LHS vs RHS asymmetry

[MATHEO]

Its obvious to everyone that the left hand side of our side is nowhere near effective as the right hand side. There's an obvious asymmetry in our game that led to this. I will explain this using our starting line up last season, at the start of it.

The first of which is that during the build up, Our left LB inverts and becomes as a midfielder while the RB becomes a wide CB, and a box midfield is created

RB RCB LCB
White Saliba Gabriel

DM LB
Rice Zinchenko

RCM LCM
Ødegaard Havertz

RW CF LW
Saka Jesus Martinelli​

Or sometimes, depends on how high the teams are pressing

RB RCB LCB
White Saliba Gabriel

RCM DM LB
Ødegaard Rice Zinchenko

RW CF LCM LW
Saka Jesus Havertz Martinelli

​

We can notice immediately an asymmetry here, The LB is more of a creator than the RB and the LCM takes more advanced positions on the pitch, almost like a shadow striker, than the RCM.

As the ball progresses to the flanks, on the right hand side we will have this shape:

RCB LCB LB
Saliba Gabriel Zinchenko

RW RCM DM
Saka Ødegaard Rice

RB CF LCM LW
White Jesus Havertz Martinelli

*RB (White) overlaps beyond the RW (Saka), the team is tilted to the right
​

While on the left hand side we will have this shape:

RB RCB LCB
White Saliba Gabriel

DM LB LW
Rice Zinchenko Martinelli

RW RCM CF LCM
Saka Ødegaard Jesus Havertz

*LCM (Havertz) underlaps beyond the LW (Martinelli), the team is tilted to the left
​

Two main things stand out to me, one is that RW is helped by overlaps while LW is helped by underlaps, also its easier to cross from an overlapping position than an underlap most of the time. Moreover, given the attributes of the players that we have, when the ball is crossed from the right hand side, you have good targets: Jesus, Martinelli and Havertz. But when the ball is crossed from the left hand side, your targets are: Jesus, Ødegaard and Saka. There's a huge disparity in the physical aspect of box crashers depending on which side you cross from.


We're effectively playing different formations depending on how the ball progresses, and if you look at what each position demands then you will have a profile for each position:

CBs: Good on the ball, Quick & Strong, capable of stopping counters and defending wide areas. Saliba and Gabriel were brilliant at that

RB: Good on the ball, a great crosser and makes constant runs overlapping beyond the RW. White did really well and improved his game.

LB: Creator at the middle of the park, a playmaker who's capable of defending as Left back when we lose the ball. Zinchenko is a great technician and playmaker but his defending has been awful at times. Which is why Arteta wanted Califiori

DM: Breaks up the play, the glue, a constant passing option, and available at the edge of the box for cutbacks. Rice did pretty well last year though you'd want him to be a tad more creative, but he'll improve

RCM: A creator who can drop deep and assist the buildup phase, being the playmaker when the ball is on the right, and a target for crossing when the ball is on the left, very good at pressing. Ødegaard has been brilliant last year, but he is not a good target.

LCM: Shadows the striker and plays as high as the striker when we are facing a high line and a good target for long balls, Helps a bit with the buildup phase, Underlaps beyond the LW and crosses from there (which is why Arteta prefers a left footed player), and a target for crosses coming from the right. Havertz struggled in the build up phase especially at the start of the season, but he was growing into the role, and he was making a great impact shadowing the likes of Trossard around January and February, Eventually he was moved to CF because Jesus wasnt performing after his injury and Nketiah wasnt good enough. Which is why Arteta wanted Merino (who's also left footed, helps with the buildup phase and a good box crasher)

Wingers: Fast enough to stretch the play and get fed balls behind the defence, also capable of cutting inside and linking with the creators in the middle and wide runners, in the case of Saka he had Ødegaard and the overlapping White, while Martinelli had Zinchenko and the underlapping Havertz. However, Martinelli has been very poor since last year which is why Arteta wanted to sign a wide forward, we ended up with Sterling.

CF: Capable of linking up with players around him and a presence in the box and a good target for long balls. Jesus is great at link up play but he's inconsistent and he doesnt have presence in the air, the best we have for that is Havertz who's been superb lately.


We can see how the asymmetry in the formation itself gives different profiles for every almost every player on the pitch.

The right hand side is working brilliantly well because you have everything, an overlapping fullback in White who is good at crossing, a creator in Ødegaard, Saka performing at the highest level, and good targets in the box as Havertz (and nowadays Rice) and Martinelli are the box crashers.

The left hand side has been poor lately, the underlapping fullback in Rice cant cross with his left foot and runs into blind alleys whenever Martinelli chooses to play it wide, not to mention that its harder to cross when you underlap than when you overlap, the creator Zinchenko has been injured a lot and he was benched due to his defensive performances and he has been replaced with less creative options, Martinelli himself has been very poor since last season, and on top of that, the box crashers in Ødegaard and Saka aren't good targets because they are small physically.

Just wanted to share my thoughts about this asymmetry in the team, I thought that a lot of people were focusing on Martinelli's poor performances but there is way more to this in my opinion. Interested to read what everyone thinks. Also I cant draw formations properly here so I did my best to illustrate my points.

 

[MutableEarth]

This deserved more replies IMO

I do think the left side has lacked synergy this season but I think it's a little strange because going into the season I felt the left side was actually pretty strong in preseason. I think part of the problem with the left side is Declan Rice. I don't really care what anyone has to say, I much prefer him as the #6. Just because he doesn't play umpteen forward passes every 2 mins, it's been decided that we absolutely need a DLP #6 to play there but I don't think we do. We could just as easily shunt a little more creativity into the left 8 position (I'm assuming that this was the logic behind Merino's signing - he's a better passer than stats suggest so I'd imagine the idea was to have him pick up some of the progressive burden without sacrificing physicality but he's injured now so lol). Rice at left 8 is picking the ball up in very awkward positions with his back to goal at times or in tight spaces and while he's doing admirably, it's not where he's strongest. He's much better as a #6, even if he isn't the absolute best at unlocking mid-blocks.

I think part of the reason why the left side looked good was because of the relaxed nature of preseason as well as the personnel. Martinelli's goal vs United came about because he was played in to the half space quickly by Lewis-Skelly. Timber has yet to play that kind of pass from that position. Even Zinchenko hasn't. Salah-Eddine also provided a ton of nice rotations with the full-back and winger from the left 8 position and gave a glimpse into the kind of player we'd probably all like to see there. Martinelli hasn't been very good but I'd argue that his strengths haven't been exploited as much as we'd like to see. Martinelli is much better closer to goal. He can't do the job that Saka does and unfortunately we don't have 2 Sakas. Having more rotations between the left sided players and maybe using personnel who are more comfortable in wider areas to allow Martinelli to drift inside more would benefit the team more. Martinelli however needs to calm down a bit. He's snatching at things, which happens with players who are frustrated and out of form. One good goal could change everything for him. I think he needs to enter the box a little bit more when Saka goes for his far post crosses as he's good in the air. Him and Havertz in the box could be cash money if we use it properly.