What and when should Arteta have done something differently?: Page 2 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

What and when should Arteta have done something differently?

Bernard Woolley

I entirely agree but that's where a manager earns their stripes. A combination of mental work and tactical adjustments were needed (I can even forgive the blip at Anfield but not WHU and Southampton) which were completely lacking. Will have to wait and see next season now if this one was a flash in the pan or whether we can continue to finish top 3 consistently.

Qwiss

Bernard Woolley I do agree that the mental side is on the manager too but I think what goes on with Arteta and the squad in that regard is a double edged sword. I think much of the way he built them up earlier probably added to the pressure towards the end of the season. If he hadn't built that up would we have ever been top for so long in the first place though? I'm sure Arteta and the players will all learn from it. I think its very unusual that you win a league title without a season like this first. I hope this adds some steel to the players mentally, many of them are very young.

Qwiss

Coombs think that basically sums up what I think too. Should have more rotation, more early subs and when you have a couple of players like Jesus/Trossard or both sides for the full backs that are relatively close in level just swap them around more. Make it common place and after a few weeks you don't lose anything in terms of rhythm or confidence. We are in the CL next season and that needs to be how the squad works, especially given the lack of tactical flexibility.

And yeah Jorginho was the wrong purchase. We should have had a better back up plan who could cover for Xhaka as well as Partey.

Claudius

Rotation is not the problem . City are a deeper team than us with more games played this year . They have 7 players with over 3000 minutes and we have 6. They have 6 more with over 2000 minutes, we have 4.

The issue isn’t rotation. It’s about having enough quality to be resilient to knocks, niggles and season-long injuries. City’s best players have played as much as ours. The difference is that their 1000 minute cohort is guys like Laporte, Cancelo, Alvarez, Walker. Ours is guys like Vieira, Holding, Tomi. Lokonga played 900 min it Ed before he left mid season. This is really the only difference - it’s our strength in depth. Not rotation.

Qwiss

Claudius so are you saying our recruitment is the issue?

Gurgen

Yes indeed. They have 25 very good players, we don't.

Claudius

Qwiss
No. I am not saying recruitment is an issue. I am very comfortable with recruitment. Going back to my core beliefs. You win with elite players. If you have a KDB or Haaland in your team, you’re guaranteed to win pretty much every individual battle those players face. Fill a starting line up with players like that, and you’re constantly faster, smarter, stronger than the opponent everywhere.

This has been Edu’s approach to recruiting. So we are good enough to win every game when healthy. But a few injuries take us out. That’s the next phase. More top players who relegate some starters to the bench. I don’t really care about our bench. I expect very little from them in this phase.

Clrnc

Claudius I think we are also not giving respect to Pep. Give him this Arsenal squad and give Arteta City squad, he will make yesterday match a contest.

Qwiss

Claudius but 3 of the 4 players you identified as problem players were brought in by Edu and Arteta. I don't particularly think recruitment is the issue, and I disagree that Tomiyasu isn't as good as Cities back ups either, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. Having poor back ups can only be an excuse if you also see that the recruitment of those players were mistakes.

est

Poll should be multiple option. Both not adapting the formation and not using the bench are valid criticisms.

He's too rigid. Right now we just have plan A. Our squad players aren't able to play like Zinchenko or Saliba or Partey. It's understandable. We're never going to have a squad like City. But when these key players got injured or suffered a drop in form, we needed to change things up. Arteta persisted and we ultimately paid the price by losing the title. He needs to learn from this and improve. Hopefully he will.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

est

He said it in his post match press conference yesterday
1) he needs to be loyal to the players that got us here so far (which is horseshit as players go in and out of form)

2) there is no guarantee changing players/formations will lead to better results. Maybe not but it’s better than standing still and being stubborn as fuck

Claudius

Clrnc is Pep a better manager? Hmm. He’s only dominated European football for over a decade. There’s no contest here. So agree with you there

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Sicario2 - Tier 1 I really don't get why he's so stubborn regarding his players.

QuincyAbeyie

We will never ever have a better squad than City, so you'll always be able to say "the only difference between us and City is the squad."

Sooner rather than later, Newcastle will join them. United too, if they're acquired by Qatar.

Qwiss

QuincyAbeyie If only we had a multi-billionaire owner too who could invest heavily.

Claudius

Qwiss could they have done better? Yes. But which sporting director of a top club in the Premier League has a perfect hit rate? This feels like an unreasonable expectation of perfection. We boast a frontline that has guys like Jesus, Martinelli and Trossard all purchased. That’s a great outcome. Show me Liverpool, Spurs or City’s perfect recruitment

QuincyAbeyie

Qwiss True, but ours is an investor so he'll never put money into the club that he doesn't expect to get back in some way, unlike Abu Dhabi Sportswashing Group.

Clrnc

Qwiss I'd argue that he has invested heavily in the team past 3 years. Unprecedented for a club like ours

QuincyAbeyie

@Claudius Liverpool's was the benchmark, I reckon. If we come out of this project with their results, everyone will be ecstatic.

Qwiss

Clrnc I'm not so sure. We bought some players and slashed the wage bill. Let's see if he's willing to actually push us on properly. Spending at every club is unprecedented right now, we are one of the biggest clubs in the world. We can't accept falling behind.

Burnwinter

Qwiss I'm not so sure. We bought some players and slashed the wage bill. Let's see if he's willing to actually push us on properly.

Yeah it hinges on whether their thinking is a return to the Champions League, keep it secure, trophies if they happen, or if they really want to win it. We'll get a sense of the answer in summer at least: up until now it's been hard to tell.

Felt like they were still more than willing to push the boat out in winter though.

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