When Players Play Exactly How You Expect
By: Darren_v | January 24th, 2012
Every person has a talent. Some have a talent with numbers; others are incredibly handy and can build whatever their hearts desire. Some people are intellectually gifted, while others are incredible athletes and invariably, the ones we love the most. It’s easy to see why too, for an athlete’s allure is a visual treat that invokes a sense of wonderment and a slight tinge of jealousy by the spectator.
At the amateur level of sports there tends to be a wide variation of talent amongst the players. This usually allows the best players to assume a ‘free role’ in attack to win the game for their team while the many weaker players are generally able to take up positions anywhere else on the pitch by sheer work ethic. As clubs move up in the divisions however, it becomes more and more important to have players that have particular skill sets to balance out the team and ultimately complement one another on the pitch. Young players should be encouraged to play and learn different positions on the pitch to develop their skills and prevent them from reverting back into their comfort zones when the level of competition increases. Professional clubs are generally very good at taking promising kid with raw talent and moulding them into well-rounded players. The players’ skills are finely tuned and at the highest level of the game they can become lethal weapons on the attack, midfield maestros are impossible to knock the ball off of, rock solid defenders that never get beat one v one and unstoppable keepers that easily command their box.
As the skill level becomes higher, proper balance on the pitch becomes more important as any weakness likely becomes the difference between winning and losing. Having a team with a lack of pace will struggle with one that finds joy on the break. Teams lacking the physical height and ability to win Arial duals will struggle against the Stoke City’s of the world. Every club has their strengths, and has at least one weakness that the opposition will look to take advantage of. This is where the tactical strength of a manager really shines or fails for a team. They must be able to see where their weaknesses lie and give their team the tools and an approach that minimizes that weakness while still being able to take maximize their own strengths. The manager also needs to be able to understand the best way to exploit the opponent’s weakness and set his squad up in a way that they are able to so.
By the time players make it to the highest level of the professional game (EPL, La Liga, Serie A etc) the players are essentially specialists at what they do. In a sport that is played by more people than any other sport in the world, they have to be or order to have made it this far. Players have to be pretty good at everything; but they also have to have qualities that make them stand out from the pack, a skill that a team needs.
When players are so incredibly skilled at the highest level, it becomes harder to ask players to change positions and perform at a level you expect from that position. This is why you see teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid and even Manchester City seemingly always buying the best players despite having an already impressive squad. An injury to a couple key players and the manager starts having to play players out of position and no longer playing to their strengths. Managing is all about putting your players into the best positions to succeed.
You are likely wondering why I am going on and on about this and what it has to do with the Arsenal. The reason is this; when people discuss Arsenal, you always hear how impressive the starting XI is, and if Arsenal could keep the starters fit, they could challenge the title. But we all know players get injured and/or suspended and so squad depth always becomes a massive factor in the title race. This is an area where Arsenal always fails. Players are played out of position and the opposition looks to exploit this factor and the fans then moan about how a player is playing so poorly. Now having every fullback at a club injured at the same time is unheard of up till this season and to blame Wenger for this situation is short sided and forces players to be moved into unfamiliar roles on the squad.
Thomas Vermaelen is widely considered to be one of the best centre back in the modern game, and with good reason. Unfortunately he has been forced out to left-back lately, and the results have not been pretty. But how do you blame a centre back for being unable to run the full length of the flank and understand the positioning in every situation? It’s unnatural and is bound to be caught out eventually as he was for both goals against Manchester United. Johan Djourou has been widely criticized for his play as of late, being absolutely tormented by Nani for 45 minutes, allowing Ryan Giggs all kinds of space to cross the ball, and for being sent off against Fulham. But what do you expect from a lumbering centre back? Do we know expect Djourou to suddenly change into a fleet-footed defender and be able run the entire length of the pitch like Bacary Sagna? No one in their right mind would say they expect that, and we all knew that United (and others) would look to exploit this. Johan Djourou got beat time and time again, and it cost Arsenal just like we expected. You cannot blame the player for doing his best at something he isn’t very good at in the first place.
Defend Nani? No problem boss!
Before Andrei Arshavin came to Arsenal, he had spent his entire career playing a central attacking position for Zenit St. Petersburg. He was always the star player and was never counted on to play in a defensive role. He was the creator and he was very good at it. At 28 years of age he was brought to a new league and placed in an unfamiliar role where he was expected to track back every time Arsenal lost possession. He was suddenly not involved in every possession like he was accustomed to. This was not a teenage kid who was still learning the game; this was an experienced player who was in the prime of his career, taken out of his best position and asked to fun more than he ever had to before, and seeing the ball less and less. While the effort surely was not always there for the player (and admitted in interviews that he hated training) he has made efforts to track back and help out defensively. We have argued his merits on the squad ad nausea on this blog, but one thing we can certainly agree on is expecting him to be an effective defender is an absurd notion. It’s not his game and never will be, no matter how hard he tries. Arshavin genuinely tried on the game-winning goal by Welbeck, and I struggle to blame a player for failing to live up to a standard that was always asking more than his skill set could continually provide. Players can out perform for a while, but the liability remains as long as he is asked to do so.
This isn’t reserved to players out of position either. For instance, Robin van Persie is a magician with the ball at his feet, but when the defenders lump the ball to the centre circle you can hardly expect him to win the ball in the air against Vidic, Terry and other dominate defenders. Expecting Theo Walcott to beat players without space to run into is always going to turn into disappointment. Criticizing Per Mertesacker for losing a foot race to the speedy Welbeck from half is harsh when we all know he has the foot speed of a beached whale. I appreciate Aaron Ramsey’s work rate, but his decision-making is poor and he needs more time to shoulder the workload that was merely given to him by Fabregas’ departure, not by his own merit.
Where I get frustrated with players is not completing plays that are well within the bounds of expectation. Alex Song should not be beaten over and over in the middle of the pitch, Denilson should have the awareness to understand players are moving outside of his vision, and fullback have to know that to be two feet behind the centre backs is asking for trouble (Hi Gael Clichy!). Watching van Persie stand three feet from the ball and not even attempt to force the player into an uncomfortable pass drives me mad, as does Theo Walcott’s newfound lack of effort if the ball is not inch perfect for him. Watching Koscielny and Mertesacker force a highline when van Persie decides to ball watch and not pressure is absolute madness and where I get extremely annoyed.
Square Pegs, Round Holes
It comes down to tactics. When you are forced to player centre backs as your fullbacks, you cannot ask Djourou to defend the whole flank himself like Sagna does. He needs protection. Vermaelen naturally drifts to the centre of the pitch when attacking and makes the left incredibly narrow, so expecting him to provide width like Santos and Gibbs is naïve. A manager needs to be adaptable and change the squad and instruct his team in how do deal with these limitations. Since the eradication of Arsenal fullbacks, nothing has changed in the team approach. Fullbacks are left on their own against players that will eventually take advantage. Why is there no direction to assist Djourou? The build up play is left too narrow because no one is providing the width. Where is the in-game management? It took Alex Ferguson three minutes to throw Valencia on at right back and exploit the weakness that is Arshavin’s defending and Arsenal did absolutely nothing to help him out. Time and time again Arsenal are set out to play one way and if it doesn’t work, nothing changes. Players are expected to fit a formation and a specific theory of football, no matter which position they are in. Everyone remembers Andrei Arshavin playing centre forward and how successful that was. Nicklas Bendtner, Tomas Rosicky and Emmanuel Eboue have all been played as wingers with the expected results of awfulness.
You cannot put square pegs into round holes and expect it to work and why Arsene Wenger continues to persist in this mystifies me.
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