ANDREA BERTA PROS AND CONS

BEATING PSV WITH NO STRIKERS WILL BE TOUGH, CAN ARTETA FIND SOLUTIONS?

Well, I did not realize that talking about Andrea Berta yesterday was going to directly lead to Fabrizio Romano declaring that he’s the front-runner for the Sporting Director role at Arsenal.

Now, firstly, an Italian Sporting Director bending the ear of a professional leaker wouldn’t come as a shock, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that leak had not come from Arsenal. Luis Campos was desperately trying to leak his way into contention for the Arsenal job, and it was clear he was never getting it.

But let’s just briefly touch on Andrea Berta—he would seem like a very good fit if the club bypassed internal promotions.

Brand Fit

When we signed Don Raul back in the day, I was told that it was a bad hire, much to my chagrin.

“What commonalities do you think his experience at Barça has with Arsenal? You can blow £100m there and no one will notice.”

Sure enough, he came to Arsenal, blew £100m recklessly, and my oh my, did we notice.

Atlético punch above their weight in Spain. They are the third-biggest club in the area, and they have won titles and trophies over the past decade. This is a man who has spent a lot of money but also done incredible things with small amounts, unearthing talents like Rodri, Partey, and Cunha. Arsenal can’t drop £265m in January like some clubs; they need to find value in the market and make sure every penny counts. Berta has a pretty damn fine record in the market. Hiring someone who can punch above their weight is essential.

Working with BEASTS

Diego Simeone has been great for Atlético. He is a beast. Emotional. Extremely alpha male. Berta lasted a long time at his side. That’s pedigree right there and shows he’s capable of working in the shadow of someone extremely talented.

Pedigree

If we did move for him, we’d be picking up a brand-name Sporting Director. He’d come with a lot of reputational heft because of what he’s done in the game, and he’d bring expertise and experience we don’t have at the club right now. He’s been around big players, brokered massive deals, worked in high-stakes environments with a technical coach, and he has experienced winning massive things against the odds.

The Weaknesses

I don’t want to belabor these too much, but his spending at the higher levels has been quite drossy. Thomas Lemar for £72m was a wash. Félix to replace Griezmann was a disaster. Re-signing a spent Diego Costa for £50m was also not the sharpest move.

I mentioned yesterday that he hasn’t really been servicing a system like the one at Arsenal, though he does like some players that Arteta likes… There’s a story that one of the reasons he fell out with Atlético was over his desire to sign Merino for them last summer. My larger point was that Arsenal play a JdP-style system that wants to control games through possession and space… that isn’t really Simeone.

Does that mean he can’t adapt to the needs of a different style of football? No. But I would think with a hire like this, you’d want someone who could demonstrate success in the system and style of the club he’s moving to.

That said, we’re not exactly Pep G-ball. We don’t really dominate possession like peak-Barça sides, and the whole model is about being able to play any style, any time, to win the game. Maybe this point doesn’t really matter. But in most jobs that involve expression of some sort, you want to hire the specialists unless you’re happy enough to let them settle into a new style… but for the sort of money he’ll be earning, you might not want to offer training wheels. We need to win now.

So overall, if it’s not an internal promotion, you’d be hard-pressed to argue against the ambition of a hire like this. It’d be a glamour move and a statement of intent from the club.

We’ll see, I guess?

I gotta be quick on the preview, but the most important snippet we landed from the presser was this:

“With the schedule we had, we could give most of the players some time off as well after the last game we had, and then do the preparation we normally do. It’s true we had more time, so we focused a lot of stuff on us as well, and not having to do just game plans and very short training sessions relating to what’s going to happen in the game, so that was very useful.”

Music to my ears. Hopefully, those extra days will pay dividends. Having a depleted squad is one thing; having a depleted squad that’s tired is a totally different issue.

Arsenal has four games to manage with a broken forward line. If we can get through PSV, the whole team can be re-org’d for one of the Madrid sides with Bukayo and Martinelli as options. But you have to start with a good result against PSV. A strong performance there could give us the momentum we need to take down Chelsea and United. My fear is that if we have a bad result, our season could unravel painfully fast, and we could be witnessing a mutiny in the fanbase.

I am still at a loss to work out where goals are coming from. All of our forward options have limitations of sorts, and none of them are in great form. The whole team needs to step up to the plate if we’re going to get anything from this game. Set pieces need to land. Midfielders need to be sharper. Our makeshift forwards need to want some of that hero juice.

I don’t know about you, but I need a decent result. My week is already dragging because of Arsenal mid-seasonal disorder. Give me a win so I can get my energy back. I am DEAD.

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