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The myth of the Arsenal passing game

Have Spurs become the new Gunners?

22 December, 2010 9:00 41 comments
The myth of the Arsenal passing game

Those were the days

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First off, I’m just an average football fan. I don’t know much about the technical aspects of the game… I just love watching good football, and for as long as I’ve been a football fan, the team that usually does this best in the Premier League is Arsenal.

There was a time when the ball would go from box-to-box in a matter of three or four swift, precise and penetrating passes (squeezed in-between some blistering pace by our bolt-of-lightning attacking players). Those were also the days (and this has been mentioned many times on this site) when Arsenal would blitz the opposition in the first 20 minutes of the game and then make them look like amateurs for the rest of the game as they chased Red-and-White shadows. I loved watching Arsenal play in those (not-so-long-ago) days.

Today, however, I feel endlessly frustrated. Not at Arsenal’s inability to defend (because I really wouldn’t mind them winning 6-5 each week), but rather because they are no longer playing the ‘passing game’ that I love to watch.

Oh yes, they string together 24 consecutive passes. And once in a while there’s some brilliance shown by a Nasri or a Walcott (or a Chamakh this season - I must confess I really like the look of him) at the end of those passes to remind me that this is still Arsenal I’m watching, but that passing game that was played in the Henry/Bergkamp/Pires/Vieira days is now all but gone. What we have left is a team that keeps the ball a lot, and then keeps it some more. And then goes home. We are too rarely swift, only occasionally precise, and (most importantly) almost never penetrating. But has Arsenal (read Arsene) not realised this?

The next comment will probably kill this from being posted on the site, but here goes anyway: Did you see the way Sp*rs played against Chelsea/Inter Milan? That really made me feel nostalgic. It’s like they’ve become the new Arsenal. They certainly look like they’re playing the way Arsenal used to. There have been recent articles here about Harry Redknapp’s obsession with Arsenal, but it may look like he’s gone one step further and turned Sp*rs into the Arsenal that Arsenal want to be. Has Arsenal (read Arsene) failed to see this as well?

The Arsenal passing game is, today, a myth. It’s merely a lingering memory of what was. Whether it’s the quality of the players at the club right now, or something that Arsene is responsible for, I don’t know enough about football to say. But this Arsenal team certainly does not pass a football the way they used to.

Please bring it, back Arsene Wenger... We know you can.

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41
comments

  1. Feb 09, 2011, 12:17 #2197

    2004 Invincibles, Wengerball I, think WW2 Germany's Blitzkrieg tactics. Current crop, Wengerball II, psychological thriller that plays with your mind and drain the life out of you. E.g., pass here and there, back and forth, conjuring 97 passes. Opposing team gets frustrated, lost, lured into a check. Opens up a lot of space for the Gunners to exploit. After toying with the victim's mind, the killer pass is executed. It's like a slow-death game-plan. Maybe that's what the Prof is aiming for

  2. GunnerPete

    Dec 27, 2010, 11:35 #498

    Good article. We must never forget though that Rednapp is a buyer and has never built any team. Wherever he goes he doubles the squad size with multiple buys, sometimes even the same ones he had before. This is not a criticsm as now and again he has some success, but at a big cost. How a team so unsuccessful as Spurs can afford to pay out so much for so many years is beyond me and needs investigating. As for us...yes we now pass twice as many times as we need to, and most of the time there is no end product. In fact nowdays we very often commit so many forward whilst tip tapping around the area that we construct our own downfall as per last year with Manure & Chelski. I am very surprised and disapointed that Arsene has given so much play time to slow poderous average players like bentner & denilson I feel that had we had real class (as we used to have in those positions Viera & Petit or Wrighty & Smith ) we would have sown up the title 2/3 times in the past 5 years. As it is AW will continue to pray that as this group age other teams will fall apart...and of course they will not. A quote from Arsene yesterday says it all " people want me to blood these young players and also buy establshed stars too..this cannot be done" . Sorryt O Great One...go and look at SAF and Manure he has dome exactly that for 150 yaers or so !!!!

  3. a.walters

    Dec 26, 2010, 11:42 #495

    spot on .its how you attack their goal and defend our goal that counts not clocking up passing percentages .now we have decent headers of the ball ie chamakh and bentdner we can,t service them as our crossing is hopeless .talented players like chamakh ,diaby,rosicky,song not decisive enough or determined enough in the attacking third and need to shoot more and song needs to be much less sloppy in his passing and stop giving so many silly fouls away.we are still a very good side but don,t defend well enough as a team and attack with enough conviction.

  4. Stephen

    Dec 24, 2010, 11:34 #486

    The problem to me is that no one in the side is taking any responsibility. Time and time again a player gets forward in space and could try to shoot, or really do something decisive. However they will mostly pass sideways to someone who may ( but isnt) in a better position. You can see the lack of leadership and they always take the easy option. When a shot does come in its not a great one.The wing play is pathetic. Sagna once said that he knows he cant centre well, but no-one has taught him. They need to take more risks and play with the hand brake off. Then we will se how skillful they are. Sport is in the head. They are as fit and as good as the competition but they dont "go for it". The coaching probably instills the value of keep ball and therefore nothing happens. the emphasis must change and they need a leader on the pitch. Easy!!

  5. Bob

    Dec 23, 2010, 23:58 #481

    We have to go back to a 442 and buy proper wingers. The way we play is a joke. Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass lose the ball. What happened to running with the ball, width, pace and penetration? People go on about the way we play, well I hate it. It is frustrating. By the time we have thrown three hundred passes together, and only got as far as the penalty area, the opposition have got everyone behind the ball. I suppose with the midgets, smurfs and diddy men we have playing for us this is the best we can hope for.

  6. Nige S

    Dec 23, 2010, 19:39 #478

    Good post but when others go to the wall financially I hope we are still going strong and can return to the force we were in the past. Still think we could do with a more mobile striker aka TH14 and don't see theo in this role, as for the spuds more long ball than passing!!

  7. Gary M

    Dec 23, 2010, 19:28 #477

    This may be the real wenger we are seeing, atb highbury with the smaller pitch we had to play forward quickly, now it seems he has the space he craved so we can pass it around and around and around (so he can bask in the oles). Equally the qupte about not being able to bring youth through and spend money. Messi, xavi, iniesta, puyol, pique, valdez, pique youth players, i wont bother with the big money players and amounts but the point is they blended the two and done well.

  8. ppp

    Dec 23, 2010, 18:37 #475

    Obviously I didn't read this dusgusting article - I'm also saddened to see the gooner is letting a bunch of tottenham scum flood the responses. Anyone who writes an article with such a heading should be banned from the stadium for life. But then he or she is almost certainly a Spurs fan anyway. All true gooners will back the players and the manager for the rest of the season as loudly and passionately as possible. The moaners should be weeded out and sent off to Chelsea, Tottenham or some other gang of football pygmies. This article and it's writer are disgusting.

  9. Hendrix Freire

    Dec 23, 2010, 12:13 #467

    Oh, cmon, you can't be serious, mate ... spuds new Arsenal? Are you insane? When they win 13 EPL's and one unbeaten, then you can tell that ... before it, please, don't speak bullshit

  10. Matt

    Dec 23, 2010, 5:27 #465

    Can't compare different teams let alone eras but Spurs definitely have more cutting edge now with Arshavin playing like he would rather be anywhere, Fabregas looking like he'd rather be in the Catalans and Song just looking lost

  11. trev

    Dec 22, 2010, 21:41 #464

    Is this site actually for the Gunners? The majority of the reports are anti arsenal - if our own idiotic supporters can't get behind the club then what hope have we got

  12. Jacky Wilshere

    Dec 22, 2010, 16:56 #463

    Stop drooling over the Spuds!! For christ sake......we're a better footballing team than them by a mile!they might have beaten us at home but did you actually watch the game?we outplayed them for the first 45 mins and for the second half Assou-Ekotto just lumped the ball forward from full back.To all those people mouthing off about Arsene,you'll only realise what we have when he's left. To all those people talking about giving up season tickets and giving up going to games,please do!You might actually free up the seat for somebody whom will get behind the team and support them!We're in the semi-final of the carling cup,last 16 of Champions League and up to a week ago were top of the league-i'd hate to see what ye'd be saying if we were doing badly.

  13. Adrian Wagenaar

    Dec 22, 2010, 15:28 #462

    Very good piece but I think because Redknapp inherited Lennon and Bale he is able to get behind defences and if you do that enough times you create chances and VDV is picking up the half chances, because for the first time in a long while "THe Spuds" have a real thinking forward player in the bargain priced Dutchman. It was impossible for AW to replace Paddy, Bobby (although we are nearly there with Nasri)T.H. & of course the wonderful Dennis Bergkamp, so I think that was some of the reasoning to change our style of play. However a good goalkeeper and a some decent traditional defenders would help us when we run out of steam in a match because at the moment the slightest period of pressure against us and we concede. As Herbert Chapman once said "Sometimes you can attack too much"

  14. Graham

    Dec 22, 2010, 14:40 #461

    I think we lack the class of Henry, Pires, Berkamp, Vieira & Freddie. These guys are all capable of winning games we have lost this season. We only really have Cesc, Arshavin and Nasri at the moment and they do not win games as consistantly as the afore mentioned. Passing is not the problem it's the end product or lack of it that is the problem.

  15. bunch

    Dec 22, 2010, 13:54 #460

    As a club they'll always be a bag of shit, but their team is, for the first time in a generation, approaching parity. We might be second but our chances of actually wining the title this season are only slightly better than theirs, ie small, their's is smaller but only by as much as the current difference in points totals. And we might become them by winning the League Cup and getting all excited about it.

  16. trooper

    Dec 22, 2010, 13:43 #459

    well said, and this has been on my mind too. we no longer play "beautiful pure football". We don't pass the ball around effectively. I'm not sure what we do, but watching games these days EVERYTHING seems uncoordinated to me aside from brilliant individual skills. Teamwork goals seem to be a thing of the past. We used to at least be able to say that we play a good fair game but look at where we stand at the fairplay table as well. I'd rather win the way arsenal did in yesteryears than win the way manU did two three seasons ago. Thats where many of my personal disagreements come with fellow gooners, but im a strong believer of the fact that if i am to support a football team they should at least play it right.

  17. Abbs

    Dec 22, 2010, 13:30 #458

    Thank you very much for bringing up this amazing analysis and i know you are just being modest by saying you do not know much about the technicalities of the game but with what you said, i know you sure do. This Arsenal of now can possess the ball and keep it for a long while but with no end product. The Arsenal of the invincibles were based on strength, speed, off the ball movement and directness. They only need four or five passes to get into the oppositions box. Imagine a short pass from Seaman to Campbell or Keaown, Vieira or Edu will drop deep to receive the ball from them and from that moment on you will see Ljumberg, Bergkamp, Reyes all making different movements thereby confusing the opposing defenders and Henry will be on his bike racing towards goal. THIS WAS THE ARSENAL WAY.

  18. General Levy

    Dec 22, 2010, 13:28 #457

    Interesting piece. I would not go as far as to say that any other team is the new Arsenal in terms of passing, it is more that football has changed massively in the last 5 years with more and more pressure being put on managers and players to avoid defeat at all costs. The reason Arsenal were so effective in the early 00s is that opposition teams were willing to go for it against us and other teams far more than they are now. A rare exciting game aside, the Premier League is getting duller and duller year by year. I would also highlight the fact that the Arsenal team which became renound for its passing was a cut above any other team which has graced the premiership, bar the United side of 1999. There simply isn't the same level of quality available for anything like what we paid for it back then. With mediocre players going for 20m a pop, how is a manager expected to assemble a team capable of playing that same style of football as the likes of 2.5m Freddie and 4.5m Bobby did? Football is dead. It is all money and fear nowadays.

  19. jimmy

    Dec 22, 2010, 13:13 #456

    i agree :)

  20. Angelo

    Dec 22, 2010, 13:08 #455

    Honestly, what's the point of this? A few simple facts: 1. Spurs have not finished above Arsenal for many years. 2. Spurs are not above Arsenal this year. 3. Spurs will not finish above Arsenal this year. Having said that, the Arse are not the team we were, quite clearly. No team can lose talents the size of Dennis, Thierry and Bobby without stepping down a level. I don't believe there are any obvious replacements for any of those 3 players right now, anywhere in the world. Even if there were, we couldn't afford them. The manager has chosen to go down a different road and look to develop a team. It's been a rocky road and we will all have different opinions as to whether we might get there or not. Personally, I'm hopeful but not certain. However, I still think we play some of the best football in the league, particularly away from home where the opposition doesn't park the bus. What's missing is the belief in the players - let's hope winning the Carling Cup will give everyone the lift needed.

  21. GoonerRon

    Dec 22, 2010, 12:38 #453

    I think it's fair to say our style has changed since The Invincibles. We aren't as incisive as we were then but that is largely down to change in personnel. It is not very often you get the passing masterpiece that is Bergkamp, the brilliance of Pires, the pace and finesse of Henry, the power and ability of Vieira and the running power of Ljungberg - all in their prime at the same time. Like it or not, we are different team now and our passing is a lot shorter and more intricate. I agree it can be frustrating and can sometimes be easier to defend against too. To say our passing game today is a myth though is not correct in my view, we have the ability to prise open defences and destroy teams, allbeit in a different way to seasons ago and not on a consistent basis this season (yet).

  22. Aron/Harry Potter

    Dec 22, 2010, 12:12 #452

    Anyone disagreeing with this is either lieing, has been brainwashed or is tugging arsene as we speak. "looking backwards makes you think everything was wonderful" - huh? if everything was shit in the not so distant past we would look back and remember it being so. fact is it wasn't, it was brilliant, stevie wonder could see that. Although teams do sit back against us, this is something that a tactician should be able to deal with. "Can't compare different teams let alone eras"..what?..have a word with yourself, of course you can, that statement has no foundation, something which was proved by the contradictory second part of the sentence - "spurs definitely have more cutting edge"..i believe their cutting edge comes from bigger balls

  23. supersamirnasri

    Dec 22, 2010, 12:06 #451

    Really don't think that is true. I too miss the wonderul days of Arsenal being 3-0 up inside 20mins. But the reason that this rarely happens nowadays stems more the the adopted attitude by other teams than us. Almost every single game Arsenal play we face an opposition intent on sticking 10 men behind the ball and that includes our closest rivals i.e united chelski who have now seen that it pays more to defend against and hit us on the counter than it does to come out and attack us... Anyone who has watched any of the recent games against our title rivals should be able see this. This is why in recent season Arsenal's only showings of real attacking prowess have been confined to home games against minor european opposition and the early rounds of the carling cup (7-0 vs slavia/6-0 vs braga).

  24. Kevin

    Dec 22, 2010, 11:58 #450

    The Spuds use the wings with Bale and Lennon.We dont, we play through the middle.In the recent game v Man Utd both Rio and Vidic will not have had an easier game all season.Food and drink for them just picking off our attacks on the edge of their box,nothing round the back of their full backs making their CB's turn on their heels.Our game is just too predictable.Plan B you having a laugh?.We play the same tactic from the 1st till last minute

  25. silentstan

    Dec 22, 2010, 11:52 #449

    and just how often can anyone expect a team to have such world class players as henry bergkamo and vieira in the same side.

  26. jimmy

    Dec 22, 2010, 11:43 #448

    i agree :)

  27. Geir

    Dec 22, 2010, 11:36 #447

    Stop complaining and get a life. We're second in the league, and have done tremendously well for five years in spite of poor odds. You're blind to reality because you identify with your own complaining.

  28. Mark

    Dec 22, 2010, 11:13 #446

    In the recent CL game v Braga away we had 69% possession.We lost 2-0!!!!.Because we created fuck all and they took their only two chances.All this we had "lots of possesion and dominated the game" is bollox.Its about scoring goals not putting 25-30 passes together going no where.

  29. N7 Gooner

    Dec 22, 2010, 11:06 #445

    Hmmm, it does feel like we don't break quite as quickly. BUT...don't you think it's more the killer final pass that's missing? We still pass it realy well, and no doubt our technical play is great! I think it's that we've been missing Cesc, RvP and Arshavin's been off the boil. More often than not they're our final passers.

  30. GunnerPete

    Dec 22, 2010, 11:05 #444

    Good article. We must never forget though that Rednapp is a buyer and has never built any team. Wherever he goes he doubles the squad size with multiple buys, sometimes even the same ones he had before. This is not a criticsm as now and again he has some success, but at a big cost. How a team so unsuccessful as Spurs can afford to pay out so much for so many years is beyond me and needs investigating. As for us...yes we now pass twice as many times as we need to, and most of the time there is no end product. In fact nowdays we very often commit so many forward whilst tip tapping around the area that we construct our own downfall as per last year with Manure & Chelski. I am very surprised and disapointed that Arsene has given so much play time to slow poderous average players like bentner & denilson I feel that had we had real class (as we used to have in those positions Viera & Petit or Wrighty & Smith ) we would have sown up the title 2/3 times in the past 5 years. As it is AW will continue to pray that as this group age other teams will fall apart...and of course they will not. A quote from Arsene yesterday says it all " people want me to blood these young players and also buy establshed stars too..this cannot be done" . Sorryt O Great One...go and look at SAF and Manure he has dome exactly that for 150 yaers or so !!!!

  31. Dom

    Dec 22, 2010, 11:05 #443

    Spot on really. The current passing game showed its head around 2007. We have so much posession infront of other teams that they sit deeper and deeper. We pass and pass but without getting through. We need to let other teams come out more so that they're out of position in order to cut them to shreds. We're almost a victim of our previous success circa 2004. Teams know that if they play the higher lines they will get beaten.

  32. Clive

    Dec 22, 2010, 11:04 #442

    Looking backwards always makes you think everything was wonderful. You are getting to be an old git (and that is from someone who already is).

  33. lapsy10

    Dec 22, 2010, 10:49 #441

    Spot on, I can't agree any less(including d spurs part), the passing game was epitomised by lightening speed counter attacks involving pires, bergkamp and henry... I can't remember when last we scored a goal 4rm a counter attack. I feel wenger is more obsessed with being d new barca, hence forgetting dat d 'real' arsenal wld defeat barca(at leats stand a chance).

  34. jimmy

    Dec 22, 2010, 10:46 #440

    i agree :)

  35. 4411

    Dec 22, 2010, 10:44 #439

    We have to switch back to 4411

  36. supersamirnasri

    Dec 22, 2010, 10:43 #438

    Really don't think that is true. I too miss the wonderul days of Arsenal being 3-0 up inside 20mins. But the reason that this rarely happens nowadays stems more the the adopted attitude by other teams than us. Almost every single game Arsenal play we face an opposition intent on sticking 10 men behind the ball and that includes our closest rivals i.e united chelski who have now seen that it pays more to defend against and hit us on the counter than it does to come out and attack us... Anyone who has watched any of the recent games against our title rivals should be able see this. This is why in recent season Arsenal's only showings of real attacking prowess have been confined to home games against minor european opposition and the early rounds of the carling cup (7-0 vs slavia/6-0 vs braga).

  37. Steve Henry

    Dec 22, 2010, 10:39 #437

    Absolutely spot on, frustrate the hell out of me, if I didn't have a season ticket I would be having a rest.

  38. Jack the Red

    Dec 22, 2010, 10:38 #436

    At last, exactly what I have been saying for a couple of years, sideways football that just lets the opposition get back behind the ball. We did see an 'old Arsenal' goal when Jack passed to Theo who took off and scored, but that was because the rest of the midfield did not get a chance to pass sideways and keep the 97 pass move going.

  39. Jokes

    Dec 22, 2010, 10:35 #435

    Wenger is a huge dick and has just lost all sense of tactics. Why doesn't he do the swift movement? Because his players are too scared to pass forward except Fabregas, Nasri and CB's occasionally who don't really count because they have to. RvP as well does it.

  40. Nic

    Dec 22, 2010, 10:32 #434

    Thank you for finally putting voice to something I've been thinking for a while. Arsenal used to out-pass even Barca, sadly no longer.

  41. Matt

    Dec 22, 2010, 10:30 #433

    Can't compare different teams let alone eras but Spurs definitely have more cutting edge now with Arshavin playing like he would rather be anywhere, Fabregas looking like he'd rather be in the Catalans and Song just looking lost