AbouCuéllar
Author of A-M essays 📚
Brilliant first half but the second half was pretty much just as bad as the first half was good.
This is really the way it has been under Arteta for the majority of it, good first halves but, especially, when we take the lead, we cede far too much control of the game and take up rather Mourinhista/Cholista tactics. He should've learned from the Olympiakos disaster as well as the games against Sheffield United or really almost all of our 2nd half performances this season that this is not the way to go.
I get that the players might not be able to do what he asks of them over the course of the 90 minutes but that doesn't explain such conservativism, dropping off, ceding possession, and basically looking to counter, especially now with 5 subs available. It's clearly a tactical thing or a thing where he's not getting them to play in the 2nd halves, which either way is down to him.
I remain cautiously optimistic that he is being pragmatic and conservative in the short term with sub-optimal personnel in hopes of building something more interesting long term, but there are some worrying signs and his conservatism has really hurt us in this match and the Olympiakos match and we are as such without a hope of Champions League football next season. I hope he learns from these mistakes as well because his game management when he have a lead is not effective, and while I can understand he comes in and has his own ideas and maybe doesn't want to just copy Guardiola swinging to the other side of the spectrum with this real poor game management, with the same subs and second half approach every time that invites pressure and concedes far too much control, is not the answer.
This is really the way it has been under Arteta for the majority of it, good first halves but, especially, when we take the lead, we cede far too much control of the game and take up rather Mourinhista/Cholista tactics. He should've learned from the Olympiakos disaster as well as the games against Sheffield United or really almost all of our 2nd half performances this season that this is not the way to go.
I get that the players might not be able to do what he asks of them over the course of the 90 minutes but that doesn't explain such conservativism, dropping off, ceding possession, and basically looking to counter, especially now with 5 subs available. It's clearly a tactical thing or a thing where he's not getting them to play in the 2nd halves, which either way is down to him.
I remain cautiously optimistic that he is being pragmatic and conservative in the short term with sub-optimal personnel in hopes of building something more interesting long term, but there are some worrying signs and his conservatism has really hurt us in this match and the Olympiakos match and we are as such without a hope of Champions League football next season. I hope he learns from these mistakes as well because his game management when he have a lead is not effective, and while I can understand he comes in and has his own ideas and maybe doesn't want to just copy Guardiola swinging to the other side of the spectrum with this real poor game management, with the same subs and second half approach every time that invites pressure and concedes far too much control, is not the answer.