Auba doesn’t suit the way arteta wants to play offensively even though we sit in a low block and countering makes More sense he has to go, laca is t perfect either but contributes more to the team. We are overly reliant on wing play with laca we definitely need a tall and quick striker this January, not sure what the board have planned but this team currently has no chance of top 6 let alone 4 if we keep regressing and getting smashed at big teams/playing badly vs the likes of Everton away
McNicholas and Ornstein reporting in the Atlantic that Aubameyang sought permission to visit his mother in France on Wednesday and possibly bring her back to England. He was granted that permission on the condition that he return Wednesday evening. He returned early Thursday morning instead and was told not to come to practice. The article suggests that it was due at least in part of covid protocols, so he trained at home instead. While the article states he wanted to bring his mother back to England it does not say whether he actually did so. They also report the picture of him getting a new tattoo that is making the rounds on social media social media was actually a scheduled appointment in London.
Right? This kind of shit happens all the time in the NFL and coaches just say “he’s dealing with a family issue.” How hard is that?
No matter how much you hold players accountable for their mistakes in private, if you don’t protect them in public, it WILL come back to bite you in the end. There’s no maybe about that—it’s a matter of when you will lose the dressing room.
Im not even mad at auba he was obviously delayed, he shouldn’t be captain anyway and he’s played shit all season so this makes no difference
I watched the match and was really impressed with Odegaard on Saturday. THat is what I need to see more from him. With regards to Auba, Arteta is a cock. Why make this public?
heh. Me seeing Ozil haters losing their shit over the way Arteta is treating Auba after they praised him for giving the same treatment to Özil sometime ago pic.twitter.com/0dHpChtOYQ— Wavy (@wavygooner) December 13, 2021
Odegaard has been better the last three matches—dare I say it, but he’s been even better since ESR’s been out. Seems they both like to occupy similar spaces perhaps
I dunno. And even if that's true right now, they're both really young, have high upsides, and high football IQs, I think they'll be able to play in the same XI.
I really want to see us land a legit DM (Kamara?) So we can try a 3 man MF with a 6 and two 8.5s (ESR & MO). May not work defensively but the idea of Saka, MO, ESR & Martinelli behind a ST is very interesting to me offensively.
Supposedly this is not the first issue. I'm reading that there have been numerous others that were kept quiet and handled internally. If they felt the need to pull the captaincy over repeat offenses then this was gonna be public no matter what and if it is true that this is a habit with him then he deserves the captaincy pulled because it is showing a very poor example for our young squad.
He should have never been named captain because I find it hard to believe he became unprofessional after the armband. Im with Wenger tho, the captaincy armband is stupid. Players know who the leader(s) is/are. It’s only for the media and fans who need a special sign.
Agreed. But if I recall correctly he was named captain by Emery after Xhaka blew up with the fans. Always found his appointment a bit odd. Sounds like we are going to go with a "leadership group" concept for now that includes Laca, Xhaka & Holding.
On yesterday's AV podcast when they discussed this, there were reports that Benjamin White and Gabriel were two of the clear leaders in the dressing room. I like Laca's energy when he's on the pitch, but it's unlikely he will stay when his contract expires in ~6 months, and both he and SuperBob aren't clear first-choice starters. So going with them seems really dumb. Xhaka's baggage is also an issue.
As I'm just listening to the ArsenalVision podcast, I found myself thinking about your post, and speculating this: If Auba had 10 goals and 2 assists in the league so far, would Arteta have done the same (stripped his captaincy)? My gut says yes, but I do wonder. Did Auba's terrible striking form, i.e. loss of his key/only value to the club, make it easier for the boss to justify this seemingly tough call? Edit: I later heard a clip from Mikel’s presser today where he was asked almost exactly the question I had posed above, except that the journo rephrased it as “what if he’d had 10 goals in the last 5 matches?” To which the manager replied “without a doubt (I would make the same decision)“. But of course what else is a manager going to say publicly!
it's a possibility and a question that needs asking. i wonder how much is that versus the inclusion of lacazette instead. i am think/hope it is the latter because i think saka and smith-rowe are both fairly high footballing intelligence players who flows towards open space rather than set space*. the more troubling thing is whether xhaka somehow unlocks odegaard and tierney. and make them play better. *without knocking pepe specifically, i think he might be a tougher mesh with odegaard because pepe seem to have more of a "spots he likes" thing.