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.
