- 13/7/09
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Bài phân tích của The Athletic về việc vì sao Ben White là lựa chọn hoàn hảo của Arsenal
(báo Việt Nam chỉ dịch được khoảng 20% bài này
)
(báo Việt Nam chỉ dịch được khoảng 20% bài này
)Arsenal’s approach to sign Ben White has been rebuffed by Brighton thus far, but the Londoners are undeterred. More contact between the clubs is anticipated as Arsenal persist with their bid to recruit the 23-year-old England international.
Like most football fans, Arsenal supporters love the idea of a big signing — and the fact that the club are prepared to spend in the region of £50 million to get their man appears encouraging. However, there are also questions among the support. Mikel Arteta’s team conceded just 39 goals in the Premier League — the third-best record in the division — but scored only 55, a tally which ranked joint-ninth. Why are Arsenal prepared to spend so much on a central defender, after a season in which their principal problem was creativity?
The simple answer is that Arsenal believe White can not only bolster their rearguard — he can help improve how they attack.
Arsenal’s pursuit of an additional centre-half dates back many months — and there has always been an acceptance that a player who fits the bill would come at a substantial cost. The club explored a potential deal for Sevilla’s Jules Kounde, but ultimately decided it was not viable. It was then when their attention focused on White.
Crucially, both Kounde and White are a better fit for Arteta’s preferred system than many of their existing centre-backs. Last season, Arsenal switched to a back four, but they often build up play in a 3-2-5 or 2-3-5. That shape places specific and considerable demands on the centre-halves. In Arsenal’s case, this was particularly evident on the right-hand side. With Granit Xhaka dropping in as a distributor from deep, that right-sided centre-half was often tasked with covering what would conventionally be the right-back space.
While David Luiz is capable of playing that role, neither he nor Rob Holding — or indeed, William Saliba — are especially comfortable covering that channel. It is no surprise that Arteta has targeted nimble, agile, technically-gifted centre-halves. In this system, they need to replicate some of what you’d expect from a full-back.
White, then, looks a good fit. For most of last season, he played as the right-sided centre-back in Brighton’s back three. He has the technical ability to operate in the confined spaces of the outside channel, and the speed to defend there if the move breaks down.
One of the added bonuses of signing White would be his versatility. Brighton occasionally used him as the central player in a back three, while he also figured at right-back and holding midfield.
At international level, Gareth Southgate used him as a left-sided centre-half against Romania.
With David Luiz leaving the club on a free transfer, it is tempting to think of White as his direct replacement. There is certainly some truth in that, even if the Brighton man is a different type of defender.
We can use smarterscout to analyse their style of play.
Smarterscout is a site that gives players a rating from 0-99, relating to either how often they do a given stylistic action (such as shooting volume) compared with others playing in their position, or how effective they are (such as measuring how well they progress the ball upfield).
It’s interesting to analyse White’s chart for last season against 2019-20, when he played a key part in Leeds United’s promotion-winning campaign under Marcelo Bielsa.
Since returning to Brighton, the main development is that he’s added more carrying and progressive passing to his game.
First though, let’s compare the defensive side of their game. David Luiz competes for more aerial duels, but this is probably because White is playing in a back three, so tends to drop off and sweep up more. White’s high score for defending impact indicates that he is a player whose positional play impedes the opposition’s attempts to progress the ball, and forces turnovers.
He is less dominant than David Luiz in the air, but equally strong in the tackle. Arsenal would hope that pairing him with Gabriel, who is strong in aerial challenges, would offset White’s weaknesses.
However, as explained above, this signing would be as much about what White does with the ball as without it. Both David Luiz and White like to get forward, as evidenced by their relatively similar score for receptions in the opponents’ box (57 and 49 respectively). It is worth considering that some of those instances will be from set-pieces rather than open play.
White scores higher for his tendency to pass progressively — those which move the team upfield by ten metres or more — no mean feat given David Luiz effectively operated as one of Arsenal’s main playmakers.
From a technical perspective, he certainly has the ability to help Arsenal play out from the back. His ball retention score of 51 is about average for a centre-back and shows he can play the low-value passes that keep the ball.
One of the striking things from this comparison is that Holding’s passing looks both very balanced and secure. The improvement in this aspect of Holding’s game is probably not highlighted often enough.
While White’s data suggests he is a steady passer, he can be more ambitious when required.
This instance against Crystal Palace in February shows what White is capable of. Receiving the ball on the halfway line, every Brighton man ahead of him appears to be marked.
Instead of giving the ball to a player in a position where they will come under immediate pressure, White has the presence of mind and the skill to play a floated pass out to Dan Burn on the left-wing.
White also has the ability to pass with both feet — something Arteta will have witnessed first hand. In the match between Arsenal and Brighton at the end of last season, White receives the ball close to the right touchline. The obvious pass appears to be a short infield ball to Yves Bissouma, but the midfielder is surrounded by four Arsenal players.
Without checking back on to his preferred right foot, White sprays a lofted left-footed pass to release Brighton on the left flank, effectively taking those four Arsenal players out of the game.
White still lags some way behind David Luiz for xG from ball progression, but Arsenal will hope that when his progressive passing is combined with more dangerous attackers, this could change. When he gets it right, he can create a chance on his own — Opta data suggests he created 0.2 chances per game, so roughly once in every five games. That’s a marginally superior rate to David Luiz (0.1).
In this match against Burnley in November, White spots Danny Welbeck’s diagonal run in behind the back four.
He clips a perfectly-angled pass which Welbeck is able to bring under control. Arsenal fans won’t be especially surprised, however, that the striker did not ultimately convert the chance.
His impressive range of passing is one of the ways way in which White may help Arsenal progress the ball. The other — and arguably his most stand-out attribute — is his dribbling.
In this match against Leeds in May, White receives the ball in that right channel just inside his own half.
Without an obvious pass, and with space opening up in front of him, he drives into Leeds territory.
As two Leeds defenders attempt to close him down he bursts between them and pushes on towards the box.
The move ends in White getting into the area and clipping a cross in towards the middle of the box.
Here’s another example from the home fixture against Leicester in March. White is backing off the attacker into the penalty area, when Bissouma intervenes with a well-timed tackle just inside the area.
The ball breaks, and White sprints out to it before producing a delicious dragback to take him him away from the Leicester man.
He then carries the ball out of the area and upfield, before he is confronted with a triangle of Leicester players.
At this point, he slaloms between them and continues his breakaway upfield. White has carried the ball almost half the length of the field, evading four Leicester players in the process.
According to the smarterscout radars, David Luiz actually has a higher dribble and carry volume than White. Just looking at their minutes at centre-back, for every 100 touches that David Luiz has, he carries the ball 412 metres, the second highest rate in the Premier League.
White, on the other hand carries it 264 metres per 100 touches, the 35th furthest among centre-backs. That’s a big drop-off. One explanation is potentially that teams sit off Arsenal more, granting David Luiz time and opportunity to bring the ball out from the back.
The distance you carry the ball only constitutes part of that “Carry and dribble volume” rating — the other part reflects the tendency of the player to look to take others on.
White looks to do so 1.1 times per 90 — the third highest among all Premier League centre-backs. Luiz does so 0.26 times per 90, 41st in the division. Again the big difference here is probably that White steps up into midfield at times and is engaging opponents higher up the pitch.
In fact, for every 100 touches White has on the ball, 10 of them are in the attacking third. That’s the sixth highest rate among centre-backs, and markedly more than David Luiz’s 5.4 per 100 touches. Of course, some of these come from set pieces, but for White, a higher proportion of his are from open play.
There is a crucial difference between David Luiz and White: age. There is more than a decade between them, and at 23 White should improve considerably in the coming years. While he still falls short of David Luiz on some performance metrics, his athletic profile suggests he may actually be more suited to the role than the Brazilian.
The £50 million valuation, of course, is still open to debate. Arsenal presumably recognise they would be paying a premium for a homegrown talent and England international.
Even for a very gifted young centre-half, it is a considerable gamble — but Arsenal are convinced that, having lost David Luiz, an addition in this area of the pitch is essential. Ultimately, if they agree to meet Brighton’s demands, they must believe White has the capacity to be worth even more in a few years’ time.
This is not a club with a great track record of talent identification at centre-back. Until now, the two most expensive defenders in Arsenal’s history are Shkodran Mustafi and Saliba.
If they exceed that fee this time, it’s imperative they get it right.
thấy Fabrizio hôm nọ đưa Donny văn đầu bếp và agent xác nhận toàn tin điêu chứ ko có deal gì rồi, Martial chắc cũng thế 
