Why is Ainsley Maitland-Niles important to Arsenal’s build-up
A year ago Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ minutes on the field were questioned due to the return of Hector Bellerin from injury. When asked in a Sky Sports interview about the position he wants to play, his answer was clear. “I am a midfielder by trade, central or on the wing, it’s all the same to me.”
Well he got that to a certain extent. Since the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City, Maitland-Niles has been an integral part of this Arsenal side. Even lauded by Mikel Arteta when there was speculations about a move to Wolves. “He’s a player that I’ve said since I joined that I really like. The best way to show that is that I have played him in the most important games of the season and he responded really well, so that’s where we are with the player.”
But what’s Maitland-Niles’ position ? It’s not a specific one. In the defensive phase, he operates as a left wing back in Arsenal’s back five. However once Arsenal regain the ball and move to a back four during the build up, Maitland-Niles is on the left. Midfielder, central or on the wing.
Maitland-Niles starts wide by the touchline, ahead of Kieran Tierney who moves from a left center back role to a left back role. Then keeps his position or goes inside to a more central position. The latter helps Arsenal by providing a different passing option in the build up or attracting one of the opponents’ midfielders which harms the pressing shape of the opponent.
The inside movement of Maitland-Niles provides a trump card for David Luiz, Granit Xhaka and Tierney when Arsenal are building up from their left side. While the opposition’s right sided defender is dropping back in fear of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s run in behind, Maitland-Niles moves inside in a position that provides a good passing angle to David Luiz, Xhaka and Tierney.
In this example against Manchester City, Maitland-Niles dropped to cover for the advancing Tierney.
But once Dani Ceballos collected the ball, Maitland-Niles didn’t keep his position at left back. Neither did he go in-front of Tierney as a left winger. The reason is that these options wouldn’t have provided Ceballos with a progressive passing option. If Tierney and Maitland-Niles are on the same vertical line ahead of the ball and none of them have the ball, they cancel each other out.
Maitland-Niles moved inside the pitch behind City’s midfield and provided Ceballos with a passing option as the ball into Tierney was blocked by Kevin De Bruyne’s positioning. Ceballos’ ball in-between Manchester City’s trio of players found Maitland-Niles and Arsenal managed to penetrate City.
Another example is in the final against Chelsea. Here, Alexandre Lacazette’s movement attracts Jorginho and moves him out of position completely during Arsenal’s build up. Lacazette resets by passing back to Ceballos.
Ceballos then finds Tierney out wide. While that is happening, Maitland-Niles is moving inside to take a position behind Chelsea’s midfield duo of Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho. Tierney finds him with a header and Arsenal manage to get past Chelsea’s pressing block.
After that, Maitland-Niles passed the ball to Aubameyang and continued his stride forward. The Gabonese striker should have played the ball into Maitlad-Niles’ path as the Englishman’s acceleration was taking him beyond Kurt Zouma, but he didn’t. Choosing to go central instead where Chelsea managed to retrieve the ball.
When Maitland-Niles is tracked he creates a disruption in the opponent’s pressing system. In the build up to Arsenal’s opener against Fulham you can spot Harrison Reed tight on Maitland-Niles, Josh Onomah pressing Xhaka and Aboubakar Kamara ready to press Mohamed El Neny and Rob Holding. Maitland-Niles forces Reed to react towards him instead of moving forward to press Xhaka, that means that Fulham need to use players from their front four to cover El Neny and Xhaka.
The result is that once Arsenal progress down the left and switch play — more on that later, none of Fulham’s front four are anywhere near Bellerin. Kamara, who was on the left side when Fulham were pressing, is trying to catch Xhaka before he plays the ball to Bellerin on the other side but barely gets near him.
Moving on to the third goal. It’s the same situation, Reed covering Maitland-Niles’ inside movement and Onomah picking up Xhaka.
When the ball is circulated towards Holding, both Onomah and Ivan Cavaleiro are near the defender. The free Arsenal players here are Xhaka and Bellerin. Maitland-Niles’ presence prevents Reed from advancing, thus leaving Xhaka free. As for Bellerin, it’s Cavaleiro’s positioning to be ready to press El Neny or Holding that frees the Arsenal defender. Holding played the ball into Xhaka who passed it to Bellerin, the rest you have probably seen all over Twitter multiple times since Saturday — to be fair, Joe Bryan tried to press Bellerin but Arsenal’s speed of passing took him out.
The third occasion where Maitland-Niles helps the build up is in switching the play to the other side. Arsenal build up on the left side, attracting pressure then quickly shift the play to the other side. Here, Maitland-Niles is slightly free but Cavaleiro is coming to pick him up. Gabriel sees that and decides to pass it to Tierney.
The passing sequence is as follows. Tierney plays the ball down the line for Aubameyang who returns it for Maitland-Niles to switch play to the other side. Here, Maitland-Niles found Lacazette and the attack eventually put Aubameyang in a 1 v 1 scenario after Bellerin had plenty of time on the ball to find Aubameyang behind the Fulham defence.
A different view of the opener against Fulham also showcases that as well. Maitland-Niles is inside, Tierney wide and Gabriel choosing the Scottish left back again.
Tierney played the ball forward for Willian, who immediately played the reverse pass to Maitland-Niles to switch play to the other side. Maitland-Niles could have been direct with a one touch pass towards Bellerin who was free due to the aforementioned point, but he chose the safe option in passing to Xhaka. If Maitland-Niles is playing by the touchline, this pin-ball sequence doesn’t occur.
It sounded odd when there were speculations that Maitland-Niles could move to Wolves. His tactical importance to Arsenal is as huge as any player on the field and not only in terms of the build up, offensively too as he showed against Chelsea in the FA Cup final.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles wanted to play in midfield, he got more than that.
