If you are an arteta fanboy, you really don't need the use of your brain. In fact you can't really be an arteta supporter if you use you brain once in a while. Just follow the cheer leader. Simple.
Its no surprise our players are breaking. A small squad. Wrong players purchased last summer. Most damning as Pedro has pointed out many times is how Mike expects his players to go 70 games per season without any issues. This fella is so incompetent its not even funny.
He himself was a crock most times
All this was writing on the wall. Now its all there. He broke Saka, Kai, hardly rotates and then this is on the board????
We should have sold Jesus, Zinchenko and Tomiyasu in the summer. That was the best and only play to gain enough good will with the owners since they seemingly decided on wanting to see some profit of selling players before sanctioning another expensive buy.
That's the big mistake of last summer. Keeping and carrying 3 crocks. We also added Calafiori to the bunch.
The story doing the rounds is that the offer for Watkins wasn’t ever going to be accepted the inference being that Arsenal knew that and indeed the offer wasn’t £60 million but £40 million which sort of says a lot if true.
From day one of the season the size and make up of the squad has been a concern the decision to run players into the ground not just on match days but training did nothing to try and manage matters it’s simply made things worse.
We will have to wait and see if players have benefited from their warm weather training as a whole but the fact that KH was injured during a high intensity session beggars belief.
I pointed out in July it would be folly to go into the season with a 17 year old occupying a squad place for no other reason than it removed the possibility of having a squad backup that sadly is where that folly has now been exposed.
There are 3 free squad places in the Arsenal PL squad and some talk about signing a free agent ( which it would have to be) but let’s get real here any quality free agents that would have been decent and or up to the levels of fitness are long gone.
Loose either of Rice, Odegarrd or Saliba, no any more players and all hell will let losses because the lack of squad depth has already been exposed.
Meant to an add there is the little matter of the CFS looking at a case referral and if that is a) it’s the player will all believe it to be and b) there is a charge then that won’t help the squad
Jesus got a season-ending injury in January so we dropped to 7 players for 4 positions.
Saka was also out but he's supposed to come back early to mid March.
That was 6 players for 4 positions for about 6 games until Saka's planned comeback.
Since the window less than 10 days ago, we got injuries to 2 more players so we're now down to 4 players for 4 positions.
By that rate, we won't be able to put a starting 11 out there cause all of our players will be unavailable soon.
You can't plan around that.
I agree we were 1 body short in January when Jesus and Saka's injuries had already happened. That's why I was excited and posted about 10 offensive players that would upgrade us. But since the owners didn't agree in shelling a good amount of money for an offensive player, after a summer we sold well enough and had a total of 20m net spend, such a transfer wasn't allowed to happen.
I understood the approach of not signing anyone and it was risky. But how do you plan around 2 players getting injured within a week? We could have recalled Fabio and call it a day.
Its 8 players on paper, reality is 1) Sterling doesnt count. 2) Jesus has never played more than half a season 3) that leaves you with 6 players, Saka is overplayed any amatuer could see an injury happening. 4) Domino effect
1. Agree on Sterling and how he doesn't count but that's what most people wanted, to get in a body in January. It cannot be a body cause if they aren't good, they won't be used or when they are used, in dire situations like the one we'll have to deal with, we'll drop points because of their lack of quality. And apparently the club didn't give enough funds to the management for a good enough player so it's tough to put the blame on the one guy that was begging for transfers for a full month.
2. Jesus has played mostly about 2000 mins in the PL alone. And north of 2500 mins combined. It's not good but he's only played about 1200 mins so far in all comps, so his usual 2500 would have been exactly what we needed him to play.
3. Saka is as overplayed as Mbappe, Bellingham, Haaland, Valverde, Vini Jr, Kane, Rice, Havertz, Salah etc etc. If you are among the bests, you'll be playing a lot of games.
Sterling got injured while not playing much so it is what it is.
4. Domino effect is a real worry but when a lot of injuries happen, there's little one can do. The only offensive injury that we could have predicted based on past proof, was Jesus' and he's one of the players I wanted sold in the summer, in addition to Zinchenko and Tomiyasu. Domino effect is also very valid for the injuries to Timber and White because Tomi and Zina are never available.
Le-grove when Emery was in charge: “His double training sessions are killing the players. They’re all in the red zone and it’s no surprise they’re all breaking down. Amateurish approach to squad fitness at an elite football club. Emery is out of his depth. Sack him now.”
Le-grove under Arteta: “Injuries are not his fault, who could’ve predicted an injury crisis after playing the same forward line week after week in all the competitions for 2 seasons straight. What’s a ‘red zone’? Blame PGMOL.”
Some wanted a body but we did that with Sterling in the summer.
Sterling is now behind every single winger we have, including a 17 yo.
How do you rotate Saka with Sterling without losing points? It's impossible. He's just taking a spot in the squad without being an actual, real option.
If we had better players to rotate with, sure but we're not City or Chavs. Our biggest mistake is not selling Jesus, Zinchenko and Tomiyasu. That would have added some funds to work with.
The two players that are of similar quality in Martinelli and Trossard, Arteta has rotated quite well. Of course Trossard has bitched about it multiple times but it is what it is.
Where else do we have a healthy competition going on? Has Kiwior taken any minutes off of Gabriel? Fuck no.
City and Pool also have their main players always playing. Our main players currently are - Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Odegaard (the only established AM at the start of the season), Saka, Havertz.
That group of players will play most games and it's perfectly understandable.
Most teams' main players play almost every minute of the two big competitions - PL and CL. It's the same for all teams.
Mr "Stay humble" has played 200 minutes more than Havertz so when I read "it's on Arteta", I wonder if Pep is also making a mistake by overplaying his CF.
What about 32 yo Salah? 100 minutes on top of Havertz as well. What is Slot doing???
I think we might be in a top 4 fight now, if we weren't before Havertz's injury. We need about 25 points from the 14 games we have left. 8,9 wins will do it.
Season is completely over now unless a kid from the academy can take over like Ashley Cole or Saka.
I really worry about Nwaneri too. We need to manage his minutes now. There is no point destroying him for a season that is done.
There is no point rushing Saka either.
Give Kabia and Butler-Oyedeji a run out even if we have to drop points.
Maybe those who think they are super fans and heap abuse on anyone who questions the clubs direction and modus.
Questioning certain things (I’m not talking of toxic negativity) is what makes you a true fan.
This is just total incompetence by both manager, accountants, scouting and the Kroenke’s. It shows such a lack of ambition and a focused vision on how to move the club forward to the top of the charts.
One day we will find out why Edu really left us.
It’s such a shame and someone or some people need to be held accountable.
You just know the media will fuel the fire of discontent if things go south. Just so poor.
You cannot gamble when you have gaping holes.
I mentioned Wenger refusing to buy a goalie and sticking with Almunia. I remember having a back and forth with Pedro over this but it’s just so frustrating that we never learn from past mistakes.
I’m not even gonna let my emotions get sucked into this vortex. I’m just sick and tired of this lack of commitment to excellence …
Toxic positivity is also harmful as is toxic negativity. When we lost Saka and Jesus and had Havertz sick and Nwaneri injured, it was obvious that only incompetent approach would bring us to the end of January without a new addition to the squad.
Agreed. The same numskulls squealed that Wenger "deserved to decide when to leave", so he was was allowed to stay at least 8 years longer than he should have. Too many support the manager, not the club, i.e. some saying Havertz's injury is not on Arteta! Who is it on then, Nicolas Jover?!!
We can look at either bad luck or overplaying. The same players that are usually always available, are now down.
White, Odegaard, Saka, Havertz - all players with many minutes in the last seasons that have now suffered bad injuries.
Jesus is a different problem but the 4 above all fell down this season.
Players get injured all the time, I'm not sure we can attribute all their problems because of overplaying when Sterling got injured without playing much if at all.
.
.
Kai Havertz is injured during training. Yet another training injury.
I mean we are getting close to bare bones team wise and Arteta is STILL doing intense training sessions??
At what point is Arteta going to stop with his insane training regime?
When he can't field a full XI on the pitch?
And when are his yes men going to stop saying yes and point the obvious to him: that he can't carry on like this?
If you are an arteta fanboy, you really don't need the use of your brain. In fact you can't really be an arteta supporter if you use you brain once in a while. Just follow the cheer leader. Simple.
I'm sorry but i've never heard of season ending hamstring injuries unless its Michael Owen. What sort of fucked up injury voodoo is this.
Transactional wants to force the Kroenkes to give money for signing the 3 players we need to become winners.
Its a genius move to get players injured
Its no surprise our players are breaking. A small squad. Wrong players purchased last summer. Most damning as Pedro has pointed out many times is how Mike expects his players to go 70 games per season without any issues. This fella is so incompetent its not even funny.
He himself was a crock most times
All this was writing on the wall. Now its all there. He broke Saka, Kai, hardly rotates and then this is on the board????
We should have sold Jesus, Zinchenko and Tomiyasu in the summer. That was the best and only play to gain enough good will with the owners since they seemingly decided on wanting to see some profit of selling players before sanctioning another expensive buy.
That's the big mistake of last summer. Keeping and carrying 3 crocks. We also added Calafiori to the bunch.
The story doing the rounds is that the offer for Watkins wasn’t ever going to be accepted the inference being that Arsenal knew that and indeed the offer wasn’t £60 million but £40 million which sort of says a lot if true.
From day one of the season the size and make up of the squad has been a concern the decision to run players into the ground not just on match days but training did nothing to try and manage matters it’s simply made things worse.
We will have to wait and see if players have benefited from their warm weather training as a whole but the fact that KH was injured during a high intensity session beggars belief.
I pointed out in July it would be folly to go into the season with a 17 year old occupying a squad place for no other reason than it removed the possibility of having a squad backup that sadly is where that folly has now been exposed.
There are 3 free squad places in the Arsenal PL squad and some talk about signing a free agent ( which it would have to be) but let’s get real here any quality free agents that would have been decent and or up to the levels of fitness are long gone.
Loose either of Rice, Odegarrd or Saliba, no any more players and all hell will let losses because the lack of squad depth has already been exposed.
Meant to an add there is the little matter of the CFS looking at a case referral and if that is a) it’s the player will all believe it to be and b) there is a charge then that won’t help the squad
Martinelli, Trossard, Havertz, Jesus, Saka, Sterling, Nwaneri, Odegaard.
8 players for 4 positions.
Jesus got a season-ending injury in January so we dropped to 7 players for 4 positions.
Saka was also out but he's supposed to come back early to mid March.
That was 6 players for 4 positions for about 6 games until Saka's planned comeback.
Since the window less than 10 days ago, we got injuries to 2 more players so we're now down to 4 players for 4 positions.
By that rate, we won't be able to put a starting 11 out there cause all of our players will be unavailable soon.
You can't plan around that.
I agree we were 1 body short in January when Jesus and Saka's injuries had already happened. That's why I was excited and posted about 10 offensive players that would upgrade us. But since the owners didn't agree in shelling a good amount of money for an offensive player, after a summer we sold well enough and had a total of 20m net spend, such a transfer wasn't allowed to happen.
I understood the approach of not signing anyone and it was risky. But how do you plan around 2 players getting injured within a week? We could have recalled Fabio and call it a day.
Its 8 players on paper, reality is 1) Sterling doesnt count. 2) Jesus has never played more than half a season 3) that leaves you with 6 players, Saka is overplayed any amatuer could see an injury happening. 4) Domino effect
1. Agree on Sterling and how he doesn't count but that's what most people wanted, to get in a body in January. It cannot be a body cause if they aren't good, they won't be used or when they are used, in dire situations like the one we'll have to deal with, we'll drop points because of their lack of quality. And apparently the club didn't give enough funds to the management for a good enough player so it's tough to put the blame on the one guy that was begging for transfers for a full month.
2. Jesus has played mostly about 2000 mins in the PL alone. And north of 2500 mins combined. It's not good but he's only played about 1200 mins so far in all comps, so his usual 2500 would have been exactly what we needed him to play.
3. Saka is as overplayed as Mbappe, Bellingham, Haaland, Valverde, Vini Jr, Kane, Rice, Havertz, Salah etc etc. If you are among the bests, you'll be playing a lot of games.
Sterling got injured while not playing much so it is what it is.
4. Domino effect is a real worry but when a lot of injuries happen, there's little one can do. The only offensive injury that we could have predicted based on past proof, was Jesus' and he's one of the players I wanted sold in the summer, in addition to Zinchenko and Tomiyasu. Domino effect is also very valid for the injuries to Timber and White because Tomi and Zina are never available.
Le-grove when Emery was in charge: “His double training sessions are killing the players. They’re all in the red zone and it’s no surprise they’re all breaking down. Amateurish approach to squad fitness at an elite football club. Emery is out of his depth. Sack him now.”
Le-grove under Arteta: “Injuries are not his fault, who could’ve predicted an injury crisis after playing the same forward line week after week in all the competitions for 2 seasons straight. What’s a ‘red zone’? Blame PGMOL.”
I mean, it's a hard one really.
Some wanted a body but we did that with Sterling in the summer.
Sterling is now behind every single winger we have, including a 17 yo.
How do you rotate Saka with Sterling without losing points? It's impossible. He's just taking a spot in the squad without being an actual, real option.
If we had better players to rotate with, sure but we're not City or Chavs. Our biggest mistake is not selling Jesus, Zinchenko and Tomiyasu. That would have added some funds to work with.
The two players that are of similar quality in Martinelli and Trossard, Arteta has rotated quite well. Of course Trossard has bitched about it multiple times but it is what it is.
Where else do we have a healthy competition going on? Has Kiwior taken any minutes off of Gabriel? Fuck no.
City and Pool also have their main players always playing. Our main players currently are - Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Odegaard (the only established AM at the start of the season), Saka, Havertz.
That group of players will play most games and it's perfectly understandable.
Most teams' main players play almost every minute of the two big competitions - PL and CL. It's the same for all teams.
Mr "Stay humble" has played 200 minutes more than Havertz so when I read "it's on Arteta", I wonder if Pep is also making a mistake by overplaying his CF.
What about 32 yo Salah? 100 minutes on top of Havertz as well. What is Slot doing???
Haaland doesn't put in half the grunt work Havetz puts in per game.
Stop doing this to yourself
Exactly, Salah doesnt do the work Saka does.
By training them to hard! By not rotating.
This it's on Arteta crap is so annoying and it's bullshit glad I am not the only one pointing it out
Please explain how this is not on Arteta?
I’m guessing you’ve never seen Haaland play for City before raps.
A complete passenger for 80% of build up and near zero involvement on defense.
Meanwhile you keep banging on and on how Havertz is top five in the world mostly because he’s a duel monster and the hardest working player alive.
Have a word with yourself
I think we might be in a top 4 fight now, if we weren't before Havertz's injury. We need about 25 points from the 14 games we have left. 8,9 wins will do it.
Season is completely over now unless a kid from the academy can take over like Ashley Cole or Saka.
I really worry about Nwaneri too. We need to manage his minutes now. There is no point destroying him for a season that is done.
There is no point rushing Saka either.
Give Kabia and Butler-Oyedeji a run out even if we have to drop points.
Who knows I actually like Trossard at the false nine. And when Martinelli heals up maybe he can actually play as a number nine.
Maybe Arteta will finally allow Zinchenko to play at his favorite position and Tierney will actually see the field as a left winger.
Arteta hates doing the obvious and expected.
Maybe the situation may force his hand and he might actually realize something
He changes only when we start actively losing games/points.
In the context of CL, it would mean out of the competition. And the likes of Milan and Juventus won't be an easy match up by any means.
Is anyone really surprised?
Maybe those who think they are super fans and heap abuse on anyone who questions the clubs direction and modus.
Questioning certain things (I’m not talking of toxic negativity) is what makes you a true fan.
This is just total incompetence by both manager, accountants, scouting and the Kroenke’s. It shows such a lack of ambition and a focused vision on how to move the club forward to the top of the charts.
One day we will find out why Edu really left us.
It’s such a shame and someone or some people need to be held accountable.
You just know the media will fuel the fire of discontent if things go south. Just so poor.
You cannot gamble when you have gaping holes.
I mentioned Wenger refusing to buy a goalie and sticking with Almunia. I remember having a back and forth with Pedro over this but it’s just so frustrating that we never learn from past mistakes.
I’m not even gonna let my emotions get sucked into this vortex. I’m just sick and tired of this lack of commitment to excellence …
Exactly the way I feel.
Toxic positivity is also harmful as is toxic negativity. When we lost Saka and Jesus and had Havertz sick and Nwaneri injured, it was obvious that only incompetent approach would bring us to the end of January without a new addition to the squad.
Agreed. The same numskulls squealed that Wenger "deserved to decide when to leave", so he was was allowed to stay at least 8 years longer than he should have. Too many support the manager, not the club, i.e. some saying Havertz's injury is not on Arteta! Who is it on then, Nicolas Jover?!!
We can look at either bad luck or overplaying. The same players that are usually always available, are now down.
White, Odegaard, Saka, Havertz - all players with many minutes in the last seasons that have now suffered bad injuries.
Jesus is a different problem but the 4 above all fell down this season.
Players get injured all the time, I'm not sure we can attribute all their problems because of overplaying when Sterling got injured without playing much if at all.
It's an interesting topic though.
The Havertz news is shocking on so many levels.
One, who knew donkeys have hamstrings.
And two, he’s only played 34 games this season, that’s not even half of the 70 games Arteta said he should play if he were to be elite.