The people involved with this team are shit at optics. You just got smoked by City, Freddie. Maybe don't share a giggle with Pep after the final whistle.
Yeah, that was odd. Makes it look Freddie: (a) didn't care that we lost, (b) didn't expect to win, or (c) wanted to kiss up to Pep for some reason. Were the boos in the stadium kind of subdued at FT? (less than HT?) I was surprised. Apathy? Lack of fans actually still in the stands? Whatever. We are clearly in quite a heap of trouble and change is warranted on many fronts. It's challenging to support a typical mid-table team with so much dysfunction. Sigh.
I don't know of any coaches that would characterize that as zonal marking. In any of the coaching clinics I've attended that term is used solely to describe a way of marking on set pieces, not marking during the run of play, but perhaps you've heard it used differently. Regardless, Kolasinac was really poor on that goal. Guendouzi was poor the entire match. He needs good coaching badly. With it, he has the potential to be really good. Without it, wasted. Raul et al, need to do something immediately. Either publicly back Ljungberg for the remainder of the season and let him hire some assistants or bring in the new guy now. This limbo we're in is horrible for everyone.
Raul and them were 100% prepared to let Emery stay the manager of the club until the end of the season after that Leicester match. Should tell you everything about those gumps. 29 points in our last 24 league matches. Arsenal football club.
In the run of play, zonal just means that a defender will cover a zone, and then when an attacker moves into it, he marks that player. Of course it is much more complex than that in practice, as multiple players enter and leave zones. I used to be quite surprised that the english pundit class who tended to play in the 90s or the early 00s don't understand zonal systems very well. But an anecdote in Pep confidential reveals that Boateng didn't understand defensive systems at all. I get that the team might need drilling on Pep's Spanish approach to zonal, but it seems incredible Boateng had come so far as a player without ever learning some basics. My guess are that a number of players in those days played very instinctively unless/until they made it into a side with a systems oriented coach. Like if you play for a Jose or a Pep, you are going to come out with an education on zonal/transitions
I've not seen anything which indicates Kolasinac will ever be a good defender - compared to say Tierney But also the details & awareness on the pitch matter a lot more than the overall system. Presumably it's a bit of both. He doesn't know what he should be doing, but also the situational awareness and concentration isn't there Just switching to man oriented systems is unlikely to help.
Zonal marking seems easy to me, but that's probably because I was never athletic enough to be good at man-to-man. Most of my experience is basketball, but it's just about positioning yourself to deny your opponent access to the most dangerous spaces on the court.
I don't think the loss had anything to do with zonal marking. The game was lost in 15 mins via the same old basic failings. First City played right through the front press super easily, then there is a massive gap between the lines. So yeah - the same old compactness issues and everything gets really hard at that stage because players will run into channels or get free in the half spaces. KDB even said after the game this is what City targeted from video analysis. Second Chambers was all at sea and was clearly targeted on the first 2 goals. He isn't good enough, but again why is he getting so easily isolated like that
For lack of a better place to put this... We draw Olympiacos in Europa R32 for February. We've had mixed results against them in the past, but always in the group stages IIRC.
So, did no one else enjoy an Arsenal game for the first time in quite a while? The fans that left, did they expect us to win? I thought Pepe, Martinelli, and even ozil were good in attack. Ozil even defended and pressed in the first half. City showed their shrewdness and experience...every promising attack from us was met by an uncarded tactical foul by city. We didn’t do the same to them on their counters. Two of their goals were wonder strikes and the other was on a deflected pass across the box—which kola actually was in place to intercept.
Sorry but... NO.. I enjoyed literally the first 30 seconds when we had our first and only shot on goal. And then just seconds later it became clear that Man City was going to have their way with us, especially our defensive frailty. I think it could've been 6-0 or more, but they seemed to ease off. There were very few player bright spots: Gab, Leno, and that's about it. p.s. I largely checked out from watching closely after HT so if there were more positives from 2T I suppose I could've missed them. But I suspect not.
My point, which obviously wasn't clearly made, was that Kolasinac didn't fail to pick up Sterling's run because he was marking a zone. He just was ball watching and did a shitty job of tracking an obvious runner.
Yeah agree he was ball watching. To be fair, KDB came from quite deep there. As much as I hate to say it, maybe kola was positionally correct and someone else should have tracked that run - like the left wing or the centre mid. Hard to say without knowing how the system is supposed to work ETA - i see now you are talking about the 2nd goal I think on the first goal it is actually Ozil's man
I guess on the 2nd goal you could charitably say he is trying to cut off the pass to Sterling? He does look to see where he is? It is a bit of a miracle pass to get it to him Sterling checks his run - I think City look for that move on the pullback