Arsenal starting lineup specifically about Holding, David Luiz, and Elneny. And the exegesis over Elneny in midfield and David Luiz in the back has continued to today.
Tony Adams has savaged David Luiz over his performance yesterday which was hugely unfair and makes me wonder if he watched the game. Liverpool scored three goals yesterday.
The first, Mane slipping in behind Bellerin to poke in the easiest goal of his career, was scored because both of the Arsenal fullbacks were rinsed. Tierney was utterly eviscerated by Salah who took a good shot from very close range. Leno did ok to save but parried the ball right to Mane who was left completely unmarked by Bellerin.
Their second goal was scored because Willian didn’t even remotely cover his marker. He had one job on defense: try to contain Andy Robertson or at least follow him when he made runs into the 6 yard box. He did neither and Robertson scored another of the easiest goals you will see all year of a perfectly placed Trent Alexander-Arnold pass.
For the third goal it would be incredibly harsh to blame David Luiz. Again Alexander-Arnold was left unmarked and again he put in a dangerous cross. David Luiz headed the ball away but only to Diogo Jota who very clearly handled the ball and scored.
David Luiz was virtually Arsenal’s only progressive passer with 412 yards progressive passing. He also led the team in final third passes with 4 and passes in the penalty area with 1. He was also the most-pressed player, making 14 passes out of pressure as Liverpool pressed Arsenal high up the pitch to force errors and make Arsenal play in small spaces, which they can’t do very well. To illustrate Liverpool’s high press: they had a total of 139 pressures yesterday, 74 in Arsenal’s defensive third. Arsenal made 184 pressures, just 26 up top.
David Luiz wasn’t the problem. The problem was Arsenal’s turgid midfield. Granit Xhaka is often criticized and I don’t want to get drawn into a debate about this player. There’s no point in it: sides have been drawn and no amount of data, logic, or facts will ever change their minds. I also don’t want to savage Mo Elneny. There’s no point in that either because I think we all clearly see his limitations. But what isn’t really debatable is that Arteta got this starting lineup selection completely and utterly wrong both from a technical and tactical standpoint.
Technically Xhaka and Elneny combined to progress the ball a mere 114 yards. That’s total progressive passing, folks. Elneny made 560 yards of passes, 58 of them progressive. That’s so god awful you might be tempted to think that Arteta played him intentionally to send a message to the board: “I NEED A MIDFIELDER FFS”. And defensively they combined for just 2 tackles, 20 pressures and 5 pressure regains, 3 blocked passes, and 2 interceptions. If the idea was to play two MFers who could soak up pressure and make quick progressive passes between the lines to the forwards the idea was about as bad as it gets.
Just to illustrate how awful that midfield was, Dani Ceballos played just 31 minutes and did all the same defensive work that those two turgid lumps did plus made 107 yards of progressive passes, 2 passes into the final third, 1 key pass, 1 throughball (like key passes he made more but they were offside), and got a yellow card for showing some actual fight. People complaining about Jorginho at Arsenal need to sit down with themselves for a bit and recognize that this player would never have a match that was so bereft of forward passing: in his worst outing this season, Jorginho passed the ball forward just 98 yards. IN ELEVEN MINUTES. Against Liverpool in July, when Chelsea lost 5-3, he made 257 progressive yards passing, attempted 32 pressures, won 2/4 dribble tackles, made 9 final third passes, had a key pass, made 2 interceptions, carried the ball 91 yards forward, and had 13 ball recoveries. You can dislike him if you want, you can prefer that Arsenal sign Aouar (Partey isn’t coming to Arsenal) if you want, but the absolute ball-busting fact is that he would be a huge upgrade on every single MFer at Arsenal.
But worse than the lack of technical quality – the problem with Xhaka is that he can’t play in tight spaces because he typically needs three touches to control and the problem with Elneny is that he’s unable to pass forward – was the rather bizarre tactical display in the first half. Time and again Xhaka was high upfield chasing after Fabinho. Elneny was also playing too high and the back three/four/five were playing too deep. This left acres of space for the Liverpool forwards to receive, turn, and attack which they did time and again. Here’s one screen grab I was able to pull off – the Peniscock app doesn’t allow me to pause or I would have gotten the one where all three of the Liverpool attackers were open.
The above was a moment when Elneny moved up to sort of pressure Mane (but not really) which just allowed Mane to make an easy pass to Firmino who turned and attacked. This moment turned into a barrage of shots for Liverpool as they then applied pressure to win the ball back.
And also look at what they are doing here against the Arsenal back three. By running wide they are nullifying any effect David Luiz can have on the game: if he goes to pressure Firmino it’s a low percentage gamble which potentially opens the middle of the 18 yard box for an easy goal; if he just runs straight back he’s not doing anything to stop the ball. This is a huge mess and it happened multiple times in that first half.
The second half was better and especially after Arteta brought on Ceballos (see above). Lacazette had two really good chances (one was offside) and was upset that he missed the second which would have equalized. That would have been against the run of play as they like to say but at this point you have to take what you can get. Still I can’t be too upset with Lacazette: he’s scored a goal in every match this season off of an extremely small number of chances. Aubameyang is saved from criticism in most quarters but he also passed up a couple chances that I would have rather he tried. Auba only has 4 shots this season and that’s a problem which Arsenal absolutely need to address in the transfer market this week. Willian was brought in to get the team more shots but he can’t do that if he’s not getting the ball and as we have been saying here for about three years now, Arsenal’s midfield is nowhere near the quality needed to compete at the highest level in the Premier League.
The reality is that this was the result that I expected. Arsenal can’t go to Anfield, against the best team in the world, and expect to get a win – even though Arteta said after the match that that’s exactly what the team did! Not only that but to get anything out of the match, Arsenal needed to be inch perfect defensively and get their team selections and tactics exactly right from the start, which they didn’t do. I’m actually quite surprised none of the reporters asked Arteta why he didn’t start Ceballos (or if they did why it’s not in the transcript).
We also have to say that the referees were atrocious. They failed to give Mane a red card for an absolutely blatant elbow and allowed Jota to score off a stonewall handball.
I suspect that Steve Bruce, Jamie Carragher, and all of the pundits moaning like a drain about handball and VAR caused the PGMOL to rein in their referees: telling them to swallow their whistles, not call as many handballs, or something. Because if that above had happened three day ago, that goal would have been (RIGHTLY) chalked off.
The red card for Mane would have made a huge difference but the handball probably not. Still, even though the refs were bad, that Arteta got the tactics wrong, and that Arsenal sucked, I’m not even remotely disappointed in the final score.
However, I am expecting a lot better from Arsenal on Thursday. I expect that Arteta will see the tactical problems he caused himself with the lineup and with the way that we were too spread out in defense and that he will correct those things. I don’t actually expect Ceballos to start – I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts all kids – because I would think he wants Ceballos on Sunday. But all together I want to see a much better performance. We should know what to expect, be ready for it, and have a plan to counter them. If not, the result will be the same.
Good one Tim. Thanks. I wasn’t all surprised to see Elneny start but his performance, along with Xhaka was poor on the eye as you mentioned and the stats backed it up.
I thought the boys initially did a decent job of keeping things compact without the ball, but they eventually allowed space to develop between the lines and it all unraveled. The still you picked of the giant space in between our lines was the exact moment in real time that I realized we were very much done.
That said, it was nice to see the team come out swinging in the second half. They may have been completely outclassed, but they didn’t roll over.
We need reinforcements and we need Arteta to continue to adapt and evolve.
Sorry for the double post, but I forgot to mention how shocked I was at Elneny’s reluctance to move the ball forward quickly. He did this very well against Fulham (at least in my eyes), so maybe it was a combination of Liverpool’s quality and tactics as well as Elneny’s fear of these things?
feel free to double, triple, quad post as long as they are all different ideas!
I have to agree neither Xhaka nor Elneny were in the least bit creative or attacking, but it’s highly possible that that is how Arteta wanted them to play, in this instance. I think we might need to cut them some slack on this one. Some aspects of their game weren’t that bad in my view. Xhaka looks slimmer and more athletic to me. He moves around the pitch more quickly, whereas he was always a bit of a “stroller”. He’s stopped ball watching, which is a massive plus and he’s not continually looking for the “Hollywood” pass. Again that might be the manager’s instruction. I also have to say his temperament has improved. Far more calm and considered.
Elneny? I can see improvements in his game as well, particularly in the defensive third, where his positioning and involvement is a whole lot better. The simple fact is that he is not an attacking player, so perhaps we shouldn’t judge him as such. In Arteta’s mind this was a one off game against opponents who almost always turn us over at their place. He said as much in the build up. We all want attacking football, of course, but sometimes you’re forced to just “dig in”.
Sometimes it’s a pleasure just to watch the opposition. The way they smother and suffocate. We didn’t stand a chance. On a positive note we’re three games in with six points. Carry that form and we’ll have had a great season.
Last night we were poor – personnel and tactically. We all know Xhaka and Elneny aren’t the answer. But playing them so deep as a pair against an opposition three with just Auba as a sprinter was hardly going to trouble ‘Pool. Reminded me of Mourinho tactics.
Big week for the club. We need a Fernandes type signing. The league looks very competitive – Everton, Leicester and Leeds for example look polished and hungry. Our underlying stats, particularly shots for and against aren’t great. Arteta has got his work cut out to make us more dynamic.
What makes you say Partey is off so definitely when Torreira seems to be gonig there?
Zero bids. Zero movement. Zero conversation.
Was it a tactical positioning problem that allowed Trent and Salah to bring down the cross field balls consistently without challenge? Of course, the quality of some of the balls from VVD was a delight to watch. I had very little expectation out of this match. It allowed me to enjoy some of things the opposition did a little better.
Yes, because they had way too much space. Also note that we basically almost never closed down on TAA which was just really bad tactics because he’s basically their Ozil.
Watching late 1stH yesterday while my better half was gaming on a tablet. Grumbling aloud while silently hoping for the best. She hears me griping about Arteta having gone against his own grain. Coy in asking his XI to play a fashion they hadn’t previously– with different personnel. Refusing to change tactically– when Klopp had started the match at an advantage, neatly negating Arteta’s plan by pressing with an extra MFer up front.
After Lacazette scored? Go to a back 5 and bring Laca deeper to connect with Xhaka and Mo. Outlet from the middle and counter down the flanks. It accidentally worked like that a couple of times.
When they started the 2ndH with no changes– ten minutes in I got up and snapped something like ‘I can’t watch this– he’s just got it wrong;’ or other and headed for the kitchen. Ceballos arrival sparked some hope again– and I thought ‘maybe’? But there was just no Plan B in the offing.
Not too upset after all was done. Realizing, this is but an above average team– made to play above it’s cumulative abilities, by a charismatic first-year manager. One who– for the first time in months– didn’t have the answer. Or– pull a rabbit from a top-hat.
Arsenal’s effort was great. Nearly matching Pool for the intensity required.
Mikel needs more talent. By Monday preferably.
Hi
I’m also of the opinion (said as much in a FB group after the game) that Arteta played those 2 in MF to show a point to the board. We definitely need an upgrade.
I don’t see why he didn’t start Ceb from the off.
And I’m disgusted by those condoning Mane’s elbow as accidental. As if red cards are only given when things like that happen on purpose.
We played the game with the sole intention of containing them and then perhaps catching them on the break, with a bit of luck. Arteta set his team up specifically with that in mind, hence the selection. Unfortunately, we failed to do either. Salah completely skinned Tierney for the first goal and Willian should be taken outside and shot for the way he failed to track back with Robertson for the second. At the other end, Laca had two opportunities to put the ball away against Allison and looked to me to choke on both occasions. Oh, to have Jamie Vardy in that situation! When he runs through on goal, he “expects” to score. You can tell just by watching him. If someone came in with big money, I’d sell Lacazette tomorrow. A real shame Martinelli got injured, he’d be perfect. Incidentally, theres a kid in the youth team called Balogun. He really is hot stuff, but can’t agree on a new contract, apparently.
I’d add what did we learn from the game? I get that Saliba might not be ready but why not start Gabriel who is renowned for his passing and has looked solid so far? Likewise why not start your slickest passer who can operate against a tight press? And then at the business end surely Eddie’s movement would have posed more of a threat than Laca? Saka? Pepe? Never mind what are the plans for Willock and Smith-Rowe. More questions than answers at present.
Hi Timothy, I’m a bit confused here. In your previous post you state:
Except for the above offences, it is not an offence if the ball touches a player’s hand/arm:
directly from the player’s own head or body (including the foot)
Having read it and when watching the match I assumed that rightly it was not given as a handball. Are you saying it should be a handball because he directly scores the goal?
no it’s handball because he puts his arm out away from his body and intentionally controls the ball.
Which only goes to show how ridiculous the handball law is at present. I’m already as confused as Mr Tired. As I said in the previous thread, when you jump for the ball on the pitch, you have to put your arms in an “unnatural position” “away from your body”. It’s simple body mechanics. There is literally no other way of getting off the floor. With 3 or 4 players all jumping at once, is it any wonder the ball hits an arm, completely accidentally? Makes me wonder if refs and rule makers have ever actually played the game. I think I’ve answered my own question. Football has to be a simple game. That’s its appeal.
We all know that Arsenal Midfield collapsed since santi got injured and then left.
Arteta claims he is forced to play the way he does because of the quality of players he has. This is true but why the heck Torreira isn’t playing is a big surprise to me.
Torreira’s a gonner, and I’m assuming Arteta thinks he can get by with Xhaka, Elneny Ceballos and Willock as options until we (hopefully) invest in that area before deadline day.
Is anyone else tempted to read WAY too much into the xhaka sub? I was expecting elneny to come off, as I’m sure most were. Will it demarcate a new post-granit era? Or does any Xhaka sub just seem like a bigger deal than it is because of what happened last season? I was initially tempted to see it on the same light as Willock coming on for Ozil in the EL final but I think that’s just looking for drama where there’s none. Still, it could well mark a new phase in his Arsenal career where he’s no longer an automatic starter.
Peniscock! Ha!
bottom line, it matters little what arteta did yesterday or who he played. liverpool were absolutely sensational yesterday. everyone was in top form hitting all of their passes and the timing of their off-ball movements was peerless. arsenal did well to come away with a 3-1 loss.
i could get into the tactical weeds but i won’t. i do want to address the complaints against the midfield. i’m no fan of either player but when they’ve only got two center mids against 3 for liverpool, they’re gonna have a long day. the reality is our front three often had no support so midfield tried to push up a little bit. with that, if there’s a player in that gap between the midfield and defense as is depicted in the image above and arsenal have 3 on the back line, one of those central defenders has to push up and deny the entry pass to that player…and that has a multitude of strategic holes.
ultimately, this is the weakness of the 3-4-3; arsenal either have no one to support the attack, they have no ball winner, they have no one to progress the ball, or they have no one to screen the defense. it’s too much for two players to do the job of 3. add to that, liverpool executed at a world class level yesterday. on another day, arsenal could have easily lost that game 6-0. i’ll take the 3-1 on the chin and keep it moving.
The movement of their midfield,mane and firmino was crazy.salah stayed back most times to keep Tierney busy.liverpool were at their best which is a big show of respect from them to artetas arsenal.tho limited our midfield stood no chance.even with ceballos on they still pumped arsenal till they scored.i thot arteta would have brought in ceballos to compliment the two midfielders.
I’m sorry to hijack these comments, but Impossible very well could describe the future of our country if trump is re-elected. Holy crap, did you watch the “debate” tonight? I’m truly fearful for what may happen if that racist criminal remains in charge.
Mane absolutely should have seen red. I’ll bet we go back to seeing handballs this weekend. Oh well, the life of an Arsenal fan.
Yeah, I did watch the “debate” (I use that term loosely). More like two senior citizens mud wrestling. Toe curlingly embarrassing. No idea who the “Proud Boys” are, but my guess is they are not part of the Boy Scout movement. Only goes to confirm what we already knew in that Donald is an out and out white supremacist. I’m amazed he doesn’t have one of those pointy hoods with the eye holes. Interestingly, he’s tried to row back on his comments today. He’s now saying he doesn’t know who the Proud Boys are. Pathetic. He’s like a big kid telling fibs. And yet millions of people vote for him. Incredible, eh? Has he put something in the water?
I can understand why ceballos was benched for Elneny.
Xhaka is very one footed,he is a liability on the right. Easy pressing trigger for Liverpool.
Ceballos doesn’t have the discipline to stick to the right. He is a bit of a roamer and often drifts laterally,to the left.
If he drifts to the left,xhaka naturally has to go to the right.
He will lose the ball in his own half there under Liverpool’s pressure.
Elneny has the discipline to stick to the right.
As for getting tactics wrong, you can’t change basic principles of play every game to suit the opponent.
Will disturb long term cohesiveness.
Happened with Emery.
Arteta likes his team to build from the back and press high to win the ball back.
He does adapt to the opposition and the players he has but he is not going to change his principles of play.
It is important that the team slowly perfects one system now.
About Tierney 1v1 with Salah.
Well if the defence line was higher and Nketiah played instead of laca, it would have been harder for VVD to play those balls to Salah with pin point accuracy under Nketiah’s pressure.
Salah would have to receive the ball deeper and xhaka/AMN could get back since the space to cover is smaller.
Not playing Nketiah was a mistake. He is 10x the athlete that laca is.
The biggest issue is that defence line dropped too deep.
Holding and Luiz naturally like to retreat into the box.
It is the main reason arsenal conceded so many shots under Emery.
Arteta has tried to correct this but players give into this tendency against fast attackers.
We need a leader in defence who can keep the defence line high under pressure, keeping the structure compact.
If we could have kept the defence line high,the match would have been much harder for Liverpool.
But they were superb.
Klopp seems to have a lot of respect for Arteta,he got his team to press us at much higher intensity than against most teams, probably because we scored against his press in the community shield.
Excellent post and discussion. This is the best place for intelligent analysis of the Arsenal. Agree 100% with leftfootcurler.
[Sigh.] I reckon the filter gods look askance at Peni*sc*ck refences…
We always seem to draw Liverpool in the League Cup. Will Klopp go with his 4-3-3 or experiment? They’ve got Aston Villa away next so I don’t think he’ll be thinking too much ahead. The big one is Merseyside derby after that with a resurgent Everton under The Man With Arched Eyebrows. If we start with some strong, young players (Saka, Nketiah) we could give them a challenge with some aggressive pressing but our midfield will have to be miles better.
A quick heads up. Arsene Wenger will be on the Graham Norton Show in a couple of weeks, presumably to plug his new book. Samuel L Jackson is also one of the guests, which might be quite interesting. I’m mentioning this because you can watch the Graham Norton Show on BBC America. Might be a delay, however.