From unleashing Pépé to dealing with Xhaka: six things Ljungberg must do

Get the message across

It was offered as a throwaway line but, when Bukayo Saka explained after a breakthrough performance in the 3-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt in September that Freddie Ljungberg had been instrumental in helping him understand Unai Emery’s instructions, the alarm bells sounded.

He was hardly alone in not grasping exactly what Emery required of him and, while the manager’s persistence in working in his fractured English was highly respectable, it frequently led to confusion on the training ground. Ljungberg has no such problems and it is remarkable how effective short, simple messages can be. He certainly has the ear of Arsenal’s younger players, many of whom worked with him closely in the academy, and has quickly established an easy rapport with the first-team figures.

That may bring its own drawbacks in the longer run but, for now, a little clarity may be enough to get a tune from a befuddled squad.

Establish an identity

Given that Arsenal have eight games in December and little opportunity to perfect new ideas on the training pitch, anyone expecting Ljungberg to conjure an instant blend in his own image would be setting unfair demands. But he may be able to answer the question of what Arsenal actually are. Is this a high-pressing team, as appearances suggested early in Emery’s reign? Is it one that should thrive on controlling possession, as he frequently stressed during a run of loose late-season performances in 2018-19? Does it fetishise building from the back, an approach whose results have bordered on the comical at times? Or should it be based on quick transitions and swift recycling of possession to a dynamic front three, as seemed likely to be the case after Nicolas Pépé’s summer arrival?

Nobody – and this goes for many of the players – really knows. Part of the reason for Emery’s downfall was that he tried too many things and ended up grasping at thin air. Ljungberg, whose instinct is towards the fast attacking football with which he thrived as an Arsenal player, must establish some kind of identity as quickly as possible.

Unleash Pépé

Arsenal may have “won the transfer window” last summer but there has been little sign of success since then. Perhaps it would have been different if Pépé had hit the ground running but their £72m record signing is yet to score from open play and there have been serious questions – some put openly on the table by Emery – about his adaptation to life in England. It is hardly unreasonable to afford new additions to the Premier League some time to settle but, for what they paid, Arsenal need to start seeing a return soon.

Maybe it did not help that Emery became increasingly reluctant to offer him a run in the side; Pépé should have been flying after scoring two brilliant late free-kicks to defeat Vitória Guimarães on 24 October but has played only 238 of 630 available minutes since.

He has shown glimpses of his potential and, in the front-foot setup Ljungberg is likely to favour, should shine. If he does, the interim head coach’s life will be considerably easier.

Project himself positively

It is depressingly commonplace to see managers dehumanised when they hit trouble and one thing should be made clear: Emery is a good man and you would be hard-pressed to find any close associates who would contradict that. The problem was that it did not always come across in full, partly because of those language problems and partly because he had little interest in being clubbable. That is not a criticism, as substance should always come before style. Emery’s tenure lacked either of those, though, and one wonders whether he would have made more friends among the fans – and beyond – if he had been willing to offer a little more of himself. We never really got to know Emery, who was encouraged by figures within the club to throw a few more bones in his public statements but either saw no need or did not know how. Increasingly top clubs need a polished, personable front man to project their image: Ljungberg has the charisma and charm to do that and should win the instant favour that Emery, whose face was by the end a perfect advert for the health of his team, could not.

Cut out the defensive mistakes

Early in the second half of the draw with Southampton – a result that effectively gave Emery no way back – Arsenal were battering their opponents and a welcome three points looked realistic. Then Sokratis Papastathopoulos gifted an opportunity from which Cédric Soares and Michael Obafemi somehow failed to create a goal. It killed Arsenal’s momentum and their performance deteriorated rapidly.

It is an instructive example of a problem that has dogged them all season: a capacity to shoot themselves in the foot defensively even when things are going well. Part of that has owed to an ill-advised insistence on passing slowly out of defence, but individuals have dozed off at key moments and it is all the less acceptable given the backline’s top-level experience. Switches between a back three and back four have made little difference; such sloppiness has become endemic and Ljungberg needs to stamp it out.

Deal with Özil and Xhaka

Granit Xhaka’s quiet reintegration was perhaps the only positive to come out of Thursday’s defeat. Mesut Özil had been back in favour for a few weeks but question marks remain over the future of both players and, given their status as senior players and vastly experienced internationals, both situations need resolving quickly. Are Xhaka and Özil in or out?

Xhaka, who was far from enamoured of Emery’s handling of the situation that ended his shortlived captaincy, may sniff a long-term future now a change has been made. Özil, whose £350,000-a-week salary feels like an enormous millstone when he is not firing on all cylinders, may feel similarly but at 31 the day may have passed when he can even begin justifying those sums.

The uncertainty surrounding both players has not helped the atmosphere internally; Ljungberg needs to form a clear vision of where they stand.