When Arsenal announced their starting line-up at Villa Park on Sunday, the inclusion of Caitlin Foord and Katie McCabe would not have posed a surprise. They have both played every minute of the last six matches now. We have become accustomed recently to McCabe starting on the right with Foord on the left.
However, Eidevall opted to start with Foord on the right and McCabe on the left. It’s the first time that he has ever played Foord on the right hand side. Arseblog News asked Jonas Eidevall about this post-match and here was his answer.
“We knew width was going to be an important component, especially in the final third. That means that the way we positioned, sometimes we keep our full-backs a little higher, in this game we felt there was a lot of opportunity to keep the wide forwards higher. Because of the situations we anticipated going into we thought that was going to be favourable to expose them.”
Foord and McCabe did swap repeatedly during the game but let’s have a look at what Jonas meant by keeping his wide forwards high to expose Aston Villa, who play Sarah Mayling and Maz Pacheco in the full-back positions. We can see from Villa’s pass network (courtesy of StatsBomb) that both of their full-backs commit to high positions, they don’t really have a bias down one side.
Arsenal did have a bias in which of their full-backs pushed on, though both were quite high. This time they had a slight right-sided bias, with Maritz slightly higher than Catley. Usually, not always, Arsenal have a left-sided bias with their full-backs. These things are rarely a coincidence, there mist have been something about Villa’s left hand side of Hanson and Pacheco that Arsenal thought they could exploit.
Note that McCabe and Foord appear centrally on the map because they swapped flanks so frequently.
In the build-up to this chance for Foord, we see Rafaelle looking to spread play to Foord who is high and wide on the right.
The pass from Rafaelle is cut out but Arsenal counterpress and win it back. McCabe tries to slide the ball in behind for Blackstenius and we can see that Pacheco has been attracted inside to mark the run of Miedema, leaving Foord on her own.
Miedema executes a brilliant chapeau before teeing up Foord, who finds herself in space for a shot that goes just over. Foord has stayed high and wide during the move and we can see that Pacheco has followed the ball inside and left winger Kirsty Hanson isn’t in the shot tracking back.
From this angle we can see how much space Foord has. Pacheco is the kind of defender who likes to engage with the ball and Hanson and Lehmann stay wide. Look back at the highlights from Villa’s 5-0 defeat to Manchester United from their last WSL game. Three of the five goals come from Manchester United’s right-side.
In the build-up to Arsenal’s equaliser, we again see Maanum spread the play to Foord on the right, who is, again, positioned high and wide. On this occasion, Foord controls the ball and tries to feed the ball to the overlapping run of Maritz. The pass is blocked and Arsenal win a throw.
From the throw, we see Arsenal have used the break in play to swap the wingers over, with McCabe now on the right and Foord has moved to the left. The swap yields instant rewards.
Arsenal work the ball in-field and Foord sees the run of McCabe in behind. Pacheco is occupied by Blackstenius and Hanson doesn’t realise McCabe is running off her.
It gives McCabe the space she needs to drive to the by-line. Arsenal get a bit of luck as Hampton palms the ball onto Rachel Corsie and the ball drifts over the line. But this was very much an area that Arsenal were banking on creating opportunities from.
Because the situation comes from a throw-in, Hanson is back and in a good defensive position to cover for Pacheco but you can see here that she has just switched off for a second, looking at the ball and not aware of who is behind her.
It wasn’t just the wingers that looked to attack these areas. Maanum does brilliantly to snatch the ball from McLaughlin and we can see that Hanson and Pacheco are well up the pitch.
Maanum drives down the right touchline and Danielle Turner has to take her out and accept a booking because Villa are exposed on that flank.
As McCabe receives the ball well inside her half, Pacheco is touch tight and well advanced. This leads to a simple foul; but you can see how aggressive Pacheco is in pursuit of the ball and that’s part of the reason why Arsenal felt they could work space in behind her.
Arsenal weren’t just aiming for the right-side though. Here we see a big switch from Wubben-Moy to Foord on the left.
As Foord receives the pass, we see that Catley has gotten away from Lehmann with an ease that will frustrate Villa boss Carla Ward. Foord finds Catley’s run and her cut back ends in a shot for McCabe that goes just wide.
With the last action of the half, Arsenal pass through the lines from Wälti to Miedema and as she charges forwards, she has good options either side. Lehmann is not close to Foord on the left which leaves Mayling with a lot of space to cover. Likewise, though Pacheco is close to McCabe, Hanson is not in the shot chasing back.
Miedema finds McCabe and you can see the quandary Pacheco is in, having to both try to screen the pass to McCabe and mark McCabe herself. Hanson is only just running back into the frame now.
McCabe is able to pick out a cross from here which Villa clear. But you can see that Arsenal are benefitting from the fact that Villa leave their wide players very high, which gives Eidevall’s team the chance to expose the full-backs.
For the third goal, we see much the same pattern. Catley runs in behind Lehmann who is back but not defensively switched on.
Wälti duly finds Catley and Lehmann has not moved or reacted at all. Catley tries to find Blackstenius but the ball ricochets to McCabe who makes no mistake from close range. Again, Kirsty Hanson, while you would not expect her to be in the penalty area alongside Pacheco necessarily, is not in the frame. Maritz is also free if needed.
Right place, right time for @Katie_McCabe11!
The PASSION though 🙌#BarclaysWSL @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/dYnPcBViRy
— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) December 11, 2022
And a similar story unfolds for Arsenal’s fourth. Williamson finds Foord on the right.
Once again, Hanson isn’t really tracking back because the Villa wide players are instructed to stay high and wait for counter-attacks. Mayling has moved across to left-back and she comes to meet Foord and that leaves a gulley of space in behind her. On this occasion, Mayling does make the block and Arsenal only get a throw. But from the throw-in…
It’s just too easy for Arsenal to expose that space behind the full-backs again from a simple throw and Foord runs into the space.
Turner comes across to meet Foord but a) she is already on a booking because of the earlier foul where Villa were exposed in this area and b) she also risks giving a penalty away.
Foord cuts the ball back to Nobbs and there is just no chance that Jordan misses from there.
The perfect person to score @ArsenalWFC's 500th #BarclaysWSL goal 🙌@JordanNobbs8 👏 pic.twitter.com/4IwUH0tHIR
— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) December 12, 2022
Villa have enjoyed success this season by having Lehmann and Hanson advanced either side of Rachel Daly, it’s a big part of the reason that Daly has scored as many goals as she has. Of course, Villa open the scoring precisely because Hanson is in such a high, brave position.
That is a special strike @KirstyHanson3! 💥
Just WOW! 😱#BarclaysWSL @AVWFCOfficial pic.twitter.com/GWxGiJNsGB
— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) December 11, 2022
But Arsenal, like Manchester United before them, identified that space in behind the full-backs as a potential weakness and exploited it clinically.
Thought our movement and intent were much better compared to the past couple of games. Villa tried to play and left gaps to be exposed. Decent team that i hope can take points off the other teams when their injury situation improves.
Game might be over when she came on, but i liked the passes Iwabuchi slipped in behind the defence in her 5-min cameo. Think we missed that creativity at times.
But Tim… What about the armband?!?!?
Thanks for this – really look forward to these pieces. Incidentally, the clip of Villa’s first goal misses out Rachel Daly’s contribution, which involved her not touching the ball so probably doesn’t get recorded anywhere.