flameinthesun
Full Member
There are some acting like is pressing is something new, when we did it last season as well. We just are not leaving that huge space in midfield anymore. Our biggest problem has always been on the ball, and creating good chances, that is still largely the same and has not change.
We press, get the ball and promptly lose it in an idiotic way, and then have to do the running all over again. It is no mystery we let so many late goals in, the players are tired after all the running we do at the start that we are vulnerable at the end.
Yeah I have similar sentiments. The press is actually pretty good. Our playing out from the back is good.
Our decision making and ability to keep possession is whats killing us and contributing to the basketball style of matches which leaves our players gassed, by the time the team pushed up our attackers have already lost the ball. The amount of times in a game you will see the following is insane:
- A casemiro blind pass that gives the ball away
- A Bruno speculative pass/trick/flick that gives the ball away
- A Rashford/Garnacho attempt to dribble past 2 defenders from a low possibility position
- A simple pass usually from a Rashford that is behind a player
- An inability from an attacker to just hold on to the ball and bring others into play
When you look at Peps possession play and now Arteta's, half the time why it seems boring is to cut out losing the ball at inopportune times and to allow the team to get up the pitch and pin the other team in. This means less energy spent, easier to counter press and control games. We all know this, even Klopp knew this hence why he started to implement if more. So it should be no surprise that when we have Bruno spamming balls away, Rashford/Garnacho losing ball on counters and Casemiro giving simple passes away that we struggle to control matches. No wonder our players are consistently gassed in the last 20 minutes.
I hope if we get Ugarte in that we can at least improve on the Casemiro point as he seems much more comfortable on the ball in tight spaces and is safer with it. I'd keep playing Amad as he contributes so much more to our possession play and I'd consider trying Mount or Zirkzee from the left. I honestly think we will struggle to control games when you have 2 or 3 of Bruno/Rashford/Garnacho playing as they are mavericks who are just naturally careless with the ball.