It’s Freddie time + The shortlist problem (Long Read)

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The new temporary era of Freddie Ljungberg starts today and I have to be absolutely honest… I am VERY excited.

He’s making smart moves, Per Mertesacker is his assistant, he might be bringing Gilberto in for a helping hand, and he told the Arsenal.com team he was all about putting smiles back on the faces of players.

Freddie has gone on the record as saying he thinks players are happier when they’re playing exciting football, we know he was raised on some of most explosive attacking football the world has ever seen, so maybe we’re about to witness Wengerball 2.0.

He has the opportunity to make a claim for the job, to do well, he’s going to have thread the needle of some very tricky situations with the players and the football. Here are some items he’ll be looking to clarify.

The Xhaka thing:

There will be a blank slate for Granit Xhaka. It’ll be very interesting to see how a man with a more attacking vision sees the Swiss. A lot of the ‘he’s highly rated from within’ leaves me aghast. It doesn’t make sense that a player with so little discipline and so many errors in his game could be seen as this absolute essential to the team… but I guess we’ll find out. If he’s in the side, what is he doing and how are they going to protect the team against his bad habits?

Pressing:

Freddie likes high octane pressing. So did Wenger and Emery. No one can keep it going for longer than 3 games. How will Freddie discipline the team to press consistently, or at least in strategic moments during the game? There are big question marks as to whether his first-team forwards are even capable of this. Is Auba going to turn into that sort of player at 29? Does Lacazette have the stamina to do that? Or might the coach pull a wild card and start his younger players. He’s far more likely to get the sort of behaviour he wants our of Saka and Martinelli.

Pepe:

Our very one-footed wide man has looked pretty poor most of the season. It’s hard to move into a tough situation and perform and he certainly hasn’t managed to raise his game. He looks shot of all confidence, but maybe a new coach with a more exciting vision could spark something in him that we haven’t seen yet. He’s certainly not a bad player. If Conte could get Victor Moses firing, then there is hope for Pepe.

Transitions:

Our short game from the keeper has been slow, ineffective and quite frankly embarrassing. We struggle to transition out of defence most of the time, then if the ball makes into midfield, the gaps between the attack are monstrous. Freddie is going to have to get in the weeds with some real basics here, because we don’t move the ball through the phases with any sort of consistency. How is Freddie going to look at this problem, will he go more direct? Will he shorten the passing lanes? Will he bin the short passes out the back? I’m very interested to see how quickly he can impact the way we move the ball. I’m also hoping that we start playing through the middle again with some exciting one-touch combination passing.

The same in reverse. We often have no real shape when we’re hit on the counter-attack or even just under sustained pressure. Midfield is our biggest problem, the two deepest players, whoever they are, offer very little protection to the defence, either by taking up positions that are too deep, or just not being present in the right places. We do not defend as a unit, it’s a lot to expect in a few games, but it’d be nice to see some thinking go into action there.

It’s not really worth hitting you with the management stuff because it’s all very early stages, but I think one thing is clear from listening to Josh K, they will be overjoyed if Freddie can take things until the end of the season. Better choices will be on the market then and Edu, Huss, Raul and Vinnai can take their time over a decision.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, there really is no plan on the manager and we’re accruing a shortlist now because no one was thinking about exiting Emery this season. A staggering oversight when you consider that a proper club would have booted Emery in the summer. The football was quite clearly going nowhere, all the data pointed to total regression, and behind the scenes things were just as dire. Zero control. The bus driver running team motivation talks perfectly captured the managers’ approach. My point here, even if you truly believed in miracles, you’d at least get a backup list of names just in case.

The more worrying point for me about the shortlist that’s emerging is there’s no rhyme or reason to the candidates that we’re looking at. Nuno is a counter-attacking specialist that doesn’t believe in pointless possession. Allegri is the ultimate ‘get the job done’ pragmatist that builds systems around the tools he has at his disposal. Brendan Rodgers is a high pressing possession-based practitioner. Arteta will be Manchester City like entertaining possession-based attacking football. There’s no theme here, which likely means Edu doesn’t have a plan that he’s executing against.

If the club doesn’t know what it wants to be, how are they judging candidates? Your strategy can’t be a manager, because if that’s the case, your costs are huge every time you hire in a new philosophy. Chelsea, up until lately, always had deeply pragmatic managers that played a certain way. AVB, Conte, Mourinho are all cut from the same cloth. Barcelona always hire in specialists in of attacking based possession football because that’s their DNA, but beyond that, those values Cruyff instilled give the club stability. Every layer of the club believes the same thing. Every coach plays the same way. The scouting network knows what they are looking for. The fitness coaches know how to plan.

There’s a lot of talk about The Arsenal Way and whether that exists. It doesn’t. Edu is supposed to define what that is so we can build out talent that maps to the vision. My view is we should be a youthful execution of high octane pressing and intelligent possession-based football. We should be the most exciting team to watch in the world. We will never compete at the higher levels for elite adult talent, so we’ll have to grow it, or attract players like Martinelli and Guendouzi and ask them to give the first part of their careers to Arsenal. Young players need minutes and elite coaching. If we set a clear vision, it’d give clear parameters on the type of coach we need. It wouldn also focus what you’re looking for.

  • Someone open to a longer-term project
  • A manager happy to work on a budget
  • Someone who can work with data analysts and support staff
  • A person that can galvanise, not divide a backroom and a squad
  • A clear communicator
  • Someone that loves coaching
  • Has a clear-eyed vision of where the game is going and how to keep up
  • Someone with patience, because they’d be working with younger kids
  • Someone with examples of how they’ve developed players
  • A vision of how to implement a pressing regime
  • A view of football that’s exciting

It would dictate the sort of fitness approach we’d need, it’d give the scouts a very clear brief for who and where they should be looking for talent, and it’d be a clear message to the fans… this project is not for now, we are building out Arsenal to be a Champions League final four outfit in 5 years. Bear with us, this is going to be spectacular.

The ‘cast the net wide’ and see what we like approach isn’t purposeful. When you don’t know what you’re looking for, you can be easily seduced by cheap Powerpoint presentations, great Wikipedia pages, and the sweet charms of Raul who can definitely vouch. We are better than that. I hope as the club push on in this process they get a little more specific about what they want, because a warm body won’t cut it. Not for the next hire.

One managerial story that I do find amusing is the Brendan Rodgers one. We all know he’d be desperate to move to a top club again. He’s doing a great job at Leicester, a club I feel is his level… but my point of raising this particular story is that he’s on the back page of one of the red tops with a headline alluding to Arsenal being his dream job. That is poor judgement to let anyone go off the record for you in such a blatant way. I wonder if that’ll impact the focus of his players, it looks very much like the mistake Marco Silva made when he was desperate for the Everton job despite being under contract at Watford. Didn’t end well there. Confidence is fragile at a football club, if the players think you’re purring over another job, things can go south very quickly.

Anyway, a huge day for Freddie, Per Mertesacker and the fans. I cannot wait to see what the sexiest man in management has to offer us.

Right, jump into our podcast before the game, it’s a cracker. We talk about Raul, managers, problems with Emery and our favourite targets. You can bypass the cost by giving it a 5* in iTunes.

See you in the comments!

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Useroz

Jesus

MidwestGun

89th min sub.. having ptsd flashbacks.

Marko

Martinelli in the 89th min. Good man Freddie that’ll surely get you the job.

Just Another Customer

all in all great relegation battle 4 mins to go

HighburyLegend

Leno MOTG.

Dissenter

Can’t wait to have a proper manager in

Un na naai

Olumide

Yeah. He offers those tap ins but I don’t like that type of striker

I like a striker who has a better all round game. He’s not for me.
We were a better team with Giroud up front
We were still a top 4 team. Aubameyang has his place of course but he’s £60m on legs and he’s going next season anyway

Madrid and Barca are sniffing so why wait and do another Sanchez?
Get that money and flog the 30 year old

Receding Hairline

Are we still playing with more purpose? More energy?

Nelson

Leon plays good. Man of the Match!!!

Just Another Customer

The Great Manlet Torr to save the day!

Marc

Mustafi fucks up again

Useroz

Oh god. Leno the hero however this ends

Bob N16

Torreira should start on Thursday.

Paolo

Martinelli been only bright spark in our whole team & he doesn’t even play

Thought Freddie could see what we see but apparently not!!

We holding on against bloody Norwich!! I will be getting drunk this evening

Thank fuck for Leno today he’s been brilliant 🙌

James wood

Leno heroics give us a point.?????

MidwestGun

Oh Mustafi… you clown.. *sigh*

Ishola70

My goodness Chambers on the floor

Un na naai

Sanchez was twice the player Aubameyang is.
Scored, created, ran at teams, terrorised defences
Never stopped working
Aubameyang is the ozil of goal scoring
Gets those tap ins to pad his stats
How many times has Aubameyang won us a big game against a rival?
When does he stand up whenit really matters? His goal record against the top sides is shite

Guns of Hackney

No win in eight.

That’s relegation form. If you add on the end of last season, we’re in the championship.

We are a really poor side.

Leftsidesanch

Yet they wonder why we want Torreira to start. A defensive minded midfielder who isn’t faultless but his primary interest is to defend.

Un na naai

Mustafi on his arse again

Torreira proving he’s a dmf and that emery was a mug to leave him out

Useroz

Emery out.

Why Martinelli not on earlier ??

Guns of Hackney

The mistake we made with Sanchez was not selling for £60m to city.

Better than Auba, yes. But not a WC player.

Un na naai

Left

Exactly
No brainer man

MGooner

@ Un na nai

I am not a Wenger fan but lets leave him oiut of this.

Wenger was getting us in the CL with defenders like Senderos and Djourou.

We missed out on CL only when Sanchez torpedoed us. He lost more balls than he touched in some matches 😉

This is not a bad performance today. We moved the ball better. Much better.

Paulinho

Torreira is fucking cursed.

Dissenter

Receding
“Are we still playing with more purpose? More energy?”

I was expecting the typical new manager player reaction. We didn’t even get that today.
Freddie wont cut it.
Martinelli for Ozil in the 88th minute?

Marc

Christ can you imagine this team with an Almunia level keeper?

Marko

Martinelli did more in 4 mins than Ozil did in 88. Shocking how much more does that lad have to do before he gets game time.

James wood

The burgers are good at the Den?

Guns of Hackney

Freddy happy with a 2-2.

Disappointed.

Sorry but that game was a winning one. He bottled it.

Un na naai

We are so fucking meek. That kick fromLeni was only ever going to be won by Norwich

raptora

Ozil is such a waste of space. Martinelli should start. Same goes for Torreira.

HighburyLegend

This is such a mess.
We are so fucked.
Very worried times ahead…

Cesc Appeal

Does Martinelli fuck people’s wives or something?

What does he have to do to get an extend run?

Saka did fuck all when he came on, Martinelli did more in 3 minutes.

Disappointing.

Slightly better tempo but that is all.

Ljungberg just looks like he’s following Emery’s set up.

See what he delivers on Thursday but hopefully we get our longterm answer in the next 2 weeks.

MidwestGun

Is a win too much to ask… guess so.. damn.

Receding Hairline

We were out shot again today by the way

Lucky to get a draw away. Hope this improves a lot better against Brighton at home

Olumide

Un na naai

We should flog a golden boot winner and get Giroud in then.

Dissenter

This is more of the same
Leno saved us. Norwich ought to have won.
Freddie won’t last more than 3-4 games. The better get a proper manager in very very quickly.

Marc

Does anyone think the crowd should boo if Xhaka and Mustafi are selected to start on Thursday?

Guns of Hackney

Marc

Yes. Championship and cheaper tickets.

Paulinho

“Are we still playing with more purpose? More energy?”

Yeah we were being protagonists in the last twenty minutes. Aubameyang wasn’t playing right back, and Leno didn’t save our ass with multiple great saves.

Leftsidesanch

I’ve seen enough from Freddie to know that Arsenal need to appoint a proper manager and as soon as possible too. Poor initial selection, waited too long to change and will do his best to throw in Willock and Saka at all costs.

Just Another Customer

yeah must admit the lineup could’ve been better going 2 ball playing CBs is not the way when one of them is Mustafi lol

or even Luiz for some of you but for me he did naught wrong

Useroz

The team set a record.

Worse start since 1975…

Or put it another way, worse since many of us were born!

HighburyLegend

*worrying

prvhc

Emery’s appointment was essentially two seasons down the drain.
We’ll have to start afresh from next season.

Un na naai

MGoonerDecember 1, 2019 15:53:20
@ Un na naiI am not a Wenger fan but lets leave him oiut of this. Wenger was getting us in the CL with defenders like Senderos and Djourou

Mgooner
Sorry mate, I don’t understand. Are you having a pop at Sanchez or defending Wenger?

Cesc Appeal

Our midfield is garbage.

Mustafi was fucking awful as usual, Xhaka also, Ozil was anonymous, Kolasinac leave spaces and has no final ball.

I cannot believe Ljungberg fielded all of Mustafi, Xhaka, Kolasinac and Ozil.

Unbelievable.

Lacazette was total shite as well.

Marc

Leftside

Well hopefully today will provide one positive and make Sanllehi and Co realise that they can’t dick about and need to get someone who can do the job.

Dissenter

There’s a reason why assistant manager are a toss of the coin.

RGG

Let’s hope Fteddie Time doesnt take too long

What a load of rubbish.

Subs worse than Emerys

Looked like little boy lost out there on the line.

Hows Arteta at relegation battles?

Go and get Allegri. Let’s get a real fucking manager!

Guns of Hackney

Uzerroz

Settle the fuck down.

Dissenter

There’s a reason why assistant managers are a toss of the coin.

HighburyLegend

“Championship and cheaper tickets.”

Ah ah ah Guns, don’t be so sure about that, this is Arsenal!!

Kayciey

I have to say this……Saka adds no value. Too light weight and doesn’t offer much defensively either.

Leftsidesanch

Any manager who can’t set his team up correctly and will put his favourites in as start or a sub isn’t worth the hassle.

Free Martinelli
Get a manager to get Pepe firing
A manager who believes in a CDM
A manager who believes in using actual fullbacks

Alexanderhenry

A brighter start than recently but we were pretty shambolic in the second half.

Özil and Xhaka must be moved on- for free if necessary.

Marko

One things for sure Freddie ain’t gonna get the job. No fucking way do you pick that starting 11 and make those subs and expect to be in with a chance of getting the job.

Champagne charlie

Marko Nothing to do with consistency, everything to do with comprehension. Wenger didn’t leave us in the cataclysmic hole that was claimed time and time again. He quite obviously left a side without defensive structure, we finished 6th and he was sacked. But Emery was given every bit of slack to improve upon what had been left. He had investment, an entire pre-season, and a nearly all the fan base patiently waiting. Change never came and we got worse and worse. Now you expect Freddie to have a training session and for the untapped potential Emery couldn’t deal with come… Read more »

Guns of Hackney

Allegri has never been in a relegation battle. Neither has pep. Nor has Capello.

Silly argument.

Guns of Hackney

HL

Mate. If we’re in the championship and still charging £1,000 a ticket…then the world absolutely has gone mad.

Paulinho

Saka is not good enough to play up front. Can’t receive the ball and turn quick enough. Said from day one he needs to play deeper or not at all.

Laca should never play away from home ever again. Could read War and Peace by the time he takes a shot.

G

“penalty and a tap in”.. You call that a tap in.. Tit

Chef

Looked like the team in an identity crisis of Wenger + Emery. We’re in deep shyte.

vickingz

Freddie is a fraud, a match is enough to show him as a fraud. He wants to make the fans happy? Like this???? We are in a mess, a deep one

Ishola70

Another poor result.

To put it into perspective Norwich have won only three games all season and those three wins they had always lost their next match until today and they had enough chances to win the match.

They were signs of improvement in the passing and attitude of the players in the first 20 minutes or so but it is all lost and submerged in how defensively weak this team continues to be.

Could be tenth in the table by the end of the day.

Not good days for Arsenal.

raptora

Same old, same old.

We’ll see what happens. Nobody should be making conclusions for Freddie out of 1 game in charge. Interim or not interim it is what it is.

We don’t believe in ourselves. That’s obvious.

Victorious

Freddie has shown today he’s a coward and can’t move the team forward

Utterly out of his depth

Marc

Don’t know if the odds have changed today but yesterday Allegri was favourite. I think he’s got to be best available option at the moment unless there’s someone seriously leftfield out there.

Cesc Appeal

They have to add at least one midfield player in January.

It cannot wait until summer.

Xhaka is fucking useless and Torreira looks as if he’s not preferred to players like Xhaka which speaks volumes. Even when he was sent on he was playing RCM.

Sell one or both of Xhaka and Torreira if they want out (even if not) and get in a CDM who has the physicality and athleticism we need.

Stop playing two up front as well. Said it for 2 years now, sell one of Lacazette or Aubameyang (preferably Lacazette).

salparadisenyc

Thats a – 2 goals difference, 22 points from top of table on December 1.

Was hoping Fred would shake the starting XI up. Had a moment just after 70th where it looked ideal to go with a front three of Martinelli with Pepe on right.
Played it conservatively and got the conservative result.

bennydevito

Ozil’s reintroduction to the side has shown once and for all that he brings nothing to the team, weakens us in midfield and proves a certain know nothing on here knows absolutely nothing.

Another big clear out needed starting with Ozil, Xhaka and Mustafi.

Just Another Customer

that was not the time to use youngsters like Saka but he was under-23s before so you think they are his lovechilds already?

subs were 10-15 mins too late we clearly out of ideas by the 60th mark

raptora

Ozil and Lacazette did fk all. Need to give Martinelli and Pepe a chance.

Marc

“He wants to make the fans happy?”

The only people happy with todays line up were Mustafi and Xhaka’s other halves and the Norwich fans.

Paulinho

Freddie didn’t look too happy with dozy Gwendolyn taking an age to come off.

izzo

CB and Midfield need replacing if we want to make top 4 this season. Have to make January signings. Sell Xhaka, Laca and Mustafi to fund it.

DaleDaGooner

A lot of these players are terrible. Don’t need a coach to tell you how to close down and press.

Ishola70

Yeah Lacazette doesn’t show enough in away matches.

He lacks the physicality for the away games.

He is good in home matches enough times when the team are more in control of games.

This is why he could be the one that gets sold on next season even if he is a better all round footballer than Aubameyang.

Marko

Now you expect Freddie to have a training session and for the untapped potential Emery couldn’t deal with come flooding out?

I actually didn’t. I’m giving you shit for the previously said stuff. Arsene DID leave us in an awful state and irrespective of how Emery turned out it still wasn’t as bad as what Wenger left the club with. Still not great expectations but Freddie and not Emery could at least call upon some actual wingers and a good LB.

Dissenter

CC
Do you realize that Freddie has been around the squad in an assistant manager role for at least 5 months.
No one ie expecting the fi wished product after two days training but there ought to be some improvement. He looked out of place, like a deer caught in headlights today.
Wrong selection, wrong tactics and wasted subs.
He’s not some outsider just drafted in. He’s been part of the set-up.

Champagne charlie

“Are we still playing with more purpose? More energy?“

No, pretty abject second half.

Doesn’t take away from an improved first half despite the score line. More touches in their box than the whole game against Saints backs that observation.

Clearly youre dead set on nibbling at ankles now your Emery shrine is due a rethink.

TheLegendaryDB10

These experienced players that we have are only experienced at playing shit football. They need to be sold.

If I were Freddie, I would play youth, a bit like the team that played vs Notts. Forest. They really looked like they were hungry to play.

I mean, what other options do we have? At least they’ll have a certain ceiling of improvement that can be worked with, surely?

Bergkamp63

What is the point of bringing on a sub with 1 min remaining ?

Freddie Out !

InsideRight

The fact is this side has stagnated and the results reflect the lack of ability. We don’t do the basics properly. We cough up the ball too easily. We have poor discipline. No one drives into the box to unsettle the opposition defence. We don’t win headers, so naturally we continue lumping high balls in where they can be banged away upfield. We continually look to play the ball backwards instead of moving it forwards. We are too static and don’t show for the ball, limiting passing options. We still don’t try to shoot from outside the box, instead trying… Read more »

Danny S

CC We have seen enough of certain players for the past few years to know they are not a fit for the team. Freddie just crammed them all into one team. He played a diamond without having proper fullbacks. He made some shit subs. Today he looked like exactly what he probably is and that’s a hibrid if Wenger and emery. Doesn’t look like he has any original ideas. Had he gone with an exciting and unseen first 11, and lost I’d have been happier. But he went with that first 11. Any moron knows exactly what will happen and… Read more »

Danny

We really do have some shit players, with them it’s gonna get a lot worse before it’ll get better. This is going to be an awful season, probably wont make the top 10. Oh well, all the older lot on here have been there, done that.

Bergkamp63

Talk about sticking all your bad eggs in one basket !

Marc

Does anyone have a good drug dealer?

Dissenter

Marc
If you were Allegri with the opportunity to pick your next job, would you come to Arsenal?

azed

Can’t play Ozil and Aubameyang together as they don’t defend.

Play Aubameyang in the middle, Pepe and Martinelli on the wings.

Marko

Club is crying out for competent defenders and athletic midfielders. Despite Arsenal fans turning their noses up at the likes of Demirel and Rugani we simply need better than what we have got

Ishola70

And Chambers is a lower level EPL player or Championship higher level player.

I like certain aspects of his play like his effort and endeavour but the real killer for him is his lack of a turn of pace.

Yet again today he was caught out of position in a key moment for one of their goals and at times looked totally out on his feet.

Not good enough I’m afraid even though he makes an effort.

Chef

wonder how much Freddie leaned on Per. Funny thing is Freddie absolutely thought he was in for a good chance to win at the end which is a ridiculous expectation given the first 11 and the subs made.

On the other hand Chambers looked like he’s spent some time doing futsal in his spare time.

Leftsidesanch

Lacazette is the most overrated “WC” forward you’ll find. Giroud could score away from home at least. He was woeful today but will get off lightly because he’s a fan favourite.

izzo

This season is a write off it will take a miracle to make top 4. Next summer is another for players exodus.

prvhc

Can someone explain what’s the point of an attacking substitution in the 88th minute ?
Players are crucified for brainfade moments,but I always wondered whether anyone questions the manager/coach after such appalling decisions.

Dissenter

Why wait for 88 minutes to sub in Martinelli for Ozil?
Ozil wasn’t doing anything that shouldn’t have been terminated at the 60th minute.

Marc

Dissenter

Well the £XX millions will be an encouragement.

I also still believe that whilst the squad needs improvement we have enough players to be doing a hell of a lot better than we are.

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