Rick raised an interesting question: Why the other Premiership sides do not adapt the same tactic as our European opponents? I supposed Rick means - by defending deep, and denying Arsenal’s room for attack.
I believe the reason is: with the exception of a few teams [Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea], most of the EPL sides do not have that “keep ball” ability as our European opponents.
Sure, the EPL sides could pack their penalty box. But when they gain the posession, a few passes later, they would lose it again and hand back the initative to us. There is no way any EPL side could pack the penalty box for a whole ninety minutes without conceding a goal under heavy pressure.
In contrast, let’s don’t forget our European opponents in the Champions League are all the major forces in their own leagues. While they could pack up the penalty box, they could keep hold of the ball better than the average EPL sides when they regain the possession, and thus release the pressure of their defence.
And it can also explain why we seem to have a difficult time breaking down European opponents than the EPL sides. Again, the key is possessions. Against the likes of Norwich, Everton, we virtually dominated the possessions. With the ball on our players’ feet all the time, they could create as many chances as they want. Against European opponents, it takes us a longer time to recover the possession.
Another key factor is different league play with a different style in general. Most of the Premiership side adapt a similiar approach to the game. Having playing against the Premiership sides week in week out, Arsenal players know how to break down their opponents inside out. Our opponents in the Champions League come from different leagues and different countries, it takes time for our players to adapt. At the end of the day whoever [us or our CL oppositions] going to adapt it quicker would have an upper hand. As Wenger rightly put it “At the previous Champions League campaigns, we did not show enough patient and tended to try breaking down our oppositions as quickly as the way we break down our EPL oppositions. And when it didn’t work that way, the players got frustrated and lost their cool and focus.” Hopefully the players will learn from it this term around.
13 Responses to “Champions League - A different ball game”
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September 15th, 2004 at 7:33 am
Hmmm I don’t know about some of your points but as some one said to me there is something about Arsenal and Europe. The style of play in Europe and the league might be different but don’t forget most of these players should be able to adapt to that by now.
Overall Arsenal turned up the heat in the first half and afterwards went to sleep a bit. Happy with 3 points in the bag but also winning the CL has become for Arsenal what it once was for Manchester United.
Everyone expect them to do well and go on to win it, which will be hard when things don’t go your way.
September 15th, 2004 at 8:46 am
Yes, Andez, this is a much different ball game. At first, I was hoping that we had risen to a level where it didn’t matter who we played or where. At the final whistle, I felt perhaps we should have done better. Then I got to thinking.
One of the questions for me is, “Who had a better defensive matchup with their opponents…PSV or PSG?” Chelsea netting three, the opener from Terry who, himself, had international duties, gave me pause. However, PSG hasn’t won yet in their league, and Drogba knows them quite well, so maybe it was all in the bag from the start.
Another: The BULK of our lads were tired from 4 games in ten days. The fact that we had a legal goal disallowed and poured it on enough immediately after to WILL a goal was enough for me in retrospect. Everyone knew it was coming, and it did. Good teams hold the game to a scoreless draw. GREAT teams find a way.
Three: No Freddie. He’s been on fire, and with Pires suddenly picking up the slack on the right, our rhythm and chemistry suffered a bit. Additionally, Reyes is a fantastic second-half sub these days. Playing him out left to cover for the Pires move makes sense, but I thought it might have been interesting to see if Cocu could mark him in the last 30 mimutes like he could DB10. Wenger wants him in the middle eventually as it is. I have a feeling he would have scored.
Four: The Arsenal played two opponents last night?PSV and That CL Opener Monkey. The challenge to our mental strength was only made worse by our fatigue level, as it was last campaign. The difference, I think, is we’re a much, much better team. The clean sheet, in the circumstances, without Sol, while not as colorful as a 3-0 win, should strike total fear in all opponents, and in all the groups.
Lastly: Vieira played a great game, from what I could glean from the multiple text coverages I was following (BBC had said that the game wouldn’t be avialable…won’t listen in the future). Buuuut…Cesc, while young, still has some valuable European experience as well. Since he’s been out we’ve not really jumped like before. Before everyone gets crazy, I’m not saying he could have been the KEY to anything, there were a lot of factors here, but he was rested and has proven to be valuoable in getting the rhythm going. Just saying…
September 15th, 2004 at 8:57 am
Agreed with the points you made especially the one on ability to retain possession. Maybe that is one reason why EPL football is far more exciting compared to continental possession stuff.
Another thing which I think is different between EPL and CL games is the level of man2man marking in the CL compared to EPL. How often do we see Bergkamp being marked man for man in an EPL game in open play? Against PSV, Cocu was always ready to clamp down on Bergkamp whenever Bergkamp had the ball or was going to receive the ball. Hiddink must know that Bergkamp is the main supplier of balls for the other Arsenal strikers and decided to put Cocu on him.
Also lets not forget that PSV are currently top of the Dutch 1st division ahead of another excellent team Ajax. So they are not exactly Everton or Boro or Blackburn or Norwich, with all due respect to those teams.
September 15th, 2004 at 9:04 am
Yes, I agree the point of man-to-man marking too.
And Scotty, you made a good point about Ljungberg. Do u agree he seems to regain his previous form (2002) - by moving everywhere, particluar in the box?!
September 15th, 2004 at 9:56 am
I do agree…he’s seems to have that spark again, especially in getting into the box, on both sides. Don’t know to what effect he may have helped yesterday, but he being fit surely could have been a factor in our breaking through that packed midfield. FRom what I understand, the injury isn’t major.
September 15th, 2004 at 1:05 pm
Arsenal has produced premiership form in the Champions league, against Inter last year away, for example, and Roma the year before, but premiership or CL the idea that you can win every game in a swashbuckling fashion is just unrealistic. Players get tired, mentally and physically and Arsenal?s game is very high tempo. Also the Prem. is won over 38 games. The CL over much less and is far less forgiving, one bad mistake in the knockout stage can undo so many months of work as we saw in the Chelsea game, with our tired team. I see nothing wrong with grinding out a win.
September 15th, 2004 at 4:55 pm
i agree with your points andez, quite interesting but don’t forget this is the first match and that factor always get to come in. chelsea beat a very poor PSG yesterday, but all that can change in coming games. i believe we will very well improve especially in our away games, highbury is no more a slaughter ground like before. But i fear for Cygan.
September 15th, 2004 at 5:48 pm
i feel Freddie gives us something different. Henry, Reyes, Pires, Bergkamp are top class in terms of skills, Freddie may not be as good as them, but his timing run and energy play does give us an extra dimension..
September 15th, 2004 at 5:54 pm
Agree about tiredness. I notice the Portuguese sides don’t play a domestic match the weekend before the CL, and the French teams can opt to play on the Friday. We have the most physical league in Europe and a lot of games, which means, despite the drawbacks, I think we absolutely have to rotate.
September 15th, 2004 at 6:09 pm
I was depressed by yesterday’s performance and came home thinking, Yeah well, Cocu had quite a good game. Today things look a bit brighter. Yes Vieira worked really hard and Edu is obviously fit, which is a relief, and Sol will be back . . . but maybe what’s most cheered me is Real losing 3-0 and the Manure only getting a draw. Watched Liverpool tonight. They’re going to come good pretty soon, I think. Alonso, Gerrard, Garcia very promising together. Third place, do you think?
September 15th, 2004 at 8:24 pm
I think that they definitely ginded out the win showing some people that Arsenal can win even if its not stylish.
Also I was impressed that they didn’t throw away the one nil lead like they did against Valencia a couple of years ago.
The defence seemed to cope better with the high balls as well and they don’t give away those scrappy goals anymore. I think what we need to see now is whether they can keep it going and dont get tired like Real Madrid last season who ended up with nothing.
September 15th, 2004 at 10:22 pm
well miranda, pool won 2-0 with goal from cisse and baros. cisse, like drogba, will be very dangerous when they finally adapt. i don’t see pool as championship contender yet, but they can be our stumbling block when we play them in EPL.
elsewhere horseface was back with 2 goals, lucky2 manu as always.
i was most impressed with barca this week, i think they are much better than some russian-funded club whose manager claimed that they have played ‘perfect football’ by winning 3-0 against a poor PSG.
as many have said it, don’t bother about the score, i won’t mind us keep winning 1-0 in CL and win CL in greece-way for once.
oh and as for ljunberg, yup we really missed him
his pacey and timing run from deep made him very hard to mark. with ljunberg, reyes, and henry on the field, PSV will not be that easily mark our players.
September 16th, 2004 at 2:19 am
I think just the nature, and the urgency, of the competition means we NEED to play the old, ugly “1-nil to the Arsenal” style play. Offense wins games, defense wins championships and all that.
Oh yeah, and B. Leverkusen 3 - 0 Real Madrid… HA HA HA HA HA HA
— Geoff