Sometimes your team is just beaten by a better team. Sometimes the opponent is stronger or faster or more technically skilled, and you just have to take your beating with the best grace you can muster. Thus the equanimity with which Alex Ferguson accepted Manchester United’s loss to Barcelona in last season’s Champions League final: Barça was simply and obviously better. (Sir Alex trudged home and took out his checkbook.)
But then sometimes your team loses not because the other team is better but . . . well, for some other reason. And the other reasons vary from sport to sport. A whole baseball team loses confidence at the plate and enters a collective slump; basketball players cease to trust one another and start doing everything one-on-one.
These afflictions—loss of confidence, loss of trust—can happen to soccer teams as well, but there’s also a distinctive way things go all pear-shaped in soccer. Let’s call it spatial disorientation.
Soccer can’t be played well without good spatial awareness, which has three elements: self, teammate, opponent. Only the best players perceive all three with absolute precision: those stunning threaded passes that players like Xavi and Pirlo specialize in depend on the instant and intuitive coordination of all at once. So too the prescient defending that I’ve celebrated in Cannavaro. When Cruyff would do his traffic-cop thing, holding the ball at his feet while irritably waving his teammates to different locations on the pitch, you could tell that he just didn’t understand why they hadn’t assumed the proper positions of their own accord.
But Cruyff was the only one who knew exactly what the chessboard was supposed to look like. For lesser players, it seems, the maintenance of accurate spatial awareness is hard work. Strikers drift offside; midfielders get too close to one another, usually clumped in the middle of the pitch so that two defenders can mark four men, prompting Jonathan Wilson to moan about “lack of width”; defenders fail to keep a straight line and end up playing forwards dangerously onside. Happens all the time.
During the flow of most matches the players’ spatial awareness comes and goes. After a couple of offside flags the striker starts watching the defensive line more closely and adjusting his position; the midfielders make proper room for one another; the back four eyeball one another to get their line straight and keep it that way.
As I say, that’s how it goes in most matches. Sometimes the disorientation sets firmly in for a whole match—or even longer. Which brings us to the Arsenal defense.
“Shambolic” is, I believe, the term of art for how Arsenal has been defending for the last couple of years, but especially this season. Eight goals to Manchester United; four to Blackburn—Blackburn—though Arsenal’s defenders managed two of those themselves. It seems that no matter who Arsène Wenger puts in his back four, the selected players are immediately deprived of even the most basic powers of spatial awareness. I suspect that the team doctors, when they examine the newly signed, are using some hypersophisticated technique for removing the exteroceptive faculties. The Daily Mail ought to look into this.
After all, Per Mertesacker has never had much pace or quickness of reaction, but until quite recently, if you looked for him within a few yards of where he was supposed to be on the pitch you would typically find him there. Yet the Blackburn match treated observers to frequent sightings of Mertesacker lumbering towards his own goal, some several yards in arrears of the opposing forwards. In a similar vein, when a Blackburn attacker misplayed a pass and left it at the feet of Johan Djourou standing all alone just outside the box, Djourou just stared at the ball for a few moments as though it were an unfamiliar object before finally deciding that it ought to be kicked. This he did, though only as a Blackburn player arrived on the scene, which led to a collision that left Djourou kneeling on the grass in pain for a few moments.
The strangest and worst moment of all came early in the second half, with Arsenal leading 2-1. Mauro Formica stood over a free kick for Blackburn a couple of yards outside the area on the right wing, and lofted a chip so gentle that, had it landed on a butterfly, it would have done little damage. But it did not land on a butterfly. It landed on the knee of Alex Song, who seemed to have no idea that a game was being played in his vicinity, and rolled peaceably into the net. No Blackburn player was in the neighborhood.
Among Arsenal defenders spatial disorientation has set in with a completeness that I don’t think I have ever seen at the highest levels of soccer. Player after player stands bemused, gaping at his surroundings as though Scotty has just beamed him down to an unknown planet. Where am I? Those people wearing the same shirt I’m wearing — are they related to me in some way? And why are people running past me kicking a ball?
I don’t know how to account for this phenomenon. It is obviously true that injuries and other personnel changes have made life difficult for Arsenal, but that should primarily affect a player’s sense of his teammates’ positioning; it shouldn’t have him chasing down the opposition from a dozen yards behind, or leave him unaware that someone almost within spitting distance is taking a free kick.
So there’s something deeply mysterious, at least to me, about the completeness and universality of Arsenal’s defensive dislocations. I don’t know what Wenger is doing to address these problems, but I hope he’s having his people work on he most elementary of defensive drills, and working on them hour after hour after hour. In addition to that, he needs to think seriously about whether his players are choking or panicking, because the psychologies of the two conditions differ dramatically. And finally, I think it’s time to call in a shaman.
Unless his name is Ibrahimovic.
by Alan Jacobs · September 17, 2011
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I’m still not sure how Song’s OG today was possible. It really was as if he forgot where he was and who he is for a short while.
After Koscielny’s OG I seriously thought for a moment that the Arsenal players were purposely giving Blackburn goals as part of a stunt
As a Spurs supporter, that match made my day. It wasn’t as great as the 4-4 draw with Newcastle, but it was pretty darn close…
@Saul like watching the Harlem Globetrotters give up at lead to a “serious” basketball team just to make it an interesting spectacle, only to take it back at the last moments…except the comeback never happens. That’s what watching Arsenal was like today.
Sadly, your pre-season article comparing the attitudes between Liverpool and Arsenal couldn’t have been more correct.
Today was brutal as an Arsenal fan. The description of lack of spatial awareness is truly spot on. Our players seem to have no idea where they are in relation to anything quite often. There are of course flashes of what could be especially in the offense. I’m not sure that Ramsey is truly up to snuff as it just doesn’t seem to be working for him, and there are errors in terms of passing that a central midfielder in a top half club can’t make. I’d love to see him do well. He obviously has worked so hard to make it back, but right now it’s not working.
@Julia I think Ramsey played pretty well, but eventually Blackburn figured out that he was the only Arsenal player capable of initiating the offense, so they shut him down. Even so, Arsenal got two goals, which ought to have been enough, had it not been for . . . you know.
@Gregor I wrote that post in sadness, and would have enjoyed being proved wrong. Doesn’t seem likely at the moment.
The Arsenal defense is a marvel. I mean that literally, you can’t do anything except marvel at a match where one team scores five of the seven goals in the entire game, and yet lose 4-3.
The one thing that surprises me is that people are STILL calling for Wenger to buy more CBs. At this point, I don’t even think it’s individual players that are the problem, I think it’s the coaching. Yes, other team concede goals, but can you think of any team that concedes goals the way that Arsenal do? It’s as if their brains go completely off-line at the most inopportune moments, and it’s absolutely surreal to see it happening again and again and…again.
I’m not a stats guy, but surely Arsenal has a pretty decent OG per game percentage this year (including the end of last season).
@Alan Jacobs He looked good early in the match, but the second half I wasn’t impressed. I actually thought that comparatively he played better for Wales. The biggest issue I have with Ramsey is the passing precision. His man of the match performance against England shows how much he can do, and with us he looks like a man who has realized that no matter how hard he works it won’t matter. I think the lack of confidence in the squad is showing through in his play. It also says volumes that he is more confident with Wales than with the Gunners. I know that there is national pride and a variety of other historical precedents for wanting to play so well against England, but he played differently. Something mentally isn’t right with the team, though that is pretty obvious from the defense. I’d love to see a midfield with Ramsey, Wilshere, Arteta, and Song because they could be creative and strong. There is talent, but we’ve had a crummy run of luck as of late. I just want us to turn it around and salvage some decent play out of the season.
@mardia Surreal is the best description of I’ve heard for the brainless choices that are made at the worst possible times. The current defensive strategy isn’t working. They should focus on fixing that first because we can score goals. Sometimes even on ourselves.
surely clichy didn’t make THAT much of a difference last year….
More of the same begets more of the same. We do not defend well and we do not make any changes to do so in the future.
Our manager has had a fabled and storied past but in the words of your Cromwell ” you have been here long enough for all the good you have done. In the name of God go!”
@leftcoastgooner Wenger is only really under-performing relative to the high standard he set. Based on how much money other premier league teams spend Arsenal is clearly punching above their weight. Unless someone is going to funnel cash into the team I can’t see the team possibly doing better with anyone besides Wenger. Who exactly would you replace him with?
As an Arsenal fan, I am nodding and shaking my head at the same time.
“brutal”
“shambolic”
“surreal”
We’ve been conceding goals like these off and on for the past few seasons now. It’s just that the general quality of midfield and attack has mitigated the defensive frailty, possession and attack being our best (only?) form of defence.
It’s been a gradual slide – the falling standard of defensive personnel, Wenger has an eye for quick, athletic attackers, but seemingly doesn’t know what a quality defender looks like; he really is very fortunate to have come in possession of a team with renowned defence, it gave him the cover he needed to embark on the freewheeling odyssey that has taken us from ‘1-nil to the Arsenal’ to ‘I’d 8-2 to be Arsenal right now’.
Given the frequency and nature of the Arsenal injuries over the past few seasons, I’m starting to think that conditioning is having a deleterious effect on players. The primary trait that Arsenal players are selected and trained for is speed. Speed, speed, and more speed. Which means an especially unbalanced training regime; we’re honing featherwights with hollow bones, we need at least a few light heavywights. Bad tackles fly in every premier league game. Arsenal aren’t targeted, but their players seem as brittle as the defence.
And coaching! The finger really needs to be pointed here, because Arsenal have been conceding soft goals for years now; our deadball weakness is legendary. I don’t know what their training drills consist of, but how hard is it to look at what other teams are doing to stop the goal leaks, and do that? Really. This holistic, total attack, whateveryoucallit is all very good but the greatest managers, generals, leaders are willing to sacrifice ideology for pragmatism. Wenger’s stubborn arrogance is undoing his legacy. ‘Plan B’ should not simply be ‘plan A but faster!’.
The other day I struck up a conversation with a fellow who turned out to be a Tottenham fan, and he gave me sympathy! We are that low right now.
@Saul Wenger should be humble enough to know his weaknesses (cannot drill a defence for nought) to go and get an assistant who can help him with the defence. Fergie is famously always looking for an assistant most of the time and his assistants always get headhunted. That’s what Wenger’s problem is. He can’t delegate anything regarding the team. Where his first teams had imprints of him and George Graham (the famous back four of Adams, Keown, Dixon, etc), Arsenal were a formidable winning machine. After Keown left, the defence was wholly Wenger’s and you could see it wasn’t really his strength.
I would hate to think that Wenger’s failure to acquire Chris Samba was an aesthetic judgment, but I’m afraid that may have been the case.
Alan,
I think that Arsene should hire a defensive coordinator. We are familiar with offensive and defensive coordinators in the NFL, but the trend in the NBA is also moving toward one head coach with two coordinators – one for offense and one for defense. Think Tex Winter for the Chicago Bulls or Peter Carrill for the Sacramento Kings. Both focus only on offense. A number of NBA teams also hire defensive coordinators who focus only on individual and team defense.
I think a defensive coordinator makes sense for Arsene, who so clearly focuses on the offensive positions and movement of the ball.
And for Arsenal, it is not just the back line that fails. Arsenal’s forwards often fail to track back or clog passing lanes. Next time, you watch Barca, watch how hard Lionel Messi works to get the ball back. No one for Arsenal works that hard.
Defense is a state of mind and a state of position. Right now, Arsenal lacks the necessary focus.
Tim
Arsenal had a “defensive coordinator” for a while when Keown came in as a specialist defence coach. The result was a run to the Champions League final where they didn’t concede a single goal.
An analysis of the Dortmund game, where it’s suggested the defensive frailty comes from the midfield’s failure to play an effective pressing game higher up the pitch: http://arsenalcolumn.co.uk/2011/09/15/dortmund-press-arsenal%E2%80%99s-full-backs-and-the-problem-with-wenger%E2%80%99s-defensive-strategy/
@Julia I think a great deal of the imprecision of Ramsey’s passing has to do with the very things that Alan illuminated in his post. There seems to be a hesitation before the passes are played and then an attempt at adjustment to the new reality created by the pause. Having two ideas in mind makes it awfully difficult to play with any accuracy.
>(Sir Alex trudged home and took out his checkbook.)
??
They got mauled two years ago and then got gang-raped last year.
They went back in those two years and tactics has to be a part of this.
And overpaying for overhyped english defenders isnt going to do much against Barca.
Last year, they had a solid defence, keeper and forwards and a woeful midfield that got played like schoolchildren.
This year they have a young keeper and a backup who plays ONE FULL season in the past 8yrs in a 5th rate league, so they are worst off.
And they lost Scholes who was one of a kind and wasnt replaced.
This team is not any better at facing Barca than last years and its weaker in nets now.
But more importantly, Ferguson showed that he had no response for Barca the past 2yrs and of the three english teams that have played them the past few years, Chelsea and Arsenal have done much better and had it not been for Ovrebo and the RVP red card, could have gone through because it was that close.
Nothing even hints that United could do better than the embarassment of last may.
As for Arsenal, had they not had 4 starting keepers last year, they would have finished much better than were they did which means they would have finished third.
Did their defense get worse in a few months time?
And nothing worse than armchair athletes talking about own goals as ‘spatial disorientation’…. its an own goal. Sh^t happens all the time and most often its bad luck.
I rewatched the song goal, he had two players jump for the ball and miss it, Sagna was a foot in front of him and it was pouring.
I havent calculated it but the reaction time from the time the ball cleared the two players going for the header to the time it passed by Sagna and his Song’s leg has to half or a quarter of a second. It will him and it went in.
Shit happens.
Psychoanalyzing the reasons why this happened is just stupid.
At least with the other OG you can say that maybe he wasnt positioned properly and that it was bad techniques.
But some geek with a keyboard can drone on endlessly because he just read about spatial awareness and thinks HE knows something others do.
When you go through an academies ranks, a professional team and a national team, im pretty sure that ‘spatial awareness’ is looked at pretty closely. Most of these kids have learned more by 20than most self professed pundits will in a lifetime.
heck, youd be surprised at how good at spatial awareness 15yr kids that play on regional teams are,
here, in case I missed the quota:
Spatial
spatial
spatial
spatial
spatial
spatial
it cant be a good article unless I write it down 7-8times.
@benny mardones Have you noticed that Arsenal have had just the one starting keeper this season; do you think it has made any improvement on their defensive stability? I’d 8-2 disagree with you, but I think it’s more than that. The signs have been their for seasons now. The personnel and the system are in disarray.
Knockout tournaments such as the Champion’s League are all very nice but it’s the league that separates the wheat from chaff. Arsenal’s form against the top teams in the league for the past four seasons has been abysmal, and the consistency over an entire season has been lacking. Ask any manager what they’d prefer to win, and it’s the league every time. That’s what matters, and we’re further away from winning it than at any time in Wenger’s reign.
Sure, there are a number of reasons why Manchester United shouldn’t be doing very well, and yet there they are, top of the table with a ridiculous number in the ‘goals for’ column. Judging them solely on their performance against one team that isn’t even in their league is pretty weak.
And sure, Chelsea under Mourinho found a way to disrupt Barcelona, and Arsenal have the ability to trip them up at the Emirates, but don’t forget ManU knocked barça out on the way to winning the CL two seasons ago.
Barça’s record against these three in the past 7 seasons stands:
Chelsea: 2 wins, 4 draws, 2 losses
ManU: 1 in, 1 draw, 2 losses
Arsenal: 1 win, 1 draw, 3 losses
Pretty comparable really, Chelsea have certainly acquitted themselves better over more games though.
It is unwise to ignore the psychological factor. When the physical and technical difference between the top teams is so small, the mental differences are vital. A team that exudes a confidence on the pitch has an edge in every battle, winning 50/50s, attempting the unexpected. This is undeniable. The Arsenal players themselves are saying they are frustrated and demoralised, and even if they weren’t, you can see it on the pitch.
Lastly, this website is expressly for every “geek with a keyboard”, and “droning” is our raison d’être. Play nice.
Play nice.
Play nice.
Play nice.
Play nice.
Play nice.
That’s a very interesting idea, I like it!
@benny mardones
Good grief!!!
“Nothing even hints that United could do better than the embarassment of last may.”
Cannot believe you actually typed that statement. What about the 8-2 Massacre of Arsenal at Old Trafford and having already convincingly beaten all the other tipped contenders (including City in the Community Shield).
Heeding Benderinho’s request “Play Nice” (which I totally agree with) I respectfully suggest that you maybe are suffering from ‘dogmatic ostrich syndrome’.
I see that you posted yesterday and did see the Blackburn game but perhaps you were taking a summer hibernation and missed the four previous weekends.
Alan good article including some necessary humor.
Something that seems to be overlooked during this time of Arsenal woes is that Wenger’s continued protectiveness of his young team has quite probably been a major contributor to the current situation. Every loss has been the result of some unfair conspiracy/external factor (the style of play, the pitch, injuries, the officiating etc., etc) resulting in a culture that accepts no accountability.
Add to this: no blend of veterans, no leadership and denial of reality and you have the circumstances that have lead to the current ‘perfect storm’.
I genuinely sympathize and empathize because it will happen to all of our teams at one time or another.
PS
Congrats & thanks Brian, Alan etc., for a great Website.
Always unique, insightful, intelligent and humorous; and no you are not “geeks with keyboards” – I feel that ‘literary warriors’ is more appropriate.
“Play nice” with intelligence and humor sounds like a good Mission Statement for posters.
Regards.
I agree with Gregor “Sadly, your pre-season article comparing the attitudes between Liverpool and Arsenal couldn’t have been more correct.”