Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Kysus]

Also, our forwards are not performing on an individual level, making poor decisions or poor execution in the final third. Finishing hasn’t been as clinical as it can be either.

Meanwhile at Roma Mkhitaryan has been involved directly in 9 goals( 4G/5A) in 9 Games.
At Arsenal that would mean scoring or assisting every single of our goals.

 

[Trilly]

Thou shall not attack through the middle of the field., this is an absolute very very big, extremely huge non negotiable.

 

[greekgooner]

He doesnt have to play all of the young players but at least having one on the bench shows that he is rewarding good performance. How else does a Willock or Nelson play themselves into the first team.

I agree but i think its easier To leave willock out of the squad than xhaka for obvious reasons. I think mikels mistake was that he didnt send them on loan especially willock with so much competition after the partey arrival. He kept him for cover to avoid an injury crisis and for europa league group matches. As for nelson i think he told him to go on loan but he refused and ask to stay and fight for his place so i think mikel had made up his mind before even the season starts.

 

[Kysus]

The issue is, they’re not exactly lesser opposition. Squad quality wise we don’t blow these teams away like we used to, and fans haven’t accepted that.

Meanwhile at Villarreal Emery's team has scored 9 goals in their last 3 games, as many as Arsenal have scored all season, while sitting 2nd in the table ahead of Real Madrid and Barcelona.

 

[greekgooner]

Personally i would like to see willock nelson esr amn saka saliba magalaes tirney Alongside our - playable- experianced players but that would mean change of targets especially for 2021 season

 

[yorch44]

Meanwhile at Roma Mkhitaryan has been involved directly in 9 goals( 4G/5A) in 9 Games.
At Arsenal that would mean scoring or assisting every single of our goals.

But in arsenal he would have none. Problem actually are not the players. Is the system.

I would say it over and over, if he wants to play 343 then he needs to play like wolves. Direct and quick counterattack. You want to play possession then you cannot play 3CB and 2 pivots. That's why you don't have any through balls. CMs are too far away. He is only overloading flanks with the winger and WB and sometimes one of the CBs. Everything in one flank. Too many players reducing spaces.

Our best football with Arteta was playing 4231 with Özil. He was linking pretty well with attack.

 

[Jae]

A con you’re missing is too many misplaced passes... due to poor passing. Also, our forwards are not performing on an individual level, making poor decisions or poor execution in the final third. Finishing hasn’t been as clinical as it can be either.

Incorrect unfortunately!

Passing Accuracy for 20/21 season (PL only)

Leicester 81%
Arsenal 86%
Spuds 83%
Liverpool 86%
Chelsea 86%
United 84%
City 88%

Out of all these teams, the only ones who have more passes than us each game (on average) are City, Liverpool and Chelsea (around 50-100 more per game).

Our passing accuracy isn't the issue, it's the fact that we are ultra safe and ultra conservative with the ball and 90% of our passes are sideways or backwards. Our players look like they are scared of losing the ball.

Agree that our strikers have been woeful, think part of that is the way we are set up though. What's more concerning is out of the "top" teams we've taken the least amount of shots (73) and were only averaging 1.13 goals per game. That means on current form we have to be almost perfect defensively in order to win games. Liverpool by comparison have taken nearly twice the amount of shots in the same amount of games. (133).

Our next three games are Leeds, Wolves and Sp**s. He's going to need to turn it around quickly or he's going to be under serious pressure by Christmas and the fans will be on his back (getting that way already to be fair).

Knowing Arteta we'll get turned over by Leeds and Wolves and then batter Tottenham and everyone will forget about everything that came before. At least for a few weeks anyway.

 

[14Henry]

Imagine the banter when Villareal qualify for the CL under Emery and we finish 8th or 9th.

 

[Makavelii]

Incorrect unfortunately!

Passing Accuracy for 20/21 season (PL only)

Leicester 81%
Arsenal 86%
Spuds 83%
Liverpool 86%
Chelsea 86%
United 84%
City 88%

Out of all these teams, the only ones who have more passes than us each game (on average) are City, Liverpool and Chelsea (around 50-100 more per game).

Our passing accuracy isn't the issue, it's the fact that we are ultra safe and ultra conservative with the ball and 90% of our passes are sideways or backwards. Our players look like they are scared of losing the ball.

Agree that our strikers have been woeful, think part of that is the way we are set up though. What's more concerning is out of the "top" teams we've taken the least amount of shots (73) and were only averaging 1.13 goals per game. That means on current form we have to be almost perfect defensively in order to win games. Liverpool by comparison have taken nearly twice the amount of shots in the same amount of games. (133).

Our next three games are Leeds, Wolves and Sp**s. He's going to need to turn it around quickly or he's going to be under serious pressure by Christmas and the fans will be on his back (getting that way already to be fair).

Knowing Arteta we'll get turned over by Leeds and Wolves and then batter Tottenham and everyone will forget about everything that came before. At least for a few weeks anyway.

Good post.
Agree. The players are playing with fear, not with free flowing spontaneity.

 

[Big Poppa]

A manager should impose his style of football in 2-3 months. Arteta has been at Arsenal since December and we've seen what he wants to play, even if he's banging the drum that he we have to do this and that. He's talking the talk, but he's not walking the walk.

If we do get an attacking player in January and we're still playing like this, he has to go.

Bonkers!

He took charge when this club was in free fall. Fans turned on players, and some players turned on fans. There was legit talk of being dragged into a relegation dogfight.

3 months in we then have a ****ing global pandemic, players can’t train together and the season gets suspended for another 3 months before restarting.

After that it’s games every 3 days for about 2 months with barely any time to train in between. A short break, no preseason and we go again.

This is with the backdrop of new back room staff, several player meltdowns, uncertainty around a star player’s future and a major change in the boardroom leadership.

We need to play fewer video games and get into reality !! A football club is an organisation, with conflicting stakeholders and you cannot change the culture of an organisation in 2-3 months.

You even had a cheat sheet by being able to watch that ****house Sp**s documentary to see what Mourinho had to do to fix that mess.

Arteta isn’t beyond scrutiny but let’s calm the **** down. He’s had one proper transfer window.

 

[Macho]

2-3 months

I hate Arsenal fans I swear

 

[A_G]

It's interesting that the perception is that Klopp changed Liverpool's style as soon as he came in, but one of their bloggers had this to say about his first season:
When Klopp took over from Brendan Rodgers in October 2015, he inherited a Liverpool squad which had played a number of different formations and broader approaches over the past few years, as Rodgers generally had a flexible approach. With a hectic schedule and little coaching time available, he adopted a 4-2-3-1 that featured a lot of pressing but not much in the way of a clear idea in possession. Despite reaching a Europa League final, Liverpool in 2015/16 were not a particularly interesting side and it was not until the following preseason that Klopp was able to really instigate his style at the club.

 

[DUFFMAN]

2-3 months

I hate Arsenal fans I swear

The worst bunch and I've no problem saying it.

 

[Breezy]

It's interesting that the perception is that Klopp changed Liverpool's style as soon as he came in, but one of their bloggers had this to say about his first season:
When Klopp took over from Brendan Rodgers in October 2015, he inherited a Liverpool squad which had played a number of different formations and broader approaches over the past few years, as Rodgers generally had a flexible approach. With a hectic schedule and little coaching time available, he adopted a 4-2-3-1 that featured a lot of pressing but not much in the way of a clear idea in possession. Despite reaching a Europa League final, Liverpool in 2015/16 were not a particularly interesting side and it was not until the following preseason that Klopp was able to really instigate his style at the club.

The problem is we know Klopp had a defined style/philosophy because we saw the fruit of it with Dortmund. We can’t say the same about Arteta.

 

[Rex Stone]

It's interesting that the perception is that Klopp changed Liverpool's style as soon as he came in, but one of their bloggers had this to say about his first season:
When Klopp took over from Brendan Rodgers in October 2015, he inherited a Liverpool squad which had played a number of different formations and broader approaches over the past few years, as Rodgers generally had a flexible approach. With a hectic schedule and little coaching time available, he adopted a 4-2-3-1 that featured a lot of pressing but not much in the way of a clear idea in possession. Despite reaching a Europa League final, Liverpool in 2015/16 were not a particularly interesting side and it was not until the following preseason that Klopp was able to really instigate his style at the club.

Hasn’t Arteta had a pre-season now though?

 

[A_G]

Hasn’t Arteta had a pre-season now though?

I wouldn't really call it that. Normally a pre-season would give you 5-6 weeks of training time before the first league game of the season, I think Arteta had them in two weeks before the Community Shield this season.

The closest thing he's had to a pre-season was that training camp in Dubai, and even then it was a limited amount of time.

 

[KrissKringle]

We need to play fewer video games and get into reality !! A football club is an organisation, with conflicting stakeholders and you cannot change the culture of an organisation in 2-3 months.

You're talking about behind the curtain stuff, but I'm talking about training sessions.
If you mean to tell me that from the 19th of December till the 13th of March he didn't have time to teach the players drills on how to go forward, I can't believe that.

Regardless of what goes on in the club, the players will continue to train.
Even during the pandemic he had plenty of time to show them film over Zoom and say "You have to do this and that" to each and every one in order for them to wrap their mind around the roles they're going to play when the season restarts.
Flash forward to now and we still look like we don't know what to do with the ball. What excuse will you use this time?

He can't just park the bus and all of a sudden, when we struggle to create chances for a stretch of games, he says "I have to make some changes.".
It was unsustainable from the beginning, yet I've seen very little in his approach to warrant us transitioning into attacking football or even efficient counterattacking football.

 

[KrissKringle]

I wouldn't really call it that. Normally a pre-season would give you 5-6 weeks of training time before the first league game of the season, I think Arteta had them in two weeks before the Community Shield this season.

The closest thing he's had to a pre-season was that training camp in Dubai, and even then it was a limited amount of time.

Between the restart and the start of the new season, he had plenty of time to figure out how we have to play to get results, yet we're still in an identity crisis.

 

[Rex Stone]

I wouldn't really call it that. Normally a pre-season would give you 5-6 weeks of training time before the first league game of the season, I think Arteta had them in two weeks before the Community Shield this season.

The closest thing he's had to a pre-season was that training camp in Dubai, and even then it was a limited amount of time.

I mean he had the team pre-project restart as well. If we’re looking at Klopp over a year into the job it’s unrecognisable.

They still weren’t perfect but they were a markedly better team than the year before. Are we better than last year?

Has there been any progress?

 

[Macho]

Has there been any progress?

Definitely. Just came at a cost and its not the way we wanted.

Aspects of what we are seeing from Arteta is undeniably trash but it's a mistake to throw the whole thing away over a few broken eggs in my opinion.

This is what we signed up for when we took on such a manager, he needs to be given a chance to work it out.