Arsenal: 5 solutions to Kieran Tierney left-back problem

Here we are again. Arsenal, in vastly improved form and finally looking up the table, have been rocked by a season-ending injury to Kieran Tierney that risks derailing their top four ambitions. It’s last season all over again.

On that occasion is cost the side dearly. Reshuffles in system and personnel worked until they didn’t, with disasters in Europe and inconsistent league form troubling the side for much of winter/spring 2021.

Amazon Prime won’t be best pleased, since they would have been hoping for some new drama in north London this time around.

The absence of the Scot with a knee injury – it was his knee last season too – saw Nuno Tavares brought into the starting lineup against Crystal Palace, which at least shows there is one difference this time around: Arsenal actually have another left-back.

Arsenal: 5 tactical solutions to left-back problem as Kieran Tierney injury rules him out of the rest of the Premier League season

Unfortunately, he was so out of his depth that deep sea divers had to go searching for him. Hauled off at half-time to make it 80 minutes of playing time in his last two starts hammered home the significance of Tierney’s injury and the state of affairs at Arsenal.

With each one of the following nine matches firmly in the ‘cup final’ territory, how Mikel Arteta goes about solving this issue can so easily define the season. That’s without even factoring in the extent of a lengthy Thomas Partey absence.

It’s beyond damaging. But solutions must be found. The hopes of securing a top four finish and a return to the Champions League depend on it.

1. Stick With Nuno Tavares

That’s right. He may have looked beyond repair for this season with the performances against Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, with extensive work over the summer required to get him coached properly, but he is, after all, a left-back.

What’s noticeable with Nuno is how dramatically his technical level drops when he’s away from home. A different player leaves north London to the one who stays behind.

Given the team look set to lose Partey and will need to reshuffle, it would then help to make fewer changes in total. Nuno is an adventurous left-back, but one who can avoid Arsenal from deviating from their system too drastically.

He’s someone who has to pick his confidence back up off the floor. Arteta, like the fans, knows what he can produce and it wasn’t too long ago where he’d legitimately won his place in the team over Tierney. Now all hell has broken loose when the tables have turned.

A home game against Brighton is a real opportunity for him to improve his comfort within the team, get back into the right mindset and and build some level of form that could see him keep his place for the rest of the run-in. For the sake of the whole group, Nuno being back to his previous level and starting at left-back reduces systemic and tactical changes to a minimum.

The caveat to that is, however, that it’s hard to see where that form will come from. There is reward at the end of it, but serous risk in pursuing it.

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2. Granit Xhaka at Left-Back

Mr. Utility back on the radar.

This was the decision Arteta made at half-time, with Nuno coming off and Granit Xhaka moving to left-back which allowed Emile Smith Rowe to slot into his advanced No. 8 position.

Arteta would trust Xhaka with his life and, to his credit, he looked relatively assured in the second half, progressing the ball from deep and acting as a creator down that side.

What this change in personnel does is allow Arsenal to maintain whatever variation of their 3-2-5 shape in build-up and have three defenders who can all get the ball up the pitch into the feet of attacking players or in behind. With Partey out injured Arsenal will lose progression in that area meaning they have to accommodate elsewhere.

Whereas last season it was unfamiliar, this time around there is some greater comfort with Xhaka in that position and having a more fluid attacking base further forward.

But there are concerns, as ever. Firstly, Xhaka’s obvious mobility issues are a target that every team will seek to isolate with wingers getting one-on-one. Without Partey Arsenal will also lose presence in the centre of the pitch. It has its limitations, with the principal benefit being that it puts Martinelli, Smith Rowe and Saka all on the pitch at once.

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3. Bukayo Saka at Left-Back

Back where it all began, and back to the same counterpoint: why move one of the best players in the entire team out of his best position?

That is the major issue with this move. Bukayo Saka can play left-back as everyone well knows; it’s where he burst onto the scene and started attracting everyone’s attentions, but he’s also playing a role out on the right of the pitch which is so tactically and physically demanding that no other player can come close to matching his level.

Shifting him out to quite literally the opposite corner of the pitch is something he can be trusted to do. His versatility is remarkable. Yet Arsenal, aside from Monday night, have been in fine form and are distinctly more threatening and decisive in the final third. So much of that is credited to the role Saka plays on the right.

He’s been building a fine partnership with Martin Odegaard in the right half-spaces, unearthing an even more brutal dribbling capacity to weave beyond multiple markers, and improving his output in front of goal.

Saka would fill a gap for Arsenal at the back, but he would leave an even bigger one up front.

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4. Move to a Back Three

It has been rightly highlighted that Arsenal have nine more cup finals ahead of them, so why not switch to a formation that won them their last cup final? Makes sense, right?

Sort of.

Moving to a back three could work for a number of reasons. One of the main benefits is that there is positional freedom. It has the scope to move Granit Xhaka in midfield alongside Sambi Lokonga as, while he impressed in his short cameo at Selhurst Park, he will need some support centrally as he returns to the team. Then Odegaard could move the right of the front three – although obviously he would move infield and Saka would provide the width – with the actual formation only a loose blueprint to how the team sets up and not actually their specific positions on the pitch. Roles are more important than formations.

Perhaps more alluring and for greater balance is to have Xhaka at left-centre-back which allows for Cedric and perhaps Nuno to play as wing-backs. That would cater to both their strengths.

But it would be a change. It would be a considerable change to the first Premier League defeat of 2022 that wasn’t against a team called Liverpool or Manchester City. While the injury issues clearly play a role, Arsenal are in this conversation in the first place on account of the succession of results they’ve had playing in a 4-3-3.

Arteta won’t want to complicate the situation more. He wants to compartmentalise the defeat and ensure it is just that: one defeat. Moving to a back three has its benefits, with more stability for players who have weaknesses, yet he will have learned from last season that it can have an adverse effect.

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5. Takehiro Tomiyasu Comes in at Left-Back

Asking now, from a personal point of view, if this is an option then it’s the one that should be employed.

Arsenal need Takehiro Tomiyasu back more than ever. Among the countless options there are out there to try and solve this issue, none are as natural than having the Japan international switch sides.

Tierney has been less bombastic of late, acting more as a defensive complement to Martinelli than an attacking one. Allowing Arsenal to maintain defensive structure in build-up and transition, and keeping Cedric further up the pitch where he is less suspect, suits the system. Tomiyasu can do that.

When you have a player this two-footed it makes sense to cash in on that luxury. He plays left centre-back for his national side and never looks out of place. Arsenal also can’t afford to lose more presence in midfield, as while Granit Xhaka can progress from deep, his role in retaining possession and winning it back higher up the pitch has been key to the Gunners’ territorial control. Without Partey Arsenal can’t lose further central physicality.

Yet what is arguably most crucial is that it avoids Arsenal deviating from the blueprint that has got them into a top four conversation in the first place. Keep the 4-3-3, move Sambi into the No. 6 and get Xhaka being slightly more reserved against tougher opposition. Stick to the philosophy and Arteta’s principles.

All of which is fine in practice, but comes with one considerable caveat: Tomiyasu isn’t fit. Not only is he not fit, he hasn’t played since January. Despite his incredible determination it will take time for him to get back up to speed.

The unfortunate elephant in the room.