Arsenal Bayern preview: the recipe to fry the Gunners

Arsenal Bayern preview: When FC Bayern visits Arsenal FC on Wednesday in the first leg of the round of 16, two teams that could feature in the Champions League final will square off. The opponent has improved greatly but I will tell you how it can be beaten.

Since this is a big occasion, this preview is available early. It comes with a tactical game plan, as our preview of the Barcelona tie did a year ago. In this specific case, it follows up Juan Pablo’s first look at Arsenal.

Let’s look at how Bayern can make their gunpowder wet in their own stadium.

Arsenal, reformed Gunners

The Gunners have vastly improved since our meeting a year ago. Mesut Özil was purchased from Real Madrid, adding magician-like passing skills to the attacking midfield. Many people will also remember that he was recently criticized for lack of work ethics, being a ghost in the 1:5 beatdown in Liverpool.

Jack Wilshere has class in central midfield, but yours truly has also noticed that he gets incredibly frustrated whenever pressing takes space and time away from him.

Arsenal also deals with a couple of major injuries. Aaron Ramsey, who was inefficent a year ago, has turned into an impact player in the middle. He scored numerous goals, but he’s out until mid-March. The attacking wizard Theo Walcott also is on the sidelines, down for the rest of the season. Mikel Arteta, for his part, serves a suspension in the Champions League.

Arsene Wenger now plays with a 4-2-3-1. It crowds the middle of the pitch, becoming a virtual 4-5-1 with a high number of quality players. Most of Arsenal’s defending takes place centrally, with good anticipation of the play and interceptions. If the Gunners play their cards right, they will pressure Bayern in that area and try to force turnovers. And hope to set up Olivier Giroud, a well-rounded striker who has great feet. They are likely to get help from Özil, the assist king, and Santiago Cazorla, who runs hard, sets up passes and takes great shots. In defensive midfield, Mathieu Flamini is resilient and a tough tackler, but he often goes overboard to earn yellow cards.

A lot of people in that area.

How to beat them

As Juan Pablo said, force Arsenal to defend and you will break them down. Two recent dates with Liverpool, in the Premier League and FA Cup, have shown it exquisitely. Even Sunday’s win is mostly due to Liverpool’s lack of finishing.

In both games, Arsenal couldn’t deal with the pace from Sturridge and Sterling. On the following play, left-back Nacho Monreal can’t follow his opponent.

Beaten

Is Kieran Gibbs any better? Let’s see how you can run around him.

Why don’t you just grab his shirt?

On the following long pass, the defence is split wide open and the Liverpool attacker flies towards the ball to challenge the keeper alone. Arsenal defenders are unable to chase him.

You know I’ll get past you

Per Mertesacker may be intelligent, well positioned and very strong in the air, but he is also slow. On the following play, he cannot stop the pass and Liverpool goes on to attack the keeper once more.

How many defenders does it take to stop Sturridge? He outruns them easily to take another pass forward.

It’s me again.

Arsenal struggles when pressed by strikers and wingers. The following play made them cough up the ball.

You could argue that Arsenal defenders played very high, adjusting in the “return leg” in the FA Cup against Liverpool. Fine. But then, another major weakness was exposed.

Steven Gerrard and Philippe Coutinho had a field day with their throughballs and lobs.

Of course, he’ll go through the defence.

All beaten in the air

Look who’s about to knock on the door one more time.

I actually had more screenshots of that type. But I’m sparing you.

Possible lineup

Bayern, bring out the Thia-gun

Before getting to the tactics, let’s take a quick look at the possible formation. It goes without saying that I believe Pep Guardiola should go ahead with a 4-2-3-1, with two central midfielders and striker Mario Mandzukic up front. Should Bastian Schweinsteiger start? I wonder if Pep saved his legs for it, but I pray that he doesn’t make that gamble. I believe that Javi Martinez would be a much safer bet in the middle. He can shut down Özil, giving Kroos the keys to the attack.

I preach having Philipp Lahm at right-back, adding class to the position. Then, Mario Götze should be on the left wing, having shown that he can absolutely own the position against Hamburg. With Arjen Robben on the right flank and either Thiago or Thomas Müller as playmaker, Bayern would have a very strong attack.

I believe that Thiago and Robben should be the key players in such a formation, with Arsenal’s weaknesses in mind. The Gunners will not play a high line of defence against us, so we have to get the ball behind them, either on the ground or in the air. Thiago is the man for that task. He can make Götze and Robben outrun defenders on the flanks, in order to receive throughballs. Robben should carve them up with his pace. Thiago should also send little lobs to Mandzukic in the middle, so he can outmuscle the Arsenal defence. He can either go for goal himself with the header or control the passes down for the wingers.

If Arsene Wenger still has a sharp mind, he will tell his troops to play a rough brand of football against Bayern. Teams that challenged us physically (Augsburg, for instance) have made everything more difficult.

Defensive tactics: Arsenal doesn’t do a great job at crossing. They count on a high completion rate in short passing. Bayern should stop them in open play, marking everyone very closely. Wilshere will blow his fuse, I guarantee it.

If Die Bayern follow this game plan, I guarantee that they will prevail. I predict a 2:0 win.

Possible lineup

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