Analysis: How Arsenal’s wide players cramped Barcelona’s Style

Renee Slegers and her staff oversaw a tactical masterplan, executed with full focus and commitment by her players in Lisbon. Arsenal restricted the Catalans to 0.9XG, their lowest of the season, forcing them to cross 35 times and completing only 84% of their passes. (In three other games this season they completed 83% of their passes and they lost two of those). Let’s look at how Arsenal made Barcelona uncomfortable in possession and shepherded them away from central areas where they do the most damage.

Barca already have players like Patri, Bonmati and Alexia in their central midfield, probably the best midfield trio ever assembled in women’s football. Barca also played Claudia Pina on the left with the intention that she drift in-field and create another central player. Arsenal sought to counter Barcelona’s absurd talent in central spaces by being very narrow out of possession and almost playing Foord and Kelly as midfielders too. Let’s have a look at some examples of how Foord and Kelly squeezed in-field out of possession to clog central spaces.

Narrow 442 block

Instantly, we see how narrow Arsenal’s 442 press is. Caitlin Foord is sitting right in-field. On the opposite flank is a little in-field and she is looking at Alexia Putellas more than she is Fridolina Rolfo behind her.

As Barca build through Mapi Leon here, Foord is again very in-field. Kelly is wider but, again, she has eyes for Alexia more than Rolfo.

As Barca bear left, Foord is filling in in central midfield and Kelly presses ahead of her.

Barca just about force their way through Kelly’s press and look again at Foord, she is following in-field and becoming a spare midfielder to crowd Bonmati if the ball comes to her.

We see this narrow 442 block here again too. Another of the ways Foord and Kelly were so effective was spotting danger and filling in where needed and not just in midfield.

Mapi finds Rolfo here and Fox is out to press and look at how alert Kelly is to drop in behind her and pick up Alexia when Fox has to leave her post.

Kelly’s alertness cuts off the option to drop the ball to Alexia, so Rolfo is forced in-field and into Arsenal’s human traffic.

Once again as Barca build here, Kelly is stood in field and she is looking at Alexia, not over her shoulder at Rolfo.

As Mapi edges forwards, look at where Kelly is again. She is masking Alexia not Rolfo.

This wasn’t just a defensive move, it was also a pressing trap. Mapi goes to Rolfo, Kelly goes out to press and wants to force Rolfo in-field and look at Maanum and Mariona, both like a coiled spring reading the pass into Pina. Arsenal force a turnover from here and get on the attack.

There was a similar pressing trap in the opening minute. As Cata Coll has the ball, Foord is very central to shadow Bonmati but she is looking over to Ona Batlle too.

Paredes goes to Batlle and now Foord is interested in pressing her, aware that Little has Bonmati.

Foord nicks the ball from Batlle and gets Arsenal on the way on transition.

Barca build again and Rolfo has again been left alone but the second Alexia shapes to play the pass, look at Kelly again ready to press.

Kelly is there, all over Rolfo like a rash.

Out to in runs

Arsenal also used the narrow positioning of Kelly and Foord to use out to in runs in behind Barca’s full-backs. Let look at some first half examples.

Catley carries the ball out from centre-half here and Foord is positioned in-field.

Foord lashes a pass intended for McCabe which has just too much on it but we saw this idea again and again.

Van Domselaar didn’t take any of the goal kicks on the day due to her ankle injury. Williamson whips this goal kick to the left half space.

And it’s Foord that receives it, again in a central area.

Catley again dribbles the ball out of the back and finds McCabe on the extremity of the pitch. Foord is, again, hardly hugging the touchline.

McCabe then angles a pass to Foord who is again making that out to in run.

The out to in movement repeats again here as McCabe finds Catley.

Kelly starts her movement from out to in again and Catley finds her run and she puts a dangerous low cross into the box.

We see that again here with the out to in run from Foord which McCabe finds from the touchline.

Work rate when shape wasn’t enough

Every team will have lapses in their shape or times when the opposition is able to play through it and Foord and Kelly showed great determination for more traditional defending when that happened.

As Bonmati dips inside in the box here I think all our hearts sunk.

That leg that appears from nowhere to block the shot is Chloe Kelly’s. This isn’t where you would naturally place your right winger.

Barca do eventually find that ball in behind to Rolfo and Foord spots it and sprints backwards.

Not today, Satan.

Backing the back four

The downside of squeezing central spaces is that you have to concede wide spaces. When Arsenal did that they backed either their full-backs to win one-on-one duels or else for the centre-halves to deal with the crosses.

With Arsenal in a narrow shape, Mapi Leon opts to hit a cross-field pass to Hansen on the right.

She finds Hansen and McCabe is in close attendance.

Hansen drives inside but never gets a shot off here because she is just met with a wall of red shirts. Receiving the ball wide, she had some space but as soon as she tried to move inside, there was no longer space.

Mapi finds Rolfo here and Arsenal are not in a hurry to press her, they are happy to play the percentages and wait for the cross.

When it comes in, McCabe and Foord both have Hansen on the back post and the cross comes to nothing.

Barca again opt for a switch in play here.

McCabe stays close to Hansen, though she doesn’t stop the cross, she stops Hansen picking anybody out with precision.

As the cross drifts to the other side, Fox out muscles Pina to the loose ball and wins her individual battle. The back four took care of business when Barca did use the outsides they were given.

SECOND HALF

Let’s go chronologically in the second half but we will see all of these themes repeat.

Here is that really narrow out of possession shape again where each player is within the width of the penalty area.

As Alexia receives the ball in the area here, it is Caitlin Foord who is stopping her from turning and shooting in the area. Again, not where you would ordinarily expect a winger to be.

As the ball comes to Pina on the left, notice how Chloe Kelly has no intention of doubling up on her with Fox, she is staying in-field to look after the half spaces.

Barca work the ball to Rolfo and Kelly again stays in field to look after Alexia.

Leah Williamson made 14 clearances during the game, which shows how confident and competent Arsenal were at dealing with crosses.

On this occasion, Batlle’s cross is headed away by Catley. Arsenal forced Barca to cross and dealt with the deliveries well when they came in.

As an aside, Chloe Kelly played next to the dugout in the second half. Once she knew she was about to be subbed, she took the opportunity to make two very cynical fouls in a couple of minutes. She was booked for the second one but she knew she was about to be subbed for Mead and that a booking carried no consequence.

As soon as she comes on for Kelly, we can see that Mead has got the memo to defend narrow.

As Barca ramped up pressure and the wide players tired, we saw fewer of those out to in runs. That is, until Stina came on. Here we see Mead in a central-ish position again.

Blackstenius is one of the best purveyors of that type of run in the game. Once she came on, we saw her making those runs as opposed to the wide players. This combination of Mead being a little in field so that Stina could run on the exterior also worked pretty well for Arsenal’s winning goal…

Here is that narrow out of possession defensive shape again.

Once again, Arsenal are happy to let Barca have the ball in wide areas and to cross…

Williamson deals with this one.

Lina Hurtig comes on for a tired Caitlin Foord late in the game…

And fully gets the memo…

To lock the fuck in.

There were plenty of tactical triumphs and individual performances for the ages on Saturday. The way Arsenal used their wide players, however, was probably one of the biggest alterations they made to their usual set menu.

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