Arsenal: Why centre-back personnel undermine tactical approach

Under both Unai Emery and Freddie Ljungberg, Arsenal want to press high up the pitch. But their centre-back options hold them back. Here is why.

The high press might be the most discussed tactical phenomenon of the 2010 decade. With the introduction of tika-taka in the mid-to-late 00s under Pep Guardiola and the Spanish way, an approach that looks to dominate matches through winning the battle for possession and increasing pressure with pass after pass after pass, opponents needed a strategy to counter.

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Tika-taka dominated football for many years, domestically and internationally. Initially, opponents looked to sit deep, soak up pressure, and counter with pace, attacking the space that opened up at the other end of the pitch.

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But this tactic rarely worked. Such was the pressure that the backline faced, eventually, the dominant side would score, their relentless pressure forcing a mistake and the incisive passing exploiting it. Defending at such intensity and awareness for 90 minutes is extremely difficult, especially when you only have the ball for 20-30% of the time. As a result, managers needed to conjure up a new approach to deal with the tika-taka dominance. This is where the high press came from.

Largely led by Jurgen Klopp, teams began to counter the tika-taka strategy by cutting off their offensive dominance at source, targetting specific players who were not as comfortable on the ball as their attacking counterparts. They played highly athletic players who could cover large spaces throughout the 90 minutes, press with intensity and physicality, and then break in transition with direct passes into spaces to pull the centre-backs out of position.

This high-press approach has since been replicated by many teams. Even lesser sides in the Premier League who would usually look to scrap their way against elite opposition have begun to implement a high-pressing strategy and have had some joy in using the approach.

Like with a possession-based style, the primary weakness of the high press is that it leaves the defence having to cover vast spaces. Naturally given that you are now defending the whole pitch rather than sitting deep and defending half or even a third of the pitch, each individual player must account for a greater portion of the field. This is especially true for the centre-backs, who have to deal with direct passes from deep as well as pressing high if the initial frontline press is broken.

Arsenal have looked to press high up the pitch in the post-Arsene Wenger era. Unai Emery was keen to use a high press, while Freddie Ljungberg, too, has looked to replicate a similar stratregy, injecting some energy and intensity into the attacking midfield play, pushing right into the opposition penalty area without the ball.

But this approach has been undermined by the options they have at centre-back. Where Liverpool boast Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip and Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs had Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen and where Mats Hummels strode through the Borussia Dortmund backline under Klopp, too, Arsenal rely not only on sub-standard centre-backs, but centre-backs that are especially vulnerable at defending large spaces.

Sokratis, for instance, is superb when defending his own penalty area, winning aerial duels from crosses and clearing through passes. Rob Holding is similar, while David Luiz has always struggled when placed one-on-one with tricky, speedy attackers. Arsenal’s centre-backs are not designed to play in a high-press fashion. And yet, that is precisely what they want to do.

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There is no easy fix here. It will take Arsenal years to properly implement the system they want and sign the players that best-suit that style. But at present, while the rest of the modern game implement the high press to best of their ability, the Gunners continue to flounder, and it is because of the centre-half personnel.

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