Arteta: A Whiff of Cryuffian Football?

By Merlion
February 1 2022

Cryuffian Football is briefly summarised as:

Maintain 3 lines within 35-metre depth such that attackers have only to run 15 metres to shoot at goal.
The “15-Pass” play from the back is executed rapidly to advance the 3 lines in unison into opposition’s half such that the attackers should not run not more than 4 seconds into the box. This is the meaning of executing 15 passes in position to launch attack into the box.
Both Guardiola and Luis Enrique coached the team to use 12 passes to overload one flank, setup the attack, and then switch rapidly to the other flank to setup the attacker facing a 1-on-1 with high probability to score. (And we are talking of the quality of Neymar, Luis Suarez, Messi, Ribery, Robben, Lewandoski, et al).
Never more than 3 players in a horizontal line and more than 2 players in the vertical line. It is all about geometry and the ability of players to move clear to receive a pass. Do not execute square pass. If it is intercepted, 2 players are cut out of the game with opponent running clear.
The setup shall be that when the attack breaks down, the team is ready to press and if failed, to win the 2^nd ball and rapidly launch the attack; and all done within the opposition’s half.

Arsenal Poor Passing Movement exposed by Burnley

Playing in December, especially against Man U, Everton and Man City, there was a vast improvement with rapid passing and advancing the ball. But it regressed against Burnley at Emirates.

It was a clueless team executing slow passing and built-up; players passing amongst themselves in U movements without advancing the ball into oppositions’ half.

E.g. from LB to CB or goalie, then to RB and vice-versa. It gave Burnley a tremendous boost in pressing our Defence to stop us from rapid building from the back, plus to waste playing time. And it also bought time for Burnley to park the bus in the box.

All these cardinal passing errors have been pointed out by Pep Guardiola in his book on his first season with Bayern Munich:

"Gentlemen, this is tiquitaca and it is sh*t. We're not interested in this type of possession. It's totally meaningless. It's about passing for the sake of it. We need central midfielder and our defenders to move out with an offensive mentality and break the opposition lines in order to push the whole team high up. The U needs to go.

I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiquitaca. It’s so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the oppositions’ goal. It’s not about passing for the sake of it."

Back to the Drawing Board to teach the team how to pass

The first type of pass is that everyone can see, even those watching the game in the stand, and the players can see immediately whether it comes off or not. But this simple pass is difficult to execute at speed. Johann Cryuff: “The simple things are the most complicated. The first-time pass is the easiest, but you have to do it at high speed which makes it the most difficult.”

You can always expect both Gabriel and Xhaka, when receiving the ball on the right foot, move to left and then pass – 2 touches. All players invariably needed a few touches, scan the pitch and then pass. No coaching to execute one-touch rapid pass to advance the ball rapidly into oppositions’ half.

This means that after 2 years, Mikel Arteta still has yet to get the team who know how to work together in unison, to execute rapid passing to break into oppositions’ half, let alone to break through oppositions’ midfield and defence lines to create scoring opportunities.

To play the Unexpected Pass

We rarely see the players execute the unexpected pass; i.e. everyone thinks the ball is going in one direction and the ball is sent in another.

Instead, against 10 players in the box, we play U-Movement football, stroking the ball side to side without drawing out the defenders to disrupt the organisation, without rapid one-two movement and the unexpected pass to create shooting angles.

When Burnley attacks broke down, it is our slow passing movement that allowed Burnley to setup the 10-man block. We failed to develop rapid passing, teamwork, more aggressive pressing and rapid counter-attacks when the 2^nd ball is won.

We saw many times when Saka or Odegaard or Emile Smith-Rowe executed the unexpected pass, either the players stopped running or strayed off-side or failed to anticipate the pass. Meaning, more work is needed on the training pitch to improve teamwork.

The Sublime Pass

The third and most difficult pass is the pass that goes through an almost non-existent gap or into a space that nobody else has even seen it.

Saka and Smith-Rowe can execute the unexpected pass regularly, with Lokonga, Partey and Xhaka chipped in some of the times, either a through pass or a lob over the defenders.

But it is only Odegaard who see the plays unfold in front of him and the space, then executes the sublime pass. Pity him and the team is still out of synchronicity. Again, more work needed on the training pitch to improve teamwork.

The Final Third and Soloists

Too many times we are dire and lack ideas to break into the final third, hence the paucity of clear shooting chances created.

Thomas Muller described himself as a Raumdeuter (space interpreter). It is now a term for a floating, late-running, versatile, goalscoring attacker. His goal scoring prowess is due to his ability to actively find the space behind the opponent’s midfield, his unpredictable line of running, and his trademark late runs into the box.

Emile Smith-Rowe is a Raumdeuter. He is our top league goal scorer which is due to his ability to arrive late in the box, finds the space, anticipated the 2^nd ball and can strike the ball accurately. Mikel Arteta will need to devise a tactical formation to make use of this Smith-Rowe’s goal-scoring ability to compensate for an often impotent Forward-Line in front of goal.

Smith-Rowe and Martinelli should interchange more often to disrupt opposition lines, and to avoid Martinelli being shunted into blind alley like what Burnley did to him.

Saka has the ability to dribble through defenders but he lacks support to play one-two with no support in the box from Lacazette, whose link-up plays are mediocre and poor passing skills lacking proper weight. A mobile Pepe who can dribble as good as Saka in a 1-on-1 situation is actually a better option to play the deep-lying False 9 in support of Saka, and to interchange with Martinelli when Pepe is moving out left to combine with Smith-Rowe.

Martinelli, Pepe and Saka are soloists with the dribbling ability to break into the box. It is a tactic that has yet to be worked on.

Whither Mikel Arteta?

With the current dismantling of the last remnants (think only Xhaka left) of Asene Wenger’s and Unai Emery’s squads, Mikel Arteta has his wish to rebuild Arsenal FC to his vision of “Arsenal Identity”.

But he is still rebuilding on the “asymptote” * and the team has yet to start climbing rapidly, vastly improved from Unai Emery’s squad.

Therefore, the next 17 league games are crucial to his Arsenal Future and his coaching and tactical ability to meld this group into a team with positional plays based on useful forward movement and dominating the ball further up the pitch with complete coordination. Has he the ability to coach the players with constant adaptation to different opponents?

My conclusion is that after two years, he has not proved that he can rebuild Arsenal FC to challenge for Top-4 and title regularly and does not deserve a 2-year contract extension now. He still needs to prove himself with the remaining 17 league games to play.

*The team is still flat and inconsistency. Once Arteta gets the team to absorb and understand his need for rapid passing consistently, the team will take-off rapidly like a rising exponential curve, well that’s the plan.