After the defeat at the hands of Manchester United, Arsenal quickly delivered an impressive performance to regain the trust of the fans. Although still showing certain deviations, but overall, there were quite a few positive factors surrounding the Gunners’ performance in a spectacular 5-3 victory over Barcelona.
Similar to Arsenal, Man Utd also faced a big man in La Liga, Real Madrid, in a friendly match yesterday, and in the end, teachers and coaches Erik Ten Hag had their first defeat in the pre-season. (wrestling Wrexham is the youth team of Man Utd). In fact, the Red Devils did not play badly, but in the end they still had to lose with a score of 0-2.
Basically, Arsenal and Man Utd experienced completely opposite results against Real and Barca. But if you look in detail at the performance of the two Premier League “big guys”, it will not be difficult to see what they have in common in the past matches. More specifically, it was the failed tactical tests from coaches Mikel Arteta and Ten Hag.
Perhaps, many Arsenal fans were surprised when the Gunners starting line-up was announced, when Jurrien Timber was arranged to play as a left-back. Need to know, the Dutch star has a knack for being a central defender and right-back, and under the Ajax Amsterdam shirt, Timber has never played on the left wing since the time he was officially promoted to the first team (according to the first team). data from Transfermarkt).
So it’s not too surprising that Timber delivered an average performance, only fulfilling his duties on the defensive front. He barely influenced Arsenal’s development of the game, with only 19 accurate passes. At the same time, Timber also did not show effectiveness when attacking, he could not make any crosses and could not create scoring opportunities for teammates.
For Ten Hag, it’s better for the Dutch strategist to never think about the idea of having Bruno Fernandes play as a right winger again. In fact, the former Ajax captain used Bruno in this role many times last season, but his impact has always been very low compared to when playing in the middle. And the loss to Real Madrid is no exception.
In general, experimentation is always a necessary element in football, but if it has not worked then coaches should also give up their different ideas.
