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[Sam Dean - The Telegraph] The data that show Martin Odegaard is victim of Arsenal’s defensive shift (www.telegraph.co.uk)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (8 children)

IMO the third factor has been largely overlooked. Rice is immense when it comes to defence, but it seems he’s yet been able to carry out progressive passes as efficiently as Partey. He tends to carry the ball on his own.

This, combined with Havertz who isn’t as good as Xhaka either when it comes to progressive passes, is probably the biggest reason why our attack hasn’t been as good this year. It has more to do with midfield balance than our frontline.

I’m definitely not saying Rice isn’t a good player - he has been excellent to the point that 105m looks like a robbery now. It’s just that the midfield balance takes time to be sorted out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

His driving ability through the middle is such an amazing skill to have. Sometimes that 10 metre dribble creates more time and space when we are rushing some messy passes or struggling to actually turn defence into attack.

But as you noted, we need that passing balance to come from elsewhere.

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