Arsenal: Sokratis hits on crucial attitudinal aspect

Sokratis has said, essentially, that Arsenal need to foul more. It is a crucial attitudinal aspect that he absolutely nails and it is something that Pep Guardiola understands innately.

One of the key reasons why many fans wanted change was the continual defensive shortcomings that hampered the progress of the team. The openness against the counter-attack, the repeated smashings away from home against the rest of the top six, the naivety and innocence with which they were set up and played. Under Arsene Wenger, Arsenal were painfully poor defensively.

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One of Unai Emery’s key tasks in his first season in north London is to provide a structure and shape to the team without the ball — and even with the ball, showing an awareness of the threat that opposing teams can pose on the break.

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But in the first three games, Arsenal have been anything but stable and secure. West Ham United, for instance, from just 38% possession, engineered 13 shots, five shots on target, and should have scored more than the one that they did. It was an extremely exposed and exploitable defensive shape from the Gunners.

Speaking after the match, new central defender, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, conceded that he and his teammates need to play a little smarter to prevent teams counter-attacking so potently:

"“We are experienced players and sometimes we have to be a bit more clever. When we don’t have the ball, in some situations we have to make fouls, we make fouls and take a card. Then we do not take the counter-attack. If they play with counter-attack, they can play with 30 percent of the ball but still make chances. We have to defend all together and work better when we don’t have the ball. We are very offensive but we have to pay attention when we don’t have the ball. When we came in, the manager said to us that we have to play better in the defensive part. We were better in the second half, but we still need work.”"

His point is an extremely simple one: Arsenal need to not be so naive in their defending and should make more fouls to stop breaks from developing — Sokratis did precisely this in the 88th minute against West Ham, happily taking a yellow card for his troubles before then standing on the ball to prevent West Ham from taking the resultant freekick quickly, allowing his teammates to retreat and recover their position.

It is an attitudinal problem that Pep Guardiola understands the importance of. According to Football Analyst Lemon Watcher (you should go follow him on Twitter), last season, Manchester City ended 7.6% of their opponents’ open-play possessions with a foul, the highest rate of any team in the Premier League over the past five years. He also states that City were high in that category under Manuel Pellegrini, as were Guardiola’s Barcelona. The opposite can be said for Roberto Martinez’s Everton in the 2015/16 season, a team renowned for exposed, open and naive defending, ending only 4.3% of their opponents’ open-play possession with a foul.

The dark arts of football is something that the best teams master. City are brilliant at committing fouls high up the pitch, early in opponents’ counter-attacks that are in areas of the pitch that do not earn yellow cards. That then gives the team time to drop into their defensive shape and reset once again. Arsenal do not do this.

There was a prime example when Felipe Anderson skipped past Aaron Ramsey on the halfway line and drove at a vulnerable and unprepared back four. Ramsey had to bring him down, any way that was necessary. He didn’t. Perhaps it’s time for him to listen to Sokratis.