• ! ! ! IMPORTANT MESSAGE ! ! !

    Discussions about police investigations

    In light of recent developments about a player from Premier League being arrested and until there is an official announcement, ALL users should refrain from discussing or speculating about situations around personal off-pitch matters related to any Arsenal player. This is to protect you and the forum.

    Users who disregard this reminder will be issued warnings and their posts will get deleted from public.

Arsenal Attacking heatmaps so far 2020/21

In AM's opinion, what is the problem with our attack?

  • It's a systematic/tactical problem and our players are capable enough but stifled

  • It's a personnel problem and the system and tactics are fine

  • Definitely both.


Results are only viewable after voting.

Hleb's Sirush

Established Member
The touch map for our forwards so far in the league, as I noticed its a hot topic atm.
Any other players you want to see, let me know and I will see what I can do.

Don't expect this to stay up too long- I expect these to be taken down as the website I got it from don't like it - its behind a paywall.

Auba

Laca

Willian

Pepe

Saka

Aubameyang Average position on the pitch per week (week 1, week 2 etc)

Lacazette Average position on the pitch per week (week 1, week 2 etc)

If I was to put it in numbers, Saka has the most touches in our opponents half and is our most advanced player so far - he's just a bit wide.

Great thread. I was getting tired trying to explain to some posters why Auba wasn't scoring anymore. The eye test was being backed up by the stats. Whenever I looked at his stats I was surprised how little he spend in the final third, got a shot off, or was able to make a run past the last line etc. Also in almost every game he had more defensive actions (attempted tackles, clearances, tracking runners etc) than meaningful attacking ones.

The same stats also suggested it wasn't just Auba but our whole attack was being completely neglected. Ffs Laca might not be elite but when he does most of his work in the centre circle he really isn't going to give you much.

Which is really worrying. I still haven't given up on Arteta but how the f*ck can he look at that and think it is worth persisting with having your elite striker wasting the majority of the game either chasing fullbacks/wingers or trying to put in a cross, presumably for Laca, who is more likely to be gassed at the centre circle than be able to run half the pitch every time possession changes hands.

It looks an absolute mess. Hope after this international break we see some real changes.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
Wish I had reserved the 2nd post in here now. To give you guys some perspective - or to make you feel worse, I will now post some heat maps of standout performers of the league this season.

Grealish - who pretty much lives in the opponents box


Calvert-Lewin


Bamford


Kane



Vardy - just to make you guys laugh and highlight what's been asked of our strikers


Vardy is a weird one cause he hasn't looked good and he's made a living of penalties atm. None the less, he's joint top scorer with 8 goals so far. You can clearly see he's been left to it, and I wonder how Auba/Laca would look if we did the same.
 

RunTheTrap

Kai Havertz Offense League
Really really good post here. I would like to ask the poster if he or she could add the heat maps of our midfielders and our fullbacks seeing as they’re important in keeping the shape Arteta persists with. Özil’s heat map would be really interesting for me. Our only true no. 10 and kinda like Pepe’s best link up player.
 

RunTheTrap

Kai Havertz Offense League
I feel like we need create a template before lockdown with the 4-2-3-1 and now the 3-4-3.
Firstly in the pre-lockdown scenario we lined up in a back 4.

Leno
AMN-Mustafi-Luiz-Saka
Torreira-Xhaka
Özil
Nelson-Laca-Auba

We attacked in our usual 5 lanes.
Saka-Auba-Laca-Özil-Nelson.
Imo, he saw Saka and Nelson as the width men. Their jobs were to hug the touch lines and make the pitch as wide as possible; they were the Sterling and Sane in these positions. Auba would drift inside to be a inside forward next to Laca while Özil was on the right half space.
Back 5 was
Xhaka (at lb) Luiz and Mustafi in a back 3, while Torreira and AMN occupied the middle of the park.
Pros: brought out the best in Saka as an attacker, we pressed in this system, Laca wasn’t isolated as much, Özil provided a link between midfield and attack.
Cons: Nelson and Özil didn’t have the same end product as Saka and Auba so it became heavily left side bias, our pressing couldn’t last for long and we always struggled in the 2nd half, no late runs from midfield.
Then Arteta replaced Nelson for Pepe and AMN for Bellerin, we also started seeing more onof Nketiah instead of Laca. The system was the same as the above but now Pepe was the touch line winger on the right.
Pros: Pepe was most involved in this Arteta structure, I believe it was because Özil combined with him a lot. Newcastle at home really springs into mind.
Cons: Pepe was expected to hug the touch line at times and this sometimes weakened his game. Plus, Özil and Pepe sometimes got in each other’s space, which meant we often lacked true width from the right hand side.

3-4-3 era
Martinez
Mustafi-Luiz-Tierney
Bellerin-Cellabos-Xhaka-Saka
Pepe-Laca-Auba

We attacked in the same 5 channels but I feel there were some differences.
Saka-Auba-Laca-Bellerin-Pepe.

Back 5
Tierney
This time there’s no third midfielder or Özil so now we’re seeing Laca dropping deeper and deeper in game. I won’t bring up the Saka wide midfield role because it’s been done before. This team was more about playing out from the back and we didn’t really press as a whole, only Lacazette would press and harass. Saka was kinda the 3rd midfielder and drift in when needed too. Due to this, Lacazette did not have the fitness to press and get into the box as much so we really attacked more like a 4, while Lacazette would drop into the 10 role. The left kinda operates as before but on the right, Bellerin comes infield more while Pepe stays out wide. My theory for this was because I feel like if in the middle of a transition, Bellerin was better to have closer in the midfield to track back and defend against runners or counters, and b) Pepe being a high risk player would lose the ball, it’s better to lose the ball out wide than through the middle. So I believe Arteta trusted Bellerin with the middle more so than Pepe.

This was my theories in what Arteta was trying to do attacking wise in the 4321 and 343. I have an idea for what I would do but I’m tired now and I might do it tomorrow.
 

krackpot

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
Unpopular belief but I genuinely believe we can survive with what we’ve got until summer so long as Auba stays injury free. There’s no need to be playing these guys the way we are at the moment.

My conclusion on seeing that data is, he needs to work on getting our most talented and biggest threats more centrally somehow. That’s Auba/Saka/Pepe.
I agree. Think this is a really strong squad. Just need to get a few things right and we can cruise 4th.

Play through the middle, Mikel. That's where the goal is!
 

TornadoTed

Established Member
I know it's not fashionable but I would love us to at least try 4-4-2 at some point. If we want to score more goals we need to get Pepe and Auba more central, their heat maps are a joke.

Leno

Bellerin Holding Gabriel Tierney

Willian Partey Elneny Saka

Pepe Auba
 

Preacher

Always Crying
nNU1hKk1hH-PWsmK7Ncrx4YC3kRbS-q0PV1QT0GoxwQ.jpg


You can see the difference between the seasons.
 
Last edited:

Tir Na Nog

Changes Opinion Every 5 Minutes

Country: Ireland
nNU1hKk1hH-PWsmK7Ncrx4YC3kRbS-q0PV1QT0GoxwQ.jpg


You can't see the difference between the seasons.

For me the thing that sticks out the most is that Auba got 10 in 13 under Wenger. I don't really wish that Wenger stayed longer or whatever, but I do kinda wish we got to see Auba under Wenger with Özil and the likes at their best over a period of a couple of years.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
For me the thing that sticks out the most is that Auba got 10 in 13 under Wenger. I don't really wish that Wenger stayed longer or whatever, but I do kinda wish we got to see Auba under Wenger with Özil and the likes at their best over a period of a couple of years.

Imagine if we could have got Auba in front of this, with Arsène in charge...

16514716586_49e92f9306_b.jpg


Fry-WigOut.gif


The funny part (or annoying part) is Pierre probably wouldn't have joined us, as he was being linked to Real constantly around the time we had all those players at their best...but when he realised that move would probably never happen and did decide to join us, all our best playmakers were pretty much gone or declining.

Arsenal fans can never just get what they want, can they :lol:
 

RacingPhoton

Established Member
My guess is that our attackers heat map has been slowly trending towards this right from the time when we lost Cazorla and Özil's form tanked. It is the midfielder's job to progress the ball forward. If midfielders can't break out, our forwards are forced to track back to win the ball.
Now that we got Partey, we should expect him to progress play and forwards shouldn't be tracking back so much. After we got Partey, I expected Arteta to change tactics and become more attacking. But I am yet to see that. Hope he changes tactics post international break.
 

Jury

A-M's drunk uncle
My guess is that our attackers heat map has been slowly trending towards this right from the time when we lost Cazorla and Özil's form tanked. It is the midfielder's job to progress the ball forward. If midfielders can't break out, our forwards are forced to track back to win the ball.
Now that we got Partey, we should expect him to progress play and forwards shouldn't be tracking back so much. After we got Partey, I expected Arteta to change tactics and become more attacking. But I am yet to see that. Hope he changes tactics post international break.
That’s what I thought too, and he did say Partey was going to allow him to try different formations. Maybe he’s dragging his feet a little here... I expect to see a change after the break. He’s had plenty of time to take stock of what he’s seen and taste enough backlash to jolt a response.
 

Tir Na Nog

Changes Opinion Every 5 Minutes

Country: Ireland
What's funny is that we were having the same discussions this time last year with Emery still here in terms of Pepe being too deep to be effective, i.e expected to take the ball from deep and do everything himself. An overreliance on Auba primarily from an attacking/goal-scoring point of view, unable to sustain attacks in the final third. All this leads me to believe that you cannot just blame it on Arteta's tactics, as convenient as it might be to do so. I do think it doesn't help us being overly cautious, there's a reason he does it but obviously it doesn't help us in an offensive sense. Also Partey alone was never gonna have the drastic change that many anticipated, hence why I kept banging on about how it was important to sign both Aouar and Partey (or at least a similar player to Aouar instead) because our midfield simply needed and still needs a massive improvement. We basically got 1 out of 3. We still need a proper 6 and a more attacking minded midfielder who's primarily a creator. Both those things would help us in terms of keeping the ball more in areas that'll allow the front 3 to stay higher up the pitch and in turn be in better positions to create and take chances.

Regardless Arteta will still have to change things to help us in the short-term in terms of chance creation and helping our forward players be in positions where they can actually have a proper impact. Of course his hands are somewhat tied as our squad still has various weak points but he'll have to come up with solutions whether that's Saka in a less restrictive role, Auba centrally, add an extra attacker/take away a defensive player. It won't be easy and we're massively hindered and it's a massive challenge, but we cannot keep going on the same way and not change something.
 

REWB

Well-Known Member
This place is toxic, dont think we are ever going to be successful with this fan base.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
This place is toxic, dont think we are ever going to be successful with this fan base.
I am not attacking Arteta, I am definitely criticising him but I think they are fair points. I also think these are things he can change, he has tweaked us for the better before.

I've openly said I am willing to give Arteta the season regardless of our place in the league - this is what we've signed up for.

I agree though, I do think our fans are toxic for sure, it's actually what drove me to make this thread. The manager agendas and player agendas need to meet in the middle.

Are some of our players up for it? honestly, no
Is Arteta making the most of his assets? at the moment honestly, no.
 

Moah

Well-Known Member
@Macho I know it somewhat conflicts with the title of the thread, but can you post the midfielders heatmaps here?
 
Top Bottom