Entering the 9th week of the English Premier League 2020-2021, the results of the Arsenal match against Leeds United in the match round raises many questions in the mind, what's wrong with Arsenal in this round of Premier League matches this time?
Arsenal had to settle for sharing the points with Leeds United after a match between the two of them for a full 45 x 2 minutes ended with a score of 0: 0. Neither team managed to net the ball into the opponent's goal.
What happened to Arsenal when they faced a team that had just been promoted to the top caste of the English league after being able to qualify for the Championship Division 2019-2020, along with West Brom as runners-up and Fulham who qualified through the Championship play-off match.
The experience of difficulties facing Leeds United does not only belong to Arsenal, but all teams that are participants in the English Premier League 2020-2021 and have experienced facing Leeds United in the League round.
Liverpool, Fulham, Sheffield United, Manchester City, Wolves, Aston Villa, Leicester City, Crystal Palace and finally Arsenal felt how Leeds United during 90 minutes of normal time dominated the ball.
Neither team was able to control the ball more than 49% against Leed Uniteds. Likewise with Mancester City, which is very well known for its ball mastery.
Manchester City, the champion of Premier League 2018-2019 have to be satisfied with ball possession of 47% versus 53% for Leeds United. Liverpool, the champion of the Premier League 2019-2020, also suffered a similar fate, only being able to control 48% of the total game when they faced Leeds United.
Then, what is the strategy to beat a team like Leeds United, which even big teams like Liverpool and Manchester City are unable to beat Leed United's domination of possession?
Perhaps this kind of learning can be learned from Liverpool, Wolves, Leicester City and Crystal Palace, the four teams that were able to beat Leeds United despite losing their dominance of the ball throughout the match.
Lessons from previous matches show how to beat or reduce teams with domination of ball possession like Leeds United and Manchester City or Liverpool.
The study suggests an approach to at least four strategies. First, take advantage of defensive weaknesses and maximized to create goals; Second, creating an attack that is able to make a gap in certain parts of the opponent's defense.
Next, the third hopes that the opposing line of defense makes mistakes and is maximized into goals, and the latter increases the frequency or attempts of kicks at the goal, making it more effective to reach the target and increasing the efficiency of the goal conversion opportunities.
The first and second strategic approaches can be seen from the lessons learned when Tottenham Hotspur faced Manchester City, where City dominated the ball, the accuracy of the pass and even attempted kicks at the goal.
But Tottenham Hotspur only needed to look at an empty defensive area so that Spurs' first goal was created, and the second goal was created through a Spurs attack that was able to create empty space on the right side of the City defense.
The third approach can be learned from the Liverpool versus Arsenal match in the previous season, where the Arsenal striker who saw an error in the Liverpool defense aggressively took advantage of the opportunity and converted it to two goals in the first half.
Finally, the approach is to increase the chances of trying a shot at the goal, making goals more effective and making goal conversions more efficient. This approach can be taken from the learning of all the teams that managed to beat Leeds United who were more dominant in possession of the ball.
Liverpool, Wolves, Leicester City and Crystal Palace who have successfully faced Leeds United's ball domination, basically have the same principle, namely increasing the number of attempted shots on target, increasing the effectiveness of shots on target and increasing the efficiency of goal conversion.
The statistical facts of the match against Leeds United prove this explanation. Liverpool have taken more shots at goal or twice as much as Leeds United.
Liverpool, when competing against Leeds United on September 12, 2020, made 22 attempted kicks at goal, with 6 of them effectively hitting the target and 4 of them efficiently converting into goals.
Likewise with Wolves, who played against Leeds United on October 20, 2020. Wolves were unable to maximize the attempted shot at goal under the pressure of Leeds United's possession.
But Wolves do not run out of ways, so what Wolves can maximize is to make the ball effective towards the goal. where with only 7 attempted kicks on goal, 3 times of them were effective at hitting the target and 1 of them were efficiently converted into goals.
Leicester City, which successfully shaved Leeds United by a score of 4-1, in the match on 3 November 2020 were able to make their kicks effective at goal even though the number of kicks on goal was not much different from Leeds United.
Under the pressure of Leeds United's ball possession, Leicester City took a shot at goal that was much more effective than Leeds United. Leicester attempted 10 kicks on goal and an effective one on target 8 times, with 4 converting to goals.
Meanwhile, Leeds United, although slightly superior with attempted kicks at the goal, were 11 attempts, only 4 times they effectively hit the target, 1 of which converted to goals.
Finally, Crystal Palace, which was able to face Leeds United's ball domination on November 7, 2020, with a score of 4: 1 for Crystal Palace's victory, relied on a similar strategy as Leicester City faced Leeds United.
Leeds United, who dominantly controlled the ball in each of these matches, are consistent with the standard of their 4-1-4-1 formation in the last 8 matches and a 4-4-1-1 formation only when facing Aston Villa, returning to using a 4-1-4-1 formation against Arsenal.
The result was predictable Leeds United returned to dominate the match with control of the ball even this time it reached 67%, with Arsenal only able to control 33% or 2: 1.Until the end, when the match finished 90 + 7 minutes, neither team was able to score. . Arsenal were unable to maximize the match to reap maximum results.
