RETRO TACTICS EPISODE 2
Team: Arsenal FC
Manager: Arsene Wenger
Era: Premier League Season 2003/4
In the second instalment of our Retro Tactics series, we look at arguably the greatest team to ever grace the English top-flight, Arsene Wenger's Arsenal 'Invincibles'. 38 games, 1 Premier League trophy, and 0 defeats, this was arguably where the North London side (and football itself) peaked.
Key Players: Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Sol Campbell, Dennis Bergkamp, Jens Lehmann, Robert Pires.
Honours: Premier League 03/04 (undefeated).
Team: Arsenal FC
Manager: Arsene Wenger
Era: Premier League Season 2003/4
In the second instalment of our Retro Tactics series, we look at arguably the greatest team to ever grace the English top-flight, Arsene Wenger's Arsenal 'Invincibles'. 38 games, 1 Premier League trophy, and 0 defeats, this was arguably where the North London side (and football itself) peaked.
Key Players: Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Sol Campbell, Dennis Bergkamp, Jens Lehmann, Robert Pires.
Honours: Premier League 03/04 (undefeated).
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Hello everybody, Adam Cleary from 442 here, we are yet again in the midst of an international
00:09break, which means there's f*** all going on right now, so it's time for another...
00:13Anyway, yes, hello, now Hardcores on the channel may remember we did one of these for Mourinho's
00:24Chelsea not very long ago, and we asked if we ever did this again, because obviously
00:28we're going to do this again, what team would you like to see, and the overwhelming answer
00:33we got by a million bajillion squillion miles was Arsenal's Invincibles.
00:39One person did ask for Alan Pardew's Bananas near Castle United side, and I will do that
00:44one day, just probably in the pub.
00:49Now one thing I want to point out right at the start, okay, is that obviously this is
00:53what everybody thinks Arsenal's Invincibles were, right, that is the XI, there's no disputing
00:59any of those players, but just to prove we've really done our research here at 442, this
01:03XI was only fielded by Arsene Wenger that season, twice, I know, I know, that's absolutely
01:11bananas isn't it, but they also had Martin Keown, they had Gael Clichy, they had Eddie,
01:16they had Ray Parler, they had Jeremy Aliadier, my favourite name in football ever, Jose Antonio
01:21Reyes and Sylvain Viltord, but were you to give Arsene Wenger a live microphone on a
01:28big stage and say please sing the true song of your Invincibles heart, this would be the
01:34lyrics, these were the XI players he always had in mind, the others just filled in as
01:38like for like, and obviously the reason I'm telling you this is because we're going to
01:42proceed with the video as if this was the XI every single week, even though it wasn't,
01:47but it did definitely feel like it was.
01:49Alright so anyway, the stuff you're actually here for, this was the Arsenal Invincibles
01:53squad, wink, it was a 442 in theory, but this being the turn of the millennium, 442 was
02:01slightly starting to get on the way out, we're just a couple years away from Mourinho coming
02:05in and almost killing it completely, and Wenger, ever the innovator, had made several adjustments
02:11to it, so primarily you had Dennis Bergkamp here who never really played like an out and
02:15out striker, was always in the pocket, was always off Henry, was always trying to be
02:20in this gap between the midfield and the defence of both his own team and the opposition team.
02:24Thierry Henry did like to float out to both flanks, primarily the left one, he did loads
02:28of his good work there, but would usually have to stay central because the two wide
02:32players, Youngberg and Perez, would push really far forward.
02:37Combine that with the fact that both Gilberto and Vieira would look to get forward but only
02:41very late on in moves, they were usually quite deep, and yes, well observed, this is actually
02:47more of a 4-2-3-1.
02:50But the thing is, while this is obviously quite innovative for the time, it's not something
02:54that worked because it was really, really clever and Wenger had found some magic formula
02:59to beat other teams in the league, it's a system that worked because of the way it was
03:03executed.
03:04One of the main advantages of playing 442, and something Arsenal still had even in this
03:08sort of 4-2-3-1 shape, is that you get pairs all over the pitch, so two centre-backs, two
03:14wide players, two central midfielders, two attackers, so no matter what you're doing
03:18as a player, there's always somebody who should be near you.
03:21But as well as those pairs, and this is going to start sounding like some bad GCSE revision
03:26video right now, is that Arsene Wenger also added loads of triangles, and he did that
03:31by basically staggering the entire core of the team, because Bergkamp would obviously
03:35drop off, but he would favour the right-hand side, while Henry would stay forward, but
03:39favour the left.
03:40Patrick Vieira would usually hold a very central position, but Gilberto Silva had no problems
03:45dropping out of that space to sort of receive the ball off the defence.
03:48And then in Sol Campbell, you've got a really great conventional central defender, but in
03:51Kolo Toure, a converted midfielder, you had someone who liked to bring the ball forward.
03:57And as massively oversimplistic as this explanation is for it, all of a sudden, look, you've got
04:01these little triangles all through the centre of the pitch, where normally under a 4-4-2,
04:06you'd have players on the exact same line.
04:09Now just imagine for a second you're playing against a team that does this, and you are
04:12using a 4-4-2, and it's just absolute bedlam for you.
04:17Like who would deal with Dennis Bergkamp here?
04:19Would you want one of your central midfielders to drop onto him, leaving his pal completely
04:23outnumbered in the middle?
04:24Or should one of the centre-backs push forward and allow Henry to run into the space he leaves?
04:29And likewise, when Toure is bringing that ball out from the back, does one of your midfielders
04:33then press onto him in that space, because you're going to be leaving your pal, not just
04:37with both of these midfielders to deal with, but remember Bergkamp's dropping in as well,
04:41so it's a 3-on-1.
04:42Or do you stay there and just let him have the ball?
04:46It's so difficult to work out what to do across 90 minutes.
04:50And what this commitment to finding space between the lines allowed Arsenal to be, was
04:54a really direct, quick side.
04:57It does kind of bug me a little bit that Arsene Wenger's now got this reputation for just
05:01building sides of little passing nerds who want possession for possession's sake, because
05:05this is not what this team was at all.
05:08They didn't really have that much more of the ball across 90 minutes than most of the
05:12teams they were playing.
05:13What they wanted to do was pull defenders out of position to allow any of their forward
05:17line, all of which, blessed with incredible pace, to break into that space.
05:23If you just think back to the best goals scored by the Invincibles over this season, how many
05:28times in your head can you see either Henry or Perez or Jungberg running at a back four
05:34or running into the space behind them and scoring a goal that way?
05:39That was their bread and butter.
05:40Move you up the field, move you out of position, and then get in quickly.
05:44And also, for all this is like an early version of a 4-2-3-1, Arsenal sort of had an early
05:50version of a high press as well.
05:53Do you know how your dad always says, oh, it was just called closing down in my day?
05:57Well, it was. It was just closing down, but it was structured closing down.
06:01Now, what Arsenal would do when they didn't have the ball is the two wide players, they
06:04would drop back to form like a really conventional two banks of four.
06:08Like the good old days, the defence would push up, leaving quite a high line.
06:11And then Bergkamp and Henry, their job was to press slash close down the centre backs,
06:17not very aggressively, but just to let them know they're there and force them to put the
06:20ball out wide to the fullbacks.
06:22Now, because Arsenal are simultaneously very compact, but also very high.
06:27And theoretically, Bergkamp and Henry have shut down the options to get it back to the
06:31central defenders.
06:32Doesn't really leave the fullback there with all too many options, but they can see a load
06:38of space in behind.
06:39So they're trying to tempt them to hit it long into that space now.
06:42And, you know, not to show off or anything, but 442's own Mark White spoke to some of the
06:47Invincibles for a massive feature on them in the next issue of the mag.
06:51Look out for that.
06:51He told us specifically about this system.
06:55When you play with such an attacking team, you have to have such speed at the back.
06:59That's what Arsene Wenger did.
07:01Sol and myself were fast.
07:03We had power.
07:04We were able to defend high lines and we could pin teams in with our quality.
07:08And that was exactly the plan because in Lauren, Campbell, Torre and Cole, you had four incredibly
07:13fast defenders who, if the ball did go over the top, could beat most forwards in a race
07:17to chase it back.
07:18But also the reason they went and got in Jens Lehmann was because for the time he was a
07:23very sort of, I don't want to say innovative again, but sort of innovative sweeper keeper.
07:28He would come out and close that space down.
07:30And lo, if you can't play through them, because I mean, Christ, that's Gilberto Silva and
07:35Patrick Vieira there, and you can't play over the top because the defenders are really
07:39fast and the goalkeeper is going to sweep up, it doesn't really leave you with many
07:43ways of breaking them down.
07:44And they don't get anywhere near enough credit for how good defensively they were that season.
07:48I'm going to check this.
07:49I'm going to guess, I think they conceded like 26 goals in the league.
07:54I'm going to check that.
07:5526?
07:56Was 26?
07:57Why do I doubt myself?
07:5826.
07:5926 goals.
08:00That's really good.
08:01This is why I said at the start that understanding the Invincibles is not about some clever
08:05system that Wenger stumbled upon.
08:07It's all in the execution.
08:09Because while this is a system based around finding the space between the lines and dropping
08:13out of your own position to do so, it's being executed by a group of players almost perfectly
08:19assembled to be like naturally inclined to do positional rotations with their teammates.
08:26What do I mean by that?
08:27Well, think about it this way.
08:28You've got Dennis Bergkamp, who loves to drop away from the forward line on the right hand
08:31side, but you've also got Freddie Umberg, who just adores to receive the ball in that
08:36sort of right hand half space, confusing the central defender and the fullback as to who
08:40should be marking him.
08:41You've got Thierry Henry, who loves to go all the way over to the left hand side to
08:45receive the ball and be set for a counterattack.
08:47But you've also got Robert Pérez, who loves to drift into the centre and loves to just
08:51go at goal himself.
08:52And then when Pérez does find himself coming in field, you've got young Ashley Cole here,
08:56who adores to bomb up the left hand side.
08:58There he goes falling off the table because he used to be a striker.
09:02To get that back.
09:03You've got Vieira and Toure, who both like to break forward from their position, either
09:06carrying the ball or making late runs into the box.
09:09But they're ably supported by Gilberto Silva and Sol Campbell, two men with sort of the
09:14spatial awareness and the heft to cover that space all on their own.
09:18Now, more than anything on this entire earth, I want to pay special attention to this forward
09:24quartet because I would argue, or at least in my opinion, I think they are the best collection
09:31of four attackers ever in the Premier League.
09:34But yes, I know there's arguments for loads of other different groups like York, Cole,
09:39Giggs, Beckham, they were obviously really good.
09:41Mane, Salah, Firmino, probably the best in the modern age.
09:45Duncan Ferguson and just the really angry voices in his head.
09:48You could say loads.
09:49But for me, just the pace, the inventiveness, the incisiveness, the creativity, the
09:54fluidity, everything between these four, I think is just worth talking about.
09:59Because as we've already talked about, this Arsenal side was built around dropping out
10:02of your position, finding space and having players who were naturally able to fill into it.
10:06And it was just so just lethal the way it was organised between these four.
10:11And it all starts and ends with Thierry Henry.
10:14Teams were absolutely terrified of him.
10:16And there was seven or eight different ways he could effectively score a goal against
10:20you. In its most basic sense, imagine you are marking Thierry Henry and he pulls away
10:25from you and drops sort of into the space behind the midfield.
10:28Like, do you go with him?
10:29Because if you do, he might get the ball and just literally sprint past you and score a goal.
10:34But if you don't go with him, you'll just crack in a shit pinger from about 30 yards.
10:39He loved to drift wide of the defenders and either receive the ball and drive directly
10:43a goal or receive a pass in behind them and dart diagonally.
10:46And whenever his movement did create space for a teammate, they were more than happy to fill it.
10:52It was just impossible to work out what to do.
10:54I think, honestly, maybe I'm getting slightly carried away with this.
10:57I think Thierry Henry might have been the first centre forward in the Premier League ever
11:02who could just score every kind of goal.
11:06Anyway, though, for one entire Premier League season, just this creativity and this fluidity
11:12in attack, this sort of robustness in the centre of the pitch and this sort of structural ingenuity
11:18that allowed them to play forward and just every single element of this team that Wenger had designed
11:23worked perfectly and it worked perfectly for 38 games.
11:28Couldn't get beat.
11:29Now, just one final little point before I go.
11:31OK, you do get a lot of people trying to talk down the achievement of going unbeaten
11:36in a Premier League season.
11:37Like, obviously, yes, they were not the first team to do it.
11:39Shout out my boys, Preston North End in like 1889, 90 or 99, 80 or whenever it was,
11:47they obviously did it first and they did get knocked out of all the cup competitions
11:51and they did draw like 12 games as well.
11:54But there is a reason why you did not see this for over 100 years and you have not seen it in the 20 since.
12:02So many tiny little individual things have to happen at once here.
12:07Like Jens Lehmann had just arrived, but he hit the ground running straight away.
12:10There was no bedding in period for him.
12:12All the really key players were getting into peak points of their career at the same time
12:17and stayed largely injury free.
12:20Every single week, Arsene Wenger had to sit down and analyse their upcoming opponents
12:24and make certain adjustments and he never got it badly wrong, even once that season.
12:30Like, that's all it would have taken, just, you know, getting the marking disorganised at a corner.
12:35Back post 1-0, oh no, we're not going to be invincible anymore.
12:38Happens to every single team, no matter how good they are.
12:40But for 38 game weeks, it did not happen here.
12:45Like, they were really frugal at the back.
12:47They were unbelievable to watch going forward.
12:50They set up in a 4-4-2, so they represented all those best bits of that British footballing mainstay,
12:56but they also innovated it in ways that would change how a lot of other teams set up in the future.
13:01They were the perfect balance of just everything.
13:05And we will leave it there.
13:07Now, if you have enjoyed this video, I will say this is not the kind of thing that the algorithm on YouTube usually likes,
13:13but we have a whole heap of fun doing it.
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13:26And also, hey, while you're here, please do consider subscribing to the channel,
13:29because we do normally cover the latest and what's going on.
13:31But when nothing is going on, we do this fun stuff as well.
13:35And not just for us, and of course, for all the clubs.
13:37Can you hear my voice going?
13:38I can hear my voice going, so I'm going to wrap up even quicker than I normally would.
13:41You can get me on all the socials at AdamCleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
13:44Just joined TikTok, don't know why.
13:46The latest issue of the Mag is not upside down.
13:48It is right here. Trent Alexander-Arnold is on the cover.
13:50But the new issue is coming very soon and includes a massive piece,
13:54not just by myself tactically, but from the entire team about the Invincibles.
13:58Because we think they're mint.
14:00Right, yes, that is it. I do need to go tweet now.
14:02So I'm going to go.
14:04Love you, bye.
14:06That'll do.