Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Manberg]

Alright replace Luiz with Holding then? Its a 433 with Xhaka at the base. If it makes it easier for you I can put them in a nice line. But it doesn't make a difference really. Xhaka will just be the deepest midfielder of the 3 and thats what I was trying to show.

Hold the ball up? We arent playing long ball game here. You get the ball into Pepe and Saka and Auba is the out and out striker...

Its the most balanced team we have by far.

Your front 3 players need to have differences in strengths and attributes. Playing similar players up front together without a suitable player to hold the ball and link up play is bound to cause problems such as players taking up the same spaces and running into cul-de-sacs.

It’s in the manager guide book.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Your front 3 players need to have differences in strengths and attributes. Playing similar players up front together without a suitable player to hold the ball and link up play is bound to cause problems such as players taking up the same spaces and running into cul-de-sacs.

It’s in the manager guide book.

Saka - link up man, does a bit of everything.
Auba - out and out striker.
Pepe - the best dribbler at the club

These are our three best attackers. Willian, Laca and Nkeitah dont offer anything these guys can't.

 

[Manberg]

Saka - link up man, does a bit of everything.
Auba - out and out striker.
Pepe - the best dribbler at the club

These are our three best attackers. Willian, Laca and Nkeitah dont offer anything these guys can't.

There’s a reason we’re lining up the way we have been. Arteta has repeatedly spoken about the need for balance in team selection.

 

[dka1]

There’s a reason we’re lining up the way we have been. Arteta has repeatedly spoken about the need for balance in team selection.

Hmm I think you're overstating the lack of balance in HairSprayGooners's line up and the front three aren't as unvaried as you say.

It certainly has more balance than Auba on the left, Lacazette in the middle and Willian/Pepe on the right, where Aubameyang offers almost nothing in build up if the opposition sits back.

Lacazette has barely passable hold up play and doesn't seem to link with other offensive players well enough to be worth sacrificing Auba through the middle. Lastly Willian/Pepe would be well the same.

I do agree that I'd probably play Partey in a double pivot with Xhaka or just play a flat three man midfield.

 

[kash2]

gee.. wish we had a big tall centre forward who made defenders uneasy...right now we have nothing to scare their defense.

 

[gamechannel]

So a hypothetical question for you all:

If we lose the next 4 games considering we will be playing Leicester, ManU, Chelsea and Leeds, we'd have 9 points from 9 games. What do you do with Arteta?

 

[Football Manager]

So a hypothetical question for you all:

If we lose the next 4 games considering we will be playing Leicester, ManU, Chelsea and Leeds, we'd have 9 points from 9 games. What do you do with Arteta?

Give him time to get rid of auba/laca/nketiah/willock/Elneny/Xhaka/Özil/Luiz. We need more skillful players who can dribble past defenders and can play those Spanish like passing combination play. This is a shxt squad packed with non-skillful players who are just good off the ball/just good to play in a counter attacking system.

Do people think one aouar will fix the problem? City has a team of aouar.

 

[krackpot]

Woefully short of creativity. Compounded by starting Ceballos over Willock.

I'm sick of this. better we play Reiss as CAM if he can't put Özil in the squad.

 

[gamechannel]

Give him time to get rid of auba/laca/nketiah/willock/Elneny/Xhaka/Özil/Luiz. We need more skillful players who can dribble past defenders and can play those Spanish like passing combination play. This is a shxt squad packed with non-skillful players who are just good off the ball/just good to play in a counter attacking system.

Do people think one aouar will fix the problem? City has a team of aouar.

So thats the narrative eh? Even after Gabriel and Partey, people are still saying he needs better players? I thought these guys were supposed to fix our leaky defense so we can play more aggressively going forward.. I suppose the excuses will continue until the entire team is replaced..

 

[Football Manager]

So thats the narrative eh? Even after Gabriel and Partey, people are still saying he needs better players? I thought these guys were supposed to fix our leaky defense so we can play more aggressively going forward.. I suppose the excuses will continue until the entire team is replaced..

How about the skill level and creativity up front? As I have said, city has a team of aouar.
No team can win anything if they have 5 world class defenders/defensive midfielders but 5 walcott up front.

 

[Keplaz]

I get shades of Wenger with Arteta. He is very stubborn. Once he makes his mind up about something it seems virtually impossible to change it.

I think he needs to play Auba upfront and then try and unlock our creativity. He inherited a team that couldn't defend, had no identity and couldn't create chances.

He's solved two out of three of those problems. I don't think William as a false nine is the answer. I've been underwhelmed by Willian so far. Not impressed. It's still early in his career and if he can solve the creativity problem, top 4 is achievable.

 

[Gegen Pressing]

SAF "your man Arteta , what's with the suicidal time wasting in front of own goal? "

Wenger " Nah it's taka-tiki spelled backwards as in we're playing it out from the back"

SAF "Arse... I get it playing it from the back"

Wenger " I called him. This is english football, fast paced Action end to end...
Finding myself shouting shooot at every clearance "

SAF " Arsène, shame the spaniard, do something ! Near cardiac arrest
at every clearance, I'm blaming you! "

 

[ArtetaOut]

Backward sideway passing boring football all match, we have serious lack of a creative player and he still refuses to play Özil just to satisfy his rookie ego. What a horrible scrub of a manager.

 

[Gunners1616]

I've read so many excuses in the previous pages... But somehow Leicester and Leeds with lesser players (in value at least) were able to take 4 points from this City side with both KDB and Laporte...

Arteta need to relax, in his interviews you can feel his respect of big teams and it translates on the pitch with our players. They respected Liverpool and City way too much, playing deep, scared.

We finish 8th last year, doesn't mean we should play with fear. We are more than equipped to beat a top 6 team away this season. Just stop respecting them so much, play a high line, play 4 at the back, play Auba' centrally, press high and attack them. Also we need more agressivity against these team, more harsh tackles and some scuffles.

Yesterday match was shameful, we were just passengers hoping to wait for our chances and be clinical. Could have worked (like in the FA Cup) but it didn't this time. Its not sustainable playing this way... The defense is better but long term you can't build on this system.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

What we want to see now is a bit of evolution in our game going forward, making the best of the tools at our disposal. If we've got Partey, Saka, Willian, Pepe and Auba then we've got to find a way of getting them all in there and have them playing effectively with each other because there's far too much talent there to be limiting them to playing the way we have been doing in recent times, granted against the likes of Liverpool and City it's always gonna require you to soak up pressure. But going forward especially against the weaker teams we have to make use of the ability of these players.

 

[Maybe]

I was just thinking a bit about Sky and their new £15 offer for a single match...

How many of you would pay to watch this? I guess Arteta will be a successful manager, but I can't buy his football atm.
Bear in mind that that paying for a game on TV is a completely different experience compared to paying for a stadium ticket with your mates.
I think when you pay for something to watch on TV you judge it by the quality and you probably won't pay the next time if the quality isn't there.
When you go to a stadium, you can still enjoy some other stuff even if your team plays badly.
It will be interesting to see how this evolves in the future and if our income will be impacted by the attractiveness of our football

 

[roz]

Seems like theres a general overreaction to yesterday’s result. Think Arteta was pretty positive in team selection but you have to credit City for stifling us.

We’re hardly the most creative team and to me it looked like Pep made his team selection & tactics based on frustrating us. People keep mentioning Leeds taking the game to City but City underestimated Leeds and were way too gung ho in their approach. There was no chance of that happening with us considering their previous result and the FA cup semi final.

If anything its a testament to how far we’ve come already under Arteta. To lose 1-0 away to City is hardly a bad result, especially considering most of our players were sub par.

Good chance to build on this IMO, hopefully we can put a run together now we’ve played City & Pool

 

[Tir Na Nog]

I was just thinking a bit about Sky and their new £15 offer for a single match...

How many of you would pay to watch this? I guess Arteta will be a successful manager, but I can't buy his football atm.
Bear in mind that that paying for a game on TV is a completely different experience compared to paying for a stadium ticket with your mates.
I think when you pay for something to watch on TV you judge it by the quality and you probably won't pay the next time if the quality isn't there.
When you go to a stadium, you can still enjoy some other stuff even if your team plays badly.
It will be interesting to see how this evolves in the future and if our income will be impacted by the attractiveness of our football

Fam, I'm not sure I could justify paying that for a single match if we were playing like our invincibles tbh. Ridiculous stuff imo. If they did it as a weekend pass or some **** like that, then MAYBE. But for one game, nah I'm not having that.

 

[Maybe]

Yesterday match was shameful, we were just passengers hoping to wait for our chances and be clinical. Could have worked (like in the FA Cup) but it didn't this time. Its not sustainable playing this way... The defense is better but long term you can't build on this system.

I was saying for a long time that we were overachieving and people were buying it. You can't expect Auba to keep the pace with so few chances created. Think this will be fixed once Partey starts playing, and tbf, Artetat didn't have the squad to play better until now.
Partey will allow Xhaka and Ceballos to be more expressive, and Pepe and Auba will play more as forwards from now on instead of wing-backs.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Seems like theres a general overreaction to yesterday’s result. Think Arteta was pretty positive in team selection but you have to credit City for stifling us.

We’re hardly the most creative team and to me it looked like Pep made his team selection & tactics based on frustrating us. People keep mentioning Leeds taking the game to City but City underestimated Leeds and were way too gung ho in their approach. There was no chance of that happening with us considering their previous result and the FA cup semi final.

If anything its a testament to how far we’ve come already under Arteta. To lose 1-0 away to City is hardly a bad result, especially considering most of our players were sub par.

Good chance to build on this IMO, hopefully we can put a run together now we’ve played City & Pool

Disagree in transfers but agree in most aspects of the playing side of things

People will always be reactionary because some odd bods on here expect instant success. They want 3-0 wins against City and such. Not realising City have an exceptional set of players.