Country: England
Player:Saliba
Cheers bro.Well he won't be better than your analytics knowledge that's for sure
Cheers bro.Well he won't be better than your analytics knowledge that's for sure
Yup. He'll go to a bigger club and become one of the best CBs in the world after we sell him at a loss.Thats actually a very good point. Further confirmation that Saliba probably never will play a single minute for us.
I think any idiot coming into the team he inherited would of focused his buys and energy on fixing a broken defense. How good Wenger’s defense was 3 or 4 years before he took over is really not the issueMy point is Arteta is playing his own complex defensive positional play because he wants to, nothing to do with any past seasons.
He’s got completely new players so there’s nothing to fix and he’s still playing very defensively.I think any idiot coming into the team he inherited would of focused his buys and energy on fixing a broken defense. How good Wenger’s defense was 3 or 4 years before he took over is really not the issue
Don’t know feel like you are ducking the fact that he inherited a poor defense and has improved it, especially if you look from the second half of last season. Every pundit was scratching their head about Ramsdale only Edu and Arteta scouted that correctly plus Arteta had the balls to pull the shirt from Leno real quick. Gabriel in my mind is best Central defender we have had in a while. Yes they spent money, if he can get Kroenke to spend and spend smartly that is a plus not a minus.He’s got completely new players so there’s nothing to fix and he’s still playing very defensively.
There should be some sign of creativity in attacking play in his third season. He’s not going to progress without it though.
I don’t think it’s a personnel problem, it’s more about patterns of play. Take your point about Xhaka, but even with him in we haven’t created much.I agree that I don’t love the formations but I think we’re still light on a couple of players.
I don’t think we have a chance creator outside of Saka and the midfield is an issue when Xhaka is injured.
I don’t think it’s a personnel problem, it’s more about patterns of play. Take your point about Xhaka, but even with him in we haven’t created much.
But he didn’t improve Unai’s defence. Unai only lost 10 games in his full season finishing 5th, Arteta lost 13 in his full season finishing 8th, so he made the defence worse.Don’t know feel like you are ducking the fact that he inherited a poor defense and has improved it, especially if you look from the second half of last season. Every pundit was scratching their head about Ramsdale only Edu and Arteta scouted that correctly plus Arteta had the balls to pull the shirt from Leno real quick. Gabriel in my mind is best Central defender we have had in a while. Yes they spent money, if he can get Kroenke to spend and spend smartly that is a plus not a minus.
Yes, always been quite, quite confident of that. The question is if we will finish 4th. If I felt more strongly about Arteta's performance as a manager to date (setting aside team building, personnel decisions, and getting players on side and believing in the project, which of course are an important part of management but not the aspects I'm referring to here) I'd be 95% sure. As it is if I were a betting man I'd bet on us for 4th but I wouldn't put the odds at more than 55-60%.We will finish top 6?
Well, as stated, after 13 games of a harder than usual schedule, we are not far off the league position the best underlying stat we have suggests we should be at. There are certainly major areas of improvement but opponents have to be taken into account. Stats like the pressing resistance / pressing efficacy graph that @AmericanGooner posted are of course exposed to these facts...that is, playing the likes of at City, at Liverpool, Chelsea (at Brentford, at Brighton, Palace, at Leicester to a lesser extent) bias this information in a certain direction, even if I think our performances in those matches are quite improveable. We will have a more complete picture with all of these metrics, and with the eye test (it's no coincidence that we see our football looking more sustainable when our last 4 matches have included home to villa, home to watford, and home to Newcastle, and that the curve is trending upward as well having weathered the early season crisis and seeing the various new signings begin to bed in) at the halfway mark.I see the games so i dont need stats. We are not playing a sustainable football.
If you look at that pressing chart I posted from the Athletic a couple of pages ago, our pressing is the second worst in the league, behind Norwich but above Newcastle. I’m not seeing your optimism, but acknowledge he’s brought in young players and is bucking all his stats by over performing his league position.I think I’ve seen us look to play more on the front foot against lower opposition recently.
I think we’ve got a lopsided and inexperienced squad and sometimes we play like that. Arteta still isn’t really the finished article but I feel a bit more optimistic.
We actively look to press smaller teams I’ve noticed.
Don’t know feel like you are ducking the fact that he inherited a poor defense and has improved it, especially if you look from the second half of last season. Every pundit was scratching their head about Ramsdale only Edu and Arteta scouted that correctly plus Arteta had the balls to pull the shirt from Leno real quick. Gabriel in my mind is best Central defender we have had in a while. Yes they spent money, if he can get Kroenke to spend and spend smartly that is a plus not a minus.
If you look at that pressing chart I posted from the Athletic a couple of pages ago, our pressing is the second worst in the league, behind Norwich but above Newcastle. I’m not seeing your optimism, but acknowledge he’s brought in young players and is bucking all his stats by over performing his league position.
you still have people making false claims like this.But he didn’t improve Unai’s defence. Unai only lost 10 games in his full season finishing 5th, Arteta lost 13 in his full season finishing 8th, so he made the defence worse.
No Arteta in person has good points beyond the let's have faith in the young team and manager, you can see the tripe some here are trying, go backwards on this thread a year ago and read the exact same stuff. That's a valid opinion to have sure, but it just doesn't add any insight.
Call me crazy, but someone who said we would spend significant money and have a good season (not sure the extent of his predictions, but I'm guessing EL spots while not ruling out CL?) compared to the overwhelming consensus here (not spend money, probably not finish in European spots, which then changed quickly to mid-table or worse after the first three games) was adding more insight and balance than the rest (the consensus).
Yes, but I think he was one of the only people who really believed and was outspoken about us making significant investment this summer. That's why I included that part.You do realise that this season isnt over yet, right? Many games left, dude. And no member here said we wouldnt spend any money.
Yes, but I think he was one of the only people who really believed and was outspoken about us making significant investment this summer. That's why I included that part.
I agree Arsène was exceptional getting constant top 4 but I say its due to the fact that the league got harder that really made his achievement exceptionalSquads are built over several years, so a spurt in spending over one or two years still doesn’t get you quality in all areas of the team, or depth for injury problems. Everton have never gone beyond 7th for squad investment. You’re not going to win the league with that squad. And Mourinho has very little experience of a club spending 6th in the Prem, where he can’t buy players he wants. It’s a difficult job. Wenger was exceptional getting continuous top 4 with a team spending so little but fans never understood and mocked him with Mourinho.
I see no evidence that the league is any harder than it was. It’s a myth.