By Merlion
February 1 2022

Cryuffian Football is briefly summarised as:

• Maintain 3 lines within 35-metre depth such that attackers have only to run 15 metres to shoot at goal. 
• The “15-Pass” play from the back is executed rapidly to advance the 3 lines in unison into opposition’s half such that the attackers should not run not more than 4 seconds into the box. This is the meaning of executing 15 passes in position to launch attack into the box.  
• Both Guardiola and Luis Enrique coached the team to use 12 passes to overload one flank, setup the attack, and then switch rapidly to the other flank to setup the attacker facing a 1-on-1 with high probability to score. (And we are talking of the quality of Neymar, Luis Suarez, Messi, Ribery, Robben, Lewandoski, et al). 
• Never more than 3 players in a horizontal line and more than 2 players in the vertical line. It is all about geometry and the ability of players to move clear to receive a pass. Do not execute square pass. If it is intercepted, 2 players are cut out of the game with opponent running clear. 
• The setup shall be that when the attack breaks down, the team is ready to press and if failed, to win the 2^nd ball and rapidly launch the attack; and all done within the opposition’s half. 
  
   Arsenal Poor Passing Movement exposed by Burnley 
  
  Playing in December, especially against Man U, Everton and Man City, there was a vast improvement with rapid passing and advancing the ball. But it regressed against Burnley at Emirates. 
  
  It was a clueless team executing slow passing and built-up; players passing amongst themselves in U movements without advancing the ball into oppositions’ half.  
  
  E.g. from LB to CB or goalie, then to RB and vice-versa. It gave Burnley a tremendous boost in pressing our Defence to stop us from rapid building from the back, plus to waste playing time. And it also bought time for Burnley to park the bus in the box. 
  
  All these cardinal passing errors have been pointed out by Pep Guardiola in his book on his first season with Bayern Munich: 
  
  "Gentlemen, this is tiquitaca and it is sh*t. We're not interested in this type of possession. It's totally meaningless. It's about passing for the sake of it. We need central midfielder and our defenders to move out with an offensive mentality and break the opposition lines in order to push the whole team high up. The U needs to go. 
  
  I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiquitaca. It’s so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the oppositions’ goal. It’s not about passing for the sake of it." 
  
  Back to the Drawing Board to teach the team how to pass 
  
  The first type of pass is that everyone can see, even those watching the game in the stand, and the players can see immediately whether it comes off or not. But this simple pass is difficult to execute at speed. Johann Cryuff: “The simple things are the most complicated. The first-time pass is the easiest, but you have to do it at high speed which makes it the most difficult.” 
  
  You can always expect both Gabriel and Xhaka, when receiving the ball on the right foot, move to left and then pass – 2 touches. All players invariably needed a few touches, scan the pitch and then pass. No coaching to execute one-touch rapid pass to advance the ball rapidly into oppositions’ half.  
  
  This means that after 2 years, Mikel Arteta still has yet to get the team who know how to work together in unison, to execute rapid passing to break into oppositions’ half, let alone to break through oppositions’ midfield and defence lines to create scoring opportunities. 
  
  To play the Unexpected Pass 
  
  We rarely see the players execute the unexpected pass; i.e. everyone thinks the ball is going in one direction and the ball is sent in another. 
  
  Instead, against 10 players in the box, we play U-Movement football, stroking the ball side to side without drawing out the defenders to disrupt the organisation, without rapid one-two movement and the unexpected pass to create shooting angles. 
  
  When Burnley attacks broke down, it is our slow passing movement that allowed Burnley to setup the 10-man block. We failed to develop rapid passing, teamwork, more aggressive pressing and rapid counter-attacks when the 2^nd ball is won. 
  
  We saw many times when Saka or Odegaard or Emile Smith-Rowe executed the unexpected pass, either the players stopped running or strayed off-side or failed to anticipate the pass. Meaning, more work is needed on the training pitch to improve teamwork. 
  
  The Sublime Pass 
  
  The third and most difficult pass is the pass that goes through an almost non-existent gap or into a space that nobody else has even seen it. 
  
  Saka and Smith-Rowe can execute the unexpected pass regularly, with Lokonga, Partey and Xhaka chipped in some of the times, either a through pass or a lob over the defenders. 
  
  But it is only Odegaard who see the plays unfold in front of him and the space, then executes the sublime pass. Pity him and the team is still out of synchronicity. Again, more work needed on the training pitch to improve teamwork. 
  
  The Final Third and Soloists 
  
  Too many times we are dire and lack ideas to break into the final third, hence the paucity of clear shooting chances created.  
  
  Thomas Muller described himself as a Raumdeuter (space interpreter). It is now a term for a floating, late-running, versatile, goalscoring attacker. His goal scoring prowess is due to his ability to actively find the space behind the opponent’s midfield, his unpredictable line of running, and his trademark late runs into the box. 
  
  Emile Smith-Rowe is a Raumdeuter. He is our top league goal scorer which is due to his ability to arrive late in the box, finds the space, anticipated the 2^nd ball and can strike the ball accurately. Mikel Arteta will need to devise a tactical formation to make use of this Smith-Rowe’s goal-scoring ability to compensate for an often impotent Forward-Line in front of goal.  
  
  Smith-Rowe and Martinelli should interchange more often to disrupt opposition lines, and to avoid Martinelli being shunted into blind alley like what Burnley did to him. 
  
  Saka has the ability to dribble through defenders but he lacks support to play one-two with no support in the box from Lacazette, whose link-up plays are mediocre and poor passing skills lacking proper weight. A mobile Pepe who can dribble as good as Saka in a 1-on-1 situation is actually a better option to play the deep-lying False 9 in support of Saka, and to interchange with Martinelli when Pepe is moving out left to combine with Smith-Rowe. 
  
  Martinelli, Pepe and Saka are soloists with the dribbling ability to break into the box. It is a tactic that has yet to be worked on. 
  
    Whither Mikel Arteta? 
  
  With the current dismantling of the last remnants (think only Xhaka left) of Asene Wenger’s and Unai Emery’s squads, Mikel Arteta has his wish to rebuild Arsenal FC to his vision of “Arsenal Identity”. 
  
  But he is still rebuilding on the “asymptote” * and the team has yet to start climbing rapidly, vastly improved from Unai Emery’s squad.  
  
  Therefore, the next 17 league games are crucial to his Arsenal Future and his coaching and tactical ability to meld this group into a team with positional plays based on useful forward movement and dominating the ball further up the pitch with complete coordination. Has he the ability to coach the players with constant adaptation to different opponents? 
  
  My conclusion is that after two years, he has not proved that he can rebuild Arsenal FC to challenge for Top-4 and title regularly and does not deserve a 2-year contract extension now. He still needs to prove himself with the remaining 17 league games to play. 

*The team is still flat and inconsistency. Once Arteta gets the team to absorb and understand his need for rapid passing consistently, the team will take-off rapidly like a rising exponential curve, well that’s the plan.

Arteta: A Whiff of Cryuffian Football?

Discussion started by Arsenal Times , 01/02/2022 15:20

Arsenal Times
01/02/2022 15:20

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:02:08:07:45:03 by Padre Pio.

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CazOnARola
01/02/2022 19:00

We saw a hint of this against Norwich.

Tomiyasu, Xhaka and Partey play a big part in the quick exchanges. Lets see when can we get our best 11 together again.

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Padre Pio
01/02/2022 19:23

Interesting article Merl, and clearly applies to what happened against Burnley. As your footnote states flat describes it, but what is the solution?
You could coach Nik Bendtner for 20 years and he will never become Bergkamp. It is a problem making bricks without straw.
Wenger didnt teach his teams how to defend they already knew and if they didnt Adams and the guys taught them. He didnt teach Bergkamp how to use space, the guy already knew. Freddy already knew how to arrive blindside and have off ball running skills.

So the success of tactics depend on the quality of the players, the experience of the players and even then it is complicated by the fact that the other team has 11 men. So even Wenger teams had blank days away at Bolton, and even at Burnley. Wenger would complain that teams had played anti football against him, true they did but thats their choice. You cant tell the opposition what tactics to use. Arsenal are not the only team to play square sterile football from the back, its the new fashion, it doesnt make it ok.
Great teams have great players, how many of those do we have? Arteta will either need to discover some great players on the cheap as Wenger did (most unlikely) or come up with some new tactics that work and can be drilled in, succeeding against 11 men whatever they do.
Like the Greeks winning the Euros etc (hopefully not like that). Alternatively the club spends out -, not that likely either.
Maybe a greater manager can succeed , although Benitez failed at Everton and Ranieri at Watford, surely they are not dumfecks?
I suppose Arteta's idea is that he will have homegrown players become high quality first teamers, good luck with that (Ferguson proabably the first and last to succeed with that), it didnt work for Wenger.Project youth died with the signing of marquee players or skillfull players on the cheap because they were troublemakers.
Any solution? I cant think of one, apart from patience and like Mr Micawber hope something turns up.

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

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CazOnARola
02/02/2022 02:27

Padre I disagree..RVP was @#$%& positionally as a 9. Wenger sacrificed so much of the season just converting him.

Giroud could not dribble more than a yard when he joined, but the team he left he could also do it for 3 yards

There are several examples, but wenger has improved players positionally, confidence wise or even goal scoring wise many times.

But it will needs a min threshold of talent. Pre 2015 Wenger was a God at improving players that had any assemblance of talent. Unless he didn't like them out course. Then he would throw them out like Campbell, Park, etc

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Padre Pio
02/02/2022 08:56

Yes of course you can improve players, and Wenger did, but you still cant polish a turd, not even Wenger. But I dont think there are many players at this club at the moment that are hiding great skills and just need a magicians wand to bring this out.
I think you missed the main point of the post, it wasnt a criticism of who can coach or cant, it is asking do we really have the quality at the club required?

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

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CazOnARola
02/02/2022 09:40

Arteta has missed a great trick last year with Martinelli. Laca should not be playing CF for us. It should be Martinelli.

And Wenger would have definitely made better user of Pepe s shooting skills or ESRs off the ball running.
Infact Arteta stumbled onto ESR by accident post his love affair with Willian.

Arteta definitely has a lot more pbms coaching offensive players. His strength his position play and defensive organization.
So while in agree this squad does not have a lot of quality, Arteta doesn't maximize the potential of each player.

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Boston Gooner
02/02/2022 09:45

Personally I don't think Martinelli is anywhere near good enough to play as a C/Forward yet.

"𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴."

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CazOnARola
02/02/2022 10:00

Quote:

Boston Gooner
Personally I don't think Martinelli is anywhere near good enough to play as a C/Forward yet.

Well that's where he first bring through and he turned his marker and ran at them as well and not just kept dropping deep.

In terms of quickness of feet to get away, he got past Van Dijk in the Liverpool game and almost got his shot away.

Lacazette doesn't score many goals and his passing accuracy isn't that great either.

I'm sure he can press and defend in an even more intense manner than Lacazette.

Funny thing is, Arteta does play him like a striker. A striker in his system, replacing Auba.

In Arteta s world, the center forward is just a false 9 to suck it the defense and didn't need to score goals. A bit like firminho.

But he is missing a trick. Look at Jota, he is able to do both . Link up with Mane/Salah as well as score more than firminho.

That's what Martinelli can do.

Lacazette has 3 goals and 3 assists in 16 matches. Martinelli has 4 goals and 2 assists in 14.

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Jonny Kipper
02/02/2022 12:12

Quote:

Padre Pio
Yes of course you can improve players, and Wenger did, but you still cant polish a turd, not even Wenger. But I dont think there are many players at this club at the moment that are hiding great skills and just need a magicians wand to bring this out

I think every single attacking player we have would be better under Wenger quite honestly. Especially Pepe because his problem is confidence - not ability - and so many of Wenger's former players all say the same thing, that he made them confident.

That's why people like Alex Hleb were at Birmingham City within three years of leaving Arsenal.

Wenger helped a lot of players unlock the best version of themselves. Someone will bring up Gnabry but for every one of him there's a dozen more who left Arsenal as a big player and went downhill from there.

I've no doubt that Martinelli, Pepe, Smith Rowe, Saka and Odegaard would be far more dangerous players under Wenger.

He knows ball. Arteta is too rough around the edges but honestly, I don't think he'll ever be a great manager. It's the Arteta show at Arsenal and everyone else is just a supporting character.

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Boston Gooner
02/02/2022 12:34

Straight in as expected with your Wengerism.
Get over him.

Let's face it we are never going to get a manager that you like.

"𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:02:02:12:36:55 by Boston Gooner.

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CazOnARola
02/02/2022 16:43

Quote:

Shane

Quote:

Padre Pio
Yes of course you can improve players, and Wenger did, but you still cant polish a turd, not even Wenger. But I dont think there are many players at this club at the moment that are hiding great skills and just need a magicians wand to bring this out

I think every single attacking player we have would be better under Wenger quite honestly. Especially Pepe because his problem is confidence - not ability - and so many of Wenger's former players all say the same thing, that he made them confident.

That's why people like Alex Hleb were at Birmingham City within three years of leaving Arsenal.

Wenger helped a lot of players unlock the best version of themselves. Someone will bring up Gnabry but for every one of him there's a dozen more who left Arsenal as a big player and went downhill from there.

I've no doubt that Martinelli, Pepe, Smith Rowe, Saka and Odegaard would be far more dangerous players under Wenger.

He knows ball. Arteta is too rough around the edges but honestly, I don't think he'll ever be a great manager. It's the Arteta show at Arsenal and everyone else is just a supporting character.

This isn't even debatable considering the scoring record of his favs like cesc ,rvp, adebayor, etc before Wenger moved them around positionally.

He didnt much care about the defense Midfielders, but there is no denying Artetas lack of ideas offensively and his in game management when things don't go right.

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Merlion96
03/02/2022 10:44

Quote:

CazOnARola
Padre I disagree..RVP was @#$%& positionally as a 9. Wenger sacrificed so much of the season just converting him.
Giroud could not dribble more than a yard when he joined, but the team he left he could also do it for 3 yards

There are several examples, but wenger has improved players positionally, confidence wise or even goal scoring wise many times.

But it will needs a min threshold of talent. Pre 2015 Wenger was a God at improving players that had any assemblance of talent. Unless he didn't like them out course. Then he would throw them out like Campbell, Park, etc

Caz, my intent is to point out that after 2 years, the process is still on-going to coach the team to execute rapid passing instead of every now and them regress to slow build-up with U-movements either to build from the back and U-movements around the box trying to break through low block.

Glimpses of green shoots against Everton, ManU, Liverpool 1st Leg Carabao Cup and of course, against Man City.

Arteta had completed the Phase 1 "Expected Passing" with the team. Plus with the latest culling, Arteta cannot complained he is not having the players he wanted (which he had coached most of them them for more than 2 years), Dubai Warm Weather Training is a blessing in disguise for him to get his acts together to work on rapid passing, better communication to play one-two to break into low block and better communication between Forward Line and Midfield.

I believe that Against Wolves, he will play 4-2-3-1 with Martinelli leads the line, with ESR (or Pepe) on left flank, but interchanging with Martinelli and one of them functions as the False 9 to break into the box from deep, and from left flank.

Xhaka?
We should realise that he has plenty of experience playing in Bundesliga against fast transition and fast counter-attacking teams, which are still the norm in Bundesliga. All teams play direct football with fast counter-attacking plays.
That is why Wenger, and Arteta too, value him highly where he protects the left flank and middle whenever a CB is caught out of position.

Arteta knew his issues with Xhaka. And he just has to grin and bear it, take it on the chin till he has a solution in summer transfer window. Alternatively, He is coaching Lokonga, Azeez, Patino and even ESR to fill the void left by Xhaka should he is sold in the summer.

Anyway, Arteta's priority is prepare existing squad, and buy new players, to finally play 4-3-3 in 2022/23 season.
Guess the next 17 games is the final semester for the squad to graduate to play 4-3-3 with a striker or a False 9 next season.

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Merlion96
20/02/2022 03:50

Quote:

Padre Pio
So the success of tactics depend on the quality of the players, the experience of the players and even then it is complicated by the fact that the other team has 11 men. So even Wenger teams had blank days away at Bolton, and even at Burnley. Wenger would complain that teams had played anti football against him, true they did but thats their choice. You cant tell the opposition what tactics to use. Arsenal are not the only team to play square sterile football from the back, its the new fashion, it doesnt make it ok.
Great teams have great players, how many of those do we have? Arteta will either need to discover some great players on the cheap as Wenger did (most unlikely) or come up with some new tactics that work and can be drilled in, succeeding against 11 men whatever they do. up.

"I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiquitaca. It’s so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the oppositions’ goal. It’s not about passing for the sake of it." Pep Guardiola

That was exactly what his team was doing against Tiny Totts today.
as the commentator said:
"90% possession so what?
Tiny Totts took 3 incisive passes to score a goal.
Man City took 36 passes before shooting at goal"

The game against Brentford was poor with the manager still unable to coach his team to pass incisively into the box.

All the slow-pace passing around the box, without those rapid passing by Man City, shifting flank to flank to create 1-on-1 opportunity when overloading one flank.
It was so easy for Brentford to setup to defence against our slow passing and missing final balls into the box.
All final passes executed will predictable and so easily anticipated, intercepted or blocked.

During 1st half, we have 16 shots at goal but only 2 on targets.

Laca?
Static like a thick plank planted in the box acting as "ricochet plank" to ping-pong balls around the box. There is no guile in him to create a split second of clear shooting opportunity to shoot at goal.

Odegaard?
Eye candy with short passes and reverse passes to the flank but his passes have no impact into the box to create clear shooting opportunities in the box.
2 issues - Laca has no football brain to anticipate Odegaard's passes and no deep runner into the box to provide options for Odegaard to pass into channels.

Those 2 goals were scored by soloists who ran brilliantly into space, a shimmy to create a split-second opening and shoot accurately at goal.

Mikel Arteta is just a poor coach, a pale imitation of Guardiola's rapid passing high pressing game, and still clueless on high to breakdown a low block like what Brentford did.

Worse, suddenly, Arteta team looked disorganized when under pressure from rapid transition from defence to counter-attack like what Brentford did.

Certainly, Lage had taken notes and knew exactly how to win at Emirates on 24 Feb.
Wolves forward-line is vastly superior than that of Brentford, defend better than Brentford and counter-attack better than Brentford.

As long as Arteta is still clueless on how to break-down low block, and how to coach his team to pass efficiently, forget about Top-6, let alone Top-4.

The likes of Tiny Totts, ManU, WHU and Wolves are getting their acts together and will score more goals than a sorry-looking squad assembled by a clueless Arteta who knew only how to ape Guardiola as an assistant.

Mikel Arteta is like a Karate Master's favored disciple, leaving the dojo to setup his own dojo, armed with a copy of his Master "Basic 101 Kata for Dummies" with chapters on how to defence kata, link-up sequences but with a blank chapter on 'How to Attack".

Why a blank chapter?
The Master's advice:
"I have equipped you with the basic forms and a strong foundation to master my Art.
Once mastered, discard them!
My Art is formless, not static, not rigidly bound by archaic thinking.
It is up to you to advance my school by writing that blank chapter."

"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” Saint Thomas Aquinas

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Boston Gooner
20/02/2022 07:10

Quote:

The likes of Tiny Totts, ManU, WHU and Wolves are getting their acts together

And how do you figure that out ?

Spurs first win after 2 straight defeats.
Man Utd 1 win in last 3 games and lost to Middlesbrough in the Cup.
And we beat Wolves.
West Ham. 1 win in last 5 prem games and that was against Watford.

"𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴."

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Merlion96
20/02/2022 11:09

Just wait.

"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” Saint Thomas Aquinas

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