Oleksandr Zinchenko is a player who gives and takes away for Arsenal. At the end of last season, I wrote about a growing sense of fans becoming frustrated with the Ukrainian as the pressure of the title race increased and our nerves began to fray.
Anxiety causes us to overestimate the negative aspects and the more anxious we get, the more we obsess over the worst possible outcome. That noise in the dead of night, which is almost certainly nothing more than the creaking of an old floorboard or a pipe expanding when the heater is turned on, is always a thief in the mind of the anxious homeowner. of a house.
Following Arsenal’s 1-1 draw at Anfield on Saturday, Zinchenko has become an even bigger focus for Arsenal fans given the ease with which Mo Salah roasted him for Liverpool’s equaliser. Whatever his position on Zinchenko, no one would say that one-on-one defense is his greatest quality. Nor will it ever be.
It is very likely that the game would not have started had Tomiyasu or Timber been fit and this is because Arteta is aware that when playing with Zinchenko there is a balance between what he gives you in possession and what you lose in pure defensive ability. . I think, generally speaking, Arsenal fans have moved into a space where their qualities are completely ignored in favor of focusing on their flaws.
No one should pretend that his presence in the team comes without tangible defensive compensation but, equally, no one should pretend that his absence wouldn’t cause Arsenal to lose something fundamental that they would find very difficult to replace.
Arsenal have the best defense in the league and they have done so with Zinchenko as an important member of their defensive line. The best defense in the league is never the best defense in the league because defenders spend 90 minutes shooting each other, back and forth, blocking, heading and tackling.
Those are important defensive elements, of course, and White, Saliba, Rice and Gabriel are on a different planet than Zinchenko in those aspects. But the best defense in the league typically doesn’t spend much time doing the more tangible aspects of what we recognize as a defense.
You have the best defense in the league when you keep the ball and the opponent away from your goal and no one helps Arsenal do that more than Zinchenko. Without him, Arsenal could play with a stronger left-back in the traditional sense, but he and the team would be under more pressure because they wouldn’t also control possession.
I also think we lose sight of the difficulty of what Arteta is asking of Zinchenko. He is literally asked to be a left back and a central midfielder at the same time. That’s a great question and there’s a reason why not many teams play this way so fluidly. He has a huge personality and that is a huge plus for the role.
At the beginning of the second half at Anfield, Zinchenko and Arsenal had a bad 15 minutes. Most of my Twitter timeline was begging for forgiveness. Arteta did not make that substitution and Zinchenko persisted with the plan, investing in midfield and taking the ball under pressure. Arsenal got out of the hole and so did Zinchenko because they played to get out and didn’t panic.
This happens due to the bravery of the player and not many possess that ability to persist under pressure. Coaches really value that and it makes a big difference in a way that fans often don’t realize through the fog of anxiety and excitement. Every team needs big personalities and Zinchenko is possibly the biggest Arsenal have. The value of his progression on the ball has increased this season in the absence of Xhaka and Thomas Partey.
Personality has a price, of course. He could be a goalkeeper willing to try the hard way and have to endure the occasional howl. Patrick Vieira had the huge personality that Arsenal needed during his tenure, but his personality to dominate games came at a price. As a result, he often received red cards and suspensions.
Granit Xhaka was a leader and a player with a great personality and we all remember how that translated at times. Thierry Henry had a great match-winning personality and you had to tolerate the fact that he would sometimes shoot a withering look at a young team-mate if a pass didn’t reach his shoelace.
Of course, does every coach also have to weigh when too much personality becomes too much personality? When Arsenal were losing 2-0 to Southampton last April, Zinchenko called a team meeting which captain Martin Odegaard dispersed rather quickly. Zinchenko’s heart was certainly in the right place, but the gesture tilted too far toward Gallas’ end of the acting spectrum.
The frustration with Zinchenko isn’t so much his average one-on-one defensive ability, but the degree to which he gives the ball away unnecessarily, or fails to read the temperature of the moment and should simply cut the ball off the line instead of passing it. back to the field and danger.
Of course, passing calmly on the field is usually a stimulus to lower the temperature of the game and when it works, it really works and when it doesn’t, it makes you want to tear off your arm to have something to throw at. him. It’s fair to say he needs to correct that equation a bit.
The Fulham game earlier in the season is a good example of Zinchenko’s yin and yang. Arsenal were struggling for fluidity and creativity with Kiwior at left back and Havertz failing in the left eight position. Zinchenko came on with Fabio Vieira and immediately unclogged that heavy left side and Arsenal quickly went from 1-0 down to 2-1 up. Then later in the match he gave the ball away unnecessarily in his own area and conceded the corner from which Fulham equalised.
Big teams make these calculations on their defensive units. John Stones is not a world-class defender in the tangible sense, but Guardiola uses him because of his ability to move into midfield and use the ball. Trent Alexander Arnold’s defensive skills are often the focus of attention, but Jurgen Klopp simply never lets him sit for what he can do with the ball at his feet.
There will always be a trade-off with this type of player and often fans are guided by our anxiety and anxiety is often the midwife to making safe and conservative decisions. Coaches can’t think alike, they have to compare the pros and cons and they can’t get too excited and throw the baby out with the bathwater.
However, you can’t ignore the fact that Zinchenko, while still one of the most crucial players on the team, has to work to correct that risk-reward balance a bit. Last season, every game was considered “a Zinchenko game” and that is no longer the case and that is an acknowledgment of his weaknesses.
To move into that John Stones/Trent Alexander Arnold category, you don’t have to become Paolo Maldini in one-on-one situations, but you also don’t have to get your teammates into trouble in dangerous areas too often. I think he remains an eminently coachable player who can correct the dial and I don’t think he needs as much correction as many believe. But it’s up to him to face that challenge.
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