Mikel Arteta: Taking The Mik

I mean we were also very bad before Arteta arrived, so that should be kept in mind. He hasn't made us a terrible attacking team, he just hasn't fixed it either.

 

It depends when did you start to support, I was lucky to enter the party in the late '90s, but some of the most enjoyable games were in that fantastic period of 06-08 with Hleb, Fabregas and Rosicky. They couldn't win things then, but boy nobody couldn't outplay them when they were in their game

 

Conveniently forgetting Gabriel, FA cup win, better defensive record etc. We dont play hoofball, scored some unreal team goals this season already.

Failing to sell would only be relevant if we failed to buy. Stupid point to bash Edu and Arteta. Quite embarrassing post actually.

Lovely reactionary stuff. People will be flailing in here if we lose to United.

 

Arteta is lucky that he has got a nice haircut and speaks good English.

 

Yeah that’s my big worry. Like @GDeep™ said, he has made us better defensively but that’s mainly through getting numbers behind the ball and adding a bit of structure. Managers like Pulis and Allardyce could’ve done that. The attacking play hasn’t progressed at all. We have scored some pretty goals playing out from the back to front but we did that under Emery as well. What we’re seeing outside of those goals is the same as what we saw under Emery, that being we dominate possession and focus attacks down the wings with very little to show for it.

 

I couldn’t agree more, it’s the style of play that is a big part of what makes Arsenal, not only the prizes. I understand Arteta is building and needs his own players, i really hope he succeeds. But not having good enough players shoudn’t be an excuse to play dull and boring football. Are our players really worse than Leeds or Everton or Aston Villa or Wolves or Southampton? They try to play football, go forward and create chances, even against the top six. Our shots on target the last couple of games is really bad.

 

I would say go back to basics and just play people in a vaguely natural position in a 4-2-3-1 or something. You know, Saka LW, Auba CF, Pepe RW, pick two of Partey/Ceballos/Xhaka for the double pivot. But literally who plays in the number 10 position?

You could ask different people to do it, but you'd be asking all of them to do something slightly unfamiliar for them. The only natural fit is ESR and he's not even near the squad.

So tbh apart from a general 'stop being so conservative' I have no idea how to fix this. We don't have any creative midfielders, which is exactly why I kept saying Aouar was a bigger priority than Partey.

 

Willian plays at 10 when fit imo. He was quite good against Shef U when he moved centrally imo. At any rate he is only of thr only players that can receive the ball between the lines.

 

Yeah, and it's the one-dimensionality of the goals we do score. Like they look very good, but they're misleading. Good teams score all types of goal, not just one elaborately constructed one.

It's almost like with both Emery and Arteta the main focus has been to coach the team to concede less, and then they've tried to find one way to score. And that's about it.

The thing is Arsenal have a team of analysts that will have known for a long time about our attacking problems, the fact our xG is terrible and we take so few shots won't be news to them. They see it in their data every week. It's just we don't seem to be doing anything about it.

 

Yeah I suppose that's the best option available to us. It would just take a change of approach from Arteta. Whatever the formation he only ever plays three attacking players, which is very Southgate-esque. He could try playing with four attackers, but he'd have to let go of some of his control-freak conservatism.

 

——————Martinelli——————
——Saka——Willian——Pepe———
————Ceballos——Partey————

 

gabriel was a raul signing though wasnt he? FA cup turns out to be a lucky streak. No need to look further than the current season and how the team plays.

Arteta and Edu are a pair of rookies who need to learn their trade elsewhere.

embarassing to defend them at all cost.

 

Yeah I’d like to see a more basic formation and positional play. With the way we play at the minute you’ve got Tierney and Bellerin so far up the pitch that they’re doing a lot of the work out wide where you’d want players like Saka, Willian and Pepe in the ball. If you think about an Arsène 4-2-3-1 you’d have the double pivot and then from left to right you had Sanchez, Özil and Walcott all pretty much positioned 30-35 yards away from the opposition goal with the striker in front. Now you’ve got a midfield 2 with the LCB sort of playing as an inverted fullback and 5 players all pretty much spread across the pitch near the opposition 18 yard box. We completely neglect the middle of the pitch in the final third.

I’d like to see an Arsène style 4-2-3-1 with Saka, Willian and Pepe playing behind Auba. Let the fullbacks play a bit deeper and provide the overlap when needed.

 

I like what Arteta is doing and I am not going to let a few bad results in tough fixtures change this.

Arteta, much like Emery has a personnel problem. I hope you guys now see that most of you were being unreasonable with the insults towards him.

I couldn’t give a toss about attacking football myself - the basics still need work.

 

Sorry Mikel. I know you are trying hard.. But damn, is this a painful time!

@freeglennhelder2 dude, it's coming home in a hurry.

 

A double pivot of Xhaka/Partey, with Tierney at LB and Gabriel at cb should provide us with enough solidity in most games. As you say though Arteta seems a conservative coach.

 

No he wasn't Gabriel spoke quite glowingly about the project Edu and Arteta put forward to him.

We beat Chelsea and City in that "lucky streak" if we had beaten Liverpool and City in the league would that also be a lucky streak?

Not defending them at all costs, but it takes time to build a top squad. Not one window, did Liverpool fans get on Klopps back after he signed Wijnaldum and Mane in his first window? Nope. They waited to see what happened despite losing games they really shouldn't have.

People like you would be saying Klopp out after drawing 2-2 against West Brom. What you're doing is way more embarrassing than defending Arteta and Edu. I'll wait until at least February before pointing the finger. Its a weird league this season, if we win Europa I won't care too much about where we finish. The objective this year is to make CL football at all costs.

 

Thr problem is in the long run, if we continue playing like this, we won't get anyway.

We have 1 clean sheet this season, which is not down so much defenders so much imo, its down to us not being able to kill teams and take chances when they're presented to us. This invites pressure on the defense as the opposition grows in confidence.

If your center forward cant take basic chances, then you have no chance really.

 

We went on a 22 game unbeaten run under Emery scoring 50+ goals in the process. The problem was you could drive a bus through our midfield and our centre backs were always exposed.

We’ve signed about 10 defenders since then and one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. But we’ve also moved one of the best strikers in the world to the wing, and relieved ourselves of a playmaker.

Our squad is better balanced but we have Arteta trying to micromanage every aspect of our play without the ball which is clearly having a negative impact on our attacking play (as evident by being in bottom 5 for xG)

 

Conceding against City, Pool and the legendary Vardy off the bench is hardly a crime.

One goal from a very good West Ham side who has given everybody problems.

Man Utd coming up who have an attacking force that brushed PSG just the other day.

Think some of you need to get a grip.