Martin Ødegaard made his first start for Arsenal on Sunday in an entertaining 4-2 win over Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United. Let us take a closer tactical look at how he fared.
As you can see, Mikel Arteta opted to use a front four comprising of Bukayo Saka, Ødegaard, Emile Smith Rowe, with Pierre Emerick Aubamryang leading the line.
Ødegaard (highlighted with a yellow circle) was utilized in the number 10 position, with Smith Rowe in the left half-space, constantly drifting and Saka on the right-hand side.
Right from minute one, Arsenal pressed Leeds United high up the pitch – after some nice little combination play between Aubameyang and Cedric Soares down the left-hand side, Ødegaard arrived in the box and after his shot was deflected, he regained possession to set-up Smith Rowe.
Unfortunately, it did not lead to a goal, but it was a promising start for the Norweigian.
One interesting facet in the game was how much Auba moved toward the left – allowing Ødegaard the space to make darts into the box from the number ten position, something he did regularly.
In this passage of play, Ceballos picks up the ball and plays it to Aubameyang who drifted toward the left. Ødegaard starts deeper and makes an intense run forward run into the box, giving Auba that extra pass option.
What I like very much about these runs from deep is that not only are they very hard to track, but once the run is made, you tend to occupy defenders, which in turn opens up space for others.
In this scenario the movement from Smith Rowe and Ødegaard frees up space for Hector Bellerin on the edge of the box – unfortunately the Spaniard couldn’t make it count. On another day, it could have been a goal. We should never underestimate the contribution of decoy movements that help the collective game. These little details go a long way.
Off the ball, I was impressed with Ødegaard’s intensity. He isn’t passive by any means – there is an eagerness about him to press and help the team win balls in promising areas high up the pitch.
Pascal Struijk, who played as Leeds’ midfield pivot in the absence of Kalvin Phillips was closely man marked by Ødegaard who did a fantastic job in this regard. As a result, Leeds tended to bypass him during the build-up which affected the way they entered the final third – they looked extremely disjointed in the first half.
In the modern game, there is no room for passengers. To play at #10, you need to be intense high up the pitch – Ødegaard certainly is. Add to this his positional discipline and capacity to follow such instructions.
This got me thinking ‘Could Ødegaard be deployed as one of 2 central midfielders in a 4-3-3 the way Pep uses De Bruyne and Bernardo? – perhaps that can be a topic for another day!
Ødegaard married his grit and determination off the ball with cute first time touches like the one he played to Ceballos here.
That is a very important attribute to have if we want to beat a press and progress the play. After some lovely combination play, he gets into space and plays in Smith Rowe, but the attack breaks down.
But this particular move was great to watch. It reminded me of Cazorla and Ozil combining back in the day!
In this scenario, Ødegaard drifts toward the right-hand side and plays a beautifully weighted first-time pass to Saka who has space to run into.
Saka goes down and a penalty was given – only for it to be wrongly rescinded. Unlucky.
The one area for Ødegaard to work on is to develop a better understanding with his teammates.
In this case, Auba drops deep and calls for the ball to be played to feet, but Martin anticipates him making a run which didn’t happen, and plays a through ball into no man’s land.
As he trains and plays more with the rest of our squad, we are definitely going to see more fluency in his overall game.
It is also important to consider that Ødegaard has played very little football this season. He’s not at his peak physical level and you could notice that as the game went on, he was tiring which resulted in his substitution.
Taken via sofascore, Ødegaard won 3 out of 4 ground duels, made one interception and key pass each, and completed 2 dribbles. I wouldn’t call it a top display, but it was promising and something for Martin to build on. It is clear that he raises our technical quality.
Interested to hear your thoughts on Ødegaard ‘s performance in the comments below.