By Alfie Cairns Culshaw (Chief Editor)
Against Manchester United, Albert Sambi Lokonga demonstrated exactly where he is as a player at the moment.
On the ball, he was adventurous and tried to get us up the pitch, while also remaining secure and conservative when he need to be. 92% pass accuracy (only Saliba had higher), five progressive passes (only Odegaard and White managed more) and five passes into the final third (the most).
This is everything Mikel Arteta demands from his number six in possession. Keep the ball ticking with your metronomic passing, while trying the occasional progressive pass through the lines or with big switches when they're on. He was also eager to show for the ball, take it off the defenders in pressure situations and elude the first line of pressure with a body faint. While Thomas Partey at his best will produce more in this aspect, Lokonga was a lot more effective than Mohamed Elneny will ever be at progressing the ball and breaking the press.
However, it was his off the ball work that set alarm bells ringing and was a huge factor in why we ultimately took no points away from Old Trafford. Eric Ten Hag identified the pockets just in front of Arsenal's backline where he could get Christian Eriksen or Bruno Fernandes on the ball with space to aim for in behind for Marcus Rashford to exploit. This space would usually be occupied by the presence that is Partey, who regularly cleans up in that area by winning second balls, tackles or just shepherding play away from that zone.
Unfortunately, Sambi's tactical and positional awareness is not where it needs to be to play in this role effectively. Clive on the Arsenal Vision Podcast perfectly summed up the off the ball role of the six in our system with a Squash analogy. In the game of Squash, it's understood that as soon as you hit the ball towards the wall, you rush back and try and place yourself as close to 'the T-position' as possible, which is located in the centre of the court.
The defensive midfielder in our 4-3-3 has a similar role to play off the ball. As soon as they distribute the ball, or as soon as the team loses possession, they have to find themselves plugged in that central role just in front of the back four. They shouldn't carry the ball to wide positions and nor should they cover and fill in the wide channels. We have our athletic centre-backs and inverted full-backs to do that work.
Thomas Partey does this excellently, and it's evident in his average position and heat maps after every game. He stays very central and this prevents teams from playing through us very easily. Even Mohamed Elneny, who despite actually making very few defensive actions and being a very below par defender, manages to plug that space and limits the radius he works in. His constant presence in this zone detracts teams from attempting to play through that area of the pitch.
Against United, Sambi was often found wanting in this area of the pitch. His awareness to quickly shuttle back and cover these zones was non-existent, and consequently United got a lot of joy in these pockets, with their first two goals came from picking the ball up there. Sambi struggled to get back in to this position quickly enough, often because of his attempts to carry the ball into other areas of the pitch.
His inclination is to float. Sambi likes to offer for the ball, make angles for his teammates and consistently be involved in the build up. He wants as many touches as anyone on the pitch and wants to get the ball into forward areas as frequently and rapidly as possible. Combining this with his impressive ball carrying ability, and his profile makes for an intriguing option as an eight. Unfortunately injuries to Partey and Elneny have forced him back into a six role he showed last season to be incapable of filling at this stage of his career.
This is no dig at the player. Partey took a while to acclimatise to this uniquely demanding role, despite being 28 when asked to do it and having played at the top level for some time. Elneny's pragmatic game makes him naturally a more stable option in this position, even if hindering us in our ball progression.
Against Villa, Sambi's defensive deficiencies were visible in short bursts when rewatching. It was evident in certain scenarios that his awareness of where to be on the pitch to read second balls was lacking, but due to Steven Gerrard's side spending very little time in our half, it wasn't really exposed.
That's the good thing. Against bad opposition, Lokonga's poor off the ball work can be hidden, while his progressive passing and carrying will be exemplified. It's against better opposition that we will be exploited with the Belgian as a six.
The good news is that Thomas Partey is expected to return more quickly than expected. The Ghanian could feature in Arsenal's squad as soon as the Everton game on Sunday, meaning Arteta can probably cope with Lokonga as our six for two more games against weaker opposition (Everton and Zurich).
The question looms around moving forward. Should we commit to investing in Sambi as a six or have a long-term view to mould him into one of our eights? There's no doubt that he was signed to fulfil the former, but plans can change when you fully grasp what a player actually is. With Elneny sidelined for several months, there's little choice but to use him as a six in the Europa League group stage- which is probably a good thing. This will give him time to learn and adapt to this role without the scrutiny that comes with the big lights of the Premier League.
In the League, I'd like to see him restricted to being a number eight for the time being, as I do feel he could thrive in this position. Similarly to how I assessed Nuno Tavares last season, I have no doubt that there's a lot there in this player, he just needs good coaching to refine his game.
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