Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Manberg]

The reason we played better 10 vs 11 was because Saka came on and Leeds couldn’t handle him.

But Saka needs a break.

 

[Macho]

Not really sure what this means or if it’s necessarily a bad thing but it’s just so weird.

I’m trying to imagine how you play a 90 min match with only one pass from CB to CB. What were we doing?

Leno hoofed the ball to Auba and Pepe to beat the press, so there was minimal build up play. This combined with Leeds having most of the possession is the reason for those f*cked up stats we’re seeing. So, yes a lot of our players actually didn’t pass to each other.

I was listening to Arseblog today and they came to the same conclusion regarding long balls from Leno.

The squads fault though, Auba and etc are poor and holding Arteta back.

Wish we had Koch, Alioski, Dallas, Klich, Harrison and Bamford so we could play some expansive football as our squad is simply incapable *yawn*.

 

[Macho]

Can’t wait for the day Arsenal mania realises that a new manager can’t just fix everything overnight.

The attack is dire at the moment but it will improve.

We’re heading in the right direction, but the transition is tricky and Arteta is still a brand-new manager learning with every day. He’s going to make mistakes and their are going to be plenty more painful moments this season. Stop being babies.

Most of us know Arteta isn’t going anywhere unless we’re in a relegation battle or he completely loses the squad.

He keeps up this Willian disaster class though, it will be his own funeral. False 9, starts irrespective of form, Dubai - this is just one player mind.

There’s simply no excuse for some of the things we’ve seen and I’m not saying Arteta out, I’m saying Arteta needs to sort it, you can only blame the squad so much.

Özil got blamed, he’s no longer a factor
Xhaka got blamed, he’s no longer a starter
Lacazette got blamed, he’s no longer a starter
Pepe X’d himself he’s Hertha Berlin tier now.

He’s got Partey, Gabriel and Tierney to work with when our other managers didn’t. As I am not interested in burying Arteta, I’ve left tons of stuff out, but yeah he will run out of excuses if he keeps this up.

 

[Kysus]

Arsenal have 9 goals in 810mins
39 year old Zlatan has 10 in 510mins

 

[The_Playmaker]

Feel like he's tried the arm around the shoulder approach long enough to be fair

He's made two starts this season. What arm around the shoulder approach?

He basically doesn't like him and it came out in his words. You don't say, 'he let the team down'.

David Luiz came on vs City, gave a penalty away and got sent off. Arteta had nothing but praise for him when Luiz said his excuse was his contract situation and that he wasn't ready to play. To me that is just as bad. Not only that, but Luiz has a history of **** ups and this is literally Pepes first red card of his career.

You could easily say look, he got sent off, it was silly and there are no excuses, I am sure he will learn and come back stronger from this. Arteta could not wait to put the boot in.

Imagine Willian did the exact same thing. Would Arteta have had the same reaction? I honestly don't feel he would have, and that to me is a sign of panic and a sign of pressure building.

 

[Wilhelm Fink]

We are playing really dead football with zero tenacity, creativity and depth,
We picked only 1 point from Leeds, Villa and Leicester that is worrying.
All those fans who wanted Arteta in, saying to trust the process, it will take 4 years to rebuild and reach Liverpool's success. Liverpool hired a proven and experienced manager, Arteta is a novice manager and still in learning process, what guarantee does he bring?.
i think if we give him more time to change his tactics and adapt his style which many fans reccommended but it's not easy to grow patience on it because we want our Arsenal back and it will get worse before it gets better.

 

[EmeryCouldnt]

We are playing really dead football with zero tenacity, creativity and depth,
We picked only 1 point from Leeds, Villa and Leicester that is worrying.
All those fans who wanted Arteta in, saying to trust the process, it will take 4 years to rebuild and reach Liverpool's success. Liverpool hired a proven and experienced manager, Arteta is a novice manager and still in learning process, what guarantee does he bring?.
i think if we give him more time to change his tactics and adapt his style which many fans reccommended but it's not easy to grow patience on it because we want our Arsenal back and it will get worse before it gets better.

I completely agree. I was against Arteta’s appointment for this reason. Although, I did think it was an exciting prospect. Those romance stories can be a bigger risk than it’s worth.
However, I think the Arteta project has already begun and it’s even more dangerous to abort without a good plan which I do not trust the club to have. I think Arteta has a lot of qualities to be a good Arsenal manager. But he lacks a big one... experience.

 

[TornadoTed]

I think Arteta needs to think about where his players are standing. Auba back to goal isnt going to do much and in when up top alone he gets into too many physical battles. Out on the left he becomes disconnected, so why not play a 2 up top? Get rid of the extra 'forward' and play an additional midfielder.

---------------Auba--------Pepe/Laca

Tierney-----Saka----------Partey--------Bellerin

-------------------------Elneny

--------------Gabriel---Luiz----Holding

I'm a big advocate of playing 2 up front for the reasons you mentioned, I would like to give 442 a try though.

Auba Laca/Pepe

Saka Partey Elneny Nelson

Tierney Gabriel Holding Bellerin

Leno

 

[DUFFMAN]

When the hell is Partey back?!

We seen the difference one class player makes when Saka came on the other night.

I'll hold off criticising until we have at least Partey and Saka playing in a run of games.

 

[Kav]

What did people expect when you hired a guy with no managerial experience?

I remember when some like @GDeep™ were all for appointing him. I was against it for the very simple fact that he has no track record and thus there is nothing to judge him by. We simply didn’t know what kind of football he would bring.

Well we know now. His style is solid but unspectacular kind of football. Is that what we need?

My question is can his style and methods take us forward? I feel he’s doing baby steps. A couple steps in the right direction and a few stumbles here and there.

My concern with him is that I sense stagnation. I don’t sense progress. I literally see us playing worse than before despite the defensive improvements. Furthermore I see too much inconsistency in his league form since he took over to suggest that he’s built for the marathon that is the league.

He should be given the opportunity to get it right since he’s here but if January comes and we are still around 8-12 position I am certain he should be let go. He’s just not yet ready for the job at a club like Arsenal. Let him go learn his craft somewhere else we should not be someone’s experiment. I’ve said that already and it’s not good enough.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Regardless of anything else he simply has to start winning games in the coming weeks. I mean there's not really much else to say other than that. Attractive football would be nice but we're not just gonna go from how were playing now to playing like 10/11 Arsenal. Results is the most important thing for the immediate future.

 

[Corbulo]

It was never going to be easy just like you shouldn’t expect your first time to be like what you see in the movies. A rookie manager taking over at a big club where you have to be a master of getting the best of what you have.

Our squad is nowhere near the quality of other top clubs today, the owner isn't crazy about football, and the refs are not willing to give us a gentle butt tap like they do with likes of Juve, PSG, Bayern, Real where you could get away with being a rookie coach.

However we're also definitely not seeing that boost about tactics and brilliant man management.
Arteta must take the next step and enable us to actually compete in the game based upon what we want to do in terms of our attacking style. I don't see that happening. He will have to go if he can't elevate our performances between now and the end of the season.

 

[scytheavatar]

I completely agree. I was against Arteta’s appointment for this reason. Although, I did think it was an exciting prospect. Those romance stories can be a bigger risk than it’s worth.
However, I think the Arteta project has already begun and it’s even more dangerous to abort without a good plan which I do not trust the club to have. I think Arteta has a lot of qualities to be a good Arsenal manager. But he lacks a big one... experience.

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in their mouth.......... you can be sure Arteta had very good plans but those plans are worthless once he grapples with the reality of the mess he has to clean up.

 

[vantoure]

Not really sure what this means or if it’s necessarily a bad thing but it’s just so weird.

I’m trying to imagine how you play a 90 min match with only one pass from CB to CB. What were we doing?

It's all so laughable at the moment. Everything is everyhow

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Every time I stumble across an old Arsenal team video on twitter with one touch passing it brings me to tears

We had one move against Leeds that semi resembled that. Ceballos into Pepe, Pepe into Willock, Willock through to Bellerin, Bellerin to Auba, but he just couldn't get his foot round it.

We do have times where we really play good football this is the thing.

 

[14Henry]

Every time I stumble across an old Arsenal team video on twitter with one touch passing it brings me to tears

We had one move against Leeds that semi resembled that. Ceballos into Pepe, Pepe into Willock, Willock through to Bellerin, Bellerin to Auba, but he just couldn't get his foot round it.

We do have times where we really play good football this is the thing.

We had the same under Emery. Go watch Leicester and Fulham wins.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

We had the same under Emery. Go watch Leicester and Fulham wins.

We also leaked like a civ under Emery you div

 

[Trilly]

He needed Özil a lot more than he realised imo. Even this declined version of Özil is the only player we can trust to get on those balls in between the lines, link our midfield and attack and make the right decisions.

Super defensive football only works when the team sees the merits of it, he's going to lose them very soon if we're putting ten men behind the ball and still losing/drawing.

 

[say yes]

I think the manager people should be comparing Arteta to, at the moment, is Pochettino at Sp**s (ignoring that Arteta has actually won trophies already).

Potch went to Sp**s and immediately imposed a rigid structure on a shaky Sp**s team. It was clear how he wanted Sp**s to play (with structured buildup and pressing), but the early results weren't impressive. Sp**s looked too structured, were lacking creativity and seemed incapable of scoring goals. In his first season, they finished seventh with 64 points - a decline on the previous years' performance.

There were however some positive signs of Sp**s becoming a more competitive outfit, particularly in the big games. Sp**s were routinely thumped by their rivals before Potch arrived (sound familiar?). However, despite finishing with fewer points overall, Potch's Sp**s took more points off their big-6 rivals, and (while still losing more than they won) those losses were becoming much closer. Sp**s GD vs. the top 6 went from -24 the season before Potch arrived, to -11 in his first season.

A bigger improvement was noticeable in Potch's second season. They still weren't scoring much, but they were becoming a very difficult team to play against. Their GD improved by about 30 (mostly thanks to their defence) and - while slipping up too often against the weaker sides - they were now holding their own against the big 6, winning more than they lost and finishing with a +6 GD against their rivals. People were now starting to respect Sp**s as a very difficult team to play against: no longer a "soft touch". However, the classic refrain was that Sp**s would never score enough under Potch to compete at the top level.

Then, in his third season - and apparently out of nowhere - Potch's attack exploded. Sp**s finished with 86 points and were the top scorers in the league. Their defence also continued its year-on-year improvement. This wasn't due to any new signings (Sp**s that summer bought Victor Janssen and Moussa Sissoko); rather, the structure that Potch had been working on for the previous two seasons finally 'clicked'.

Now I'm not saying that Arteta is necessarily on the same trajectory here. However, I do think it's worth highlighting that there are a lot of similarities. Arteta also wants his team to play in a very structured manner, and (while the attack looks dreadful) it's clear to me that we've improved massively as a defensive unit, and are much more competitive vs. our rivals. In fact, if we are on the same trajectory as Sp**s under Potch, it looks like we're progressing a lot quicker than they did (especially on that trophy front). Bottom line is that I think people should be patient with the attack. Arteta's is trying to instil a new structured way of playing, which will always benefit the defence more quickly than the offence (which thrives on fluidity). Over time, those structures and patterns of play will hopefully become second-nature.

Essay over.

 

[asukru]

I think the manager people should be comparing Arteta to, at the moment, is Pochettino at Sp**s (ignoring that Arteta has actually won trophies already).

Potch went to Sp**s and immediately imposed a rigid structure on a shaky Sp**s team. It was clear how he wanted Sp**s to play (with structured buildup and pressing), but the early results weren't impressive. Sp**s looked too structured, were lacking creativity and seemed incapable of scoring goals. In his first season, they finished seventh with 64 points - a decline on the previous years' performance.

There were however some positive signs of Sp**s becoming a more competitive outfit, particularly in the big games. Sp**s were routinely thumped by their rivals before Potch arrived (sound familiar?). However, despite finishing with fewer points overall, Potch's Sp**s took more points off their big-6 rivals, and (while still losing more than they won) those losses were becoming much closer. Sp**s GD vs. the top 6 went from -24 the season before Potch arrived, to -11 in his first season.

A bigger improvement was noticeable in Potch's second season. They still weren't scoring much, but they were becoming a very difficult team to play against. Their GD improved by about 30 (mostly thanks to their defence) and - while slipping up too often against the weaker sides - they were now holding their own against the big 6, winning more than they lost and finishing with a +6 GD against their rivals. People were now starting to respect Sp**s as a very difficult team to play against: no longer a "soft touch". However, the classic refrain was that Sp**s would never score enough under Potch to compete at the top level.

Then, in his third season - and apparently out of nowhere - Potch's attack exploded. Sp**s finished with 86 points and were the top scorers in the league. Their defence also continued its year-on-year improvement. This wasn't due to any new signings (Sp**s that summer bought Victor Janssen and Moussa Sissoko); rather, the structure that Potch had been working on for the previous two seasons finally 'clicked'.

Now I'm not saying that Arteta is necessarily on the same trajectory here. However, I do think it's worth highlighting that there are a lot of similarities. Arteta also wants his team to play in a very structured manner, and (while the attack looks dreadful) it's clear to me that we've improved massively as a defensive unit, and are much more competitive vs. our rivals. In fact, if we are on the same trajectory as Sp**s under Potch, it looks like we're progressing a lot quicker than they did (especially on that trophy front). Bottom line is that I think people should be patient with the attack. Arteta's is trying to instil a new structured way of playing, which will always benefit the defence more quickly than the offence (which thrives on fluidity). Over time, those structures and patterns of play will hopefully become second-nature.

Essay over.

Pray to God your right here, I do want to believe in Arteta and at first I was all for him but he is making lose faith with how dreadful we are, there is no cohesion in our team but let's wait and see. One thing is that no matter how garbage we play I still tune in every game ready to go and hoping to see something to make me feel like we are heading back in the right direction.