Arsenal place faith in brains over brawn
Alex Song’s £15million move to Barcelona, only days after the club announced the sale of Robin van Persie, means Arsenal have now covered the cost of investment on Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla entirely. As Gunnerblog writes; “it’s almost as if we planned it like this.”
Whether or not you feel this is good practice for a football club supposed to be competing for top honours doesn’t matter; the mood of the Arsenal online Diaspora seems to be a resounding “meh.”
That he has been described byBarcelona’s sporting director, Andoni Zubizarreta, as a complete player. “Skillful and tactical, he is good on the ball and very fit. He has experience of top level competition and knows how to cope with high pressure and big demands”.” means little (which, at the same time is a good thing, as Arsenal fans have recently acquired a pathological obsession on dwelling on the past). As such I feel compelled to defend the legacy of a man whose Arsenal career can only be described as “unsung.”
It’s true that Alex Song has a tendency for the indiscipline – which might boil down to his excitable character – and last season, he did abandon some of his tactical duties. But it seems he has attracted an unfair proportion of the blame for the goals Arsenal conceded. Indeed, there’s this growing idea that Arsenal must play – or rather be better – with a sole holding player. Perhaps, but the growing demands on technique and fitness means increasingly, it should be about the team. And certainly, one can make an argument against the team’s shape for Song’s diminishing defensive statistics (and their goals allowed column).
Because last season, Song simply had to do more for the team than he had in previous seasons. In 2009/10, he was the deepest midfielder, breaking down attacks and moving it along to one of the midfielders in front of him when he won it. In 2010/11, he shared the role with Jack Wilshere and as such was allowed to get forward intermittently, contributing with four goals. But even though Arsenal conceded more goals in that campaign than in the previous one, structurally it’s probably when they were at their most impressive (and the implosion in the last quarter made it look worse than it was). Last season, though, Song had no Wilshere and the dynamics of the double pivot changed. Arteta and Song shared roles without either player taking full responsibility so Song pushed up to do what Wilshere usually did; give impetus with his running and to dink passes – to more success – over the defence. And what’s more, Song was required higher up the pitch because for large chunks of the season, Arsenal lacked full-backs and as such it meant creativity was almost always central. The problem of creativity was further compounded by Wenger’s prolonged experimentation with a three-striker system up top (which continued to be a problem in their first fixture this season against Sunderland). In 2010/11, remember that Arsenal had Nasri to share the burden to create from out wide even if Cesc Fabregas did tend to monopolise creativity. Defensively, the relaxed pressing last season also made it easier for teams to turn Arsenal from back to front and as such, easier to get at the backline.
Nevertheless, it’s probably best not to look back but look forward instead to this season and with the departure of Song, it especially elevates the stature within the team of Arteta. If anything, he is now Arsenal’s ideologue – bright, opinionated (at Everton, he was known for having tactical discussions with the manager, David Moyes) and technical – he represents Arsene Wenger’s trust in brains over brawn.
Wenger described Arteta last season as a “real midfielder – that means he can defend and he can attack” and against Sunderland showed why the manager places so much faith in him. Arteta made 4 tackles and 4 interceptions as well as making over 100 passes but what was most impressive was the intensity of which he covered ground. A couple of times he filled in for his centre-back and even got into the position when tracking back which I like to call the “third centre-back”.
Via @1DavidWall: Arteta (8) played the deepest of Arsenal’s three starting central midfielders, with Cazorla (19) pulling the strings.
On the training ground, Arsenal have been working very hard on holding their shape and keeping/moving the ball better and that, Wenger sees, is the remedy to both their attack and defence. Because it’s as Athletic Bilboa coach, Marcelo Bielsa, says; “attacking football has nuances” and it’s controlling and understanding those nuances – how to dictate tempo and the dangers to expect when you lose it – which will make Arsenal better.
The two players who have submitted to this creed the most – talking extensively about team shape in interviews – are the team’s two leaders: Thomas Vermaelen and Arteta. (Robin van Persie similarly believed in moving as a team and led by example through his running to get back into position when the team defends, acting as the reference point, but perhaps it’s more effective to organise team-mates from their positions than higher up).
Similarly, the pressure is also high on Steve Bould (and Neil Banfield too for that matter) to make a robust impression in his first season as assistant coach and he showed – as early as the eleventh minute against Sunderland- he can make big decisions. Bould noticed that twice, Sunderland had opportunities to score from attacks originating from fast breaks down the channels so after Jack Colback stole ground in the midfield to shoot, he instructed the full-backs to be more aware whenever they get forward. Thereafter, The Black Cats mounted no serious threat and of the 84 teams that played in the Football League and Premier League in the first weekend, they were the only side not to win a corner.
Post Song, the methods of Arsenal may initially seem unclear. But what it does do is force Arsenal is to place even greater trust in their identity. And what bigger test is there of that than the one which they face next; away to Stoke City.
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*Note: For all intents and purposes (whatever that means), match reports will now be published for my new column on Arseblog (with thoughts if I care enough about you guys, on here). My latest piece can be accessed here on Arsenal’s shift away from the “three strikers” tactic used last season. Editorials will still feature on this blog. Thanks for reading.
Filed under: Arsenal
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Excellent stuff as always, man. One question: do you think Bould’s FB adjustment, although it prevented SAFC chances, may have hindered the Arsenal attack a bit too much? Or were we just unlucky?
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The Brain Reply:
August 22nd, 2012 at 7:54 pm
@Ted Harwood, Absolutely. I write about it in my Arseblog column here (if you haven’t checked it out already): http://arseblog.com/2012/08/the-tactics-column-three-strikers-and-youre-out/
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Well said!!!
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well said.
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Song moved BEFORE van Persie ???
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The Brain Reply:
August 22nd, 2012 at 7:54 pm
@naked goon, edited!
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Where do you get your stats from?
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Arsenal Column Reply:
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:33 pm
@Unopinionated Gooner,
Those were from whoscored.com. It’s got everything you need.
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I always enjoy your columns, and I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said here, particularly about what many fans saw as Song’s shortcomings.
But the whole “brains over brawn” premise? Can’t help but think there’s some unfortunate stereotyping going on there.
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Arsenal Column Reply:
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:37 pm
@Eurazian,
Granted Song carries a bit more panache than a holding midfielder but in losing him, it might be fair to say Arsenal lose a physical presence (Diaby not quite a defensive midfielder although he may play a lot of matches in the pivot; while Frimpong too young. Coquelin more subtle in his play). I don’t think it’s an unfortunate stereotype; it’s a play on the cliché that has often been said Arsenal lack.
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Great article! However, I do think you’re ‘oversinging’ Song a bit. Because however valid your points on the team’s dependency on Song are, it does not change the fact that he frankly dismissed his defensive duties, that is to say maybe he cost as much as he conceded. Judging from the game against Sunderland, I for one think we looked immensely improved defensively, and that’s mainly down to Arteta, whose intelligent positioning simply gets in the way of much more than Song ever did. You could counter that we might have scored had Song played, but I would dismiss that. As far as I’m concerned it’s van Persie rather than Song who would’ve made the difference on Saturday, and if we are gonna miss any of the two in the present season, as much as I hate to admit it surely it will be the former.
@Eurazian: To claim that the post title is an ‘unfortunate stereotype’ is frankly just soft-skinned. You can always read anything into everything, and obviously you just have. As far as I’m concerned, it says more about you than it does about the author…
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Arsenal Column Reply:
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:50 pm
@AAA,
I might be overstating him; “insider sources” say senior coaches of Arsenal grew tired of Song’s reckless abandon and attitude last season and at the start of this. If that is true,. I might have to eat my words somewhat.
But at the same time, I don’t think Arteta/Song coordinated the double pivot as well in some matches – nobody really took full responsibility deeper: which should be Song (but by that same token, while Arteta gives Arsenal continuity with his passing, could he not be charged with taking more onus in creating chances considering the time he spends in the final third?).
But I agree, we looked very good defensively against Sunderland, if owing to some degree of cautiousness when going forward (especially with our full-backs). I actually recommended, on twitter, that it might have been better for Song and Arteta to switch roles last season. But that’s gone now…
I think where we missed Song v Sunderland was his passes from deep or even his drive. Diaby played within himself as the midfielder “in-between” and as such, Carzola offered the only penetration. The three strikers didn’t offer any horizontal creativity (and nothing in the way of crosses) and that’s where Song’s diagonal and chipped passes could have come to play. Although last season, he had RvP’s movement to aim at…..
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Zubizarreta forgot to mention Song’s defensive skills. ha. Song’s national team coach stated that he can’t defend…he’s a poor defender.
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Your article is brilliant! Very well written and presented. I would like to add, in some games against big teams, Song was asked to play much more conservatively, and had excellent defensive games. He marked Rooney out of a recent United clash, and did similarly well against Mata -the only notable action Mata did the whole game was that rasping 25 yard strike, which Song was inches away from blocking. I think that shows, to some degree, Song was asked to provide creativity higher up by his coach or manager, and not merely him “thinking he is Messi”.
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I do agree that though people criticized Song’s so called indiscipline, his attacking forays were needed. At the same time, I don’t think his absence will be felt that much.
Though it helps to be athletic, you don’t need to be incredible Hulk strong to function as dmf. Positional awareness is more important than that, and I think the team is improving on that.
There was a X Alonso interview on Guardian where he says he is puzzled by English football’s infatuation with tackling. His ethos totally echoes how Arteta has been so effective this season as deepest lying mid.
“I don’t think tackling is a quality,” he (Alonso) says. “It is a recurso, something you have to resort to, not a characteristic of your game. At Liverpool I used to read the matchday programme and you’d read an interview with a lad from the youth team. They’d ask: age, heroes, strong points, etc. He’d reply: ‘Shooting and tackling’. I can’t get into my head that football development would educate tackling as a quality, something to learn, to teach, a characteristic of your play. How can that be a way of seeing the game? I just don’t understand football in those terms. Tackling is a [last] resort, and you will need it, but it isn’t a quality to aspire to, a definition. It’s hard to change because it’s so rooted in the English football culture, but I don’t understand it.”
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