Mikel Arteta - Defensive Organisation

The final part of our collection on the tactical blueprint of the Arsenal manager.
- The High Press (central, wide and full press)
- The 4-4-2 Low Press
- Attacking Transitions The Central Press

OUR BIGGEST THREAD YET

Part 2 of Mikel Arteta/ Arsenal methodology as we look at Attacking Organisation
- Build up play
- Creating the attack
- Structure and Fluidity
- Game intelligence
- Playing to players strengths
- Playing relationships Attacking Organisation: Build-Up Play

Arsenal begins with a default 4-3-3 formation, but the real strength lies in its fluidity during build-up play. Five outfield players remain fixed in this structure: two centre-backs positioned deep to support goalkeeper David Raya and three players stretching the opponent’s defensive line. Arteta trusts the forward line to use their intelligence and relationships to drop onto deeper lines and support the build-up if necessary.

We Want to be the Kings of Everything

Inside Mikel Arteta’s tactical blueprint and how Arsenal are mastering every phase of the game

A mega thread on every part of Arteta and Arsenal's game model

Part 1 - Set Pieces 🧵 We will outline clear patterns used by Arsenal within the four phases of the game and explain how they leverage set plays to their advantage, leading into one of the four phases:

Attacking Organisation
Defensive Transition
Defensive Organisation
Attacking Transition

Arsenal - Controlling the Game

3-2 build-up
Saka and Martinelli controlling the full-backs while offering a threat in behind
Merino linking with Odegaard/Rice to control red zone and beyond
Rice and Odegaard moving beside Madrid midfield to offer progressive options. 3-2 Build-Up

Barcelona - The DNA, La Masia and the Influence of Hansi Flick

- The Barcelona DNA and the influence of La Masia
- Hansi Flick and how he has embraced the culture and added to it
- Patterns of play. 'side connections' 'rest defence' and 'open touch, run beyond.

🧵THREAD Upon arriving in Barcelona, Flick faced the challenge of modernising the team while staying true to its identity. His adjustments have been significant, yet they align with La Masia’s core tactical framework.

Arsenal hit PSV Eindhoven for SEVEN last night as the Dutch team couldn’t live with the fluidity of Arteta’s team.

A thread covering🧵
- Arsenal overloading the midfield
- PSV unable to deal with Arsenal fluidity and rotations
- Potential PSV solutions Arsenal shifted from their default 4-3-3 when in possession to overload the centre of the pitch with four players.

Quick thread on an undervalued structure 🧵

Last night, there were some great comparisons on defending the box and the structure to reduce the risk.

Liverpool's first goal - defending at one end.
- Van Dijk has been dragged out of position
- Konate picks up optimal position to defend front zone
- Trent attaches himself to Konate (3 yards) to negate any low ball reaching a Newcastle player. 17 seconds later.

- Schar is dragged out of position
- Burn picks up optimal position for defending the front zone
- Tonali drops onto the same line as Burn, leaving space for a low pass to a Liverpool player (Szobaszlai scores)

A short thread on the Liverpool set play that sent them on their way to a win at the Etihad.

Arne Slot explained how the coaches identified the weakness and created the set play the day before the Man City game.

So what did they identify? Man City look to mark zonally with SIX players.

The six look to cover critical areas in the six-yard box where most first-contact goals are scored.

Ruben Amorim tweaked his system against Spurs but was left with the same problems.

Here, we take a look at
- Centre-backs unwilling and unable to jump
- Lack of aggression from wing-backs
- How the forwards can make play predictable

🧵THREAD

Amorim’s system change looked to be a 5-4-1/5-3-2 with Zirkzee at the top of the diamond midfield and joining Hojulnd on the forward line.

Bruno Fernandes played to the right of the diamond. Garnacho to the left.

System match-ups provide the out-of-possession side with players in close proximity to the opponents individual players.

Amorim tweaked his 3-4-3 and went with a diamond in a narrow midfield. This took away any player in close proximity to the Spurs left-back area. Fernandes was asked to jump into wide positions from his position on the right of the diamond.

Maddison would rotate with Spence to allow Spurs to get their talented player on the ball.

Man City - Real Madrid Analysis

🗒️Pep's tactical surprise
🗒️The role of John Stones
🗒️Madrid's left-hand side threat
🗒️How the game swung Madrid's way

🧵THREAD ⬇️ Pep started with five centre-backs in the team and looked to build with these players in a 2-3 formation.

Real Madrid lined up in a narrow 4-4-2 out of possession.

Coaching The High Press - Grassroots

Week 2 in our Grassroots bundle looks at coaching children on the high press. First of all, do the children understand what a high press is?

We use an easy-to-understand definition. A Technical Practice

A flexible practice that can be run with any number of players and equipment. This practice has eight players (use a 2nd pitch for more).

Introducing a coaching language that will be used consistently to familiarise the players with their objectives

Coaching Build-Up Play at Grassroots. (Practices Below)

Stripping it right back. Working with youngsters to create scenarios and techniques to play out from the back.

Using one practice and hoping the players build an understanding. ❌

Using practices and language that become familiar to players ✅ A technique practice.

This practice can be used at ANY level based on the Grassroots level.

Introducing SCANNING, SUPPORTING AND SUPPLYING. The practice design allows for introductions and challenges based on this language.

I'll cover this in more detail tomorrow with, hopefully, a tactical camera view. (Need it for second half for full picture of Chelsea man-to-man press)

Chelsea set out in a mid 4-4-2 block.

Man City dropped Kovacic low and pushed the full-backs high (creating a 3v2) This allowed City to build with ease.

Rather than using the width, they played into Chelsea's block.

In this instance, Akanji, with time on the ball, plays into the traffic. Chelsea win it and break.

I've been asked why Inter Milan (default five at the back) can make their system work as opposed to Man United playing a 3-4-3.

They do it very differently.

First, they are very quick to move into a man-to-man press and move out of their 5-3-2 shape.

4-4-2 👇🏻 Centre-backs who are comfortable in wide areas, rather than the opponent's wide players pinning both wing-backs.

Arsenal's press against Spurs last night was excellent

Well drilled and with intensity, they continuously locked Spurs into their left-hand side and won the ball back or created dangerous situations.

Concern for Spurs? They didn't adjust their build-up to counter it.

THREAD🧵 Arsenal adopted a man-to-man press with Timber leaving his right-back position (and +1 on the defensive line) to jump onto Spence at left-back.

The roles within this press are defined in the image below.

The 'Rest Defence': What is it and why is it so important?

It refers to an attacking team’s structure, below and around the ball, when in possession.

Here's a breakdown: 🧵
Rest defence serves 3 purposes:

Support the in-possession phase: Control the balance ⚽️
Prevent dangerous counters: Control the space 🛡️
Counter-press effectively: Control the opponent 🔄

Brentford played with the most compact 4-4-2 low block you will see all season.

The problem with it against top teams is that there is no escape.

Want to play short passes to link before springing the counter attack? Arsenal will steal the ball back immediately. This was the case for the first goal.

Brentford can easily end up in a 7-3 or 8-2 formation when the 4-4-2 lines are so compact.

Amorim’s 3-4-3 was tested last night against a well-coached Newcastle side that dismantled the structure in the first 30 minutes of the game.

Tactical thread 🧵(Rated 18 for Man United fans)

Animations of the systems and the related performance problems. Amorim is a manager who wants his team to play on the front foot. We highlighted this during our analysis of Sporting Lisbon, which you find at the link below.

tactxcoach.com/programs/ruben…

Arne Slot's team are not afraid to go long.

If you want to press man-to-man, they will bypass the press. Low risk, high reward.

Tactically, the players recognise this. Here, Trent sees the opposite full-back, Spence, jump to press. There's an easy pass to the goalkeeper to retain possession, but Trent knows LIverpool have equal numbers on the Spurs defensive line as Spence has jumped.

It turns out they have a better scenario.

For all of the in-possession criticism of Russel Martin and Southampton, his out-of-possession tactics ultimately led to the result before his sacking.

Let's take a deeper look at Southampton's OOP tactics.

THREAD🧵 Southampton lined up with a 4-4-2 diamond.

With split strikers, Southampton looked to press high.

From the 1st minute, we see a problem.

Sulemana closes Forster down; the goalkeeper makes a simple link pass to get his centre back on the ball. Line one of the press is broke.