What about Arteta makes you think he's good? Teams are doing more with less. In large part because their managers make an impact. This team with Southampton's manager is better. This team with Bielsa is better. At some point, when none of the players are any good, the problem is with the coach and not the players. Klopp was never this dire when Liverpool was floundering.
********ing love tierney. Kieran Tierney having to be dragged away at full-time after having words with Ezgjan Alioski 🤬 pic.twitter.com/s8d9wkw7rC— Football Daily (@footballdaily) November 22, 2020
interesting. wonder if he added shit talk on top of it. i would think a dribbler like pepe would be used to (not "like" or appreciate but familiar with) being kicked at.
i am frustrated by some things. i think he is floundering and flailing, trying to figure out the best 2 partners up front for aubameyang while still maintaining his formation/vision for the offense - where the center forward is more a workhorse thus would be a waste to put auba there - and trying to help justify willian's salary (at his behest)/pepe's transfer fee - in my opinion, neither works anywhere but the right and how much they even "work" there is . . . debatable. i think he has very specific vision for the offense - i would imagine something similar to pep's at barcelona with the lanes - and would like to implement that but without the personnel for it. arseblog guy was chatting with mcnicholas on arsecast extra after the villa game about how, even if you have creative players, they need the freedom to be creative to make it work. and we lack that right now - both the player AND the freedom. i do not disagree with you about bielsa and hasenhüttl. but two things about them, though: both have prior experience - and at decently high level - and both have been at their respective jobs for longer than arteta. (granted, hasenhüttl apparently rescued them from relegation zone so fair play there.) we have a first timer with a short apprentice period so growing pain is inevitable. i am not sure if he will make the leap into the top tier of coaching - or, heck, even the next tier below - but, for me, i am happy to see us not leaking goals like it was going out of style and know that, in a game against the "top 6", it will at least be a fight - as opposed to wondering how much we will lose by and how comical it will be THIS time. like i said earlier, for me, the rot started too long ago and managed to set in so it will take time to get out. while it is frustrating that the offense is chicago bears-level garbage, at least something is being fixed. i am probably too easily pleased but i will take improvements over just doggie paddling in mediocrity.
This seemed to be a trap game coming in, after a crazy (and largely unnecessary) int’l break where a large part of our squad was traveling, with Leeds mostly home, with Bielsa having lots of time to set up and plan for us. Leeds beat AVFC 3-0, who just beat us 3-0, so in some ways I’m relieved it was 0-0. That said, nobody should be happy with a 0-0 draw against bleeping Leeds. Arteta bares some blame, but I can’t overlook that virtually every player on the squad has significantly improved since he came in January. Mustafi, Xhaka, and Eleneny are the most notable examples. So if Arteta is getting the best out of the players on the roster, it’s hard to give him too much blame. One could argue that only the play of our forwards has regressed, but that’s hard to determine whether it’s Artetas setup or due to poor form from the attackers. what worries me is that our tactics seem to have become too predictable. If other teams have started to figure out our players and our system they operate, then Arteta must exhibit the nous to adapt. We seem to play the same every match...
Not every player has improved. Lacazette is struggling, we’re wondering whether Pepe will ever be a good fit for Arsenal. Xhaka hasn’t improved, Arteta just isn’t asking him to do what he’s not capable of doing. I doubt he is still a key player when Arsenal return to the top 4. Neither Nelson or Willock have made the leap to become key players yet. He certainly didn’t revitalize Ozil’s career. Let’s not get carried away. Arteta has installed a system that has solidified the defense, but the restrictions of the system limit the team’s creativity. He las to loosen the handbrake.
.....and I thought, at first, that Pepe did it on his own, now he was BAITED??? He got kicked in the heels and the other guy shit talked him on top of that, to get to his goat, so to speak? Well, it's too bad there isn't any audio on that VAR or maybe some trailing footage of what happened leading up to the incident that lead to the red card for Pepe, perhaps the FA might want to look at the 2-3 minutes or so of trailing footage to see if maybe Pepe was provoked or not. That's the only thing I think that would get that other guy some suspension time off too, I'm not saying get Pepe off the hook, but maybe he was baited into it with what happened earlier on. No way that he wasn't baited like I thought at first, I at first thought he went in on his own. We'll see what the FA sees in the tapes, now videotape doesn't lie, but VAR only shows the ref just the last few seconds leading up to an incident, not necessarily the whole picture.
cannot disagree here. and we cannot even say the people we feel have "improved" are necessarily so. as you mentioned, xhaka is not necessarily a "better player", he is just being put into the position where his weakness is not emphasized as much. elneny, for example, i have always maintained could be a solid contributor if given strict direction (as i have always thought of oxlade-chamberlain and ramsey) and i think he has shown he could thrive in arteta's more rigid environment. but that is not necessarily an "improvement". to be fair, i think lacazette's struggle started before arteta's time. (unless i am remembering wrong and revisionisting it.) i do not think arteta's formation/style has helped since it has lacazette being more workhorse and not necessarily poaching (and he is in desperate need of a few easy goal to get his brain reworking). man, cannot disagree here. (and he sounds genuinely pissed at pepe after the game.*) for me, it is hard to see a bigger team that pepe would be a fit for. i wish he was someone who would run into space since he appears to have good composure (in front of goal and not, uh, from being kicked, apparently) and can be a right finisher. but he is one of those who likes ball to feet and that is so hard to play with when you want spacing. *does this mean pepe is in the doghouse now? where willian was immediately forgiven? man, i may be one of the few xhaka fan remaining but it is tough to picture him as a key cog of an actual top 4 team anywhere. his flaws are such that you just about have to build a team around him/his talent and i just do not see him being good enough build around. but is that not an improvement? he is being put in place to do what he can and not being asked to do things he cannot? it irritates me how much he is trying to shoehorn willian and pepe into the lineup. both of them are at the best (READ: only actually effective at) on the right. you just cannot line them up together. it doubly irritates me how, after fucking off to dubai, willian is just back in the lineup like so much nothing. WTF? either nelson or saka should have started on the wing opposite pepe if auba was meant to start central. it feels like he is a good company man and not fighting ozil's banishment. have to pick your battles when you are new/young, i suppose. (it still irritates me.) so true. i can sort of see what he is going for (if he is trying to install something akin to a more discipline attack like pep had at barca). i think it could work if you have a terrific front 3 (say, what spurs or liverpool have at the moment) and a midfield good enough to get the ball to them in dangerous situation. with what we have at the moment? just cannot see it.
I'm just watching highlights, Pepe had to go no doubt, he gave the ref no choice, but it wasn't really a headbutt, he puts his forehad onto the Leeds player and pushes, if it had been a proper headbutt it the Leeds player would have pinged backwards. You can't do that kind of thing any more with VAR, but I think the Leeds player should have been booked for over-egging it. Should have been a penalty, but you would have expected Aubu to do more with that chance than he did. We are woeful up front at the moment.
Data suggests its systemic. I mean we are so much better defensively - we are way less open. But you can see when we get possession, our players are very isolated, and we move the ball far too slowly. Basically we looked better when Leeds were pushing for the win, because then our counter was working. It was noticeable how Leeds used a midblock to stop us getting the ball in to Xhaka/Ceballos, and then we'd have to go long. I guess that is why Lulz is so important to us, because he creates another distribution point, where teams give us time on the ball. But then when Leeds had the ball, they were much more able to play through midfield, and we really struggled to disrupt them
The Xhaka/Ceballos midfield is barely functional in front of a back 3 as we saw from Arteta's time after the restart. They can hold their own, but at least they don't get overrun. Pairing those two in front of a back 4 is a disaster and harkens back to the Emery days. Which is why Partey was a bad signing. He's a good player, but he's 27, cost a boatload of cash, and he's just one man. Players get injured, and then you are stuck with the midfield that didn't work last season. Arteta would have been wiser to buy 2 or 3 younger cheaper players, from both a squad building and a squad depth approach.
We utterly condemn the vile abuse directed at Nicolas Pepe and Ezgjan Alioski on social media following our match against Leeds.This is completely unacceptable and we will be working with the police and authorities to do everything we can to trace and prosecute the culprits.— Arsenal (@Arsenal) November 23, 2020 Not really sure why Arsenal feel it is necessary to defend the honor of Alioski. I'm not saying social media abuse is acceptable, but it happens all the time for lots of players without the club releasing a statement on it. The bullsh*t posted on social media is as fake as Alioski flopping around and play acting for the red card.
I'm slowly coming to the conclusion (not in any way an original take) that we should've just done a complete tear down instead of making all these expensive "better win now signings." Just blow it up, and let Arteta grow with a young squad.
The thing is, looking at Germany, you probably get way better value from 3 decent 25m quid players, than one 70m quid wing prospect Which is what Ted said at the time I'd rather we signed players like Douzi & LT - that in ordinary times, we could resell
Yeah. New rule for our club no player over the age of 25 Keep the fee below 50 mill especially if they are in league 1 buy players that fit into a specific system
I’m not sure Arteta trusts young players. Why else do you sign Willian. Even if he doesn’t trust Pepe, in addition to playing Aubameyang on the left, Arsenal had Saka, Martinelli, and Nelson, looking for playing time on the wing. In addition, he talks about a transition year for Saliba, I’m not sure what that means. It sounds a little like BS got me. As an 18 year old he played in defense for a St, Etienne team that finished fourth in Ligue 1, primarily because they allowed less than a goal a game. If he’s worried about Saliba adapting to the physicality of the premier league, at his size I don’t think there are too many teenagers that are more prepared physically to deal with the rigors of the premier league. Having lost his mother may have psychologically set him back. But Arteta and Arsenal seem to have completely blown an opportunity to further his development.
Red Bull London It's a great transfer philosophy for a team trying to claw their way into the upper echelons of a league though. I'm all for it.
If Arteta won't play young players then he shouldn't be the manager. Saliba is a totally different issue though. He should probably not even be with the team right now, give him six months to deal with what happened to him. Just let him heal mentally and bring him back when he's ready.
Implicit (no, actually I think I was pretty explicit) in my post as to what I meant by a tear down, is that there wouldn't be the Willian-esque signings --- they wouldn't be countenanced by KSE, Edu, Clifford Chance, whomever. IOW, he'd have to play younger players.
Didn’t we do this for awhile under Wenger? I remember us never spending big, and we had a lot of young players especially during the first couple years of the Emirates era when we were paying off the stadium
Yeah that may not be the best example of man-management. Especially when considering the temperament of the player in question. Sure Arteta was still hot when he said this post-match, but it’s not really a good look doing it publicly like this, the way Mourinho is so fond of.
I think Wenger/somebody at the club was great in bringing in young talent, unfortunately, when the money came in and other clubs could pay silly money it got difficult. Now you have to pay for a player's potential,not the level they are at.