Arsenal and Henrikh Mkhitaryan: Getting the best
Arsenal are set to sign Henrikh Mkhitaryan in a swap deal for Alexis Sanchez. How can they get the best from an attacker who has toiled in recent months?
Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a wonderfully gifted player. He may not have had the most enjoyable time at Manchester United, struggling with fitness and injuries early on, failing to ever establish himself throughout his 18 months there, and falling out with Jose Mourinho, if the reports are to be believed. But the ability is undeniable. Arsenal are inheriting a troubled but talented player.
Catch the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal podcast here
A quick glance at his statistics while with Borussia Dortmund will tell you that much.
More from Pain in the Arsenal
- 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
- 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
- Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
- 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
- Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win
The Armenian played for three seasons with the German club. He played a total of 6,953 Bundesliga minutes. In that time, he totalled 23 goals and 29 assists. That yields a direct involvement in a goal every 133.7 minutes. Over such an extended period like that, that is an extremely impressive rate.
However, Mkhitaryan suffered a disappointing season in 2014/15, scoring just three goals and assisting four. If you were to take out that season, and just consider his first and third seasons while with Dortmund, his statistics only become more impressive. In those two campaigns, he played 5,032 minutes, scoring 20 goals and assisting 25, resulting in a direct involvement in a goal every 111.8 minutes. That is truly outstanding. So what was the difference? Because, by understanding the difference between these seasons, as well as the recent struggles at United, Arsenal and Arsene Wenger can perhaps get the best out of him.
Well, and it is a little simplistic to simply attribute the change to the presence or absence of one player, but Marco Reus has a large part to play in Mkhitaryan’s fluctuating form.
In his worst season while at Dortmund, Reus played just 1571 league minutes, many of which he toiled through with a mire of different injuries. He scored just seven goals. In the two seasons that Mkhitaryan flourished, Reus played in 2221 and 1927 minutes. He scored 16 and 12 goals respectively.
What Reus offers that is so crucial to Mkhitaryan’s game is two key things: pace, and the willingness to run beyond. Paired with the searing athleticism of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who also has the same ability and intention as Reus to run into the channels and stretch the defence vertically, Mkhitaryan is then afforded space in which he can roam, drifting from pocket to pocket, exploiting his outstanding positional and spatial awareness.
Next: Arsenal: Mid-Season player rankings
That is what Arsenal must do. They cannot restrict him with a narrow, single-minded attack, as this team does slip into time and time again. They must provide him with width and speed. That is something that they do not currently have. Perhaps, then, that is the thinking in pursuing his former teammate.