This is the NEW Arsenal - the Tactical Lessons from Pre-Season 2024/25

With Arsenal's pre-season coming to a close and the opening Premier League game on the horizon against Wolves, I want to get my teeth into what we've learned from this pre-season, some of the key tactical takeaways. And this video, look, is going to focus on what defines Arsenal on the ball now, looking at often our spiralling build-up with rotations to overwhelm and disorganise, and how we balance that with a more patient, settled, press-baiting approach, which looks then to combine and dynamically burst into the spaces we've created higher up. And both these approaches, I think, have had a real tangible effect on improving our left-hand sided dynamics, a real must going into this pre-season, and I think a large part of what we've done well in these warm-up games is characterised by real slick, fluid, left-hand sided play. Welcome back to the Harvey Gratian YouTube channel, I'm so glad you've found us or are joining us once again, and I think we should start with what is the fondest recollection in all of our memories, that 4-1 win against Bayer Leverkusen, because I think we've probably seen a different Arsenal on the ball in each pre-season game so far, but against Leverkusen, the key ideas were, I think, a return to a more rigid and a more familiar inverted Oleksandr Zinchenko, a tight-knit midfield three, and making sure we also kept that Leverkusen backline pinned and stretched at all times. There was also, importantly, finally, I think, a real optimal environment for Havertz in that left shadow striker role to really excel, taking his place as, I think, a piece on a constantly revolving left-hand sided jigsaw puzzle. We're going to cover that today, and more in depth on the left-hand sided dynamics in another video separately, but looking at Leverkusen, this was the settled structure most of the time that our play revolved around. Raya spitting the centre-backs, a close interconnected midfield three of Zinchenko, Erdegaard and Jorginho in the six, and the width on the right-hand side came from Ben White on the side of our 3-3 base or 2-4 base in the build, and Trossard hinging lower on the left-hand side, but there were plenty of rotations out there. To give you an idea of what these looked like, here you see Zinchenko high and wide pinning Jeremy Fringpong deep, who was tasked with following Ukrainian for most of the game. Havertz then floats free to connect us in the left-centre mid slot, and Trossard shifts into the half-space. I think Zinchenko this pre-season has been chained too often to this channel-running and combination-based left-back role, and we're going to get onto those other setups, why he was probably a bit of a placeholder for other names there, and who they will suit a bit later in the video, but against Bayer Leverkusen, he was allowed inside, again a more familiar Zinchenko, and when this happens, when Zinchenko does come inside, our build-up inevitably becomes a bit more rigid, with clearer roles, I think, marked out for everyone. Erdegaard remains in that all-phasing right-hand side in number 8, but becomes less touch-hungry and less floaty. Here we see him pulling Eric Garcia from the middle, meaning Trossard can open up that wider passing lane, with Zinchenko nice and tight in the centre. Havertz has pinned Granit Xhaka deep, creating, I think, this chasm between the lines for Zinchenko to then spin away into. Xhaka here is caught in two minds in a position that's very similar to the way Havertz was freed in behind against Liverpool at home in the Premier League just after New Year, and it's so close to being an incredible move. It's sharp, it's intuitive moves and counter-movements, and even though things, like we said, are a bit more rigid with Zinchenko, this epitomises what Arsenal's build-up is like nowadays. There are lots of these baiting, pulling movements to create these spaces to dynamically fill and move into higher up. That could be Erdegaard floating on top of more of a pivot platform, that could be the left-back arriving higher, or that could be the spaces between the lines and Havertz moving off the shoulder like it was against Bayer Leverkusen. For mid-blocks, I actually like this version of the build-up in Arsenal on the ball, even if it is a bit more rigid. Here we see Zinchenko, and this example doesn't have to be Zinchenko, but this is what people mean when they say that sort of mystical term, block manipulation. Zinchenko here is constantly probing the block, mixing in with his passes, little pauses that show and give the impression that he's totally in control, shifting the ball around and then through, making those riskier passes, fired between the lines to a connecting presence in the false nine in Gabriel Jesus, and then finally over the block, waiting until the space moves up. I don't think this move was pre-planned or anything with Havertz, but with the speed and how quickly Zinchenko and Havertz move off each other, it's almost like fast-twitched. Look at the timing of the movements across the board, the distancing between the players, the team was just really in tune, and there was just a real balance to our movements. Look at Jesus here, pinning tar deep, Trossard then attracts Kosanew wide, Fringpong stays with Zinchenko, and Havertz peels off the shoulder into the space this creates. And the left-hand-sided dynamics will be, like I said, a separate video in themselves, but they were part, against Leverkusen, a key part of our progression of the ball. Because I think certainly without a marquee signing to necessarily transcend and transform any of our attacking dynamics this season, I think our left-hand side this season has a good chance of being all about this balance in movements to and from the ball and creating this, like I said, constantly rotating and fluid piece where players are able to slot in and out of each other seamlessly. It all depends on the relationships Arteta places on the pitch, of course. Take this passage of play in the background here. This time it's Jesus who drops into midfield, and the way our false nine aids the fluidity on the left-hand side is key. Havertz is suddenly released from being chained to sort of the half-space, and Zinchenko is actually the one that provides that Havertz-esque dart off the shoulder. Watch out for Ricardo Calafiore here, but Trossard, of course, is that balancing act, swinging deeper again to get touches on the ball and sort of counteract all these nice movements going on around him. Now look at this. It's Zinchenko and Jesus who rotate this time, and Freempong and Kosan who get completely bewildered in terms of if they should be switching markers or not. Jesus now is the one that exploits the space off the shoulder, and again, it's so close to a brilliant left-hand-sided move if I think Kai was a bit more proactive in getting into the box and making that same run that Trossard and Zinchenko made for Zinchenko's opener. I think you can see with the underlaps and how this moves the left winger closer to goal how Martinelli potentially benefits from this dynamic down the line too, but again, you need more ball-dominant players to counteract Martinelli in your movements, and again, that's going to be talked about later on. But I think the point of this whole video and what I said at the start was about how we change and how we move between styles. This may change going forward, especially if we sign a marquee player who forces us to be a bit more fixed and absolute in our playstyle, but at the moment, I think the team, especially in how we build up, looks more like a carousel, if that makes sense, with lots of different options to pick and choose, and I think the responsibility really at the moment feels much more shared around the team. Let me show you what I mean, because let's return briefly before moving on to the Bayer Leverkusen game. Here again, at the start, things initially seem a bit more stable. The team look more prepared in their rotations, as opposed to those off-the-cuff ones we're about to explain. Gabriel and White are aggressively positioned, with Saliba sweeping in the middle. Jorginho and Zinchenko are central, with Erdegaard and Havertz forming the top of a box shape. It's all familiar. We're forced back, Erdegaard drops into the pivot. Well, here something changes, and we see what, especially towards the end of last season, what Arsenal, in the first and second phase, are increasingly morphing into. This was only situational against Bayer Leverkusen, because we have Zinchenko and Jorginho, two real build-up organisers, as opposed to Partey, who Erdegaard moves around like this, like you're seeing much more with, because Partey and his aggressive tendencies needs more of a large-scale balancing act next to him. But when Erdegaard takes the lead in our build-up, there is this kind of tumble-dryer circuit-like effect, and with Raya, we're just able to split so wide, again, there's this pulling force to attract a press down, and then with lots of movement, lots of combinations to find the third man, exploits the space created. And in this role, the gravity of the attack, and you see how it just seems to follow Martin Erdegaard. It's not quite relational, as I've said in previous videos, because that would mean our positioning was totally orientated on where the ball was, and it's actually in some regards orientated where Erdegaard is. But in these examples that I am showing you, there's much more of an off-the-cuff look to things. Take the game against Bournemouth, when Martin Erdegaard came on. He's floating here on top of a pivot platform, which we don't see as much when Zinchenko or an inverted full-back plays, but this is what you get by playing a left-centre mid, not in Kai Havertz, but a more connective, touch-heavy player, like Ethan Ranieri here. Things are kept tight, connected, one side of the pitch is often overloaded to create these moments of dynamism where we can springboard out and release high. It's really hard to contain for an opposition, especially if you're this jumpy, high press. But things aren't always like this, and they haven't been like this in pre-season, before Erdegaard's substitution onto the pitch against Bournemouth, and also in the game against Manchester United, particularly until Kai Havertz came on the pitch. It's fair to say that Arsenal were different once again. The numbers here, what I'm about to say, don't really matter, but I'm going to call this variation of our build-up a 3-4-2-2. Now straight away, it doesn't look too far off what we normally see, but it's the roles that are important, and I think it's very important to note that, especially before Kai Havertz came on, this is what Arsenal looked to do against a high, aggressive press when we don't have, necessarily, that Kai Havertz out-ball. Here, the centre-back split really wide, straight away, and with Raya, we can do this even more confidently. The pivot was much more modular, meaning it could be either Erdegaard or Salah Adin dropping next to Jorginho, and I think this linked-up midfield 3, which has been a real focus, that tight-knitted midfield 3 has been a real focus of pre-season, but what this closeless means is that there can be real dynamism and fluidity higher up, and that's the most interesting part of this build-up. There was a real focus on our wingers clustering narrow, and sometimes it looked like we were trying to keep the rigidity of our box midfield in place, and I think we were, but what it also created, naturally, was this real fluid front-line, and when we're talking about improving our transitional dynamics, getting Saka closer to the middle, not dependent on always an overlap, when you look at Reece Nelson's freedom to move across the front-line, or Jesus' capacity to occupy either wing too, that front-line fluidity was a real, real plus this entire pre-season, but wingers with freedom to move also platforms, the fullbacks in a slightly different role, as these channel runners, they can move into the space vacated out wide, and I think the fullbacks, they're often the free men impresses most times, and whether it's a direct clip from the keeper, or these wide overloads to release White or Zinchenko into space, I think these dynamics have someone like a Calafiore really excelling at. If Martinelli plays, of course he's going to stay high and wide more often, meaning that the fullbacks arriving high will make more of these types of darts infield, and they can look to play off Martinelli as more of a pairing, but I think it's fair that I also give you the areas that I think our build-up can still improve in. I really like the ability to switch from the more rigid set-up, to even go into last season, that 4-2-2-2 we saw against Liverpool, or in pre-season now that 3-3-axis that we saw towards the end of last season and against Bayer Leverkusen, to also that swirling, movement-filled stuff, but I also, at times, want us to be a bit less complicated. Now, I've said this in previous videos, it's about being a little bit more matter-of-fact with sometimes how we use the ball. I've spoken about that pulling effect today, of how we bait teams to exploit spaces higher up, but what about the pushing effect? If we are increasingly thinking about Arsenal's build-up like this pendulum that can rock from side to side, what about from front to back? Sure, we've got Havertz as an out-ball, that more direct, straightforward approach, and that play is an awesome option, Havertz excels at it, but if you've watched any of my pre-season videos you will have heard me talking a lot about the potential return of press-breakers to this Arsenal team. Part of the reason Arsenal have actually created so many variant and awesome build-up dynamics is because we actually haven't always had these overpowered individuals that can kill a press single-handedly available to us. Think how Thomas Partey, now much less reliable at doing this because of his physical decline, but think about how he still does occasionally, and in his peak, how he could sell a press and eliminate his man in a moment. These are press-breakers, pushing forces, those forces that make an opposition really reticent in how aggressive they press you. Someone able to force also a disciplined mid-block back. I ask, can Calafiore be this pushing force in the carry? I don't think he's this massive long-space Billy-O carrier, but it may not matter actually as much just because of the moments of unpredictability he has and how incredible he is at arriving into these spaces that our build-up already generates, and just the general intent, I think, to control but also speed up the tempo that he will have in our build-up. So I think Calafiore can be an improvement into pushing presses back against us and breaking them, which I'm really excited to see. But are these big space carries available anywhere else? Maybe in a Miles Lewis Skelly, can he give us that? It feels a lot to ask on a young guy who still will be closer to the periphery than the centre, and I think the same, you could argue, goes for Ethan Ranieri, because I think Ranieri is probably, now that Smith-Rowe has gone, the best in the squad at being able to turn on a dine and really motor us up the pitch. Use that engine, do you see what I'm talking about? Like I said, those overpowered qualities where people destroy presses single-handedly. Timber, I think, can add that to us as well, and it's a reason why I've stressed the return of press breakers so much, because I think if we add this, guys, to our build-up, it genuinely becomes as bulletproof as you can get. So that's really a look at how Arsenal are evolving and how we're becoming a team characterised on the ball at times that can overwhelm the opponent, and you can feel like you're being toyed with, part of this out-at-sea effect when we're swirling around you, full of rotations and full of movement. And in the next video, we're going to take a look at also the left-hand-sided dynamics we've touched on in this video more in depth, and how they're improving, but also how they can improve further. I really hope you've enjoyed this video. I only ask you to like, comment and subscribe right at the end, because hopefully that means you found it enjoyable or informative in whichever shape, way or form you derive that from. But I've been Harvey Gratian, thank you so much for watching. I'll catch you in the next one. Arsenal. Premier League. Season. 2024-25 is starting and I'm very excited. See you later.