After David Ornstein’s article a few days ago on Arsenal wanting Ben White, the rumors have intensified. Arsenal doesn’t see his price tag as ‘insurmountable,’ so there is a deal ready to happen at the end of the Euros if the club commits to him.
I look at if Arsenal need him, where he does best and areas he needs to improve to be a top-level Centre-Back.
Positioning:
When defending, Ben White rarely lets himself get caught out of his defensive line. He’ll scan to assess whether a player is occupying each player in the box (there is) so he can provide width to the other defenders – as a result, they cannot be stretched by a late run into the box or get done by the opposition exploiting their blindside.
As Ben White is the RCB in a back 3, his positioning in this scenario doesn’t apply to Arsenal’s 4-2-3-1, but it’s good to know that he can play the hardest role in a back 3 well enough.
When his team defends in a back 4, White isn’t caught outside his defensive shape, even if it’s against a team with good attackers like Liverpool. He knows when to step out and contest for the ball and his speed allows him to drop back in time to stop teams from using him as a target to get the ball through.
This makes it easier to go for White as Arsenal know how he plays in a setup that’s similar to their 4atb system, despite playing mainly in a 3atb one. He’s somewhat calm, and has a good attention span, especially when compared to Rob Holding, who is either too switched off or tries to force the issue unnecessarily.
Ball Progression:
White can find and exploit spaces whenever he sees them. Against Man United, he notices a gap where the referee is, using his pace and strong close control to progress the ball before inevitably getting fouled. Assured ball progression (within reason) is used as an alternative way to attack as it gets your team up the pitch without the risk of a turnover occurs and that’s where White excels.
Ball progression from deep isn’t an issue for Arsenal as their system allows for ‘stray’ defenders to be protected by the CM’s and the other center back, so Ben White being that type of progressor will be welcomed by Arsenal even if he makes the occasional mistake.
There are issues with the way he progresses the ball. When he isn’t given a wide passing option, White tries to drive inside and play the ball through the 3 Chelsea attackers, but he gets caught out. He tries to do the impossible and he doesn’t have the protection when that fails. As previously established, that really isn’t a criticism that can be levied at Arsenal, but it’s good to know the strengths/limitations of the player.
Tackling:
Ben White is good at timing his tackles and keeping players out of the game. He perfectly times his tackle and throws off the attacker so the ball can be cleared to safety by the fullback. White isn’t a player that loves to defend, even though he does defend a lot. His game revolves around ball progression and keeping the ball going rather than pure defending for the sake of defending, similar to how David Luiz played for Arsenal.
White is smart with choosing when to commit to a tackle and when not to. In this situation, he realizes that the attacker has lost balance but there’s another attacker behind him so he swipes the ball into the path of the attacker already there which leads to a Brighton goal-kick.
He isn’t the perfect defender by all means, but as he can take advantage of attacking imbalances, he can hide his defensive deficiencies and stop attackers from getting the better of him. He needs to have more power in his tackles, as his ‘half committing’ to tackles stops him from being able to clear the danger after sensing it.
This is where White makes a mistake, he commits to the attacker too early and tries to swipe the ball away from him (not an issue,) which leads to him losing the ball and the attacker keeping the ball with himself right after. Luckily he had defensive protection with there being 4 defenders behind him ready to win the ball back at the end.
This problem isn’t a massive one as Ben White wouldn’t be isolated with a static attacker when playing at CB too often, but it’s key to keep in mind when assessing whether his strengths outweigh his weaknesses.
Passing:
In the final third, Ben White can settle outside the opposition’s box and play in good balls into open space for the attacking players to deal with, just like he did here against Spurs. Even though there wasn’t an attacker (or defender) to deal with the ball in, the technique and the intention of the play bodes well as it establishes his high-risk high-reward nature in the final third.
Arsenal having a CB that can get the ball to any of their wide attackers or forwards close to the goal will help their goal-scoring woes. As White can find the attacker on the left, Aubameyang can make runs off the left-hand side and attack the goal when the chance is there.
Like Luiz, Ben White can play the ball to attackers from his half/the halfway line into space that they best see fit. It leads to his team getting on attacks against low blocks that won’t give you the space to play the ball through them (as Fulham are,) and it leads to his team getting 2-3 more opportunities per game – that could be better utilized by a striker like Aubameyang instead of Maupay.
Again, the intention of Ben White’s pass outweighs the quality of the pass. He identifies a space where the Spurs offside trap is weak and plays a pass to breach it. It doesn’t go through with Lloris collecting the ball after. A common theme I’ve noticed when Rob Holding is camped in the opposition’s half is his constant attempts at switching the play, or under-hitting passes when he makes the right call.
That’s not something Ben White does, he’ll either overhit his pass (not a bad sign as he just needs to learn how to weigh it better, instead of having to learn to hit the ball harder,) or he’ll find his man most of the time.
Heading:
Heading is one of Ben White’s biggest weaknesses, as he isn’t aerially dominant despite his 6’2 stature and he’s easily muscled off the ball in the air when in that situation. That being said, when defending a corner, Ben White is more than capable enough of beating his man because it’s in an environment that suits defenders. If he gets nudged off the ball, he can claim that he was fouled, and he can clear the ball away if he does win it.
Ideally, Ben White would bulk up at Arsenal and improve his vertical leap (to be close to Kieran Tierney’s) so he doesn’t have an issue with heading when it comes to him facing the likes of Calvert Lewin, Bamford or any other center forward who is good in the air.
Ben White is beaten in the air by the Everton attacker looking to get his team to win the second balls. He misjudges the flight of the ball which leads to him being put off balance and losing out on the ball and then the follow-up ball right after. This is more so down to the player not having the know-how to navigate around an aerial situation, as he has primarily played for teams that contest for balls on the floor, so targeted Aerial training may turn a weakness into a strength of his,
Where does he fit into this Arsenal team?
With William Saliba playing as the left centre-back for the last 2 seasons, it would be right to put him on the left-hand side of the Arsenal defence, Ben White occupies the right-hand side as that’s where he has performed ever since his breakout season with Leeds 2 years back. Arsenal would have players with enough pace and ball security to play a 2-3-5 when in possession with the new RB inverting into central midfield to help Arsenal’s ball progression from there.
With Gabriel Magalhaes as Arsenal’s LCB, Arsenal would still need to play a 3-2-5 with Neves/Bissouma slotting into the back 3 to help Arsenal build better from the left-hand side. It’s good to see that Arsenal have different systemic choices there based on who’s starting, which always bodes well for the club.
Arsenal have prioritized the idea of central compactness in their game plan, they look to have a solid set of CB and CMs to allow their fullbacks to have complete freedom to join the attack on the overlap or underlap the wingers when they best see fit.
To understand central compactness better in the context of Arsenal. They need 4 ‘defending’ players back at all times to stop them from being outnumbered by the opposition at any given time, choosing the CB’s and CM’s to do that job deters teams from overloading centrally so they have to get the ball wide to progress the ball, but that would allow the fullbacks/wingers to track back and slow/stop any attack that’s coming.
Last Thoughts:
Ben White is an interesting player, he’s a technically sound, tall, and fast centre-back with a generally good reading of the game which he has honed over the years with Marcelo Bielsa and Graham Potter. However, he isn’t someone that likes to defend, he lacks power in his tacking and his heading needs work, but that’s potentially a circumstantial issue if anything.
He would be bought in to replace David Luiz, and he’s a good replacement to have on paper. He can start attacks on his own with his high-level ball progression and his long balls (he can use both feet well,) but for the £40-50m touted, he would be a good signing if he went for the lower ballpark figure. A £40m English CB that’s a full international, 6’2 and 23 years old is a good deal as he will have years of development before he would reach his physical peak.