goon wrote:
I think he's a jumble of ideas personally and has probably borrowed from all or at least a few of the managers he's worked under. If he was like Moyes at least we'd have played with a lot of intensity which is a feature of all good Moyes teams. Whatever his style is, I don't think he's got it quite worked out how to make it fit together, while some of his ideas probably don't work in practice half as well as he theorises.
Even if his tactical system is a work of art though, as Jones says I don't think he emphasises much on drills and coaching and instead overloads the players with instructions and information. There's been a couple of references to this from the players themselves. It would explain a couple of things. Firstly, it's probably why we lack intensity and play the game like we're playing a football video game from the early 90s, they're thinking about what they should be doing rather than what they'd instinctively do. It would also explain why we suffer a sudden and complete loss of confidence. I've played under people who overload you with a bunch of instructions that go against your natural instincts and it's soul draining.
I don't think Klaus says Arteta is a Moyes copy, we'd easily be in the CL spots right now if he were. He's emulating his style yes but he's not very good at copying it, first and foremost because he doesn't understand how to a) keep fitness levels up which is a hallmark of the Scot and b) as you said yourself he gives instructions and orders to the players.
Even the best players in the world become poor versions of themselves if they don't train properly, football is a sport of 20 men on a pitch which nowadays doesn't appear to be that big as it used to because of how aggressively everyone presses the guy with the ball. You can't expect players to come up with solutions and plans based on your instructions in the first and middle part of the pitch, you need to drill them within an inch of their lives so it becomes second nature, as that split second you need longer to make yourself an outlet or to pass it forward is usually enough for the opposition bank of five to move so far you have to start over which is what we keep seeing time and time again
When Guardiola talks about his task being to get the players to the final third he's being half honest and half doing his fake humble act. He's not only getting them there, the constant moving and shifting of positions which he drills in training doesn't stop in the final third, but at the same time players are encouraged to take risks and try on the fly stuff because when there's just one or two players between you and a shot at goal a brilliant dribbling or through ball can be tried without it blowing up in your face.
Arteta's issue is seemingly he doesn't understand any of this or, more likely, his cautious nature limits him as to the lengths he'd go to coach his players like this. I honestly don't think he knows how to train the squad in a way that makes the ball move around quicker, and as to the final third the one player we have in the squad who's exactly what you want hasn't seen the pitch in a month. He's just a coach that tries not to lose, the rest he's doing can be summarised as hoping for the best
