Arteta, crumbles under pressure?: Page 5 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Arteta, crumbles under pressure?

Coombs

Clrnc you say it like it's a simple as swapping positions and instructions around on a teamsheet and saying "just do this."

As goon and others have said, maybe there is a way to solve for our current issues, but just because it should work doesn't mean it will.

Claudius

Clrnc - how flexible are our main competitors, City? It took them half a season to figure out that the best way to play with Haaland was with a back 3. Liverpool who challenged for the title changed forwards and that has had a ripple effect in the entire team, sending them spiralling. Not even Wenger mastered Plan B, but his Plan A was one of the best we have ever seen in England.

goon

Claudius

Yeah, even Pep needs a bit of trial and error to figure things out. Took him a while to work out throwing Rico Lewis in the deep end wasn't the best idea.

I actually thought Arteta got it wrong against West Ham for this very reason, he didn't really have a plan to influence the game because he hasn't had to this season. We've vary rarely needed someone to come on and inject some life into a game. As a result his changes meant we finished the game with Partey, Odegaard, Jesus and Martinelli, the core of our title challenging attack, on the bench. Meanwhile Eddie, Vieira, Jorginho and Nelson were on the pitch trying to get us a goal. Maybe he learnt his lesson against Southampton where Trossard came on as an 8 for Vieira and Eddie came on for Zinchenko.

daredevil

Claudius

It's astonishing that some can't seem to see that Ramsdale is affected by Holding being in Saliba's position to receive the ball, or Partey is affected by Vieira to his left vs Xhaka or Martinelli was affected by Nketiah in front compared to Jesus/Trossard.

There's often this phenomenon where the better players have a mare when partnered with less capable players, and many solely look at individual performances and say, well Holding didn't do anything wrong but Ramsdale did, therefore it's completely and exclusively the latter's fault. But that ignores that football is a TEAM sport and for systems to be effective, it requires synergy between players to deliver. So output, especially decision making is obviously going to be impaired for the better players when they're having to play alongside poorer players. How can it not?

KingslandBarge

Interesting. Has that phenomenon been at play whilst we've been more porous since January?

Claudius

KingslandBarge we’ve had a lot of things going on post World Cup which speak to low overall team resilience - prinarily driven by Jesus’ and Saliba’s absences.

The team we think of as our best 11 has not lost a single game all season. That’s what we have solved for. The next phase is building consistency when we have to rotate. Which will be key for Champions League.

Doc

KingslandBarge

Interesting. Would like to see what the XG comparison is for both also.. Feels like we have become a more attacking team since the break which would naturally result on more opportunities conceded.

KingslandBarge

Doc Apparently its stayed relatively the same at 1.9! (up to end of March for post World Cup)
Claudius True, various reasons to consider. FWIW, I don't think we're operating optimally due to personnel changes, thats not in question for me. It's considering that as the main or only reason that question. Or that it's astonishing or mad for anyone to think otherwise.

goon

Doc

Seems to suggest we're gruadually improving in attack, but the drop off in xGA is definitely more pronounced.

Article suggests we've been significantly weaker on set pieces too which is a shame as it was a real strong point before the world cup. Noticed we've been losing a lot of near post headers.

Doc

goon

Thanks Goon. Sound about right.. there will be a number of different factors contributing to it..

Set pieces is a real strange one... We seemed invinsible to set plays early on in the season....

Claudius

goon I think we are also suffering a conversion issue. We are scoring less than opponents given the same chances.

From an offensive standpoint, can’t complain. We smashed in 7 goals in 3 games. That should typically give you 7-9 points. It’s conceding that’s done us in

Gazza M

the set piece issue is a bummer. we looked so sound on setpieces in both directions, to the point that the set piece coach's name was making headlines. the defensive regression across the board has been palpable

flobaba

Gazza M yep. Alarming. And it’s been notable since about middle of the season. Very disappointing. If there was one thing I thought we were comfortable doing, it’s defending. Now we are consistently looking dazed and unfocused out there. It’s not just a matter of missing Saliba. The overall team defensive structure and mentality isn’t as solid and gritty as it used to be. Real shame.

Burnwinter

Sicario2 - Tier 1 There is no emotional baggage with the Pole.

That's absolute nonsense, he looks totally uncertain when he plays. Holding doesn't always look secure but the idea people are gonna feel totally secure going out at City with a roll of the dice on Kiwior is flat wrong.

Burnwinter

goon Looking at the last three games, when the pressure started taking it's toll and our passing and technical ability went wayward and decision making slower, we had nothing to fall back on. We were losing all the duels, in the air, on the ground, 2nd balls etc. We had no way (other than Martinelli) to re-impose ourselves on the game or to find a semblance of control.

This is where I feel Arteta has had the opportunity to do a bit better. My sense is he's been a conservative manager here and explained these bad periods in terms of our opponents rather than changing our setup.

I felt like against West Ham we should've already had a plan B to compensate for Saliba's (and also in that match Zinchenko's) absences, but it was as if Anfield exceptionalism had led him to think that wouldn't be needed.

Hoping we have a real, drilled solution to be more compact and controlled against City as we have to be a lot more capable of retaining the ball and resisting the press than we have been in adversity.

Qwiss

flobaba have to admit the Jorginho signing is looking worse and worse each passing week. First couple of games it looked like good business but then he had a poor game or two and disappeared completely. Seems like he's another player Arteta doesn't trust. We have to stop buying players that he doesn't really want because it only hurts us in the long run. I could certainly see Jorginho being gone either sold or on loan at the start of next season. He was never cut out for high intensity football.

awooga83

Qwiss I was sceptical about this signing but when it was presented as a short term solution to help us in the coming half season I could see that. But as you said Arteta's use of him doesn't appear to fit that idea so then the question is what's the point. Arteta has a big problem with using the squad and people have said he just needs better players but even when he has decent options he still seemed to misuse them a la Trossard. It's like my 11 is always this and I will never think of deviating away unless an injury forces it. But you can't expect to maintain that over seasons where you are going for multiple competitions.

Clrnc

Qwiss Arteta really like Jorginho. I think many have pointed out evidence of that from the past till now.

Of course he is 2nd choice to Caicedo but doesn't mean he didn't want him

goon

I think Jorginho was only really ever coming in to cover for a potential Partey injury, at least that's how I looked at it. In fairness, it worked for that purpose. I didn't ever really look at him as a realistic prospect to challenge Partey or play as an 8.

Qwiss

Clrnc but he's hardly been used. Rarely gets off the bench even. I think Arteta thought he liked Jorginho until he had him, then maybe he realised his short comings more.

Burnwinter

Qwiss Yeah but it's okay—Jorginho was basically a last ditch effort to get a player more useful and with a better attitude than Lokonga to shadow Partey, if Partey got injured as he often has.

And he's not ideal, but he was signed because a fairly optimistic approach for Caicedo failed, and he's probably still more useful round the traps than Lokonga. Who wouldn't get a minute at the moment that's certain.

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