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Untold Defenders: how well did we do?
By Arvind
A few weeks back I had decided I would start off a small project for this season where I would subjectively analyze whatever games I could see live here in India. To just make it easier for myself and to see if what I am doing makes sense – I am starting off with only our defense..because that is our well known so called Achilles heel. If that works and I am able to capture data well, I might extend it to other parts of the team as well.
I’m well aware that this will be a work in progress for this season, but in keeping with the “long term strategy” of the club, I’ll try and have this ready next season. I plan to have 1 sheet for the team that starts the game and 1 sheet for all the substitutes. So that’s 2 sheets per game. The parameters used obviously will be the same.
So with all that in mind I gave it a spin against Newcastle and tried to make it as accurate as possible while watching the game at the same time. There was some really interesting things I found out. But hey, let me show you what I’ve done so far.
I have 5 tables per game (more if a defender or keeper is substituted) – but it will be 5 this game as nothing of that sort happened.
| Player Name | Sczesczny |
| Set Piece catching | NA |
| Set Piece punching | 2 – 2 |
| Long range shots | 01/01/11 |
| Reaction Saves | NA |
| Near Post coverage | 1 – 1 |
| Ball distribution | 2 – 2 |
| Goal kicks | 2 – 3 |
| Box coverage | 7 – 7 |
| Player Name | Gibbs |
| Recovery Pace to get back into position | NA |
| Interceptions all over the respective wing; the further up the better | 5 – 6 |
| Width while attacking | 2 – 3 |
| Kick starting a counter attack | 1 – 2 |
| Tackling | 0 – 2 |
| Beaten down the wing | 0 – 4 |
| Crossing | 1 – 3 |
| Player Name | Sagna |
| Recovery Pace to get back into position | NA |
| Interceptions all over the respective wing; the further up the better | 1 – 2 |
| Width while attacking | 5 – 5 |
| Kick starting a counter attack | 1 – 1 |
| Tackling | 1 – 1 |
| Beaten down the wing | 0 – 1 |
| Crossing | 0 – 3 |
| Player Name | Vermalean |
| Set piece clearances | NA |
| Second ball anticipation | NA |
| Dealing with the long ball over the top | 1 – 5 |
| Intercepting crosses/through balls Open Play | 4 – 4 |
| Tackling | 4 – 4(Y) |
| Goal Scoring from set pieces | 0 – 5 |
| Player Name | Koscielny |
| Set piece clearances | NA |
| Second ball anticipation | NA |
| Dealing with the long ball over the top | 3 – 8 |
| Intercepting crosses/through balls Open Play | 10 – 10 |
| Tackling | 3 – 3 |
| Goal Scoring from set pieces | 0 – 5 |
Now, I would like to think a lot of those figures are very self explanatory and they are my own take on what I saw. I could have missed a few(doing this first time live 
) but I would say its 80%+ accurate according to me. I hope this improves as I go on.
Now what do these tables show me? Lets take each player one by one:
— Sczesczny: Had a fantastic game and dominated the box, thus making things easier for his defense. He miskicked just once with the ball going out of play, otherwise he was top class.
— Gibbs: Has a high interception rate as you would expect any Arsenal player to have and did reasonably well going forward as well. The worrying thing for me from this game was that he got skinned on the outside 4 times; by this I mean the attacker was able to cross or make a pass inwards by getting the better of Gibbs. Yes we did not get punished but that’s an area he;d do well to work on.
— Sagna: Bacary had a very solid game but his crosses often hit the first man. The figures show that and while he was often available for a pass, deep in the offensive third the crossing wasn’t great.
— Vermalean: TV had a great game defensively and intercepted and tackled very well. He picked up a yellow card for a tackle which was a foul but which was essential. He didn’t win many long balls from goal kicks though. I couldn’t look at the second ball very carefully as it was getting a little too much for me..maybe next time I’ll look at that because that’s what we do base our game on. We won 5 corners but TV5 could not get on the end of any of them. Obviously that has a lot to do with the delivery as well.
— Koscielny: Had an awesome game IMO and didn’t put a foot wrong with his interceptions and tackling. Like TV5 he too missed a lot of long balls but again, maybe we’ve been told to not focus on winning them but the second ball instead. Like TV he also did not get on the end of any corners.
Phew!! I was stressed out at the end of the game btw but I quite enjoyed doing this. I hope to improve on my accuracy and track any other defensive parameters that may be important..next time round. What do you think?
Also, if anyone knows a way to get more live games or full replays (no piracy please) in India – please let me know. Arsenal TV any good for this?
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Elsewhere on Untold Today…
Untold Ref Review: Stoke Chelsea
Joel Campbell, seven players and a new academy.
(And don’t forget there’s an Untold article in the club programme tonight – and for every Arsenal game with the series “Arsenal Uncovered”)