Arsenal's TACTICAL Achilles Heel. 

Re Havertz runs in behind - as I said at 7:13 he CAN do them but it’s about where his best work comes, & for me that’s drifting wide and linking, creating space for others.

One of the main problems is the lack of vertical passes through the middle. Almost always a ball goes out to Saka on the right, occasionally to the other wing to Martinelli. Rice almost never produces a vertical pass that opens up the opposing defence. Jorghino can do so but he doesn't play very often and probably even less next year. Rice is an excellent tackler but he needs to work more on his passing.

Watch Rudiger's passes to Havertz for DfB, Havertz makes those runs, they're not being found in this team. Arsenal just needs someone to make those crosses whether it be from the back line or midfield

Let him COOK

Whilst I do agree with many points made I disagree strongly regarding Havertz’ in behind threat, rewatch the games with a specific focus on him and you’ll see how he makes those runs but isn’t found/pass isn’t even attempted.

We need a healthy Thomas Partey 😩 And another Jorginho type player. Someone that’s not afraid to cut open from the inside instead of pushing out wide, because that’s what these mid locking teams want us to do

Is it just me or would De Jong give us everything we need in midfield? Like he seems absolutely PERFECT for us.

Though it’s out of topic but can someone tell Southgate you can play 3 at the back if you don’t have a lb.It’s fucking annoying to see.

hey its me pep guardiola this video is very helpful

Always a huge fan of your content and the way you analyse the team, buddy. Thanks for the frequent content and your insights. I do think we have a team who should be able to win the title based on the profiles we have at the moment, I think Arteta's personal evolution is going to be the next major breakthrough. No manager has come in and done it straight away (Mourinho as an assistant to Robson, Klopp with Mainz, the main exception being Pep with Barcelona B who won things immediately, and proceeded to do the same at the main team), and their big successes usually came after a lot of trial and error, development of tactics, and learning in and from different people. I think Arteta had his Mourinho evolution under Pep, is going through his Klopp evolution at Arsenal now, and we can see he's getting closer and closer to getting it spot on, with major tweaks in the first few years giving way to minor adjustments over the past couple of seasons. I firmly believe the staff will have reviewed the mid-block issue this season and have a plan for it, and it's about how we adapt to the next major problem we face. Arteta's already improved here too, though, as we no longer see the string of 2-3 losses every time we come up against a different tactic anymore.

Arsenal don't need osimhen, even for Free His attitude to his superiors are a serious cause for concern He'll only do arteta legacy, a serious harm rather than good Gyokeres makes a better attitude than osimhen

We have players who could do it but I feel they like the guile in the way that some of our past player like Jack, Rosicky, or Santi. These players would see these patterns in the middle of the field even in the tight spaces of a mid block and we would slice through them like butter with passes and a pinnacle run through I know that is a long shot but I do not see attempts or this style on Arsenal right now. Silva and Foden on City have this profile I believe. I think Ode could and has tried maybe Viera could be given that if confidence was up cause he can finish. It is hard to say there are so many layers and levels of cohesion that have to happen quickly but that is my favorite way.

The jurrien timber injury was basically if zinchenko got injured in 22/23

We need another Odegaard for no8. We used to have 4 - 5 creative midfielder during Wenger era. We dont now, only Odegaard. Hopefully we sign Simon

Can't believe i just listening to osimhen Sale Speech 😅

Smith Rowe is brilliant at "carries" he is the fastest premiership player when dribbling the ball. So why doesn't Arteta try this? Sometimes Arteta sticks with his favourites - who cost us , Jesus, Zinchenko, even at time Havertz. Often we could do with swapping out Saka. A fluid attack could include ESR, Saka, Havertz, trossard & Odegaard all interchanging places.

Against Porto, arteta could’ve redeployed Saka mid first half seeing the ineffectiveness of the block, temporarily to a left wing back position and gone with just two up front. This would enable an extra dribbler in pushing into midfield and may have opened up the left and Martinelli. Would’ve not cost a sub and once a goal or so up, move him back to right wing once they were chasing the game

HAVERTZ CAN STRECTH A LINE

The next few seasons with Mikel look exciting

I personally think that Arteta's biggest tactical achilles heel is that he doesn't platform his best players well enough to maximise their output. Ensuring his most talented players can maximise their strengths; ie TAA, Salah & Mane being prioritised over Wijndaldum, Ferminho KdB, Haaland, Rodri over Bernardo, Doku, Foden Vini Jr. & Benzema (other season) to Vini Jr, Rodrygo & Jude (last season), LHS heavy dynamics but not any less effective due to the quality of the players. Being predictable isn't bad if the opposition can't stop you either way. Get Saka to dictate the offence more and Martinelli to take the most number of shots in the final third because they are our best creator and finisher (with the widest variety of finishes) at the club.

Like others have said, you underestimate Havertz' running. Overall, I don't think we platform runners well, because of our conservative approach. The solution is to play the way we did towards the end of last season, take more risks and open up the game more. Rely on our superior quality to win.

The connectivity map between us and Man City is the biggest difference...we need a world class CM which can play surrounded by opposition (Modric/Xavi type of player)

I disagree about Havertz - he does run in behind too but agree that it doesn’t happen enough in our team.

Chelsea away I think was worst performance of season from us. Porto and Bayern away, was elite teams carrying out there job. We had no answer to there systems. Someone who can take on players with skill win free kicks in those type of games is needed (eze)

Havertz makes plenty of runs in behind😂

That was the difference between 22/23 and 23/24… when we went 1-0 down last season we really struggled to respond. The season before you could bank on us scoring 3 or 4 even if we went behind. Need more dynamism and threat next season so we don’t run out of ideas.

Arsenal struggled to score 1 goal in two games against Porto. But you know who scored 2 goals in under 2 minutes against them recently? Gyökeres, the same guy Arsenal fans are in doubt if he's worth signing 😅😂

Get me eze and oshimen that's a perfect transfer

“Quiver”.

Martin should act more central then Rowe must play he has good carries

What does The different knock actually mean?

We are soo passive just sign Victor osihmen

Do you know how much is oismien ?? Not less than 130

All Hail the Almighty Algorithm ☯️🔥

great video alex but i dont agree that havertz doesnt like to make runs in behind stretching the pitch. i think some of his best work comes from doing exactly that. osihmen is great but his injury record is a concern for me and he's not exactly the best finisher either.

I've always felt that in games where we struggle to break down the opposition, an easy choice to cause a difference would be to swap the 8's on the field for a few minutes. Getting Rice Ødegaard to be more fluent in positioning would surely do something without upsetting the defensive status quo much. Often sense we're too afraid break up the one thing that always works(Ødegaard-Saka-whoever plays RB at the day). Are we neglecting the fact that Ødegaard used to be a 10? Or just tell Martin to dribble the ball again every so often, as a younger player he would do that constantly with success, feels like it's been coached out of him in favor of being possession centric and overly "safe".

imo havertz is competent enough to make these kinds of runs, we need to focus on making the passes to see them through. just look at the germany game earlier today

For carries in the middle sign frenkieeeeeee

Great work. I love George too.😊

No runners.

Musiala is the answer.

Need a new left wing who can carry and pass better than Martinelli. Attacking from the right seems to predictable.

Rodrygo Please

Super Mikeeeee

Viera has nothing to offer this football club.

I really pushed for a joke VaRayaTy, when describing our buildup skill, missed opportunity :(

Bro aprt frm strength timber is not better than ziny at build up never

Alex, can you do a video on what we lost by selling Xhaka? (If you don’t agree the team’s lost something following his departure, then ignore this comment) When I think back to most of the 2022/23 league season, I remember a team with a great deal of balance and chemistry, fair to say we didn’t show that level of balance in 2023/24, I’d like to know exactly why because I have a feeling losing Xhaka might be a great part - some well known people have said we are more predictable in 23/24 like Tuchel said Arsenal are a team who builds up on the right and finishes on the left. We all agree but in 22/24 I wouldn’t say that, we had a preference to build on the right with Saka and Ö but could do so on the left with Xhaka and Martinelli.

That's why we wanna get Eze?

For me it's not having a left back, Timber and Tomiyasu are the only left backs and Timber's right footed and neither are natural left backs. Personally for me Jorrel Hato should be the priority, rapid, over lap and under lap, can cross a ball and dribble. Although he would be very young. He's very similar to Timber but also has a much higher ceiling. I also believe Arsenal need a conductor to sit next to Rice, like how Kante had prime Jorginho next to him

This nerd man

Bro I've beeeeeeeeen a supporter since 2019 and I'm always 3-10 mins behind your next video. I love your content much we agree on some not. Anyway please send me a jersey. I'm in South Africa 😢

Musiala

We won't sing Osimhen, simple as that.

What's your take on recent move to support LGBT, is it necessary? Or our club is losing focus to what really important to nonsense

Can you analyze Sundowns from South Africa

we need a midfielder that's an elite vertical passer of the ball Rice is a good cdm that's where he belongs, de jong would be a good signing but not sure he'd come.

Raya cost us Porto Chelsea away Bayern home, he's a clown.

the most beautiful woman reincarnated love book nerds!!

First?

All Arsenal need is a proper centre forward to hit early. No switching, no ball carrying, keep it simple. The reason Arsenal struggled was because they became too predictable for teams who set up to defend and there was no disruptive and dangerous centre forward to pull centrebacks out of position, hold the ball up and create space and play in the wingers in behind. All of Arsenal's moves came from infront of the opposition. It can work if the team synergy is perfect and all the passes and movement are quick and snappy, but it's not going to work in every single game - that's where you need your big players, and in particular, big strikers! All they have to do to make an immediate impact is buy a world class top quality centre forward who scares defences. Arsenal haven't had one of those since Robin Van Persie left! Aubameyang was good I suppose, but they bought him on his way down. That's just the start, there's obviously more they need to get, but that will make a big difference. We're coming into July and I see nothing, it's already not looking promising. Arsenal need to be busier than this, you would expect a team who finished 2nd twice in a row through only through dropping silly points, to be alot more active, there should have been transfers by now, whether those were ins or outs!

Okay wow, you can coach arsenal now 🤡

Lol did this clown say havertz doesn't make in behind runs? 😂😂😂 Meat riding for osimhen who's a literal bum with one season over 15+ goals 😂😂