Bodo-Glimt boss Knutsen believes he has Arsenal sussed out

‘It’s not very complicated!’: Bodo-Glimt boss Kjetil Knutsen believes he has Arsenal sussed out ahead of their Europa League game and suggests Tottenham lost the north London derby because they ‘only defended’

  • Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt play Arsenal at the Emirates on Thursday
  • They currently top the Europa League group but Gunners have a game in hand
  • Coach Kjetil Knutsen said he studied Arsenal’s win over Zurich closely
  • He believes he has Mikel Arteta’s style of football worked out for the match 

Bodo/Glimt manager Kjetil Knutsen believes he has sussed out Arsenal ahead of their Europa League meeting on Thursday night.

The Norwegian champions head to the Emirates Stadium for their third group match and a positive result will see them retain top spot in Group A.

The Gunners do, however, have a game in hand following the postponement of their home fixture with PSV Eindhoven following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Bodo/Glimt manager Kjetil Knutsen believes he has Arsenal figured out as they meet in Europe

Knutsen described Mikel Arteta’s style of playing as ‘not very complicated’ ahead of the game

Having studied Arsenal’s tactics in their win over FC Zurich on matchday one, Knutsen, who was recently linked to the Brighton job, is confident his team can frustrate them – and he even pointed out where Tottenham went wrong in Saturday’s north London derby.

‘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.

The Norwegian champions beat Zurich 2-1 in their last Europa League outing to top the group

‘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 added: ‘They attack with a lot of people, they’re patient and then suddenly they have that burst in the final third.

The Gunners stayed top of the Premier League table after beating Tottenham 3-1 on Saturday

‘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.’

Bodo/Glimt lost to Dinamo Zagreb in their Champions League play-off but have started well after dropping into the Europa League.

They gained a 1-1 draw away to PSV before beating Zurich 2-1 at home to move top of the standings.




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