Tactics Column: How Gyokeres can right Arsenal’s wrongs

With Arsenal’s Premier League season beginning with a trip to Old Trafford, it feels apt that it’s Mikel Arteta’s analysis of this fixture exact last season that I have not been able to get out of my head since March.

As fans, we often look at the team and think it is built entirely in the manager’s image, that the players must — regardless of their own decision-making, skillsets, limitations — be carrying out exactly what the manager wants. And maybe they are at times, but even then, a manager will usually only ask players to do something they are actually capable of doing.

Sometimes we get a glimpse into what Arteta really thinks, and the pre-PSV press conference, days after drawing 1-1 at Old Trafford five months ago, was one of those times.

“Against Manchester United we had 11 situations where we had open spaces to attack, 11 big ones. We used one. Top teams, they use nine. … The situations were there. We didn’t use them.”

It doesn’t sound like the team did exactly what Arteta would have liked them to do that day. Those aren’t the words of a manager begging his players not to counter-attack.

A common complaint within the Arsenal fanbase has been that teams sit deeper against us than against, say Liverpool, or any of our other rivals. But is that true? It wasn’t true at Old Trafford, in the game Arteta was referring too. Maybe it isn’t about how the opposition approach things but about how Arsenal do, and the Gunners are guilty of allowing teams to get back behind the ball more often than, say, Liverpool do?

Going back to that game at Old Trafford, you don’t see a wide open Manchester United setup but there are plenty of opportunities for Arsenal to counter-attack that aren’t taken advantage of. There’s no way of knowing whether or not these are some of the 11 Arteta was referring to, but here are a handful of frustrating examples.

In Mikel Merino’s defence, he was doing a makeshift job as a striker, but he was not alone in failing to give Arsenal what the situation demanded.

The problem was with others when Merino was holding the ball up, with plenty of players close enough to support in attack — in the example below there are five — but none of them making any kind of run in behind to stretch the United backline.

And when Arsenal broke through the Manchester United press or could launch an attack from David Raya claiming the ball and getting things going quickly, the same issues with a lack of runners arose and potential attacks were too slow, allowing defenders to get back behind the ball as Arsenal crept upfield.

These weren’t the only examples of Arsenal ambling forward, with the players out of possession looking at the ball rather than making a sprint away from it in behind or into the channels.

I ask again: do teams really sit deeper against Arsenal, or do Arsenal allow them to get back behind the ball by failing to break quickly enough?

Scoring against the most organised and stubborn of sides — Newcastle, Porto, Fulham — for a couple of seasons now and there is no doubt Arteta will be looking for ways to make Arsenal more threatening in those encounters. Viktor Gyokeres will almost certainly be key there and there is a glimmer of light from the team’s last visit to Old Trafford in the form of Gabriel Martinelli.

Martinelli, back from injury, was introduced just shy of the hour mark in that 1-1 draw and it took him just 30 seconds he showed his intent, plotting a run, though the ball didn’t drop to an Arsenal player in midfield and any potential attack was scuppered.

One minute later he did make a run into the space and raced onto a pass.

And he kept making those runs in behind.

That endeavour to turn the opposition around and play the ball into space made Arsenal a lot more dangerous. In just 33 minutes, Martinelli had the most touches in the opposition box of any Arsenal player that day. He received six progressive passes (Trossard played 90 on the opposite flank and received seven), his five progressive carries were bettered only by Ethan Nwaneri (seven in 57 minutes) and Jurrien Timber (six in 90 minutes), he was one of only two players to complete a cross, only Martin Odegaard had more shots on target and only Leandro Trossard generated more xG from his shots. That’s all despite all 11 starters ending the game with more touches than the Brazilian’s 19.

Martinelli can frustrate because he has opportunities and doesn’t make the most out of them, but it is a hell of a lot better than not creating any opportunities for yourself in the first place.

And this is where the addition of Viktor Gyokeres should be interesting. He’s a very different type of striker to the players Arsenal have had before. There’s a more in-depth analysis of him here, but the short version is: he will make runs in behind, away from the ball, over and over again.

You won’t often see him coming towards the ball on the halfway line. He wants to drive in behind and drag defenders into wide open spaces, often out near the touchline, before taking them on one-on-one. Which brings me to another Arteta quote from after that Manchester United game.

“It’s not only about the space, but it also has to be created, not just used. To create it, you need threat behind as well to stretch things out. You need players that can fix more than one opponent as well. I think it’s very important to create the spaces.”

Players making runs into space doesn’t just give you the opportunity to exploit the space that already exists, but it opens up more spaces for team-mates too. When you drag defenders wide or deep, you drag them further and further from their team-mates. Gaps open up and even the most organised teams will, momentarily, be vulnerable.

After the flaws in last season’s draw, Old Trafford could be the perfect place to see how much Arsenal have learned about the sorts of games that have given them the most headaches in recent times, and how much they are willing to change. One thing’s for sure: when the space is there, waiting to be attacked, Mikel Arteta does not want his players to turn down the invitation.

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