They did. What we saw out there wasn't a tactical failure.

They get the team to press more in the beginning because the players are eager to put in a shift for the new coach I reckon. You can't sustain negative, boorish football for years on end though when it's also dependent on extremely hard work, especially not without results. We were already dipping again before the covid break. We came back rested that summer and won the FA Cup, otherwise Arteta would probably have been gone on the final league day, and for certain during the fall when we dipped again. Failing to even qualify for EL through the league was the biggest failure in decades until he repeated it again last season.

It's still hard for me to accept the level of performance. It's entirely mental and it boggles my mind that the players are so dependent on a coach to convince them to put in even a basic level of running.

It makes me despise the lot of them.

Who wasn't putting in effort?

It's the opposite - it's what the coach is telling them that is fucking them over.

I agree, that was bad coaching, but still - every Brentford player put more into that match than any of ours, except for maybe ESR and Saka when he came on. The rest were jogging and watching each other pretend to press, then miscontrolling every first touch and knocking the ball out for a throw. That's not Arteta's system, it's just bad football.

I disagree. We had something like 60-70% possession for long passages of the game, which just doesn't happen if they were only doing what you're describing.

He was definitely out coached by Thomas Frank. They particularly only pressed White and Chambers to force us to play through Mari who is average on the ball. Then they had Onweyu to pick up lose balls ahead of Xhaka and Lokonga, and most long balls are towards our right side. It was deliberate and we couldn't find any solutions for it. Once they gone ahead they ceded possession to us and found it very comfortable to defend deep as they know we can only cross out wide and have no creativity.

Yeah, the effort bit is overused. Every match we lose it is brought up. It isn't untrue but too much is made of it in most games. We resorted to long ball football for most of the first half, with a kid up front. Our safety first approach has put a doubt in the minds of the players, you can see it. We lost because we pass poorly and we don't move well, partly because I think the players aren't given the freedom. There is way more wrong with us than purely the shift we put in.

Just want to see us get players in the opponents box.

Play Willock

Starting to really be concerned that Arteta just can't be the right fit for us. I was willing to give him the benefit of doubt as it seemed we had improved the last few months of the season, but either the system he is trying to put in place lacks understanding, or the players are just not responding to him, or both. Clearly a problem.

I've seen worse players than these, but I'm not sure I've seen a worse team, lacking ideas or heart, in 40+ years.

Truly worried.

Would like to see elite finishing and someone to put the fear of god into defenders.

Play Thierry

Need someone to calm the defence and lead from the back.

Play Tony Adams.

Lol. That escalated quickly

Just realised if we get a new manager they'll have to agree to be on that All or Nothing bullshit.

The only way Arteta doesn’t get sacked is if he goes to 3 at the back.

——————Leno
——Holding—White—Mari
AMN—Lokonga—Xhaka—Tierney

Ray wrote:

The only way Arteta doesn’t get sacked is if he goes to 3 at the back.

He will, it will happen in our next match.

No fucking idea of how to get the team creating chances in any formation, so hopefully we can keep it tight.

Captain wrote:

I disagree. We had something like 60-70% possession for long passages of the game, which just doesn't happen if they were only doing what you're describing.

They were dogged and we were slow on the ball and off it. Do exactly what we did at 1.5x speed and we win.