The Left Side Debate - A POV

In search for the perfect solutions, the perfect players to replace our imperfect ones, we spend so much time thinking and talking about what players can’t do, we end up ignoring what they can do, what they do bring to a team.

Zinchenko has been hearing a lot of criticisms lately because of his defensive lapses and reluctancy to invert to the mid third, leaving the left wingers in Martinelli or Trossard disfunctional in our current game. Is it something instructed or is it a weakness in Zinchenko's game is a good question.

The scapegoating of Zinchenko is unreal on some forums. As the tagline of German series Dark says - 'Everything Is Connected'

A player's productivity never drops for no reason. There is always a reason and it is almost always tactical or to do with connections with teammates, maybe a tactical shift or the absence of a key player for example.

There are occasional exceptions, fatigue can drive a drop in form, as can something happening in a player’s private life (you can refer to a player who's ongoing a personal trauma for instance) which may impact performance. Fitness is also a very key driver of form. Oftentimes, there is a tactical explanation. Which brings me onto Gabriel Martinelli or Leandro Trossard or any wingers you put in our left flank. A lot of Arsenal fans have opened up on Martinelli's recent dip of form or productivity.

In recent games even Granit Xhaka is getting poor numbers and less appreciation compared to what he accumulated during the first half of season.

So it's an attempt to basically provide an evidence for the reason being purely tactical and also the change of dynamics because of the absence of a key contributor.

The above heatmap is of Granit from a game in second half of last season from a game v Manchester United which we won 3-1 at home. If you examine it's clearly an evidence of how much grass our number 34 covered.

Now below is a heatmap from the same player in this season from a game against Spurs at Emirates which we won by the same scoreline of 3-1.

The difference is evident from what we see on television. His role is more advanced up the pitch and that itself is connected to the triangles created with Jesus, Xhaka and Martinelli up the pitch, and sometimes Jesus, Zinchenko and Xhaka down the pitch. This is proved by the heatmap of Zinchenko below, from one of our games this season.

Xhaka's energy and work load for us this season is purely in between the half spaces of mid-third and final-third, benefiting us more in realtime pressing and realtime overloading of the penalty areas and the edge of the box areas. We're playing to his strengths by giving him that freedom and assurance behind him. Part of the reason is the deep involvement by Jesus which you won't see in his deputy's - that is in Eddie's - role.

Now coming to Tierney's role, we all agree on the fact that he's a better conventional LB with more defensive awareness and more desire to make overlapping runs on the left flank. It is evident from his heatmap below from one of his best games from last season.

So everything comes at a cost. You field Tierney, and you're changing your inverted system and playing a conventional system, which takes away the midfield supremacy and asks Xhaka to cover more field and get more tired by the time he finishes the 90mins.

Below is an image of Xhaka pressing the last Villa man in Emi Martinez in the 79th minute and this is a common thing this season more than last season. How many times Emiliano Martinez miskicked the ball under pressure to concede cheap throw-ins for us in second half? I bet you did see it as well.

So it's a gamble and Arteta having fielded Tomiyasu over Tierney this season when Zinchenko was sidelined - even on road to a struggling Southampton - shows how much he believes we're better with Zinchenko or Tomiyasu as inverted LBs in recent times.

Many have this opinion of dropping Zinchenko and giving Kieran minutes. But personally I don't have any problem with the inverted role as long as Zinchenko is covering more field like this below and giving us midfield supremacy.

I believe a game is controlled in midfield and the results as Arteta said recently is the output of what you do inside the penalty box in 90 mins.

Our MOTM versus Villa for me was Jorginho and the player who performed silently without getting much praises was Ben White with his runs along the right flank and the crosses he pinned to the penalty area for Eddie, begging for them to be finished. The thing with a section of fans is that they expect Zinchenko to do the same role that Ben White does or to do the basics right as a conventional LB.

Here's where the bigger picture lies as Zinchenko, although he's an LB on our team sheet, his role becomes a hybrid of an LB and LM as the game progresses and we dominate our on-ball strengths.

In the above screenshot, White, Saliba and Gabriel create a back 3 when Zinchenko is drifted to midfield. 3-2-5 is our average shape on ball (or 2-3-5 or sometimes 1-3-6 when we're in all out attack mode).

It's more than what we see on real time. In general we can argue that Zinchenko is not doing the offensive duty or defensive duty of a conventional left back and it being the reason we don't see the link ups on right flank that Saka and White do or the no nonsense clearances that Tierney brings in.

Here above, from an instance from Villa (A), Zinchenko tries to support Trossard this time making him wide, and then trying an overlap, hoping he passes to Xhaka who can eventually do a one-two with Zinchenko.

But he opts to switch flanks rather, with shifting the focus to right side with Saka on the ball. Maybe it is instructed that we must exploit the opposition left side with Saka more, as much the case in previous games proves.

Meanwhile as above screenshots suggest, that switch pass leads to a golden chance for Eddie from right side of our attack, from a link up between Jorginho and White which begged for a better connection. Eddie's incredible leap only managed to hit the outside of the top frame unfortunately for us.

Above is another example 4 minutes later. Same routine, no intention from Leandro to play in left wing even though Zinchenko was trying to make a run in support.

This switch forces a corner, which ultimately leads to our equaliser. You wont see Tierney picking up the pass like Zinchenko did here for the goal. Clearly we want to play right sided that, we're not even considering play from our left side. It's instructed by the coaching team as these evidences suggest.

I can go on and on to give you reasons and proofs as to why Zinchenko is the key man for us and also why Zinchenko isn't the sole reason our left flank is quiet recently. 

This again brings the players controlling the left flank into the conversation for one last time. If our right flank is made functional by Partey, Ødegaard, Saka and White, the same on left side is controlled by Zinchenko, Xhaka, Martinelli and JESUS (the missing body).

Against Everton (A), Martinelli passed the ball to Nketiah once and Nketiah didn’t manage to land a single pass to Martinelli. In the 0-0 draw against Newcastle (H), they both exchanged only one pass each.

In the Manchester United game where we dominated and Nketiah scored twice, the two players didn’t exchange a single pass in either direction. Against Spurs, the picture was far better, with Martinelli finding Nketiah 5 times with Nketiah returning the favour only twice as Tottenham sat off in the first half.

I believe when Jesus comes back, you'll see our left flank along with Xhaka functioning and scoring more goals as earlier and meantime we're playing it right sided and using the threat from Saka.

Against Liverpool (H), in above screenshot, you see the 2 defenders marking Jesus and Alexander Arnold confused whether to stay within the line or follow Martinelli which eventually makes it easy for Martinelli to score the opening goal from a well measured through ball from Ødegaard.

While Martinelli doesn’t have an overlap to help him to occupy a full-back, he does have an underlap in Granit Xhaka. Earlier in the season, Granit Xhaka was enjoying an incredibly productive season in the final third, while opposition defences were busy dealing with Jesus and Martinelli.

A look at the first goal Jesus scored against Leicester City from above and below screenshot, Jesus is on the left extremity of the pitch and Martinelli moves inside. The movement creates a frisson in the Leicester defence and the two combine for Jesus to score from the inside left channel.

In another of these examples versus Bournemouth (A), Jesus again dribbles towards the left channel and combines with Martinelli, who is then able to tee up Odegaard from a prime position at the by-line.

Or this example below from the opening minutes of the season versus Palace (A).

Here this time Jesus dribbles in from the right, wrestling past and occupying a host of Palace defenders in the process, which frees Martinelli for a gilt-edged chance he should really score.

With men marking Jesus more (3-4 defenders) it'll create openings for left winger like Martinelli and Trossard. So right now playing it right sided is playing to our strengths rather than just a weakness from our left full back offensively.

In short, Martinelli misses the movement and interchange with his compatriot. Nketiah is a different type of player, which is not a criticism.

The focus of the attack has to switch for providing Eddie with service. That has some give and take. Nketiah has a far better goal scoring rate than Gabriel Jesus. However, it probably has a tax on goals from other areas of the team at times and it does on Martinelli or even Trossard for that matter. Now Arsenal’s build-up is slightly more laboured and when Martinelli receives the ball, he is closer to the touchline and usually faced up by two opponents. That'll change once Jesus is back.

The game vs Villa (A) could have been won 2-5 by 70 mins of second half, if Saka, Ødegaard and Eddie especially had taken more care with the opportunities they were presented with. This doesn't take away the quality by Saka for our equaliser - what a finish for a young lad as him.

If you want to criticize Zinchenko, you're entitled to criticize all our players on left and it'll include the striker too since he's the deputy in absence of our main number 9. So let's assume these are instructions from coaching staff and absence of a key figure in Jesus rather than entirely upon players who play on the left flank.

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