• The Arsenal

  • Official: Mikel Arteta is the new Arsenal manager.

  • MistaT

  • Post #3810

I've reached a point where if we don't win anything, then I need to at least us try something significantly different. I'm not sure I can continue to accept our 4-3-3 with so many glaring issues.

Of primary concern:

  • why did we sign Rice and is he living up to those expectations? if he was to be our left 8 then he needs to find another level, and that's on Arteta as much as him. I'm equally concerned if he was signed to replace Partey as a lone 6, because that is not his game.

  • how do we find a new attacking pattern that isn't based on us slowing the game down to make all of our chances so much harder to finish (vs defenses that have had time to get set)

Agreed we are prob around 6 months away from #artetaout chants going mainstream (if we don’t win anything). Cant be spending £700m and having not won anything in 5 years - not acceptable for a club our size and magnitude.

6 months before a potential Arsenal death spiral. Be careful Mikel. These are critical moments

I would go as far as saying this Jan is his most important transfer window to date. Don’t sign anyone and he won’t be an Arsenal manager this time next year I can assure you.

  • Gazza M

  • Post #3812
  • Edited

we're in the spooky hours now. the managers philosophy has been given enough time and nourishment to reach its apotheosis, and yet here we are. as someone said in the match thread, his arc of taking us from shamblolic losers to respectable losers is poch-esque

  • Dom

  • Post #3813

flobaba

I don't buy this. It's not like Saka, Odegaard and Gabriel were all out at the same time, each time. We fielded a strong team in a number of matches where we dropped points.

      • Dom

      • Post #3814

      Burnwinter

      Every team except Abu Dhabi suffers from a couple of ruinous and/or malicious refereeing decisions so I'm including an acceptable buffer of a couple of dropped points.

          Dom We should really have an xF per 90 ("expected fuckery") for each club measuring how refereeing decisions (cards, penalties, goals subject to review) are influencing xPPG.

            Dom agree with @flobaba. Go week by week and look at our squad turnover versus Liverpool. It’s been quite significant. We’ve had various players coming and going due to injury and suspension all year. Relationships aren’t built on the spot. They need to be nurtured over time.
            The collapse of the White-Saka-Odegaard triangle has been massive, but we’ve just never had anything constant out left this whole time.

                True we have had issues getting our best "relationships" humming due to disruptions, but Occam's razor is only getting sharper.

                The simplest theory: Saka, Jesus, Martinelli, Trossard, Havertz aren't a good enough crop of forwards to win the title, even with our set piece prowess, and especially if Saka goes down.

                Five out of six of our forwards are in poor to okay season long form and the only true star is now out injured.

                Liverpool have Salah, Díaz, Gakpo, Núñez, Jota as well as some shot merchants in midfield. They have more form, energy and cutting edge among those forwards than us, and they set up to exploit what they've got.

                Sterling and Chiesa mean we're level as far as backup signing nonentities goes.

                We need another truly elite forward who can play with Saka. Granted it is hard to find a player that good, but we have one and Liverpool have one. If Salah breaks a leg we would be right back in the title race today, but then if wishes were horses …

                  What are the conclusions for Arteta?

                  I'm still really happy with what Arteta's achieved and fully back him.

                  Arteta's job now is to use all of his influence with KSE and all of the available resources and knowledge to get us a truly elite forward who can play with Saka, making any judicious sacrifices necessary to get this done, all while keeping the rest of our squad signed up, content, balanced and motivated.

                  Edu has left us and has not been replaced, so there is no one else to carry the can. Arteta's the one.

                  Signing a true superstar striker is a hard task in winter, but if we haven't got our player by the end of summer, Arteta will have let us and himself down badly.

                    • Gazza M

                    • Post #3820
                    • Edited

                    Burnwinter based where we've come from and where we currently are - reasonably comfortable in the top 4 - I'd give him 1 more season to right the wrongs of last summer. that would mean serious acknowledgement of the shortcomings of our attacking structure, to be reflected in a recruitment drive that focuses on nothing else but improving creativity and goalscoring

                    if we decline to the point that top 4 becomes a skin-of-the-teeth proposition this season, I'd want him gone ASAP because regressing at such a late phase would be indicative of deep-lying, likely unsolvable problems with this managers philosophy that will only worsen with time.

                      I know what I'm like: petty and impatient.

                      If we haven't had one or more transformative signings and we're trailing a way behind City, Liverpool or worse yet some other scrubs this Christmas, I'll have turned on Arteta.

                      • KSE seem generous enough to back the necessary signings
                      • Edu allegedly left because Arteta was picking our targets
                      • we "did the work" on PSR and other financial constraints last summer
                      • every week brings more evidence we're a player short up front

                      Arteta's just gotta sign us a magic man without taking his hands off the wheel. If he can't do it soon then he'll have to go. The club doesn't pay him to fuck spiders.

                        Burnwinter I still continue to take a glass half full view. Even with this first loss in two months. My view is that a single signing will have a really big impact on this team. A forward (left or central) who can create high value, high volume chances for himself like Isak goes a long way. We saw even with Nwaneri, despite his flaws, that decisiveness makes a big difference.

                        Despite the gloom, I want to shout out MLS. This kid is going to go stratospheric

                            Claudius My view is that a single signing will have a really big impact on this team.

                            Yes! I think all else (including luck with injuries and justice from referees) being equal, one more top drawer forward would mean winning the league.

                            But it's the obviousness of that which tells us Arteta has to get that player or get out of the way.

                              Burnwinter this, this, this.

                              Our lack of forward options is both a reason to believe we will get better and solve many of our problems (if we bring players in) as well as a threat to Arteta's job if it doesn't get fixed soon.

                              Any whispers of #artetaout are pretty petulant at this stage to be honest but things do have to change this summer. My main concern on that front is that we won't have Edu's replacement in before then but the club have afforded themselves faith that they will fix the situation.

                              Edit: what Burnsy said in his follow-on posts.

                                Yeah look, hats off to the folks (I particularly recall Sicario and Qs) who insisted we were short of a top striker in summer. I trusted the process and I thought we could get away with a few quality additions and still move forward, but I was wrong.

                                The people who said Martinelli was going to need upgrading (particularly recall Dules and RtC saying this) were also on the right track.

                                We skated by with Havertz and Trossard during the second half of last season and achieved an amazing run, but they're not up to it now despite being good players. Jesus has to be sold and Sterling is irrelevant.

                                  Burnwinter it’s always been obvious the team needed another top forward who fit the system for over a year. But one assumes these are works in progress. The balance is how do you build as quickly as possible while ensuring you get the right players. I’d like to think Arteta tried to optimise both of these as much as possible - particularly given rumours around Vlahovic, Williams, Raphiña, Sekso and others.

                                      • Qwiss

                                      • Post #3827
                                      • Edited

                                      The frustrating thing about all of this is that Artetas tactical systems and his coaching, both technical and motivational, are top tier. I think the structure above him is wrong. I think Edu let spending, on wages in particular, get out of hand. I think when we made decent signings we mostly overpaid for them. PSR is pretty tight at the moment and we seem to have hit a bit of a wall where we need to be much more careful about who we pay huge money to. I hope whoever replaces Edu has some better ideas for scouting and is able to get some value and catch some players before they blow up. We haven't signed a player like that since Odegaard.

                                      Arteta mentioning the carling cup ball is different is really a novice thing to say and opens him up to all sorts of ridicule. Rival fans are relishing this.