Arsenal vs Olympiacos: Cedric to start for tactical reasons

Arsenal face Olympiacos in the first leg of their Europa League last 16 tie on Thursday night. In fixtures of this magnitude the fine margins need to fall your way, while choosing the right personnel has equal importance. Thus, Cedric Soares is a wise starter.

Most recently, Calum Chambers filled in at right-back during the draw with Burnley. There is no need reading into it beyond rotation, although the Turf Moor clash further solidified Mikel Arteta’s mantra of playing the right profiles for the right fixtures.

Choosing someone ahead of another, a la Willian over Nicolas Pepe, is not a declaration of favouritism. Arteta is cut from the Pep Guardiola cloth of tinkering to suit the opposition without inadvertently altering the gameplan.

His desire for players who can assume numerous tactical responsibilities is imperative for the multiple patterned phases of attack he seeks to employ, but some have weaknesses that make their positions more troublesome to overcome.

Arsenal vs Olympiacos: Cedric to start for tactical reasons over Hector Bellerin

While Hector Bellerin is not in his best form, he can still fulfill various tactical roles. Defending in transition, however, is where he struggles.

Olympiacos are very direct side. Not in the sense of lofted long balls up to a towering centre-forward, but in moving the ball up the pitch as swiftly as possible, creating overloads on one side and switching the ball to grant their wide players space to attack.

As per Greek journalist Johnny Georgopoulos, speaking to football.london, he insisted that exploiting counter-attacks will be on Olympiacos’ mind.

It won’t be a Benfica repeat, of course, where they will surrender possession for extended spells, as they do have the creative quality to hurt opponents when in control of advanced movements.

Transitionally they’ll seek to punish an Arsenal side further up the field and Cedric Soares is more comfortable covering space and following his marker when running at his own goal. He’s no expert in this, make no mistake, but Bellerin still has issues in this department and Arsenal need to strike a balance between solidity in turnovers and ruthlessness on the ball.

Rob Holding being more resistant in one-on-one defending compared to David Luiz also stakes a claim for him to start for this reason, even if he can’t account for the Brazilian’s better distribution beyond the back four. Whoever plays, Arsenal mustn’t out-Arsenal themselves.