When Takehiro Tomiyasu was selected to play at left-back against Liverpool last month, some eyebrows were raised, but conclusions were quickly drawn. Tomiyasu is an outstanding one-on-one defender. Although he is pleasantly ambipedic, he is predominantly right-footed and Liverpool right winger Mo Salah is very left-footed and inclined to cut and shoot.
In December 2017, Arsene Wenger selected a young and relatively inexperienced Ainsley Maitland-Niles as Liverpool’s home left-back for a similar reason. An inverted winger can combine well to take on an inverted winger, especially if he is as good a stand-up defender as Tomiyasu.
Another of Liverpool’s favorite moves is the big change of play from left to right. Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson often like to throw diagonal passes to Salah from the other side of the pitch to isolate the opposing left-back against the Egyptian. Tomiyasu is excellent in the air and his radar was fine tuned that day.
Tomiyasu led Arsenal in tackles (3) and aerial duels won (4) and was second in ball recoveries (6). His selection that day was justified because Mo Salah was substituted in the 68th minute. However, his selection at left-back against Leeds a week later was met with greater surprise. Was Arteta rewarding the Japanese for his performance against Liverpool when, let’s face it, he had the incredible misfortune to find himself out of the squad in the first place?
The tactic didn’t seem to work so well against Leeds as Arsenal were locked up in the second half and would probably have been a bit lucky to draw the game, let alone win it. Most of us expected Tierney to return to the squad for the trip to Southampton, but he was duly selected again. It was another performance where Arsenal struggled to produce any attacking momentum in the second half and the Gunners gave up a lead to level the game.
A visit from bottom of the Nottingham Forest table would surely see the more enterprising Tierney restored to the starting line-up, but no, there was Tomiyasu again, much to everyone’s surprise. So why is Arteta so determined to pick Tomi at left-back over Tierney, who seems more natural? And what about Tierney’s place on the team?
Well, the first check in Tomiyasu’s box is his defensive acumen. Tierney is a good defender, good enough to have played outside midfielder in a three-point defense for club and country. But Tomiyasu can overcome that, playing regularly as a central midfielder for Japan in a back four and on the left of the central pair no less.
Defensive data is notoriously unsatisfying because it is skewed towards actions, and often good defense is not quantifiable by tangible action or facing an opponent. However, Tierney and Tomiyasu’s comparative data still tells part of the story. Little of Tierney’s data here is concerning or even objectively bad (perhaps not winning a tackle in the leading third is a wrinkle), it’s just that Tomiyasu’s data ruins the curve in most respects.
TomiyasuTierney Tackles2,831.58 Earned Tackles2,170.53 Defensive Third Earned Tackles1,300.79 Offensive Third Earned Tackles0.650.00 Times Spent Dribbling0.220.26 Dribblings Tackled1,740.79 Interceptions2,391.32 Tackles & Interceptions5,222.89
All data is by 90 and from FBref
Of course, it’s not just about the purely defensive side of the position. We are told that the modern full-back is as much a part of the attack as he is of defence. Tierney certainly has more influence in the final third than Tomiyasu. He averages 21.6 touches in the attacking third per 90 to Tomi, while also producing 2.11 crosses per 90 to Tomiyasu’s 0.87.
We know, of course, that Arteta preferred Zinchenko to Tierney at left-back earlier in the season because of his ability to invest in midfield, a tactical sleight of hand that suits the Ukrainian much more naturally than Tierney. This maneuver is all about helping control games through possession, even if Zinchenko’s defensive positioning and instincts sometimes make him a defensive risk.
The problem for Tierney, in my opinion, is that Arteta isn’t desperate for his qualities in an offensive sense. He is an overlapping two-way winger who likes to take the outside lane and attack from the touchline. A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about Gabriel Martinelli and looked at his performance data from this season.
What struck me building that piece is how much wider Martinelli has been this season compared to last. Both he and Saka have been asked to keep it nice and wide to give Arsenal breadth and depth when they build up the game. In fact, they remember Sterling and Sane at Manchester City when Arteta trained there. In this structure, there is less desire for an overlapping side.
Arteta has all five of his attacking lanes occupied by Martinelli (often Gabriel Jesus will rotate with his compatriot, moving from the mid lane to the far left), Jesus, Odegaard, Saka and the fifth lane is usually pillaged by Granit Xhaka’s late runs. . (as Lewis Ambrose wrote this week). This season, full-backs are being asked to be secondary defenders and midfielders, but not really secondary attackers, so Tierney’s qualities are not as sought after by the manager.
Sure enough, when opponents clear the ball away from Arsenal attacks and look for space, Arteta wants his defenders to be prepared to take advantage of clearances and immediately restart another attack, or else they might need to light the afterburners to win back space and defend. Perhaps the duo with Martinelli on the left is not the ideal for Tierney in this context.
Tierney would probably fit in more fluidly with Emile Smith Rowe, whose game is less about driving Martinelli-esque wingers and more about moving inside a bit and combining with an overlapping winger. Unfortunately, Smith Rowe has been out injured for most of the season. While Tierney outclasses Tomiyasu when it comes to crosses into the box, this isn’t a particularly desirable tactic for Arteta either, which is one of the reasons Cedric Soares has been totally frozen this season.
Arsenal are ranked 15th in the Premier League for crosses attempted and crosses completed. It’s a minor, not a major, part of his repertoire. Both wingers and one of the wingers are reversed after all, Odegaard is a left-footer who plays on the right. Arsenal’s current setup is all about being able to go in instead of inside out.
Things can change, of course. Tomiyasu was struggling to be a starter until the Liverpool game. Teams evolve and associations change, which means their qualities can quickly come back into fashion. For now, however, Tomiyasu’s qualities dovetail with what Arteta wants from his team. When Arteta told Tierney that his omission from the Liverpool game was tactical, he wasn’t talking about Liverpool, he was talking about Arsenal.
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