Michael Cox has an interesting post on Francis Coquelin’s influence on the midfield which necessitates playing players out of position or in positions where they’re less effective. The Frenchman’s ferocious tackling and timely interceptions are welcome attributes in disrupting attacks. Less evident are the crucial distributive qualities of a holding midfielder, very much a work in progress.
Coquelin was “discovered” only last season when Mikel Arteta’s injury kept the Spaniard out on the sidelines for the season. Arteta, lacking raw abilities is a more technical and seasoned passer of the ball, rejiggered into a holding role after his Evertonian days as ACM. Pairing Coquelin with Aaron Ramsey would mean Arsenal missing out on essential playmaking qualities. The Welshman’s strengths lie in his athletic running and receiving passes to burst into the box. He’s more an action figure than thoughtful chess player.
Arsene Wenger’s adjustment was pairing up Coquelin with Santi Cazorla, a well versed supplier from the backfield and Ramsey banished to the right flank where he played out of position. His drifting into the middle compressed Arsenal’s real estate telegraphing where the attack was going to come from giving Liverpool all sorts of time to organize their defence. Just look at the giant bright hot heart shaped blob in the left and the middle with the trailing wisps on the right. Cazorla- Oezil- Sanchez with Monreal joining in accounted for 423 of the 896 passes. The right axis with Ramsey-Bellerin and late joiners Walcott and Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain provide 166. If this was a political party, the Gunners would be flamingly Marxist. You knew where the Lucas Leiva led defence was going to gravitate. Arsenal would’ve had a hard time breaking down a school boy XI.
The natural choice, Oxlade- Chamberlain, would’ve supplied the corrective to an attack weighted overwhelmingly down the left and the middle. And in the realm of distinct possibility he might have been able to retrieve Couquelin’s errant passing with his speed.
Another Wenger naivety (yes, that word can be legitimately used even after a lifetime of coaching), was using his full backs to bomb the flanks exposing Gabriel and Calum Chambers, a new central pairing borne of contingency. We’re still discussing how Arsenal managed to come out unscathed. Thanks, Petr Cech.
For a more visceral perspective, closer to home, let’s examine City. Two out and out wingers in Raheem Sterling and Jesus Navas providing panorama with the defence stretched tight and made porous. David Silva just behind Kun Aguero, with acres to roam and probe for holes to put the ball through with his playmaking abilities for someone with the finishing skills of Aguero or a Yaya Toure to bust through the middle. Toure is a maverick. The galloping free radical with great passing range and covering terrain from 18 yards out to the centre of the field. Beyond him Fernandinho as the Harvey Keitel like cleaner and disruptor. Look at City’s beautiful heatmaps. The centrifugal swirl in the middle and elongated plumes on the flanks stretching claw like towards goal.
To second guess is counterproductive but someone has to bring it up. Wenger did a great disservice selling Alex Song to Barcelona right after such a great season. With Fabregas sold, the Cameroonian stepped right in and paired with Ramsey gave the midfield the necessary steel while providing highlight assists to Robin Van Persie and Theo Walcott. He also scored some very timely goals. Imagine a composite of Coquelin and Cazorla in one corporal body and that too for a song. At this point, Song would have been a league colossus. Instead he’s adrift in a Barca side which places Sergio Busquets, Javier Mascherano, and Ivan Rakitic ahead of him.