re: Question for Arsenal fans

He certainly wouldn't. Pep's philosophy isn't complex, but he tries to use space in horizontally and vertically in a synergistic fashion, so players are always free for passes and there is always space somewhere to exploit. One clear example is from his time at Bayern, when he would move the team as a unit to one side of the field, inviting the opposition to become more narrow, but he would still have a wide player, most often Douglas Costa, on the wide side of the field available for cross-field balls. This would often lead to 1 on 1 situations.

Wenger is still capable of producing good teams, but he has these weird hang-ups, and excuses his stubbornness for being principled. Just giving the team an off-the-ball framework would do wonders. I don't even think he's tactically inept. The 2009 team had a midfield rotation system so that Fabregas could never be man-marked, and he produced a remarkable season. The 2010 team had a midfield pivot of Song and Wilshere which emphasized both being very close to one another, and the team played really well until an injury broke up the CB partnership. The 2013/14 team gave up 23 goals in 4 losses, but 17 in the other 34 games.

The tactical decisions he gets right often get overlooked, and the ones he gets wrong are often really bad, but the result of believing in a specific player who is unsuited to a particular role. Xhaka is the perfect example. He's a good DLP but he needs to be surrounded by midfield runners who won't leave him on an island so he's free enough to make passes. He also works better deeper as a midfield two with 2 CB's behind him rather than as a midfield two with 3 CB's behind him. The difference is that Xhaka has more space to drop deep, which he needs, as his goal is to draw a midfield marker upfield, which creates space for Ozil in particular. He needs to be tried as a midfield three in my view.

I remember trying a few years back but it never took off. I'd contribute if you started one.

I agree with some of what you say, but the low block just simply wasn't in the cards for how Arsene wanted to play.

Even though I felt better about our chances against city compared to Chelsea or man u over the years, Pep has them on another level.

Arsenal at times had been able to sit back and absorb what city threw at them and then counter. Not anymore.

Also , xhaka has been awful. I'm sitting there wishing arteta and flamini we're back in the midfield.

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I only played one year of organized soccer, and the rest of the time I played pickup games up until two years ago

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Very surprising. You seem to understand the game like someone who played it.

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Did you have to get any coaching certification to start doing it?

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I haven't gotten any certifications, but I'm open to it.

All of my knowledge of the game has come from playing year round for most of my life growing up.

My strong suit is sitting down with players and teaching them situational movement and spacing. I've developed a defensive system that works very well for our level of high school and I know I'm good at teaching defense because it's what I can read the easiest as a player.

My weak point has been teaching going forward and building an attack. We struggled to find someone to link our midfield and our striker(s), so we would default to counter attacking more often than not.

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Very surprising. You seem to understand the game like someone who played it.

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I played a lot, but I was caught in a generational gap, and the town I lived in didn't really have all that much in terms of teams I could join. My old man pushed me to play baseball too, and I generally lost interest in playing competitive team sports when I reached high school.

I've played pickup games religiously since I was 13 though, sometimes 3 times a week, until I hurt my ankle two years ago, so a lot of my understanding comes from learning through fricking up.

I might try to see if a local rec league has teams I could join as an assistant or something. I've found myself thinking a lot about how I would set up a team, but I don't know how relevant that would be to coaching a group of kids.

I second the motion for a tactical thread. I have some bones to pick with BVB right meow than can only be expressed through written word and pictures

Gotcha. Rec league would not suit you unless you really want to spend time teaching kids how to properly kick a ball.

it can still happen


i’m the guy without the shirt

One of the best experiences I ever had was playing pick up games with the international students at LSU. The West African dudes were amazing. They could dribble and shite talk at the same time.

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