The Arsenal Thread (Part 1)

Pitchside - Football Forum
3635

Alexander-Arnold was playing regularly at RB for the youth sides before he broke through and the club left a window intentionally for him to come through there behind Clyne. He wasn’t playing a lot in midfield by then, that was mostly just at U18 level.

Arteta’s use of MLS at FB makes sense in that he has gone fully in on the idea that FBs are just central midfielders. He loves them tucking in both his LBs and RBs do it regularly. It works to an extent, you certainly don’t see Arsenal getting played through very often but I do think it’s very limiting offensively - and it’s one reason why I didn;t love it when Trent was exclusively cutting inside and ignoring the flanks at various points in the last couple of seasons.

What I mean when I say Arteta is someone who just believes anyone can play FB I’m talking about this tactic of taking midfield players and plopping them in at FB to play like a midfielder. Arteta and Guardiola are doing it themost of course with Lewis, O’Reilly, Nunes, MLS etc all being told to do it. They’re not playing as FBs, they’re playing as central midfielders who happen to have a starting position of a wide defender and I am personally not a fan of it as a regular tactical ploy compared with the more traditional wingback.

I know it has been all the rage since Guardiola introduced it several years ago but I hope we see that dying a little bit and the more exciting, dynamic, lung-bursting WBs come back. I find the hybrid CM/FB thing to be very stale and dry, even though it is effective in creating midfield overloads.

2 Likes
3636

In case anyone missed it…

image
image751×600 39.4 KB

4 Likes
3637

The ball does look small and imperfectly rounded

6 Likes
3638

Of course, a lot of it depends if a coach likes full backs more inside or outside or wingers more inside or outside.

Player evolution as well, Trent even as a full back had his different ways he was used over the years. I think he’s physically not capable of some stuff he used to do before. Coupled with some of his weaknesses.

Under Slot, we use our full backs a bit more tucked inside, you look at player distances when we play out from the back and players in that first 3rd are more close to each other. More touches, ball travels faster and shorter distances, attracts pressure and releases spaces in other two thirds.

It also depends on the phase of game. There are 4. Possession/building from the back, zonal defending and two phases of transitions.

Depending on what phase it is, you’re either a defender or a midfielder. Doesn’t even matter what you’re called, the main thing is team balance and having players in positions at different moments being able to display their strengths.

For someone who’s 18, Myles has down very well in a pretty complex role and he’s obviously physically able to do it. We’ll see what’s next for him, player paths can be very different. Two coaches have done that, so it’s not only Arteta’s idea.

The standard and needs have gone up in positions that were less important before. There’s more pressure for all players on the pitch to be technically able to respond to more and more teams playing a pressure style of defending all over the pitch.

Certain trends turn in circles also, things like 4-4-2 or a full back going on the outside more (will still have to provide more than 1-2 things in his game, especially in a side that wants to win) are never truly dead.

But here we talk about details like which positions are narrower and which are wider. Game principles are more important. Within that, positions can change, careers can change.

I don’t think Arteta feels like every player can do a job at full back, but it’s certainly positive to see examples like Delph or Myles. Just to give two different examples.

Hybrid can be more demanding, we’ve seen it with Trent under Klopp. In the spring of 2023 when he was arguably our best performer, we all thought we found the long term answer. But it didn’t last long. Depending on where we would lose the ball, he would either remain to defend in midfield or go back to RB.

I wouldn’t say that it’s something that’s dying out from the game, just that you have different ideas, different players and players themselves change over the years. Players learning a new position is always a positive, if it’s successful both individually or colectivelly.

Can remember a ton of players in my following who have improved in totally new positions.

3639

This is spectacular

9 Likes
3640

Okay. One more reason to mock arsenal.

Stealing Chants

2 Likes
3641

Stealing?
Over their dead bodies.
They’re only borrowing. :sweat_smile:

2 Likes
3642

This is OK people, here is an excerpt from the actual rules:

A player must not tackle (or try to tackle) an opponent above the line of the shoulders even if the tackle starts below the line of the shoulders. A tackle around the opponent’s neck or head is dangerous play.

A stiff-arm tackle is dangerous play. A player makes a stiff-arm tackle when using a stiff-arm to strike an opponent.

4 Likes
3643

I see what you did there! Very good.

3 Likes
3644

Oh FFS, I’ve just worked out what he was on about. Tag der Arbeit and Maibock really slows down my grey matter.

4 Likes
3645

I was watching an AFCTV clip the other day and learned that the reason why they struggled in the first leg was because the PSG fans were housed in the wrong part of the stadium.

11 Likes
3646

You don’t understand, it affected the local gravitational forces and therefore changed the shape of the ball!

3 Likes
3647

2 Likes
3648

2 Likes
3649

Lets not get too smug guys. PSG got the same 1-0 result against us, Arsenal may yet be able to reproduce what we did in Paris and not fuck it up on Pens. I’m saving my guffaws until they are dumped out

7 Likes
3650

image
image600×688 71.2 KB

4 Likes
3651

https://www.thisisanfield.com/2025/05/mikel-arteta-hurt-big-time-by-liverpool-title-hes-still-blaming-arsenal-injuries/?

“They’ve been the better team, had the better attributes, had their squad available consistently and we are going to try again.

3 Likes
3652

He was almost gracious! Congratulations… we had more injuries. That’s how it comes across. Well boo-hoo. We had injuries too. And we also trained our players better.

3 Likes
3653

I wonder what would happen if Raya missed 10 games, if they had to go into their 4th choice right-back, if their third-choice goalkeeper was getting games.

1 Like
3654

They would be outside the CL places

1 Like