Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has to find a system which can get the best out of the new mega signings, Gabriel Jesus and Fabio Vieira. The Gunners recently announced the signing of Vieira as they acquired the 22-year-old from FC Porto for a fee of around £34m, including add-ons.
Fabio Vieira is a technical midfielder who can work in central or wide areas of the field. The Portuguese midfielder has 6 league goals and 14 assists (stats via Sofascore) to his name in the 2021-22 season. The player offers a profile somewhat similar to Martin Odegaard – a left-footed playmaker with a tremendous work rate.
Meanwhile, the Gunners have also completed the signing of Gabriel Jesus. The Man City striker would be a fantastic addition to Arsenal’s depleted front-line. The North London side are short on firepower after Alexandre Lacazette’s move back to Lyon. Eddie Nketiah, however, signed a contract extension that will keep him at the Emirates Stadium until 2027.
The 25-year-old Brazilian can play across the front-3 but prefers to be deployed down the flanks. While this offers Arteta great tactical flexibility, questions remain on how the Gunners will line up next season.
Nketiah looked impressive in the closing stages of the season. However, the 23-year-old is still rough around the edges and cannot be tasked with holding the central position all by himself. Jesus could be deployed there occasionally, but a central role arguably limits the Brazilian’s game. Florian Balogun’s future also remains uncertain as the new season looms.
Underlying Arsenal’s Key Problem in 2021-22
Arsenal managed to finish 5th in the 2021-22 Premier League season. They narrowly missed out on a place in the Champions League. Throughout the season, the Gunners looked to play a possession-oriented game, averaging the 5th most possession in the league.
Arteta’s men also ranked 6th in terms of progressions and entries into the final third.
However, a recurring issue that the North London side faced was breaking down opposition blocks in the final-third. They often dominated possession and imposed themselves on the opposition. However, they struggled to translate passes into chances.
Arsenal’s major problems in the final third could be broken down into:
A. Stimulating The Half Spaces
The permanence of width has been a key feature of Mikel Arteta’s side, irrespective of the formation. On each flank, the Spaniard instructs one player to maintain absolute width at all times. Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Nuno Tavares and Keiran Tierney have all been used as wide outlets.
Maintaining constant width helps to stretch out the opposition defence very well. However, teams have very little attacking potential from the wide channels alone. Simply stretching out the opposition structure by itself is pointless. This is because the player in the wide channel does not directly offer much shooting or passing threat, without proper support.
And the Gunners have struggled to effectively provide such support. Even if they locate their wide players well, there have not been enough supporting runs into the half-spaces, or from the half-spaces.
B. Threatening The Box
For large parts of the season, Arsenal utilised Alexandre Lacazette as their target-man. The Frenchman often dropped deeper to get involved in the build-up. While this provided the Gunners with an additional body in the midfield, it left the centre-forward area unoccupied. This meant that the Gunners had no passing option directly into Zone-14.
Furthermore, it allowed the opposition defence to step up, and minimize the playing field. Nketiah helped in solving the problem towards the tail-end of the season. However, the Englishman still needs to improve his positioning and first touch to become a potent threat from the 9-position.
How Could Arsenal Optimally Utilize Their Current Options Next Season?
The Gunners have some notable quality in the midfield now. Mohamed Elneny’s contract extension and the signing of Fabio Vieira signing have added some solid depth to Arteta’s current options at Arsenal – Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Emile Smith Rowe and Martin Odegaard.
Elneny and Partey are both ideally suited to play as the lone pivot. Xhaka and Lokonga have excelled in the “6” role alongside a DM, either in a double pivot or midfield-3. This leaves 3 quality players – Emile Smith Rowe, Martin Odegaard and Fabio Vieira – competing for just one midfield position at Arsenal.
In modern football, only Pep Guardiola has managed to deploy two 8s in a 3-man midfield without compromising the defensive integrity of the team. The former Barcelona boss has successfully deployed Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva ahead of Rodri in the midfield. Guardiola makes use of inverted full-backs to maintain his team’s structure.
Mikel Arteta, too, has sometimes managed to integrate two playmakers into the same line-up. Unlike Pep, Arteta has made use of asymmetric full-backs, allowing one to overlap while the other inverts. Generally, Takehiro Tomiyasu has inverted on the right allowing Tierney/Tavares to overlap down the left.
This is complemented by the movement of the wingers. Bukayo Saka has been instructed to hold his position close to the touchline to compensate the width. On the left, the overlapping full-back is provided room when the left-winger comes into the half-space.
In this manner, Arteta was able to use Smith Rowe and Odegaard together while sticking to his preferred team set-up. Could a similar set-up be used to accommodate Fabio Vieira too? Or could Arteta go one step further and make use of a false-nine to use all three players at the same time?
The possibility of using a false-9 could be appealing for a few reasons. It allows a rotation among Smith Rowe, Odegaard and Vieira between the central role and the half-spaces.
Odegaard and Vieira are adept at receiving the ball in the half-spaces and feeding the forwards. If they are used in the central role, it could allow them to turn and directly access the opposition box easily. Odegaard has elite positioning ability and would be potent at creating space for himself and his teammates around the opposition box.
Smith Rowe is the most active attacker off the ball. The Hale End graduate has a great eye for goal, and could constantly look to bomb into the opposition box and attack the goal.
The addition of Gabriel Jesus adds more variety to Arsenal’s frontline. Many fans would deploy Jesus as a centre-forward in their line-up, flanked by Martinelli and Saka. While Jesus can work as a centre-forward, it is far from his ideal role. Furthermore, while the Brazilian has excellent positioning and movement off the ball, his finishing has been mediocre in recent years.
Since the 2017-18 season, Jesus has scored just 51 goals from an xG of 61.9. In the 2021-22 season, the 25-year-old had 8 goals from an xG of 10.1. Jesus as a player would immensely improve Arsenal’s front-line and general attacking play. However, relying on the former Palmeiras man to take up the mantle as Arteta’s primary goal-scorer could be disastrous, both for the player and the team.
An interesting possibility would be to use Jesus down the left wing. Saka is an undisputable starter on the right-wing, but the Brazilian could be utilized there too. On the left, Jesus would have more optimal angles to cut in with his stronger right foot. Furthermore, he would have the freedom to switch roles between the wide outlet, half-space runner and central target-man with ease.
This could also be helped by the supporting movements from Tierney and Xhaka down the left flank. Jesus could be the wide man in a front-3 that uses Nketiah as the central player. This provides Arsenal with the depth in the front-line that they have sorely lacked over the last 2 seasons.
What Comes Next?
Arsenal still have unfinished business in the transfer market. Apart from outgoing players like Bernd Leno, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, and Hector Bellerin among others, the Gunners could use 1-2 more signings to improve the squad. The Gunners continue to be linked with another midfielder, while a new centre-forward could also be roped in.
One of Arsenal’s most important transfer decisions involves the backup full-backs. Currently, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Keiran Tierney are Arsenal’s starting full-backs. Unfortunately, the duo have been very injury prone over the last season. Furthermore, the qualitative gap between Arteta’s preferred duo and their deputies has been sizeable. Arsenal have been trying to offload Tavares for this season and have been linked with Aaron Hickey as a replacement signing.
Arsenal’s search for backups in the left-back department has two major constraints:
- The Gunners would struggle to lure a top-class player as there is no guarantee of minutes.
- If Arsenal do opt for a cheaper replacement, they will be effectively trading off player quality for price. This has proven to be costly in the absence of Tierney and Tomiyasu.
The Gunners have two solutions for this:
- Develop a player from within their own youth academy. Brooke Norton-Cuffy could be a fantastic option for Arteta to utilize as Tomiyasu’s backup on the right.
- Aim to sign differential profiles.
As mentioned above, Arsenal make use of asymmetric full-backs. Arteta has achieved this perfectly when Tierney and Tomiyasu are on the field. Tomiyasu serves as the perfect defensive full-back, tucking in with Ben White and Gabriel to form a back-3. Tierney has been effective in holding width on the left, allowing his forwards to access the opposition goal easily.
Tomiyasu, however, isn’t particularly adept in the final third of the field. It would be beneficial for the Gunners to target an attacking full-back, like Nahuel Molina. This would allow Arteta to maintain his standard attacking shape, with a small tweak.
Read More:
- Arsenal Considering Move for €17m Rated French Midfielder in a Swap Deal
- Arsenal and Newcastle United Lead Race for €55m Rated Serie A Midfielder Available at a Cut-price Fee
- Bayer Leverkusen Eyeing €20m Rated Arsenal Midfielder Linked With an Exit This Summer
The right-winger could be allowed to invert, while the left-winger maintains width: an exact mirror image of the current system. Such a formation would also allow Martin Odegaard or Fabio Vieira to play down the flank for Arsenal if necessary.
Tierney is a very versatile player. Arteta has used him on the overlap and in an inverted role with equal success. For the Scotland National Team, the 25-year-old has played as an exterior centre-back in a 5-man backline too. This allows Arsenal some freedom while picking a backup for the former Celtic player.
Follow AD for the Latest Updates on Arsenal.
