Hark! Come pass the time with a gratuitous long-read comparing White and Tomiyasu at right-back!
We all have our own ways of dealing with unexpected lulls in the schedule. Some of us find new and exciting fixtures to postpone. Some of us get beautifully preposterous tattoos. Some of us dive into increasingly questionable statistical wormholes.
If you're in the second group, you have my respect. If you're in the third, here are some words.
After six straight league games with Ben White starting at right-back, the first Europa clash saw Takehiro Tomiyasu get his first start of the young season.
Tomi was in fine form against Zurich, as he often is when he's playing:
He led the team in passes with 77
He led the team in pass accuracy at 95% (77/81)
He hit 6 long balls (including swooping change-of-play balls, through-balls and long flicks to Marquinhos, and dangerous hits to the middle)
He led the team in tackles (3) and won all his ground duels
He played all 90'
With White excelling at a new position, and Tomiyasu looking fully healthy again, two questions come to mind: (i) who is the best bet at right-back moving forward? and (ii), what unique (and/or contrasting) abilities do the two players offer that might help them shine in specific matchups?
To dive into these questions, we'll contrast White's experience as a right-back this year to Tomiyasu's debut season at Arsenal. Two big caveats apply:
The sample size for White is only 6 total starts (compared to 20 for Tomi)
White has played in a more ball-dominant team with 57.1% possession (compared to 53.1% last year) and an improved roster
As always, I didn't double-check any of this, and I'll be on the limits of my understanding.
Join me.
Passing
On the fringes, you'll notice White passing a little more to date, which coincides with the team increase in possession. There are two big differences in styles:
In general, White has been a lot more progressive, averaging 6.73 progressive passes per 90 to Tomi's 2.93. But Tomi has also been slightly more incisive in the final third: having almost twice as many key passes (passes that turn into shots) per 90 (.69 to .38), and posting 1.65 shot-creating actions per 90 to White's 1.34. He's also more likely to receive the ball further up the pitch.
White has also been pinging more low percentage, spray-and-pray crosses from the wing. This has popped up as a potential issue a few times for Arsenal as a team this year: the team was only 3/20 on crosses against Villa, and 4/16 against United.
Duels & Defense
Some highlights here:
Tomiyasu is nothing short of elite in the air. He participates in 3.27 more aerial duels per 90, and wins more than White even attempts. He's in the 98th percentile there. Tower Tomiyasu.
Tomi has also been more active at gathering loose balls and recovering them.
White is a little more aggressive when facing a 1v1 as a defender: tackling more, and getting dribbled past less. The tape shows that Tomi prefers to get perfect position on a winger and guide them into a spot of his choosing; they often give up from there.
Tomi clears the ball twice as much as White (2.55 to .96). Looking through Tomi's tape, I can't tell you how many longballs he calmly dispatched with a header.
A run-of-the-mill Tomiyasu 1v1; low, fundamental, and about squeezing them through positioning. White may be more likely to run directly at the player. Saw a ton of that when I wrote my Benny-at-CDM piece.
Runs & Possession
As White started playing full-back, one of the main questions was the degree to which he'd play an overlapping role, or whether he'd stay pretty deep in a modified 3-back system, finding a happy medium between his previous and current role.
It's clear what Arteta's preference has been: a 2-3-5 in possession, with Zinny cheating really far up, and White in a true Tomiyasu rule, level-ish with the 6, solidifying the midfield but also making some runs. He's actually been more active in making progressive runs to date, and anecdotally, those have been some of the most dangerous plays for the team.
He had a textbook example against Bournemouth.
First, White dribbles into wide open space...
...now entering the final third, he passes to Saka who had spread out to give him room...
...as Saka cuts inside and dribbles, White then sprints around the back of Saka, staying marginally onside (somehow)...
...and provides a cut-back-cross so good that both Jesus and Odegaard would have scored.
Other notes:
There seems to be messy dribbling data out there. I'm seeing 75% success rate for White on one service (Wyscout), and 42.9% on another (White). The truth feels somewhere in between. If you learn anything here, remember: never trust a stat.
What does seem to be true: Tomiyasu is dispossessed more than White. He's not always the most agile close-quarters dribbler under pressure.
Heatmaps
Pretty Spidermen-pointing-meme here, really.
Game Scores and Such
If I had to hypothesize why Tomiyasu has the advantage on Game Scores, it'd be: aerial duels, touches in the final third, shots, and key passes
Other Notes
Outside of the above, just a few things I wanted to add:
Footedness: Tomi is "more two-footed than 95% of full-backs in Europe’s top five leagues."
Positioning: Tomi leans on his (really effective) shielding move, using his physicality to box out his opponent like a basketball player, and lets the ball trickle out of bounds, or to a teammate. That isn't always credited in raw stats but is a really advantageous skill to have against shifty strikers.
Age: Tomi is 22 to White's 24. White is less new to this than I thought: going back into his deep gamelog (including U23's and work for Newport County in League Two), I saw more RB experience than expected: 2570 minutes in all, or about 30 full matches worth of games.
Goal Threat: Worth nothing that Tomi also been more of a threat on goal: he had 11 shots last year, and White is yet to register his first. It's never too late to watch his first Bologna goal again, a top-shelf banger against Donnarumma.
Progressive Passing: The advantage that White has had in progressive passing is pretty significant: his "progressive distance" per 90 is ~60 yards further towards goal.
Versatility: They both offer versatility outside of RB. Tomi at LCB (where he starts for Japan) or LB (as he did last year down the stretch), and White as a star-quality RCB and potential DM (I wrote up whole thing about that here)
Speed: I really wish I had a good way to compare their acceleration and speed. I know this data exists somewhere but have yet to find it. I believe Tomi to be slightly faster.
Health: As we all know, health is the elephant in this room. Tomi has had trouble staying on the pitch, while White generally hasn't.
In Summary
I headed into this hoping to identify some interesting stylistic differences between the two that would help determine particular matchups where they'd shine.
Ultimately, they're pretty similar players at right-back: sturdy, smart, good and safe passers, flexible, great 1v1 defenders, who ultimately aren't as quick, crossy, or attacking-minded as some of the game's top fullbacks. Two wonderful options, and — especially when compared to other spots on the pitch — they represent a very good depth problem to have.
They do have a couple stylistic divergences:
Tomi is two-footed and much better in the air.
White's 1v1 style is more direct, tackle-y, and aggressive; Tomi's is more about winning position and sucking the life out of an attack.
White is more progressive with his passing; Tomi is more efficient with his touches, and arguably more dangerous.
Tomi loses the ball when dribbling a bit more; he is also better at picking up loose balls and getting interceptions in open play, which may help with some of the counters that have been posing risk.
My own, subjective, high questionable verdict:
I believe an on-form Tomiyasu to be the marginally better option at right-back right now, and deserving of some starts in Premier League games. To oversimplify, I would ease him in by starting him something like 1-out-of-3 matches, before moving to 2-out-of-3. Until his durability improves, I don't see him being an every-match starter in the immediate future.
In general, I try not to think in terms of pure starters and bench players, and if it were up to me (and thank God it isn't), I would heavily rotate much of the squad based on fitness and form — and not just in cup games. To that end, White deserves regular — meaning pretty much every-match — starts at either CB and RB in any case, and first-subs when he's not a starter.
As far as finding ideal matchups for both, I have less clarity. My hunch would be to play Tomiyasu against pacier wingers (he's good at slowing things down) and games where aerial duels are pivotal (like a Mitrovic matchup). White did OK against Zaha all considered; last year, Tomi did well against Son in the first derby, and shut down ASM in the first round too. They both got wrecked by Jota in the EFL, and can have the same trouble with dramatic lateral changes of direction in space. If I was hoping for something like "use X against bigger wingers, and Y against faster wingers," alas, it's not that simple.
As of this moment, every backline player has gotten a sit except Gabriel, who had a rough go against Zurich. As one rotational option, I'd be very curious to see a backline of Tomiyasu-White-Saliba-Zinchenko, if Arteta is willing to consider a righty at LCB. Tomiyasu and White are already comfortable together, Saliba has experience at LCB, and I believe Zinchenko would benefit from less unpredictability from his LCB partner.
I wouldn't mind seeing Tomi at some LCB, either.
So, to answer the first question: should we start White or Tomiyasu?
My answer:
Happy grilling everybody.
🔥