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Mikel Arteta: Top Of The Klopps

lomekian

Essays are my thing
If we had players worth a damn, they would look out for the kid and make sure he doesn't get overwhelmed. The only player who I think would have tried to do that was Mertesacker, but he's gone now.

Any team worth its salt could slide in a Henri Lansbury any where in the XI and have him not look totally out of his depth with the right tactics and players taking an extra bit of responsibility. It would also require a lot of extra coaching on the pitch to make up for the kids lack of experience.

If you ask me, we're throwing games right now with those two in defence, as it is. I just want Arteta to be ruthless and show them that the kind of **** they have been serving up isn't good enough.

Firstly you are right about the lack of Mertesackers. I suspect David Luiz would try, but would end up trying to do too much and making things worse because he plays with emotion too often.

That said, there are no kids who play in defence in u23 or u18s who are even close to being Henri Lansbury. He was an incredibly highly rated kid who missed a year via glandular fever and then stagnated, despite occasional brilliance. Our best youth CB is Ballard who's recovering from a cruciate, and is technically limited. Or you've got Medley who has the physical gifts but is just a poor defender even at u23 level. There's nothing there. If we had Mavropanos, I'd be all for giving him a game. But there's no one who could even do a job at the mo.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
Seen a lot of b*tching and moaning today, but I’ve seen nobody credit Mourinho’s defensive set up or point out the fact that’s he’s never lost to Arsenal at home in his entire career.

Our fullbacks were cut off (lost track how many times both Bellerin and Tierney were forced to pass back).
Our forward 3 had to come deep to collect the ball.
Another game where we lacked the killer instinct to increase our lead. Or the creativity to keep peppering the goal.
If it wasn’t for that wonder goal that’s 2-0 really.
 
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Kav

Established Member
Can someone compare Emery's stats for this season to Arteta's. I honestly don't think
A big part of the issue is that Mustafi is the only defender we've spent big club money on in a generation or more.
This....even so the scouting could have been better. When other teams can get gems for free but we are paying for david luiz says alot.
 

tactica442

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
Sad to compare Kolo to this lot of Luiz, Mustafi etc. First 10-meter acceleration, key-moment concentration, agility is really lacking with our defenders.
 

L3T5 PL4Y

Flair Accuser
Agree the team set-up & style doesn't help Pepe. Xhaka? I think Arteta needs him for one more year given the absence of any other senior midfielders and at least Xhaka knows his game, limited as it is, where most of our other midfielders are still defining theirs.

Mustafi is a tricky one because we all know he's not good enough, but equally we all know that Kola isn't even that good, Holding looks too slow since his injury, Chambers is broken at the mo, and we have no idea how quickly Saliba or Mari will adjust. And Sokratis is gone. Lots of quantity, shortage of certain quality.

It all depends on what bids we can get.
Xhaka for one more year is understandable but the great problem here is that we will have to continue to readjust with the other players for one single player who is extremely limited. But I agree that we definitely need a senior midfield player who's been here long enough orchestrating the game and as a leader.

What I reckon is the solution here though is getting in Partey but also selling one of Torreira or Xhaka along with Elneny and sending out Willock on loan. With Douzi leaving Willock has a great chance to develop his game and mould him into the Xhaka replacement elsewhere while with the funds from the sales to get a pair of midfielders too. One young with Partey like profile( Ibrahim Sangare) and the other an experienced midfielder with playmaking abilities.

We really missed out on the chance to snap up Leverkusen's Aranguiz for a free. He would've been the perfect highly experienced and balancing player we could've done with. I wonder if with Douzi or Torreira we can snap up a more creative but well rounded midfielder.

Mustafi should still have suitors as despite his brain farts he suits the German way of offensive defending and its very likely Sokratis will bring in some money. If both of them get sold, there's a possibility of us getting in a CB. Its likely that Holding will have suitors as well as Kola can be gotten rid of one way or another. Chambers is unlikely to get a move but I think keeping him around wouldn't be too bad. He is versatile and still has the ability to play cover as well as develop into a good player.

What I'd like to see in defense is loaning a left back from Barcelona or Real Madrid to compete and cover for Tierney and a CB in the mould of Gabriel or Pau Torres. Spending a bit heavy on Ben White might be a great long term investment given he is English as well as good on the ball and can see Saliba and him forming a great long term partnership but its very unlikely. Can see Arteta inclined to snapping up Sarr for free with Mari out and he can cover left back too.

Saliba, Luiz, Mari, Sarr, Chambers and one of Ben White, Gabriel or Pau Torres would be a decent set of options for the way Arteta wants to play I think.
 

bingobob

A-M’s Resident Hunskelper
Trusted ⭐

Country: Scotland
Arteta waking up knowing drilling and practice can only go so far once the brain stops engaging. Mustafi went from cool and composed to panicked and nervous and with that all the coaching he had went out the window. That's a collapse in mentality. Kolasnic switched off playing the ball back with his weak foot when in reality in should be focused and switched on. No amount of training can train someone to switch on for 90 minutes. Thats down to the individual.

I read earlier posts about Arteta being a yes man. I don't think thats the case he is on record saying we need to spend and strengthen to close the gap. If he was a yes man I'm sure Özil and Guendouzi would be back in the team.
 

EinmalImmerEwig

Bent on his knees by asking to get banned !
This is such an Emery comment. Bad Mikel
when we don't concede in 3 or 4 games in a row everything is really positive

We've never not conceded in 4 games in a row under Arteta.
Goals conceded list goes like this...
1,2,0,0,1,1,2,1, then a 3 match run of 0,0,0, against the MIGHTY Burnley, Newcastle, Olympiakos, then 2,2,0,0, corona, 3,2,0,1,0,0,1,2

When you ****s don't concede 4 ****ing goals in a row against someone decent then maybe tweet about it....you can sing it from the rooftops...I'm not holding my breath!
 

Yousif Arsenal

On Vinai's payroll & misses 4th place trophy 🏆
Trusted ⭐
Arteta will definitely not keep playing 343 next season he doing that at the moment because playing 2 center backs will get exposed because our full backs always high of the pitch.
 

Yousif Arsenal

On Vinai's payroll & misses 4th place trophy 🏆
Trusted ⭐
I don't understand how you coach these defenders they look solid against Wolves Southampton and even at Leicester then comes Sp**s game and from first6few minutes they already make mistakes under no pressure from the opponent
 

FinnGooner

Established Member
I understand that Arteta tries to emphasize the positives but it’s super annoying when mangers defend the team performance by ball possession. When did that stat become the holy one? So what if we did have more possession when the xG is 1.82 to Sp**s against our bysmal 0.69. Sp**s also win shots on goal by 9 to 4. I guess I better prepare myself to enjoy ball posession more than winning...
 

Yousif Arsenal

On Vinai's payroll & misses 4th place trophy 🏆
Trusted ⭐
I understand that Arteta tries to emphasize the positives but it’s super annoying when mangers defend the team performance by ball possession. When did that stat become the holy one? So what if we did have more possession when the xG is 1.82 to Sp**s against our bysmal 0.69. Sp**s also win shots on goal by 9 to 4. I guess I better prepare myself to enjoy ball posession more than winning...
Think because he meant we had almost 85% of ball for most of the 2nd half he also did said we should have created much more with this possession Sp**s were doing nothing there most chance came after thier 2nd goal and when we crumpled
 

The_Playmaker

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
The definition of insanity is making the same mistakes over and over again. So what is it when you watch someone make a mistake and then go in and repeat the same mistake over and over again.

There is a lot to like about Arteta. I like his communication his intention to discipline, but for me he has two major flaws. He invests in the wrong characters for the wrong reasons and his justification of playing time is a contradiction.

When you look at our squad you look at its strengths. Our strengths do not lie in being defensive. We do not have any consistent, talented defenders. We have defenders who can be okay for 4 games and then will either get sent off or gift a goal away. Arteta has improved the defence, by focusing the entire team on it and sacrificing all of our potential attack on it.

Why?

Why lean into defenders who simply are not good enough to defend? Why gar your team to the purpose of winning games by conceeding less instead of scoring more? Why make so our strikers have to be super efficient in their scoring, when the defenders are allowed to get away with error after error, even when there is a focus on defending?

It makes no sense to me. Mustafi is good in the air, but that is it. He can play well for 89 minutes of a match and completely lose you a game in 1 minute. Or he can lose his head for even more. Under pressure he does not do well. In stadium with no crowd he has been fine. As soon as there is a game that has meaning to it, he loses his head for 20 minutes , start sliding all over the place and is out of position. What in your right mind makes you depend on someone that cannot be depended upon?

David Luiz may be a 'leader', he may have 'experience', but he is literally picking up a pay check. Every pass was played with laziness, no urgency. no pace. Inviting pressure and mistakes. It's actually under instruction. Apparently the players need to wait till we are under pressure to draw out the press before we make a pass. Well if a team isn't pressing you, you move the ball quickly.

Kolasinac - cannot tackle, has poor positioning, but above all else, he simply cannot pass the ball. Kept in the side for continuity? Give me a break. If he isn't performing, you don't play him, even if we are winning ffs. Holding is also flawed, but he can actually defend and we need to see what he is made of after injury. Winning is not an excuse to pick players who are not doing their job, especially when you are winning by fine margins. How can you not change the side, simply based upon the result and not what actually contributes to it.

This is where I don't understand Arteta. Players get dropped for being late to training. They get dropped for not being on the boat. Well what if the players who are on the boat, have a gun and are shooting holes into it, making it sink. Why is it that attackers are given 60 minutes to make something happen before they are hauled off, but midfielders and defenders are given weeks to contribute nothing meaningful. We were 2-1 down, did he haul off a defender at the expense of an attacker, or put our most creative player at left back?

You simply cannot depend on these defenders. Why would you gear a team to protect them, by playing a cautious style of play and not playing between the lines or forward unless it really presents itself, because we are scared to lose the ball? None of that matters when they can get sent off or literally just give up.

Why do we not look at the squad and see that:

Pepe - can dribble, score and assist.
Auba - Can score
Laca - can shoot if in the right position
Nelson - can retain possession, beat a man and cross
AMN - can run, tackle, beat a man, cross
Tierney - Can defend, run, cross
Saka - Can cross, dribble, assist and score.
Willock - can drive, can score can beat a man

Those are the players who can influence the game offensively. Why is Arteta not looking at these players and thinking, Tierney can't beat a man but he can cross a ball. He needs to be on an overlap, not receiving it with a man to beat. Pepe needs a full back who can overlap and underlap. He needs players he can combine with, how do we get him closer to goal? Lacazette needs to share the box with another forward. He was most successful in a two with Fekir alongside him. Auba needs a distraction, he doesn't want the ball, he wants to make runs off it. How do we get these guys firing? Because the best way to win games is to score so many goals that you mitigate the constant errors the defenders will make.
 

Sniper Mik

Not a Closet Sp**s Fan
The tone for the bad defending was set within the 1st 25 seconds of the game when Luiz got bullied off the ball and Moura had a free shot on goal. He's done it time and time again this season and cost us dearly. But he's on of our first choice centre backs so can't really blame Arteta for him too much. But there's absolutely no excuse to keep playing Kolasinac as a centre back when you have two better centre backs in the squad. (It is a FACT that Sokratis and Holding are better defenders than Kolasinac). It's like playing an attacking midfielder as a centre forward and then ruing the fact that he cannot score goals. Hard to defend Arteta for this.
 

GoonerJeeves

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: Norway
This is what he’s working with in midfield. Awful.


Someone clone a young Cesc, I'm even prepared to accept the mullet at this stage

DSo6LMPW0AEmsFh.jpg
 

Gursha

Active Member
With Man city ban now off, that means now that we are 5 points of europa league spot, with 3 matches to go, with one of them being liverpool... so we can assume a loss there...
that means that wolves must win only one of their remaining games to even give us a chance at 6th.

Ill sum up the chances here...

the race for 6th (ho dear me...) is now between us, Wolves, Sheffield United, and these lot.

Remaining fixtures:

The Arsenal: at 50 points atm
Liverpool (H)
Aston Villa (A)
Watford (H)
We must win all 3, but lets be realistic and take a loss against liverpool, so im going to assume we get 6 points

Wolves: at 55 points atm
Burnley (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Chelsea (A)
They gotta lose all the games... or draw 1 game, and we need to win with good GD ( +4 from us atm) highly unlikely...

Sheffield United: at 54 points atm
Leicester (A)
Everton (H)
Southampton (A)
They can only get a draw and must lose the other 2, not good chances but plausible

These lot: at 52 points atm
Newcastle (A)
Leicester (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
With 2 points above us and +2 GD(relative to us), they are allowed to win one and draw 1 if we win our 2 matches with fine margins..


So... to sum it up, if we lose or draw to liVARpool, its pretty much over, since the event of wolves losing all their remaining games is close to impossible.

bahhh.... while writing this i finally succumbed to the fact our only chance to get into europe is in fact the FA... where we need to win 2 games against 2 of the top teams in the country...

This season could be proven as the catalyst of the downfall of our great club... i truly think that if we failed to get to the europa, it'll take us at least 4-5 years to get back into it... as its an avalanche of consequences


I really do hope Arteta is showing the players how important those 3 remaining games are.... when we had 5 more... i was fantasizing like a regular Arsenal fan we might get fifth... and have CL

But now the situation is dire... maybe now the players will realize how bad things are? maybe they were like "ahhh damn we missed CL but europa can stretch to 7th, and we'll have 7th easily"

Well everything changed now...
 

field442

Hates Journalists Named James
Trusted ⭐
With Man city ban now off, that means now that we are 5 points of europa league spot, with 3 matches to go, with one of them being liverpool... so we can assume a loss there...
that means that wolves must win only one of their remaining games to even give us a chance at 6th.

Ill sum up the chances here...

the race for 6th (ho dear me...) is now between us, Wolves, Sheffield United, and these lot.

Remaining fixtures:

The Arsenal: at 50 points atm
Liverpool (H)
Aston Villa (A)
Watford (H)
We must win all 3, but lets be realistic and take a loss against liverpool, so im going to assume we get 6 points

Wolves: at 55 points atm
Burnley (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Chelsea (A)
They gotta lose all the games... or draw 1 game, and we need to win with good GD ( +4 from us atm) highly unlikely...

Sheffield United: at 54 points atm
Leicester (A)
Everton (H)
Southampton (A)
They can only get a draw and must lose the other 2, not good chances but plausible

These lot: at 52 points atm
Newcastle (A)
Leicester (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
With 2 points above us and +2 GD(relative to us), they are allowed to win one and draw 1 if we win our 2 matches with fine margins..


So... to sum it up, if we lose or draw to liVARpool, its pretty much over, since the event of wolves losing all their remaining games is close to impossible.

bahhh.... while writing this i finally succumbed to the fact our only chance to get into europe is in fact the FA... where we need to win 2 games against 2 of the top teams in the country...

This season could be proven as the catalyst of the downfall of our great club... i truly think that if we failed to get to the europa, it'll take us at least 4-5 years to get back into it... as its an avalanche of consequences


I really do hope Arteta is showing the players how important those 3 remaining games are.... when we had 5 more... i was fantasizing like a regular Arsenal fan we might get fifth... and have CL

But now the situation is dire... maybe now the players will realize how bad things are? maybe they were like "ahhh damn we missed CL but europa can stretch to 7th, and we'll have 7th easily"

Well everything changed now...

7th place gets a Europa spot.
 
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