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Morning.
Arsenal are in Munich for tonight’s Champions League quarter-final second leg, after the 2-2 draw at the Emirates last week. As a tie it’s set up in such an interesting way, and we can look at the approach both teams might take shortly. However, the main issue for today is team selection and who Mikel Arteta will pick to do the job.
I think there are three positions he’ll change from the game against Villa on Sunday. First, left-back, where despite the manager’s public backing for Oleksandr Zinchenko, I think he will – fitness permitting – go with Takehiro Tomiyasu in this position. This might be a game where our plan is to keep it tight for the first half, before going for it a bit more in the second. On that basis, Tomiyasu is a better, more disciplined defender than Zinchenko, whose positional issues of late are such that it makes it just too risky to start him.
Of course, it’s possible that Tomiyasu isn’t fit enough to start, while Jakub Kiwior had a difficult time in the first leg, so Zinchenko might be seen as the best option for tonight, but I would be surprised.
In midfield, I think Jorginho will come back in to carry out that tempo-setting role his game allows for. Last week, Declan Rice felt a bit peripheral in the first half, but part of that was positioning him closer to Kiwior as kind of cover, and if it’s Tomiyasu in there, he doesn’t need that kind of attention. It’s how these two set-up that will be interesting, they can form a pair, but Rice pushing further forward helps him support Martin Odegaard, and with Kai Havertz the likely start up front, he’ll be more of an 8 than part of a double-pivot, but let’s see.
The other decision is who starts out on the left. After his goal last week in the first leg, I had talked myself into the idea that Leandro Trossard had played himself into the starting XI, but his performance against Villa has left me unconvinced now (how fickle are the football fates!). I also think…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/04/bayern-preview-potential-team-changes-and-arsenals-approach/
Author : arseblog
Publish date : 2024-04-17 06:14:02
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