How Arsenal EASED Past Tottenham
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00:00Hello everybody, Adam Monk here from 4-4-2. Arsenal won the North London Derby by two
00:12goals to one. And yeah, Tottenham, Tottenham, Tottenham, Tottenham, eurgh.
00:21Where do I begin? I mean, look, when Poster Coggley first joined Tottenham, he obviously
00:26won I think eight out of his first nine games. And after every post-match interview, he'd
00:30go, you know, we're just having a go, mate. It's just who we are, mate. It's just who
00:34we are. And that was kind of his catchphrase. And everyone thought, oh, that's quite funny.
00:38Is this a joke masking his self-assurance? And maybe it's, maybe it's not. Maybe they
00:43just are having a go, you know, the same way that Michael Jordan was just having a go when
00:47he attempted to play baseball. Or the same way, your nan's just having a go when she
00:52tries the VR headset out. Or Brooklyn Beckham having a go at trying to photograph an elephant.
00:57And don't get me wrong, right, I do think Arsenal did a lot of things right last night.
01:00I think there was certainly improvements from the Manchester United game, and certainly
01:04an attacking sense for Arsenal anyway. But when watching the game live, my initial reaction,
01:09I just could not shake the feeling that Tottenham were making it way, way, way too easy for
01:15Arsenal. Now, for context, I do like Hamsh. I think
01:18he's a decent bloke. He's probably top of the list of Premier League managers I would
01:22like to go for a pint for, especially now Sean Dyche has left. However, in a progressive
01:28sense, I do not doubt the idea that Postacoglou has some progressive ideas, and he has implemented
01:33them successfully some times. But I distinctly remember the moment where I started to have
01:38doubts about Ange Postacoglou at Tottenham. And it was last season. I'm actually sure
01:42you know what image I'm about to refer to. It was a specific moment where I thought,
01:48this is a little bit out there, to say the least. And it was this moment right here. I'm
01:54sure you all remember the game, Chelsea at home last season for Tottenham. Chelsea ended
01:58up winning 4-1. And the context behind this image is Tottenham had nine men on the pitch.
02:04And the main problem for me was not literally how high that line is having nine men, which
02:09is a problem in itself. But a few weeks prior, Jurgen Klopp had literally shown Ange Postacoglou
02:15how to deal with having nine men. At Ange Postacoglou's ground. And this is Jurgen Klopp,
02:20one of the best managers of the 21st century, the father of heavy metal football, a manager
02:25who always likes to attack and score goals. But he still knew when to cut his losses. Liverpool
02:31unjustifiably went down to nine men in that game. And what he did as a reaction was put
02:36seven of his outfield players in the penalty area, and Mo Salah was the only outlet. He knew
02:41Liverpool really weren't going to have a chance of scoring in that game, but he tried to keep
02:44the scoreline at 1-1 to leave with something. And when Postacoglou was doing this, it was
02:49one all in the game. It ended 4-1 to no one's surprise. I genuinely think Spurs could have
02:54played that second half last season a thousand times against Chelsea and they'd have lost each
03:00one because that is just never going to work. So Klopp showed impragmatism. That's an example
03:05of pragmatism, adapting to your circumstances. Postacoglou fundamentally refused to do that,
03:11even though his situation against Chelsea was equally as futile as Liverpool's was against
03:16Tottenham. So I think perhaps Ange has a bit of an inability to know when to compromise his system,
03:21which is leading to performances like the one we saw last night. I do think he has some excuses
03:27for this right now, namely the injury list, which is just terrible at the moment. You can see it
03:32here. Cristian Romero, Micky van der Ven, Ben Davies, Timo Werner, Wilson, Odebrecht, Vicario,
03:37Odoge, Bentancur and Fraser Forster as well. So his options are more limited than they've ever
03:43been right now. Consequently, the combination of this injury list and the way he's currently
03:48playing has led to him averaging 1.14 points per game, which is the lowest of any Tottenham
03:53manager in Premier League history and Spurs this season with Ange on course to get just 43 points.
04:00So yeah, things need to be addressed. I think there's a need for Ange to tweet the way Tottenham
04:05are playing, but an unwillingness to do so, mostly highlighted by the Premier League table.
04:10Take a look at this. So Tottenham are currently sitting in 13th, obviously not a good position,
04:15but look at the goal difference as opposed to the teams above them. It's plus 11, which tells you
04:21that there's a disparity between the way that they win games and they lose games. It tells you that
04:26when Tottenham win, they win big, but when it doesn't work, that free scoring system freezes
04:31and that currently is happening more often than not. And it's actually very, very bizarre and
04:36unheard of. Okay, over to the lovely Sibutio table. This was how Spurs lined up given the
04:42absentees that they had. Kinski was in goal who does really need to get up to pace with the Premier
04:48League, but I'm sure he'll get there as a young goalkeeper. But this was the backline. Porro,
04:52Dragosin, Archie Gray and Jed Spence. Of course, Spurs missing Micky van der Veen,
04:57Cristian Romero, Vicario and a doggy as well. And Ben Tanker as well in the middle of the park
05:02too. Now these five players here, none of them are really first team starters. So that's going
05:06to come at a trade off really. And I think Hange actually might have tried to do this going into
05:11the game by dropping James Madison and Brennan Johnson again to try and give himself a bit more
05:16legs in midfield to match Arsenal. So he put in Bergwaal, Papsar and Yves Bissouma as well.
05:21There's more legs in there than had he have played Madison and Johnson. So to be fair, maybe he did,
05:26maybe the idea was there to compromise and respect Arsenal, but that's not really how
05:31it played out. Now one trade off I couldn't really understand was playing this man,
05:35Dejan Kulesevski here on the right hand side. In my opinion, Spurs' best player certainly
05:40this season, but that's been from an attacking midfield position, not out on the right hand
05:45side. He's got 10 goals and assists from central positions this season, Kulesevski for Spurs. And
05:50of course we know he brings other players into play so well. So in terms of trying to hurt
05:55Arsenal, that was a massive loss shoehorning, well not shoehorning, but putting Kulesevski back on
05:59the right hand side I felt today because he was very, very isolated. Now let's talk a bit more
06:04in depth about these three here in the first half of the game. Bissouma, Papsar and Bergwaal,
06:09they were brought in to really give Spurs legs and off the ball dynamism, which is really not
06:14what happened for Arsenal's second goal. So let's start this clip with Spurs actually in possession.
06:20Archie Gray is on the ball here and he's only really got one passing option that can potentially
06:25progress the play here, and that's to play it out to the left hand side to Jed Spence. Now Jed Spence,
06:31as we know, is right footed, which is always a risk when they're not elite on the ball,
06:36like someone like maybe Zinchenko or Joao Cancelo, that kind of player. Now when Jed Spence receives
06:42the ball here, his first touch, in my opinion, is what leads to Arsenal scoring. This is the sole
06:47mistake that has a domino effect for the entire side. What he should do, what the safest out ball
06:52would be here for me, is to play it down the line to Sons. So when he receives the ball from Gray,
06:56I think he should touch it with his left foot and open his body up and look down the line,
07:00but he doesn't do that. He touches the ball inside. So once Spence has carried the ball inside,
07:05he's got two passing options there. He can go with the safe option, which is Archie Gray back at
07:10centre-back, or he can try and progress it forward to Yves Bissouma, which is of course what Ange
07:15Postekoglou vehemently drills into every single Spurs player, play the ball forward. But perhaps
07:20you shouldn't always really do that. He does opt to pass it to Yves Bissouma and leaves him in a
07:26very awkward position. Reason number one, because there's three Arsenal players around him ready to
07:31trigger a press on him. But also reason two, where are his brothers to help him out in midfield?
07:36If you're Papsar or even Bergvall here in shot, for me, you've got to come short and want the ball
07:42against a team like Arsenal, who collectively like to press. In short, when you're going away
07:46to a side as good as Arsenal, I think you need three midfielders who want to show for the ball
07:51and are comfortable on it. These two for me here are hiding a little bit. Bissouma, to no one's
07:56surprise really, stalls on the ball here and Partey wins it off him. And then Arsenal have the mother,
08:01the mother of all turnovers. The reason this is the mother of all turnovers? Well, as Odegaard
08:05runs towards the ball here, you've got Pedro Porro halfway up the pitch. In the midst of build-up,
08:10he was never even in a position to progress in the first place. The two most important things for
08:15any defender or midfielder for me in any team is the willingness to show for the ball and be
08:19comfortable on it, but also carry it and progress it when on it. And Pedro Porro and Papsar here are
08:25displaying absolutely none of that when Arsenal win the ball, or even before it really as well.
08:30And even when the ball's won here, right, look at Papsar. He's in the centre circle. The first
08:34thing he should be doing when Odegaard is running onto this is looking around him and thinking,
08:38where is this ball going to go? Where is the danger? How can I sniff it out? Can I get there
08:43in time? And since Pedro Porro is caught in no man's land, the answer to that question is probably
08:48Leandro Trossard in this massive chasm of space that's on the left-hand side of the pitch.
08:54And look, to be honest, as Odegaard runs onto this, Sar just isn't really doing much. He needs
09:00to get across to Trossard so much quicker. And even by the time that Trossard's in the penalty
09:05area and has time to get the shot off, Papsar's not even back into a position to block the shot.
09:10He should have been busting a gut there to get across to Trossard before Odegaard had even got
09:14to the ball. He should have looked left and thought, right, that's where it's going. I need
09:18to cover for Porro. He didn't do that. He just sort of jogged half-heartedly in a straight line
09:23and realised too late. And by that time, Trossard had already hit the shot. And yeah, as for the
09:27finish, it is a very true clean strike from Trossard. But in my opinion, the less said about
09:32the goalkeeping, the better there. But sometimes, you know, football's a little bit like dominoes,
09:36the game, not the pizza joint. It's like dominoes in the sense that when one player falters or one
09:41domino falls, it causes a chain reaction of other split decision mistakes. And that's exactly what
09:47happened with this goal for Tottenham when Bissouma lost the ball. And I don't think Bissouma was to
09:51blame for this goal, by the way. He's just not Andres Iniesta. He can't get out of that collective
09:57press. There's nowhere for him to really give it. Now let's talk about the half-time changes.
10:03Yeah, this is where it gets interesting. So looking at that goal, I would say it was a product of the
10:07Spurs midfield, not necessarily being set for a turnover in this area of the pitch. You could say
10:13leaving a chasm in transition when Arsenal attacked. So, you know, maybe if I was managing
10:18Tottenham, you could address this by maybe pulling someone back deeper into midfield, going a bit
10:22more narrow and compact. Or you could just do something as simple as ask one of Poro or Jed
10:27Spencer to just hold back a little bit because both were really playing like this in the first
10:32half as well. Instead, he made two substitutions. Yeah, these were the substitutions. Sarun Bissouma
10:40off and Madison and Brennan Johnson on. Yeah. So you had something a bit like this. Son, Madison,
10:48Kulishevsky, Brennan Johnson, Dom Solanke, and then this poor sod just fighting for his life
10:54in holding midfield. Yeah, it was a 4-1-5. So just to go back to the clip, this is how the
11:02midfield looked in the first half when Arsenal won the ball. And now there's five attacking
11:08players on the pitch here, as you can see, including Poro and Jed Spencer as well,
11:14who like to get up. So maybe it looks a little bit like this. This is probably the most offensive
11:20structure I've seen since Cristiano Ronaldo's statue was erected in Madeira. So how did this
11:24play out? Well, this was the Arsenal lineup right here. And what I'm going to do now is rotate
11:29between some of the Arsenal players' heat maps in this game. And as you can see, it's very compact,
11:34congested around the middle, but that's not a bad thing. That's a signal of cohesion and
11:39your players singing off the same hymn sheet. Arsenal were very compact and all sort of playing
11:43in the same area of the pitch. Now, let me alternate now through the heat maps of some
11:48Spurs players in this game. And as you can see, it's largely disjointed. Cohesion is not the word
11:55that really comes to mind when you're seeing this. It's just one area of the pitch, then another,
12:00then another, then another. And each player was really doing their own individual Duke of
12:06Edinburgh in this game. There was no cohesion. Cohesion is the only word I can think of. There
12:12was just none of that for me in the second half of Tottenham. It was completely decimated once
12:16Postacoglu had made these substitutions. And also as well, just to go back to the Arsenal
12:20heat maps here, the reason there's so much of the play in the middle of the park and so many
12:24players centrally is because of this lineup in the second half. Bergwall had probably been
12:28incentivized to drop back as well because his job was so difficult. So you just have a chasm
12:34in the middle of Spurs' park in the second half. And that is really how it played out. I mean,
12:39this clip now I'm going to show you is 30 seconds into the second half. So like I said, this is 30
12:45seconds into the second half. You can see the crowd there. Some are still drinking their pints.
12:49Now all five of Tottenham's attacking players are in shot here, including Lucas Bergwall. And this
12:55is while Arsenal have it in the corner of their own third. And if this ball gets past Bergwall
13:00here, Spurs are going to be in serious, serious trouble because then it's just Arsenal against
13:05Tottenham's back line. Lo and behold, that does happen. And look at the moment Raheem Sterling
13:10receives the ball. This is a criminal amount of space to be able to run into as an attacking
13:16player in a North London derby. Sterling literally has 50 yards of space to run into here that even
13:21if Sarr and Bissouma were there to recover for, they now can't because Postakoglou's put them on
13:27the bench. And for me, this is just, it's just bizarre in game management. In a cagey derby,
13:34you need to gain a foothold in a game like this. I'm actually doing a Neil Warnock without
13:38realising. I'm just, I'm just there like this, looking at it. But yeah, it's just crazy in game
13:43management for me. Derbys are notoriously cagey affairs and Spurs weren't really in that first
13:48half. They were lucky to take the lead. So what Postakoglou needed to do was gain a foothold.
13:54And that's done in any football game, in my opinion, you gain a foothold on the game
13:58by utilising your midfield properly. And he basically eliminated his midfield from the
14:03picture. And, you know, perhaps for Ange, the logic here was to try and smother Arsenal and
14:07keep them pinned back. But if there's one team in the league who can soak that kind of approach up
14:12like a sponge, it's Mikel Arteta's Arsenal. Arteta's built Arsenal to barely ever lose
14:17the XG battle. So for me, it's a case of Ange Postakoglou needing to read the game and almost,
14:22I suppose you could say respect his opponent in a way instead, because this, this 4-1-5 system
14:27is almost something you'd expect to see Manchester City playing at home to a bit of a dogged and
14:32determined Burnley, you know, not, not a North London derby. Credit where due though, Arsenal
14:38did what they had to do. I don't think it was by any means the apex of what we know Mikel Arteta
14:42can do as a manager, but hey, he's staying in the fight, right? And
14:47he also scored another set piece. So yeah, that train's still going.
14:56Anyway, guys, yes. Let me know what you think about Ange Postakoglou in the comments. I'm
15:00genuinely interested to see this because I don't dislike the ideas a lot of the time. For every
15:054-0 at the Etihad Stadium, you get performances like this. It's almost like yin and yang at the
15:09moment and there's no middle ground. I do think it's fair to say that that is largely maybe down
15:14to the injury list he currently has. I think the recruitment's been very, very good, but overall
15:19in terms of in-game management last night, I just thought he made that, he set that spur side up to
15:24make it way too easy for Arsenal. I think Arsenal probably could have won four or five ones. So let
15:29me know what you think about Ange. I'm not calling for his head. I don't think he needs to
15:33be sacked. I don't think it's that bad. I just think he's got a very, very young team, limited
15:37players at his disposal, and when that's the situation, you need to compromise somewhat. But
15:43yeah, let me know what you think. Nevertheless though, guys, I hope you've enjoyed the video.
15:47I've been Adam Monk. Is the mag anywhere? Let me check. It's not over there, no, but the editor
15:52will put it here. Now this is the new edition of the magazine. You can get it at any good
15:56retailer or online. So yes, hope you've enjoyed the video, guys. Don't forget to subscribe.
16:01I will see you very soon. Goodbye.