Match reaction v the orcs

[I am invisible]

Bad passing happens on bad pitches or when our energy levels drop.

Our counter attacking is ok, but no one really plays a high line against us, and with Giroud as the linch pin, there's really a limit to what you can do.

Our old school breaks usually had a leggy CF or winger take the ball all the way to the box, at the moment, we don't really have any wingers...

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It's not just us - no one really plays a high line against anyone any more. The offside laws are just too much of an ambiguous mess to make playing the offside trap a sane strategy. What you tend to see these days is defences that never really stray more than about 10 metres from their respective 18 yard boxes (unless you're sending the occasional fullback up in support of an attack), and, instead of following the old Arrigo Sacchi mantra of never having more than 25 yards between your front and back lines at any given time, we now have more of an accordion effect, where the defence is anchored, and your other lines expand and contract when you attack and defend. All this means that the space is now found in the middle of the park instead of behind high defensive lines, and this is why most sides have now moved away from 442, and sacrificed a second striker for the sake of an extra central midfielder. I suspect it's also why we've seen a gradual move away from pacey / leggy strikers like Henry, and towards powerful target-men who can hold their own as a lone man, and/or one-touch box-strikers who can flash in a goal in packed penalty areas?

Counter-attacking has obviously had to adapt to this too - the runners are now in the middle of the park, looking to gain ground when those lines get stretched, and not up front, with strikers looking to race clear from the halfway line. It still works in a slightly different way though - at it's core, it's still just about attacking space, and catching your opponent on the back foot when they've over-committed. It's just the space that's changed.

We look miles away from the 97/98 squad. Our counter attacks are pretty tame and need work. We're unable to dominate possession because of bad passing and decisions these days. I wouldn't say it's a strategy planned but something born out of circumstance.

Look, I'm not making a direct, like-for-like comparison here, or suggesting that this group are in any way the finished article - it's more of a general observation about what it looks like we're trying to do with them. That dominant, high-possession, intricate-passing game was a hallmark of later Arsenal sides under Wenger - IMO, the 97-98 side was more about defending deep, and in numbers, being comfortable with sitting back and waiting for the opposition to make the first move, and then picking them off quickly, with 3 or 4 precise passes, when they were over-committed. If you ask me, then that's what I think we're (currently) aiming for with this group - instead of getting ahead of ourselves, and immediately trying to get these guys to play like the Invincibles, I think we've aimed for one step further back, and are getting them comfortable with that slightly simpler, more pragmatic style of play first? Again, I'm not suggesting that they've mastered it yet - I'm just saying that I think that's what we're currently aiming for, and that I think it's a good fit for this group, and should be an achievable target for them...