The Arsenal v Man Ure, Sunday 3 September 2023, 16.30

[Marc Overmars]

I thought we weren’t as hap hazard with the high line yesterday. Their goal was just a good goal, granted White should have been more proactive but it’s not a straightforward task stopping Rashford when he’s running directly at you with space to cut in. It was the lazy pass from Havertz which fucked that up for us to begin with. The margins were so fine with the Garnacho goal but I guess you have to give credit to Gabriel there because his body shape looked very deliberate in making him offside.

I actually felt like we let United have a lot more of the ball than they anticipated. They’re a counter attacking team and didn’t really have much guile at all to break us down when they had high possession periods.

It’s a strange one because even though we concede more goals than we should I actually think we’re quite good defensively, which to be fair is probably more down to the individuals rather than the system.

For me once again it is up front where we come up short and without the slice of luck for Rice’s goal we would be talking about another disappointing afternoon.

[Letters]

I was disappointed with their goal. We had 2 defenders on Rashford and for both of them to let him cut inside like that was a bit poor. Good finish though.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I was disappointed with their goal. We had 2 defenders on Rashford and for both of them to let him cut inside like that was a bit poor. Good finish though.

Him cutting inside was I think a feature not a bug, the point of the inverted full back is to keep players narrow rather than letting them cross or get in behind the defence. But when he had Saliba covering him, White should have pushed up to stop Rashford getting away the shot

[HCZ_Reborn]

I thought we weren’t as hap hazard with the high line yesterday. Their goal was just a good goal, granted White should have been more proactive but it’s not a straightforward task stopping Rashford when he’s running directly at you with space to cut in. It was the lazy pass from Havertz which fucked that up for us to begin with. The margins were so fine with the Garnacho goal but I guess you have to give credit to Gabriel there because his body shape looked very deliberate in making him offside.

I actually felt like we let United have a lot more of the ball than they anticipated. They’re a counter attacking team and didn’t really have much guile at all to break us down when they had high possession periods.

It’s a strange one because even though we concede more goals than we should I actually think we’re quite good defensively, which to be fair is probably more down to the individuals rather than the system.

For me once again it is up front where we come up short and without the slice of luck for Rice’s goal we would be talking about another disappointing afternoon.

I don’t disagree but still the facts speak for themselves that we make ourselves vulnerable to the counter attack. I don’t think we are good enough in possession nor does playing inverted fullbacks help, White forced Rashford to cut inside but when he had Saliba covering he should have been more proactive.

The defence in terms of individuals is fine. Gabriel and Saliba are good defenders, I think White is good as well he’s just not a fullback. I think United’s main attacks came down the left and White got better as the game went on but evidently none of their players are passing much to Anthony as I think Zinchenko would have been roasted.

It’s fine pushing up if you’ve got two midfielders comfortable on the ball. For all my criticism of Rice (which I don’t see as criticism, he hasn’t done anything wrong I just don’t think he’s the right midfielder for us) he doesn’t give the ball away much, but someone like Havertz will. It’s not even a case of being dispossessed it’s a case of being too casual with passing, he’s guilty of it, Odegaard is guilty of it and Saka is guilty of it.

You swap out Havertz for Vieira and I don’t think that problem goes away. United are defensively turd, and Ten Haag decided to make things even easier for us by bringing Maguire and Evans on. But the reason I suggest going to a more counter attacking style isn’t just to avoid conceding goals but I think the players we have will thrive attacking wise if they are operating in more space. It’s too easy to crowd us out. Of course the limitations are that you have to rely on teams like Fulham who come looking for a point to be a bit more adventurous, but I just don’t think we have the attacking players to play in front of teams…..Havertz aside we don’t have players good in the air or are good at holding up the ball and playing him in central midfield tends to negate that anyway.