“Miss Marple on a free transfer” (Positives Needs & Hopes) [ARS 1-2 BOU]

‘Miss Marple on a free transfer’

An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective

I jest, but I don’t.

If I was the CEO of Arsenal I would spend the next seven days doing detective work at Arsenal.

If Arsenal don’t win the Premier League and today’s performance is replicated in the Champions League then the direction of travel for the team in Europe that most educated football fans and media suggest has the brightest future, could end up slowly falling away.

I would hate to think that players with a strong desire for trophies would want to leave Arsenal this summer because they see a wound that they don’t believe will be healed. As reactionary as this sounds, it’s possible. Sometimes it only takes one player to leave and then other start to wonder if they are simply at a club that is teasing them, but not actually going to win the big two.

As much as many may now be doubting our coach, you would think that a coach who is still so very young and new in his profession would surely figure out how to win. His career is potentially significantly longer than the players. If you are struggling with Mikel right now, then it would be smart to be remember that he certainly seems to have every single player on board and if he was to be moved on or step aside himself, then I think many would follow.

I want to have the coach as detective even though he will probably be aware of most of the issues. Unfortunately, it has to be somebody else because there’s a possibility that the common denominator regarding the nervousness is the coach himself.

No coach is perfect and even though Mikel has checked off more coaching boxes than almost all the other others, perhaps the one that he is struggling with is understanding the knock on effect of how he is perceived by the team.

As humans this is normally the one that we struggle with. We struggle to fully analyze our own children because we are too close to them and certainly struggle being self analytical with 100% honesty.

There is every possibility that the players are wound too tightly by the coaches mannerisms and demands.

They could even be reasonable demands, but not what the team needs in this part of the season. Mikel might be looking at what worked in October and pressing repeat. On some level that would make sense. The issue is that the players are in a mental fight and they weren’t in this hole in October. This mental issue is a whole new coaching challenge and my best guess might be that the solution might be that ‘ less is more.’ When players are stressed whether they be the teenagers that I coach or us adults that are reading this, we need less instructions and a return to freedom and fun.

Having the same approach against City next week would be a massive risk. Even if it seems like the right approach on paper.

I think I’m in a decent position to analyze this simply because I suppose that’s what I signed up for with this blog. My analysis is that in the medium term Mikel needs to find a better balance between control and freedom.  One of the problems that I mentioned in my last post is that when you’ve already played a team, they are familiar with you and so the back end of the season you need to have at least somewhat of a Plan B. Part of our struggle is that we are trying to do the exact same things that we’ve been doing all season and apart from the occasional different set play our opponents know what we’re about to do and so their only real challenge is stopping it. They should be playing with more caution because they are not sure whether we are going to do A or B .

Our ‘juego de posicion’ style where we attack whilst being very much aware of our defensive positions, may have got in our players heads to the point where they are thinking more about the other team than what we are going to do. So it is chipping away at their freedom of mind. I didn’t think I’d ever think this because Wenger really upset me during the last 10 or years of his reign, but perhaps the perfect manager is a blend of the two of them. A coach so structured that he creates the best out of possession and defensive group in Europe, and a coach who did very little tactically but lent into trusting his players.

In the modern game you cannot play with Wenger’s philosophy alone, but he might be a good one to point out to Mikel what the players might need right now.

Whether it be Arsenal’s CEO, Wenger or Miss Marple, the conversation needs to include a serious conversation about trust. Over the last 2 1/2 years, Mikel has created this incredibly trustworthy defensive unit out of possession He can afford to lean into it. He needs to encourage his players to play forward more and take a few more risks and that if we get dispossessed in the middle third that we have the best structure in European football to deal with it.

The other point that is not getting mentioned is vital, which Klopp discovered, there is value in giving your opponent the football. If the opponent does win the ball they push men forward and therefore a basketball game shows up with both players and teams out of structure, giving far more opportunities. In this situation, you trust that your attackers are better than theirs, which in almost all cases during the last few games of this season they are. You don’t concede that you’ve given up on clean sheets, but you come to terms and give the players a peace in knowing that if the game becomes ‘most goals wins’ then Arsenal should at least win the Premier League.

Arsenal and Arteta cannot ignore the first 20 minutes or so. He sent them out with the right intent, which is his job. The energy was very high and the ball was moving much quicker than usual. There was even some one touch play, which was encouraging.

When Miss Marple finishes her detective work she might come to the conclusion that the problem seems to occur when the ball goes in either of the goals. When we go 1–0 up, we seem to get nervous and when we go behind, we seem to change our style.

I might’ve hit gold with that thought.

Simplifying everything often works. As a coach, if your players come off the field having exhibited the talents that you bought them for then you have done your part. I look at that game today and saw a few moments where MLS turned his man in midfield, but did not drive forward, in what looked like fear of being out of position.

Rice has stopped carrying the ball up the field.

Ben White didn’t overlap. Martinelli isn’t being played in behind. Noni isn’t given the ball early enough so that he can cut onto his left foot and shoot. This is blocked off by a covering defender. The same problem with our special 16-year-old. We took too long to give him the ball and gave him a largely impossible task.

VG has overall been an asset this season, but we don’t play fully to his strengths.

Eze was neat and tidy, but didn’t look like he had the freedom to take risks. His ability to play floated balls over the top or balls that dissect the defense are his specialty but were absent.

There is also every chance that the league will come down to goal difference. We are superior right now, but City could easily snaffle that up. There are a handful of games where we could play Rice at DM with two 8’s and be more adventurous. Give the players the memo that we are going for it and if we need to bring on Zubimendi later, then we will. Losing the league would be painful enough, but it would be inexcusable if we did it because we only beat Burnley and Crystal Palace by one goal when neither will have anything to play for.

I kid you not when I tell you that I’m about to leave the living room after watching Brentford against Everton and I’m going to hang out with my wife who is watching Miss Marple. It’s our favourite TV show and always has been. We took a day trip to Nether Wallop on one of our trips to England a few years ago. The village that has Miss Marple’s house in it.

If anybody reading this wants to buy me a return ticket to London, I will happily go back to Nether Wallop and recruit Miss Marple myself.

POSITIVES:

Mikel and Max: 

I greatly appreciate Mikel for trusting Max. It takes guts, and I think he is using him wisely for his own career as well as for the benefit of our team.

Our near term future should not rest on his shoulders, and the other players should feel somewhat embarrassed seeing the freedom that he exhibits compared to how tight they look.

I hope that Thomas Tuchel has the same guts this summer. There are always at least three players that don’t take part in every World Cup and often double that number. Why would you not have the need of special player to come off the bench when you are going to have 3–6 players that you will never call on? Six ‘just in case’ players vs a unique talent. I’d also throw into the mix that Lamine Yamal won the best player award at the Euros at the age of 16. Dowman is on a similar trajectory.

Jesus:

If we are going to pick on a player when he’s poor, even repeatedly poor, we have to recognize when he was making a difference. If you look back at the second half highlights, Jesus set up a rather large handful of potential goalscoring opportunities for others. He is one of the only players in our squad that has done what we are trying to do, and so in theory, we should be leaning on him.

NEEDS:

Raya:

Dear David, my heart is already struggling. Please stop trying to be creative and taking risks. Please.

XG:

When you are chasing the league and get 0.19XG from open play, then that has to become part of your post game analysis. It’s almost as if you’re trying not to score when you look at the importance of this game and that miserable number.

Trossard:

He needs to realize that he is in a place that he’s not going to be able to replicate. If he leaves Arsenal, he might go win the Turkish league, but wherever it is, it’s not gonna be able to compare in standards and ability to win the big trophies in the big countries than where he currently is.

He’s making it too easy for us to replace him this summer

Zubimendi:

He needs a break and we need to trust Norgaard and/or let Rice play at six. Not just for the sake of this season but next too. Rice and MZ could both go into next season having played 68 games plus the World Cup. One or both of them will start the season in the red zone.

HOPES:

Premier League players:

I’m a believer that if you are looking to win in the near term then signing Premier League players is smarter.

I’ve already started compiling a list of players that I think would improve Arsenal. When I shrink it down to a top three in each position, I find myself leaning towards Premier League players as the safer option.

A classic example of focusing on the short term with PL players is seen in the incredibly quick adaptation of Semenyo and Guehi at City. Without those two, then Arsenal will probably have won the league already. Both coming from mid table PL clubs. We need to be willing to take similar risks and believe that players can step up to the next level when they are put on a better team.

Bournemouth have four players that Arsenal need to be watching closely.

Alex Scott looks like he will be the next Declan Rice, and Rice and Zubimendi need help. They need an athlete that the coach trusts and Alex Scott is an option and has now played quite a lot of Premier League football.

Arsenal apparently have interest in Jimenez, the right back. He was outstanding today and completely shut down the left side as well as won the game for his team with his late tackle on Gabriel.

Kroupi and Rayan are both 19 years of age and Kroupi has incredible statistics for a young player in the Premier League, maybe the best. Rayan is electric and will probably go to the top. He wasn’t in the game as much today but he is the kind of devastating player that Arsenal need.

FINAL THOUGHT:

People are forgetting that City have a more difficult schedule than we do. Quite a bit more difficult. They are playing more motivated teams, and there is every possibility that they drop points in a few of them.

I suppose there are different ways to win the league and to win our first one in a very long time, we might have to stumble across the line.