Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Manberg]

They are capable of it though. That's the point. You can see it occurring under each of the aforementioned managers but it is not being done consistently enough. A manager's job is to get consistent performances out of his players. Nobody is saying he's been given Zidane and Vieira in the engine room. He's managed to make them tougher to break down than they have been for years but that doesn't excuse being ponderous in possession. Just as you can drill playing out from the back so too can you drill transitioning quickly to increase your attacking efficiency. One is on display to mixed results and the other is not. That's management.

They are not good enough on the ball. We frequently see turnovers in possession, even playing at a slow intensity. How do you think they can be any more fluid even attempting a fast high intensity passing game?
Arteta commented about losing the ball and misplacing passes in his post match interview.

 

[Rasmi]

I think he took over a terrible squad, and the climate is not good at the moment around football. He still got us FA Cup and community shield. There are good points.

I think we need to show faith and trust the process. We will get better.

The squad is not terrible at all. We have the 3rd least shots on goal only Burnley and palace worse. Is that the level of our attack?

 

[gamechannel]

At this point I’m not convinced that Arteta isn’t the answer, I’m convinced that for the most part a manager isn’t going to make a huge difference one way or the other. We’ve had largely the same players the last 4 years and essentially the same results....we haven’t had a good attack since Wenger’s 2nd to last season. Doesn’t matter who the manager has been.

What are you talking about? The defense is almost all different players. As is the midfield and the attack. Stop blaming Wenger for Artetas incompetence.

 

[DUFFMAN]

League is so unpredictable.

7-2 pool loose to villa

5-2 man City to Leicester

Mad times.

Nothing is easy anymore

 

[DanDare]

It's not looking good for Arteta

Needs to figure it out in the next 3 games

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

The squad is not terrible at all. We have the 3rd least shots on goal only Burnley and palace worse. Is that the level of our attack?

We lack balance all over the pitch. We lack a partner for Gabriel. We lack proper GK. We lack balance in the midfield and our attack is dysfunctional at a very high level and while Arteta shares the blame there I don't think Auba, Laca, and Pepe are a good roster for attacking players. They are lacking in many ways.

Arteta needs more time, I'm hopeful he can fix the problems we have and get us to be more attacking.

 

[Batman]

They are not good enough on the ball. We frequently see turnovers in possession, even playing at a slow intensity. How do you think they can be any more fluid even attempting a fast high intensity passing game?
Arteta commented about losing the ball and misplacing passes in his post match interview.

We see turnovers in possession playing at a slow pace because we have already allowed the opposition to get set up and go tight on our players. Most of the time when you see our players lose possession it's because they've dithered until they're closed down and have no options. Now part of that is Arteta instructing them to wait to commit a man before making a pass. It's fine in theory but is being exposed in practice because of what you mentioned. De Bruyne and Silva are not here. It's much easier to actually move and pass the ball to space rather than to a man who is marked with his back to goal. These are basic things that he's seen up close here with Wenger and at City. There's no excuse for them not to be showing up in our patterns of play. He's shown an ability to install ideas, it's baffling that these are not included.

 

[Trilly]

Non-negotiables eh?

 

[Manberg]

We see turnovers in possession playing at a slow pace because we have already allowed the opposition to get set up and go tight on our players. Most of the time when you see our players lose possession it's because they've dithered until they're closed down and have no options. Now part of that is Arteta instructing them to wait to commit a man before making a pass. It's fine in theory but is being exposed in practice because of what you mentioned. De Bruyne and Silva are not here. It's much easier to actually move and pass the ball to space rather than to a man who is marked with his back to goal. These are basic things that he's seen up close here with Wenger and at City. There's no excuse for them not to be showing up in our patterns of play. He's shown an ability to install ideas, it's baffling that these are not included.

We see turnovers when having to play short 6 yard passes.
As for today, Leicester had 5 men stay back at all times. Even when we won the ball high up the pitch it was always a 2v5 scenario. The numbers weren’t there. There was never any opportunity to counter attack.

 

[Trilly]

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of his, but I actually thought we played well in the first half. He needs to sort our attack out though. 4 strikers on at the end, 200m worth of talent and we didn't look threatening.

Thing is. Even when we ‘played’ well it heavily relied on Luiz pinging diagonals to our fullbacks.

That can’t be what counts as us playing well man.

 

[Rex Stone]

Even Peak Moyes had better footballers than us...none of our midfielders are as good as Arteta, Pienaar or even Leon Osman from back then.

Feel our some of our terrible footballers will always cost us regardless who is in charge.

Disagree on that, are you saying the likes of Jelavic and Leon Osman would really get into our team even now?

Those Everton teams were assembled on a shoestring back then in his day. Moyes had a squad of mediocre grafters who were in the mix for top 4 a lot behind some Mourinho brand football.

We’ve spent huge sums on renewing and buying players and nothing seems to be improving. It’s still the same low block and looking to harm teams in transition that we saw in Emery’s time.

 

[Red London]

Fix up chief, I like you but you’re disappointing me right now.

Need to be more adventurous at attacking and he needs to be more simple in the team selection. Play our striker up front.

 

[Trilly]

A-M told me this was the perfect midfield because it's a LIDL version of Klopp's Liverpool and that creative midfielders are actually overrated, and even tho Thomas never left his own half at Atletico, he's apparently capable of playing between the lines.

Has anybody ever said this?

 

[Trilly]

Liverpool’s midfield is not creative. Difference is they have world class forwards who create and score on their own but we don’t.

Their fullbacks create for them, which I guess is kind of what we’re trying to do.

 

[DanDare]

Özil's done so he should play one of Saka or ESR centrally and progressing it in the final third.

He wanted Aouar so why isn't he trying to play how he would with him but with someone else? Aouar was never going to play every game so what was his plan for if he didnt.?

 

[Manberg]

Their fullbacks create for them, which I guess is kind of what we’re trying to do.

Yep. They also have a hard working high pressing game to win the ball high up the pitch, which makes life easy for their forwards.

All their midfield has to do is win the ball and lay it off. Their attack and their fullbacks do the rest.

 

[Red London]

Their fullbacks create for them, which I guess is kind of what we’re trying to do.

They also have proper inside forwards who are technically gifted and good consistent goal scorers. We have neither. They also more importantly have a false 9 who drops into midfield well to occupy the hole and drag defenders all over the place. Lacazette couldn’t do that in his wildest dreams atm, he’d be glad to execute his first touch without the ball bouncing away from him.

 

[Trilly]

Yep. They also have a hard working high pressing game to win the ball high up the pitch, which makes life easy for their forwards.

Trent is also a bit of a cheat code as his passing range is unrivalled for a fullback.

Firmino drifts to whichever side they’re currently playing at and had the technical ability to link up with Salah and Trent or Mane and Robertson.

 

[Riou]

Disagree on that, are you saying the likes of Jelavic and Leon Osman would really get into our team even now?

Those Everton teams were assembled on a shoestring back then in his day. Moyes had a squad of mediocre grafters who were in the mix for top 4 a lot behind some Mourinho brand football.

We’ve spent huge sums on renewing and buying players and nothing seems to be improving. It’s still the same low block and looking to harm teams in transition that we saw in Emery’s time.

Not Jelavic, would take Osman...Yakubu over Laca, Arteta over Dani/Xhaka, Distin would be a quality partner for Gabby, Coleman over Bellerin...would take quite a few of their players at their best.

I liked that Everton team tbf...late 200os/early 2010s it was such a difficult away game, solid base with some quality players.

We're spending big money, but are still wasting most of it...don't have any quality strikers/wingers/attacking midfielders who can play in between the lines well, bar Saka and he's a youngster ffs.

Honestly feel some of our players are terrible and should be playing for relegation level teams.

 

[akhil]

He played 3 in the middle today but none of them barely ever broke the line. I've no idea why Xhaka was moving so far out wide and Ceballos looked lost for most of the game. Luiz was the most creative player on the pitch for us. That's how castrated our midfield is.

And the only part creative option on the bench is Pepe. There's nobody else on the bench he could've brought on that could've added something different to the attack. He's still playing a not match fit Mustafi over Saliba, and if Willian isn't fit why not add Nelson/ESR to the squad. Laca and Saka played a lot of minutes on Thursday.

He sidelined Özil cause he's an easy scapegoat but come on, "trust the process" is all well and good but so far the process is looking like garbage.