How to stop Mikel Arteta and Arsenal playing football like it’s rugby
As Declan Rice purposefully hoofed the ball out of play from the kick-off in Arsenal’s defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, you may have wondered whether the obsession with pressing in modern day football might just have gone too far.
Mikel Arteta’s side aren’t alone in deploying this tactic. Paris Saint-Germain, the Champions League winners and arguably the most attractive football team to watch in the world, are the foremost exponents of it.
Luis Enrique, who like the vast majority of managers – not just in the higher echelons of football but also in the lower reaches of the football pyramid – sees winning the ball back high up the pitch as the best bet of scoring a goal, instructs top touch-finder Vitinha to smash the ball out for a throw-in as deep into the opposition half as possible.
READ: Arsenal BOTTOM of the Premier League table on ‘Big Chance’ metric
Adam Wharton has done it for Crystal Palace this season, while Newcastle can also be counted among the Premier League offenders.
It was initially a bit of a laugh; a tactical quirk to make a kick-off more interesting. But the more we see of it, the more we worry about football’s descent into a game of territory.
We can see it now: the public school, red chino-wearing bros roaring in appreciation of ‘jolly good chap’ Bruno Fernandes spiralling one out of play with a kiss off the corner flag.
The Athletic’s tactics whizz Michael Cox has similar concerns, and has come up with a rule change to discourage it.
‘One simple solution would be to allow teams to bring any throw-ins deep in their own half forward, level to a position with the edge of their own penalty box. This wouldn’t entirely solve the issue but at least teams forced to hurl the ball forward with their first action of the game would be conceding possession further away from their own goal.’
MORE ARSENAL COVERAGE ON F365…
👉 Berta ‘happy’ that Arsenal missed out on £22m signing with sporting director ‘wary’ of transfer
👉 Andrea Berta wanted Arsenal to sign a different No.6 than Martin Zubimendi
👉 Liverpool top transfer winners ahead of Arsenal, Chelsea and, in the end, just about Spurs
An alternative, more fun, fix could be a requirement for the team in possession at kick-off to have a minimum of three players touching the ball before it goes out of play. It would at least necessitate a quick one-touch triangle in their own half as opposition players dash to get to them before they boot it out, though that feels if anything more rugby-ish, like the designated hoofer is a fly-half being charged down as he lines up the kick.
But will a kick-off be the end of it? Will a free-kick in your own half be seen as another opportunity to kick for touch? Maybe the midfielder of a team struggling to break down two banks of four will think “f*** it, we’re better off if you have it” and pass it out of play before doing that ‘box them in, lads’ signal with their hands.
It’s something that’s unlikely to rank high up on football fans’ list of grievances in the era of a handball rule that makes no sense while VAR continues to make unwanted and unwarranted interventions, but handing the opposition possession of the football does suggest the fixation with pressing as a means to win games of football has reached an unhealthy level.
We would actually quite like teams to rely on their own skill to score goals rather than preying on the opposition’s lack of it.
