RC8 wrote:
Klaus wrote:
I think it's the fact that no one is acting shocked (indeed, that most could see this coming) that is so damning. We've spent so much money and time on this midtable team, and the most obvious template is not Manchester City; it's very clearly David Moyes's Everton. Which makes perfect sense when you think about it.
Nah. As a Spaniard I know perfectly well the type of football Arteta is trying to play. We saw glimpses of it when he first took over and players were overexerting themselves for the new boss. It's a very physically and technically demanding style that requires lots of running, positional awareness, and players to pass the ball quickly and precisely over long distances to stretch out the opposition. It's also one of the most painful things to watch when players are not technically gifted (or confident) enough to carry it out.
Arsenal seems to have been the wrong career move for Arteta. He was better off waiting it out at City to see if he'd be given a chance with a super squad. He might have had luck, then... but with this Arsenal squad I doubt even peak Wenger could get us into 4th without some substantial luck along the way.
We were playing on the counter-attack for the cup win and good run in the League at that time so I don't agree we saw the football you're saying Arteta wants to play at the start. I think he compromised back then, the counter-attack was by design.
I do agree with you that Arteta is trying to build a team that controls possession and territory - the much vaunted tiki-taka - rather than trying to stay organised behind the ball and counter-attack, which is the much easier way to set up a team. Arteta is stubbornly trying to play in a way that requires really intelligent and technically gifted players to execute. And I agree it's painful to watch and why we often look so limp and threaten the goal so rarely; there is no drive to play direct and toward goal, that's not the idea. If we are deep in the pitch with a chance to counter-attack it's not by design, and the players are coached to revert to the gameplan and execute set patterns where the aim is to create overloads in dangerous areas.
That's not to say that playing forward isn't an option, but we don't have midfielders that have a nose for when to slow the game down and work the patterns that create overloads and also when to play forward quickly because there's space to exploit and that's the right play. Well, we have one but he's always injured.
If we're going to persist with Arteta and if Arteta is going to persist in trying to play in a very demanding way then we've got to get attackers that can play and find space in small spaces, and creators that can get them the ball quickly and pick out their runs. Aubameyang, Pépé and Lacazette are not going to work in this set-up. Pépé would have taken Arsenal to the cleaners yesterday if he were playing on Brentford's right wing. Their gameplan was to sit deep, stay compact, hit Toney or space as quickly as possible - Pépé would have done terrible things. He's not a bad player, neither, obviously, is Aubameyang, but they're not suited to the way Arteta is trying to get us to play (Lacazette is just trash).
Maybe we should change the manager and get in a coach that can get the best out of the expensive players we have? I don't know. I think if Arteta can get the team to where he wants I'd be all for it, because I think it's the best way to play football. But time is fast running out and he has to find a way to get the players that don't work out and the players he needs in. Pandemic or not, he's got to be completely ruthless and demand the club make the changes or he's done here. I really hope that's why Lacazette and Aubameyang were not in the squad last night.
