https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/12034597/mikel-arteta-exclusive-arsenal-ready-to-strengthen-squad-and-solve-creativity-problem

Interesting he speaks of the lack of creative mids that we used to have in abundance

I think adding creativity will be his priority this summer

Also interesting as to the reason he’s playing Dani deeper - means he doesn’t see others in the squad who are capable of linking our lines

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

Encouraging to see that it looks as though creativity will be his priority in the window. With Salina now in as well as Chances and Mari coming back from injury, it does seem like we can't prioritise an expensive central defender right now.

The note of caution though would seem to be the suggestion that he can also work with the existing players to find more creativity. Ceballos maybe but after three years, you've got to think Xhaka is a list cause creatively. I know he's been better since Arteta has come in but given Ozil's checked out, that midfield lacks the inspiration we need.

Thanks, Dula. This is a very helpful quote

"Dani is someone who has the ability to play further up, for sure," says Arteta. "But with the needs that we have at the moment and the way that he helps us join the lines together, to make us more stable with the ball, we have to use him there."

You can see that he's struggling with this team. I'm looking forward to the summer. Hopefully he and Edu are given the time and resources to do this properly over the next 3 windows

League kicks off Sept 12, so there isn’t a lot of time to trade and prep the team. We really need to get things right for once

It seems to me his main priority is to regain control of games, it's probably why he was pleased with aspects of the Villa game. The top sides generally have 55-60% of the ball on average, we've dropped down to 51% this season. The high press, playing out the back, having guys like Ceballos and Xhaka in midfield is all geared towards this.

Sorting the balance of the midfield and attack has to be the priority this summer, screw the defence.

I’m just going to pop in here to say he is experiencing the very same issues we excoriated Emery for - from finding out he is unable to use Ozil, to attacking down the wings, to using a back 5. And because his English is good (and the players perhaps find him more personable), we are more patient with him.

Many here were extremely unfair to Emery for whatever reason, and I thought that was poor form at the time.

I have no problems with Arteta, I think he’s a good coach, and hopefully he has the full backing of management and can keep the players on side and motivated to play his style and win the FA Cup. If he does that we’ll have good momentum and a good base for going into next season. But nothing he is saying here is news or revelatory.

How are we being more patient? At this stage of his Arsenal career Emery had fans chanting 'we've got our Arsenal back'. Aside from 1 or 2 posters in here the large majority supported sticking with Emery going into this season and by in large there was plenty of optimism at the start of the year. He had two full pre-seasons and two summer transfer windows to address issues in the team and we ended up with the worst start we've had in decades and no one here had a clue what he was trying to achieve. The things you mentioned (aside from the back 5) appeared at the start of his career here, he abandoned it pretty quickly just like he abandoned trying to play out the back.

Arteta has had a couple of months either side of a global pandemic. If this time next year we look as bad or worse, I assure you there will be plenty telling him he needs to go, there's already plenty asking questions and sharpening their knives now.

Indeed, 6-7 months into Emery's tenure we were unbeaten and the general consensus was one of support.

When Arteta starts conceding 25 shots on goal to Watford and the fans still back him because of his 'English' then you can point out to a certain degree of hypocrisy.

Flo, you have to give a manager time to implement his vision. Emery had 18 months and we saw nothing that was moving in a direction of giving us an identity. He stuck completely to pragmatic football that was based on neutralising opponent's strengths. Defence works well when you are facing tough teams that come at you, but when you are a top team that needs to win titles in football, you also need a potent attack. And we never constructed that with consistency.

Arteta has leaned into defence out of necessity and has communicated that this is not what he prefers, and the team must support him by buying creative players. There is clear messaging that is encouraging. But he also needs time. He ends on Aug 1st and starts a new season Sept 12, which means that players will get, at most, 3 weeks rest so, again, he could enter this season with only 1 or 2 substantive external improvements.

What would be worse is if we weren't supporting Arteta now.

When Arteta's team becomes a mess of not-really-defending not-really-attacking formlessness, looks like conceding with every opponent attack and drops any semblance of having a game plan, then yeah, maybe he should be getting the same stick Emery got.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/12034597/mikel-arteta-exclusive-arsenal-ready-to-strengthen-squad-and-solve-creativity-problem

Interesting he speaks of the lack of creative mids that we used to have in abundance

I think adding creativity will be his priority this summer

Also interesting as to the reason he’s playing Dani deeper - means he doesn’t see others in the squad who are capable of linking our lines

He's absolutely spot on. A lot of people wishlists defenders but like what I said, I don't think we have ever seen an Arsenal team so devoid of creativity and lack creating chances for our forwards. We are incredibly boring to watch and can only cross and cross. We really need a proper number 10 and another wide forward.

Joelson and Grealish though he’s a plonker

flobaba wrote:

I’m just going to pop in here to say he is experiencing the very same issues we excoriated Emery for - from finding out he is unable to use Ozil, to attacking down the wings, to using a back 5. And because his English is good (and the players perhaps find him more personable), we are more patient with him.

Many here were extremely unfair to Emery for whatever reason, and I thought that was poor form at the time.

I have no problems with Arteta, I think he’s a good coach, and hopefully he has the full backing of management and can keep the players on side and motivated to play his style and win the FA Cup. If he does that we’ll have good momentum and a good base for going into next season. But nothing he is saying here is news or revelatory.

I think we as fans are mostly fair and patient in general. Obviously there will always be a couple of outliers but mostly we give managers time and patience. Wenger had loads of good will that be burnt through before people became dissatisfied, Emery had a good shot at it and the mood only changed after a full season. Arteta similarly deserves time to prove himself. I agree that talk is cheap but he hasn't had a fair shot yet. We can judge him properly next season.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Joelson and Grealish though he’s a plonker

Both play in the forward line where we need goals.  Arteta needs to make his decision as to what he wants in terms of shape/structure and roles and go from there, and I think the 1st decision needs to be in regards to roles and numbers re CM.

Grealish can play in that LCM role that Arteta tried to put Saka into, giving Saka the wing. He’d be good for that role because he has a combination of strength, good footwork and excellent passing. He has a high pass rate, a variety of passes, and lots of passes into and around the top of the box.

If we had him at LCM, would have the additional benefit that can swap out to LW as needed or can overlap with Saka as well.

Clrnc wrote:

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/12034597/mikel-arteta-exclusive-arsenal-ready-to-strengthen-squad-and-solve-creativity-problem

Interesting he speaks of the lack of creative mids that we used to have in abundance

I think adding creativity will be his priority this summer

Also interesting as to the reason he’s playing Dani deeper - means he doesn’t see others in the squad who are capable of linking our lines

He's absolutely spot on. A lot of people wishlists defenders but like what I said, I don't think we have ever seen an Arsenal team so devoid of creativity and lack creating chances for our forwards. We are incredibly boring to watch and can only cross and cross. We really need a proper number 10 and another wide forward.

I'd rather we looked to play an inverted midfield 3 than play a creative #10, as the issue we've seen with Ozil & even previous to him has been about quality ball supply from midfield.

Claudius wrote:

Grealish can play in that LCM role that Arteta tried to put Saka into, giving Saka the wing. He’d be good for that role because he has a combination of strength, good footwork and excellent passing. He has a high pass rate, a variety of passes, and lots of passes into and around the top of the box.

If we had him at LCM, would have the additional benefit that can swap out to LW as needed or can overlap with Saka as well.

He can and it's where I'd play him, but he's played 18 games as LWF and 7 as MC and 5 as CAM this season.  
Both Grealish and Coutinho like to play the same position and role we saw with the likes of Hazard, but IMO neither has the goals to do so = both have around 8 goals and 6 assists this season.  Perhaps they could work as AMC depending on the rest of the midfield and attack.

8 goals is a lot. If we can get 5 or 6 goals from midfield in the league, good.
The creativity issue you point to is important. Would help to have 2 10s. Another issue we have is that Pépé is our one creative in attack. Aubameyang is really primarily a finisher and Laca neither creates nor scores in sufficiently high amounts. When Pépé isn’t in and Ceballos is deep, creativity stops.

I think the problems Arteta is encountering are the same as those faced by Emery the only difference is the time available to address them. We've long known this is a very limited squad with very poor creativity and not enough goals in our forwards.

We also have a pretty poor defence and for me we haven't seen much of a departure in our style of play and nature of our performances. But the next season is the real test of whether we have any strategy to move forwards or more of the same and if Arteta can do that.