Arsenal were indebted to a moment of inspiration from both Emily Fox and Vivianne Miedema during Sunday’s 2-0 win over Liverpool. As we saw at the reverse fixture, Liverpool are a very obstinate defensive side with an aggressive player for player pressing structure. Their back five is well organised and they harangue and hassle opponents on the ball. It meant Arsenal had to be patient before Miedema’s second half opener.
While tactically and structurally they were good against Liverpool in the first half, sometimes the speed of pass wasn’t quite there. Jonas Eidevall told Arseblog News after the game that this was something they addressed at half time, “We had a couple of times in the first half where we ended up in really good positions facing forward, but we were starting to look for ‘what are we going to do now? Are we going to do another pass?’ Instead we decided once we have put together that many passes, we needed a really clear decision and to trust that decision.”
Vivianne Miedema also told Arseblog News that the coaching staff asked her to stay a little bit lower in build-up to pull Liverpool’s structure out of shape and we saw how that worked with the first goal. ‘We basically said we wanted me to be a bit lower and pick the ball up in the pocket because it is one of my strengths. I wanted to start dribbling with it or create a two v one or give myself a little opportunity to shoot.’ Let’s start with some first half examples.
When a team plays a player for player pressing structure like Liverpool, dribbling out of tight spaces is key to disorganising them and few are better at that than Victoria Pelova. Here, she brilliantly slaloms past a few Liverpool challenges and plays Russo into the area.
Russo’s first touch is slightly wider than it should have been because her first thought is to set the ball slightly wide and pull it back to the back post, rather than taking a touch and shooting.
We see she takes the ball to the corner of the six yard area and tries to play it across goal. The Liverpool defender comes back to block and there isn’t a back post run for Arsenal in any case. Russo needed to be a bit more decisive here and touch and shoot.
Miedema was very tightly marked by Nagano throughout the game. As Arsenal build on the left here, we see Miedema drifting towards the penalty area.
But the angle for a pass to her isn’t quite there. Foord comes back to Walti and she doesn’t really have an angle for a pass to Miedema either, who is playing right alongside Russo here.
However, by being next to Russo, she is screened away from the ball and Arsenal can’t get her in possession. It also means Liverpool don’t have to change their organisation or make decisions that could pull them out of shape.
Here we see a scenario quite similar to Arsenal’s second half opener as Emily Fox picks up the ball on the right. Miedema’s instinct is to run forward and attack the area. That’s not an awful decision, Arsenal have not had enough penalty area presence so far this season so it stands to reason Miedema would attack that area.
But as Fox brings the ball forwards and Miedema runs forward, look at how surrounded she is because the Liverpool players are going back in the same direction. In the second half, she started to hold her position a little more and force Liverpool’s midfield and defence to make a decision as to who leaves their station to pick her up.
We see another example here as Ilestedt picks the ball up from the back. Miedema, out of shot here, is positioned very much as a second striker, next to Russo. Again, that’s not a terrible decision or even much of a mistake.
But again, it means she gets lost in the crowd scene of Liverpool defenders and Fisk is able to collect Ilestedt’s attempted pass. Arsenal didn’t quite do enough to move Liverpool around in the first half. It wasn’t dreadful play, it just needed a slight tweak in approach.
Here is another example of Arsenal lacking assertiveness. Miedema’s position next to Russo is good here (while Miedema was encouraged to drop a little lower in the second half, that doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do in absolutely every attack, nor was it wrong to be higher on every single occasion). Liverpool’s aggressive defending approach means the defender comes to meet Miedema and Viv is able to win the flick on to Russo.
But Russo’s first instinct is to turn her back and protect the ball, rather than taking a chance and driving at goal.
In the end Russo is crowded out. That may well have happened had she drove forward too; but it was a better risk to attempt with a higher potential upside.
A slight tweak Arsenal made at half-time was when Miedema floated in between the lines. On a few occasions in the first half, she starts very high next to Russo and then drops as play progresses. We see her here as the furthest Arsenal player forward as play develops.
As Ilestedt collects the ball, now Miedema begins to drop lower.
But it’s a bit late, Walti gets the ball and Miedema is well marked because the Liverpool players can pass her on as she drops lower. Walti tries a tricky ball to Mead and the attack breaks down. Again, it’s not bad play from Miedema per se but in the second half, Arsenal encouraged her to start moves in a lower position and go forward, rather than starting high and then dropping.
As I said earlier, Miedema was very tightly marked by Nagano. By starting moves high and then dropping, it meant she had her back to goal where Nagano could try to get her hands on the very in-demand and limited edition Stella McCartney shirt.
We see it again here, Miedema drops low and collects with her back to goal and Nagano is close by and preventing Miedema from turning into a damaging area. Arsenal focused on getting her in positions facing forwards in the second half and that meant starting moves a little lower.
In the dying seconds of the half, we see another example of Arsenal’s slight lack of assertiveness in the final third. Miedema brilliantly turns and makes space for herself on the edge of the box here.
She now has a precious half yard on the edge of the area.
But instead of pulling the trigger, she drifts a cross to the back post where there is no Arsenal player. Miedema referenced this in conversation with Arseblog News post-match. “There was one moment in the first half when i tried to cross it in instead of shooting, Caitlin told me I need to start shooting again because that’s what I am good at so I listened to her!
Arsenal became more aggressive in their pressing in the second half and they forced the Liverpool defensive structure to make more stressful decisions. As Wubben-Moy collects the ball here, we see Miedema drop into space early in the move.
Wubben-Moy finds her and now she is able to take the ball on the half turn and drive forwards.
From here she is able to play a dangerous ball in behind to Mead. Picking up space between the lines and dropping lower earlier in the move enables Miedema to take the ball and face forwards rather than finding Nagano on her back.
As I said earlier in the piece, when playing aggressive player for player marking structures, dribbling in tight spaces is crucial to unlocking them. We saw it when Pelova teed up Russo in the second minute and Emily Fox brilliantly beats three Liverpool players here and that is the key for the goal over and above any tactical tweak or instruction.
As Fox drives forwards, Miedema doesn’t drift towards the forward line or the Liverpool defence. She holds her line between the Liverpool midfield and defence and Fox is quick to notice.
Once again, it means Miedema can collect the ball facing forwards and driving at goal. This time, Miedema opts not to try a cute cross to the back post, she takes aim, shoots and scores via the aid of a deflection and Arsenal break the game open.
What a way to score your first goal back!@VivianneMiedema take a bow! 🤩#BarclaysWSL @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/qMhaFctKYn
— Barclays Women’s Super League (@BarclaysWSL) January 29, 2024
It’s a clever piece of movement from Miedema that kicks off the move for the second goal too. Miedema drops here and Lundgaard, adhering to Liverpool’s player for player approach, follows her.
Miedema creates a decoy, taking Lundgaard with her which opens up a lane for Pelova to dribble into. She drives into the space and then switches play to Fox.
Taking Lundgaard out of the game creates a domino effect. As Fox dribbles inside, Walti is hovering and we can see that Nagano leaves her position to come and mark Walti.
In doing so, Nagano has left Russo and now there is space for Fox to play the ball in behind.
Russo now has time and space to collect the ball in the channel and pick Foord out in the centre to make it 2-0 in a goal that bears a lot of the hallmarks of Caitlin’s strike against Everton last weekend.
The perfect ball across from @alessiarusso7, slotted home by @CaitlinFoord!#BarclaysWSL @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/yPUt8DHT4u
— Barclays Women’s Super League (@BarclaysWSL) January 28, 2024
Arsenal didn’t do a lot wrong in the first half, they needed to be a little sharper and quicker at moving the ball. They also had to be patient and wait for a piece of magic from Emily Fox to find Miedema for the opener. But in both goals, Miedema dropping deeper earlier in moves led space being found.
Against player for player defensive structures, dribbling is important and Emily Fox was really strong at that. Clever movement and forcing opponents to make decisions is also really important and Miedema’s movement in the second half achieved that too.
Tough assignment, good grades achieved. The first half was like a dress rehearsal for the second. We worked “inside their organisation” as Jonas describes it. We kept faith with the plan and didn’t try and force the final pass – in fact you’d have to say we did the opposite, and overplayed in the first half BUT it was good to see us being patient. There is so much more to come – we are still under-scoring especially from set pieces, and some players are still not quite up to speed, for example – but we have made progress as… Read more »
Fox is very good.
Saw her bundled first couple of games and was surprised, but now she is adapting the WSL.
Brilliant performance
Really enjoyed the movement of Emily Fox, especially in the 2nd half when she drifted to cover central and back to the sides. Her one on one play and pass decision-making in the 2nd half caused havoc with the Liverpool defense. Very nice addition to the team.
thanks! learnt a lot from this analysis!