THE WAY ARSENAL’S DEFENCE PLAYED OUT WAS TOTALLY NUTS
ARSENAL CAN PLAY IT OUT FROM THE BACK... THEY JUST NEED TO USE LUIZ SENSIBLY
SOMETIMES you watch a game and cannot believe what you are seeing. You see the action on TV and wonder why, if you can spot the mistakes from afar, nothing is being done to correct them.
That’s how it was last Sunday. I stayed in so I could see Arsenal’s game at Watford and it left me shaking my head. I’m all for teams wanting to play out from the back but what Arsenal did at Vicarage Road consistently was nuts.
It made me think of the time when Swansea had just come into the Premier League in 2011-12 under Brendan Rodgers, who played the same way as Unai Emery wants to now.
I was at Stoke back then and we knew what was going to happen when they came to the bet365 Stadium.
Swansea had a philosophy but we were more than happy to let them do what they wanted. They tried to play out but we knew they wouldn’t beat our press. So it proved. We swarmed all over them that day and had so many shots after we kept taking the ball off them. Eventually, we won 2-0. Arsenal were fortunate they didn’t end up suffering a similar fate. Even when they led 2-0, I never felt confident they would see it through. They never looked comfortable and it was no surprise they were pegged back.
I loved facing Arsenal during my career. I scored nine times — my best total against any single opponent — and only Wayne Rooney (12), Robbie Fowler and Harry Kane (both 10) can better that total. Given how they are defending this season, I would have fancied my chances against them now, too.
Why aren’t they varying their style? Honestly, it is mindboggling. You can play out from the back by clipping high balls to your full backs (watch Ederson do it for Manchester City). To keep doing what Emery wants Arsenal to do, with little passes around the penalty area, is just asking for trouble.
They have played six games so far in all competitions and have faced 120 shots — 96 of those have come in the Premier League, the highest total of any club. I have wanted Arsenal to address the defensive balance of their side for years and never understood why they didn’t buy Steven Nzonzi. Steven played with me at Stoke and he would have been perfect to provide protection in midfield. He ended up going to Sevilla for £7million and it was madness Arsenal allowed that to happen. The best sides spot their deficiencies and address them to progress.
Look at Liverpool. They needed a new goalkeeper, a new central defender and defensive midfielder. Jurgen Klopp brought in Alisson, Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho and look where they are now — challenging for the title, something that used to be an Arsenal tradition.
As things stand, they are miles away from being in the conversation for the title. They have a chance of finishing in the top four this season but you wouldn’t be in a hurry to put money on them and they look the most vulnerable in terms of losing their place in the top six.
Yes, they are exciting and will score lots of goals but you wonder how Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will feel. He’s genuinely worldclass and should be challenging for the biggest trophies but it can’t keep falling to him to get Arsenal out of a hole.
When Emery first arrived in England, I backed him. I thought it was ridiculous that people wanted to criticise him after just one game (a 2- 0 defeat by Manchester City) and said a coach with his track record deserved respect. I still believe he deserves a proper opportunity to turn things around.
Hiring and firing quickly is no way to run a club and I don’t think Arsenal would ever go down that route. There is no denying, though, they are being compromised by the way they are playing.
Until they stop the shots coming in, they will be vulnerable to shooting themselves in the foot.
PLAYING it out from the back is paramount to modern-day football. It has made the game more of a spectacle for the fans, and more satisfying to play in, too. When I first started playing, the opposition goalkeeper might have the ball, and I’d be heading it back a moment later. We won’t see a return to that. The Premier League has evolved. Ten years ago, the average number of passes per game was 771. Now we are averaging 906. Why? Because playing it out from the back has become the norm, especially with the introduction of the new goal-kick rule. Yet last week we saw two examples of when it can go wrong. Arsenal tried to pass it out against Watford, Sokratis gifted the ball to the opposition and Watford scored. Manchester City did something similar against Norwich, too, but we will talk about Arsenal here. Their take on the new rule has been to have a centre back standing either side of Bernd Leno. That isn’t necessary. In David Luiz, Arsenal possess possibly the league’s most creative central defender, but he hardly touched the ball at restarts last weekend. Watford boss Quique Sanchez Flores had his forwards swarm on the visitors from every goalkick. That is what the modern manager does — Jurgen Klopp once said an effective pressing system is better than any playmaker. If you win the ball high up, the rewards can be great. So if Arsenal
want to proceed with playing it out, they must find a way to beat the press. Having Sokratis and Luiz inside the box limited their options at Vicarage Road. Sokratis seemed obsessed with passing to Matteo Guendouzi and we know what happened. For all his faults defensively, Luiz is a good passer. Maybe he should be the only one in the box. He can receive a short pass from Leno, control it, then pick his pass. In an era of statistics, it is interesting to note how no player attempted more through-balls than Luiz in 2018-19. He managed 42 — the next nearest defender was Antonio Rudiger on eight. Unai Emery should use that. Luiz could act as his quarterback. He does not only have to pass to Sead Kolasinac on his left or find a man in midfield or out wide. He could play a long ball over the top for Nicolas Pepe to chase. With the opposition pressing, their defenders will be close to the halfway line. That leaves a lot of room behind for Arsenal’s forwards to run into. You need to have those options so you can use the space available. This shape also tests your opponents’ forwards — they’re wondering who to mark. Do I press? Or do I pick up the man behind instead? The way Arsenal were set up against Watford, they were very single-minded. Their predictably made them sitting ducks. Watford used that against them, and other teams could do the same again.