Arsenal: Mikel Arteta to make crucial tactical decision for summer window

It isn’t just a matter of identifying then signing players better than what Arsenal have. The process has to be undertaken with due diligence, understanding what the acquisition can offer in the short, medium and long-term, as well as what work needs to be done to extract their full potential.

This is the role of scouting. Observing players in the flesh and through data over an extended length of time, seeing their promise in the making and knowing what process to take in order to allow that to flourish.

Other sides of recruitment play roles in the planning, but in order to spot the talent and judge their suitability within your squad, you need to know what formation you’re playing.

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Mikel Arteta has to make crucial tactical decision at Arsenal for summer transfer window with 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 formation needing to be decided upon

"“We want to move to a 4-3-3 but for that, you need a lot of specificity in every position but now in five or six positions, we don’t have it,” Mikel Arteta said back in December."

Even before he took the role the idea was that Arteta wanted to gradually shift Arsenal into his preferred 4-3-3 formation, one he has only dabbled with briefly in the latter end of his tenure due to the personnel at his disposal. Starting out with a 4-2-3-1, he’s moved into a variety of back three setups and returned to the more recognised single No. 10 system.

In the Europa League semi-finals the adjustment was made to something more closely resembling two No. 8s (more like two No. 10s) either side of Thomas Partey, a shift that didn’t work. A combination of wrong timing, wrong players and infancy in its usage factored into that.

Previously stating Arsenal are five or six transfers off from being a natural 4-3-3, this summer window may be the best time of all to begin that transition. The outgoings will be considerable and the ingoings the same depending on the former’s execution and success, giving Arteta a chance to set the groundwork.

Knowing which system to implement has a major role on players with undecided futures. Take Joe Willock, for example, who is flourishing in a back three/five setup where he is the right-sided No. 8 in a midfield trio. It’s a position that allows him to make the runs into the box where is most effective and to chase down opposition players where his work rate and stamina succeed.

In a 4-2-3-1 – which Goal suggest Arteta may plump for in the long run – it’s hard to see where he fits. There hasn’t been enough to suggest he works in either a double pivot or as a No. 10, thus the outlook changes. As for Martin Odegaard, his best moments for Arsenal have been as that key creator in front of a midfield pairing, looking lost of the occasions where a single pivot was used.

Of course, the sample size is small but these are crucial details when it comes to bringing players in: it affects strikers, wingers, midfielder and defenders. Arteta has to pick his horse and back it.

Right now, despite such a colossal overhaul expected and new players coming in, changing the shape of the team again would be too risky. Arteta is not Antonio Conte who can do it mid-game and then canter to a Premier League title, nor is he Thomas Tuchel who can do the same mid-season and transform the outlook of an entire team.

He doesn’t have the players he needs, or wants, at the moment. The aforementioned report suggests 4-2-3-1 will remain (which certainly has room for flexibility given Arteta’s track record), and if it does then the experimentation with systems still has to end. Get players who suit those roles but have the tactical fluency to interchange across the pitch.

While 4-2-3-1 never truly remains as such it is the framework to mould around. Acquiring players to suit that will aid the decisions when it comes to who stays, who goes and who comes in.