Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[2Smokeyy]

Maybe in harder away games, we could play Tierney as the defensive RB and move Tomi central perhaps?

Though White is very useful in our home games, plus I am not sure Arteta would ever drop the guy he spent big money on...could maybe go 3 at the back in some games too.

We could have actually gone 3 at the back tonight tbf since we ended up dropping very deep after we scored and didn’t want to play on the front foot. We can barely create chances, so we might aswell just defend.

IIRC we beat Utd last season at OT with a three at he back system and Tierney was playing LCB.

 

[KrissKringle]

We lost it because he can’t put together a midfield who can string more than two passes together. We lost it because we can’t create more than one or two decent chances in a game.

And that's always been entirely on his tactics. No amount of business in the winter will make us better going forward. We've been rubbish at creating ever since he took over.

Just bin him and get someone competent to do the job. Otherwise it's a waste of time and money when he cries that he "needs his players" to perform in the league.
If you couldn't do **** all in 2 years at the helm of this team, you're not going to do anything in the future.

 

[2Smokeyy]

Were it not for the fact that United are absolute poverty, they'd have put 6-7 past us today just having the intelligence to whip balls into the box to Ronaldo. He had his way with Ben White. A better team with the same advantage would have pressed it. Ronaldo stood on him the entire match and never went near Gabriel.

I remember I said it in the summer but he’s actually reminding me of Raul Albiol. Nothing really special about him, just average in many departments.

Gabriel is our real gem. He’s really stepped it up and has looked brilliant in most of our games this season, hopefully he can keep this up.

 

[Batman]

I remember I said it in the summer but he’s actually reminding me of Raul Albiol. Nothing really special about him, just average in many departments.

Gabriel is our real gem. He’s really stepped it up and has looked brilliant in most of our games this season, hopefully he can keep this up.

Albiol looks like Maldini compared to this guy. Gabriel is excellent though. It's a shame we'll never see him partner Saliba. They could have been really special.

 

[Paperino]

Albiol looks like Maldini compared to this guy. Gabriel is excellent though. It's a shame we'll never see him partner Saliba. They could have been really special.

Excellent posting from you for once.

 

[Riou]

Albiol looks like Maldini compared to this guy. Gabriel is excellent though. It's a shame we'll never see him partner Saliba. They could have been really special.

Shame the timelines couldn't have match up, so we could have replaced Per with Gabriel instead of Mustafi, when Kos still had some gas in the tank too...probably would have stayed in the Champions League.

 

[Lidl_Reed]

Rangnick on Skype via Carrick will run circles around this fool. Atrocious manager.

As usual, I was right

 

[Maybe]

Fit and young version of fat Sam, love it

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

The iffy decision making and weirdness is still here. I understand wanting experience in the middle but why Elneny and not Sambi, AMN and Partey together. Try Pepe at CF as Auba looks done. Risking an injured Saka. Every match feels like a cup final so Tavares isn't getting a breather , Tomi neither. We never have a chance to give any fringe player small minutes as we're always clinging on. We still can't attack. How much more does he need to spend? Game 14 and still a negative GD. I just can't be bothered.

 

[Farzad Stoned]

If we continue to play these bizarre lineups and bomb this badly against the big teams then Arteta should not come back. I think he needs to sit Auba the best we looked with the ball ass when he pulled Auba. I want to see a front three off Gabby, ESR and Saka.

 

[Paperino]

Looked for a statement about how great Man United are and found it:

"But again, we have to be realistic that if we do what we did in certain moments, defend in our box against probably one of the best squads in the world, they’re going to punish you because they have so many goals and quality to define those moments and that’s the curve and hopefully the lesson that we have to take from today."

One of the best squads in the world, folks.

 

[Baki]

Basically this.

Since the FA Cup, which was so early in his reign we didn't really know a thing, he never manages to really genuinely surprise me and make me feel totally positive without major doubts.

He's got the rest of this season to do so at some point but each time we go through this cycle of 'are we turning a corner? Is this where Arteta's project really takes off?' 'No, no it isn't' and repeat again it makes me feel like maybe it's never going to happen.

Hope it does. There were some positives today but overall a pretty unacceptable display especially being given a goal that way.

He’s not going to turn it around. The patches of good form is because he has a squad full of talent. He’s just mismanaging them in typical mid table fashion

 

[Riou]

Try Pepe at CF

I can't believe this has never happened once, tbh.

It might not work, but why not try...considering the money spent on Nico, you thought we would try every position to try and get him working before selling him.

We need a new starting level striker soon anyway, it could save us a ton of money too...he has plenty of attributes you could see working in a false 9 role.

 

[TakeChillPill]

Arteta lost us this match the moment he started with el neny, such a betamale move. Utd were there for the taking.

****ing el neny, why is he starting!!!

Also Nketiahs value just plummeted from 0 to -10million.

 

[2Smokeyy]

I can't believe this has never happened once, tbh.

It might not work, but why not try...considering the money spent on Nico, you thought we would try every position to try and get him working before selling him.

We need a new starting level striker soon anyway, it could save us a ton of money too...he has plenty of attributes you could see working in a false 9 role.

Sounds good but Pepe as a false 9 won’t work especially with the way that Arteta has us playing. Aubameyang was literally living off scraps which were mainly made up of crosses into the box. Also, how will Pepe fair with long balls played into him like we were doing today?

Makes sense that he’s targeting DCL as our ideal option with this dreadful football he’s trying to implement.

 

[Baki]

Stop acting like mini mourinho mikel you good manager stop making yourself stupid for no reason not everytime we score we should drop off for rest of game this is just asking for trouble and against good sides we won't going to be able to hold on for long period.

He’s not a good manager though…

 

[Riou]

Sounds good but Pepe as a false 9 won’t work especially with the way that Arteta has us playing. Aubameyang was literally living off scraps which were mainly made up of crosses into the box. Also, how will Pepe fair with long balls played into him like we were doing today?

This is also very true, tbh.

But every time I watch Pepe, I see things that could possibly make him a very good striker...sort of like a poor man's RVP, which would still be a very good player.

But as you say...would need a more attacking team, and more creative freedom.

 

[Baki]

He is good he is in beginning of his career let's not forget he set his team well from the beginning he read the opposition very well before the game specially this season but if he continues doing the same BS than he just another mid manager that afraid to be adventurous and just over doing with the negative tactics.

He’s not good though. His stats are terrible. Who cares if he’s at the beginning of his career, that has nothing to do with whether he’s a good manager, right now.

Now whether he will become good. I do not know. I do know that a club with our ambition should be going for a manger that is actually good right now.

 

[Batman]

Excellent posting from you for once.

"for once."

 

[Macho]

Sounds good but Pepe as a false 9 won’t work especially with the way that Arteta has us playing. Aubameyang was literally living off scraps which were mainly made up of crosses into the box. Also, how will Pepe fair with long balls played into him like we were doing today?

He wins the majority of his headers actually (seriously you’d be surprised if you saw the numbers).

I wouldn’t want to see it though that ship has long sailed. Playing him behind Auba though, Emery had the right idea.