Arsenal fans who have watched Morocco reach the World Cup semi-final may have noticed similarities in playing style between Mikel Arteta and Walid Regragui.
If that is the case, there might be a reason for that.
What’s the story?
Well, Regragui has made a name for himself in Qatar after recording impressive wins over Belgium, Spain and Portugal as Morocco become the first African side in history to reach a World Cup semi-final.
Interestingly, the 47-year-old’s success at the World Cup comes after he attended a tactics seminar hosted by Arteta back in 2021, where the Spaniard used examples from Arsenal’s FA Cup semi-final win over Manchester City in 2020.
As you can see above, Regragui joined the likes of Pitso Mosimane – one of the most successful African coaches of all time – in listening to the Arsenal tactician’s ideas, which ultimately paid off as the Gunners won the FA Cup that season.
At the time, Regragui was in charge of Wydad AC, and surely in his wildest dreams he would not have imagined taking Morocco to their first World Cup semi-final just one year later.
Arteta inspires Morocco success
There are certainly similarities between Arsenal and Morocco.
For a start, Regragui has adopted Arteta’s 4-3-3 formation which can also switch to a 4-2-3-1 during the game, where the full-backs are heavily involved in build-up play.
Morocco also seem to be placing urgency on playing quick, forward passes, which has become a staple of Arsenal under Arteta as they look to take advantage of gaps higher up the field.
There also seems to be some parallels between the midfield dynamics.
In Sofyan Amrabat, Morocco have their own Thomas Partey or Granit Xhaka, with the more mercurial Azzedine Ounahi performing the Martin Ødegaard role.
If Morocco go on to do the unthinkable and win the World Cup, perhaps Arteta can take a little bit of credit for their success after his work with Regragui in the tactical seminar.
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