Arsenal defender, Shkodran Mustafi, has questioned Unai Emery’s decision to play with a back three, following their 1-1 draw with Vitoria in Guimaraes.
Mustafi had opened the scoring in the 80th minute, only for the Gunners to concede in added time.
The German, speaking to BT Sport afterwards, they struggled to find “rhythm” as a result of the system deployed.
“We played with a back three, a system for a long time we didn’t play. So we needed our time a little bit to get the rhythm in.
“In the first half we didn’t do as we wanted. I think we came out better in the second half, had better rhythm, better passing.
“We need to stay calm. Everyone wants to show and give everything, sometimes when you are over-motivated it’s difficult to deal with that.
“But I think at the end of the day we need to stay calm, play our football, believe in ourselves and then in the final third try and do it a little bit more intelligently with more accuracy with our last pass,” Mustafi said.
He added: “I would love to finish in the 90th minute but when you score a goal and you still have time left to play against a team like today they throw everything up front.
“Sometimes it’s not organised any more, they throw a lot of bodies in the box, they keep crossing, I think we could have done better but in the end we have to accept and take the point with us.
“We could have dealt with it [Vitoria’s goal] a little bit earlier, rather than letting them put the cross in. In the end you have to accept it and move forward, take the positive things from the game.
“They are a good side. They are in the Europa League for a reason, they have quality and are quite compact.”
