Arsenal must make more of their chances

February 3, 2012

Home → Arsenal must make more of their chances

When Marouane Chamakh signed for Arsenal in 2010, there were doubts about whether he was the type of striker Arsenal need. After all, his record, before the last two seasons, wasn’t very prolific and his, and his team’s form dramatically faltered in the second-half of the campaign. Arsène Wenger, though, had felt that his composure in front of goal could be corrected like other strikers he had signed previously, Thierry Henry and Emmanuel Adebayor to name two. But, a season-and-a-half later, Chamakh’s form has dropped since scoring 10 goals in 17 after he signed to just one in his last 14 this season. His confidence has disappeared and he now ambles about on the pitch, a shadow of his former self and looking to compensate his lack of penetration by constantly dropping deep.

Arséne Wenger feels Chamakh will rediscover his goalscoring touch with confidence, Chamakh’s reply is that he can’t gain confidence if he doesn’t play. Former Liverpool striker, Ian Rush, agrees that confidence has a big part to play in scoring goals and the example of Fernando Torres serves as a prescient reminder of just how important it is. ”Mentally, that’s what it’s all about,” he told Daily Mail in 2010. “I remember when I used to coach Michael Owen, he could have five chances and miss all of them but it didn’t worry him because he knew another time he’d take them all. I had that myself. I wasn’t worried about missing them because, if you’re missing chances, you’re still doing something right by being in the right place. Torres isn’t scared to get chances and, if he misses them, it doesn’t worry him. His finishing is quality but I think Robbie Fowler, for instance, was a more natural finisher.”

Not everybody is a natural finisher though. Henry had an infamously slow start to his Arsenal career while Robin van Persie has scored more as he has matured. “They have similarities, Thierry and Robin,” said Wenger.“At the start they are not goalscorers, they are football players who you expect to create something special. You do not think they have to score so many goals, they added that to their game. Someone like Alan Shearer was a goalscorer first but they are more link players Robin van Persie and Thierry Henry. They are creative players and not just on the end of things. Even at the start of the season, people ask ‘why is Robin playing centre forward, he is not a centre forward’. But both have the intelligence to be in the right place at the right moment.” Van Persie illustrates this in his own way when he says: “A few years ago I used to weigh up the options, think whether there was a chip or a backheel or a beautiful finish, or whether someone else was free in front of goal. Now, the ball has to go in. I don’t give a damn how.”

Indeed, Robin van Persie’s evolution is fascinating and even more so because he has consistently delivered the goals even as Arsenal have implemented a series of tactical and strategic changes in their play. When he first began in the 4-3-3, he blazed a trail for the roaming central striker. Indeed, it looked like his interpretation of the role was going to revolutionise the position of the striker with Sven-Göran Eriksson saying: ”the striker today moves around the field more than in the past, they can go to the left or the right—that’s something that has changed in football.”  Now, though, van Persie has refined his game so much that the creative and goalscoring part of his game has almost become blurred. “I’ve hardly ever seen a player who plays so deep in midfield and then is such a danger in the box,” said Jürgen Klopp.

However, if the series of tactical changes can be argued to have been implemented to maximise van Persie’s impact, this season he has been given some help. Wenger has placed a three striker system so Arsenal can be more dynamic and goalscoring coming from more than one source. However that has not been the case yet. In fact, van Persie has monopolised the scoring again, scoring 19 out of the team’s 49 goals and has assisted 5 more. The next closest is Gervinho with four goals and five assists.

Wenger admits there is a reliance on van Persie “because he scores many goals” but the statement is not frank as it may first seem. He feels his team do a lot of good approach play but at the moment, the outlet is singular – usually Robin van Persie. On the other hand, the fact that Robin van Persie has adapted so fantastically to the striker role must partly be owed to the two wide forwards either side of him who have relinquished the spotlight to their captain, setting up 12 of his 25 goals in all competitions. ”The two wingers are creating waves while Van Persie dances and plays in the splashes that they make,” says David Winner, author of Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football to SI.com. If goalscoring is singular, at least Arsenal have improved on last season as creative duties are more spread; Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Gervinho and Alex Song all have four or more assists. Although, so too does van Persie himself.

But if the support players’ altruism mustn’t go unnoticed, so mustn’t their contribution in front of goal which has been almost negligible in comparison to van Persie. Indeed, if there is one narrative to the season – the other being the lengthy injury list – it is the failure to put away chances when the team is dominating. This can be characterised by the start they made against Manchester United in which, while having more of the possession, they looked cautious and hesitant. Gradually, United took the ascendancy and they did so because there was a visible gulf in confidence and the precision in which they executed their attacks. Confidence might explain Gervinho’s conversion rate which has seen him pass up the chances his peers might have. Indeed, it looks like he has inhibited slightly by his early season woes and often looks to other options than taking a shot on himself. Nevertheless, at 12%, it is a conversion rate which surpasses the measly 5.5% and 2.4% of Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey respectively. And certainly, as Tee Song points out on this blog, if the pair were able to match Gervinho’s conversion-rate, the team would have EIGHT more goals this season. Such a detail would prove crucial to where Arsenal end up this season. At least Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain looks to have that “fearlessness” that the team is lacking.

With a young squad, it is hoped that the mental strength in front of goal will come in time but for Arsenal, it must come sooner. It’s not that they haven’t passed up some good chances; they have passed up some GREAT opportunities. As was the case in the 0-0 draw against Bolton Wanderers, it cost them two points and crucially, two places in the league table. It was as Wenger said after the game, the team “lacked a little bit the relaxed attitude we need when we get chances at the moment and hopefully that will go away now.” And it must, very quickly.

Statistic courtesy of WhoScored.com. Table showing the scoring rates of each of the perceived Top Six’s front four and a reserve striker. The bracketed player is not included in the average but only used as an example of the next best player.