Arsenal: Alexander Hleb, The Pre-Assist and Its Importance to the Modern Game

Alexander Hleb has been Arsenal’s most polarising player ever since his arrival from Stuttgart three years ago. Oft maligned for his wastefulness in possession and inability to record a decent tally of either goals or assists in any of his seasons at Arsenal, he somehow simultaneously managed to become one of our most dangerous players.

He is a truly world-class dribbler and protector of the ball, whilst somehow simultaneously managing to be unselfish to a fault. 

When questioned about his persistence with Hleb during one of Hleb’s less productive periods at the club, Arsene Wenger pointed to his quest for perfection in the pass—the eye-of-the-needle pass that would almost definitely result in a goal.

A look at Hleb’s statistics for last season show a frankly poor number in the total assists column. A look at his performances, however, will tell you that Hleb was in fact almost as important to Arsenal’s goal figures as Cesc Fabregas or Emmanuel Adebayor. He had actually been a major factor in the assists totals of many of the Arsenal players last season.

The Wenger system is designed to give each player on the ball the maximum number of short options, all over the park. We keep the ball on the floor, we move as a unit, and keep the chances of completing a pass in our favour.

Cesc Fabregas is vital to this system because he almost always executes the right pass to keep the tempo of our game flowing, ensuring the recipient of the ball will have the most options or an obvious option: whether it is to pass, run with the ball, shield the ball, or shoot.

Fabregas, as he showed in the European Championships, is also becoming a master at timing his runs beyond the midfield and receiving the ball in dangerous positions. That’s what makes him so hard to play against—wherever he receives the ball, his next decision is going to put the opposition under pressure.

The further up the field, the more pressure there will be. Even if he’s not up there, and the defence is sleeping, he will find that pass. Now that he can score goals, there is literally no limit to what he can achieve.

When Fabregas, or any other Arsenal player, makes that run, the run is rendered useless unless they get the ball. The easy assist—the square ball across the six-yard box or the short diagonal pass behind a centre-back on his heels—is rarely a result of a 20-30-yard dribble from the assisting player.

More often than not, he would have been closed down by the time he would get to that position whilst carrying the ball.

What Hleb does better than anybody is to pick the pass that the assister will receive. Perfectly weighted, with Hleb often having drawn defenders away from the space the recipient can run into. He opens the game up with the threat of his ability, then slides the ball into the area behind whoever’s focused on him. Cesc knew where that would be, as did Eboue, Sagna, Clichy, Adebayor, Van Persie, and Eduardo.

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