The brilliance of Ben White and why he's so tactically important to Arteta's Arsenal

Hi everyone, welcome to my channel Licensed to Roam. You can follow me on Twitter slash X at Edward Stratman and if you enjoyed the video, I would really appreciate a like, subscribe and any comments as I get started and hope to grow the channel. Alright, for this analysis, I'll be focusing on Ben White's latest masterful showing where he shone brightly against Sheffield United in Arsenal's crushing 6-0 win on a night where he scored a sublime goal to punctuate his superb body of work, which was also Arsenal's landmark 10,000 all-time goal. Operating in his usual nominal right-back slot that featured plenty of variation as usual, White's movement and positioning was so instrumental yet again, obviously to start with his rotations and relationships with his teammates and his goal actually owed plenty to this as well. Obviously, as you can see here, he goes to make that underlapping run and obviously Havertz is dropping deep who occupies the space that White's just vacated. As you see as the play unfolds in the next sequence here, obviously Havertz stayed in that wider position which was normally where White would be. White essentially occupied the central forward slot Havertz was mainly doing and then that put him in a great position to be well positioned to get his shot off and as you can see here, Havertz gets the ball, takes the ball down, brilliant pass by the way and then he draws those two markers which just makes that space for White who smartly noticed that the whole back is run and then he fires in that finish with a plumb to cap off a really nice passage. Another goal that was sort of impacted by Ben White's movement was the second which led to obviously Bogle tumbling in a known goal from this great bit of work by Saka but the initial sort of to set the wheels in motion, you can see White there, he'd invert into a central midfield berth to form that 3-2-5, 3-2-4-1 that Arsenal are so famous for in attacking especially against those deep blocks. Obviously inverts there and that sort of drills the defense quite central and then Saka's just there to receive from White and then he can go on and wreak havoc but just another little cool bit of play that Arsenal always do. Obviously Saliba pulls to the right of him and White was regularly on the inside of Saliba so just really great mechanics and just once again working a treat for Arsenal to really get the best out of their attackers to put them in ideal situations and frameworks to shine. Here's just an example of that 3-2-5, 3-2-4-1 that Arsenal regularly took up allowing Saka that space to be isolated, giving that balance in case a turnover occurred with that protection of the back three plus White and Jorginho and obviously it allowed Odegaard to get nice and high as well to put that pressure on and pin the marker and just give Saka that true 1v1 in a forward facing posture with so much space. Obviously the rotations and the relationships between the teammates was on show throughout and in this one Saka and Havertz have rotated just altering reference points and then White smartly darted into the space to do a really nice underlap and he got on the end of this pass from Odegaard which almost resulted in a goal, a really quality chance creation. Another situation here where you got White and Odegaard rotating, White just pushing up, Odegaard dropping into his full back spot and just always asking questions of Sheffield, their marking, their reference points, they just never allowed them to settle into a pattern at all and this was just another sort of example of how difficult Arsenal are to contain because they're always just constantly asking questions, occupying different zones and they just know our tenors plan so well and they're all on the same page. Another really nice little underlap by Ben White here, notices the space, obviously Odegaard and Havertz have rotated in this situation and there's a large disconnect that White's well and truly aware of in the Sheffield back line then with markers being drawn all over. Obviously Arsenal are so many danger men, they're always occupying markers and White smartly gets on the underlap there just to wreak havoc in the final third and make a nuisance of himself. Another situation where their rotations caused havoc, obviously this is a triple-layered rotation in this situation. Another nice little nuanced timing of their bursts and obviously Saka's taken Odegaard's spot in midfield, Odegaard's taken White's full-back spot and then White's taken Saka's spot as the nominal wing of the highest player there so just really interesting the way they work these openings and just continually put pressure on that Sheffield United rearguard to make space, manipulate and just disrupt everything they did. Obviously the next slide just showed how well they work in unison to make space for one another. Saka knows that his man's going to follow him, he's not going to leave him deep. Odegaard's dropped deeper to sort of get on the ball in that time and space where he can really dictate proceedings. They've drawn three markers there and White dually sees the space and runs into it to exploit on the overlap in this situation where he's just always varying things between half spaces, central, high, wide. Just really another great example of how they made headway against Sheffield just by varying things up. Just like this situation as well, White's got head on the overlap, formed that 3v2. Sheffield are so occupied with Saka and Odegaard that White's just scorched up ahead. They had to really put pressure at that forward-facing dynamic advantage over the standing still defenders to really cause problems once again. Obviously the 3v2 there just really worked to treat the Saka-Odegaard-White axis as it has all year really and for a long time at Arsenal. So always knowing each other's tendencies and just know the strategy Arteta wants to build and just how they form space and create advantageous situations for one another. Another one here which has had a little bit of a different nuance was obviously the defender was reading that the ball was going out to White and Saka just puts a smart little block on. So just getting these little details spot on like they do with set pieces and so many facets of their play. Just really interesting the way they draw markers and even pin defenders and even just put a little block on to give White that little bit of extra time and space to weave his magic and have time to make those decisions and just get the best out of the situation. Also interesting to note how Saka initially was White and vacated that space really smoothly infield and then White was on the same page and he moved forward immediately as he noticed that trigger. Here's another cool little situation where White's in his fullback spot. Saka was central but he's pulled his marker wide knowing full well that'll create that little channel for Odegaard to run into. White's aware to that and he just threads that little pass down there for Odegaard making one of his barnstorming runs into the box. Obviously with Vieira coming on in the second half. Another really cool thing he was straight into the fray and White was well aware of what his sort of capabilities are and he's such a smart mover and great in tight spaces and great on the ball and he's recognised that he's pinned the marker there and that's made some really nice space for White to get ahead. There's a 2v1 going on there and you can just launch him behind there to really drag defences and then put himself in a great position for a cutback or a cross or whatever. Just another situation where White's just being that free man to form the 4v3. Just to recycle and refresh attacks, switch the angle of a play and just to give Arsenal another look and just to recalibrate the attack to get another idea and while they constantly were patient a lot of the time just waiting for that weakness in the opposition to arise and obviously having that support if they couldn't break through initially was very important obviously for ball retention and later in their attack's chance creation as well. See another interesting one obviously with Arsenal so dominant the centre-backs really pressed high and really pushed up high and Saliba in this case is obviously providing the structural security which is giving Ben White the freedom and the peace of mind to surge forward. Obviously notice how all of Arsenal's markers are pinning opponents and obviously there's some sub-optimal positioning there from Sheffield as well and White's fully aware of that, ball-watching, not looking at him and he's got that forward-facing dynamic advantage and Saliba can just thread him in there in a lovely run to get him behind. Another situation we see is obviously Jorginho dropped deep on occasion which then allowed White to push on, give him that freedom just like Saliba was doing the platform to maraud forward and just cause havoc with Saka in this situation. So they're always sort of keeping oppositions on their toes, giving them new problems to solve which often they don't especially with it all happening so quickly. So always solutions for one another and the ball-holders always got options and they're always just moving and manipulating the defence to sort of create those desirable situations. Obviously here's Ben White's heat map from the game obviously showing that he was very advanced and obviously very infield in situations too as well as mixing it up without White and in the half-spaces while he combined with those teammates and just coalesced so nicely. So there's his average position map showing how high and just obviously very central in through areas sometimes and also very wide as he dovetailed with his teammates which graphic shows here the connections, past connections graphic shows the heavy combinations with a lot of those partners in crime we've just spoken about. Obviously that's the end of the analysis for another Arsenal Masterclass which yet again was a further testament to not only the team but also Ben White's fundamental role in just making it tick down the right and just what a key weapon he is tactically for Arsenal as well as his physical qualities and technical skills. If you enjoyed this video please like and subscribe and leave a comment, would really appreciate it. Thank you again for taking the time to watch the video and have a great day. Stay tuned for the next analysis.