RocktheCasbah I know some people think this is what Arteta wants, given the emphasis on control, but to me this is the by product of a bruising schedule, players either only partly fit, or not available at all and a team that has basically lost any automatisms that were built up over the the previous year.
I think when you hear Arteta talk about us sitting back too much and not being brave enough its clear its not what he wants. However it is what he's created and it stems from his instincts. He's the one who keeps buying defensive players. He's the one who wont put out natural attackers like Nwaneri when we need them. His signing and selections favour players who aren't naturally front footed.
At the end of the day most of our full backs are CBs, most of our midfielders are defensive/sitting mids. None of our strikers are natural 9s. And our wingers are asked to do the defensive work of a wing back at times. These things have combined to make us really difficult to break down when we are on song but they also mean we struggle to create if we are missing our best players.
Our system is defence first, which is fine but you need to recruit more aggressively in the attacking positions to balance it out and right now we really need more depth in the attacking positions because we ask too much of our first choice front 4. When you try to replace Odegaard with Merino or Trossard you should know you'll struggle to create much. When you play Havertz up top for 90 minutes every game it should be surprise that he ends up jaded and less effective after a while. God forbid we lose Saka because we have nothing to back him up either.
