Why Arsenal 's Biggest Weakness Was Exposed Against Porto
Arsenal face an uphill struggle in their Champions League knockout after a bruising 0-1 defeat to Porto. But after dishing out consecutive hammerings to West Ham and Burnley in the Premier League, what suddenly went wrong for Arteta's men in Portugal? Adam Clery picks through the game and finds their old Achilles heel has returned.
Transcript
00:00 Hello there chums, that's a new one, yes I'm trying it out, Adam Cleary here from 442 and
00:08 after a shock 1-0 defeat in Porto, Arsenal's Champions League qualification looks a little
00:14 bit more precarious than we thought perhaps it might.
00:17 Now, don't get me wrong, I still do think they'll qualify but they do face an uphill
00:21 task to do so given that Porto seem to have identified this Arsenal team's Achilles heel,
00:27 the mid-block.
00:32 Okay I'm going to put that away because it's quite unprofessional.
00:34 This is the Arsenal side that lined up against Porto, it is the same XI that scored, let
00:38 me check the date, banks, like 11 goals against Burnley and 40 goals against West Ham.
00:44 It has been solid at the back, rampant through the middle of the pitch and lethal in front
00:48 of goal and yet, Arsenal recorded an xG against Porto which looked a lot like my bank account.
00:53 In fact, I'll not labour this point because I know a lot of people don't care about xG
00:57 but it's actually worse than this because this is their total xG across the game and
01:01 this was their open play xG.
01:03 That really sucks.
01:05 So what was the problem then?
01:07 Did they forget how to play football?
01:08 Did their brains fall out?
01:10 Did they eat too many francesinas?
01:12 What's one of those?
01:13 Great question, it's a delicacy in Porto that's like layers of bread, cheese, meat, bread,
01:18 meat, cheese, bread then covered in like a tangy, tomatoey, meaty gravy.
01:22 I had a couple of them and it made me sweat and I could then see God.
01:26 But no, it was none of these things.
01:28 Porto simply employed a defensive structure against Arsenal that Arsenal have repeatedly
01:33 this season struggled to break down.
01:35 And that is the mid-block.
01:38 Now if you have never heard that term before, do not worry.
01:40 A mid-block is simply a defensive structure that teams will employ where you push your
01:44 defenders up the pitch but you also sit your attackers off so you try and congest the middle
01:50 part of the pitch.
01:51 Now you may have heard of the term a low-block which is exactly the same thing.
01:54 They're both designed to stop you getting played through but a low-block is done pretty
01:58 much in your third of the pitch so there's no space in behind for balls over the top.
02:02 But a mid-block, a little bit more ambitious than that, you do it in the middle of the
02:06 pitch, your goalkeeper then has to sort of sweep up in behind in case they do go over
02:10 the top but the benefit is if you do then turn the ball over, if you win it back, you're
02:14 much closer to the opposition goal.
02:16 From the very first couple of minutes of this game, Porto were very happy to allow Arsenal's
02:20 first line of build-up, usually the defence, sometimes David Reyes, sometimes Declan Rice,
02:25 to have the ball in their third of the pitch but as soon as they tried to move into the
02:30 middle, be it with a run or a pass or anything, then they would hound them.
02:34 And from the very first minute, like over and over, we saw these long periods of possession
02:38 from Arsenal where they would move the ball from left to right trying to find some kind
02:42 of gap in this mid-block and Porto just simply would not give them one.
02:46 On the rare occasion they were able to find somebody in this space between the lines and
02:50 get a pass into them, they were man-marked from behind so they could not get turned and
02:54 the ball just came straight back.
02:56 Now the thing is, Arsenal aren't stupid, they know this is something they occasionally struggle
02:59 with and Arteta has, several times this season, found new and innovative ways to pick through
03:05 this kind of defence.
03:06 And they did try pretty much all of them last night.
03:10 Martin Oerdegaard, sometimes he will drop away from the 8th position and go as far back
03:14 as he can to get on the ball.
03:15 Fine, said Porto, you're welcome to do that but we still won't let you turn with it because
03:19 we know what you can do.
03:21 They inverted Ben White over into the middle and allowed Bakayo Saka to drop to create
03:25 this little bit of space on the right-hand channel but Porto just refused to take the
03:29 bait.
03:30 In fact, actually Arteta tried loads of different things with Ben White.
03:33 He was allowing him to go beyond Saka down the right-hand side and even if the space
03:37 was there, was allowing him to just run into the forward line to see if one of the midfielders
03:43 in the part of the high press would go with him and create a little bit extra space but
03:47 no, that wasn't the rule.
03:49 Bakayo had a back four that was pushing right up to the halfway line and whether it was
03:52 Saka or White or Oerdegaard or Trossard, whoever ended up in that space, that was their job.
03:58 Nobody was getting dragged out of position in the press, nobody was falling for the bait
04:02 and pushing too high up to create a space in behind them.
04:05 They were so disciplined, so dogged, so determined.
04:09 And you do need those three things by the way.
04:11 Like any team in the world can set up like this against Arsenal but it only works if
04:15 you apply it really, really well.
04:17 It's not just some magic formula that beats a Mikkel Arteta side, it's how you do it.
04:22 And they did it so well.
04:24 Like if we look at Arsenal's average positions across that game, just nobody is getting a
04:28 touch of the ball anywhere near this central area of Portos half.
04:32 Like even Trossard, who was nominally the centre forward in this system, kept having
04:37 to drop out to the left-hand side because it was the only place he could get on the
04:40 ball.
04:41 Havertz, who sometimes pushes up from the eight, couldn't do it around here because
04:43 there was just no service to him.
04:46 Like this is Trossard's heat map against West Ham and this is Trossard's heat map against
04:51 Burnley.
04:52 And I know he's not like a centre forward or centre forward, but part of his job is
04:55 to be that focal point.
04:57 This is his heat map against Porto.
04:59 Just couldn't get the ball.
05:00 And so the pattern went on repeating itself.
05:03 Arsenal were going from left to right, not able to get any incisive passes into the two
05:07 number eights.
05:08 When they did finally get down the channels, be that with a long ball or just something
05:12 they worked down the sides, there was no presence in the middle of the pitch to make it worthwhile.
05:16 Now, if you have been watching the channel for a while, you know we covered this earlier
05:19 in the season when Arsenal's results started to tail off.
05:22 And part of the problem is Declan Rice.
05:24 I'm at pains to point out this isn't a criticism of him, just something about his game.
05:29 He does not have that sort of really risky incisive through the lines pass that perhaps
05:34 Sanchenko or even Thomas Party do.
05:36 Which is why, and I mean to whisper this one, in the really, really big games, Arteta prefers
05:40 to have Jorginho there with Rice as one of the eights and Havertz up front, because he
05:44 knows the really, really good teams can kind of snuff out that first pass from Declan Rice
05:48 quite easily.
05:49 And he did try to address this in this game, Arteta.
05:52 He made that substitution.
05:53 He brought Jorginho on to sit in the six to receive the ball, to be more able to turn
05:57 and possibly get that incisive pass through the lines that would open Porto up.
06:02 But they were just too good at this mid-block and didn't let that happen.
06:06 Like even here, this is position A1, Jorginho gets behind that first line of the press,
06:10 that's exactly where you want him to be, they get the ball into him.
06:13 But they are too dogged, they are too determined, they don't let him turn and the ball goes
06:18 backwards.
06:19 It was actually remarkably similar, I thought, to the Newcastle game last year, in that Arsenal
06:23 had a lot of the ball but really struggled to create any clear-cut chances.
06:26 Newcastle denied them all the space in the middle of the pitch and in the end, they lost
06:31 by one goal, for which some people thought maybe the goalkeeper should have done better.
06:38 But we'll not get into any of that right now.
06:41 Now you know football, you know what it's like, sometimes you've just got to hold your
06:44 hands up and say, "Do you know what?
06:45 The opposition have done a number on us today, it ain't gonna work."
06:49 But this is the big reveal, right?
06:51 I think Arsenal knew they could not play through Porto and I think they decided we're not even
06:59 gonna try.
07:00 This is something I have been mulling over for some time now and I have no evidence,
07:03 I have no proof, I have no statistics to back any of this up.
07:06 This is just something I've seen with my eye.
07:09 Sometimes in these games, Arsenal come across either a mid-block or a low-block, they can't
07:13 play through them.
07:14 So what they try and do instead is deliberately play for set-pieces.
07:18 Now the one bit of data I do have is how good Arsenal are set-pieces.
07:22 If we look at how they rank in the Premier League, they are undoubtedly one of the most
07:26 effective and efficient teams for scoring goals from free kicks, from corners and even
07:30 throw-ins.
07:31 And there was just a little moment in this game, with about 10-15 minutes to go, where
07:36 I think it's Leandro Trossard, he gets the ball down the left-hand channel in what is
07:40 actually quite a good position.
07:43 And despite the fact it's late in the game and Arsenal have been pressing for a goal
07:46 for a while and they're finally in, down one of the sides, there's just nothing happening
07:50 in the middle.
07:51 There is nobody there already and there's also nobody who seems arsed about getting
07:55 there.
07:56 And right now, I am expecting Trossard to get his foot on the ball, look up to see if
08:00 there's a cross available, realise there's not, and then have to sort of come back in
08:03 and Arsenal sort of pile up the pitch and pen the ball to him.
08:06 But that doesn't happen.
08:08 Trossard, without even looking up, just plays the ball off the defender and wins a corner.
08:13 Now obviously Arsenal don't score from this corner, but you probably would argue, given
08:16 how good they are at corners, they had a much better chance of scoring from that than they
08:20 did as if he tried to just work the ball into the box with no support.
08:24 And honestly, I think this is a game plan Arsenal have on occasion.
08:29 And again, this isn't me throwing shade, if that's something they're trying to do, then
08:33 fair play, that's a really, really good idea.
08:35 It's just not something you associate with one of the big, big teams, like, "Oh, let's
08:40 play for set pieces."
08:42 A goal's a goal.
08:43 Like, if they'd have walked out there winning 1-0, because Gabriela bulleted ahead of him
08:47 at the back post after they'd been knocking on the door for a better part of 80 minutes,
08:50 I think we'd all be saying, "Yeah, fair play, well managed."
08:54 Anyway, yes, that's why they couldn't score against Porto, and if you want, you can just
08:57 take this entire video as a preview piece for the return leg, because that is absolutely
09:01 how Porto are going to play again.
09:03 Anyway, Arsenal fans, I will see you Saturday when you play my beloved Newcastle United.
09:08 My God, please, please be gentle.
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09:46 Anyway, yes, that's it.
09:47 I was going to include a little five-minute bit about what a nice time I had in Porto
09:51 when I went to see them play Barcelona this season, but it just felt a little bit self-indulgent
09:56 that.
09:57 So instead, to play us out, here is some nice traditional Portuguese music, over set to
10:01 some lovely holiday photos.
10:02 Goodbye!
10:03 [Music]
10:03 [Music]
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