• ! ! ! IMPORTANT MESSAGE ! ! !

    Discussions about police investigations

    In light of recent developments about a player from Premier League being arrested and until there is an official announcement, ALL users should refrain from discussing or speculating about situations around personal off-pitch matters related to any Arsenal player. This is to protect you and the forum.

    Users who disregard this reminder will be issued warnings and their posts will get deleted from public.

Mikel Arteta: Top Of The Klopps

lomekian

Essays are my thing
I like how he set up the team but he doesn't make the most of Pepe and honestly trying get Xhaka to function properly instead of selling him at the time was a huge huge mistake. Trying to cover his flaws with multiple defenders is just wasting our attacking as well as defensive potential.

I like him so far and want him to succeed but he has to be much more braver and understand the players much faster. Otherwise we'll fall behind.

I'm still hoping he doesn't extend Mustafi and actively wants to sell Xhaka as well as Kola etc with proper replacements. Or else, we'll be ****ed again next season.

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.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Kolo and Gallas was always a dodgy partnership, both did the same thing really, Kolo was still individually very good post Sol but just didn't have a proper partner...should have signed Woodgate from Madrid instead of Gallas, would have been a good foil for Toure, plus we could have had a experienced British player to anchor our team.

The pressure on Saliba next season will be enormous regardless who he plays with, hope he has ze mental strength to cope.
 
Last edited:

Lidl_Reed

Wants a new name
You need one leader who can control the defence and is excellent at positioning and one who is more athletic. VVD and Gomez is a good combo for that reason, VVD-Lovren look good too, but Lovren-Gomez are a clownshow waiting to happen.

Mertesacker-Holding looked good in that one game for the same reason. Also why Per-Kos were good for so long. Mertesacker though, had zero pace, and that was often exploited. And that's why we were better with them but still not good enough.

We have not had a good defensive pair that complements each other for a long, long time and that's why we're **** defensively.

Example: Both Luiz and Mustafi want to recklessly tackle the ball and go for it. You need someone who can sit back and cover the other's mistakes if you play one of them. Saliba won't be that either.
 

AberGooner

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: Scotland

Player:Gabriel
Kolo and Gallas was always a dodgy partnership, both did the same thing really, Kolo was still individualy very good post Sol but just didn't have a proper partner...should have signed Woodgate from Madrid instead of Gallas, would have been a good foil for Toure, plus we could have had a experienced British payer to anchor our team.

The pressure on Saliba next season will be enormous regardless who he plays with, hope he has ze mental strength to cope.
Don't think Toure/Gallas liked each other which couldn't have helped either.
Any little mistake Saliba makes will be magnified which isn't fair on him. Ideally we'd have a proper quality experienced defender next to him but I fear that may be Luiz.
 

lomekian

Essays are my thing
How long does Arteta need until we see the full potential that people see in him? 1 year? 2 years?

Not asking about winning leagues and trophies. Just in terms of style of play, attacking football, top 4 results.

Depends on squad renewal. I say we can start making proper conclusions at the end of next season. Sooner if we absolutely fly or if we crash and burn. But realistically then.....but that depends on ins and outs.

Emery we could judge because he lost the players and by the end every game was just structural and positional chaos. But even he got time despite worrying signs because everyone can see this squad makes no sense.

A big thing will be how the kids kick on or not.
 

squallman

Still Pining for Wenger
Who could he play instead of Luiz and Mustafi? Honest question.

Holding? Coming back from a serious injury and has been hot and cold. Sokratis? Also coming back from injury, albeit more recently.

He could've sub Kola, but that's about it. His hands are tied here.

Tied? Hardly. Even if its only for a week or two, they should have been dropped for anyone.

Just pull them aside and say "David, I'm taking you out of the XI but if you work hard during training bla bla bla."

Then put in a kid from the academy or convert someone from the first team to play back there.

Make sure the players know that repeated mistakes and piss poor performances will not be tolerated. Even if that means dropping in academy kids.
 

lomekian

Essays are my thing
I’m asking for a more specific answer. Club can’t make only perfect signings, sometimes things go wrong but top managers don’t completely fold after that. All the managers in the world deal with bad signings but the top class ones still show that they can make something of it. I’m asking for a specific timeline for Arteta because you can’t hover around the 8th-10th position for two years and expect to get support.

Can we expect to see Artetaball next season or is that too soon?

I imagine we'll see a step to what he wants, but it'll take more than a year to make the needed changes. I know its a disappointing answer, but at this stage all we can realistically demand is progress
 

KrissKringle

Reinventing VAR 😡
I'm guessing it's because the personnel next to him got worse?
That too, but the way we were defending was not on the same level as before after 2006.

Wenger made a huge mistake by getting rid of our most experienced players like they were nothing instead of keeping them around as mentors for the kids he brought.

Senderos partnered Toure in our CL run in which we conceded only 4 goals all tournament and the only loss was in the final.

The thing I'm driving at is that there's no defensive foundation here anymore and no matter who you bring, they'll eventually catch the bug from these bums.

Only solution I see is to get rid of all our defensive players and start from scratch, but that won't happen.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Don't think Toure/Gallas liked each other which couldn't have helped either.
Any little mistake Saliba makes will be magnified which isn't fair on him. Ideally we'd have a proper quality experienced defender next to him but I fear that may be Luiz.

It's unfair to put a young defender like Saliba into our defensive structure, I really hope he can become the defender he looks.

The one thing I hope he brings is power to our backline again, we have zero right now...


...look at Kolo Toure at around 3 minutes in this vid...this is around the time Ronaldo started packing on muscle, plus Cristiano was lighting fast back then...yet Kolo has the pace to stay with him and the strength to hold him off and win the ball fairly...if this was anyone in our backline now, Ronaldo is either past him or our defender is getting booked for bringing him down.

Kolo had a peak Sol to learn from...and, let's just say Saliba does not have a peak Sol to learn from :lol:
 

lomekian

Essays are my thing
Arteta against the big 6:

A Sp**s L
H Leicester D
A Man City L
A Chelsea D
H Man Utd W
H Chelsea L

Solskjaer against the big 6:

A Sp**s D
H Man City W
A Chelsea W
A Liverpool L
A Arsenal L
A Man City W
H Sp**s W
H Liverpool D
H Leicester W


Doesn’t look good.

To be fair Man U's squad is worth 3 times ours and is stronger. Also Ole's been there a year longer, and 3 of those games under Arteta were screwed by red cards, another by a defensive error you wouldn't expect a schoolboy to make, and against Chelsea at home we were totally shafted by the cretin of a ref.

Could Arteta have managed today better? I think so, he got rope a doped by a combo of Mourinho and our defenders. The other matches, other than having better players to select, I'm not sure what else he could have done.
 

AberGooner

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: Scotland

Player:Gabriel
It's unfair to put a young defender like Saliba into our defensive structure, I really hope he can become the defender he looks.

The one thing I hope he brings is power to our backline again, we have zero right now...


...look at Kolo Toure at around 3 minutes in this vid...this is around the time Ronaldo started packing on muscle, plus Cristiano was lighting fast back then...yet Kolo has the pace to stay with him and the strength to hold him off and win the ball fairly...if this was anyone in our backline now, Ronaldo is either past him or our defender is getting booked for bringing him down.

Kolo had a peak Sol to learn from...and, let's just say Saliba does not have a peak Sol to learn from :lol:
Loved Kolo was genuinely 1 of the best in the world at that point. Was gutted he didn't get captaincy when Gallas did.
 

OnlyOne

‘Donkeys don’t have a peak, they remain useless’
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
You need one leader who can control the defence and is excellent at positioning and one who is more athletic. VVD and Gomez is a good combo for that reason, VVD-Lovren look good too, but Lovren-Gomez are a clownshow waiting to happen.

Mertesacker-Holding looked good in that one game for the same reason. Also why Per-Kos were good for so long. Mertesacker though, had zero pace, and that was often exploited. And that's why we were better with them but still not good enough.

We have not had a good defensive pair that complements each other for a long, long time and that's why we're **** defensively.

Example: Both Luiz and Mustafi want to recklessly tackle the ball and go for it. You need someone who can sit back and cover the other's mistakes if you play one of them. Saliba won't be that either.

Who's your avi?
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Loved Kolo was genuinely 1 of the best in the world at that point. Was gutted he didn't get captaincy when Gallas did.

Toure and Gilberto when Arsène announced Gallas as captain after Henry left...

tenor.gif


...still don't know what was going through Wenger's mind with that decision :lol:
 

lomekian

Essays are my thing
The transfer window will say a lot. If Mustafi, Sokratis, Holding or Kolasinac are here he’s a yes man.

Need to see some leadership.

Not sure we can shed them all because likely buyers for that level have been affected by Coronavirus, but I can guarantee that all have their days numbered. It might take till next summer to shift them. But unless Holding kicks on and surpasses his pre-injury level, they'll all be gone.

With Luiz, Auba, Saka, Xhaka, lately Ceballos, Tierney, his praise has been effusive, almost unequvocal. Everyone else has been getting conditional praise or statements with ambiguity. That tells you who he really wants and who's still got question marks.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Kolo was one of the fastest CBs I've ever seen. I remember his run in the game against Liverpool:

With pace like that he could have easily played winger in his prime.

I can't remember exactly, but I am 99 percent certain in 2002/2003, he played in every outfield position at some point during the season...what a man :lol:

He's one of my fav ever defenders, brilliant character too.
 
Top Bottom