Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Football Manager]

 

[MartiSaka]

Said it a couple of times before, but our attacking issues in the final third is mostly down to our forwards not our midfield. Our forwards need to be moving and passing quicker and be more efficient at finding spaces.

Laca has hit a cliff not sure he is coming back. Is Auba playing with niggling injuries, his movement is not on point currently?

 

[boonthegoon]

Have any of you noticed how Arteta always claps with his pinky finger distanced away from the rest of his fingers? It bugs the hell out of me.

Thought I was the only one who always noticed it. It is so weird.

 

[Sniper Mik]

Thought I was the only one who always noticed it. It is so weird.

Someone needs to teach him proper form. Not good enough for a top club.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

The way we strangled UTD and Leicester(1st half) to death via positioning, tackling on the front foot and press has been insanely impressive.

If the front line was working we would be creating a ****load in those scenarios.



I'm honestly not quite sure what the problem is. Up until the final third we have fantastic triangles all over the pitch. And then it stops and it becomes slow, predictable with zero movement.

No Triangles in attack, it's so obvious and frustrating.

Just checking our first two attacks:

That's a result of playing without an attacking midfielder in the team. Those are the spaces an attacking midfielder would take up.

I don't mind it too much in a game like this especially with the lineup United chose, we created enough to win given our complete control of the game, but in games like Leicester it's clearly a big problem.

I didn't think Laca was too bad yesterday but I'm keen to see Arteta go away from the tactic of him a a neither-here-nor-there CF/false 9 and Auba to his left. Given how uninspiring the alternatives are (Pepe), it's hard to fault him too much, though. My secret hope is that Nelson steps up and makes it into the team, with him and Willian flanking Auba, but that's quite unlikely and tbf Nelson has to do more against crap like Dundalk for that to be a real possibility. ESR is my other secret hope. Either way, not signing a player there was a real negligence. Elneny played a fine game yesterday and I think it's pretty clear we had a lot more to gain upgrading NO ONE with Aouar or James than we did upgrading Elneny/Ceballos/Xhaka with Thomas.

Anyways, as @Mrs Bergkamp said, wobbled a bit after Leicester and Arteta still has his issues (got to get over his conservatism at times), but great win, great tactical run around of Ole, and long live the Basque God.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Its a shame that Chelsea seem to be gaining some consistency now and Sp**s look alright this season. Going to be an almighty fight for 4th it'll end up being very tight.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

I'm certain some people on here would never have started supporting Arsenal if they were around when George Graham was manager

Of course you'd prefer to win creating loads of chances and playing sexy football, but a 1-0 win gets you as many points as a 5-0 win.

Personally I'm delighted with a result like yesterday. We could have played for another 3 hours and United still wouldn't have scored. There's an art to that.

If were still playing this style of football in 2 years then criticism of Arteta is valid. At the moment I think it's nitpicking.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

I'm certain some people on here would never have started supporting Arsenal if they were around when George Graham was manager

Of course you'd prefer to win creating loads of chances and playing sexy football, but a 1-0 win gets you as many points as a 5-0 win.

Personally I'm delighted with a result like yesterday. We could have played for another 3 hours and United still wouldn't have scored. There's an art to that.

If were still playing this style of football in 2 years then criticism of Arteta is valid. At the moment I think it's nitpicking.

We have a solid base to work from now which is elite. Where every other team in the league is conceding 3's and 4's you can't see us doing that at all.

We are starting to see Arteta build his team and build an undroppable 11.

Leno, Bellerin, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Saka, Auba and now I'm starting to think Elneny could well be undroppable from our best 11. Partey offers everything Xhaka does and 10x more. Elneny rarely loses the ball, is comfortable taking the ball under extreme pressure and has this engine that you cannot teach and that Xhaka/Ceballos do not have.

So there's 8 players there you can't drop. Then obviously Saliba would be my option as the other CB but Luiz/Holding are it for now. And after that the two attackers with Auba are very important. Two attacking signings would transform this team.

 

[Oxeki]

We have a solid base to work from now which is elite. Where every other team in the league is conceding 3's and 4's you can't see us doing that at all.

We are starting to see Arteta build his team and build an undroppable 11.

Leno, Bellerin, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Saka, Auba and now I'm starting to think Elneny could well be undroppable from our best 11. Partey offers everything Xhaka does and 10x more. Elneny rarely loses the ball, is comfortable taking the ball under extreme pressure and has this engine that you cannot teach and that Xhaka/Ceballos do not have.

So there's 8 players there you can't drop. Then obviously Saliba would be my option as the other CB but Luiz/Holding are it for now. And after that the two attackers with Auba are very important. Two attacking signings would transform this team.

Exactly. We have a solid base. The qttck just needs fixing. We could do that next summer.

We're arguably the most defensively solid team in the league. We have conceded the least amount of goals in the league this season. The Partey and Gabriel signing has totally transformed us.

Xhaka will have to be binned in the summer. There's no way you can argue for Xhaka to be in starting XI currently.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Exactly. We have a solid base. The qttck just needs fixing. We could do that next summer.

We're arguably the most defensively solid team in the league. We have conceded the least amount of goals in the league this season. The Partey and Gabriel signing has totally transformed us.

Xhaka will have to be binned in the summer. There's no way you can argue for Xhaka to be in starting XI currently.

Yeah even i've realised Xhaka actually brings very little to the side. I think he's been in the side for so long and the drop off in quality after Xhaka has been so poor that people who like Xhaka have been gazumped into thinking he's important.

Suddenly we sign a world class midfielder and it shows how poor Xhaka actually is and how much he slows the game down. Through no fault of his own may I add, that's just his play style. He's a slow player and not good for the premier league.

I think you're right, a LW and a creative midfielder in the summer is all we need. If we get CL football we'll be flying and be able to attract some proper attacking talents. Sancho2021 anyone

 

[SA Gunner]

We are absolutely rock solid in the first and second third of the pitch, credit is due and this alone will keep us somewhat relevant this season.

The problem though remains in the final third, and unfortunately its the most important area of the pitch. We saw how blunt we are again against United, and we will be punished in future like we were against Leicester. We need to improve our attacking metrics in this area soon, before we start falling adrift of our goals this year. Currently we are not good enough. Arteta has the ability to do it, and I back him to do so.

This season will be a long slog and we will be frustrated, but if we can make it through by reaching our targets, and then investing... we will be on to something here.

 

[Trilly]

Not hate, just constant criticism and shade for the last few weeks because we weren't playing like you wanted to see... You're not capable of 'hate'. Hate is what the great unwashed indulge in

The bleep test stuff is bit of banter. I’ll continue to do that don’t you worry.

You can search through all my posts on him. It’s very clear when I’m seriously assessing him and when I’m poking fun. It’s been consistent: he has great potential as a manager but he’s still a work in progress. Note: wanting Auba to have more than 2 shots a game isn’t wanting prime Barca football by the way.

I’ve noticed a few of you are looking for faces to rub this victory in but the truth is there are no more than five posters in this thread who seriously want him out and five might be generous.

 

[Jasard]

 

[tap-in]

I still think Arteta has to play Auba at CF. I expected him to do it yesterday but he kept the faith with Laca who then proceeded to give his usual lacklustre performance. A front 3 of Saka Auba Pepe could be great. All have pace and all can play in a fluid dynamic attack. I would put Willian behind as the link from mid to attack.

Saka Auba Pepe
Willian

When Martinelli returns we can rotate Willian and Saka to avoid burnout.

Martinelli Auba Pepe
Saka/Willian

 

[Jury]

Apart from Auba, we haven’t got the players to be instantly productive yet. We still lack quality. We look like we’ve fixed the back door and despite what some might think, that was and is the most important area that needed addressing. Guess what, you can’t lose if you don’t concede... Scoring is great but if you are letting them in at the other end you could still lose or draw. Can’t believe I’ve just typed that

 

[<<reed>>]

Rex Banner when he realizes that he supports Atletico and Atletico lite now:

 

[kash2]

if u dont take your chances, a mistake or moment of luck/brilliance is all the opposition needs. See Leceister game.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

if u dont take your chances, a mistake or moment of luck/brilliance is all the opposition needs. See Leceister game.

Cheers Geoff, really insightful knowledge there. Talk about calling a spade a spade.

 

[Manberg]

I agree with @Jury. For Arteta to solve the attacking issues he needs better attackers to work with than what we have in the squad (bar hopefully Martinelli making an impact when he returns).

Until then, most games are going to be tight. Decisions such as the Lacazette goal against Leicester getting wrongly ruled out is what’s going to be the difference. That goal gets given and we beat Leicester rather than lose.

 

[kash2]

Cheers Geoff, really insightful knowledge there. Talk about calling a spade a spade.

thanks man.. have to spell it out since some of your posts leave the impression that its needed