- 1 hour ago
Arsenal have stolen Eberechi Eze from under the noses of Tottenham in a deal worth over £60m. But this isn't just an exciting signing for them this summer, it's possibly the final piece in Mikel Arteta's jigsaw.It's not the easiest fit tactically but, as Adam Clery explains, the skills he possess could prove to be transformative for The Gunners. With a little bit of work, they could be an entirely different team this season.
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00:00Right, hello there everybody, Adam Cleary here for you and I'll just get like straight to the really funny part.
00:06Obviously, obviously, I'd recorded an Eze is going to Tottenham video, so would you like to see the intro of
00:15that?
00:16And you know, it's funny actually, I'd already done all the research for a video about him going to Arsenal,
00:23like about how, yeah, he was absolutely perfect for them, he fixes the one glaring problem,
00:29they've gotten their attack, and he did seem destined to win them the Premier League, but, oh well.
00:38Yeah, I mean, I guess, actually, it's a pretty good job that I don't tidy up in here very often,
00:43because, turns out I need this after all.
00:46But yes, anyway, out of nowhere, an injury to Kai Havertz has seen Arsenal suddenly go,
00:50oh shit, yeah, and gazump Tottenham to the signing of Eberichi Eze at quite literally the very last minute.
00:57Now, I am entirely impartial in this matter, but I can understand why that could be considered incredibly, incredibly funny.
01:05So the question is, is any of that stuff I said in the old intro true, or was it just
01:10for dramatic effect?
01:13Let's find out.
01:17All right, then, this is the last time I'm going to mention it, but the Eze to Spurs video that
01:21I'd already made
01:22was primarily about how adaptable and hardworking he is, and why his mental attributes,
01:28nicely explained in this incredibly informative timeline, well done, producer Archie,
01:32would probably be just as appealing to Thomas Frank as the technical ones.
01:37But just straight up, non-Arsenal, that is not why Arsenal are going to want to buy him,
01:43they want him, because he's a f***ing baller, and the fact that he's a nice lad with his head screwed
01:47on the right way
01:48is simply a bonus.
01:50And last season, this was sort of Arsenal last season in amongst the injuries,
01:53they quite predictably became quite predictable.
01:57And that is because their two best chance creators, as you're no doubt aware,
02:01are Bukayo Saka and Martin Erdegaard.
02:03They are the only two players in this Arsenal team that last season were making more than two chances per
02:1190 minutes.
02:12This is a focus of attack graph, which I promise you is genuinely a real thing,
02:16and the darker the square is, the more time Arsenal spend on the ball in that area.
02:23And shock and awe, the deepest, darkest colour on this graph,
02:26is precisely where the Venn diagrams of Erdi and Sachs,
02:31I promise I'll never say that again, begin to intersect.
02:34But then we take this on a step further, and despite their injuries, and obviously his as well,
02:39the number one beneficiary of all this chance creation is Kai Havertz.
02:44He missed like half the season and still finished top scorer.
02:47And we can see very neatly the combination of these factors,
02:51where all the creation is and who's doing the finishing, in Kai Havertz's heat map.
02:55This is him across the entirety of last season,
02:58and you can see that while there is box presence, because that's his job to finish stuff off,
03:01what he really wants to do is move into the same area as Saka and as Odegaard,
03:07so that he can link up with them.
03:08He knows that's his best chance of getting a chance.
03:12He does not want to sit on the shoulder of the last defender,
03:14he does not want to stretch defences and pull them backwards,
03:17the way they're hoping Victor Jokeres will.
03:19He wants to go into this space here, because he likes to play football,
03:23and here are his two buddies, who are really good at playing football.
03:27Which is, of course, just a very long-winded, and admittedly quite nerdy way,
03:31of saying, and Arsenal fans, you already know this,
03:34that last season, they felt like the most lopsided attacking team in the league.
03:41Last season, nearly half of all their attacks came down this right-hand side.
03:4743% according to the Premier League's own website,
03:51which is like 10 percentage points more than they did on the left,
03:54which is loads, and 20 percentage points more than they did in the middle,
03:58which is super, super loads.
04:00Like, you want to be unpredictable as a football team in attack,
04:04and this, this is not the graph of an unpredictable team.
04:08And thus, across pretty much like the last two years,
04:11it's been getting easier and easier for teams to, like, gum Arsenal up
04:17by denying them access to specifically this area of the pitch in attack,
04:21even if it means being more open on this side as a consequence.
04:25Like, take this example here.
04:27This is an over-commitment of bodies through that centre-right area,
04:31and ask yourself, in this moment, if you are Saka or Erdegaard,
04:36what would you, what would you do here?
04:38Like, what, what's your best course of action?
04:40The space that you both want and need to attack in is all over here,
04:45and it's where all these bodies are.
04:48So the sensible thing to do, the only thing you can do,
04:50is to work the ball back out of that area onto the other side,
04:55where the space actually is.
04:57But the problem with doing that, of course,
04:58is that it takes your best creative players out of the picture,
05:02and forces lads who are not particularly good at opening up sturdy low blocks
05:07or creating high-quality chances for their teammates,
05:10to have to do that part of the job.
05:12And then, as the season went on, they lost Erdegaard to an ankle knock for like two months.
05:17Saka missed a massive chunk later in the season,
05:19and they had a run of three wins in 11 games from February.
05:24Dropping points to West Ham, to Brentford, to Palace, to Bournemouth, to Everton, to Forest,
05:29and that Manchester United team.
05:32And now, we're in a position where the overriding feeling across fans and coaches in the rest of the league
05:38is that if you take away this area of the pitch as an attacking option for Arsenal,
05:43either through injury or just by putting so many bodies in it,
05:46you give yourself a really, really good chance of getting something from that game.
05:52Arsenal were the league's fifth highest creator of chances last season with 544,
05:58but that is a drop-off of over 100 chances from the season before when they were third with 647.
06:06And just to be totally clear here, by the way, that's not me saying,
06:10oh, they've been found out and that Arteta's doing a bad job,
06:14but that drop-off is a product of your attack becoming, as we keep saying, a bit predictable.
06:20So it seemed a little bit insane to me that Arsenal's transfer business this summer
06:26had been to add players here and here and there especially, but also here,
06:31and just seemed content with their spending without going and getting a proper ready-made solution
06:37to fix that side of the pitch.
06:39Now, don't get me wrong, Madweke can play there, and I'm sure he will,
06:42and do an excellent job, and it was pretty clear in the Man United game
06:45that they want Calafiore to get on the overlap, be more aggressive,
06:49add more threat down that side of the pitch,
06:51and all of this should help Victor Jokeres, who likes to float out to this side
06:55just the same as Kai Havertz likes to float out to that side.
06:58But all three of these things here, right, are improvements.
07:02None of them are solutions.
07:04Which brings us to Eberichi Eze.
07:07Not only a solution, but quite easily the best one you could realistically go out
07:13and have gotten this summer.
07:16Is he a perfect fit for this Arsenal system?
07:19Uh, no, actually, he's not, and we'll discuss that in a little bit.
07:22But what he is a perfect fit for is this specific problem.
07:26At Crystal Palace in Big Shagga, Oli Glasner's 3-4-2-1,
07:30Eze played as the left-sided number 10.
07:34Not the left winger, not as a conventional 10.
07:37Say it with me, as the left-sided number 10.
07:40There is a difference.
07:41Off the ball, he's not a brilliant defender or presser.
07:44His numbers in this regard are good, but not spectacular.
07:47But what they do not have a stat for, yet,
07:50is the sheer willingness to do your job.
07:54Palace would often drop into a 5-4-1 defensive shape
07:57that would basically make him become the left winger in that system.
08:01Covering his wing back, stopping balls down the flanks,
08:04and also jumping out into wide areas when they did press.
08:08But crucially, on the ball,
08:10and I can show you this very nicely with this heat map from last season,
08:13the closer Crystal Palace get to the opposition goal,
08:17the closer to the centre of the pitch, Eze plays.
08:21Like, for a man who does so much of his own defending
08:25pretty much on the touchline in his own half,
08:28to then practically never touch the ball on the touchline in the final third.
08:33These are the corners he takes.
08:34Do not get distracted.
08:36That is just...
08:37What a fun way to play football that is.
08:40It's stopping full-backs making overlapping runs here,
08:43and then just being Maradona.
08:46But what's any of that got to do with Arsenal, Adam?
08:49Well, I'll show you.
08:50Because despite the 4-3-3 they almost always play,
08:53Arsenal are a team who, out of possession,
08:56want Erdegaard and the forward to press.
08:58Then everyone else drops into a nice, little, neat 4-4-2 block.
09:03You see?
09:04But then, of course, when they do attack,
09:07they want to end up, one way or another,
09:10with five players in the defensive line,
09:13one of which specifically plays in that left-hand channel,
09:18a left-sided number 10.
09:22So, what I'm trying to say is that
09:24despite coming from a team that plays a very different system,
09:28Eberici Eze absolutely fits into all the important things
09:33Arsenal are trying to do.
09:34You just have to make, potentially, a small adjustment for him.
09:39Which we will be getting to.
09:42The main problem he solves for Arsenal, though, is on the ball.
09:45He's a flying machine, yes,
09:47but not one who necessarily needs loads of space to do it
09:50on the counter-attack, like a Martinelli, for example.
09:54His dribbling, his control in tight spaces,
09:56he's got this irrepressible urge to get on the ball,
10:00get our players, beat them,
10:01and drive into the central areas of the pitch
10:04where he can do the most damage.
10:06And that is what he uses to unlock resolute defences,
10:10every bit the same as Erdegaard will drop into space
10:14and try and thread a pass.
10:15Like, his attacking numbers will not leap off the page to you
10:18because, as raw numbers,
10:20they are impacted by the fact
10:22that Crystal Palace didn't have very much of the ball last season.
10:25Like, fourth or fifth lowest in the league,
10:28if I'm remembering correctly.
10:29But stare at them. Stare at them for a really long time.
10:32Look at the percentages.
10:33And the player he is will start to emerge for you.
10:37Like, carries per 90, low.
10:39Carries into the final third, low.
10:40Carries into the box, low.
10:41But take-ons, high.
10:43Take-on percentage, high.
10:45Key passes, high.
10:46Assists, high.
10:47He is a low-volume, high-impact footballer.
10:52Like, just watch him,
10:52and you'll see those contributions are always of supreme quality,
10:55even if they're not of noticeable quantity.
10:59Like, against, say, a really settled defence,
11:01which Arsenal come up against pretty much every single week, right?
11:04His control in tight spaces is so good
11:07that he will still carry the ball into traffic like this.
11:11But also, his creative vision is so good
11:13that the reason he's doing that
11:15is to draw defenders out of position
11:17so that he can play in his teammates.
11:19Like, the impact this signing could have
11:22on Victor Jokereza's contribution this season,
11:25especially as a centre-forward
11:26who likes to drift out to that side anyway,
11:29is monumental.
11:31And just to be blunt,
11:32there are not many flying attackers
11:34in the Premier League or anywhere else
11:36who are as useful to you against low blocks.
11:40He is as if you took Bernardo Silva's brain
11:43out of his head somehow
11:44and put it in Jeremy Doku's body.
11:47That's kind of the play you'd get.
11:49So you go back to a situation just like this one,
11:52and yes, teams probably will still pack this area of the pitch
11:55to stop Saka and stop Erdegaard,
11:57but there is no way in hell
12:00you now leave Eze one-on-one like this.
12:04If Arsenal move this ball out here,
12:06he will destroy his marker,
12:09and then you're in even bigger trouble.
12:12The only way to mitigate it
12:13is to take the body out of this area,
12:15put it back where it should be,
12:16which A, guarantees you absolutely fucking out, right?
12:20And B, opens up this space
12:23so it's slightly easier for Erdegaard and Saka to play.
12:26Basically, if you can spread your threat
12:28more evenly across the pitch,
12:30it makes you, say it with me,
12:32less predictable.
12:33And if you are less predictable,
12:35you are harder to defend against.
12:38Now, that is how it's all gonna work brilliantly, right?
12:41But there is still one important thing to discuss
12:44that means it might not.
12:46Because Eze is not only a 10, right?
12:49He is the very definition of a 10
12:51that you and me both had in our heads as a child.
12:54Just to go back to the Crystal Palace formation,
12:56he plays as a left-sided 10
12:58because Oli Glasner, the big greedy bugger,
13:01wants to have two of those,
13:03and Arsenal, currently,
13:05have none.
13:06Now, Arsenal do have the option of changing the system
13:10to accommodate Eze,
13:11in which case, you just really simply
13:12go to a 4-2-3-1.
13:15Eze plays as the 10 on his own,
13:17drifts out to that side.
13:18You have Declan Rice as one of the pivots,
13:20push all the way up,
13:21then you complete your base
13:22by inverting one of the fullbacks,
13:25probably Lewis Skelly,
13:26to give you that 3-2-5 shape.
13:28But the problem,
13:28you are no doubt noticing with this straight away,
13:31is that there is no Martin Erdegaard in it.
13:34And you can't even really put him in it.
13:36Because just to rewind all of this really quickly,
13:38to have Erdegaard in this right-hand sort of 10 position,
13:42he would have to play as one of the pivots,
13:45which is not really a good use of him,
13:46and would crucially mean
13:48that if you did go to defend in your 4-4-2 block,
13:51then all of a sudden,
13:52the player who normally leads your press
13:54would now be in a far more defensive second line of it.
13:58So that's a really bad use of him.
14:00So you'd have to drop him.
14:02Well, okay, that's pretty bad, Adam,
14:03so can you think a little bit harder?
14:05Yeah, sure, you can play him as the left-sided number 8.
14:08He's good enough in central areas
14:09that he can do that for you.
14:11Let's him push up into this area
14:12where he really likes to be.
14:13Let's Erdegaard push up into this area
14:15where he really likes to be.
14:16But, oh no.
14:19Now you haven't got any Declan Rice.
14:21Or if you do,
14:22you don't have Martin Zubamendi,
14:24who I would,
14:25100 times out of 100,
14:27trust to play a single pivot role
14:29more than Declan Rice.
14:31And he's really good
14:33and he costs you loads of money,
14:34so you don't really want to drop him either.
14:37So the compromise Arsenal will have to make,
14:40and I'm saying all this,
14:41long-term viewers of the channel
14:42will know that I do not believe
14:44in strongest 11s,
14:46just because there's versions of this
14:47that don't have Rice
14:47or don't have Erdegaard.
14:49That doesn't mean a bad thing.
14:50It doesn't mean you can't use them.
14:51There will be scenarios in games
14:53because of the opposition
14:54or across games
14:55because of injuries
14:55where you'll just end up doing that.
14:57But just all things being even
14:59and everyone being fit,
15:00the compromise will be
15:01they'll push him out
15:03away from his comfort zone
15:04into the left wing role.
15:06But how that's going to have to work,
15:08which is quite different
15:09from what Arsenal are currently doing,
15:11is even though he's starting wide,
15:12he's going to have to have
15:13complete license and freedom
15:15to actually drift into the space
15:17he wants to play in.
15:19Now that works brilliantly for him.
15:21It allows Erdegaard to push up.
15:23It keeps Rice and Zubamendi
15:24both in that same team.
15:26It's great for Saka.
15:27But the problem now
15:28is your left back.
15:30Because if you're doing this,
15:31you cannot have some neat little inverter
15:33or someone who's going to play
15:34as like another centre back.
15:36They have to give you
15:38your width down that side.
15:40They have to be the fifth man
15:42in this attack.
15:43And to be fair,
15:43we did see Ricardo Calafiore
15:45pretty much doing this exact thing
15:46at Old Trafford.
15:47But is he a long-term solution
15:49in that situation?
15:51Don't know.
15:52Could Miles Lewis Skelly
15:53be sort of like
15:54re-sort of shaped and moulded
15:56to go on the outside
15:57instead of going on
15:58to the inside?
16:00Also, don't know.
16:01But they'll have to think of something.
16:03Dury and Timber, maybe.
16:04But you'd obviously rather
16:05have a left footer
16:06sort of in that situation.
16:08Like whoever they end up using,
16:09whatever they do,
16:10that is the way
16:11to get the most out of him.
16:12And by extension,
16:14these three as well.
16:15So whoever that player ends up being,
16:17I would say that's worth it
16:19to not have to drop
16:21two of your blue-chip players
16:22and give you someone
16:24who can get you something
16:25out of nothing.
16:27And just as a reminder,
16:2914 draws for Arsenal last season,
16:32right?
16:32And I would say
16:33all but two of them,
16:34the Liverpool,
16:35what, maybe three,
16:36Forrest away is a tricky game,
16:37are all games
16:38where they should be able
16:40to get something
16:42out of nothing
16:43and win that.
16:44And if they can just turn
16:45half of those draws
16:48into wins,
16:50Yahtzee!
16:52So yes,
16:52there you go,
16:53Eberici Eze to Arsenal.
16:54And we were genuinely,
16:55truly, honestly,
16:56halfway through
16:57doing the Eze to Tottenham.
16:59Look,
17:00here's some clips of it
17:01that I'm now determined
17:02don't go to waste.
17:03So if you want to reward
17:04the good hard work
17:06myself and producer Archie
17:07have done,
17:08why not subscribe to us here
17:10at ACFC
17:11so that we know
17:11that somebody cares.
17:14In the meantime,
17:14you can get me across
17:15all of the social medias
17:17at Adam Peary,
17:18C-L-E-R-Y.
17:19And there are simply
17:19loads of fun analysis
17:21to come on the channel
17:22which will make you
17:23sound incredibly clever
17:24when you repeat parts of it
17:26in the pub
17:27after you've watched it.
17:29So make sure you subscribe to us
17:30and if you're an Arsenal fan
17:31let us know what you think
17:31of the transfer
17:32in the comments below.
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17:35You've got us here,
17:36you've got me.
17:37That's it.
17:38Eze to Arsenal.
17:39Very funny.
17:40Goodbye.
17:44Boo.
17:44Boo.
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