Liverpool 0-2 Arsenal: Cazorla stays high up and exploits space between the lines
The starting line-ups
Arsenal started nervously but eventually got into their stride to record an impressive win over Liverpool.
Brendan Rodgers brought Daniel Agger straight back into the team after he was suspended for the draw against Manchester City, while Nuri Sahin was given his debut in midfield, in place of the injured Lucas Leiva.
Arsene Wenger kept his back four intact despite the return to fitness of Laurent Koscielny. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain replaced Gervinho on the right.
Liverpool dominated possession – 53% – but Arsenal were more penetrative with their passing, thanks to the positioning and use of the ball by Santi Cazorla between the lines.
Poor early start
The technical quality on show in the first 20 minutes or so was surprisingly poor – Liverpool got into decent positions in the final third but incisive balls were rare, and shots were constantly off target. They’d started better than Arsenal, however, who kept misplacing simple passes from defence. Carl Jenkinson was the main culprit – one suicidal ball across his own defence was particularly notable – but even Thomas Vermaelen, usually composed on the ball, hit one needless long straight pass out of play.
For this, Liverpool’s pressing must take some credit. Luis Suarez was particularly energetic in the way he started the pressure (for all of his disappointing moments in front of goal this season, few other strikers would be able to lead the pressing as well as he does), and he was backed up well by Fabio Borini and Raheem Sterling.
Without the ball
While Liverpool pressed heavily, Arsenal were more passive without the ball. They got into a very narrow shape with two clear banks of four, and Cazorla free to position himself where he wanted in order to launch counter-attacks, rather than helping defend. It was an approach similar to that favoured by Borussia Dortmund over the past couple of years – 4-2-3-1, but a solid 4-4-1-1 without the ball, and the central playmaker very close to the main central striker.
It was also notable how compact Arsenal were – the midfield stayed close to the centre-backs, so there was little space between the lines for the opposition to work in. This is something of a contrast from last year, when Alex Song (in theory their most defensive midfielder) became an additional playmaker and often moved high up the pitch, leaving space in between the lines.
Rotation or structure?
More importantly, it was a contrast from Liverpool’s system. Rodgers wanted a fluid central midfield three, at least partly because each of his three midfielders could play anywhere within the midfield zone. Joe Allen started as the deepest midfielder, but sometimes switched with Steven Gerrard and Sahin and found himself higher up the pitch. It would have been a different situation had Lucas been fit – he would have stayed deep and occupied a lateral zone in front of the back four.
And this situation was crucial in the outcome of the match. Liverpool’s fluidity works well on paper, but too often it meant they had a poor defensive shape. It’s easy to say in hindsight, but Sahin was probably used too early in his Liverpool career – he lacked an understanding with his midfield colleagues, and often looked as if he didn’t understand his role in the system, particularly defensively. That was obvious for Lukas Podolski’s opening goal, as he jogged back casually into the space where Cazorla had received the ball – between the lines, in the centre of the pitch.
Cazorla
This contrast was key in the nature of the passing. Liverpool’s were all broadly occupying the same zone and making themselves available for short, simple balls. With Cazorla higher up, they had more men in the centre of the pitch and saw more of the ball. Arsenal’s midfield had greater vertical depth and therefore incisive passes were more possible, particularly when Liverpool’s midfield pressed and moved high up the pitch, leaving Cazorla in space.
Cazorla would later score a fine goal after moving from a central position out to the left wing, into a position where no Liverpool player took responsibility for tracking him. That lateral movement is the most distinctive feature of his game, and it’s important he understands why he was so effective here – he stayed high up between the lines and didn’t drop into the midfield, as he did against Stoke, where he was trying to do the job Arteta does. Although in theory deployed centrally, he receives the ball more frequently in the ‘pockets’ of space in the channels, in a zone between the centre-back, full-back and central midfielder.
No alterations
Other than that, the game was fairly simple. None of the wingers significantly got the better of their full-back, Olivier Giroud battled but couldn’t get past two centre-backs on his own, while Suarez was his usual all-action self, but kept failing with attempted dribbles.
There was no major progression in the tactical battle – naturally, Arsenal kept things the same, while Rodgers simply didn’t have the attacking options on the bench to change things. As he revealed after the game, he wouldn’t have let Andy Carroll leave for West Ham had he known no replacement was forthcoming, and Liverpool’s lack of attacking variety looks extremely concerning at this point.
Conclusion
Two differences here – the level of pressing, and the structure of the midfield. Liverpool pressed, Arsenal sat deeper. Liverpool had a fluid midfield triangle, Arsenal had a clear structure with two deep playmakers and a defined playmaker. Neither is necessarily ‘better’ than the other, but Arsenal took advantage of Liverpool’s tendency to leave space between the lines (because of the pressing and midfield rotation) and play in Cazorla. It was a neat tactical battle.
For Arsenal there’s much to be optimistic about. The combination of Abou Diaby and Mikel Arteta was very good, with the former playing a powerful, driving midfield role, and the latter keeping things simple with good distribution. The defensive organisation also looks excellent, with three consecutive clean sheets.
Liverpool looked much poorer than in last week’s draw against Manchester City, although more time together should solve the problem with their midfield triangle.
“Rodgers simply didn’t have the attacking options on the bench to change things”: then he’d better try to develop Henderson and Cole as attacking options.
henderson is worse then shelvey
Herderson is a decent player imo
Henderson is shit
On what basis is he shit? playing out of position last season or being one of the better players in his only start this season against hearts (still out of position)?
Yes he hasn’t been amazing but if you’re going to say a player is shit then maybe look towards joe cole or charlie adam, i think henderson has been better than they have.
well, after reasoned analysis like that how could anyone not be of like mind?
When Assaidi becomes integrated into the side Rodgers will have the option to play two very direct, interchanging wingers on both sides and perhaps play Suarez in more of a scrapping second striker role, a la Rooney. Before that happens, the clearest option is to move Suarez to the right or left to pit him against a fullback when he isn’t profiting against the centerbacks, leaving Borini to push the opposition deeper and buy space between the lines.
Or he could just keep playing Stewart Downing as an inverted winger. I’m sure that will work out.
“Rodgers simply didn’t have the attacking options on the bench to change things”
Why get rid of one of your strikers (Carroll) before making absolutely certain that you have a replacement. Poor management from Rodgers and Liverpool everyway you look at it. Sign Dempsey or whoever FIRST, then sell Carroll.
Pool just signed Samed Yesil from Leverkusen. That kid is a crossbreed between Podolski & Ozil. Pool should try to play him, he’ll give another variation on the attack. Sterling, Shelvey, and Yesil could bring a lot of pace and technique to the game.
“Liverpool dominated possession – 53%”
That’s hardly a dominating performance!!
I really think that Jenkinson has extremely poor technique and vision. Do you think he will ever improve on that because I see no developement from last year?
He really is a great athlete but that’s not enough.
Yes Max Jenkinson made the odd mistake as better players than him have done but to be honest I thought he played reasonably well and he’s worth sticking by.
I think Jenkinson was quite good defensively, especially against Sterling who is much quicker than him. However, his passing is very poor, but as ZM says, much of Arsenal’s defence had the same problem.
don’t get me wrong, he defended with great tenacity and his tackling was great, he also got the better of many on set plays.
But not only are his back passes bad, I also feel like he doesn’t cross the ball anymore because he’s realized that his crosses are horrible
Interesting that you should say that. Whenever I’ve seen him (which admittedly isn’t often) his crossing seems one of the best aspects of his game. He seems to get quite a decent whip on the ball.
Of course it’s not particularly easy to judge crossing ability at Arsenal since they usually only have one or two players in the box!
Actually Jenkinson is possibly the best crosser of the ball on the team. It was a notable feature in his skillset last season, but we had nobody to get on the end of them because RvP used to play deeper to orchestrate things. This season Jenkinson’s positioning has been more defensive and he hasn’t had the opportunity to cross as much.
whenever I see his crosses they have the whip but they are terribly incaccurate.
I would honestly say Sagna seems to be a better crosser of the ball than Jenkinson
Sagna better at many aspects of the game. Thus, he is first choice.
Once he got over his early jitters, he ended up being one of Arsenal’s best players on the day.
Jenkinson wasn’t even the best right back at Charlton, we have a right back now who is better than Jenkinson and we managed to reject Premier League bids for him, he’ll go on to be better than Jenkinson.
As has been said, his technique is so poor, he basically bends over to pass the ball. He actually defended reasonably against Sterling, but he looked terrified when ever Sterling ran at him, and this is from a 17 year old with about 2/3 Premier League games. He also let’s crosses come in far too easily. He’ll start costing Arsenal soon.
He didn’t look too shabby blocking everything that Gerrard tried to do on his side of the pitch.
sour grapes much?
Great article and a great win and to add i’ll bet there was one Liverpool player who was secretly pleased
that Rodgers lost today and that man is Andy Carroll and who could blame him after the way the lad was treated.
Also why did we waste valuable transfer window time trying to obtain the right deal for Sahin? as I thought he was useless and appeared as if he didn’t want to be there at all. So i’m glad that we didn’t sign him….The rest of the season certainly looks promising for us.
Gooners forever!.
I have a friend who is a united fan and I can tell him everytime that arsenal’s midfield will make united’s central midfield cringe!
DO A SPANISH GAME INSTEAD OF BORING ENGLISH RUGBY SORRY I MEAN FOOTBALL ZM.
VALENCIA VS MADRID….
B ARCELONA VS VALENCIA I MEAN.
Or a Seria A game. We had 3 big derbies this weekend and Inter-Roma game was spectacular. Much more worthy than the 20 mins kicking Arsenal-Liverpool were offering in this game.
Please stop commenting. Thanks.
Please stop just doing EPL games. Thanks.
Find a website that does La Liga reports. You haven’t paid any money to read this and you still find reason to be offensive. You aren’t owed anything by this site. If you don’t like what they do, don’t come here. The rest of us are quite satisfied with what is on offer.
Carroll stated many times that he wanted to stay. I don’t see why he would want the team to lose. Terrible logic. Anyways he is injured now. He has other things to worry about
Adrian,What Andy stated was probably different to what he was thinking. The way that lad was treated was disgraceful not wanted on top of scoring a superb goal for England it must have been very disheartening for him when this guy comes in and throws his weight about, and i’ve spoken to lots of Liverpool fans who feel like me and i’m a gooner!Some say Rodgers won’t last the season and i’m inclined to agree with them
Of course Andy isn’t going to come out and say “i’m glad they lost” but I bet he’ll think that all the same after being treated like that.
Goona, it’d be a lot worse if Rodgers kept him in the squad. He’d be a bench player, playing only when Rodgers run out of ideas. He’s too immobile, too big to a striker on a tiki-takk system.
At West Ham he’ll possibly play more, better, without pressure and go ahead with his career. Not that I think he deserves particularly, he was a expensive player that never excelled.
LUCAS: Yes it could have been worse as you’ve stated, but put yourself in the lads place if someone told you after being picked for your country and scoring a superb goal that you are not wanted at your club I think it would really shake you up and bring you down at the same time. Of course a football boss can do what he likes but this is not the way to make friends and putting the team at ease to begin with…
Actually after the match today the Liverpool players after that great gooners victory didn’t appear too down going round smiling shaking the Arsenal players hands.
Do they know something that we don’t know?…….
“Also why did we waste valuable transfer window time trying to obtain the right deal for Sahin?”
Hmm, perhaps because he was the best player on Dortmund when they won their first of their consecutive Bundesliga titles?
“as I thought he was useless”
Oh, well if *you* thought he was useless then I’m sure he’ll never sign another contract again.
Seriously, you make Arsenal fans look like morons with your facile post-hoc rationalizations (“oh, Sahin sucked in one game so he’s a waste of space, good thing we didn’t sign him”) – I’ll wager at the time you were slavering to get his autograph on that loan deal.
arsenal: 0 goals conceded for the last 3 matches
man utd: 5 goals conceded for the last 3 matches
anyone has any idea of what was going on?
To be fair to United they’ve had to play a central midfielder in defence (Carrick) and today was the first time since relatively early last season that Vidic and Ferdinand payed together.
I think their full backs are a real problem defensively though
United seem to for once be susceptible to aerial attacks, Fellaini and Lambert today found it easy to target one defender and compete and defeat him in the air.
I can’t speak intelligently on Manchester United (I have maybe seen 10 minutes of them this season), but the Gunners have abandoned a high line of defense. Simply put, the back four do their business and that’s that. What’s more encouraging is that midfielders and forwards are tracking back and chipping in when other teams have possession Today there were several instances where Chamberlain, Arteta, Podolski or Cazorla tracked back and defended (even Giroud was in the box for several Liverpool corners) – it’s not something that I’ve seen with any regularity over the last few seasons with Arsenal. It looks like a new mindset for them, and I love it. With all due respect to Cazorla, Podolski and Giroud, promoting a defensive-minded Steve Bould to assistant manager is the best piece of business Wenger has done this season – I don’t find it be a coincidence at all that they’ve got three consecutive clean sheets.
The biggest problem for United’s defense is the midfield. They don’t really track runners and they don’t put any pressure on the ball. Then the 2 fullbacks tend to be to agressive.
To also be fair, Arsenal have played 2 teams (Sunderland, Stoke) who had little intention of attacking and were almost playing for draws and Liverpool struggle to score when when Suarez is at his best…and he wasn’t at his best today. The question is what happens to Arsenal when they play sides with better finishers and who play more vertically than Liverpool…who were horizontal with Sahin
Quite true re: the Stoke and Sunderland matches. By the same token, that those teams were unsuccessful in nicking a goal is telling. Last season Arsenal were susceptible to conceding against the run of play when their opponents ostensibly would have been happy with 0-0.
Rafael is not very good at his job. They’re better off playing Smalling at right back for the season, when he’s fit. I know that Valencia is an option at right back but playing him behind Nani just sounds unnecessarily self-destructive.
I did admire Valencia’s cross to RvP.
I find it a bit strange that the Arsenal defence seems to be playing much deeper than they have for years.
Does this mean they will not be pressing as much this season?
The problem with this is it’s going to require a lot of mobility from the midfielders as Arsenal are not going to be hoofing it upfield anytime soon.
This could perhaps explain why they were willing to sell Song; Diaby, Wilshere and Rosicky are much more mobile and all possess very good technique.
United’s defence is poor, that’s where the problems lie.
Ferdinand’s best days are long behind him, so slow to react to things these days, gets beaten in the air far too easily.
Vidic is overated. Lambert was giving him all kinds of problems, one bit of simple movement and Vidic went steaming in and committing the foul when there was no need.
Evra’s decline in the last season has gone relatively unnoticed, he was very close to Cole in being the best left back in the world a couple of seasons ago, now he’s far behind Cole and other left backs in world football. Defensive awareness is poor, concentration is poor, and he looks terrified when wingers run at him these days.
I like Rafael. Good player going forward, and it’s easy to say he’s poor defensively just because he’s better going forward, I actually think he’s better defensively than given credit for, there’s nothing he can do when he’s left 1/1 with 6ft plus Lambert at the back post is there?
That’s my take on the defence, pretty poor these days in my opinion and far weaker than City and Chelsea, the two biggest competitors. But, I can see United having the attitude of we’ll score 1 more than you, and that will see them past most teams, can’t wait to see how they’ll do against City/Chelsea though.
This might be stating the obvious, but what a move RVP looks like. Without him, United were at the weakest stage they ever have been under Ferguson. Last year they was so ordinary at times, the RVP move at first I thought was strange, but now it looks like a stroke of genius that could be the difference between title and no title.
‘The combination of Abou Diaby and Mikel Arteta was very good’
Definitely agree with you there Michael, particularly Arteta who I felt had an outstanding game, a 95% pass completion, completing 87 passes, that’s 18 more completed passes than any other player on the pitch!
Diaby looks like a player who could shine for Arsenal this season, he looked extremely composed considering the heavy pressure he was under. The 3 fouls both Diaby and Arteta suffered is evidence of how Liverpool were struggling to stop the two.
Completely agree! Arteta was magnificent. He is very consistent and brings lots of stability to the midfield. And diaby playing box to box using that pace was good to see too!
To further your point, I thought Arteta showed an ability to tackle and win the ball hitherto unseen. He won all the tackles he made.
Not unseen by any means. Last season he was the team’s best tackler in most games he played.
Lovely again Mr.Cox!
Wanted to say I think a system in which we sit deeper and press less might actually help us. I look back to the 8-2 thrashing where we were much higher up and how it was exploited so much by United. When you sit deep with 2 banks of four it’s extremely hard for any team to get through, especially when Liverpool seemed to lack abit of width, for me they seeemed to either be blocked on the wings or they seemed to cut back into the centre – Saying that Sterling was quite fantastic.
May I ask why Borini is being played on the right as well? Surely he and Liverpool will do better if he plays centrally? Liverpool seem to lack any aerial threat from open play crosses as well which for me forced them to try and break through the middle which we all know failed.
Today showed why losing Song wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, for me Arteta is an unsung hero, even last season he sat deeper all the time and intercepted so so much, he seems to do that still this season. You call him a playmaker but i’m interested to see how much went through him necessarily, I thought Diaby was much more creative. Speaking of Diaby what a performance, hopefully he stays fit, right now he seems to have a dual role with him sitting deep but also springing forward on the counter, he’s fantastic box to box
Lastly I just wanted to say do you think our defence sitting deeper and being close to the defence allows us to play out from the back easier? Since we don’t always need someone like Vermaelen to take the play forward
Again wonderful Mr Cox, baffles me how you see some of these things to be honest lol
Looked back on all ive written…. inb4 tl;dr!
Great analysis. Nice read.
Great write up. I thought arsenals defence lookd shaky all in all. Jenkinson struggled to deal with sterling and was poor going forward, while Gibbs started off similar but we into the match. Verm and Mertesacker was the wrong partnership today despite the result as well, they couldn’t handle Suarez all game and could have given away countless penalties, kol should have started as his pace and mobility would have helped deal with this.
But otherwise a great performance from arsenal. The midfield duo of diaby and Arteta looked well balanced and potentially better than when song was there. Arteta controlled the game and diaby brought the energy and drive very much needed (very Viera like). The wingers were dangerous and tracked back well, giroud lead the line well with excellent movement and finally cazorla was the game changer. His movement was great and he provided the extra quality to get arsenal the win. He floated out wide and combined with the wingers to overload the fullbacks, a quality we rarely saw last season with Ramsey in this position.
Liverpool didn’t play that bad, but they lacked the bench to change the game when they needed to. The CB’s dealt with giroud well on the whole,mthe fullbacks only struggled when cazorla doubled up on them and the front three were dangerous throughout and combined well (good building blocks liverpool can build on). The problem was in midfield, where Allen was the only player performing. Gerrard was sloppy in possession and rarely made runs past Suarez into the penalty area, very much needed with Liverpool’s low goal threat. While Sahin was clearly unfit and unable to press the arsenal midfield, allowing arsenal to break smoothly. Another problem as zm stated was that having both Sahin and Allen meant a lack of positional strictness, something that should improve in time but was clearly missing today. Given time this Liverpool team can compete, but the lack of options from the bench for the likes of Suarez and Gerrard is very worrying.
Agree on most points, Arsenal didn’t play exceptionally well, and Liverpool had a better first half actually. Diaby was outstanding in midfield and broke most of Liverpool attacking tempo. He was my MOTM.
Borini and Reina were the main culprits. I think BR should try 4-4-2 on the ball with Fabio and Luis upfront and Gerrand on the right (as he does for England). Having Sterling, Jonjo, Allen and Gerrard in midfield looks much better.
Reina’s poor form is worrying so BR should do something about it.
Good shout on a 442. Gerrard has looked his most dangerous when drifting out wide right in latest games. I think I would play borini up front and move Suarez wide maybe, as he would get more space and not be central to everything Liverpool do, a problem right now as he tries to do too much. Maybe eye could havesuarez play narrow right, drifting central and have Gerrard make runs outside to theft from midfield 3. This would give good movement and possibly get the best out of both players . But who knows really ha
Yeah Gerrard has always been very dangerous on the right but I think he prefers to be in the middle – I remember an interview when he stated how hard playing on the right is
Its abit sad really cos if he enjoyed playing on the right and moved there it would really benefit Liverpool
Also I think BR doesn’t wanna try a 442 because they’ll be swamped in midfield, unless ofcourse Gerrard or Suarez drifted deeper at times
Things do indeed look very positive for this Arsenal team. Excellent defensive structure with Vermaelen being the stand-out. Going forward Cazorla is quickly putting himself into “signing of the season” argument, who needs Fabregas? Podolski looks like a finisher. Giroud has presence, but appears to need a bit of time to find his confidence. But the real beauty is that Wenger has genuine options now in the squad. Walcott adds vertically, Arshavin adds laterally, Wilshere has a bit of everything, Rosicky, Gervinho, Ramsey, Chamakh, Coquelin options options options.
There was one outstanding aspect to Diaby’s game today that Arsenal lacked last season, and that was the ability to dribble out of a tight-spot in midfield. Arteta was a very lateral player last season, while Song was vertical in terms of off the ball runs, pressing, and passing. Diaby brings to the table an underrated (and awkward) dribbling ability and a knack for getting out of tight-spots, much like Gervinho. His long legs allow him to get to balls that shorter dribblers otherwise might not be able to, and his large frame allows him to shield the ball well. On top of that, his height and lean build make his feints and cuts more believable to defenders and draws them out of position to challenge. This gives Arsenal the choice of passing to an always open Arteta or Cazorla or letting Diaby wiggle out of situations, so we kept possesion well in midfield. Unfortunately, it was our passing accuracy from our defenders and goalkeeper due to Liverpool’s pressing that inhibited our ability to keep the ball today more than anything.
Interestingly enough, Wilshere is also a decent dribbler of the ball as well as a patient passer like Arteta, so he can really complement either of them when he returns. I can’t wait to see how our midfield functions when we have Cazorla, Arteta, Diaby, and Wilshere available. I’m also interested in seeing how Arsene accomodates Rosicky, Ramsey, Coquelin, and Frimpong. I know we’ll have injuries to give all of these players a chance, but I like how every one of them is unique in their style of play instead of being a “like for like” sub.
I know it’s just one game, but I think today’s match was very encouraging. We have played two very defensive teams that made it hard for us to create anything. Liverpool playing an open game did us a massive favor. It also gave our defense a truly offensive test which we did well to cope with. Arsenal-Liverpool games are usually very entertaining.
I absolutely agree with your thoughts on Diaby. His work in tightly contested midfields is inspiring. His passing is starting to come back, he shoots much less than in previous seasons, and his energy and power more than make up for the loss of Song. With Cazorla such a proficient user of space Song’s chipped through balls will be less necessary, and Arteta is becoming more conservative in his passing and positioning to add structure to the shape of midfield.
As long as the front three continue gaining confidence and mutual understanding we could maintain a title challenge until January, when we’ll most likely need a couple of signings to replenish depth after injuries. I hope at that point we bring in one dedicated, physical holding midfielder to give us another option against the kind of high, lateral movement that Cazorla showed for us tonight. Shinji Kagawa is just one of the playmaker/second striker types that will be a huge challenge for the current tilt of our midfield and none of our current playing staff are entirely equipped to lock him down.
All in all, I’m pleased with the newfound balance of this Arsenal side and I hope that controlled rotation will give us enough unpredictability to be a threat in every game.
When Wilshere comes back, he’ll be entrusted with the task of takin out the oposition’s quick 10, a la Kagawa, Silva, Cazorla. If its a monster box to box, a la Yaya, then it will be Diaby. Finally, if its a wiley vet a la Pirlo, Xavi, without much pace it will be Arteta. Chelsea’s team is incredible on paper though, having freakin dribblers with pace all over. Even Ramires seems hard to contain in a corner.
I like the way this team is looking, Though it seems like they’ll have problems with two banks of 4 that sit narrow and deep.
case and point, their first two games against Sunderland and Stoke.
Mr Cox how do you see all these things whilst just enjoying a match of footie by the way lol
I think Gibbs getting forward is worth noting, especially in the first half. Liverpool weren’t sure how to deal with it. Borini was poor at tracking back, Johnson had to deal with Podolski and the midfielders had their hands full. I can see opposition fullbacks pushing up being a major problem for Liverpool this season, especially the LB. Liverpool’s wings aren’t good defensively, it’ll wear them out earlier and it isolates the central striker, Suarez. Plus, I think it prevents Suarez from being used out wide, because they won’t want him having to drop deep in defense, and it could also take a toll on Gerrard’s legs.
I think they’re going to regret dumping and not replacing Kuyt and Maxi as much as Carroll. I also can’t see them sticking with the plan to convert Downing to a backup LB. They’re going to need all the bodies they can get on the wings.
In the highlights on MotD, Downing was notable for a couple of nice touches.
And Gerrard was notable for his versatility: he’s now mastered the inaccurate short pass.
i’m interested in finding out how michael will defend this indefensible cleverley-carrick midfield yet again in the next article. i mean, there’s only so many times you can patronise the oh so barbaric and stereotypically english carrick-bashers for, say, *not understanding the subtlety of carrick’s role*.
I don’t think Carrick’s the problem, he covers space well and play either sideways or long passes. I think the player playing next to carrick has the creativity but severly lacks the bite to accommodate the rather passive and deep covering of the back 4 that Carrick is excellent at.
personally i think carrick is a star without the ball, positionally quite excellent, but his first touch is not the best, he lacks the grace and guile of the finest deep-lying playmakers. he’s far from ‘metronomic’, and struggles a great deal when pressed, incapable of skipping away from challenges and also incapable of moving the ball on swiftly and accurately on a regular basis. he frequently slows the game down when the opposite is required; this is why the cleverley/anderson partnership from last season was so promising, because of how quickly we were moving the ball relative to the past few seasons. i’d love to see cleverley next to a more accomplished version of anderson, i think that could be the future…. but that said, i’m not sure cleverley has been the same player since his injury problems…
but i do agree with you that carrick would be a lot more effective with a more combative and mobile midfielder alongside him – that hargreaves type we’ve been missing for so long.
I said sideways and long passes, it’s true what you say carrick can’t play the quick passing game, because he lacks both first touch and quick incisive passes. It’s two philosophies, you either play quick passing or you play the slow longpassing game, the game carrick excells at. The way united are set up at the moment I think that the slow game is better, the 4-2-1-3 that michael described earlier is more foccused around a single touch of class then frequent changing of sides. United are like the dutch with carrick being van bommel and noone being de jong.
good comparison with the dutch, id say just about spot on
The interesting thing was that the shape wasn’t working against southampton. It was only after switching ti 4-4-2 and the consequent style of spreading the ball wide and crossibg that got united back in the game
never exactly worked too great for the dutch, either. there is another problem here concerning welbeck being potentially ill-suited to that left-sided role, and valencia being in the worst form i’ve seen in recent years and better suited to a 4-4-2 anyway.
Carrick had a shocking performance based on his standard. But, the biggest problem was still Cleveley though. He is positioning especially defensively was pretty poor.
yo numbnuts: that has nothing to do with the article you’re commenting on. Let’s keep it tight not not get into this extraneous biz.
Arsenal’s next game against Man U will be interesting, even leaving the Van Persie subplots aside for one moment. Fergie has had great success versus Arsenal in recent seasons by making his team sit back and hit Arsenal on the counter. With three successive clean sheets it seems Arsenal might finally have found a way of nullifying such simple tactics.
maybe, although those three games were against a virtually strikerless sunderland, a stoke that historically scores fewer than virtually anyone in the division, and liverpool whose problem scoring goals is well documented. it’s promising though, i’ll grant you.
@Tom:
I’ll give you Sunderland, but I think you’re not giving Arsenal credit for the way they defended against Stoke and Liverpool. Against Stoke Arsenal’s new look shape took their wingers completely out of the game and gave them no chance to exploit their aerial prowess. As far as Liverpool are concerned, saying that they will have trouble scoring goals is quite odd given that they scored twice against last season’s most defensively sound team. Granted, Man City are playing a three man defence, but Liverpool were all over them and they could’ve scored more.
Think Liverpool are going to have a real problem scoring goals this season. Rodgers is completely committed to one striker, and Suarez (although a fantastic footballer) is a poor finisher, not well suited to playing up front by himself
I have liked the way Ramsey has played as a substitute in the past few games. He looks like a player fighting to win a spot in the squad — he tended to be wasteful with the ball last season and so far he has not been — he provided a spark driving forward today when he came on.
It looks like a change of personnel resulted in a change of attitude no more Arshavin ‘four goals against Liverpool means I don’t track back’, Walcott ‘I am a striker not a defensive midfielder’ costing us in counter attack. Also Arsene is showing a more ruthless streak. You don’t follow my instructions, I’ll bench you. Gervinho and Walcott being benched means that next time they will be more inclined to follow his instructions. Defence starts from the front. if it is good enough for a German international that should be good enough for them. BTW Podolski had a great game. When he tired, Chamberlain was replaced by Ramsey under clear instructions to help Jenkinson rather go centrally.
Diaby is at last starting to show his class. His pairing with Arteta seems to be a winning formula.
Jenkinson had an initial shaky start but got into the game. During the second half Sterling did not go past him once. With Suarez still profligate, Rahim Sterling was their best chance of scoring. With him well shackled Liverpool offered no threat. Sahin may be the better footballer but Shelvy was much more effective.
For Liverpool, January and the mid season transfer period will not come soon enough. Kenny Dalglish follies have screwed Liverpool, even if some of the blame can be apportionned to Ayre and his unability to convert a sure thing (Dempsey) into a concrete signing. Gerard looks like a player well past it or at least physically exhausted. I wonder if Rogers new system is much more physically and mentally demanding and some players find it more difficult to cope. Skrtel being another example.
Suprised nobody has mentioned Mannones distribution. Given that Giroud was uptop(as opposed to rvp) and they were playing a deeper block, you can understand him thumping it up but they were times where I think Sczes would have tried to play it shorter.
On arsenal as team I think they have improved defensively, both with a high and low defensive line. Although I am curious how they will cope with a team playing in their third against a team with more end product than liverpool.
Liverpool, I love thir back 4, the kind of balcne I like, 2 winbacks, 2 big centrebacks with opposite yet complimentary qualities. Unlucky for them they have reina in such poor form. With Liverpools striker situation I would’nt mind seeing Stevie G uptop when Borini and suarez are both injured and suspended.
for the first 20 min i think liverpool played neatly they pressed well moved the ball crisply but then i couldnot understand their shape on offense johnson and enrique were pushed high up the pitch while borini came inside but sterling always stayed wide . at one point podolski who was man marking johnson was deeper than his fullnback gibbs and was just played through . but on the 20th min gave a needles possession away right in the centre of the pitch and with liverpool with their they didnt had enough bodies to comeback and defend . gerrard was played high up of the three midfielders and was suppose to link up with the front three but to be honest he hanst got that quality to be a playmaker he can cannot play that tippy tappy football nor has he got that ability to create something out of nothing his best position is where borini plays from where he can cross . gerrard needs to be replaced by shelvey who has that composure and has a good eye for a pass . yesterday also he made the difference after coming on .
for me liverpool are playing too wide there are not enough bodies from midfield who can support their front players . only gerrard comes up and tries to link but then the distance between lines in too much for me . he needs to get them more compact . sterling is deserves his place but then he needs to replace borini with gerrard . reduce the distance between lines make them more compact . the bench looks the worse for a top side .
arsenal are looking a very good unit podolski like czorla deserves plaudits he was the one who started the counter in the first place for the first place and then showed great energy to complete his move with a goal . for the second goal also he and czorla played super passing game and played around two or three liverpool players their interplay and link up is excellent . atleast podolski brings drive and that superb floor game that wenger wants from his players . i dont think genkinson or gibbs were bad infact that they did very good against their respective players one misplace cannot undo the work done by him for the whole 90 min .
Cazorla drifting into those ‘pockets of space’ exactly what Steven Gerrard did under Rafa Benítez – particularly on the left side. Seems the most effective way to deploy attacking midfielder with 4-2-3-1 in England.
Ozil does the same though doesn’t he?
Just seems the right thing for an attacking midfielder in that system to do, albeit Madrid is more of a 4-2-1-3 i think
ZONAL MARKING only cares about EPL,he even review shitty hoof ball like West Ham but not teams like Osasuna or Atheltico Madrid.
It would have been a different situation had Lucas been fit – he would have stayed deep and occupied a lateral zone in front of the back four.
i really dont agree with the observation that you made with the liverpool midfield as if the middle three were not listening to rodgers plans and that they were constantly drifting out of positions rather than staying in their natural positions . with the kind of personal available i think he did what was the best possible .
last but not the least i think he needs to take some positional drills as to what needs to be done in which situation because the second goal clearly demonstrated the way they needs to defend and who should do what . when two or three liverpool players got easily played around by podolski and cazorla for the second and nobody bothered to close them down or take the responsibility to go with podolski when he can from a deep position . he was very well linking up with cazorla .again i will say there was too much space between two liverpool players needs to make the game compact if he wants to get his tactics more effective .
I think the Dortmund comparison with Arsenal is an apt description of what Arsene is trying to do.
When they signed Podolski I couldn’t really work out what they were up to- they already had Gervinho and Walcott to provide a direct threat from the wings and Poldi seemed to possess the same weakness as those two players of being ineffective when the opposition sits deep and little space is provided. Arsenal’s usual match approach, dominating possession with a high line and short conservative passing, would only serve to exasperate the weaknesses of these players and nullify their strengths. It stands to reason that Arsene might be attempting a new approach based on direct attackin- just as we saw from them on Sunday, last year at Dortmund and indeed in Arsene’s early Overmars/Viera/Wright teams.
It is hard to know how this will help them overcome their troubles against inferior opposition at home but the last two away games have been highly encouraging. Title contenders if Wilshere and Sagna come back soon.
Gerrard being too direct in early phases of play is becoming a problem. He’s always looking for the long ball first before the short one even when there is no space to exploit behind the opposition defence.You can also tell he has no idea where to position himself in relation to the other players in the team , he always goes into an area he doesn’t need to be in and the zone is over occupied.
I’m definitely with you on that.
I think it’s very difficult to control possesion when you play a guy as impatient as Gerrard in the centre.
He wants maximum impact with every pass he plays and that can not always work.
I disagree about the pressing point, I thought it was noticeable in first half how well Arsenal pressed up the field – Reina was forced to hoof the ball out on several occasions when he was put under pressure and full backs closed down. Similar the full backs were forced to hit poor vertical passes because of the lack of options infield – Arsenal covered the centre backs and there wasnt enough movement from liverpool’s midfield 3 to create space.
Pool are in bad shape. They don’t look good at all and i fear it could be midtable for them this season. They just don’t have the squad, and more so, the firepower up front to compete for a top for or even top 5 position. Apart from Suarez, where are the goals going to come from. ?
What would be arsenal’s best team with every man available in your opinion?
let’s skip the 4 man defense, but after that it becomes more complicated, mainly because arsenal have a lot of quality in central midfield: arteta, diaby, wilshere, and cazorla performing centrally.
Also some would kick giroud out for podolski as he’s not performing for the moment, but i wouldn’t, especially because podolski is better on the left than in front.
So two options remain in my opinion, firstly a 433 with podolski left and cazorla drifting inside from the right.
secondly a 442 of diamond type, with probably cazorla as the 10 and arteta as the 6.
what do you reckon?
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good stuff as usual ZM. great to have you back. well it’s only 3rd of september and Reina has already dropped 2 horrendous clangers. i’ve been waging a campaign against his over-ratedness for some while. finally i think even the tabloid media are taking it on board, although probably for the wrong reasons. it’s not high profile errors . just his poor saves ratio that is normally the issue. good keeper as i’ve always said, but i’m not buying he’s the best in the prem ( not even in top 5 ) .
Diaby and Cazorla looked far more purposeful and penetrating compared to Liverpools midfield. Both were taking players on and always looking for foward passes, add to this that they are both quality technically they simply looked to good when matched against liverpool. I like the look of Diaby he’s got the complete game.
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now that the international week is on . i would like to point out one fact henderson hasnt played a single rodgers nor was he used as a sub while shelvey was preferred to him . infact the news was that rodgers was trying to send henderson on loan which was not successful .
now my question if rodgers doesnt thinks that henderson is not enough a good player to be part of liverpool setup ( he is perfectly right ) then how come hodgson prefer him over other players in the national squad . is the england national team weaker than the liverpool club team .
last but not the least why did hodgson wanted to criticize AVB . what AVB did was correct in certain way and chelsea had realized that they need to freshen up the squad rather than just sticking with old guard and most importantly if hodgson is to stick up with the old guards then he better watch out because if somebody had watched that super cup final between chelsea and ath.madrid then they would had seen at how hapless cahill and lampard were and how easily they got played around and how much fool a player cahill is when he cannot cover his fullback when he is high up on the pitch . hodgson needs to get some sense and get his act right needs to drop gerrard when wilshere comes back needs to play carrick and cleverly who are better passers of the ball and can keep flow of the game going rather than just hit long balls .
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What seems more worrying for Liverpool is that Reina looks really shaky. Both goals highlight this, he has a problem with low shots. For all the talks on his passing ability that complements Rodger’s system well, it won’t matter if he can’t save easy shots like those.
It seems pretty clear to me that Arsenal’s current roster is better on the counter than they are at breaking open a team in the final third. Look at their wingers- Podolski, Walcott, Gervinho, and Chamberlain all seem to be better on the counter than they are at operating in tight spaces. Honestly this is why I thought that the team would look to bring in Dempsey- he would give them another option who can excel in tight spaces. Even Giroud seems to be a player who will do better on the counter than he does breaking down teams in the final third.
It will be interesting to see if Arshavin ends up as a super sub role coming in late when the team is down or tied against a team that is parking the bus. In those situations his defensive limitations would not be as big of a deal and he does have a lot more creativity than the other options Arsenal has on the wings.
Hi Michael -
I’m posting this comment rather late, so I’m not sure if you’ll get to it, but can you venture a guess as to why Rodgers has Borini playing wide and Suarez ‘leading the line’ (scare quotes because Suarez usually has freedom to roam)? Seems to me that Borini’s (a) relative lack of dribbling/technical skills to dance around outside backs, (b) finishing ability, relative to the rest of the front players and (c) good movement, positioning and pressing ability would make it a rather easy call to swap the two players. My only guess was that Rodgers wants the front three to be interchangeable enough that it doesn’t really matter if one player starts as the de facto winger or center-forward, but that the players still aren’t quite used to such a system.
Thanks — your work is always much appreciated.
The Arteta-Diaby pairing reminds me of the Alonso-Khedira pivot, with Arteta/Alonso in classic deep-lying playmaker roles and Diaby/Khedira as all-action box-to-box midfielders. It is interesting how Wenger responded to Diaby’s comments that he is more like Toure than Song, and that clearly showed by his active role in the game.
I’m not so sure that Arsenal will struggle to break down packed defences in quite the same way as before. If you look at what Giroud does in a game, O’Neill in particular instructed his defence to push up field to keep him away from goal. Once he bags a few goals, every manager will do the same thing. Players like Podolski and Walcott will then be freed to run onto balls from Cazorla played in behind the defence. That’s basically what Guardiola was looking to achieve with Ibrahimovic but his work rate wasn’t high enough (never has been).
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