When Arsenal travelled to Liverpool on Sunday, they again had to start the game without Kim Little and Lia Walti. Walti is recovering from surgery in Switzerland while Little has not been risked due to a small niggle. Arsenal really want Little fit for the Bayern Munich game with Walti unavailable and this game showed why she is so important.
Arseblog News asked Slegers whether not having Little and Walti led to a loss of control against Liverpool. ‘With the detail of the pass was not right and then you get into problematic situations and they compound and that’s when the game goes to a game Liverpool likes and a game we don’t want to play.’ Let’s look at some examples of where Arsenal missed the steady hands (feet?) of Little and Walti on the tiller.
Arsenal partnered Cooney-Cross and Mariona in midfield, both of whom are more attacking midfielders by trade. Cooney-Cross is a suitable double pivot player, Mariona is much more of an attacker and that showed with some decisions the Spaniard took with the ball.
Mariona jabs the ball towards Russo who has to take the ball under pressure. This is a more understandable pass on the edge of the area but a more risk averse pass is probably needed in this area.
Russo fights off her marker and the ball does get back to Mariona.
Mariona opts for a first time pass to the flank. It’s a high value attacking pass 30 yards further forward but this area of the pitch calls for a measure of conservatism. The first time pass is miscued and Liverpool win it back. In this area, Little or Walti would likely have made a safer pass and allowed Arsenal to build without conceding possession, before Mariona could make these riskier passes higher up the pitch.
One of Mariona’s great attacking qualities is her ability to shunt between spaces and connect play. Williamson receives the ball from van Domselaar and Mariona is attracted towards her.
But sometimes in the build-up phase, the pivot player has to stand still and hold their space. Mariona should hold back here and put herself in a place to receive a simple pass from Williamson. Again, this is who Mariona is as a player and what she has done brilliantly throughout her career. It’s just not really suited to the sort of role Little plays, for example.
Williamson finds Foord, who is crowded out. Again, Mariona is a touch too close to her here. Good attacking play is about getting close to your teammates and combining and connecting. In the build-up phase, there has to be a bigger focus on spacing.
Foord is squeezed out and Liverpool can break, Mariona has to make a lunging slide tackle and takes the foul, the first of two she had to make in this game. The spacing in this sequence just wasn’t quite right.
Here we see Mariona receive the ball as Arsenal threaten to break away.
Mariona probably should look to McCabe who is in space on the left to allow the attack to build. Instead she tries an outside of the boot pass to Maanum which doesn’t come off. Again, 30 yards higher up the pitch, that is the pass you want your attacking midfielder to try. When you are building in the middle third, you probably want the player to take the safer choice and make sure the ball gets up the pitch.
Once again as Williamson drives out here, there is a spacing issue. One of Mariona or Cooney-Cross should drop back here and create a safe pass for Williamson if she needs it but both players are quite attacking in their mindset.
Williamson has to try a more difficult pass down the line which is cut out and Liverpool have the ball back. Arsenal just gave Liverpool the ball back too often to make this game truly comfortable.
A few seconds later, Arsenal win the ball back and Mariona has it again. Usually here, I suspect Little would put her foot on the ball, maybe turn it back to the defence to regulate the temperature of the game. Walti has the tools to be able to slalom between players and twist away from pressure.
Mariona is a ball carrier at heart and she is brilliant at it. But it’s not what was needed here. She dribbles into a crowd of Liverpool bodies and the game becomes transitional once more. Again, this is far less a problem 30 yards further forward where you would want Mariona to take on that risk.
By honing in on a single issue, these pieces run the risk of being overly negative but Cooney-Cross had a good game (Mariona was ill-suited to the pivot role because she has never really played there before, which is totally logical). Cooney-Cross has a great diagonal pass and here she receives from van Domselaar.
Here the Australian hits an outstanding, raking crossfield pass which sets Mead away on the left.
Mariona receives the ball from Mead here and again we see her attacking instincts take over.
She tries the difficult pass on the outside again and it doesn’t come off. At the risk of repeating myself, in the final third this is what you want but in the middle third it isn’t. Little and Walti are experts at knowing when to take a breath in possession. They also have the sort of understanding 6.5 seasons in the making, it is unrealistic to expect the sudden absence of that partnership not to carry impact.
Once again we see a spacing issue here as Williamson is being closed down. Cooney-Cross is not far back enough to provide an out ball.
So Williamson has to go back to van Domselaar and she is charged down by Smith. The midfield double pivots just weren’t on offer for the centre-halves often enough when they came under pressure.
Shortly before Little comes on in the second half we once again see some spacing issues as Arsenal play out from the back. Cooney-Cross and Mariona are both facing their own goal with square shoulders here. One of them needs to drop in closer to Williamson to give her an out ball and / or to take a Liverpool player away from the middle. Little and Walti have this innate understanding of when one should drop to help the centre-halves.
It means Liverpool can press Arsenal to the perimeter of the pitch and force McCabe to try a speculative ball to Russo to get out of pressure. Once again, Liverpool win the ball back here and the game is in transition again.
Liverpool are able to send the ball down the line and put Arsenal under pressure. At this point, Kim Little comes on.
Little’s entrance into the game helped amend for control issues in midfield. However, taking Russo away from centre-forward and putting Blackstenius on sacrificed some of that control. Russo is world class at holding the ball up, which is what the game state required. That isn’t Stina’s game, she is excellent at running in behind but not holding the ball up. Arsenal lost possession due to this a few times.
Here we see an example of how Little is good at taking the sting out of an opponent. Liverpool win the ball back in their defensive third and look to break.
Little not only intercepts the pass but plays it back to Emily Fox first time. This prevents any opportunity for transition and just gives Arsenal the ball back nice and calmly. It knocks the temperature down just as Liverpool are seeking to heat things up.
Here is a small example of how Little helps Arsenal to retain the ball and build pressure. As soon as McCabe has the ball in the left central-midfield space, Little is on the move to create an out ball for her.
Little receives and turns and it means Liverpool don’t have the opportunity to box McCabe in.
With Arsenal 1-0 up in the 81st minute and Liverpool well organised, Little doesn’t try a potentially risky pass that Liverpool could intercept and counter from. She sees the getting is not good for an attacking pass and simply steers it back to the defence to reset.
Williamson passes to Fox and Little is again on the scene to present the American with a release valve.
Now Little sees a better chance to drive forward on the right.
Arsenal are probing and Little exchanges passes with Mariona, but on the second occasion, Mariona is not careful enough with the pass and loses possession. In the end, she commits a cynical tactical foul to prevent a Liverpool breakaway. It was a neat illustration of how Arsenal too often gave Liverpool the ball and allowed them to break Arsenal’s rhythm and break momentum.
Arsenal committed 11 fouls against Liverpool, they average eight per game this season, which illustrates that they were a little ragged in the centre on the day. Arsenal got the job done and without key players and on the back of a tight turnaround that was the most important thing. But you can see why Arsenal think it is so important that Little plays on Wednesday and why Little and Walti remain solid starters. Without them, Arsenal struggled to regulate the temperature of this game.