I have never seen so much debate over line-ups since Saliba got injured. People bending over backwards trying to reinvent the wheel with never tried formations just to keep Holding out of the defence.
Even though Arteta has priors with Xhaka at LB (it’s back ladies and gentlemen), I was pleased that he didn’t fall for that pressure and instead trusted Holding to do that job. But unfortunately Mikel has overthought the situation in my opinion and what is required to compensate for the qualities the young frenchman brings to the team.
No matter the formation, my overriding belief is that players should play in their natural positions or zones with their natural assignements.
At Anfield we saw Kiwior being brought on to be a false CB of sorts, being all over the pitch at various stages of that 17 minute cameo. We saw a formation switch to 532 with Saka in midfield, Martinelli in attack. I presume these decisions were made to get more control. We lacked the ball retention and passing that Saliba brings so we didn’t trust our ability to manage control without changing it completely. Fair to say it didn’t work.
What should we have done at Anfield instead? Well for one Liverpool didn’t have a shot on target between minute 60-80 so I’m not sure we really needed to do anything at all. Maybe Tierney for Zinchenko earlier to be more reserved at fullback, but that was all that was really needed. And if Arteta did think we needed to defend low it would have been much better to just keep our normal defensive shape with more natural defenders in the line-up.
Against West Ham we saw Gabriel Jesus playing the false nine role to the max, coming all the way down to the zones Partey and Tierney occupied trying to compensate for the loss of Zinchenko. We also saw Jorginho being introduced for Partey and Trossard replacing the influential number 9. And later Xhaka at LB to make room for Vieira to come into midfield. It’s all a bit cute for my liking.
If it’s ball retention and control were after, and we don’t trust Tierney to give us that when he inverts, why not just play the best passer we have outside of the Ukrainian wizard?
Or
The argument that we shouldn’t go to a double pivot because it changes how we play is kind of a moot point when we already are changing how we play when Jesus stops playing as a forward. Both the Jorginho option in a pivot and the Trossard option in our usual shape would give us Zinny’s qualities in midfield. Hell you could even go one step further with both.
I don’t like it when we change players natural assignments to cover for the loss of another player. If we are more vulnerable with Holding and we have lower quality in build-up with Tierney why not go double pivot with elite possession players in midfield? I don’t get it. Is it just to have Xhaka in the 11?
I hope Arteta learns something after these two games. In my opinion we can’t keep being this cute or overthinking this injury situation. We have good enough players available to play our way in their best positions and zones.
Hello! Im a 39 year old family man from Sweden, born in Gothenburg, living in Stockholm. Why Arsenal? I was 11 years old and didnt have a PL team yet, but was a big fan of the Dutch national team with Dennis Bergkamp up front. So when he joined us in 95’ it was a easy choice which team I wanted to support. It only felt better when success quickly followed and Freddie Ljungberg came in. My first and only live game was the Palace game at the Emirates when Giroud scored that scorpion kick goal. My biggest regret will forever be that I never got to visit Highbury. Most of my friends through life have been Man Utd or Liverpool fans but I have always been proud to be a Arsenal supporter. We are more than a club, with values I live by, and watching this Arteta revolution fills me with great joy. This beautiful club deserves to be at the top. Lets talk Arsenal!
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