You're missing Prince's point*, which is that Guardiola keeps his fullbacks narrow in attack, and keeps the forwards wider, and that provides protection against the counterattack. We really don't have the players to pull that off though. *Though it looks like Bellerin has regressed - players looking promising when coming in and plateauing seems to be a very Arsenal thing over the last few years.
There was a really weird bit at the beginning of the match where he half-apologized to Arsenal supporters for having played for Sp*rs, and promised not to show any bias against us. Then he jokingly threatened to reveal Keith Costigan's favorite club on air. Friedel was like a bad heel announcer in wrestling. Stuart Holden sounded like he found it.
Finally watching the game. My thoughts... - We need to ditch the 3 man back line. We don't have the quality or depth at CB to play 3 and AWs "scheme" in the back 3 actually exposes us worse then when we ran a back 2 CBs. - Was actually pretty impressed with El Neny. I've been critical of him in the past but he looked good this game. Made some good passes, had the vision to pick out both Walcott and Alexis on some good runs, tracked back well and minimized mistakes. I think he needs to continue getting starts for cup matches to see if he can continue to impress. - Don't like Iwobi as a CM. He was ok as a CAM. He really needs to be playing LW/LAM. - Don't like AMN as a wingback. He did look solid as a CM. - Walcott needs to be sent out and we need to allow younger/cheaper guys (Nelson, Iwobi) to take his place. He still has speed and makes good runs but his 1st touch and finishing are abysmal. - Alexis was very up and down. Is completely dominant one minute and giving the ball away the very next. Far too often he tries to do too much with his passes and ends up killing the possession. - Kola is a badass. Would love to have a few more guys just like him.
Yes I did get to see George Best in action in the white and tangerine for the Aztecs, (and Pele too for the Cosmos, who scored a hat trick against us at Giants Stadium in 1977) but this was my first venture into footy so I didn't know much about the Beautiful Game but as a hockey fan (going into my 44th season as a Kings fan in two weeks) I could relate to goals and saves but I didn't know what warranted a corner or a goal kick at the time, that, and later knowing the offside rule (excluding the NASL's version of it at the time) in the 1980s while the World Cup was in Spain in 1982 and Mexico in 1986, was how I got into it more, as a matter of fact, when I first moved up here to Port Townsend, our realtor who sold my parents what would later become the Old Consulate Inn, was a coach of a youth soccer program in the area and I became a goalkeeper coach and was a successful one at that (our team kept a ton of clean sheets because of it.) . ...and nope I didn't get to see that 30-for-30 segment on him, but hopefully it'll be on YouTube.