Analysis: Arsenal underlap (and underwhelm) against Palace
Arsenal mustered 30 shots and 2.4 XG in their 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace on Sunday. They had little trouble getting through Palace- at least for the first 75 minutes or so and Scott Willis’ data below shows- but they just didn’t convert. It’s not an isolated incident but I also think there are clear distinctions between the end of the Jonas Eidevall era when creation against low blocks became an issue.
Sometimes, when writing these pieces there is a divergence between what the audience wants and what you want to highlight. But the purpose of these pieces is to be a little geeky and focus on process. While I understand that there probably isn’t a huge appetite for a piece on underlapping runs when Arsenal have dropped two very disappointing points at home to Crystal Palace, the show must go on. I wrote a piece focusing more on the narratives and the frustration emerging from this game here.
Arsenal created plenty of chances in this game and one of their chief tactics was to disrupt Palace’s backline with the use of underlapping runs between the Palace full-backs and centre halves, which worked pretty well if we ignore the poor finishing. Let’s look at some examples.
Arsenal consistently pulled the Palace block apart with underlapping runs between the full-backs and centre-backs. Cooney-Cross finds Stanway and she slots a good ball here with Batlle creates space with a good underlapping run.
Russo spins her defender with a brilliant one-touch turn. It gives her a good shooting opportunity on her left foot.
Arsenal once again cause issues with an underlapping run, this time from Chloe Kelly.
Kelly’s cross is only half cleared to Mariona and, let’s be clear, this is where Arsenal are just plain unlucky on this occasion. Two big chances in six minutes both come from underlapping runs.
We see another nice example here. Mariona peels away to the left side and Ona Batlle is positioned narrowly.
Batlle turns brilliantly and gets into a strong position in the area. Unfortunately, she just hesitates a second too long to get a good ball into Russo or Baum.
Arsenal create another good chance with an underlapping run, Cooney-Cross feeds Mariona here and Fox is inverted.
Mariona slips Fox in behind with a great pass here. The angle is close and PPM is out quickly. It’s another big chance created thanks to an underlapping run between full-back and centre-half.
We see the same principle repeat here. Lisa Baum has moved inside with an underlapping run as Williamson has the ball.
Unfortunately, the pass is over hit but the idea is clear again.
Arsenal selected Chloe Kelly on the left for situations like this one, they wanted her to come inside onto her right foot and find those underlaps. She collects the ball from Wubben-Moy, also a right footer selected at left centre-half ahead of Catley, and Batlle is inverting again.
Kelly finds the reverse pass into Batlle and it creates a really good situation again. But Palace deal with the cutback on this occasion.
Not an example of underlapping, per se, but look how far inside Ona Batlle is when she takes on this shot in the 35th minute. She was asked to play narrowly in order to help generate those situations in the channels.
Arsenal’s best chance of the game isn’t strictly an underlapping situation but it is an example of Batlle inverting again. Mariona finds Batlle with a first time pass here and she is positioned like a LCM.
Batlle finds Baum who has moved over to the left here. Baum puts it on a plate for Russo, who puts her shot wide when she should have scored.
Very technically speaking, this is an overlapping run rather than an underlapping run from Batlle here. But the area Mariona plays the ball into and where Batlle is looking to get a cross or cutback from is pretty ‘underlappy.’ Arsenal didn’t want to loop high crosses into Evatt and Bartrip, they wanted lower crosses. This one is blocked on this occasion.
Chloe Kelly collects this pass from Mariona and once again, we see why Slegers packed the left-side of the pitch with right footers. Kelly collects the ball with her shoulders faced outwards and Batlle inverted.
Kelly finds the underlapping run from Batlle once more but, once more, Palace have the numbers back to deal with the cross. If we’re being critical, Georgia Stanway can probably push more into the penalty area here to give Batlle’s cross a better chance of success.
Once again, we see a player taking up that position in the channel. While Batlle is inverted here, Chloe Kelly is even further inside.
Mariona finds her in that pocket, but Kelly is crowded out before she can get a shot off.
This time we see Stanway give Batlle the ball inside but Stanway continues her run into that left channel Arsenal probed again and again.
Batlle slips the ball in but she just delays a second too long and Stanway is offside.
This was very clearly an area that Arsenal identified to attack Palace. They also clearly chose Wubben-Moy and Kelly on the left of the team, as well as Batlle, because they wanted right footers on the left side to promote this angle of pass. It was a good tactic that generated some good situations. It’s just a shame that Arsenal’s finishing was so poor on the day.
The post Analysis: Arsenal underlap (and underwhelm) against Palace appeared first on Arseblog News - the Arsenal news site.