Artetactics
Different phases of Mikel Arteta’s tactics
Ever since taking over the team in 2019, Arteta has tried various types of tactics and strategies, tweaking around the formations, players and their instructions to find his ideological system. After countless defeats and lessons, the Spaniard finally seems to have a hold of how he wants to field his strongest XI.
Having tried and failed multiple times, Arteta eventually found his way of fußball. The way his wants it to be; The Arteta-ball. Although the route wasn’t easy, he was battered, criticized, scrutinized on his way up. A live example of how patience is bitter, but it’s fruit is sweet.
Regardless, let’s get on with an in-depth tactical analysis of Arteta’a “three main” formations and strategies he applied over the course of 2 odd years he’s been at Arsenal.
Phase one; the takeover.
Starting things off with the notorious 343, a system Arteta used out of helplessness due to the lack of a properly aligned personnel.
As Pep Guardiola once said, “Give me a team, not like Man city, and I’m not going to win”. And that holds alot of truth, a coach can only do much with what’s available in his given roster. Arteta being inexperienced, heading into his first full season as a professional manager with a disorientated squad, it was obviously not going to be easy at all.
With the limited squad, both in numbers of quality and quantity, Arteta tried to restrict the opposition rather than maximising the squad’s capabilities. It was a rather conservative playstyle which he was trying to adapt. Starting off with a 5-2-3, which he regularly shifted to 3-4-3 for more attacking dynamism, Mikel couldn’t really replicate his idea of expressive, free flowing football.
In possession, building from the back, both the centre and the right sided defender came short near the goalie inviting the pressure and both the pivots dropped deep to support the centre backs and often played out on the wide after receiving the ball. Either of bellerin or Tierney got the ball and moved in space and looked to create opportunities depending on the opposition's marking, either inside to the pivot or up front to the winger.
In case if both the pivots were marked, laca often dropped deep to support, becoming the extra man and creating a 2v3 advantage in midfield, generating space for the wingers to overload.
Although this had its disadvantages, especially in the midfield area due to the lack of a proper creative outlet. The current sets of midfielders bar Thomas partey (who had a rough time dealing with injuries and sharpness issues), lacked creativity to the required level for the tactics to work.
Arsenal mainly looked to play out from the wide, but that didn’t work due to auba being heavily out of form and both the wingers always being in a cover shadow.
Out of possession, it was quite evident and self-explanatory, arsenal sat very deep, creating a low block and looking to nullify oppositions attack by forming a deep 5-3-2.
The defensive improvements were very noticeable, having conceded 39 goals the whole season; 3rd best in the league. But that came at a huge cost, our attacking play turned out dull.
Phase two; The masterstroke.
Arsenal's poor run of form saw alot of dismays amongst the fans, although Mikel had the board's support, the fans were restlessly waiting for something to change, a spark of luck, be it anything, just to get the club back on track in the league.
With just one win from the last 10 games prior to facing Chelsea on boxing Day, fans were impatiently exacting a change in form for the good.
26th December, boxing day, we were up against Chelsea, who were having an inconsistent run of form themselves. It was the victory in the London derby against our bitter rivals that gave arteta and the players some breathing space, all it took was a bit of tweaking in the tactics and formation. Introduction of Smith Rowe, shifting the personnel from the futile 343 to a 4231.
The renowned 4231, a formation used by many top coaches, was implemented by Mikel which turned out to be the MASTERSTROKE.
In possession, building out from the back — the centre halves usually dropped deep near the goalie to help build out, one pivot then coming in filling up around the centre half area to create overload and assist the backline in spewing the ball out.
Meanwhile, the fullbacks moved wider and higher up the pitch, especially the left side where Kieran Tierney was operating along with xhaka and martinelli. Xhaka mainly moved toward the left side to create a triangular overload with Tierney and Martinelli.
The front 3 constantly on the move with the wingers usually cutting in to give options near the box and the striker — lacazette — doing what he does best; dropping near the half line and backing into opponents and getting the ball, or creating chances with his off the ball movements.
Defensively, again, very self explanatory — arsenal’s fundamentals are as always — low block, compact defensive line, players dropping deep and forming a visibly 442 where odegaard, who was then signed , was deployed alongside lacazette to play as the 2 centre forwards when out of possession to retain the ball.
It was mainly due to Smith Rowe’s intelligence — the attack was fluent. His reconnaissance to map down and create pockets of spaces either by drifting wide, getting in behind or dropping deep to connect with the pivots.
Overall, this tactical tweak was a huge success as it changed our course for the remainder of the season. Having won 14 and drawing 5 in our next 24 games till the end of the season.
Emile's introduction gave Arteta the flexibility to opt for his favourable formation and tactics, we well as solving the creativity issues we had prior to our revolutionary win against the blues.
Phase 3; Implementing the ideology
“We want to move to a 4-3-3 but for that, you need a lot of specificity in every position but now in five or six positions, we don’t have it” ~ Mikel Arteta in 2020.
After almost 2 years, the arsenal coach is finally getting to execute his philosophy, in a rather unconventional way from a point of view. The main talking point of his shift to a 433 has been granit xhaka, the swiss midfielder has been operating as a left sided 8 with a free role, which is so-not like the player he is, often seen as a deep-lying playmaker and/or a defensive pivot, granit’s shift to becoming more of an attacking minded midfielder has been nothing short of surprising. And to think that it has been working out perfectly as of yet, is even more flabbergasting.
Arteta has made quite alot of changes to fit players in the 433 formation, and modern football emphasizes more on roles than positions. Ødegaard playing a role similar to that of xhaka, but on the right side and Thomas partey playing as the single pivot. This formation offers alot of positional fluidity and rotation.
Starting things off, this formation obviously allows arteta to play a high defensive line with the pacey defensive outlets in Gabriel, White, Tierney and Tomiyasu. The fullbacks however, in this system, play more of a defensive role than the typical overlapping attacking ones in the previous systems.
The midfield consisting of a pivot (partey) who’s good at screening and stopping the opposition as well as spewing long balls to release the pressure off of him along with being one of the in progressing the ball forward. A complete midfield package who’s finally showing his skills.
Two free roaming midfielders (xhaka and ødegaard) who often drift wide to create a triangular overload with the fullback and the winger (Tierney-xhaka-martinelli and tomiyasu-odegaard-saka) helping the wingers enjoy taking on the opposition with lesser demands in contrast to previous strategies.
Lastly, the striker, lacazette dropping deep to support the midfield three creating a midfield diamond of 4 giving arsenal the numerical advantage over the opposition in the middle of the park, simultaneously creating space for the wingers to run into.
The blueprint has been laid out, the ideology has been presented, the philosophy is evident. Just a matter of time before we see something absolutely out of the blue from Arteta and his force.
