While it was only a pre-season fixture, what we saw out there from Mohammed Kudus and Pedro Porro was nothing short of brilliant, given how they worked together to carve open Arsenal’s structure in the historic North London derby in Hong Kong.
We saw that this side already has a massive influence of Thomas Frank, especially given how they showed flashes of something sharp yet something systemic on that right channel, and at the heart of it was the North Londoners marquee summer signing, Mohammed Kudus, who was troubling the Gunners with his interior drift, while Pedro Porro showed his attacking mindset but in a different way, this time by holding width against Mikel Arteta’s defence, who were forced into a compact framework.
Kudus was an inverting menace vs Arsenal
The former West Ham star was not playing as your pure winger; he only started the game in that role on the team sheet because from the first whistle we saw how he was always trying to get the better of the Gunners midfield shape every time he got on the ball, and he did so not by hugging the sideline chalk but by slipping into the half-space where he pushed Arsenal every time.
So when he is on that drag from the outside to inside, you’d have to either track him and leave the wing exposed or hold your position and watch him turn into aggressive zones. This is where, as opponents, you cannot stand still; you are forced into a decision.
And the Ajax academy graduate created these constant overloads in the middle zones where he was taking up spaces just behind the opposition midfield, so this is where defenders feel comfortable engaging, but then you forget how good Kudus is with his close control and layoffs, which suddenly have Tottenham being a threat given how Arsenal were forced into a corner at times.
Even playing purely centrally, Maddison was never as reliant.
And when Tottenham did get the better of the Gunners press, we saw Kudus was often the pivot connecting short and moving quickly. In a way he was trying to ensure that the situation does not get bogged down with floating players for the sake of carrying it out wide.
And Porro gave you that width…
The Spanish international Porro was reading everything happening in front of him quite well. Given how every time Kudus took the ball on the inside, he didn’t hesitate, and Porro went into the wide space that was vacated by the former West Ham man on the right. So this way Porro has an opportunity to be an outlet as well as an end product if he receives the ball.
Now in those situations (while it did not happen against Arsenal), you can feel that he has that space to cross and cut back, which has the capacity to leave any defence thin.
But if you were to ask me, it was the timing of him taking those spaces that was the highlight, given how he was not overlapping for the sake of it. He tried to wait in the zone just outside the final phase, and as soon as he saw the gap open up with Skelly forced on the inside, that is when Porro went ahead in the space outright.
This can work against all the big sides…
The pattern from Kudus and Porro has the capacity to work against most teams in the Premier League.
If we are thinking about the best teams (which does include Arsenal), given if they end up defending in tight blocks (which the Gunners quite often do) or press like wolves (this is where you can consider Liverpool and Newcastle), that inside movement from Kudus will force even the best players to make uncomfortable choices.
And from how he played that role today, he is too good for the opponents to let him play inside on those lines, and if his markers continue to follow him, it drags defenders into no-man’s-land, and at the same time, Porro ensures that any lapse in concentration is punished with the width he holds.
Author Opinion
Honestly this is also Thomas Frank in a lot of ways and the clarity that he brings to the table. You see, while he is mistaken for it, Kudus is not just a flair player, and Porro is not just someone who roves along the fullback lines. And Frank realises that as he pairs them into a structure where one is pulling whilst the other is pushing, when one narrows, the other stretches.
This is one of many things that has sparked curiosity when it comes to tactical things that Tottenham did against Arsenal, and now it is about building those patterns and trusting those rotations and putting that trust in the system. And in these two, we could have the foundation of a right-sided threat that can pick and choose moments against most of the defences.