Arteta fumbles around for the lighter fluid

by .

What sort of a week am I having? Well, I hadn’t eaten all day yesterday because I was under some extreme pressure at work. At about 8pm I thought, you know what, I’ll treat myself to something exciting. I ordered a really shameful local burger thing… I was excited. It was basically a FUCK YOU HEART burger monstrosity only America can nail. Jeff was delivering to me. I tracked him all the way. Walked out to greet him like a fat kid greets the Ice Cream van. I could not see Jeff. I called. The address was right. He was in Miami. The same exact address. Except he was in Oklahoma. There’s a Miami in Oklahoma? Are you fucking kidding me? A $100billion app can’t say ‘DON’T CLICK YES TO THIS IT IS WRONG.’ No good times for me last night. I ate a pot of ice cubes instead.

Arsenal feels a little like that at the moment. We clicked ‘YES PLEASE’ to the delivery of progressive football to The Arsenal, but the guy who welcomed us at the door didn’t come with the right ingredients, and it’s unclear if his home chef-ing transfers into the restaurant game

I’m being harsh there of course, but not really. Currently, Arsenal is living off the joy fumes of a trophy that outside the main prize (Champions League football), is a fucking waste of ‘sitting on my arse’ time. The Premier League has been grim all year. The games we’ve won, outside United, have been very drossy. When the drossy football looked like a strategy, I could accept it, but increasingly, it just looks like we’ve been getting lucky in football purgatory. Even the United game, which was our best performance, was won by a penalty… and the manager said we played better against Spurs when we were cleanly taught a Jose lesson.

Well, it’s time for Arteta to show something new. We can’t perform badly all year and tomorrow, a home game against a pretty bad Burnley side, is where he has to do some catching up. I keep on saying it, but, we need a performance.

How he gets there, I’m not sure. Even the Dundalk game was quite a way off ‘performance’ levels and they were a pub team. Arteta needs to work out what his basics are again, because we’ve gone on a bit of a wild ride as to what he’s looking for. It’s generally the sign of a young manager, that when a crisis hits, you try 10 things instead of focusing on one. Different tactics, players, in game strategies… it’s a mess.

The shift from 11 at the back, to something more interesting, has been a painful journey. The top-level overview is this squad can shithouse 1-0s when we are ultra-cautious and in form, but when the senior players dip, that’s not possible.

Also, it’s not possible to shift up to an attacking offering when the senior players are giving us 70%. We have no creative outlets and by going for something sexier, we open ourselves up like the bad old days.

So the mega challenge is this: How does Arteta give some attacking juice to a depressed team without completely botching the defensive principles?

Now, we’ve all seen the Vinnai V Interview with Henry Winter in The Times.

‘You’ve got a guy who is absolutely driven to succeed and be successful on the pitch, but doing it in a way that respects our history and traditions. So I think with him we have got a really, really powerful individual.’

Vinnai speaks like the Deloitte consultant he was, but it’s clear, they are backing him because they can’t not do that right now.

This interview, for me, gives cover for Mikel to reconsider how he tackles this season. If the fans are told the manager is going nowhere and the manager tells the fans he’s going to do something different that speaks to the betterment of Arsenal over the long-term, then you have yourself a platform to build, which gives you time.

Arteta obviously can’t put out 11 kids against a very rough and experienced Burnley side. But he can restart the process of rewarding good performances with games. He should start prioritising his future vision for Arsenal by giving players minutes who fit the system, even if that fit is far from perfect… because the alternative, which has been to put unsuitable senior players, who can’t be arsed, into a system they don’t like, has us 15th.

Jurgen Klopp said a good gegenpress is better than a good #10. The whole idea of pressing, which originated in basketball (I think) as a full court press, is the notion that aggression and relentless closing down of opposition can overpower technique and talent if you do it well enough. Well, what has our system lacked with the seniors at 70%? Pressing. What do young kids that want careers do? Run. Do what they are told. Never stop.

Despite Arteta claiming otherwise, there are certain players that are likely undroppable. Leno, Gabriel, Tierney, Saka, and Auba. You have to play Auba out of his funk because his form will return. The rest of the positions are up for grabs.

What do the stats say? Well, Mo Elneny is the most efficient midfielder in the league for line breaking passes. He’s also the player with the best ball retention under pressure in the league (players with over 450mins). I don’t care that he’s not perfection, in the system we need to play, he has legs, he does the basics right, we are better with him in the side.

AMN isn’t perfect, but he is young, he has a lot of talent, and he has the athletic profile we need in our midfield. Arteta needs to coach him. Give him a very specific role and tell him to activate against it with all his concentration. A base of midfield with those two gives you a strong platform to build from. You have energy, doggedness, and some pretty decent locomotion. There’s no room for Xhaka, I’m sorry, but regardless of his passing numbers, the eye test fails every single time. His balls into the final third mean very little because we create nothing. His passing is accurate because he is painfully slow at releasing. He is seen as a tactical weakness by other managers because he’s slow. We have to let him drop into right back to protect him from pressure. This madness cannot go on.

How we build ahead of the midfield base is debatable and we’ve got nowhere near an answer this season. For me, it’s Auba on the left. He refuses to press through the middle and he gets eaten alive when he’s asked to hold the ball up. If he plays left, Reiss takes up the right, and you go with Eddie through the middle to set the tempo, you might be in interesting shape. Then the big move… who do you put in that hole? Do you opt to give Saka a go in that position because of his pace and potential ability through the middle? Or do you give Lacazette a run there? I would be inclined to try Saka as a roaming 10 because he is good defensively, and he can stretch teams with his pace. Maybe it’s not a ten and he’s a left sided 8 with AMN taking on the right.

It’s clear I’m not a coach, but I think we really need to start moving in a direction that is about the future, not one that is focused on reengineering the past. Arteta was asked about whether youth was key to his plans. He said this:

“When I feel it is the right moment to do that, I have to bring the players that I have the feeling — or we have the feeling as a coaching staff — that have the best chance for us to win the game,” he said. “So [the answer] has to be a yes.”

That feels like the PC way of saying ‘my senior players aren’t it, right?’

Key point though:

“What I can tell you is that the team will be prepared to battle with a real desire, because we know how important that game [against Burnley] is going to be for us.”

The battle hasn’t been there over the last month. The biggest shift in attitude under Arteta was the fighting spirit. The football might have been pony, but the nasty streak we had, and leaving it all on the battlefield was a joyous spectacle. Mikel needs to get the team back to that. The shortcut to that is to play the guys you don’t need to rally. Play the people who have a future invested in being great at football now. Stop giving game time to the players more interested in planning retirement to Miami, Oklahoma.

So once again I’ll end a post with… over to you Mikel, good luck.

____________________________________________________________

LISTEN TO OUR LATEST PODCAST. Matt and I talk about the root cause of our issues. Leadership, hard work, and lack of strategy… still. We also talk some positives as well.

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PhD2020

RoyDecember 14, 2020 08:44:47

6 GK’s?

PhD2020

*Concussion Gate(David Luiz)
*Push Gate(Partey)
* Mole Gate(Luiz vs Cellabos)

raptora

Ishola: “Who were the people on here that said David Luiz was and is going to be a good influence for Arsenal behind the scenes?”

He’s doing us a massive favor, getting us rid of Arteta in due time. I’d rather have opinionated, strong personalities like him, than asslickers like Xhaka and co, always there to give the manager a bj in front of him, just to prolong their career at the club and to collect their salary.

Gonsterous

Burnley winning at arsenal for the first time in 46 years.
Behind the scenes we are a mess but can we at least sort out the on the pitch mess?

PhD2020

*Throwing players under the bus gate
*F*ck knows what I am doing gate(but not a reason to sack me,as I’m Extra Diet Pep Sauce).

Guns of Hackney

I doubt anyone with career aspirations will come to, or look at Arsenal as a destination.

Left Testicle

Add gimp jacket to that list.

Left Testicle

…and not coaching Bellerin on throw-ins.

Kaz

I just woke up and eagerly checked headlines.

He hasn’t been sacked.

We’re Newcastle now.

Daniel Altos

“Last season we hung our hats on comebacks, early subs, the 22 game unbeaten run, DRIVE, DETERMINATION, PASSION, PLANNING, all the double sessions, Ozil dropped, Ramsey binned, a manager dancing down the touchline. We willfully ignored what the performances were telling us, because the rhetoric was like nothing we’d seen before, and we wanted to believe in the new dawn. This season, we’re looking at the paper metrics, because looking up from the Premier League points totaller to see what’s really happening is too damn unnerving to consider. ‘The table doesn’t lie’, yells the blinkered cuck… Oh yes she does,… Read more »

Ishola70

raptora

“He’s doing us a massive favor, getting us rid of Arteta in due time”

Arteta gets sacked without the intervention of David Luiz. When it’s inevitable it’s just that.

He’s a piece of shit trouble maker that has history of this at other clubs.

And he’s full of shit as well.

He was up Arteta’s arse not long ago telling us what a great manager he was.

TheLegendaryDB10

This in SSN from Arteta:

“We were on top from the beginning to the moment of the sending off,” Arteta told Sky Sports. “We threw the game away.”

He is well and truly deluded.

Roy

Absolutely PhD2020
Tough to keep track
The irony is clubs (especially like Arsenal and Barca) are built by fans and we suffer the most … more dramatically the last few years. At the same time when fans’ spent has increased significantly – money, time, social media, reach, et all.

Ishola70

Leftside

“Add gimp jacket to that list.”

It was always going to be the end for him whe fans start to mock his appearance.

Last week it was werewolf of london.

Last night some Arsenal forum had the game down as night fever hair v the ginger cum gargler.

Left Testicle

Night fever hair v the ginger cum gargler

>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I’d pay to watch that as a UFC bout. 🙂

RGG

Arteta makes Emery look like Klopp.

Time for him to continue his apprenticeship somewhere else….good luck Mikel….

Tott sacked Pott and now Maureen is reap’n the benefits……Spurs fucked you Pott……., cone sort us out and fuck them back!!

PhD2020

TheLegendaryDB10December 14, 2020 09:10:45 This in SSN from Arteta:“We were on top from the beginning to the moment of the sending off,” Arteta told Sky Sports. “We threw the game away.”He is well and truly deluded. —– No more deluded than Donald Trump still ranting and raving till today that he won the elections.. When to any rational informed human being,knows that he not only lost the popular vote by almost 8 million,but more importantly lost the electorate vote by 306 vs 232. A landslide victory for Biden.Is that not the same number of electorate votes Trump won by in… Read more »

China1

Of all the bants I think throw in gate is going to last as one of the more comical and bizarre ones we’ve been treated to. It’s stil not signing a player with a broken back levels but it is extremely funny

China1

Ginger cum gargler LOL

Valentin

Ishola70, I am not saying that the players are blameless. I have talked at length about the lack of quality of the players. When we purchased Pepe, I was advocating that we should have purchased NDombele (who after a first tough year is now winning Mourinho) and Soumare for the same amount. Our central midfield would have been sorted for the next 5 years with room for academy players such as Azeez to grow. I also slated the extension of David Luiz and the contract given to Willian. I got into a beef with CC, because of my view on… Read more »

Thorough

Is the olodo gone yet?

James wood.

Walcott who I never rated seems to have found that yard of
pace again playing with an enthusiasm but still running into
congested pockets like Pepe does.
He will cause us problems if he finds to gaps behind.?

James wood.

Those

Useroz

If Walcott manages to cause us problems God helps Aptera. Well, better take him,, figuratively speaking!

Useroz

One more sin.

Has Arteta ever worn a club attire in games?

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