Something’s wrong, but something’s right (Positives Needs & Hopes) [BRE 0-1 ARS]

Something’s wrong, but something’s right

An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective 

Admission time.  I have a big one. An admission, I mean.

I have an excuse for this. I was about 7, I think. I hope anyway.

My memory is that I preferred watching ice dancing to football when I was young. My admission didn’t extend to hustling up Deans Furlong after school to get my skates. To be fair the only ice in Tring was the 100 cubes that I swear the town pubs shared.

I don’t think I liked it because I preferred the sport. I think it was as simple as the fact that I liked that Torvill and Dean got credit for ‘artistic something or other.’ In my seven year old mind that seemed fair and fair is important to a seven year old. It was like they were being rewarded for style. As a fan that is absolutely one of the reasons we choose a sport and make the effort to go to the event or turn the TV on. As a creative-leaning chap, I suppose I appreciated the style more than the score. Maybe that’s normal for a kid.

I watch Arsenal this season and although we aren’t as ‘fun’ to watch, I see so much that is artistically impressive. Starting with the JDP style that Arteta has put in place which has given us the most solid of foundations. The balance of elegance and strength in our defensive game. The press resistance of almost all of our players. The impressive patience in our play especially the reluctance to play any low percentage passes.

Part way through the game it occurred to me that over the years of playing Brentford, that what I was watching was significantly more dominant than previous fixtures. This was supposed to be one of those ‘tricky fixtures’ yet it didn’t seem tricky at all.

Yet we were once more creating a medium-sized bucketload of half chances but hardly any clear cut.

It was the 75th minute when I made this observation and it was 0-0, and although I wouldn’t have been surprised if we scored, it didn’t look inevitable. However the rest of the performance was inevitable.

So, what was the issue?

It was that Arsenal have a rather large table that sits in the opponent’s penalty area with arrows with post-it notes attached to each one. They are notes recording the times when Arsenal could’ve created a clear cut chance if only we had a physical aerial threat in the box.

One of the reasons that Brentford played for a draw at home, where in previous years they wouldn’t have, is replicated throughout the league now. Teams have so much respect for us that they back off. My concern is that we will throw the opportunity to win the Premier League away because there are going to be many days where our patient high percentage passing game is not going to cut it and of the 38 games in the season, I would imagine that at least 30 of them will be against a low block. The modern day coaching manual says that to penetrate this defensive tactic you must be willing to use the aerial route. It’s important that you understand that I’m not suggesting that this option should be our first choice starting striker. We are doing well in the league with what we have but I think that it is obvious that we simply need this as a plan B if plan A just isn’t working. I’ve been suggesting Giroud on loan/short term deal as the Plan B he should’ve arguably been when he was at Arsenal before.

What is interesting is that I’m sitting here writing this whilst watching the Sunday games. It’s an hour into the Manchester United game and somehow they are winning 2-0. I’m reminded of how on earth Manchester United will likely finish the day six points behind Arsenal when the club seems like they are in disarray. Reminded that there are no style points and clearly Manchester United, who have no particular style whatsoever, have somehow been finding ways to scramble multiple underserved victories.

I’m also reminded that having watched Spurs that their artistic value has tripled yet they lost a game that had none of the control that Arteta has preferred this season and looked exhausted having got no points.

Now that I’m undoubtedly an adult, I don’t want credit for the artistic and even if I did, it would never happen.

Efficiency is king as we see in the short career of Haaland. If he was an ice dancer, which he actually looks like, he might get a couple of bronze medals in his career at best but as a footballer he is without doubt one of the worlds best, if not the best.

If Arsenal want to remove that awkward table from the penalty area they need to add this level of efficiency as an option. Of that, I am convinced.

But we won 1-0 you say. Why so negative?

Well, I don’t think this is negative. Just realistic.

But we are top of the league and the story was perfect. 1-0 and a late winner from the one player who needed a 1-0 late winner moment. And that is also the truth and the reality.

Is it better then that the reality of Arsenal F.C. in the last 2 years is that we are the consistently improving team and if that’s true then we have maybe a better chance than last season of winning the Premier League? We might do that with Havertz now becoming what Arteta likely visioned. As we need another midfielder, defender and backup winger then this would be the perfect scenario. Either way, I think that the chase for the league will be unnecessarily difficult unless we remove the table and start creating more clearcut opportunities.

No complaints though. Just a little fear.

Arsenal certainly need to fix this issue but all the teams would say that our problem is a first world problem. Still doing something right, though. Very right. No football team will ever have the perfect situation and so we sit here feeling and probably acting a little spoilt and I’m ok with that too. I have learnt that to win the Premier league you have no choice.

You have to be spoilt or City will win.

POSITIVES: 

+ Why is Rice so consistently good? Well, it is positioning but it starts with humility.

He wants to learn and is willing to believe that he isn’t the finished product.

Positioning is one of the last aspects of the game that a footballer learns. Where to stand. Where to be. He has paid attention to his coaches in the sessions that many think are boring. A perfect example was his game saving goal line clearance in the first half. Not only did he put himself in that position to help but he stood in exactly the right spot. Ramsdale had the other side of the goal covered and so he was smart enough to stand near the post.

He must know that he can be one of the best at his job if he can simply learn where to be and when. Add this skill to his natural football ability and superior athleticism then this is your product and he is the answer.

Not only could he take us to the very top but I’m sure that his success has persuaded the owners to spend big again. Very important after the signing of Pepe.

+ I’m here to start the ‘Zinchenko is a very good defender’ club. He is criticized mostly by people that see the game in a simple way. He is a risk taker so he makes us nervous. He isn’t fast so he makes us nervous. He makes one mistake per game unless you sub him before the 75th minute so I understand that part.

On the other hand he is highly intelligent, brave, outstanding in the air, press resistant, technically perfect, determined, has great positioning and timing of tackles. If you were to record ALL of the qualities of a modern defender you might see that he is actually one of the best. Don’t let your nerves dictate your opinion and don’t ignore a player who you subconsciously expect to be elite. It’s not easy to be as good as he is.

+ The winning pass by Saka needs to be repeated. It needs to be done soon, also. Havertz will have confidence and will want that pass now rather than worrying about it as he was before. The other reason is if the opponents expect us to swing it to the back post, then they will start sending more defenders back there, which opens up the middle for somebody else.

This is an image of Brentford’s block as Saka crossed the ball to Havertz.

The ball to the back post bypasses all of them, which makes it a more intelligent location than most.

I’d say that the rule is if you have a player with good movement then cross it to the front post as he will get there first. If he is tall and aggressive, then cross it between the two center backs. If you don’t have either then cross it to the back post.

Also, and credit to Rohan here, this is a very good point…

+ Well done to Ramsdale. His mistakes were big but probably fair enough due to rustiness. Also, his indecision was likely birthed by his desire to impress. I’d say it was too late for that anyway. I was simply impressed with his bounce back ability. He had a tough situation and showed his character by shaking off emotions and recovering his game.

When I listen to him and see his eyes he looks heartbroken.  I’m not mad with Arteta but I see a keeper who loves playing for Arsenal and knows it’s likely over.

+ Arsenal have kept the most clean sheets away from home in the Premier League since the start of last season

14 Arsenal

8 Man Utd, Man City, Fulham

7 Brentford, Palace

There is much to say about this, but this post is already too long, so I’ll just mention that clean sheets away from home are one of the hardest things to do in football and so this stat is worthy.

+ It was good to see us create something positive from a throw in. It has taken Jover a while to figure out how to do this, but I appreciate that we created a goalscoring opportunity by putting Martinelli behind their defenders.

+ Saka’s form mirrors Arsenal’s. Not near his best but still highly effective. See here…

Bukayo Saka is the only player to have created 50+ chances, completed 50+ take-ons, scored 10+ goals and provided 10+ assists in the Premier League in 2023.

+ Not sure that this is a positive, but it is noticeable that we are using Martinelli more than Saka. I wonder if that is fatigue based or simply, and more likely, a reaction to us not wanting to be predictable. Neither of them were close to their best, but as with all elite players you leave them on the field because football normally comes down to moments as Saka showed us. Impressive.

+ One of the latest, modern attacking tactics is hard to execute but highly effective if you can. You might remember Eddie‘s first goal in his hat-trick. Rice sent a cross in front of the first layer of defenders and Eddie‘s first touch created a tap in. Zinchenko was doing this against Brentford and the players have obviously practiced stopping their run to allow the defenders to drop to the 6 yard box so that they get the first touch.

+ Those two chaps at the back that stand like impenetrable nightclub bouncers were yet again faultless. Most clubs have two big chaps in the same position but they have too many flaws. Much like trusting the guys sent to kill James Bond who pause for 3 seconds before shooting him and find themselves on the floor. If you take away Ramsdale’s two mistakes, then I’m not sure that these two in particular let Brentford have anything. That is becoming somewhat of a regular thing.

They are both warming back up to being an absolute menace on set plays too.

+ Talking of James Bond have you noticed that Arsenal have 3 players that look like the stereotypical bad guys. There is always two and sometimes a third that just refuses to die.

There is the first bad guy who ends up dying in the first 45 minutes. That would be Jakob Kiwior.

We are made to think that he is the main bad guy but you also know about 10 seconds before James kills him that the movie isn’t 45 minutes long and that it’s actually a smaller, diminutive chap with dark deep set eyes who sits in a chair and a half with a parrot on his shoulder or a fluffy cat on his lap plotting how to take over the left 8 position that is actually the main bad guy.

His name is Leo and he took over from a bad guy called Kai who also has dark deep set eyes, doesn’t speak much or score, with his girl of course, who is waiting for James to sweep her off her feet.

Leo is smaller than Kai but talented and brave, especially if you put a post or keeper in his way. Probably why he got the gig. Surprisingly, Kai ends up being the star of the show and everybody applauds in the cinema. He obviously switched teams from the bad guys in the West to the good guys in the North and just when you thought there were 3 bad guys, he changes teams and outshines James Bond himself, played by both Bukayo and Gabi.

Maybe Albert Broccoli or whoever chooses the new Bond will go for 2 guys and Arsenal will have a dilemma that they never expected.

+ Brentford have only lost two home games in the last two seasons, and both were to Arsenal. That has to tell us something more than our emotions were telling us most of the game.

+ Mikel is starting to change more games from the bench. Huge. I’m crediting him with the goal because Havertz hasn’t been making those back post runs recently and I’m sure he was instructed to because playing through Brentford was exhausting.

NEEDS:

+ Football offers luck, as well as the need for art and efficiency. Arsenal need to embrace that reality and have needed to do so for about 20 years. If I had the time to study a weekend of Premier League goals, I would say that about a third of them were scored because of an element of luck. When I say luck, I’m talking about shooting from further out and shooting with a crowd in front of you. We are a little guilty of passing the buck from player to player in order to get a higher percentage shot when, in fact, by the time the player has controlled the ball he has exactly the same low percentage chance as the player who gave it to him.  If I think about Declan Rice’s last minute winner against United, I think that thankfully he wasn’t Arsenalized at that point. Most of our players would’ve looked for a dink cross or a backwards pass and yet the goal needed and had a slice of luck (deflection) to give us 3 points. If we were creating 5 to 10 clearcut chances every game, then we will not need to be shooting from low percentage situations but we have to admit that we are not doing this so we have to take what we are being offered.

+ The best of Gabriel Jesus is often when he pins defenders in the box. He did a whole lot of it outside the box, but they can foul him there. He only did it once in the box, and they are very reticent to even try to get the ball for risk of a penalty kick. Arsenal should take advantage of this, and allow Jesus to back into the defender and play the ball to his feet in the box.

+ the PGMOL or whoever decides on rule changes, need to sit down in the summer. There are too many questions that they need to ask themselves, but one of them is most certainly this. Why was the offside rule invented? Was it to stop James Bond bad guys with weirdly large boots from taking advantage of their size 11’s? Maybe it was? Maybe Paul, Gary, Marvin, Ollie and Lucy (PGMOL) went to America and discovered that it is strange to find any 11-year-old with a shoe size smaller than size 10. It made them so mad that they designed the offside rule to punish the Americans who had just started playing soccer. If that is the story, then fair enough because it most certainly is a problem over here. If it isn’t, then they need to ask themselves whether a player with large feet needs to be punished for said large feet. Off the top of my head, if there was an offside line that wasn’t wafer thin but 1-2 yards thick then this would be at least a positive start. For what it’s worth, I’m not convinced Trossard was actually offside, but in retrospect winning 1-0 in the last few minutes with Kai being hero was a better outcome anyway.

HOPES:

+ I’m not sure yet if Ethan Pinnock is Arsenal quality as I haven’t studied his distribution. I will say that I’ve followed him for a while and as far as defenders who can defend, he is rather good.

+ Another player whose career has interested me is Kubo at Real Sociedad. Real Madrid saw the talent early and much like Arda Guler may find out, it’s crowded there. He is starting to have a Saka-like impact. Consistently dangerous. Arsenal can’t have a hot and cold option or they’d play Reiss Nelson more. I’d recommend you watch this. Just ignore his worryingly bizarre celebration…

+ Rumours of Arteta wanting Osimhen are unsurprising if true. He has everything we need. If we are going to replace Jesus then this player must be a level higher than a top class player. His price will be reduced somewhat as the club have unnecessarily mistreated him. Napoli may have to sell this January as next summer he will only have 1 year left on his contract and will get significantly less. Of the 4 players that we are likely considering Osimhen seems to check more boxes. Evan Ferguson is grossly overpriced. Ivan Toney is 28 and Dusan Vlahovic apparently rejected us. Osimhen is the perfect age of 24. Proven that he can do it for more than one or two seasons and ultimately seems more reliable in front of goal which Jesus isn’t. This is likely the main reason why we may be changing striker in the first place.

I have been swaying back and forth over what position is most important in January.

I think I’m landing on striker.

Here is my reasoning …. The need for a defender and midfielder is more based on ‘what if.’ The need for an aerial threat is current. It could be the reason why we don’t get over the line again. Also, if we get a Jesus replacement/option then you get a Saka rotational option of the highest level in Jesus.

The only reason that I think I’d change my mind is if I could think of a player good enough to offer cover at right AND left back AND centre back (like Tomi does) as well as have the ability to rotate with Rice. The closest player I can think of is actually Thomas Partey, who could do two of those jobs admirably but he is also the reason why we are considering this in the first place. We could clone Rice?

FINAL THOUGHT:

Arsenal are top of the league because they only offer their opponents crumbs. Even City got crumbs. 

To win the league I think that’s we need to make scoring goals easier. 

We are winning too many games off crumbs ourselves. The crumbs are larger. More like the small hunks of bread that you give your dog, but there is filet in the fridge and we keep grabbing the bread.

Thank you for reading. Thank you in particular to those who take extra time to comment. I have developed relationships with quite a few whose own thoughts on Arsenal are every bit as clever as mine. So, to Kevin, Francis, Bob, Andy (and the many others) and by far the best pundit that I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to in Bobby McMahon.

Thank you also for being patient as I have had to wait 24 hours much this season before I write. I’m determined to continue doing this, but also determined to put my family first.

Yesterday, I went with Lori, my oldest daughter EllieAnn, and her best friend Raygan to watch Tennessee at their last game of the season. A cultural experience that is very unique to America. My childhood experience of college sports was that you were lucky if you had 11 players turn up and you hoped that your coach didn’t have a hangover. Not because he was going to help you in any way but because he had the kit.

The contrast is stark. The opportunity to see over 100,000 people who love athletes who are not even professional yet, all dressed in orange and white, whilst singing some of the most basic and cringingly awful songs is an experience that you need to have. There was two actual fistfights that were started by Vanderbilt University players and the Tennessee fanbase had a lukewarm, mildly angry and painfully polite “Vandy sucks, Vandy sucks” chant until some of their fans told them to shut up. So they did.

They are very polite in comparison to how we sing about Spurs. Even when they aren’t there.

Cheers!

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.