Talking Tactics: The Dortmund press that undid Arsenal's slick passing

Kieran Gibbs and Bacary Sagna neutralized and no cavalry to call upon in the form of Theo Walcott

The lack of width in the formation that Arsenal employed yesterday was a glaringly obvious one. So, it was evident that much of the running in that area had to be done by the full-backs – Gibbs and Sagna.

From all of the three matches played so far, Arsenal registered their lowest number of crosses (15) yesterday, which matched their tally from the first game against Marseille. They had 25 against Napoli.

Of the crosses, Arsenal generally register more crosses from the right, namely through Sagna and the forward player ahead of him, which alternates between Theo Walcott and Cazorla normally.

The problem for Arsenal yesterday was that ‘Kuba’ and Reus had managed to pin down both Gibbs and Sagna respectively with their high energy pressing and link up play with Lewandowski. This restricted their participation in the attacks and there were a few instances when Arsenal broke at pace only for Ramsey and Rosicky to find no one but themselves in attack.

Unfortunately for Arsenal, they did not have a certain Walcott on the bench who they could call upon. If one remembers the match against Barcelona a few seasons back where Arsenal rallied back to win 2-1, it was Walcott whose searing runs behind the Barca defence that caused havoc. As demonstrated in the graphic below, Sagna was able to venture forward more against Napoli while being pinned down against Dortmund.

Sagna’s heat map against Napoli

Sagna against Dortmund

What Walcott does do is stretch the play and that forces the opposition defence to make adjustments. Hummels said after yesterday’s game that he thought the game was very compact with enough open play for the two teams to score goals.

Dortmund came to win, but they would not necessarily have been too disappointed with a point you reckon. The fact that they strove to make it compact says it all. Assured in the knowledge that Arsenal had no proper wide men to call upon, Dortmund continued to deny them the channels out wide and by forcing them to cut inside, forced turnovers.