Bournemouth - Arsenal. Tomorrow, Sat: 17:30 UK Time. : Page 20 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Bournemouth - Arsenal. Tomorrow, Sat: 17:30 UK Time.

awooga83

Don Pacifico I would disagree with that I don't think he's an attacking coach and to me he's never been that. He wants us to as a team be defensively minded actively choosing not to play football that has risk in it when going forwards. Our attacks are always slowed down to minimise losing the ball to the detriment of exploiting the opposition teams when they are in a bit of a mess on transition. There is a case against better opposition for leading with that mentality but I think it's not the optimum way to play against most of those lesser teams, you have to be able to punish them and be more ruthless and that's where I think we get a lot of the set-up wrong.

That's not to say that type of football doesn't for the most part get you decent results but I am not convinced that is going to get us over that last small margins needed to win titles. That's the dilemma I think Arteta is faced with, how do you turn a very good side into a title winning side and I don't think his approach we've seen over the last few seasons and this will be enough. Can he change up or is this his only approach?

Don Pacifico

awooga83 I think there's a difference between seeking defensive security and being a defensive coach. Because having defensive security doesn't mean you don't attack.

And against weaker teams, we attack plenty, just look at the way we demolished sides last season. Sometimes the game plan fails or the players have a collective mare but losing to Bournemouth doesn't negate what we've seen over the last two seasons.

awooga83

Qwiss yep we are nowhere near doing enough from an attacking sense and this issue has appeared a number of times with the team under Arteta.

JazzG

We are literally having the piss taken out of us, they’ve reviewed this and said yellow is correct

This should be exhibit A in our appeal.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

JazzG

To be fair the other Chelsea defender is a lot closer than White was yesterday (who wasnt even in the frame if you do a like for like pic). For this Chelsea one the pass was also to the side so get why it’s only a yellow.

Qwiss

Sicario2 - Tier 1 bollox, they are more behind than White was.

Clrnc

Qwiss And the ball was curving towards White. The distance to the ball is misleading

awooga83

It's not we don't attack but we attack so slowly we allow teams to get back into shape and don't get the chance to exploit when we turn them over which makes attacking harder. We play that way because Arteta wants to first thought in the player to be don't lose possession or risk losing the ball which inevitably gives players less attacking freedom.

Claudius

awooga83 yes. If we aren’t pressing and don’t have territory, we have problems.

Don Pacifico

awooga83 I don't think this is always the case but agree the balance isn't always right.

Gurgen

That midfield was something even prime Mourinho would be ashamed of. You need to have at least one creative player in there. We don’t deserve to win anything playing like this, injuries or not.

Qwiss

Gurgen if Saka was fit you probably get away with it but without him it was a poor selection.

Mirth

Qwiss also without Saka our crossing from corners is pretty average

Don Pacifico

Qwiss there's part of me that thinks it's perhaps the number of changes we made to the team that was the biggest issue. Would like to see us go back to having Trossard and Havertz rotating positions in-game as that's worked well for us since Ode has been out.

Panda

Mirth Rice has offered nothing offensively this season. We had hardly any left footers in the team actually - only Cala, Gabi + Merino. Would have been better off getting Trossard to take the inswinging corners with his left.

Mirth

Agree. I'm probably being pessimistic following a defeat and therefore everyone's in the firing line but Rice needs to do more in Odegaard's absence. He's one of those that bolsters our defence and attack as part of the supporting cast but doesn't seem to lead it.

HomeSteak

Mirth I was thinking about Rice during the game. He needs to be a leader on the pitch. We were doing nothing with the ball, I expected him to go on and push with one of his runs and create something. But really, he has been meh at best this season. Needs to pick it up

Claudius

Don Pacifico anyway you cut it, you end up with changes. If you do what you describe, you end up with Jesus and Sterling on the wing. So two fresh wingers.

Qwiss

Don Pacifico I have to assume he moved Trossard out of the centre because Saka was our and Martinelli wasn't 100%. Otherwise it wouldn't make much sense to break a formula that had been working ok.

HomeSteak he's had a pretty mediocre start to the season. We need a bit more when we are missing our leaders.

Lukazan

Expecting him to make some forward surges with the ball and something happening because of that is fair but if you're expecting Rice to create something any other way, you're gonna be disappointed. He's just not that. He has no finesse or, I dunno, "cuteness" to his game at all. Because of Odegaard's absence we've seen Rice on the ball alot, in and around the opposition third and he sticks out like a sore thumb to me. He cannot create.

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