Country: USA
Player:Saliba
We need to see Martinez for what he is..
(Arteta wants us to be the team in possession) To do that, we need to beat highpressure, thus we need technical defenders who are good on the ball with a lot security in combinations – this is who Martinez is.
If we have the ball, it's difficult for the opposition to score.
Find a defender who is as good on the ball under pressure with as much security in the combinations?
Add to that good at one-on-one defending
And call Edu
What's annoying about this ideology is it relies far too much on scoring the first goal. When teams are leading they naturally drop off and let opponents the ball, then wait to pick them off, with forwards in more space and therefore posing a bigger threat.
We actually had more of the ball and better accuracy in some of our worst performances last season.
Worst:
Lost 1 - 0 to Southampton; 655 passes with 88% accuracy
Lost 3 - 0 to Crystal Palace; 647 passess with 85% accuracy
Lost 2 - 1 to Everton; 588 passess with 82% accuracy
Lost 3 - 2 to United; 526 passess with 83% accuracy
Lost 1 - 2 to Brighton; 512 passes with 83% accuracy
Lost 3 - 0 to Tottenham; 412 passess with 85% accuracy
Best:
Beat Man U 3 - 1; 507 passess with 84% accuracy
Beat tottenham 3 - 1; 431 passess with 82% accuracy
Beat Villa 3 - 1; 392 passess with 79% accuracy
Beat Leeds 1 - 4; 392 passess with 77% accuracy
Beat Leicester 0 - 2; 342 passess with 76% accuracy
Beat Chelsea 4 - 2; 332 passess with 75% accuracy
We scored the first goal in all of the bottom set of results and with the exception of the United game, conceded first with the top set of results.
Point being that football is a game played by humans not machines. You need a solution for scoring and not conceding without the ball that is just as effective as one with it. This is why Pep could not win the CL without prime Messi and Eto'o. They were killers.
Martinez is a great player but after spending nearly every window of Arteta's tenure finding aesthetically pleasing defenders, our problem is very clearly putting the ball in the opposition net before our opponents do.