How Arteta can fix Arsenal’s system:
[A Thread]
#AFC

Sitting at 11th in the league, with a -1 goal difference, this thread will look at how Arteta can change Arsenal’s fortune. To do this, we will consider:

• The role of the wingbacks
• What is their best frontline
• How to improve when building
• What adding verticality does

For a quick overview, Arsenal’s lineup usually looks like the following below.

With the ball, Aubameyang and Willian hold the width, the wingbacks play inverted (although they start wide and move centrally as Arsenal move up) and the CM’s shuttle the midfield.

From this, they usually create chances with the underlaps, as seen by Bellerin’s penalty vs United, or by crosses into the box.

This utilises the pace of Bellerin and Saka well, as they can drive into the box, looking for either a cutback or a cross to the back stick.

However, this method does have a few issues.

The first problem occurs if the opposition track the underlapping wingbacks. This unfortunately reduces Arsenal to just swinging in crosses, which as we saw against Villa where they attempted 25 crosses to no avail, isn’t great.

The second problem with this setup actually comes from the players used and their positioning.

Arsenal have three natural goalscorers in their side, Aubemeyang, Lacazette and Pepe, but this system plays to none of their strengths.

Aubameyang shouldn’t be playing out wide, Lacazette shouldn’t be playing so deep, and Pepe should be starting week in week out.

Since joining Arsenal all have regressed because of these issues, and the scale of the regression can be easily seen in their goals per90 graphs below.

To get the best out of Arsenal’s squad, the frontline and their roles will therefore have to be changed.

The first change should be Aubameyang to the middle. Here he can run off the last defender in a much more direct way, suiting his poacher style of play.

With Pepe, he should move into his old role at Lille and play as an inside forward on the right.

Much more narrow, with much less work to do he can use his excellent movement and finishing ability to get back to his level at Lille, which saw him net 22 goals and 11 assists.

Moving over to LW, whilst Saka is a very good option, I prefer him as a LWB, so I think it’s time to give Reiss Nelson a serious run out.

He’s looked solid from what he’s played so far, and likes to cut in which is such a benefit in terms of chance creation on the wings.

However, this does mean Lacazette would be benched.

At 29 years old, out of form and with his contract up at the end of next season now may be the time to move him on. Doing so will allow the likes of Nketiah and Balogun to start more and enhance their development significantly.

Moving on, I also think the wingbacks need to move from looking for underlaps to overlaps.

Underlaps can work really well, but overlaps are much more effective. An overlap overloads the opposition full back, whereas an underlap can be easily tracked by the nearside CM.

Bringing this all together, we can compare the method of chance creation before with how it would now work.

As opposed to the two options before, when, for example, Reiss receives the ball he has four options.
- Slip in Auba
- Cross to Pepe
- Saka’s overlap
- Have a pop

This is the style of attack that saw City become such ruthless goalscorers in the 17/18 and 18/19 seasons.

As seen below, when Raheem Sterling cuts inside he has the same options, but in this case the runners pin the CB’s back allowing Sterling to finish calmly into the corner.

This means that in the attacking phase, Arsenal would play a 325, with the inside forwards/wingers tucking in. Not too far from the 235 Liverpool play.

In addition, one tweak I think Arteta should consider is to play David Luiz as a libero.

A libero functions as a covering CB in defence, but when his side have the ball he transitions to DM. This allows Luiz to use his full passing range and provides more midfield stability.

In using Luiz in this way, it not only bolsters the midfield, but also allows Arsenal to defend in the 541 which has been so effective for them.

Although as seen below, Arteta needs to be careful with his selection, as some players (Mustafi) can be caught out of position

In possession I’d also like to see Arsenal’s frontline drop off the oppositions defence more.

Whilst it pins them back, it stops Arsenal’s ability to play line breaking passes, which is why we saw Thomas Partey so frustrated in his debut as it results in side-to-side football.

If you contrast the two images below of Arsenal and City in possession, you can see why City are able to break the lines so frequently.

Having your forwards drop off between the lines, massively enhances your ability to break sides down and it’s something Arsenal should adopt.

Adding this verticality also stops the consistent lateral passes we see Arsenal make.

For a side that have a lot of the ball Arsenal just don’t seem to go anywhere with it. Looking at Bellerin’s pass map, it’s just back and forth and it seriously hinders Arsenal’s play.

This increase in verticality not only allows Arsenal to progress up the pitch quicker, it could also allow them to make good use of Auba and Pepe’s pace and movement to go direct on occasion.

This could come in the form of a ball over the top, or with a ‘back and through’ move.

The ‘back and through’ starts with a line breaking pass through to a forward. He then quickly lays it off and then you play it through.

It’s an extremely quick and hard to defend move as the attacking side can progress to a goalscoring chance in three quick passes.

With us talking about Aubameyang occasionally dropping off the line as well, this could make the ‘back and through’ particularly effective.

In dropping off, the CB will follow Auba and then Pepe can use the space made to go through on goal.

The final point I’d make is that we’ve got to see Ceballos over Elneny.

I don’t overly like Ceballos, but he’s much more creative than Elneny, who’s passing map shown below is just abysmal. Ceballos works just as hard with much more technical ability and should be starting.

Overall, I think Arteta has created a really strong defensive unit and with a few changes he could have a really well balanced side.

Apart from a signing in the centre of the park, Arteta has all the ingredients of a decent side and it’ll be interesting to see how they progress.