ArtetaBall 2.0 - From Journeyman to Master Craftsman?

By Merlion
March 22 2024

The Beginning When Pep Guardiola took charge of Barcelona in 2008/09, it was a shambles. He quickly got rid of Ronaldinho and Deco. Eto’o got a stay of execution and was sold the next season. During his era, 7 out of starting-11 were La Masia products. And his midfield of Iniesta-Busquets-Xavi-Messi utterly dominated midfield. One little known fact was that at La Masia, Guardiola was the model “4’ which subsequent youngsters like Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets and Fabregas were coached to play like Guardiola. Hence, during his reign, Guardiola’s teams were also known as “a team of midfielders” without a no. 9. This is possible with Messi.

But at Bayern Munich, he inherited Lowandowski; at Man City Aguero, and he bought Haaland. Guardiola has evolved from Barca and now plays with a deadly predator.

Similarly, Mikel Arteta inherited a toxic dressing room and he needed two seasons to clear the debris left over from Arsene Wenger and Gazidis/Don Raul/Mislintat (I don’t blame Unai Emery, just the wrong man at the wrong place at the wrong time).

The Journeyman finally got most of his parts in place, started work on his “masterpiece” during the 3rd season, and what a marvellous “masterpiece” surpassing all expectations. And in this 4th season, this is the team he has developed as a craftsman.

The Visionary

A playmaker is one who see the opportunity, and a visionary sees where the opportunity will be. That is Martin Odegaard, a visionary. He sees openings and executes passes where defenders are caught off-guard. In 2024, Odegaard is hitting form and starting to develop telepathic understanding with Saka and White at right flank with the trio understanding each movement and preference. When Saka is running with the ball and being closed down by 2 or 3 defenders, he has the option to pass to an overlapping White or to Odegaard opening himself to receive a pass. The 3rd option is Saka cutting inward with both White and Odegaard as decoy, creating a shooting opportunity for himself or cross to the centre where Rice or Trossard or Havertz is waiting for a cross or a cut-back.

There is a 4th option that is still work-in-progress. The quick Crossfield pass between Ribery and Robben in Guardiola Bayern Munich. Martinelli is playing in isolation most of the time, free at left flank when right flank was congested with Saka alone attracting at least three defenders intending to bottle him at bye line and rendered him harmless. The intent is for Saka to pass the ball immediately – half touch – to a free Martinelli before he is closed down.

Thomas Muller’s game was so instinctive that a new term “Raumdeuter” (space interpreter) was invented for him. Kai Hevertz is the same and cannot be pigeon-holed into a fixed position like no. 8 or 9 or 10. Some of Arsenal fanbase questioned his ability, possibly adding to his low confidence, tentatively playing as no. 8 and Arsenal fans arguing that he is useless as a lone striker as proven by his stint at Chelski. It needed a Dubai Winter Break for Arteta to work out a role for Havertz – a half-forward (As a regular attender at Arsenal I have actually found the crowd quite supportive of him. Editor).

Arteta realised his mistake in playing Havertz in midfield, taking over from Xhaka. Instead, in 2024, he started Havertz as a half-forward with freedom to drift into midfield and search for space to run in, anticipating the space where the ball will be delivered. Plus, given the freedom to roam, Havertz excels the as the passer to the assister, with his tactical intelligence to pass immediately to a free player to setup another teammate with a clear shooting chance. Havertz is no angel, physical and counterpresser the ball carrier immediately, with a tackle or a bodycheck.

The left flank has no attacking threat when Martinelli is working in isolation and there is still lack of understanding amongst Martinelli, Rice and Odegaard. Martinelli has only two options – turning the corner at bye line or cutting directly into centre like Thierry Henry. Arteta needs to develop Martinelli into a “Henry” that cuts in smoothly centrally with a deadly shot allowing Odegaard having a left-side option to create scoring opportunities.

The more they play together the better Odegaard become in delivering his visionary passes, with Havertz seeking space, and both Martinelli and Saka attacking down the flanks and Rice just behind to execute his accurate crosses. We have inverting fullbacks and inverting wingers that will overload and overwhelm the defence creating gaps and spaces even for a low block for us to exploit. That is the Vision of a Master Craftsman Mikel Arteta – a team of playmakers that have the vision to create scoring opportunities with their telepathic passing, pace and mobility.

The Commander

In freeing Rice, Havertz and Odegaard to play high up to overload defences, there must be someone behind to command the middle behind them, to dictate the rhythm, to switch plays and to anticipate counterattacks by stepping into spaces to intercept long passes or just to holdup the recipients long enough for teammates caught high up to return quickly to reorganise into shape.

Copying Guardiola Bayern Munich with two worldclass inverting fullbacks in Alba and Lahm, Arteta copied the same tactic such that during attacks, it is a 5-3-2 formation with inverting fullbacks folding into the centre. The purpose is to block off all attacking channels down the middle in which the opponent can counter. But it leaves a high gap of 50m behind. The weak link was Zinchenko with his poor positioning, failure to win the ball high up, resulting in a route one football finds joy in counterattack with a quick forward.

In 2024, Arteta found the solution in Jorginho playing deep, shielding the centrebacks. This is based on Rinus Michels’ Total Football which dictates a minimum of 3 players staying behind to protect against counterattacks with the vast space left behind by a highline. Jorginho is a highly technical player with superb football intelligence, anticipated plays and positioned himself to snuff off any dangers. From deep, he is able to dictate the rhythm, slow down as necessary and switch angles of attack as necessary. His superb passing skills setup plays and pick up players on the run.

This is the Commander missing in 2023. Arteta realised this and found it in 2024.

The Twin Tower

Like Havertz, Arsenal fanbase were upset at Raya for replacing their favourite. He was not really welcomed and took sometime for Arsenal fans to accept him as the replacement for Aaron Ramsdale. Arteta immediately signed up Raya when he was available, to provide competition for Ramsdale. It is unfortunate that during the initial few league games that Ramsdale started, he preferred to kick long balls instead of consistently playing it out of defence with an accurate pass. Ramsdale was dropped and the rest is history. What a little feature not known was that Raya is an organiser, vocal in organising his defence.

Arteta had created a solid and mean defence with the Twin Tower in Saliba and Gabriel developing telepathic understanding, each one instinctively covering for each other when out of position. Throw in Ben White who sweeps in behind when both of them are caught outside the box, and Arteta is on the way to create a Back-4 as good as the Fab 4.

Arteta fielded Kiwior as the emergency LB when both Zinchenko and Tomiyasu were out injured. Kiwior struggled as an inverting FB .

In 2024, Arteta fixed LB issue by instructing Kiwior to play as an orthodox LB and not necessary to invert. This means that during 5-3-2 attacking plays, Rice-Jorginho-White is the Middle “3” with Kiwior at left flank bye-line supporting Martinelli (or Trossard).