How Arsenal control games – An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective

How Arsenal control games

An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective

Control.

This is the buzzword at Arsenal this season.

Arsenal decided in the summer that after evaluating what went wrong last season, that they needed to shift style slightly. That they would be more patient when attacking in order to spend a greater amount of time in possession. The technical term is ‘resting in possession.’  The thought was that Arsenal spent too much time playing end to end basketball and ran their legs off before April. Also, that too many games got too exciting at the end and became so emotional that they sucked more energy out of the players.

We prefer to win Reiss stylee

We all remember the ‘Day of Reiss’ last season. A completely unnecessary golden memory. We would never take that back as when it’s all said and done, our fan experience is a scrapbook of memories. From the coaching staff’s perspective though, it was unnecessary, Why? Well, look at today’s game. Any game against AFCB should be 4-0, especially at home. As fan memories, we greatly prefer the Reiss game, but the staff don’t.

Arsenal are not only controlling games by slowing down attacks and resting in possession. They are trying to do another ‘Invincibles feat.’  They are trying to play games of football without mistakes. This would never be seen as an equal feat, but should be. It’s a given when you play any sport with movement that you will make mistakes. Coaches for as long as time have told teams, ‘don’t worry about making mistakes, because you’ll never play a game without some mistakes.’ That is normally directed at each individual player so reality multiplies the mistakes in a team sport.

Be like these guys

From my vantage point, the only way to play a game free of mistakes is to create such a well organized foundation. You may have heard the players say that Arteta tells them prior to the game what will actually happen in the game. We are so well organized and so well prepared that we are significantly shrinking the mistakes per game.

I think that this is also why we are so hard on individuals and sometimes the team when we do make mistakes. It shakes us because it hardly ever happens. When was the last time someone scored on Arsenal and you lost it because someone was out of position or lazy?

We are turning a little FIFA. I don’t play FIFA because I don’t want to get divorced, but Max does. My complaint has always been that the passing is unrealistic and almost without mistake. You could freeze frame an Arsenal game and point out what the player should do. Much harder on the field but Arsenal are becoming this team.

I am currently coaching Max’s soccer team in ‘playing with a TEAM filter.’  That every decision you make is in the best interests of your TEAM and not YOU. Arsenal conquered this a while ago. This severely limits mistakes. Arsenal almost never force the play. Others are impatient and after 5 hi-percentage passes, they send an unnecessary low percentage ball into a 2 v 5 area. Arsenal are so technically good that they not only play out from the back but use the full length and width of the pitch. Always a risk if you are prone to mistakes as it is hard to be compact defensively if you can’t keep the ball. We limit mistakes by taking this risk and playing hi-percentage passes. As they can’t cover the whole field we give our players personal space. Less mistakes if their defensive block can’t smother you or double team you.

We have the best press in the league to force mistakes. We are keenly aware that it’s mistakes that are responsible for way over 50% of all goals. Watch any goal compilation. You can always find someone who made a mistake that led to the goal or made it easier.

Football without mistakes isn’t necessarily the most fun for fans as we do love an end to end affair, but it sure is the best way to win.

Ask yourself why you think that Arsenal are going to win most of their games. It’s not just that we are good and have a good team and good squad. It’s because we play in a way that offers predictability in the lack of errors.

POSITIVES:

• Arteta is going to persist with Havertz. Even if he had a stinky performance v AFCB. Why? Well it’s not the price tag forcing him. It’s his profile. Arteta wanted his profile. A tall player that could join the attack and offer an aerial threat that nobody else offers. An aerial threat arriving from deep is harder to track than a static striker between centre backs. A player who is versatile (like the others) that can play striker and offer a transition pivot that can compete with centre backs. A player who has goals in him. A player with a strong work ethic that can press and force turnovers. What Havertz HAS done well is most of his list of ‘jobs’ given to him. What may happen now that he has had his breakout game is the full list. I wanted to add that his penalty technique is the best I’ve seen. I’m a fan of the pause. All modern keepers guess one way. The pause takes that advantage away from the keeper. The specific detail that makes his technique better is that he pauses earlier. This gives him more time to adjust his body to go whichever way he has to kick it. If you still aren’t a Havertz fan please understand that your opinion is likely not his reality. He is being asked to do much much more than assist and score. Judge him on his full profile because that’s what is actually happening.

• Whilst chatting about Kai, let’s give big credit to Odegaard for the decision he made. A little risk in it but the upside was far bigger than the risk. It sure didn’t look like AFCB were coming back at 2-0 and it sure looked like if he scored that this could have a huge impact on our season. Mostly because his success is driving the fan mood. The home crowd have been more subdued and less positive because he has been frustrating them.

• You can score 4 and lose. You can never lose if you don’t concede. Arsenal have had 5 clean sheets out of 9 games this season. Much better. Four clean sheets in a row away from home.

• Have you noticed Raya’s positioning when we have the ball in the back? He stands where Gabriel used to stand. Gabriel goes to left back and this spreads out their press. It adds an extra player so it becomes 7 v 4 rather than 6 v 4. If they try to show concern over White and Gabriel out wide then watch Rice shift his man to one side, leaving the first choice passing option to Zinchenko, wide open. We found him twice and started attacks from it.

• Flowers to Gabriel whose passing isn’t just improving but creating direct one on ones for attackers. Like many at Arsenal, he is getting better and better. Will be rather interesting if he sits down when Partey comes back because we have been better with him playing.

• AFCB coach complimented our duel winning ability. So nice to hear that after years of being called soft.

• I love any unpredictability that we can offer. Jesus is the most unpredictable and Partey offers a great disguised pass but Zinchenko has a trick too. He can completely deceive their entire block by moving their block to one side and then quickly changing direction and turning and sending the other way.

• It’s getting late here in TN and I’m fading. I’m watching the University of Tennessee beating South Carolina and only the loud shrill of Lori is keeping me from napping on my laptop. I’d normally look up this stat but I can’t be arsed because I want to go to bed so excuse me for not looking up how many penalties we’ve had this season. I just know that it’s becoming a regular thing. Last season i was worried about this because i felt with Jesus in particular, we had many opportunities to get tripped. It looks like our coaches have been working with them on how to coax defenders to challenge. Playing for penalty kicks has always been one of my strategies. An 80% chance to score. Can’t get many of those. Go outside the full back, cut his running lane off, slow down, hem runs you over, BINGO!

• Here is an interesting and important observation…. These days wingers are more often inverted than not. They frequently cut inside around the top of the box and look to bend one of those delicious curlers into the far corner. Rice is our denier in this situation. He positions himself in a position to support his full back and deny this even happening.

• Eddie is certainly trying. Last two games, maximum effort. Was fun to be reminded of his pace again. Nobody can deny his continual and gradual improvement, but like I keep saying, improvement is great but can he quickly get to the level we need as the fourth best team in Europe that is striving very very soon for number one. Oh, I wish I could draw. If I could I’d draw, I’d draw a picture of Eddie chasing an Arsenal badge that is running so fast that he is struggling to catch it. The badge is running after the Premier League and Champions League trophy which is running away. Would tell Eddie’s story.

• Kudos to the medical team for reviving almost our entire injury list. Either that or Arteta is a stone faced liar.

• Oh, I would trade my left eyebrow to go to an Arsenal away game. The support has to be the best in the league. From one player song to the next. Sounds like an actual party. For any of you that go, thank you for providing this atmosphere. Also, if you ever want to bless me with a ticket then pop it in an envelope addressed to… Mike, only British guy in the Smokey Mountains, USA. Everybody knows me, even the bears.

• There were far better box movements today. Eddie in the six yard box, Nelson wide open for cut backs. ESR combing and crashing the box. Saka getting in front of his marker to score. Arsenal is a place of constant improvement. That’s our lovely reality.

NEEDS:

• Let’s focus on a game that did not involve Arsenal because we were almost faultless. Here he is….

His name is Darren England. He was on VAR at the Toilet bowl. And as you will know, he literally wasn’t watching the game when this very obvious non-offside ocured.

Ok. Where do you start with this? Let’s start with the fact that history has deducted points for teams that cheat. Never refs though.  Well let me be the prosecutor for a minute. Darren ‘should be sling shot out of’ England has suspicious previous on VAR. He was the same chap that made an obvious VAR call the wrong way at the Emirates

Two huge errors in a job where you are not rushed and have way too much evidence and simply cannot be excused for error. I encourage you to watch the highlights of the worst refereed game in the Premier League last season. The one that if you were making a corruption case, this would be your main piece of evidence. It was Spurs v Brighton. There were six obvious errors. Where was Mr England that day. Well, I wonder?? And it was another game that fell in favor of Spurs. Hmmmmmm??? He was also having a second nap yesterday when Udogie waved the imaginary yellow card at the ref whilst on a yellow card already. Everyone is getting yellow cards for that. This is getting even more suspicious. Read this…..

Firstly, they need to release the audio and video from the VAR room so we can hear Darren eating his Muma’s leftovers and trying to communicate with half a meatball sub in his gob. Then we should quickly install the offside tech that they had in the World Cup. PGMOL didn’t want it. Why? Then what should happen is that he should be fired. Why so harsh? Because sometimes an organization has to find a scapegoat in order to make a point to the rest of the useless staff. What will likely happen is an apology (again) that Liverpool stick two fingers up to.  Then Saudi Arabia will offer Darren and his mates way too much money and they’ll get a promotion. Before that happens, you will probably see a Boris Johnson special. A distraction. The PGMOL will get all upset at the fact that our set piece coach has had two yellow cards this season. They’ll call Richard ‘I know nothing about modern football so I exclusively talk about fantasy drama’ Keyes and ask him to rant endlessly for at least a month about how the big problem in football is protecting the poor refs from the evil set piece coach’s like Jover. If you fancy getting more enraged at the ref crew from this game go watch Jota’s first yellow card which led to a red. This story is far from over. I just hope for Darren’s sake that Darren doesn’t live on Merseyside. Oh, I forgot…. all the non-biased PGMOL boys live in Manchester. That’s not suspicious. Before we move on, you’ll be interested to read a copy of the email that the PGMOL have written to Liverpool F.C…..

HOPES:

I was chatting today with my friend, Bobby McMahon. Those of you who live in North America will remember Bobby as the best pundit that we’ve had on this continent. He had a really good idea that I think football should look at. We would both love to know what you think in the comments below.

FINAL THOUGHT:

I’ve had a mixed weekend. Arsenal made me happy. Wolves made me happier because it was unexpected. Max had to put up with ‘Tri-City Tim’ for the first time. A ref so bad that teams don’t travel to that area of Tennessee because it’s pointless. ‘Tri City Tim’ is notorious for two reasons. He walks in a vertical line up and down the field, periodically jogging (for effect), but never veering to the sides where his accountability lies in the form of coaches and with parents on the other side. Never has a ref been such a ‘homer’ as they say here. Guaranteed to give your opponent a PK, deny at least 10 obvious fouls against you and then attempt to explain himself to you from 50 yards away because only the invisible vertical line that runs down the centre of the field is his area of movement and the rest is lava. It’s legitimately hilarious watching a 13 year old boy trying to ask the ref why he made such an awful decision that happened by the corner flag whilst he is 35 yards away minimum in his safe zone. The devil on my shoulder has always wanted to insult Tri-City Tim to the point where he would have no choice but to tip toe across the lava to send me out of the complex. He wouldn’t though. He’d show me the card from the centre circle with me asking him to come closer as ‘I can’t see what’s in your hand.’ I really hope that he is an Arsenal fan and that he reads this.

As if that wasn’t enough the ref in the final did something more egregious. We were 1-4 down with 5 minutes to go. We came back. 2-4. 3-4 and then with 30 seconds left we had a free kick on the half way line. Everybody went forward. Miguel launched a good looking ball into the box and whilst the ball was in the air he blew his whistle. Game over. You read that right. I went to ask him why he didn’t let they play finish and he said that he blew for full time because of bickering. I can only imagine that our hilarious left back was annoying him on the field in the second half. He spends a good portion of the game telling the ref how he loves chicken nuggets and I think he’d had enough and wanted to go home. Half of the boys were crying at the end and another third were asking what ‘bickering’ was whilst the remainder were asking our left back if he had overdone the chicken nugget thing.

Well, this blog has it all this week. It should win this year at ‘The Variety Awards.’  If it doesn’t I’m going to throw a fit and undoubtedly i will start bickering.

The weekend isn’t over yet. Max has just turned on the game for the blood pressure. Zoom in. 

Mike McDonald

Former Highbury regular. Moved to TN, USA in ’99. Married with 3 kids. Coached in UK and US for 27 years.
Mike McDonald Soccer Academy in Morristown TN, Olympic Development coach, Regional Premier League Champion.