How Tzolis' ‘hokey-cokey’ tactic has transformed Arsenal already

Arsenal kicked off the defense of their Premier League crown in perfect fashion on Friday night with a 3-0 win over newly promoted Coventry. It was three old faces who got the goals for the Gunners: Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, but it was star new man Christos Solis who stole the show. Me and Dean Scoggins are back in the Tactics Exposed studio after a long summer spent together, Dino, in New York City covering the World Cup. And we have got a new signing of our own in the Tactics Exposed studio here in London.

We do. It's Tactics 2.0 with what I want to call Tommy Touchscreen, but Will's not convinced. Let us know what you think in those comments. But yeah, this was that this is a Tactics Exposed 2.0.

That was Arsenal Tactics 2.0. And look, it was an absolute lesson for Coventry and the rest of the Premier League in what they're going to see from Arsenal this season.

All right, coming in, Dino, only one place to start with Arsenal's brand new signing. And as ever on Tactics Exposed, we've got a barnstormer of a headline.

Section number one's title is "Whoop whoop, it's the sound of the Solis." Good work from the lighting crew there as well. Fantastic.

[laughter] And if Arsenal fans are not chanting that at the Emirates within a couple of weeks, I'll be very, very disappointed.

But we talked about how this was a lesson for Coventry. It could be a lesson for the rest of the Premier League as well. And we have to start with a bit of Greek philosophy.

Am I allowed though, Dino, to say that I saw it on Twitter before that you put it in the Tactics Exposed group?

I am not having that whatsoever. It might have been on there, but I didn't see it as I don't follow anyone Arsenal-related.

All right, talk tactics to me. The first lesson is Greek philosophy, okay? So with Solis, we're going to go straight to our touchscreen here and talk about how he understands space and how he understands the philosophy of what Arteta wants him to do.

Professor Professor Scoggins from the school of tactics. Absolutely. Look at this, okay? So straight away I'm going to highlight Solis over here on the left-hand side.

Fairly straightforward attacking setup from Arsenal, and Coventry in a pretty good position, but Solis is giving the right back a problem straight away. Does he go out to him? Does he hold his position? If he goes out to him, then he creates space in behind. But, what Solis isn't doing is standing in that position there, which makes him easy to mark. He has to arrive in that space when the ball comes, not stand in that space.

And, that's what Arteta's been coaching. That's what he wants from this new-look attack from Arsenal. Because then, as we see, we've got Coventry in a very, very solid position there, but Arsenal need to disrupt it somehow, okay? So, we move on to the second clip, which comes straight after that, which is what Solis does to disrupt that pattern, okay? So, from his position there, he makes a run across, because he's identified that what Coventry's got is a good defensive position, but also that they're man-v-man in all of these areas. So, we can show that they're in that attack they're man-v-man, and then somebody obviously has got to go out and press the ball, which they do there. So, Solis is doing that and creating space for Calafiori over on that side. So, straight away, within 7 minutes of the start of the game, Solis is understanding from Arteta what he needs to do. Get players in the areas that you want them to be, but don't stand there. Move into those positions, and make teams be disrupted by that.

I'm just going to say, Dino, it's a brilliant start on Tommy Touchscreen from you. First one. Protective of the That was fairly good, wasn't it?

Excellent effort, mate. Almost flawless. Bearing in mind, by the way, this is take number one from Dean Saunders.

[laughter] What a superstar. Now, the key point you were making, particularly with that first grab there, is it it's Solis, as as you've shown, is fine to come into the middle of the pitch, but it's all about timing, right?

It's all about unselfishness as well and that's really shown in the counter attack that we're going to have here, okay? In this position here where the ball's coming from Rice to Martin Ødegaard, you'll thinking well, Kai Havertz is making a fantastic run to take two defenders with him and away, okay? And if we just roll that on slightly, what you'd expect from a winger who's going to make a selfish run at that point is that he runs into that space, okay? But that's the wrong thing to do because straight away, if you imagine where Martin Ødegaard and Declan Rice are going to run into that position, Solly would have just taken all the space away. So, he's understanding that tactical principle straight away. So, we're a few seconds later on here and we roll it into that clip and you can see that Declan Rice has moved into that area there. Solly is still held his width over on that left-hand side. You've seen where Havertz ends up there. Declan Rice has got the ball. If Solly had gone in there, chance over. He's effectively blocked the run of Declan Rice, okay? But he doesn't. He's held that position over over on that left-hand side. Now, the right back's got a really big issue.

Obviously, he's got to come in potentially to block a shot from Declan Rice and then the pass will come wide for Solly which eventually leads to the Saka goal. And you know, that he doesn't even get an assist for that which is an a shame for him because the deflection on the way in. But that is not just about quality on the ball from Rice from Ødegaard. It's not just about the run of Havertz. It's about Solly's understanding where they're going to be at the end of that counter attack. So, it was a really really impressive display from him. You know, he he sort of hugged the left-hand side most of the time but his understanding about when he's going to come into the center of the pitch and also the understanding with him and Calafiori after two games including the Community Shield is absolutely amazing. There were times where that Calafiori had gone out to press somebody and Solly's just went into a left-back position as well. So, very, very impressive start. Well, it's interesting cuz Mikel Arteta was asked after the game, wasn't he, Dino, about the balance on that right-hand side because he had Ben White, Bukayo Saka, and Martin Odegaard.

He was asked by Gary Neville if that's his favorite little trio. He was quite diplomatic, but you could tell he was like, "God, yeah, I was delighted to have them back." But, quite quickly he went on to talk about that left-hand side. Do you think then, just briefly before we move on to point number two, do you think after this game Mikel Arteta and Arsenal be going, "You know what, actually, do we need to go out and spend an obscene amount of money on an elite left winger when perhaps actually this guy's a little bit more prim ready than we thought?"

Yeah, and there's also, let me just take it back to that first one a little bit there as well because if if we're if we're in that position we were talking about where he's over there, and you know, it's not it's not just about the ability to beat a player one v one, which absolutely he's got. It's about a decision of when to be in and when to be out, you know? In, out, in, out. It's the it's the Solly Soki copy, right?

[laughter] But, he's understanding that straight away in that it's not just about a singular player dominating a full-back one v one. Arsenal going to face low-block defenses all season. You have to have a player who's going to understand his role within the tactical system. Maybe not elite player from a winger perspective when we're talking about Vinicius and Barcola, but elite tactical brain straight away, I think.

It's going to be really interesting to watch him all season. New season, new screen, same old Scoggins jokes, I'm afraid. Anyway, point number two, Dino,

It's all about unselfishness as well and that's really shown in the counter attack that we're going to have here, okay? In this position here where the ball's coming from Rice to Martin Ødegaard, you'll thinking well, Kai Havertz is making a fantastic run to

take two defenders with him and away, okay? And if we just roll that on slightly, what you'd expect from a winger who's going to make a selfish run at that point is that he runs into that space, okay? But that's the wrong thing

to do because straight away, if you imagine where Martin Ødegaard and Declan Rice are going to run into that position, Solly would have just taken all the space away. So, he's understanding that tactical principle straight away. So, we're a few seconds

later on here and we roll it into that clip and you can see that Declan Rice has moved into that area there. Solly is still held his width over on that left-hand side. You've seen where Havertz ends up there. Declan Rice has

got the ball. If Solly had gone in there, chance over. He's effectively blocked the run of Declan Rice, okay? But he doesn't. He's held that position over over on that left-hand side. Now, the right back's got a really big issue.

Obviously, he's got to come in potentially to block a shot from Declan Rice and then the pass will come wide for Solly which eventually leads to the Saka goal. And you know, that he doesn't even get an assist for that which is an

a shame for him because the deflection on the way in. But that is not just about quality on the ball from Rice from Ødegaard. It's not just about the run of Havertz. It's about Solly's understanding where they're going to be

at the end of that counter attack. So, it was a really really impressive display from him. You know, he he sort of hugged the left-hand side most of the time but his understanding about when he's going to come into the center of

the pitch and also the understanding with him and Calafiori after two games including the Community Shield is absolutely amazing. There were times where that Calafiori had gone out to press somebody and Solly's just went into a left-back position as well. So,

very, very impressive start. Well, it's interesting cuz Mikel Arteta was asked after the game, wasn't he, Dino, about the balance on that right-hand side because he had Ben White, Bukayo Saka, and Martin Odegaard.

He was asked by Gary Neville if that's his favorite little trio. He was quite diplomatic, but you could tell he was like, "God, yeah, I was delighted to have them back." But, quite quickly he went on to talk about that left-hand

side. Do you think then, just briefly before we move on to point number two, do you think after this game Mikel Arteta and Arsenal be going, "You know what, actually, do we need to go out and spend an obscene amount of money on an

elite left winger when perhaps actually this guy's a little bit more prim ready than we thought?" Yeah, and there's also, let me just take it back to that first one a little bit there as well because if if we're if

we're in that position we were talking about where he's over there, and you know, it's not it's not just about the ability to beat a player one v one, which absolutely he's got. It's about a decision of when to be in and when to be

out, you know? In, out, in, out. It's the it's the Solly Soki copy, right?

[laughter] But, he's understanding that straight away in that it's not just about a singular player dominating a full-back one v one. Arsenal going to face low-block defenses all season. You have to have a player who's going to understand his role within the tactical

system. Maybe not elite player from a winger perspective when we're talking about Vinicius and Barcola, but elite tactical brain straight away, I think.

It's going to be really interesting to watch him all season. New season, new screen, same old Scoggins jokes, I'm afraid. Anyway, point number two, Dino, double maths.

Talk to us. Yeah, so we've had a Greek lesson, and now we're going for a maths lesson, okay? So, let's let's straight away I'm going to put up lesson. Can we do a jokes lesson? And you're by the way you wouldn't be the

teacher for that. No, no, no. I'm one of the pupils. Dad dad jokes 101.

[laughter] Come on then, talk to us. So, this will be a bit more Dino, won't it, about the sort of Arsenal new-look shape that sort of helps them do all these new attacking moves.

Exactly. And Arsenal in last season, if we could have one criticism of them, probably in the middle of the season when they got a bit stodgy, it was they don't take enough risks, all right? And when it was still, are they going to

bottle the title or not? Are they going to do it? It was, please take No, not me saying please, obviously. You all know who I support. Stay out the comments.

But, it is actually the go forward more often with more vigor and get more numbers in attack. So, the numbers game that I talked about before, this is how Arteta has set up the start of the season. So, you know I love a 3-2-5, but

this is a 3-1-6, okay? And we're going to move on to that. But, if I play on there, what Myles Lewis-Skelly, who almost It's a little bit of a copy, let's just say, of a PSG tactic, all right? And I'm not saying that Arteta's

copied Paris Saint-Germain, but it's a similar tactical setup where you Vitinha, so this is Myles Lewis-Skelly playing the Vitinha role. But, the beauty of what happened in this game is that you've got the center back split, and you've got Myles Lewis-Skelly moving

in between those two center backs. But, he rotated with Declan Rice, who you can see in that position there is the one in that formation, okay? So, it's it's those two understanding each other and going in. And what that does is get more

numbers in attack. So, we know about how good both of those players are on the ball, how press resistant they both are.

So, you couldn't want for better players in that position. We saw in this game why Arsenal don't want to sell Myles Lewis-Skelly. I mean, it'd be absolutely ridiculous if they let him go. I know they've got Tchouaméni. I know they've

got Bruno Guimarães, but they've got a long season, and they can rotate those players in there accordingly. And what we can see is a 3-1-6 formation, okay?

And immediately, as I said, not a 3-2-5, cuz you've only got five men in attack, you've got six in attack there. And another thing I want to note, you've got Kai Havertz over on this side over here, sort of moved into the right wing.

You've got Saka who's gone into a striker position. You've got Calafiori and Solis on that side, and Ben White is going to be your next one. Because you've allowed the full-backs to be released because you've got the extra

midfielder dropping in. And as I said, the numbers game here, they created a 4v4 here, and then they've created a three or four v four in there, and they've got an overload on the two presses. So, all over the field, that

shape has meant they've got more players to go into that position, okay? Move on to the next little clip here. What's interesting here is another way of playing that we might see this season that we didn't see at all last season,

where they didn't want to give the ball away. And look, we've got Ben White with the ball. You'd expect him to try and keep possession in the back three or back four here. But, what he actually does, we got to see the players in

attack that they've pushed forward, Calafiori and Solis, being two v one against the full-back there. So, Ben White's hitting a crossfield pass here.

And when that ball goes over, in previous years you would say that that's not what Arteta wants. The full-back's going to win it back against those two going forward. But, because they've got numbers in attack because of this

numbers game, they then can counter-press from higher up the field. So, after that switch happens, you've got those two players over in that area over there, two v one.

And like, you know, you've got to be a good full-back to cope with Solis on his own, let alone cope with Calafiori coming up for the press there as well.

And then we roll that on slightly further forward, and those same two players have won the ball back, got the ball back from there, Solis, and then Solis is looking up, Arsenal are crashing the box, and the pass comes

back to Havertz in that area. And as I said, note that as well. The intensity of Arsenal this season, and those players getting into full positions already, is far more intense with three players there on crashing the box. All

three of them could have scored. As it was, fantastic fantastic finish from Kai Havertz.

Nice one, Dano. Look, just briefly then before we move on to point number three, you mentioned Myles Lewis-Skelly there.

Talks of a £60 million valuation from Arsenal behind the scenes. Arteta saying he's going nowhere. Lewis-Skelly saying he wants to fight for his place. Incapie and Calafiori ahead of him at left-back.

Guimaraes and Declan Rice and Zubimendi ahead of him in midfield. Yet, he's still being touted about and offered to other clubs behind the scenes.

What's going on? I'm not buying it at all. I He's not a left-back. Let's just get that Let's get that out there straight away. He's He's a He's a He's a decent left-back who for everybody outside of the top four could

start a left-back in the Premier League, right? So, he's he's fine with that, but he's an elite midfielder, okay? And And if they let him go, it would be ridiculous. And we Some Some of the examples of this of in in the game,

okay? So, we talked about the rotation between him and Declan Rice in the game, but what they're doing here again is a numbers game. And Arsenal's understanding of space, okay? So, look, straight away, Myles Lewis-Skelly here in between the lines finding spaces in

between those players, okay? That's not an easy thing to do. And if you're doing that and you've got four Coventry players who don't really know who they're picking up, then it's this domination of the half space. They caused chaos in the half spaces Arsenal

in this game. And Myles Lewis-Skelly in those tight little areas is so so good.

And then, I'm going to bring my man Solis back into it here as well. Where he then discovers Myles Lewis-Skelly's going to get the ball. He's made that out-swinging run and he's found the half space in that position as well. So,

cokey The hokey cokey Yeah, the ho- hokey hokey cokey. That's a mouthful, isn't it? All All over again. So, it's it's just wonderful wonderful stuff from Arsenal. And that continued with the third goal as well, where where Ødegaard

this time. Look, we've had the rotation. You've got Myles Lewis-Skelly and Declan Rice gets on the ball in that area there. And he's on it to find the pass into Ødegaard in that half space. So, and you can see from that setup on that

clip straight away, you've got the overload on the left-hand side. You've got Myles Lewis-Skelly rotating for Rice and you've got people in half spaces like ominous for the rest of the Premier League.

Excellent stuff, Dino. It seems to me a little bit like an acknowledgement of Mikel Arteta actually showing intent against what he's been saying over the summer where it's like we're not going to be the defending champions, we're going to be the attacking champions.

Albeit Oh, that's a cringey phrase, isn't it? absolutely disgusting. Absolutely awful. But, but proof that he's trying it.

Worth noting, newly promoted team at home. Yes, fair enough. Are we going to see this every single game?

We're not sure. One thing we will see every single game for yet another season, Dino, it appears, is Nicolas Jover proving that he's one of the most valuable members of any Premier League backroom staff. The Arsenal set-piece coach, of course, comes up flowers once

again. Yeah, and maybe we're going to see this much more often. And did you spot it?

Did you see the little ghost trick? So, in the red corner, we've used that headline before, but you've got to use it again when it's Arsenal on set pieces, okay? Did you see the little sneaky run that Ben White makes and

Arsenal going to take more short corners this year? Look at Ben White in this area here. He's gone the blind side of the goalkeeper where nobody's going to pick him up cuz Coventry are marking zones only and so he's not been seen.

And then Arsenal take a sneaky short corner, okay? Bukayo Saka gets the one-two at the near post and then look where Ben White has ended up from that little ghost run he makes from the goalkeeper. He's run out to there and

then he receives the ball from Bukayo Saka in that sense there. And then if we roll it on just slightly, then you'll see that Ben White's on the ball in that position there. Calafiori's got a job to do here in being the decoy man as well

cuz all of the Arsenal players are going to crash the box. Calafiori is going to make his run out of the way, and then we've got the pass to Saliba there. So, Arsenal taking even their set-piece tactics to another level. We've got to

acknowledge that with the refereeing this year and all the talk of the cut down in grappling, Arsenal need to find another way to be a threat at set pieces.

And matchday one, boy did they do it. Absolutely. The master scrummagers have been found out. Although, just from that little clip there, Dino, it looks like they weren't exactly hesitant of a little bit of contact.

No, no, but it's a bit like the the rugby criticism from before, right? The forwards do the do the do the hard yards, and then the backs finish the job afterwards. So, it was very, very clever. So, teams, you know, in the next

couple of weeks will be looking at that and thinking, "How do we stop that as well as the usual ball into the box and scrum?" Mate, amazing stuff.

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