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Mikel Arteta: Top Of The Klopps

Tourbillion

Angry & Miserable
Sick of this trendy "transition" concept that's only come to the fore in the last couple of years. I'll be honest, I don't entirely understand what is meant by it.

Why can't we discuss actually being on the ball and controlling things? Why do we have to aspire to some flaky nonsense?
 

HairSprayGooners

My brother posted it ⏩
Can't disagree with that to be fair. If you cant get creativity like City, which is fairly impossible with the other players we currently have then you go for a star player.

Sp**s have Son.

Chelsea have Havertz now who will come good, along with Pulisic who is immense.

City have KDB and a plethora of attacking talent.

United have Bruno.

Liverpool have Mane and Salah.

We do need a magical player, Auba is magic but mainly a magical goalscorer. The difficult part is finding that player. I'm guessing Aouar would be it.
 

Football Manager

Copy & Paste Merchant
Can't disagree with that to be fair. If you cant get creativity like City, which is fairly impossible with the other players we currently have then you go for a star player.

Sp**s have Son.

Chelsea have Havertz now who will come good, along with Pulisic who is immense.

City have KDB and a plethora of attacking talent.

United have Bruno.

Liverpool have Mane and Salah.

We do need a magical player, Auba is magic but mainly a magical goalscorer. The difficult part is finding that player. I'm guessing Aouar would be it.
Aouar is a magical player. And simply by having him, we will play much better football.
The problem is, city has a team of magical players.
 

Finesse

Well-Known Member
I agree. My view is these games are a chance to make a statement. We know we can beat West Ham, Sheffield United and Fulham, but big results away from home are often the catalyst for a paradigm shift in confidence.

It currently feels like our approach is one of surviving as long as possible. I do think Partey will make a huge difference, but I’m losing faith in Arteta’s ideas for our forward line.

I am not losing faith yet. We are doing extremely fine based on your standards. Remember he is young and he is doing incredibly well. For the first time he is putting his theories and ideology to practise. He is learning as we all learn more from our mistakes than our successes. He is a very analytical manager and I hope he already sees the deficit in terms of chances created. Right now it is a personnel and shape issue.

Personnel as in Auba , Pepe , Willian are not Salah / Mane / Pulisic / Ziyech or Zaha etc who can create from nothing and also count of chances created for them to make up for their output. Only Saka looks like taking the bull by the horn and effectively creating the magic. Yet you can sense he is not completely free and has one eye on his positioning and duties defending / tracking back. In addition to this , do we need a creative spark in the central areas? A player who operates in front of 2 CM with freedom to receive the ball up high and organise an attack. Someone who can do what Willian was tasked to do yesterday... combine , find spaces , feed runners from wide and give the opposite midfielders something to think or worry about.

Shape as in transitioning from tactical positions / structure and defensive responsibilities to freedom to invent in attack. The players need to find the quick transition.

The wingbacks are supposed to be our creative and defensive tonic. Defending with full backs , we are okay hence our improved defensive record. They have supported the défense very effectively. Going forward the wingbacks are yet to provide anything worthwhile for the strikers. Again only Saka seems to be our best wingback. Niles and Hector have been very ineffective going forward and hardly combined with their wide men to create enough.

With Partey in midfield and the added defensive steel in Gabriel and Kieran , can we now put square pegs where they have to be in attack? That should begin by putting Saka at LW. No question about that. Get Auba out of there please. Let Saka and Kieran create a synergy up and down that flank.
 

Big Poppa

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: USA

Player:Saliba
Modern football has changed. Strikers in the premier league need to do a lot more than be a fox in the box. Auba was making the right runs whilst being involved in the build up last season, and getting on the end of chances. He needs to retrieve that form. I’m hoping that he will.

We definitely didn’t watch the same version of Aubameyang in the past. I’ll leave it at that.
 

Coolin

Doesn't appreciate the mighty Nacho
Our games are the worst. Where's the good football we were promised? We used to take it to teams, every game, no matter who they were. Now we sit back and hope for a smash and grab.

I can’t get used to this. Playing 5 at the back and sacrificing control in midfield.
 

SingmeasongSong

Right Sometimes
It's why I always say I much preferred Alexis over Auba if we're talking LW. He's exactly what we need in that position.

So true, and we have non of that in our squad. The only player for that position I like is Saka, but I might just prefer seeing him more central until we finally get an Aouar type player.
 

Moah

Well-Known Member
Our attacking play had started to get better by the end of last season. Pepe and Auba were starting to understand each other and were able to create some goals and goal scoring chances. Lacazette was playing deep and did well to link up play. Bellerin was also starting to come back to form attacking wise. I remember seeing a lot of well drilled attacking moves being executed by our front three.

I was expecting we would be building up on that and improve with a new midfielder. But, Willian came in and everything that was clicking was lost. Bringing Willian back in the No 10 hole would've been better than switching him for Pepe.

I think to have a good forward line the players should understand each other well and that will only come from playing consecutive games together.

An attacking formation of

Saka----Auba----Pepe

Willian

or

Auba----Laca----Pepe

Willian

will work much better than what we are trying to do now.
 

RunTheTrap

Kai Havertz Offense League
Football is a bit like boxing. I think Arteta has done a lot of work on our structure and giving us a strong foundation so now our jaw is a lot harder to break than before. Stage 1 was all about the defence and the fitness but now we need to move to the next stage. The knockout stage. I feel like Arteta only wants us to win by points or judge’s decision but we the fans want to see knockouts. City had a weak jaw and we only threw jabs. Apart from 2 chances, Ederson was fine. I understand there’s a risk of being more aggressive and going for the KO can leave you exposed but destroying teams does a lot for the team’s morale. It gives us confidence, smaller teams are fearful and our rivals are cautious. I don’t think the mental aspect can be ignored when you beat a big club away from home.
 

DUFFMAN

Crybaby
It's obvious Arteta has cane in and said we're puan end to the silly errors in defence that has made us a laughing stock for years.

It's worked but our players look scared to make a mistake.

They need to be given more freedom and not be afraid to venture frim the rigidness of it all.
 

kash2

More Consistent Than Arteta
i would prefer a 4-2-3-1

with saka- Özil/cam/cebalos-pepe feeding auba up top. Xhaka Partey anchoring the midfield

What Arteta is trying is to congest the midfield with 3 CB and 2 DM and hoping to have low scoring games where our clinical finishing gives us the edge.
 

Football Manager

Copy & Paste Merchant
Our attacking play had started to get better by the end of last season. Pepe and Auba were starting to understand each other and were able to create some goals and goal scoring chances. Lacazette was playing deep and did well to link up play. Bellerin was also starting to come back to form attacking wise. I remember seeing a lot of well drilled attacking moves being executed by our front three.

I was expecting we would be building up on that and improve with a new midfielder. But, Willian came in and everything that was clicking was lost. Bringing Willian back in the No 10 hole would've been better than switching him for Pepe.

I think to have a good forward line the players should understand each other well and that will only come from playing consecutive games together.

An attacking formation of

Saka----Auba----Pepe

Willian

or

Auba----Laca----Pepe

Willian

will work much better than what we are trying to do now.

——Saka——Martinelli——Pepe——
——Ceballos——Partey——Willian——
 

truth_hurts

but Holding’s hair transplant was painless
Our football is awful. Yes, we look more solid defensively, but if you're a slave to 5 at the back like Arteta, letting in less goals then we were with a back 4 should be the bare minimum.

We have the Swiss Captain, a Spanish international, a 45m signing from an elite European club and one of the leagues best players over the past decade as options in our central 3. Man City away is as tough as it gets, but I'm not allowing him excuses to be so negative in our other games.

He had a howler yesterday. Let's not even mention his substitutions.
 

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