Bodo Glimt boss Kjetil Knutsen has urged his side not to play like Tottenham if they are to stand any chance of beating the Gunners in their upcoming Europa League clash at the Emirates Stadium.
Mikel Arteta’s side have started the season in fantastic form, currrently sitting atop the Premier League table and having won their Europa League opener against FC Zurich, with their only defeat so far this campaign having come at Old Trafford to Manchester United.
Despite this, however, Bodo boss Knutsen has explained that he thinks he knows how to get the better of his opposite number, with the Norweigian side having already held PSV Eindhoven to a draw this campaign.
‘I started watching Arsenal against Zurich to analyse Zurich, but my concentration and my gaze went towards Arsenal because I was thinking, “What the hell are they actually doing?!”, he began.
“There are a lot of rotations, so you have to pick them apart and see where are the players who are fairly stable in their role and where are the players who rotate a lot.”
“It’s just extremely high-level, high-intensity football with extremely high-level individual qualities.”
‘They have a number of rotations with the left-back and central midfielder, who has a lot of freedom, but it’s a lot less on their right side” he continued.
‘But the way we defend, it doesn’t matter too much where players run because we are very zone-orientated in the way we defend.
‘If we played a man-to-man system we would have a huge challenge to face, but we are at the other end of the scale so that’s probably the least of my worries.’
Knutsen added: ‘They attack with a lot of people, they’re patient and then suddenly they have that burst in the final third.”
‘But they will also leave space in behind them which we will have to exploit. We need to be aggressive in the low block, high intensity in the high press, and we will have to control the ball.
”Tottenham Hotspur FC only defended, Zurich only defended – if you do that you won’t stand a chance against them.”
Judging by his comments, it could be an end-to-end affair at the Emirates, though planning and executing ideas are two completely different things, and it could be a rude awakening for the minnows.
