Country: Sweden
Yeah that's fair. I'm not Arteta out. Started to turn on him after continuing playing Willian, Xhaka et al whilst on a bad run not only results wise but also in terms of chances created etc. But now he's showed faith in younger players (ESR) and found a way to better utilize Saka I'm all good with him. The importance for the club right now is continuity.I'm not here to change people's opinions. Some seem fairly set in stone and that's upto them. They don't like Arteta.
Me and I apologise if this turns into a long post, it's something I have tried to refrain from for a while, a new years resolution. . Arteta came in and said these are my rules, you do it or don't. You do it good. Some players choose not to follow. In your job if you do that you'll be out. Arteta either can look weak and let it slide, in turn indangering the rest of the camp who see zero consequences for breaking rules. Or he follows through. He followed through. That's a good thing. It shows strength and courage regardless of who you are you do as requested.
As for players. We were by all informed insiders/pundits after Aouar or Partey. Aouar may have facilited a change to 433 sooner as he could occupy the 10 role, potentially. Partey is not a 10. So we start with the 343 which we finished with. That's fine. Partey slots in, we have creativity from out wide the Pepe, Willian, Saka and so on. Partey is injured and the 343 doesn't click as well as it did last season. So we look at another solutiob
Upstep 433 with Esr. Now the cynics out there will say there was no plan. Id as above say differently. We opted for Partey and continuation of what worked well last season with the idea is transitioning to 433 once we recruited the 10. It just happens we found the solution internally with Esr.
Do I think people have been over cynically and see nearly everything has confirmation of thjeir cynicism yes. It's known as confirmation bias. Anyway, I apologise for the long post.
I think that creativity, playing patterns and chance creation is the sticking point for me. That Arteta and Edu should've identified that creativity from the wings wasn't enough and when Aouar fell through (especially if did indeed reject us) acted on it. Arteta brought defensive stability last year which was great, but we lacked fluidity and speed of transition (except for when Özil was playing before lockdown) . So imo they should've pushed for someone else/had a backup plan once Aouar fell through.
So all in all, I'm very happy with where we're at, but I think there's definitely an argument to be made that could and should have done more in terms of playmaking ability in teh squad in the summer. That was all I meant with the shat the bad etc