Forest vs Arsenal May 20 5:30pm BST (4:30pm GMT) with a morsel of _______: Page 9 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Forest vs Arsenal May 20 5:30pm BST (4:30pm GMT) with a morsel of _______

Clrnc

JazzG The way we capitulated is almost exactly the same as last year. Even the exact match days we lost or dropped points, down to the days we don't score back to back.

It's actually predictable and many have expressed their worries early on in the season about rotating and resting players. Came back to bite us. Hope Arteta really learns from this. We had a good squad this year but really underutilised. Remember the match day when Saka was ill? We still brought him on when we had a good lead, not sure for what but since then he hasn't been himself.

Rohit

For the first time I felt this was us just throwing in the towel. We gave up and it's disappointing. Guardiola said competing in a match to win the title is like serving for Wimbledon. We should have made them serve for it. We didn't have it in us after Brighton though. I am not sure if we will find ourselves in a position like this in the near future with this squad of players but if we do hopefully this experience means we will be in a better position to deal with it mentally and emotionally.

Big Willie

RocktheCasbah was a reference to Little John of Robin Hood fame. Little John wasn't little, I'm sure I don't need to explain the relationship between Robin Hood & Nottingham Forest, but let me know if I do..

You'll have to forgive my lack of knowledge of who little John from Robin Hood is. Still don't know, and don't think I'm bothered to look it up. Feel free to explain more if you wish though.

QuincyAbeyie

Big Willie

It's this guy

Qwiss

QuincyAbeyie the definitive Robin Hood.

Burnwinter

Qwiss One of the only ones that ever actually halfway got Robin Hood. Not great material for Hollywood, really, it's far too subtle for the monomyth treatment.

Daz

Surely a man with your refined artistic tastes can appreciate Men in Tights too burnsy?

Burnwinter

Daz Actually no, not really Daz. At least that Brooks format spoof is devoid of the grinding heroic anxiety of all four dreary feature film versions starring Patrick Bergin, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe and Taron Edgerton, but if the comedy's not situational and humble, the mood's not wistful and attenuated, and the beats not picaresque, repetitious and even modular or disposable in character—with the exception of the thinnest of overarching stories that ideally integrates a brief sighting of a returned King Richard and an arrow shot from a deathbed somewhere towards the conclusion of the anthology—it's not Robin Hood, it's just sparkling Lincoln green.

JazzG

goon It can happen and has happened to better sides. I am really proud of this team and what we have achieved but the end of season form has been the one real big disappointment. Finishing below City is fine but last few games I expected a lot more fight, you can see their confidence is shot and they're just going through the motions.

Against Newcastle they showed real fight and character but since those draws against Liverpool and West Ham our level has fallen off a cliff.

mohan

JazzG Not just confidence... We were running on fumes but the wins kept us going. Once the title was decided, the lack of rotation made their legs feel a bit heavier and Arteta was not able to get them to fight. I hope that our guys like Viera, Nelson and others can play a bit more next season. we would need it with CL games.

JazzG

mohan I agree but I think when you're low on confidence the legs feel heavier!

Lack of top options has been an issue this season. Jesus has missed a chunk of the season, Vieira just hasn't settled in yet and Reiss has had a few spells out injured as well. We need to bring in 3/4 players this window to address this, I think Trossard coming in January probably kept us in the Title race longer than we would have otherwise.

RocktheCasbah

I can't remember which thread Sicario posted Le Grove's blog from yesterday in, but he summed up well how I feel. Incredible (and not in a good way) team selection from Arteta on Saturday and, to go back to a point I made a few weeks back, one that smacked of an emotional reaction to what has happened in the last few weeks, not a logical one. I have to say, I have - obviously - been so impressed by much of Mikel's work this year, but the last 6 weeks have been quite worrying.

There again, we've all been emotional, I don't know if it's fair to criticise him for also feeling it. He must be devastated. So close, and yet...

Qwiss

RocktheCasbah Incredible (and not in a good way) team selection from Arteta on Saturday and, to go back to a point I made a few weeks back, one that smacked of an emotional reaction to what has happened in the last few weeks, not a logical one.

I feel like thats been the case since the Man City game. He reacted to that and seems to have been scrambling for a solution since. All seems a bit reactionary. I think he'll calm down again over summer and be back to normal for the start of next season but its definitely worrying. I hope its something he can reflect on and learn to get past. One of his and the teams big strengths this season has been to filter out everything else and just keeping doing what they do with out getting distracted.

The big challenge for next season is to keep that consistency of purpose and temperament while also rotating more across the squad and competitions. Its going to be a real challenge to not get distracted when you face a big European team mid-week, we've seen that with much more experienced coaches and players before.

goon

RocktheCasbah I have to say, I have - obviously - been so impressed by much of Mikel's work this year, but the last 6 weeks have been quite worrying.

I mean it's fair to say he certainly hasn't got it right. The only thing I'd say in his defence is I don't think anyone knows what the right moves would have been. We saw Pep take weeks to figure out how to get City firing this season, Klopp hasn't really had an answer to his team's drop off. Finding solutions isn't easy.

I'd have personally just stuck with as close to a plan A as possible, and maybe shore things up by playing Jorginho alongside Partey/

Tam

goon My issue with that is that I'm not sure I seen Arteta trying to find solutions. In contrast to Guardiola and Klopp, Arteta had it right but seemingly did very little stop a malaise settling in that derailed us.

Burnwinter

goon The only thing I'd say in his defence is I don't think anyone knows what the right moves would have been.

Given a number of the problems were very clearly to do with motivation and composure, not the squad or the available talents in it, my intuition is the right move would've been not doing whatever Arteta did round the end of March. I reckon he cracked and gave a Henry V speech and ended up more Richard III. We could've gotten so much more out of the run from Anfield with a little calm.

goon

Tam

Not doing anything in itself is a solution though - just maybe the wrong one. But there was an argument for it. If you had it right and had the team at a 94 point pace all the way up to matchday 30, the temptation is to not react. I thought Holding was a weak spot but figured our attack would see us through. In reality it should have against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton. I actually think after he did change things up our attack suffered.

The reality is that even in hindsight we still don't really know what the best way forward would have been - because all of those solutions are untested. The only one we know didn't work is what Arteta ultimately ended up going for.

QuincyAbeyie

Plus, "Pep taking weeks to figure out how to get City firing" was still them being very good and winning almost all their matches, just not at the otherwordly level they're used to be.

Nothing like what we've been since halftime of the Liverpool game.

goon

Burnwinter

We started both Liverpool and West Ham in confident fashion to be fair. I think he failed to really drill in a killer mentality to finish those sides off, and instead told them to 'stay calm'. It's a rookie error to tell people to be calm when they're panicking, just makes things worse, especially with a young side. Culminating in some of the non-performances against Southampton and City. Should have just got them going all out - it's all these kids have known.

Clrnc

goon The reality is that even in hindsight we still don't really know what the best way forward would have been - because all of those solutions are untested.

Can't get my head around this theory to be honest.

RocktheCasbah

Clrnc goon is saying we'll never know. Not in this universe anyway.

« Previous Page Next Page »