Mr Arsenal Blog's tactics weekly.

5/11/12 - reviewing the United match.

It has been in all honesty a very disappointing few weeks for the Gunners. Whilst I believe the defeat to Manchester United game has been taken out of proportion (for reasons that I will explain), the defeats to Norwich, and the manner of the defeats, is extremely concerning. We have to improve the level of performance that we are showing at the moment, but I have to make one thing absolutely key! Whatever your opinion of what happened up at Old Trafford on Saturday lunch time, there is a perspective to put it in, and in my opinion in many quarters there has been a completely stupid over-reaction to the game. The game was of course disappointing, as it always is if you loose to the Mancs as us fans quite clearly hate loosing to them! But why did we loose this game? Well in simple terms, because they were the better team and deserved the win! But I will now answer that question in more detailed fashion, with a tactical look at the match.

Firstly a big issue was the way in which we used the ball. An Arsenal team will always plenty of the ball, however on Saturday it was effectively 50/50 between the two teams, therefore we both had basically the same amount of possession. This shows us one simple thing, United used the ball much much better than we did, they were more precise and they were more efficient. These for me are two key words to sum up, in part, why we lost the game. They had seven shots on target, we had three. Why is this? Well, I would say it is down to these two words that I mentioned. When we had the ball we were neither precise enough, nor efficient enough. We gave ball away cheaply in midfield which clearly stops you from getting up the pitch to create chances to score a goal, and when we had the chance to create a clear-chance, we fluffed it in the sense that the final ball or pass or cross was not precise enough. Its quite a basic thing in football really, when you have the ball in order to score you have to be precise with your passing in order to work the ball round the pitch effectively and break the opposition down. We did not do this, they did. As a result they had more of the chances, we failed to create much. Simple!

The idea of efficiency very much stems from this issue. When we had the ball in the game we were not efficient with the way in which we used it, instead the ball spent most of its time when in our control, in the middle of the park being played sideways. From an oppositions point of view, this fine, it's ideal. Because until starts moving towards their box, and play is looking dangerous they are fine. United were happy for us to have the ball but when we got into their half, more often than not, they quickly won it back, thus completely nullifying the threat posed! We have to be more efficient with possession! It is all very well having half the ball, but if it is only in the middle of the park and not getting in behind the opposition, it is near on pointless! This was clear on Saturday. We had plenty of the ball, but weren't efficient with it. United had basically the same % of the ball, but used better to their advantage and therefore won the game! We only got 3 shots on target in the whole game, 2 coming in stoppage time (and one being the goal), so you see that we didn't use the ball in an efficient way, United did. Again very simple!

United's second goal came to be fair, at a time where Arsenal were finally starting to look dangerous, after a practically completely one-sided first half. We were finally starting to get the ball in good areas for the likes of Santos and Sagna to get onto out wide on the overlap, with Cazorla as per usual the main player of passes to these players in wide spaces. However when this goal came, it was once again as a result of an opposition set piece (a corner). Once again we used zonal marking, which has been much debated about this season, and once again were beaten to the ball in the air, by an opposition player, who scored. The worrying thing about this was that the player that had won the ball in the air, was not a towering 6ft 7 Crouch like person, it was Patrice Evra, effectively the smallest person inside the stadium! This is simply not good enough. With the likes of Vermalean, Mertesacker, Giroud in our team, all big lads, we should have had no problem whatsoever beating someone of Evra's size in the air, with all due respect to the French international! This is something that must be worked on, and I am not saying that zonal marking is wrong, Arsene and Steve Bould clearly know more than me, but it certainly needs some kind of tweaking  It seems that most of the goals that we have scored this season has been from set pieces, once again!!

The first goal came from a poor error from the skipper Vermalean. It was a scuffed clearance, which he who must not be named, latched on to and finished expertly passed Mannone. This is the sort of goal that we must not be conceding. You have to give credit to Purse Strings for the way that he tucked it away, but we cannot afford such strikers that chance. And this shows you the "small margins" that I often talk about, in the game of football! Despite our lack of real chances, and despite the fact we were pretty poor, had Vermalean not made this mistake we would have a point, and had we defended the set piece better, in theory we could have got a win, as Cazorla scored in the last minute! But clearly as I said this would have been un-deserved. In games such like these, you cannot make these mistakes. As I said, and I want to make this very very clear, United deserved it, but had we cut the errors it would have been a completely different story, and instead of all the doom and gloom rubbish going round Arsenal, we would be happy with the lads work on Saturday, at a very difficult ground to go to in the Premier League. For this reason I believe that all the doom and gloom is far over the top. Yes we were not at our best, but to be fair United were not brilliant, they didn't have to be to beat us, because we made mistakes. Thats what is frustrating!!! There has been lots of talk on twitter and in the media about Arsenal's shape, the players e.t.c but I believe it is more simple than that, we have to use the ball we had better, and stop making errors. Regardless of the shape or tactics, you have to be precise and efficient on the ball to create clear chances, and you have to not make stupid errors that allow he who must not be named and Evra, to score easy goals!

Once again it is difficult to choose a Mr Arsenal Blog's man of the match, as we were not great, but the person I am going to give it to is: Mannone. I believe that he didn't really have a massive amount to do in the game, but when he did, he made a great save from VPs shot in the 2nd half, which actually led to their 2nd goal from the resulting corner, and the on whole wasn't at fault for anything! I think he is a player that needs more support from our fans, because apart from the goal against Norwich at Carrow Rd, where he palmed it into the path of the goal scorer Holt, he hasn't really done anything wrong! It is disappointing that in a game where we concede 2 goals the best player in my view was the goalkeeper. Santi deserves praise for his goal, and for some good passes in the 2nd half, but was very much nullified by United, and cut a frustrated when he scored at the end, with a cracker!!! He has been very quiet in the last few weeks, I hope that changes in the next few games, and especially of course for the game against Spurs!!! lol.

Anyway, it was disappointing game, but we must keep the faith! We do have good players, and with the likes of Diaby and Gibbs (to replace the clueless Santos), we will be much better indeed. We could also of done with the pace, and directness of The OX out wide. With these players coming in again, and the players we have, I am not really that concerned looking forward for the rest of the season! We will be fine. We must add a few in January however!

Don't listen to the gloom merchants!!!!

UP THE ARSENAL

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