Bodo/Glimt manager Kjetil Knutsen says his side “won’t stand a chance” against Arsenal if they defend against them the same way Tottenham did on Saturday.
The Gunners were excellent in the north London derby as they ran out 3-1 winners at the Emirates.
Tottenham did play into their hands in a sense, however, adopting a very defensive approach.
Mikel Arteta’s side made them pay and were able to stroll the last 30 minutes after Emerson Royal was sent off for the visitors.
Bodo take on Arsenal in north London on Thursday night in Europa League Group A.
The Gunners have only played one game in the competition this season after their matchday two tie against PSV was postponed.
This means Knutsen’s side are top of the table having beaten FC Zurich and drawn against the Dutch club in Eindhoven.
Knutsen has been analysing Arsenal’s game and it seems like he has got them sussed out.
“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?!’ Knutsen said.
“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.
“But when you get to see it over time, it’s not very complicated.
“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.
“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 reckons he can’t adopt the same approach Tottenham and Zurich went in with when they faced Arsenal.
“They attack with a lot of people, they’re patient and then suddenly they have that burst in the final third,” the Bodo boss added.
“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 only defended, Zurich only defended – if you do that you won’t stand a chance against them.”
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