Arteta - one more year and that’s it: Page 38 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Arteta - one more year and that’s it

RocktheCasbah

From an actual article on the BBC, entitled "Liverpool's record breaking summer has surely made the title a formality", "The pressure on Mikel Arteta to break a barren sequence of five years. There are no excuses. He must succeed."

Errrrrr, what was the title of the article again?

Meatwad

Qwiss
in a conservative game i've never seen the away team blamed and the home team absolved for not "taking it to the visitors." when you win the league you benefit from double standards. pep won many league titles with citeh having anfield stalemates, but before the game the narrative was that we had to win at anfield to prove something.

Coombs

RocktheCasbah And we're sitting here going "oh, I don't like the football we played"? Give me a break.

Yes that's exactly what I'm doing, because I didn't. Should I lie and say I did?

RocktheCasbah

Coombs Of course not. But I think it would be helpful to consider the context around why we played how we did and not just react to it.

If we're still playing like this with Saka & Odegaard back and Eze integrated, then by all means have at it, but after a tight loss at the champions? It's not the time. We all sat wherever we were sitting talking about how tough the start to our season was - and that was before the injuries...

awooga83

RowJimmy open play allows you to influence the outcome far more and the nature is a normal game it's that this is where the vast majority of your play and opportunity will be through. If you aren't set to to maximise that games will be very marginal and you open yourself to the risk of being "the better team" but nothing to show for it or get undone by variance.

RowJimmy

awooga83
Right, I think this is false. The thing about "open play" is that there is much more of it. But the variance is higher, not lower. Set pieces offer more control - if you're good at it.
So to me it makes much more sense to say, we need to improve our efficiency at open play, but the variance is really high, so we need to take care to continue to dominate set pieces, that's something we can rely on much more.

Kel Varnsen

My biggest gripe with how we play is the lack transitions when we win the ball back. Our pressing is excellent, but a lot of times it looks like we press to just to regain possession and not to hit the other team on quick breaks.

JazzG

RocktheCasbah If we're still playing like this with Saka & Odegaard back and Eze integrated, then by all means have at it, but after a tight loss at the champions? It's not the time. We all sat wherever we were sitting talking about how tough the start to our season was - and that was before the injuries...

We came up against one of the best attacks in the world and had them playing conservative because they were worried about being open against us. Yeah we lost the match and that is mainly what matters but this was not some wide open Liverpool team who were there to be ripped apart. What my biggest disappointment was not bringing Eze and Odegaard on earlier, should have happened between 50-60 mins in the game instead we waited for Liverpool to make a change, which helped them get control of the game before making our changes. When we made our changes we looked better straight away. This is where Arteta needs to be more brave and on the front foot. We had a very solid 1st half and we should have approached the 2nd half with more intent and changed things earlier.

I also think he would have started Eze had Odegaard been fit. We already had Madueke and Merino in and he probably wanted Martinelli in just so there wasn't too many changes in one go and someone who is very familiar with how we play. We are going away to the champions, this wasn't away to Leeds or something. It was going to be a tough game even if we had all our players available let alone without three key players in Saka, Odegaard and Havertz.

For all this talk about how negative we were, Liverpool approached the game the exact same way yet getting a free pass from the media and even our own fans.

Kel Varnsen Agree, we need to move the ball faster and with more purpose. I think it will take a bit of time as the players get used to each other.

QuincyAbeyie

RocktheCasbah tbf Coombs has the exact opinionsbout the way we lined up thst you voiced yourself before it was revealed - that it'd be foolish not to start Eze. It's just that you're not annoyed by it.

awooga83

RowJimmy I don't think for us that's true we tend to have a lot of the ball so we will be in control of the opportunities in open play. I'm not disclosing set pieces just pointing to the fact they stopped being effective for us in the same scale in the second half of the season that isn't unexpected because they are hard to get returns from consistently. We have done well with them but I don't think you win a title if you aren't better at open play goals as transition goals are normally crucial to swing a tough game and slow methodical play will always under capitalise in those momentum moments.

If we could ride the set piece wave why did we end up at far behind Liverpool and with 14 draws. Arguably set pieces rely even less on your forwards as a lot of the threat comes from elsewhere.

RocktheCasbah

QuincyAbeyie that's fair.

I was annoyed by it, but it was an emotional reaction. And I don't have a problem with other people reacting emotionally. However, with a couple of days perspective, I just think it's a bit mad to sit here and pretend that a team full of units who've never played together before should be expected to go up to Liverpool and play an expansive, "we'll score one more than you" game.

Don Pacifico

JazzG For all this talk about how negative we were, Liverpool approached the game the exact same way yet getting a free pass from the media and even our own fans.

Liverpool don't get a free pass from me - it's the very fact that they were so poor that makes the result frustrating - it feels like a missed opportunity when we know we had more attacking firepower that could have been better utilised (both on the pitch and on the bench).

RocktheCasbah However, with a couple of days perspective, I just think it's a bit mad to sit here and pretend that a team full of units who've never played together before should be expected to go up to Liverpool and play an expansive, "we'll score one more than you" game.

I'm not sure that's what anyone was expecting - I can only speak for myself but I think the risk profile could have been a tad less conservative given the attackers available without completely throwing caution to the wind. But yeah, probably a subjective point.

Coombs

RocktheCasbah I just think it's a bit mad to sit here and pretend that a team full of units who've never played together before should be expected to go up to Liverpool and play an expansive, "we'll score one more than you" game.

I also think that would be mad. Like I said, all I wanted was for Arteta to start an attacking midfielder instead of a bank manager.

Rohit

RocktheCasbah I don't think anyone wanted us to play an expansive style of football at Anfield. This game was always going to be won with moments. Neither team was going to apply sustained pressure throwing players forward. We could play with caution without Merino and a player who was more likely to provide that moment. Liverpool played a probing brand of football with Salah, Ekitike, Gakpo, Wirtz and Gravenberch on the pitch at the same time with Szoboszlai at right back to boot. Odegaard and Eze both have moments in them and they showed so when they came on. I have accepted Arteta's football for what it is. He can at least have those players on the pitch who can provide a moment of genius, just increases probability.

QuincyAbeyie

RocktheCasbah sure, the reaction to seeing the lineup was emotional - but I was more referring to your opinion a few days before the match. You were very against starting Merino instead of Eze. Of course it's fair to change your mind, I'm just surprised to see the reaction to people who simply didn't change theirs.

JazzG

Don Pacifico Liverpool don't get a free pass from me - it's the very fact that they were so poor that makes the result frustrating - it feels like a missed opportunity when we know we had more attacking firepower that could have been better utilised (both on the pitch and on the bench).

I don't think they were necessarily poor, they set out to make sure they gave nothing away and that is exactly what they did. Likewise we did the same, so the game was going to be decided by a moment and unfortunately they banged in a freak of a 35 yard freekick which he probably couldn't repeat in 100 attempts!

Mirth

Coombs agreed. Let’s not normalise playing 3 defensive midfielders 🤢

CPM

Mirth Merino is not a defensive midfielder, at all. The problem on Sunday was that he is slow, and thus not as helpful when we were trying to win the game by beating the press and then flying out in transition.

RocktheCasbah

Rohit if Odegaard was fit, he would have played. Let's not pretend he didn't start for any reason other than his own fitness.

RocktheCasbah

QuincyAbeyie I think it's basically as simple as, yes, I wanted Eze to start. Of course I did, he's an exciting footballer. I just understand a couple of days later - or at least I think I do - why Arteta chose a different way.

And people are of course entitled to think whatever they want to about that decision, but I think it's a little unfair to criticise it without allowing for the context of Ode being unfit, Nwaneri being very callow in the role or Eze being in his first week at the club.

Mirth

CPM he's closer to being a defensive midfielder than any kind of attacking midfielder anyway.

RocktheCasbah

Mirth I mean he literally played up front for us for how many months last season? 😃

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