He’s regarded among Gooners worldwide as a respected commenter and his forays into the Arsenal blogging scene have been highly successful. Now, former journalist and avid fan Mike Urbanski has joined the Young Guns team to offer his analytical inside into all things Arsenal Reserves and Youth. Known among many as SKA Gooner, his Sunday column – SKA Sunday – continues today.
Special Note – Next week’s SKA Sunday will be a continuation of our series on First Team opportunities for the Reserve players. We’ll look at the midfield, with respect to the 4-3-3 formation.
Saturday night in the States. Cold Carlsberg at the ready, 2 Tone Collection providing this evening’s musical entertainment, and Neil Banfield’s Arsenal Reserve lads on the laptop for a go against Birmingham City. Not an altogether bad way to spend the evening, I must say.
Before I dive into my bit of review for the Arsenal Reserves match against Birmingham City, can I just ask – HOW FREAKIN’ AWESOME IS CESC FABREGAS? And Barca are supposedly preparing a 50m pound bid this summer? Yeah, good luck with that one, bub.
Anyway, I have to say the Reserves looked well in form against the lads from Birmingham. While it wasn’t quite what Barca did to the senior side in Wednesday’s CL matchup, it was most definitely a comfortable win for the N5 squad.
A quick perusal of my match notes indicate a whole lotta positives and only a few “ugh!” moments. Nice to see Rhys Murphy back on the pitch with the Reserves, to start with. Barazite will be extremely tough to handle when he makes the leap to first team football. And is it just me, or do the younger players seem to have a bit more about them, physically, than the senior players? A certain grit to get stuck in on occasion that’s sometimes missing from the first team squad.
The first half of the match was a dominant display by the Arsenal youngsters. I was especially impressed with the overall movement away from the ball when we were in possession. That’s Arsenal Football 101. Move. Make yourself available for the pass. See the pitch. Anticipate. It was present in abundance. It’s not always “pretty” football at the Reserve level, but it’s fundamental Arsenal football nonetheless. These are the building blocks that, at the senior level, turn into the type of football very few sides can put on display. The opposite side of the coin saw Arsenal with some very quick closing down when possession turned the other way. We also saw quite a good display of urgent “defend from the front” from the squad when the ball was lost and controlling the midfield. More Arsenal Football 101. This is especially encouraging following the last match against West Ham.
Along with the dominant possession display, highlights must be noted for some wonderful layoffs just outside the Birmingham box, several of which led to snap attempts from distance by Craig Eastmond and Luke Freeman that challenged the away defense and keeper. As we’ve seen from the first team with Denilson and others, the shot from distance can provide opportunities to nick one in the box by a follow-on player. Have a lash, lads. You never know when you’ll catch the ‘keeper out or get a rebound chance to put one home, a la Bendtner.
Arsenal’s first goal came by way of a corner on a very nice run by Ignasi Miquel to avoid his marker in the box. It’s not enough just to have good leaping ability on corners. Many times the goal comes from the man who sheds his marker and gets a free header, and that’s exactly what Miquel was able to do. Credit to him for a nice, slashing run to the ball as it came in from the right corner.
Unfortunately, Arsenal were negligent in the same manner as Birmingham a short while later. Following a run of play into the Arsenal box and resulting corner, the away side made use of the short corner and free kick into the box, with the Arsenal defense failing to mark and allowing the tying goal. It’s a frustrating thing, allowing goals from free kicks and corners, and it seems to permeate all levels of Arsenal play. I don’t know if that’s down to coaching, lack of concentration or whatever, but we see enough headers and goals from set pieces to know it’s an area that should be getting more attention.
Shaking off the leaky defense on set pieces, Arsenal resumed their dominance shortly before the half. The second Arsenal goal reinforces what I mentioned earlier about defending from the front. It was apparent from the outset that Arsenal were going to put pressure on as far up the pitch as possible, but it cannot be stated enough how much the ball was won at midfield with excellent closing and regaining of possession. Having won the ball on a challenged header at midfield, the attacking run of play saw about 8 passes in form, with Nacer Barazite maintaining possession just outside the box, turning in for a drive at the defense and excellently spotting Oguzhan Ozyakup breaking free on the right side of the Birmingham goal area. A well received pass by Ozyakup and nice move inside the defender gave way to a wonderful outside of the foot blast past the Birmingham ‘keeper to make it 2-1 to the Arsenal. It’s a recipe for success – defend aggressively from the front, win the midfield and regain possession, which leads to chances on goal. Arsenal Football 101. Sweet all the way round.
The second half gave us much of the same regarding possession-driven football. An excellent early play in from Rhys Murphy to Luke Freeman yielded a blast from the left just inside the box, but it sailed a bit wide. The match form continued apace, with Arsenal keeping possession, closing down when on defense (which was required a bit more frequently in the second half) and turning defensive pressure into attacking opportunities and chances.
I did notice a tendency to go for longer, cross-pitch passes in the second half. I’m all for the diagonal ball as it can really open up a defense or create space for the attack to take shape. However, the diagonal ball can often lead to a turn of possession if not received aggressively and Arsenal were guilty of that on a few occasions. Having said that, Arsenal’s 3rd goal of the match came on just such a diagonal ball. Nacer Barazite was wide left and took the midfield-to-opposite-wing pass nicely, drove directly into the box while splitting two defenders and slotted it past the Birmingham net minder. Barazite may not have quite as much guile on the ball as, say, Arshavin, but he does have that direct play at defenders that I’m rapidly coming to admire. Think Eboue without all the falling down waffle. Think Theo, without as much pace, but with greater physical presence when going forward. I’m anxious to see Barazite get some senior side minutes at some point – and hopefully soon.
With the game well in hand, the run in to the final whistle saw a bit of patchy defending, loose marking in our own area and some stray passing. In last week’s article I discussed defensive positional discipline and the need for the off-play fullback to retain a connection with the central defenders for a longer period of time in the 4-3-3 (rather than the 4-4-2). There was little need for that against Birmingham though, as it was a rare occasion when Arsenal put themselves in a position to be on the back foot. Thinking about it now though, perhaps that’s one of the things about Reserve level football that is difficult, mentally, for a young player. In the recent West Ham match the defenders were very busy, possession was lost numerous times in and around midfield, and the discipline to maintain defensive shape just that little bit longer until our attacking possession was finalized farther up the pitch was critical – the defenders had to mentally be on their toes all night (although they failed to do so on several occasions, leading to the second West Ham goal). Against Birmingham though, such was not the case and maybe a bit easy to relax, mentally, and not put in the same disciplined work rate when the match doesn’t require it. No matter the match, no matter the percentages of possession and no matter the competition, maintaining positional discipline is a critical point to get noticed when trying to gain first team minutes as a Reserve player. You can’t just switch off, no matter what, and that takes some mental toughness that some of the lads have yet to master. But that’s why we have Reserve football.
At the end of the match, Banfield commented about his boys: “We wanted to turn possession into goals.” Overall, I’d say it was a pretty good display of Arsenal Football 101, Neil.
good review of the match
its not all about closing down from the front its about closing down all at the same time where each player picks up a man and give no passing options for the man on the ball which could lead to the player being tackled or lumping the ball upfeild.
SKA
dude why do you over exaggerate a win so much it was a good win but by no means impressive what Barca did to us was impressive and the way arsenal came back was impressive
Reserve winning a match 3-1 is not impressive and you really do over exaggerate a simple win which should be very normal for our reserves
if we win against Villa then you can call that win impressive until then all these wins unless we win by a 4-5 goal margin should be regular for considering how heavily we invest in out youth
We invest twice more than any team outside of england and the only team keeping pace with us right now is chelsea who have also been investing huge amounts of sum on youth players. (hard to believe its true)
Oh yeah for your next week article I can tell you now that Lansbury, JET, Wilshere, Merida will all be in our first team squad but all of them will be loaned to championship and EPL clubs because yes they are all talented but they are prone to silly mistakes and their decision making is not up to the standard.
The also need first team football to keep them happy and wenger might send two of them on loan out first for six months and then send the other two out for six months.
This way they get plenty of first team football and stay happy
I still dont know what will happy to Norvedit and if he wenger will sign that young Lyon DM who’s out of contract this summer
Andrew –
If you’ll note, I said the Reserve match was NOT as impressive as how Barca played. It’s right there in the 3rd paragraph. So, don’t really know where you’re getting that I said it was more impressive. And yes, the First Team comeback against Barca was inspiring and impressive as well.
As for over exaggeration, in comparison to the Reserves match against West Ham, the match against Birmingham was 180 degrees better. I don’t think there was much exaggeration in saying that our movement was better, our defending from the front was better, our control of the midfield was better and while we didn’t close out every opportunity with a goal…we did score three very nice ones. So, if you’d like to term that “over exaggeration”, that’s fine by me. Also, not all was rosy in the match and I pointed out a good number of things that need some improvement or weren’t up to snuff during the match.
It’s true that we do spend a great deal more on youth/reserve players than other teams. But I would caution against looking at ALL the youth/reserve players in toto, and simply look at the guys on the pitch when reading a match review. Of course if we had all the loan players back and in the squad we’d be piling up ridiculous numbers in wins and goals. But the team that took the pitch against Birmingham did not include those loan players. You do a great disservice to the lads on the pitch to say it wasn’t a good enough win based on what we spend on youth/reserve players. That’s a poor way to look at any given match.
http://www.bolton.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=193660
i saw this article and “Amos” made pretty stupid comments although the article was stupider
Bottom line is
Coyle wants him there, he improving with Botlon, players like him a lot and want him to stay so of course he’s good enough and this article is simply out of frustration
When they signed Wilshere they were thinking of his exploits in the emirates and all the hype surrounding him but he’s not playing in his usual position and his job is to provide crosses and final balls to the striker and he has done atleast twice every game he has played in but their striker aren’t the best so ignore it.
you guys will love this article
looks like Wenger has set his sights on Neur
http://www.footylatest.com/arsenal-line-up-german-keeper-to-replace-floundering-almunia-2/13536
anyone know barazite contract length
and super nicky b yesterday b52 bomber
he has 20 premier league goals and 9 of them in the last 10 mins
he has really become our messiah this season along with Fabregas
Barazite has a contract length till next year if I am not wrong but he can still improve and I think when he gets 24-25 then we will see the final product.
He can still improve his finishing, positioning and his runs into the box but mostly his finishing and the most importantly consistency (this only comes with age)
Regarding the article that Jimmy has posted.
Okay, i agree that wilshere hasn’t been the superman Bolton was hoping for, but Bolton fans should realize that ordinary players cant put together defense splitting passes against a defense boasting of evra, vidic and Neville and Ferdinand.
The movement of Bolton players is poor (primarily due to the Gary megson era) and thus it is even harder for Jack to provide good balls as no one shows up at the right place to receive it. Also, poor movement means that opposition defense can stay organised and it is tougher dissect it.
When you consider that this is not his favored position and that he is just 18 after all, all the talk of him not being good enough seems stupid
nice article SKA.
Tell me one thing mate, almost all the products of the Barca youth system products are very good on the ball. They are never troubled when pressed and have great ball keeping skills. They can hold the ball really well. They say the reason is that the kids are playing that way since the youth system.
In that case, our players should be as technical too because we too play the arsenal way in the youth teams.
But i see a huge gap between the on-the-ball skills of our youth products and those of the catalans. When you compare ball skills of bendtner,song,walcott, and even denilson to some extent, with that of busquets, pedro, bojan etc. you see the gulf.
does it have to do with the Spanish youth setups’ extremely competitive upbringing (there is always fierce competition between spanish youth teams ) our is it plain natural talent.
P.S.
One point to be noted though is that our players have better ball skills than any other premier league team.
Umm, do you even watch Alex Song on the ball? He is ridiculously strong and technical.
Talk about overreaction.
I guess Ibrahimovich is also rubbish because he missed like 7 chances. Turns out Messi isn’t that good because he was anonymous for 70 minutes.
I have to agree with Juggernaut. There is a reason why lower mid-table teams are full of guys who are tall, fast big fellas or hard working robbie savage types. That’s because those are exactly the kind of players that suit the their low risk style of play (committing few players forward, breaking up play and hitting their target men early). Jack’s game is based around retaining possession, working the ball into good areas of the pitch and threading balls through for on running team-mates. Of course he’s going to lose the ball more often for the same reason that most players lose the ball sometimes. Because we play a high risk game (i.e. don’t hoof the ball under pressure, take a man on and don’t always look for the easy pass). Bolton were always going to be underwhelmed by him because he isn’t someone with lightening pace and power who can destroy teams single handedly. He is a team player who can dictate the pace of the game and turn teams inside out (but…. only if he has the players around him, which at Bolton he clearly doesn’t). There’s no need to worry as an Arsenal fan. He’ll come back and be all the better for having experienced the pace of the premiership. Bolton will continue on, buy another 6’3 clogger and hopefully get relegated next season.
Re: the Barca youth players, I think you’d do better to compare players who’ve come through our youth system from the age of 9/10 like Aneke, JET, Wilshere, rather than Bendtner/Walcott/Denilson who all came to Arsenal at about 16/17. These Barca kids that your talking about have played the Barca way all their footballing lives. Believe me, Aneke, Wilshere etc are just as good in possession.
I agree, Jimmy.
Much of the ball control excellence starts at the age of 5 or 6, and not at the time most youngsters come into the Arsenal youth program at 13-16. We do get those really young kids on occasion, but if you look at the bulk of the players brought in to go through the academy, they’re already in their teens and the chance to drill in that world class comfort on the ball is past. If there’s a young Catalan or Spanish boy, between the ages of 5-8 or so, and he’s got the skill – he’ll wind up at Barca’s youth program. That is not always the case when an English youngster shows the same promise with regards to arriving at London Colney. How many youth players who’ve spent their early years at another club, only to come over to Arsenal in their teens, have we seen? It’s the norm for us to pick up these kids a bit later in their development, but Barca pick them up at birth (or close to it! haha).
That is why I wanted him to go to West Ham instead of bolton. Even though there isn’t much difference between how they play. Ideally they want to pass the ball about, but when it doesn’t work, because of the players they have, they hoof the ball up the pitch. Still Zola actually knows what he is talking about even though his team is fighting relegation. He has brought in some good players as well. He might not be the best “manager” but as a MENTOR, you can’t get much better, and I was astounded when he didn’t go to West Ham and chose Bolton instead. Maybe there was more competition involved at the Hammers and maybe Zola couldn’t committ to playing Jack, but even in training, you would imagine he could learn more under Zola. Oh fucking well.
i think some of you are being a bit unfair on bolton as they have changed undr coyle so with palyers like cohen and lee, wilshere can play good football and in hearing match reports on bolton matches, wishere has played very well.
I always think the bes thing you can teach to a youngster is that if you can see a space ahead of you, then run with the ball. Passing the ball is great, but its when someone runs with or without the ball the other teams defence becomes diorginised. In the chelsea – inter match at the san siro, chelsea’s only meaningful attack, their goal, came when ivanovic ran with the ball.
Like a morrow says, Bolton play better football under Coyle. I don’t think you guys have really paid much attention to what JW’s done so far and how fruitful his loan spell is turning out to be.
He went there and didn’t even get onto the field of play in his first couple of games with Coyle opting for the more dynamic, experienced and older Weiss ahead of him. Young Jack has thought his way into the starting line-up and has easily been their most creative player ever since. This is something Bolton lack and Coyle has come to realise just how important Jack can be to their survival hopes. This would explain why Wilshere is starting every game he’s available for and as long as he doesn’t show clear fatigue on the pitch, he remains on it.
I watched the game against Man City (one of his first as a starter) and while he didn’t set the game alight, i was very impressed with his defensive work, often tracking the impressive Adam Johnson and helping out the fat and inept Paul Robinson in dealing with him. Adam Johnson still managed to impose himself on the game, winning a penalty for the opening goal and going on to be the man of the match (i think) but Jack never gave up the fight and used the ball well. Just last week i read an article where Johnson was praising JW’s qualities and talking about how he thought he would have a very bright future for both Arsenal and England. Look it up, there are a couple of articles out there.
He’s a had a few decent games since and people shouldn’t underestimate just how well he performed at Old Trafford. I watched that whole match too and he was immense. Easily Bolton’s best player on the day and probably the best on the pitch, after taking everything into context. He cut Manure open a couple of times with his vision and creativity. After the match, Coyle was waxing lyrical about him (once again, look it up, there’s a couple of articles out there on it).
In other games where i haven’t had the pleasure of watching him play, i just use what info i have. Like for example, yesterday against Villa where he remained on the field for the entire match when Bolton were chasing an equaliser and Coyle opted to replace people like Lee instead (who has, along with Gary Cahill, been their player of the season). Straight away that tells me that he was impressive again and Coyle thought he had the best chance of creating or even getting that elusive equaliser for them. I would rather take Coyle’s take on JW rather than any stupid Bolton fan’s article which was clearly posted, like ‘Amos’ says, to attract hits from gullible Gooners who take the bait.
Is Jack Wilshere good enough for Bolton?
Well if Cohen and Taylor and Jlloyd Samuel are good enough, then Wilshere sure as hell is
@ ANDY E
is it that hard to read something without being judgmental, or you are just downright dumb.
i dont think bendtner,song ,walcott etc. are bad. Its just that they dont have the same comfort on the ball as pedro, busquets or bojan.
Can Song hold the well – Hell Yeah !!
but is he as good on the ball as a certain busquets ? i dont think so.
you’d have agreed if you had ever watched a barca match.
But that doesnt make any of our players bad because you dont need to be technical to be succesful. grit and intelligence determine how they’ll progress. Drogba, Fletcher, essien are not the most technical players on the pitch but they are invaluable to their teams.
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Silva played in this game and provided a beautiful cross to set up the second goal looks like our future legend (just kidding) can cross too
http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Esportes/0,,GIM1241814-7824-OS+GOLS+DE+FLUMINENSE+X+MACAE+PELO+CARIOCA,00.html
I’ve seen a couple of bolton matches where wilshere has played and although he hasnt set the world alight, on the ball he is incredible. He very rarely loses it and plays extremely intelligent passes. In arsenals team he will definately show his true quality as he’ll have players who will actually pass and move and who’ll create space for him. At bolton you can evidently see how he’s progressed throughout the season and now he can actually last a match without faltering after 60 minutes. It just looks hard for him in a team where the only other player with quality on the ball plays on the opposite side of the pitch. Next season youll start to see the real JW!
I thought a year or 2 ago nacer Barazite would be the next big thing coming through, as he looks real quality on the ball, and has a lot of the basics needed to cut it in the premier league, like height and a bit of a presence to him. But injuries hampered the last couple of seasons, so hopefully next one will be a big season for him pushing on. The first teamers seem to think a lot of him aswell coming from what ive read .