Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Manberg]

We're scoring great goals vs **** teams. **** all was created vs Liverpool and Saka brilliance nearly got us a goal vs City.

If this tactic is so good, why isn't Sterling playing wing back for City or Mane for Liverpool? Maybe Bale could return at wing back for Sp**s. In fact that would be great, if Son and Bale could play opposite sides.

It's a negative strategy, that is an embarrassment against the smaller teams. I appreciate we may need the extra man vs top teams away, but 5 at the back vs Sheff and Fulham is tragic.

We have a negative manager. I'm not adverse to the idea of this as I wanted Simeone, but we need some quality in our play instead of hoping for Saka or Auba magic.

It’s the way forward. Liverpool rely on Mane and Salah magic. Sp**s rely on Kane and Son. Neither have a #10 or creative midfielders.
I’d like to see Martinelli back.

 

[truth_hurts]

It’s the way forward. Liverpool rely on Mane and Salah magic. Sp**s rely on Kane and Son. Neither have a #10 or creative midfielders.
I’d like to see Martinelli back.

I would suggest that the systems of Liverpool and Sp**s bring the best out of their attacking stars.

Our main forward is isolated on the wing starved of service - this isn't new, his brilliance has bought him so many goals; our 50m striker is rotated with a kid. This kid after breaking an international record can't get a look in. Our record signing has tweet feet, despite being left footed because he barely gets a touch stranded on the right wing. The player brought in to solve our creative issues is learning how to play CF aged 32 at The Etihad and our most creative player is playing at wingback.

We are VERY different to Pool and Sp**s!

 

[Manberg]

I would suggest that the systems of Liverpool and Sp**s bring the best out of their attacking stars.

Our main forward is isolated on the wing starved of service - this isn't new, his brilliance has bought him so many goals; our 50m striker is rotated with a kid. This kid after breaking an international record can't get a look in. Our record signing has tweet feet, despite being left footed because he barely gets a touch stranded on the right wing. The player brought in to solve our creative issues is learning how to play CF aged 32 at The Etihad and our most creative player is playing at wingback.

We are VERY different to Pool and Sp**s!

I share your frustrations about Pepe. Having two quality players who are ruthless in the final third on either wing makes a world of difference. 1 is easy to shut down, 2 is not. Pepe’s not doing the business at the moment.

 

[truth_hurts]

I share your frustrations about Pepe. Having two quality players who are ruthless in the final third on either wing makes a world of difference. 1 is easy to shut down, 2 is not. Pepe’s not doing the business at the moment.

I agree, Pepe has to be more accountable for his performances. Although isolated on the wing, he doesn't do enough when in possession.

Our only performing attacking player is a 19 year old, who is playing at wingback. The fault of that has to.lie with the manager.

 

[Manberg]

I agree, Pepe has to be more accountable for his performances. Although isolated on the wing, he doesn't do enough when in possession.

Our only performing attacking player is a 19 year old, who is playing at wingback. The fault of that has to.lie with the manager.

I’d say the fault has to lie with a lack of quality options in our forward line. We overrate our attack massively. We need forwards who can create as well as score, and do some magic.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

We're scoring great goals vs **** teams. **** all was created vs Liverpool and Saka brilliance nearly got us a goal vs City.

If this tactic is so good, why isn't Sterling playing wing back for City or Mane for Liverpool? Maybe Bale could return at wing back for Sp**s. In fact that would be great, if Son and Bale could play opposite sides.

It's a negative strategy, that is an embarrassment against the smaller teams. I appreciate we may need the extra man vs top teams away, but 5 at the back vs Sheff and Fulham is tragic.

We have a negative manager. I'm not adverse to the idea of this as I wanted Simeone, but we need some quality in our play instead of hoping for Saka or Auba magic.

You aren't looking at it the right way. Against Fulham we pretty much had the ball for the whole game and in that sense we played in a 433 with Tierney flying down the left. Just because it says the formation on paper doesn't mean its rigid. Against City it felt more rigid because of their attacking prowess.

It isn't a negative strategy, its a clever one. At one that the players are very much used to right now. Doesn't take a couple of weeks to coach a new system into everyone. We will eventually go with the 433 or 4231 permanently, but right now it isn't the time. Just relax and trust the process. Wouldn't be comparing Simeone to Arteta either, poor comparison actually. Simeone's system is very rigid and there's no interchangeability.

 

[Riou]

None of our attacking players are actually good footballers though...Auba, Laca, Pepe all have ridiculous flaws compared to the forwards at City, Liverpool, Sp**s etc (Nico is good, but his laid back style of play is a big worry for this league) the only rounded footballer in attack we have is Saka, and he's a kid ffs!

This is the least technical side we have had for a LONG time, even George Graham had the likes of Rocastle and Merson, Arteta has no one close to that.

You build from the back first, Partey and Gabriel will make our team so much more solid...so this season we will be a more defensive team (or a PaRk ThE bUs team, for the nonces on this forum) then we can start bringing in better attacking players next season to fix the football, as we barely have any good footballers anymore.

Even compare it to the players Arteta played with from 2011-2016...Van Persie, Özil (not this gimp version now), Sanchez, Cazorla, Ramsey, Wilshere, Rosicky, Diaby etc...hell, even someone like Iwobi puts our "technical" players in this team to shame.

Give the manager a chance.

 

[truth_hurts]

I’d say the fault has to lie with a lack of quality options in our forward line. We overrate our attack massively. We need forwards who can create as well as score, and do some magic.

I still can't work out whether we overrated our forwards or underrated them based on their performance here.

By this I mean Pepe was a double double killer in France, Lacazette was clinical, Willian is coming of his best Premier League season, Nketiah has scored at every level he's played at and Auba is world class. It's just not clicking.

 

[truth_hurts]

You aren't looking at it the right way. Against Fulham we pretty much had the ball for the whole game and in that sense we played in a 433 with Tierney flying down the left. Just because it says the formation on paper doesn't mean its rigid. Against City it felt more rigid because of their attacking prowess.

It isn't a negative strategy, its a clever one. At one that the players are very much used to right now. Doesn't take a couple of weeks to coach a new system into everyone. We will eventually go with the 433 or 4231 permanently, but right now it isn't the time. Just relax and trust the process. Wouldn't be comparing Simeone to Arteta either, poor comparison actually. Simeone's system is very rigid and there's no interchangeability.

It's all semantics though as to whether it's formation, instruction, application or implementation. Our attack is blunt.

I didn't suggest that Simeone and Arteta have similar strategies, but rather suggested I wouldn't mind defensive football. The lack of quality in possession and going forward scares me though.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

It's all semantics though as to whether it's formation, instruction, application or implementation. Our attack is blunt.

I didn't suggest that Simeone and Arteta have similar strategies, but rather suggested I wouldn't mind defensive football. The lack of quality in possession and going forward scares me though.

The thing is against drab opposition we should be able to keep a lot of clean sheets now. So we only need a few chances and we do have Auba/Pepe/Saka who are usually quite clinical.

Against bigger sides we'll have to see what we can do, Partey will help massively controlling the midfield.

 

[truth_hurts]

None of our attacking players are actually good footballers though...Auba, Laca, Pepe all have ridiculous flaws compared to the forwards at City, Liverpool, Sp**s etc (Nico is good, but his laid back style of play is a big worry for this league) the only rounded footballer in attack we have is Saka, and he's a kid ffs!

This is the least technical side we have had for a LONG time, even George Graham had the likes of Rocastle and Merson, Arteta has no one close to that.

You build from the back first, Partey and Gabriel will make our team so much more solid...so this season we will be a more defensive team (or a PaRk ThE bUs team, for the nonces on this forum) then we can start bringing in better attacking players next season to fix the football, as we barely have any good footballers anymore.

Even compare it to the players Arteta played with from 2011-2016...Van Persie, Özil (not this gimp version now), Sanchez, Cazorla, Ramsey, Wilshere, Rosicky, Diaby etc...hell, even someone like Iwobi puts our "technical" players in this team to shame.

Give the manager a chance.

Completely agree that our forwards are not technically gifted. Willian is, but he lacks in drive, pace and directness. Probably ditto for Pepe if we're being hyper critical on his speed.

I don't think Salah and Mane are particularly technical either though.

We (or Arteta) needs to find a way to get our attack to function as I feel we have good options. Maybe Martinelli is part of the missing link?

 

[truth_hurts]

The thing is against drab opposition we should be able to keep a lot of clean sheets now. So we only need a few chances and we do have Auba/Pepe/Saka who are usually quite clinical.

Against bigger sides we'll have to see what we can do, Partey will help massively controlling the midfield.

With Partey here, hopefully a functioning midfield will.improve our attack...

 

[Ibadan]

Xhaka can't receive the ball on the half-turn, Ceballos had a few opportunities to get us up the pitch but was sloppy with his passing, Saka was best equipped for that but he had the touchline as an extra defender which made it easier for City to box him in.

It was really boring to watch.

Saka's dribbling was unreal this game though, so much ball progression. Hope we see him in midfield at some point

 

[Macho]

It's all semantics though as to whether it's formation, instruction, application or implementation. Our attack is blunt.

I didn't suggest that Simeone and Arteta have similar strategies, but rather suggested I wouldn't mind defensive football. The lack of quality in possession and going forward scares me though.

I wouldn’t mind defensive football either myself tbh it’s not a sin. I’m all about the W, thankfully Arteta is too.

I think eventually we will have our own interpretation of Athletico’s system - which I’m fine with, as Simeone was always my ideal manager.

I don’t think our attack is broken, if anything I think they don’t get the credit they deserve. We consistently perform beyond our expected goals every match - we routinely make 2 or 3 chances a game. These guys have managed to make it work and when we don’t, there’s nothing but tears.

I think the link between our defence/midfield to our front three is the actual problem. For all our fraffing around trying to play out of the box and sideways passing it rarely amounts to much. Auba and Pepe can easily have a whole game pass them by, Lacazette is in midfield (he was collecting the ball off Gabriel at times against City).

It’s a shame Aouar or someone similar didn’t happen.

 

[Riou]

I don't think Salah and Mane are particularly technical either though.

They play with such speed though, none of our wingers really run fast, nevermind run fast with the ball...Liverpool have basically got 2 prime Marc Overmars' as their wingers, same with City, same with Sp**s, we have none...our best winger is Saka, even then I see him as more of a playmaking winger than a direct/fast one personally...the lack of speed on the ball is very worrying in our team.

Until we improve our attack by buying better players (as that's the only way, as our options aren't good enough) I am happy for Arteta to focus on a defensive gameplan, as it's working for us.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

With Partey here, hopefully a functioning midfield will.improve our attack...

Yeah I mean obviously Arteta has a plan and that plan is to move to a 433 with something like this -

Leno
Bellerin - Saliba - Gabriel - Tierney
Xhaka/Ceballos
Partey - Aouar
Pepe/Willian - Auba - Saka
​

I'd like to see Saliba come in soon to be honest, don't think there's any harm in bringing him in after this run of tough games. Aouar or someone of that ilk is really key to unlocking the 433 permanently but I'd be very happy to utilise Saka as the LCM for now.

In the long run Saka/Martinelli will be a huge part of our attack. Pepe will hopefully be our long term right winger as well.

 

[Macho]

Mane and Salah are plenty technical. Can strike the ball cleanly from anywhere, can combine with their team mates with passes just fine. Not sure what more they would need to show in that regard.

Both had stints as no.10 in previous clubs despite being known as forwards/wingers. Maybe cause they are super athletes it throws people off?

 

[blrgooner]

I still can't work out whether we overrated our forwards or underrated them based on their performance here.

By this I mean Pepe was a double double killer in France, Lacazette was clinical, Willian is coming of his best Premier League season, Nketiah has scored at every level he's played at and Auba is world class. It's just not clicking.

I think we both overrate them and underrate them.
We overrate them while analyzing the team through the belief that their existence on the pitch alone will get us goals.They really are not that good. They can`t dribble past the opposition midfield and defense and get us goals.
We underrate them looking at their performance in specific games because we don`t understand that attacking players can only do so much if they don`t have much support from the midfield. Also, attacking players usually have games where they don`t play well(Like Pepe vs Man city) they don`t become poor players because of this though. Pepe had 12 or 13 touches of the ball in the entire game. We really couldn`t bring him into the game at all.
I don`t think attacking players are a problem at the moment. Especially if our aim is to get to the top 4. Are they good enough to win us 80+ points? I don`t think so.

 

[GoonerJay24]

Completely agree that our forwards are not technically gifted. Willian is, but he lacks in drive, pace and directness. Probably ditto for Pepe if we're being hyper critical on his speed.

I don't think Salah and Mane are particularly technical either though.

We (or Arteta) needs to find a way to get our attack to function as I feel we have good options. Maybe Martinelli is part of the missing link?

Mane isn't technically gifted; are you smoking rocks mate?

 

[Kav]

So people on here are now glorifying “parking the bus now”. Damn hypocrites. How the mighty have fallen.

Arteta sets his team up to be structured off the ball and difficult to break down. That is fine. His problem is his insistence on playing out from the back. Our team takes so long to progress the ball that the opponent usually has more than enough time to get themselves organized. Additionally we no longer make passes through the lines, our penetration comes specifically down the flanks. Which means we became predictable going forward.

The over the top ball or cross field passes work for now because of the quality of Auba’s finishing and Willian and Saka/Pepe on crosses. However this tactic won’t be sustainable. We need more variety in our attacking play. We more importantly need to move the ball quicker up the field. Unfortunately Arteta values possession of the ball over penetration of the opponents defense and that will be his downfall because our midfield is not capable of cycling possession.

Simply put he needs to mix it up to be more effective because our shot creation and chances created per game is abysmal. It’s borderline **** show and this is Arsenal not Burnley not West Brom not stoke.