Talking Tactics: The Dortmund press that undid Arsenal's slick passing

Arsenal suffered their first defeat in this year’s UEFA Champions League competition yesterday when they went down 1-2 to Borussia Dortmund, last year’s beaten finalists.

Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp may have watched from the stands, but there was no questioning the clear and well thought out game plan that the German team had come prepared with as events unfolded on the pitch.

In executing their game plan to perfection, Dortmund managed to seize the initiative early which helped put Arsenal off their game.

Here’s a look at the major tactical ploys that were employed yesterday and how they panned out.

The Dortmund press and the masterclass of Sahin and Bender

If there is one thing that Dortmund, under Juergen Klopp, have become famous for, its their high-pressing game. This tactic of their pays off as they give their opponents very little time on the ball and against a free flowing side like Arsenal who like to play their way out, it worked wonders.

The two deep-lying midfielders in Sven Bender and Nuri Sahin did their jobs to perfection. Bender and Sahin worked magnificently together with Bender breaking up the play and Sahin recycling the loose ball and feeding it to the forwards. Ilkay Gundogan is missing long-term and one can only imagine how much stronger Dortmund will get in this area of the pitch when he returns.

Sahin is an excellent ball player, and his out-balls from broken up play hurt Arsenal big time last night. Sahin is good with the long ball as well and he employed it to good effect to pick out Robert Lewandowski in particular as well as the runs of Marco Reus and Jakub ‘Kuba’ Blaszczykowski.

The press worked so well that it disrupted Arsenal’s passing rhythm and also enabled the two Dortmund centre-backs – Neven Subotic and Mats Hummels to station themselves at the halfway line almost and join in on the attacks.

Reus, Kuba and Lewandowski all did their fair share of tracking back as well, ensuring that at no area of the pitch were Arsenal ever comfortable when in possession of the ball.

They also did not allow Arsenal to play their way out from defence, something which Wenger’s side love doing. In doing so, they cut the play out at the source and thus it took Arsenal a while longer to get into their passing game.

The absence of Mathieu Flamini and Mesut Ozil‘s marginalization

For much of the first half, Mesut Ozil didn’t have a decent touch on the ball. He was almost entirely bypassed in the first half thanks to Dortmund’s effective marking and pressing.

Ozil started in the middle playing behind Olivier Giroud, and flanked by Jack Wilshere on the right (more on this later) and Tomas Rosicky on the left.

Ozil against Napoli

Ozil against Dortmund

Mikel Arteta came in to fill the h0lding midfielder’s role that Flamini was employed in during previous games. As much as it was not considered major, Flamini’s absence in the middle left Arsene Wenger’s side devoid of some much needed steel. Arteta saw a lot of the ball and initiated quite a few plays, but the combativeness that Flamini provides was missed.

Especially in situations, where Dortmund mounted a numbers advantage on the Arsenal back-four by dispossessing the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Wilshere and Ozil in midfield.

Flamini was also Ozil’s shield in each of the matches where the duo have featured, both in the league and in Europe. Flamini’s presence made it tough for the opponents to get to Ozil, thereby giving the German time and space to wield his wizardry.

You can see in the infographic above that Ozil had to do more defending against Dortmund and a lesser degree of influence in the final third.

Ozil’s action areas against Napoli

Ozil’s action areas against Dortmund

It was only after Cazorla’s introduction and Ozil’s shift to the right, that the German began to have a more positive influence on the game. Cazorla and Rosicky, who I thought was Arsenal’s best player on the pitch, interchanged amongst them at the central and wide left positions allowing Ozil a free role on the left, where he could employ his good crossing skills and also use his ability to cut inside into the box.

And that wing had suffered until then due to Jack Wilshere.

The Wilshere decision

In a rather unexpected move, Wenger plumped for Wilshere in a wide-right position.

Wilshere is at his best when playing through the middle just behind the No. 10, which in Arsenal’s case is Ozil. His drive and energy from that deep-lying midfield role, where he can take on defenders and use his short-passing skills to good effect, serve the team best.

On the right last night, Wilshere often was found wanting, both in terms of creativity as well as getting his teammates involved. Wilshere is predominantly a left-footed player and he had to cut back in on that favoured foot to try and get any sort of momentum going.

But, that is exactly what Dortmund wanted; they wanted Arsenal to play narrow which their defence and midfield could easily fend off. Once Wilshere cut in, he was there for the taking for the likes of Hummels, Subotic and Bender.

And that’s where Wenger’s substitution of Santi Cazorla worked. Cazorla is a gifted two-footed player; though not even close to a traditional winger, Cazorla delivers good out-balls from isolated positions and is very good in bringing the full-backs into play. Him being two-footed and having a good shot, causes problems for the defenders as they tend to think twice before allowing him to cut back.

Cazorla’s introduction immediately yielded results and there was a greater verve to Arsenal’s attacks after that.

Consequently, though Dortmund employed the same formation, their attackers in Reus and ‘Kuba’ are very good playing on the wing and playing inside, which made them a difficult proposition to handle for the Arsenal defence.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan was the beneficiary in all of this as he made those smart runs down the middle behind Lewandowski and employed some slick one-two passing moves with the likes of Reus and Kuba to drag the Arsenal back-four out of position.

Kieran Gibbs and Bacary Sagna neutralized and no cavalry to call upon in the form of Theo Walcott

The lack of width in the formation that Arsenal employed yesterday was a glaringly obvious one. So, it was evident that much of the running in that area had to be done by the full-backs – Gibbs and Sagna.

From all of the three matches played so far, Arsenal registered their lowest number of crosses (15) yesterday, which matched their tally from the first game against Marseille. They had 25 against Napoli.

Of the crosses, Arsenal generally register more crosses from the right, namely through Sagna and the forward player ahead of him, which alternates between Theo Walcott and Cazorla normally.

The problem for Arsenal yesterday was that ‘Kuba’ and Reus had managed to pin down both Gibbs and Sagna respectively with their high energy pressing and link up play with Lewandowski. This restricted their participation in the attacks and there were a few instances when Arsenal broke at pace only for Ramsey and Rosicky to find no one but themselves in attack.

Unfortunately for Arsenal, they did not have a certain Walcott on the bench who they could call upon. If one remembers the match against Barcelona a few seasons back where Arsenal rallied back to win 2-1, it was Walcott whose searing runs behind the Barca defence that caused havoc. As demonstrated in the graphic below, Sagna was able to venture forward more against Napoli while being pinned down against Dortmund.

Sagna’s heat map against Napoli

Sagna against Dortmund

What Walcott does do is stretch the play and that forces the opposition defence to make adjustments. Hummels said after yesterday’s game that he thought the game was very compact with enough open play for the two teams to score goals.

Dortmund came to win, but they would not necessarily have been too disappointed with a point you reckon. The fact that they strove to make it compact says it all. Assured in the knowledge that Arsenal had no proper wide men to call upon, Dortmund continued to deny them the channels out wide and by forcing them to cut inside, forced turnovers.

The Robert Lewandowski factor

As good as Giroud has been for Arsenal, he is no Lewandowski. And that is not to demean Giroud in any way, but to merely emphasize the kind of package that Lewandowski provides for a team like Dortmund.

The Pole is great with his back to the goal, excellent at holding up play, has an eye for a pass and is an ice-cool finisher in the clutch.

Yesterday, he was employed as a bulwark against Arsenal’s two central defenders to duel for the long balls from Sahin, Subotic and Hummels. And they also changed it up with the ball on the ground and the use of Lewandowski as a decoy to instead get the ball to Reus and Mkhitaryan.

Giroud on the other hand was a little isolated yesterday as Dortmund cut off his supply lines. Ramsey who has been in good form for the Gunners was limited and pushed deeper and thus prevented from playing his box-to-box role to full effect.

Lewandowski’s ability to drag the defenders out of position with help from Reus, Mkhitaryan and ‘Kuba’ freed up space for Dortmund’s full-backs, specially Kevin Grosskreutz, who was guilty of not doing enough with the chances that he was presented.

Grosskreutz’s heat map against Arsenal

It was his marauding run that resulted in the cross for Lewandowski’s winner, but truth be told, he was played into good positions many a time where he failed to land a good final ball in.

Verdict

It was good lesson for Arsenal to learn as it was the first major test of their new found form. They ran Dortmund close as the stats would show that there wasn’t much to separate the two sides. Arsenal had two shots on target, Dortmund had three. It was just a matter of how clinical they were.

Yesterday’s game was a superb illustration of how Dortmund tactically out-hustled and pressed Arsenal into submission, to use an oft-repeated term. Klopp once again showed that him and his think-tank at Dortmund are amongst the best in the business and Dortmund really have matured as a team in Europe from a couple of seasons ago, where they failed to win a game.

On the flip side, its not all doom and gloom yet for Arsenal, and this result in no way marks the descent back to Earth for the Gunners. With the return of Walcott, Flamini and perhaps another forward in January, Arsenal could address each of the areas that Dortmund exploited.