Joe Cole has floated an intriguing tactical suggestion for Arsenal’s Champions League final against PSG.
There’s a lot of debate about what Mikel Arteta should do regarding his midfield selection on Saturday in Budapest.
Former Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole has suggested an interesting option that nobody seems to have brought up yet.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football, Cole mooted the idea of Arteta deploying a three-man midfield of Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi and Myles Lewis-Skelly against the French champions.
“I think he goes with Zubimendi, in a big game like that. Or does he go with all three of them? Try to block it off and then you can bring on the Ezes and the Odegaards,” Cole said.
This is our Arsenal XI for the Champions League final vs PSG. What changes would you make?
PSG’s midfield — Vitinha, Joao Neves and Fabian Ruiz — is technically excellent and capable of dominating possession, and so the instinct to match them with numbers in the middle is a natural one.
But the problem with that approach is that you are trying to beat PSG at their own game, and that is a battle Arsenal are unlikely to win.
PSG have spent years building a side designed to control matches through midfield.
Arsenal’s strength lies elsewhere, and the Champions League final is not the moment for a quirky tactical experiment.
Mikel Arteta must be careful not to repeat Pep Guardiola’s Champions League final mistake
The cautionary tale here is Pep Guardiola’s infamous team selection in the 2021 Champions League final, when he left both Fernandinho and Rodri out, fielding a team with no true defensive midfielder.
Chelsea won the game, and many believe it was largely due to that selection error.
Ironically, it was Arsenal’s own Kai Havertz who scored the only goal that night — the one Arsenal player in the current squad who can say he’s been there and done it.
But ultimately, Arteta only has to look at his mentor as an example to realise the danger of overthinking a team selection last minute.
Arsenal have come through a perfect run-in playing in a way that suits them. Now is not the time for drastic changes.
Arsenal’s Champions League final team selection dilemmas
The actual midfield selection dilemma is a more straightforward one — Zubimendi or Lewis-Skelly as the partner to Declan Rice.
Naturally, this also means one of either Martin Odegaard, Eberechi Eze or Leandro Trossard misses out in attack.
🤔 Who starts the Champions League final in the number 10: Eberechi Eze or Martin Odegaard?
Odegaard is the captain and the press leader out of possession. Eze is the moments player, capable of special individual quality to win the game.
Trossard, meanwhile, has been in fine form during the run-in and has developed a combination down the left with Riccardo Calafiori that will be difficult for PSG to defend.
Then of course, the dilemma of the number nine position — Kai Havertz or Viktor Gyokeres.
Those are the decisions that will define Arsenal’s night in Budapest. Not a midfield trio the club have never used before.
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