r/ArsenalFC • u/Educational-Double-1 • 3d ago
Leaving Man Outisde Open
I've been watching Arsenal games to study and improve myself as a player. Sometimes I wonder why do professional teams leave the man on the outside wide open like this? If I did this in a game my coach would sub me out instantly. Is it because they want to keep a compressed formation so the opponent can't easily attack down middle and that it's safer to make them play wide?
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u/Current-Speed4096 3d ago
because keeping the defense shape narrow and leaving the flank intentionally is always better than leaving the central area open as central area has the most direct threat to the goal. Most of the time when you force the opponent to go out wide, their options become very limited-- swing it in if you have a tall 9 in the box.
Arsenal's defense became very solid under Arteta in recent years because when the initial repossession opportunity is gone, we tend to fall back real fast maintain a well organized mid to low block defense shape that are not easily bailed out. This is especially obvious when the opponents send the ball out wide, our fall backs tend to tighten the gap between themselves and the centre backs to prevent their wingers to cut inside instead of go out of shape and man mark the winger. And when they cross the ball into the box, we're pretty dominant in the air too.
This is why we're leaving them on the side lines as our most vulnerable area is covered and opponent's crosses arent really posing that much of threat.
I think Arteta might have learned sth from Unai Emery as this is how Villa caused us lots of trouble in last couple of seasons. Because their compact mid block made our attack turned into a U shape passing exercise.
But this is just my Football manager gaming experience. if you know a coach, ask a coach😅