RETRO TACTICS EPISODE 2
Team: Arsenal FC
Manager: Arsene Wenger
Era: Premier League Season 2003/4
In the second installment of our Retro Tactics series, we look at arguably the greatest team to ever grace the English top-flight, Arsene Wenger's Arsenal 'Invincibles'. 38 games, 1 Premier League trophy, and 0 defeats, this was arguably where the North London side (and football itself) peaked.
Key Players: Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Sol Campbell, Dennis Bergkamp, Jens Lehmann, Robert Pires.
Honours: Premier League 03/04 (undefeated).
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Humbly asking for your collective forgiveness for mispelling Patrick Vieira's name... 😒 ANYWAY Please comment *here* to suggest teams we could do for future Retro Tactics videos!
Valencia circa 2000 with Mendieta etc and UTD 2008! PLEASE 🙂
Jose Bordalas’ 2018-19 Getafe team that finished in 5th Ernesto Valverde’s 2017-18 Barca team Leonardo Jardim Monaco team Lyon from 2001-2008 Lucescu’s Shakhtar Donetsk 2008-90 team that won the UEFA cup Andre Villas Boas’ porto 2010-11 side that won the UEFA cup
2010 Inter Milan
You mentioned it in the intro... Pardew's Newcastle side!
99' Manchester United, 94-95 Ajax (Love me a treble). If those are too old Ancelotti's 2009/10 Chelsea were crazy
How Thierry Henry didn't win the Ballon d'Or between 2002 and 2004 is criminal.
Some people downplay the Invincibles because of the draws but to think it wasn't broken for a 100 years and not give them praise if just being salty.
Nah it's not being salty. It's actually Arsenal fans who are the problem. They act like the invincibles are the greatest achievement which it's not. There are many more greater teams
lool so its our fault now. Name those teams then@@samkelorashuza5949
When you analyze the situation, you'll realize that this accomplishment stands as the most significant feat accomplished by an English club, particularly considering Manchester United's longstanding dominance.
@@samkelorashuza5949 even Sir Alex said it's the greatest achievement, that he wishes he could have done with United. That speaks volumes.
@@anish87 Sir Alex Ferguson is GOATED but he was wrong about a lot of things
duncan fergurson and the really angry voices in his head broke me
Invincibles tactics is to have telepathic understanding
Damn even the rotational players are elite
Wenger knew know tactics 😂
@@DavidLawlor-ci8wz And you don't know how to spell
@@jaydub2546he does he just didn’t structure his sentence properly
@@DavidLawlor-ci8wz I mean Wengers best match in 2016 was Arsenal Legends v Milan Glorie. Shows how his era can be defined in two phases.
I'll give you Reyes, but Clichy was then only a raw 18 year old and Keown was 37, barely played. Edu and Wiltord were very good. Lots of pace and power, with good technical quality, in the back ups.
I was fortunate to be a Highbury season ticket holder during this period. Peak Henry, peak Bergkamp. peak Vieira. Brilliant to watch.
Can we appreciate that’s Bergkamp at like 34/35 here 5:35
8:25 There was a Freddie Ljunberg quote about this on that sky thing he did on Monday night football, Wenger didn't tell the players to move how they did, but he planned that they would move naturally like that
What! Man I loved those players
I think someone at this channel knows which football fans are enjoying their football the most at the moment and so bring in the views 😂 I’m so here for it
Gilberto is like what Rodri is today for city. He was so pivotal how they played.
Best football channel by far.
This team deserves more respect ✊
Still remember the last game of the season and my 13yr old self going mental in the pub with my Dad as the final whistle went.
This was one of the most enjoyable and feel good content Ive seen in a very long time. To have been 10 and grew up on the Invincibles then to get this breakdown decades later to explain it all is extremely satisfying. Thanks Adam.
People seem to have completely forgotten Edu usurped Gilberto. Edu played all the big games even when Gilberto was fit e.g. champions league ties against Chelsea and the league game again Chelsea and united etc.
He was a very solid player, but not sure if I'd use the word "usurp"
What is this 12 year old talking about lmao? Edu didn’t “usurp” Gilberto? Gilberto is literally the most underrated player in this team and then end of that season he got a huge injury and we had to play Edu and you can see the drop off Edu was class don’t get me wrong but Gilberto was a beast of a different nature Gilberto is one of the most under appreciated midfielders of all time
Great video Adam, thanks. I went to most of our games in that glorious season and it was an amazing time!
Really love this series! Hope you guys keep it up!
Hell-of-a-team. Great vid.
fascinating, i love the tactics video...
Keep in mind PNE did it in a 22 game season.
Pure brilliant analysis
Love this content, thank you. COYG!
Love these videos, love Adam and love this channel.
My new favourite football channel
This is the content that got me and likely many others to subscribe. Sod the algorithm, more please!
Brilliant work!
Lovely to see the invincibles reviewed through the lens of modern tactical analysis
Really interesting video. As an Arsenal fan, I learned a lot! Thanks guys
That team was such a joy to watch. Devastating quick combinations with brilliant players all around
Great analysis, thanks!
Thanks for this. As far as I remember, while he occasionally made changes during the game, Wenger didn't tweak his tactics beforehand for opponents at that time. He liked to let his players find solutions if possible. Late Bergkamp was wonderful. Although he always liked to get around the pitch when he was a 9, being an Ajax product, even sometimes winning the ball back basically in the full back position on occasions early on, Bergkamp as a 10, a little more conservative with his energy, was a complete reinvention and prolonged his career at Arsenal. Arguably he was even better as a 10 than when he was the out and out goalscorer.
Love retro tactics.
I guess that's what Arteta is trying to do with this year's iteration of Arsenal. Power and pace to deal with the long balls.
Love this video.
thank you for this one!
Great video, thank you.
This is awesome!
Loved this Adam x
Thanks 🙏🏻
"The best collection of four attackers ever in the Premier League." This is the best, most accurate thing you have ever said. And I like what you say almost all the time. These 4 were in fact unplayable when supported by Viera and Gilberto. Total attacking freedom with devastating verticality, transitions Wenger taught; the best side I have ever seen at playing past the pressure early from the middle third with pace and power no team could match.
Fantastic video
I love this breakdown! Of course Wenger was a brilliant manager and implored good tactics for each game. It’s obvious because as you said he changed the lineup every game. And it was more so that than anything else tbh at made them successful! Wenger knew what attributes of each player was needed for any given game any given team
Would really love to see a analysis of Ancelottis Ac Milan 🙏
Good stuff. A couple of things, Ray Parlour played mainly as a part of a double pivot paired with Gilberto Silva. Kolo Toure played on the right side of centre back.
I would love to see a tactical video of Blackburns win and Shearers tactical brillans.
I believe it was Alex Ferguson who said it best. Arsenal at this time were not just brilliant footballers. They were top class athletes as well. Technical ability+ tactical sense added to pace and power.
Love this channel, with Tifo IRL changing to a new formula this fills the void perfectly! A small thing you might consider is that the red frame around your thumbnails is the same red as youtube uses to show how much of a video you've watched, so it can be difficult to see how much/if I've watched a video - might help with views, I don't know 🤷🏻 But thanks again for the videos, super interesting!
Reto Tactics is the perfect name. Glad to see more of this =) I'll die on the hill of Chelsea 05 + at least 2 other teams have been more impressive than the Invincibles. Still a great achievement tho
Only one team has a golden premier league trophy. No other team has been able to remain unbeaten.
A great achievement is getting 100 points, or having the best defence.... those are simply decorative. In 90 minutes of football, the best you can ever hope for against the Invincibles was a draw... now that is deserving of a golden premier league trophy
@@barryowiti7831You can't beat 100 points. Like 100 points is better than any team in English history so that means no team in English history can win the title over the centurions. You literally can only hope for second place
Come on bro.... dont be salty....Alex Ferguson himself said that he wished he would have done it with United. @@samkelorashuza5949 You are probably some young city fan.... let me put it into perspective Arsenal did that without oil money ;) and Russian money
Also @@samkelorashuza5949 Despite having all the oil money, and probably breaking FFP rules, city could not remain unbeaten. The premier league is the hardest league because any team can beat any team. That is what makes it difficult. There is no guarantee of victory. Despite all that, the Invincibles went unbeaten.
Arteta will go unbeaten next season after we do the double, WOO! A man can dream.
Haha hopefully those dreams become reality us Gooners have been taking shit for year hopefully this season we can shut there f*ckin mouths
As a gooner, I remember in those days a corner against us was advantage arsenal
Please do Jock Steins Celtic team that beat Inter Milan to become the first non Latin team to win the European Cup. He famously revealed his tactics in a press conference before the game by saying he was going to attack, attack, attack, attack, love the vids
Well that was nice
Yes please do Pardews 5th placed Newcastle team!
12:00 it did happen, we shoulda lost game vs Portsmouth but Pires dive rescued it
Blackburn's PL winning side would be an interesting breakdown.
Arsenal is the best Team in the world
Forgot to mention Preston played only 22 games also the teams they lost to in competitions won them like fa cup united league cup Middlesbrough
Do Chelsea only conceeding 15 in a season, or 4+ seasons unbeaten at home. I will watch every single video on the Invincibles
the funny thing is that Arsenal's invincibles actually lost more cup games than United did the whole season when we won the treble (so they can't have been that "invincible")
Im a simple man, you talk about arsenal I watch.
The defining characteristic was the left triumvirate...Henry ,Pires and Cole..
If you think it's easy, let your team do it too.
I'll readily concede that the Invincibles season has been surpassed City, Liverpool, and even (ugh) Chelsea in terms of impressiveness as well as points, but I respect that the did it in as a relatively modestly spending club in the last gasp of the pre-oligarch, pre-petrostate era. And incredibly fun to watch at their best.
City - Nope Liverpool - nope Chelsea - Nope None of those have a gold EPL trophy and none of them went a full season without losing.
“Shit pinger” what a phrase
AC Milan's "silver age" era under Ancelotti pls
Could u do guardiolas 2011 barcelona team?
Vieira being spelled incorrectly whilst his name is spelled correctly in big letters in the background (even though it's greenscreen) is quite funny tbf
George graham also almost went invisible but there was a reason tony adams couldn't play so they lost 1 game to chelsea
Pires dived for a 1 all draw against Portsmouth, illegitimate season
How don't you have more views and subscribers?
cool
There's a reason this team went a record 49 games unbeaten. It also would have been more if the refs hadn't let Man U win.
Ahh yes that famous player Patrick Vieria, cousin of Patrick Vieira
"We really do our research at FourFourTwo" 1min 04secs....Vieira's name is misspelled. haha. Great video though...
Bump for the algo
Toure played RCB and the spelling of Vieira is upsetting
Spelt Vieira wrong
Noice
Did Preston really do it? It was the first EVER season and there was only like 10 or 11 teams in the league. Technically it counts, i guess but it's absolutely not the same.
Yes Preston did it. They went the full season, about 26-28 games unbeaten.
@@ITFNBiteBayKon 22 games
Liverpool 2008/09 Pls!!!!
glad to see adam clery, and not man city's adam monk
United 2008 pls
what are the chances Leverkusen would the same this season?
monaco 2018
I want to dispute "Vieria" :D
Joking aside, great video and thank you for making it. Interesting thing to note regarding Henry that I rarely hear mentioned, as so few managers and players seemed to notice it at the time, thus missing out on the best way to defend against him, which was actually much more simple than you might think. Instead of watching what TH14 was doing and marking/moving accordingly, smart defenders and midfielders who tended to do a little better against him would also take into account which players were in his closest "triangle". For example, if it was Pires and Bergkamp (so he was probably in or around the inside left channel), they would stand off him as he would invariably make a diagonal run into the box knowing that both Pires and Bergkamp loved to make (and were masters of making) passes that connected with that type of run, whereas if the players in his "triangle" were Gilberto and Ljungberg (so, probably in or around the inside right channel), they would move closer together to block a straight run into the box, as both of those players tended to pass in straighter lines. Best of all was when the triangle was Gilberto and Vieira, as this usually meant that he was about to go on one of his epic runs and invariably score or create a worldie! :D I used to sit mesmerised by the rotation of the players, but learned to understand how each player reacted dependent on the "triangle" that they found themself in based on that rotation. There was a lot of much more predictable play going on once you understood these "formations" well enough, but it took me about 3 years of watching every game (usually in the stadium) to get a reasonable grip of it, so imagine doing that as a player or manager when you were setting up for 1, 2 or even 3 different opponents each week? Seriously, go back and watch his goals and analyse the type of goal that he is scoring and what "triangle" he was in during the business end of the move. You will be surprised by how predictable it actually becomes!
You also got Campbell's number wrong. 23!
Damn...the best team in football history 🔥
No team deserved to be called invincibles than this one. They were basically City treble winning side ahead of its team. Also, shoutout to Dennis Bergkamp for being the first false 9 and false 10 before it existed.
There's no such thing as a false 10. He wasn't really a false 9 and I'm not sure he'd have been the first even if he was.
can you do liverpool's 2004/05 miracle of istanbul insight ? considering the level of madness of the comeback, the tactics behind it might be interesting to look at
First in prem Preston did it in the championship
think their tactic was to not lose 👍
something, something for the unspeakable evil that cannot be mentioned 😉
Recently got P38 W26 D12 L0 tattooed for the 20th anniversaryof this amazing team
COYS
Henry didn't score a penalty header as far as I know.
Yes Jeremie Aliadiere is a great name, but it’s no Mixu Patalainen
And to think Wenger built this team with very little money the guy was a genius shame he couldnt get that Champions League trophy with us though i think we coudve won it that season but Arsene had his eyes set on going unbeaten in the league
As an arsenal fan born in 2003 (won the fa cup on my birthday 🎉) I am very jealous of my dad who got to witness this. When wenger said that he thought it was possible for a team to go unbeaten he got so much shit from his friends who supported rival clubs and he was pretty much made a laughing stock...and then we did it.
first viewer
The amount of goals in this video from the shit Leeds team that still gives me nightmares...