{"id":3627,"date":"2021-06-23T13:14:06","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T12:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3627"},"modified":"2021-06-26T13:14:33","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T12:14:33","slug":"season-review-forwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3627","title":{"rendered":"Season Review: Forwards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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While the midfield was still an uncertain muddle, and the defence reliable enough though lacking any genuine match winning quality, except Kieran Tierney (and Bernd Leno on certain days), Arsenal went into the 2020-21 season with a reasonable degree of confidence in the consistency and reliability of their attacking force. The ever-smiling Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had ended the previous season with a cup winning high, continuing to impress with his eye-catching conversion rate that allowed him to run to 71 goals for Arsenal in two and half seasons, despite playing in front of what can generously be called an uneven creative supply. Never quite a \u2018back to goal\u2019 traditional number 9, and not really a modern-day winger (though that is how he started his career) who is going to provide consistent defensive cover and help out the midfield in ball retention, Aubameyang thrives in a fluid forward line where he uses his pace, movement off the ball, and a well-honed ability to anticipate and finish chances in and around the penalty box to great effect. One wonders what we could have achieved if he were playing with Messrs. Cazorla, \u00d6zil, Alexis, Ramsey, Rosick\u00fd \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An excellent signing though Aubameyang had proved to be, Arsenal never really quite resolved the issue of how to get him and his good friend Lacazette to play together in a tactically cohesive manner. The easiest solution had typically been to put Lacazette down the middle, Aubameyang on the left wing, and there have been times when that combination looked very good, but there have also been times where the opposition defence had simply dropped deeper and kept close track of Auba\u2019s movements to nullify his primary threat of scoring goals, especially given the relative rarity of defence-splitting through balls coming from the Arsenal midfield. Running at a defence with the ball at his feet is not the Arsenal captain\u2019s forte, and neither is Lacazette very good at it. Even though Lacazette at his best is technically good enough to create goals in a congested penalty box by manipulating tight spaces, it is not an ability that he demonstrates consistently enough to compensate for drops in Arsenal\u2019s goal-scoring numbers whenever a tactically disciplined and technically competent defence decides to stay deep in a low block. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these well documented limitations, Arsenal did find different ways to score goals in the 2019-20 season, albeit relying overly on Aubameyang\u2019s career best conversion rates, especially in the Premier League. But in the first half of the season, when the collective performance of the team started to drop to alarmingly low levels — not helped by frenetic tactical tinkering by then coach Unai Emery as he started to lose his grip on the squad \u2013 and the goals in the PL had also started to drop, in the Europa league and the League Cup Arsenal fans were introduced to a new young goalscoring talent. It is fair to say that Gabriel Martinelli and the combination of his directness, pace and goalmouth threat were not just pleasant diversions from the implosion in league form, but also a source of excitement and hope for the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the young Brazilian had surprised us with his rapid adaptation to top level football, record signing Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 was somewhat underwhelming in that first half of the season. There were flashes of individual skill and some examples of a unique ability to create and score chances \u2013 but they were too often undermined by a lack of nuance and variation in his approach and a sense of disjointedness in his overall game. Compared to the more assured performances of another rising youngster Bukayo Saka, he looked less reliable and consistent as an attacking outlet.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Arteta took over mid-season, he focused primarily on tightening up the defence and bringing a modicum of structure and shape back into our game plan. He had initially used his old teammate \u00d6zil to provide more security on the ball and, one suspects, hoping to bring back to Arsenal\u2019s attack a decisiveness and creativity at which peak form Mesut was a master. But that experiment didn\u2019t last very long, and Arteta quickly adapted to the reality of the Arsenal he had inherited by morphing into a predominantly counter-attacking team with a three man defence, two wing backs willing also to cut inside to overload the midfield, and relying on the movement and finishing of the front three. This worked particularly well when Kieran Tierney was fit as he added a stellar combination of defensive strength and attacking outlet, and his overlapping runs encouraged Aubameyang to play more freely as a left sided attacker. This 3-4-3 structural approach also started to bring more out of P\u00e9p\u00e9, and signs of some personal coaching started to become more evident in the manner he was now more engaged with the overall game and more effective in making the decisions in the final third. The Premier League form improved enough to arrest the slide and make a modest rise up the table. Then the team raised hopes by winning the FA Cup playing true to the tactical blueprint set up by Mikel, where the back-to-the-wall defensive togetherness was complemented by the effectiveness of the front three following quick transitions, a formula that worked especially well against superior opposition as demonstrated in the semi-final and final of the successful FA Cup run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we entered the 2020-21 season with Aubameyang in a rich vein of form, now the captain and with a renewed contract, Lacazette a more than able center forward, young Martinelli and Saka full of talent and maturity beyond their years, and the mercurial P\u00e9p\u00e9 showing signs of becoming a key player in the new season. Even though Martinelli suffered an unfortunate injury in training that was to keep him away from the matchday squad for a while, Arsenal fans were looking forward to what this group of talented attackers, including a truly world class striker in Aubameyang, could do now the team was playing with more poise and purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, that excitement and hope didn\u2019t fully turn into expectation. We knew that the team still lacked offensive variety. Especially against opposition unwilling to try to dominate the match, even this quality forward line would fail to score consistently in the absence of a true playmaker in the attacking midfield. Furthermore, given the over-reliance on the captain there were also doubts that any injury, loss of form, or even dips in Auba\u2019s hitherto stellar conversion rates would also see us struggling to score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the pre-season transfer window Arsenal made the type of miscalculation that by now should really be trademarked by our beloved club: \u2018club X had \u201cArsenalized\u201d it\u2019s last transfer window etc\u2019 . We most needed a creator in the attacking midfield, and we failed to address that problem, eerily reminding us of all those times when we had needed a new central defender or defensive midfielder to solve just the last piece of the puzzle and we simply ignored those needs and paid the consequences. Just a little bit more lucid evaluation of the squad and some acumen in acquiring what was absolutely needed would probably have seen us making a better go at the PL or European successes in the last fifteen or so years, especially when the team was filled with creative and attacking talents and was managed by someone who had earned his legendary status not just by the virtue of his transformative effect but also his early successes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of an attacking midfielder we brought in a somewhat aging but high quality winger with great experience of both Premier League and European football. Willian was the most traditional winger we had in our line-up and given his remarkable consistency in the last few years Arteta decided to start the season with him, keeping P\u00e9p\u00e9 on the bench. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first match \u2013 away at newly promoted Fulham \u2013 seemed to have completely vindicated Arteta\u2019s trust in Willian as he provided key assists, including a cross-field pass to Aubameyang who thrives on that type of service. It had seemed we are all set. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for Willian in an Arsenal shirt, and that was as good as it got for Arsenal until a revamped first eleven triumphed over Chelsea in a Boxing Day match, relying on the youth brigade of Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe and returning from injury Martinelli.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between these two matches, form started to drop steadily and Arsenal played their worst football in the last 25 or so years. Turgid, uninspiring, over-orchestrated and lacking any speed of thought or action to allow thoroughly planned moves to actually make any material difference on the playing field, Arsenal started to score fewer and fewer goals. Aubameyang and Lacazette both started to miss more chances compared to the last couple of seasons (in the case of Auba I think it was unreasonable to expect that he would be able to maintain the previous season\u2019s conversion rate) and the team as a whole created fewer and fewer chances. Goal-scoring became an issue. Arteta tweaked frontline personnel by playing Willian on either wing or sometimes even at the tip of the midfield, bringing Saka in on the wings and starting to get P\u00e9p\u00e9 more involved.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast to the Premier League, Arsenal continued to score goals in the Europa League group stages, albeit against opposition less technically and tactically strong, but most of those goals came from individual pieces of skills by Willock, P\u00e9p\u00e9, Saka, Lacazette et al<\/em>. where they were afforded time and\/or space in and around the penalty box that they would never find in Premier League matches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the pre-season apprehensions about our over-reliance on Aubameyang came true as he had unfortunate personal struggles with his family, then later in the season with his health after contracting malaria while away on international duty. Lacazette, ever the hard worker and willing fighter for the cause, started to suffer from a loss of pace which appeared all the more magnified as he needed to drop deeper and deeper to bring the ball forward, and by being surrounded by other practitioners in the art of slow football. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Willian\u2019s form and contributions remaining at a stubbornly unacceptable level, it probably took Arteta a bit longer than it would have taken a more experienced manager to find out that there is no magical transformation back to past excellence. However, both P\u00e9p\u00e9 and Saka started to enjoy more game time. Our offensive game plan remained lopsided to the left, even when Aubameyang wasn\u2019t playing. One suspects this was to maximize Tierney\u2019s attacking potential as well as to optimize the peculiar set of strengths-and-weaknesses of Xhaka. Meanwhile, not unrelatedly, P\u00e9p\u00e9 continued to find it difficult to bring consistency into his attacking output, even though he, now encouragingly, started to demonstrate better overall engagement with the build-up, much better defensive awareness and work rate, and looked as if Arteta might be able to push him to a higher level as he had allegedly done for a few other talented wingers in his previous role as assistant manager elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

League form and results started to bounce back following the introduction of Emile Smith-Rowe and, later in the winter, with the loan signing of \u00d8degaard. Whereas ESR brought a ball-carrying verticality and the willingness and technical ability to exploit spaces between the defensive lines, \u00d8degaard brought composure on the ball in the final third, defence-splitting passes and an ability to play to the strengths of the players around him which can sometimes be an overlooked quality in number 10s. Saka \u2013 ESR – \u00d8degaard combined well. \u00d8degaard now brought P\u00e9p\u00e9\u2019s attacking qualities to the fore and this overall improvement of movement and technical quality in the final third brought out flashes of old excellence from Lacazette and even Aubameyang who never really recovered from the post-malaria malaise (hopefully the summer break will get him back to his physical best). We had very few memorable attacking performances in this season and they all came in the second half of the season where some combination of Saka \u2013 ESR – \u00d8degaard was key. None of them scored a lot of goals or notched up a high number of assists but they were pivotal to the attacking improvement in the second half of the season, allowing the more experienced finishers in Aubameyang, Lacazette and P\u00e9p\u00e9 to contribute more consistently in the goalscoring column. Saka maintained his impressive consistency throughout the season, only starting to drop his level towards the end as the fatigue of a long and mostly dispiriting season took over.  Gabriel Martinelli was used sparingly even when he was fully fit and even though Arteta might have felt that his direct, tenacious, all-action approach may need some tactical fine-tuning before he can become a regular member, many of us thought that his unique combination of pressing from the front, causing chaos in the opposition penalty box and quality finishing deserved more game time, especially when we were again begging for a spark of inspiration in matches.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attacking improvement was noticeable enough to bring some smiles back to the Arsenal fanbase but not nearly enough to end the season with any sense of achievement. We lost to Villareal in the Europa League semi-final with an extraordinarily poor attacking performance across both legs when the limitations of the team were exacerbated by questionable tactical choices. We ended the Premier League season with a run of positive results, helped by a goal-scoring spree by P\u00e9p\u00e9, Martinelli and Laca chipping in the odd winner or two, and Saka \u2013 ESR – \u00d8degaard providing just enough quality in the attacking third to support the forward line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie Nketiah & Reiss Nelson \u2013 both having played promising roles in the last season\u2019s successful FA Cup run, and even contributing enthusiastically in league matches when called for \u2013 were mostly absent from matchday appearances, Reiss more so than Eddie. Again, as an Arsenal fan used to seeing talented youngsters in the squad getting necessary chances and encouragement over the years, this felt a very un-Arsenal like cautiousness. There were many matches where our attack had turned pedestrian \u2013 one might be tempted to stay \u201cliterally\u201d pedestrian, so slow was the pace of the build-up \u2013 when the directness brought by Reiss Nelson — who has always shown a willingness to run at defences and take shots at goal \u2013 at the expense of secure but pointless possession in the middle of the park, might have yielded a few more goals.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie played a few matches, scored some goals, but it was slowly becoming obvious that his strength as an excellent poacher and his technical imitations on the ball may lead us decide to sell him to another top division club (in England or abroad) but with less than our own immediate need to drastically improve our overall performance and league standing. That impression became further solidified as the club successfully renewed Folarin Balogun\u2019s contract. Balogun has been the shining star of the Arsenal youth teams for the last few years and even in his brief involvement with the first team managed to impress by playing with both flair and strength in the penalty box. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attacking stats for the forward line, across all competitions, truly present a picture of overall mediocrity: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lacazette:         17 goals, 3 assists;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P\u00e9p\u00e9:               16 goals, 5 assists;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auba:              15 goals, 4 assists;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka:               7 goals, 7 assists;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie:              6 goals, 1 assist;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martinelli:        2 goals, 2 assists;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willian:            1 goal, 7 assists;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balogun:          2 goals, 1 assist;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reiss Nelson:  1 goal, 1 assist.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding the attacking midfielders to that list:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ESR:                4 goals, 7 assists;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard:        2 goals, 2 assists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these numbers taken altogether are not entirely unrespectable, a season with such a relatively mediocre output from the frontline can only be salvaged if there are goals (and assists) coming from central midfield where the Arsenal numbers are likely to compete with the relegated clubs. The most prolific of the central midfielders were Joe Willock — who only played half of the season before being loaned out to Newcastle where he scored more premier league goals in half a season that all of our central midfield combined — who had 3 goals and 3 assists, Xhaka with 1 goal and 2 assists, Elneny with 3 goals and 0 assists, and Partey with 0 goals and 0 assists. The total number of times an Arsenal midfielder arrived in the penalty box from deep with a late run couldn\u2019t have been more than 10 across the entire season.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we are to harbour any hope of returning to a Champions League position in the league table \u2013 which really has to be the absolute minimum target for next season \u2013 our goalscoring output has to significantly improve. That means improving the quality of the supply line, improving the dynamism of the central midfield to facilitate their contribution to the goalscoring column, and improving the output of the forward line where the qualities of unpredictability, movement, progressive attitude, and efficiency should determine the matchday squad and starting eleven rather than reputations or experience or the sense of tactical comfort provided by them. The depressing fact that we play in no European competition this season can only be assuaged by making that extra rest and preparation time between league matches count.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the midfield was still an uncertain muddle, and the defence reliable enough though lacking any genuine match winning quality, except Kieran Tierney (and Bernd Leno on certain days), Arsenal went into the 2020-21 season with a reasonable degree of confidence in the consistency and reliability of their attacking force. The ever-smiling Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3627"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3651,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3627\/revisions\/3651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}