Lewis-Skelly is a DM to be fair to him. Arteta is just one of these managers who seems to think anyone can be a FB.
Who knew jonjo supported arsenal ?
One of my core attitudes is I prefer it when teams who approach the game in a brave way are rewarded by winning things. Long before I understood who Klopp the man was, this was what attracted me to his Dortmund team. In that regard, one of the things that has most soured me on this Arsenal side is how they built themselves up with this sort of football, only to become increasingly conservative and safe in an attempt to get over the line and win things. Yesterday was the first time in a long while, probably over a year, that I have seen then face up to a quality team who they know uses the ball very well, and try to get in their face, disrupt their possession and dictate the game with pressure in the opposition half. After a shaky start they actually fared pretty well and did a much better job of disrupting PSG than we did in that first game. Yet PSG still could have easily come away with 4. That is a really tough thing for a team to take on the chin and does not bode well for going back to Paris.
I think beyond this being a semi final and a milestone moment for the club, this is thing a potentially defining moment for Arteta in how he responds to that - what does he have the confidence to ask his team to do, how clear in his thinking will he be in that ask, will it be aligned with the strengths of the players he brought together to play a certain brand of football and has increasingly asked them to do something else. It is the sort of fork in the road that can cause an era to start to come to an end.
I was surprised to hear on one of Adam Clery’s videos that Kirkez started out as a 10.
Usually i think of players like Carra, midfielders like Marsh, or wingers being moved into that role.
Trent was also a midfielder before he broke through and ended up a full back.
Myles is doing pretty well in this role, also when coming infield to combine. Obviously Tuchel also likes that, so it’s not only Arteta and Arsenal.
We’ll see what the future holds for him.
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.
The ball does look small and imperfectly rounded
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.
This is spectacular
Okay. One more reason to mock arsenal.
Stealing Chants
Stealing?
Over their dead bodies.
They’re only borrowing.
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.
I see what you did there! Very good.
Oh FFS, I’ve just worked out what he was on about. Tag der Arbeit and Maibock really slows down my grey matter.
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.
You don’t understand, it affected the local gravitational forces and therefore changed the shape of the ball!
