The style of football Freddie Ljungberg is implementing at Arsenal’s Under-23 side has been compared to the way Pep Guardiola gets his teams to play.
Ljungberg won five major honours as an Arsenal player between 1998-2007 and has gone on to coach the north London club at youth level – the Under-15 side in the 2016/17 season before coming back to coach the Under-23s in June 2018.
And Arsenal youngster Daniel Ballard, 19, commended the Swede for the way he analyses the game.
Ballard said: “He [Ljungberg] looks at the game in such a unique and different way.
“He often uses Guardiola and the way he plays, and tries to sort of implement that with us.
“Sometimes it looks risky and it is difficult, but when it pays off the football is really good and we have some really good results under him.”
But despite the Guardiola comparisons, the results on the pitch for the Under-23 side have not been similar to the one the Manchester City boss usually experiences.
The young Gunners are currently seventh in Premier League 2, having won six, drawn five and lost five of their opening 16 games.
They look particularly weak in defence having conceded 33 goals during their 16 league games this season, which is just one more than they have scored. Only two teams have conceded more in PL2.