Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[ScotsGooner89]

Ok let’s not bash him after a win, because he got bailed out by 2 clutch goals. We absolutely should be bashing his constant subbing on of Willian ahead of 3 others who could come on ahead of him. It’s not like this is the first time and it worked! This is the umpteenth time and it’s never worked. Even if you call his Willian sub today a success because of his simple pass to KT, that’s about a 5% success rate with that substitution.

He’s a fraud who constantly makes poor decisions and we will continue to be unhappy about it.

 

[al-Ustaadh]

We should replace Mikel with Rodgers. He'd bring us up a level.... Oh, wait...

 

[Riou]

Feel he got a bit lucky with the subs, he panicked.

Throwing on as many attackers as possible, doesn't mean you create guaranteed chances...could just mean you lose your structure and get picked off.

 

[Iceman10]

@Iceman10 I understand your point on over reliance on players. Every manager wants to manage his team better and keep them fresh. However a team like ours without some key players out is not able to win games I am afraid. We have to be very honest we don’t have the best players like City rotating an entire defence midweek.

I see your point on not burning out key players. However what is our chances going into some very key games like today without them?

Against Leicester we can rest MO and Saka and bring fresher legs in Pepe and Martinelli. However you must accept we would lose a lot in terms of firepower. If you do then you should accept we may not return with a result too. The manager is under pressure and has no reserve in the bank to falter. Even you will not cut him slack. Speed up Sunday and he will rotate. I will be here to check on the comments after the game.

I just agree to disagree on necessary firepower to beat that Benfica team. It really shouldn’t be a problem even with one of ESR/Ødegaard, making room for one of Pepe/Martinelli/Laca. There are other things with style of play and in this case a very weak protection in front of the back line, whether it was Ceballos or someone else.

I will cut Arteta some slack. The players are playing frightened for the worst and lack swagger. I am fine backing Arteta until end of season, but will still collect observations.

 

[al-Ustaadh]

Feel he got a bit lucky with the subs, he panicked.

Throwing on as many attackers as possible, doesn't mean you create guaranteed chances...could just mean you lose your structure and get picked off.

He left two midfielders on this time, though... no? The last time he made such changes he only left one midfielder which created a serious imbalance. Didn't see this time around, seemed to keep shape. Or am I wrong?

 

[Sapient Hawk]

Be honest now...some of you were hoping we would lose

Hard as it might be to believe, I wasn't. Though it wasn't for love of the club more out of self-preservation. This tagline will be the death of me one day

 

[TromsoGooner]

Feel he got a bit lucky with the subs, he panicked.

Throwing on as many attackers as possible, doesn't mean you create guaranteed chances...could just mean you lose your structure and get picked off.

Agreed, but gave some fond memories of Arsène just putting all strikers on for the last twenty minutes when needing a goal. Would keep Henry and Bergkamp on and often throw on Wiltord and Kanu. Often worked in fairness.

 

[Finesse]

I just agree to disagree on necessary firepower to beat that Benfica team. It really shouldn’t be a problem even with one of ESR/Ødegaard, making room for one of Pepe/Martinelli/Laca. There are other things with style of play and in this case a very weak protection in front of the back line, whether it was Ceballos or someone else.

I will cut Arteta some slack. The players are playing frightened for the worst and lack swagger. I am fine backing Arteta until end of season, but will still collect observations.

I just agree to disagree on necessary firepower to beat that Benfica team. It really shouldn’t be a problem even with one of ESR/Ødegaard, making room for one of Pepe/Martinelli/Laca. There are other things with style of play and in this case a very weak protection in front of the back line, whether it was Ceballos or someone else.

I will cut Arteta some slack. The players are playing frightened for the worst and lack swagger. I am fine backing Arteta until end of season, but will still collect observations.

I also thought one of MO and ESR would have made room for a striker. However this is just a theory and we don't know what he has tried in training and how much data he has on trying this. i am sure we would see them soon, then we can revisit this based on the result/performance.

I also agree the team has not synced yet in terms of a collective spirit. You can see players like KT , Saka etc have the courage and desire in them to take charge. Auba was decisive today. You need more of the players to step up and soon a collective spirit and confidence would develop.

My criticism of Arteta over both legs was why we never tried to beat their high line. The amount of times Auba and ESR where angling and timing runs into space , but yet no balls from Xhaka or Dani over the line was criminal. Even Luis who always looks for those runs was timid to try today. I hope Arteta works on this. We were always trying to play out and combine and go wide all the time. ESR got tired of making the runs with no service.

 

[OnlyOne]

All he's done tonight is delay the inevitable.

 

[Batman]

As much as I felt it was time for him to go and I don't want to live in the past, I feel like we'd be miles ahead of where we are now if Wenger had Partey, ESR and Saka to build around.

 

[Jury]

Wenger had better to build around a couldn’t manage it. That’s why he’s not here anymore.

The fact of the matter is no Arsenal manager in the last 25 years has consistently got high class performances from teenagers that have come through the system. Mikel has. Give him some credit.

 

[GDeep™]

Wenger had better to build around a couldn’t manage it. That’s why he’s not here anymore.

The fact of the matter is no Arsenal manager in the last 25 years has consistently got high class performances from teenagers that have come through the system. Mikel has. Give him some credit.

Wenger with Cole, Jack?

Wenger with youngsters in general? He was phenomenal at developing them, Arteta has ditched most of ours.

 

[Batman]

Wenger had better to build around a couldn’t manage it. That’s why he’s not here anymore.

The fact of the matter is no Arsenal manager in the last 25 years has consistently got high class performances from teenagers that have come through the system. Mikel has. Give him some credit.

I have to give you credit. That's a lot of nonsense to fit in 4 sentences. I suppose I was imagining it when he made the teenage Cesc Fabregas the hub of the team and developed him into a player that the most dominant club team in modern history were creaming their pants over. When since Vieira was sold did Wenger have any midfield signing the profile of Partey? You're actually wanking over a manger who has us in 11th place(somewhere Wenger has never been at this stage) and trying to suggest that he's some great developer of talent when he's alienated Guendouzi and Saliba, brings a tragic Willian off the bench before Martinelli and Saka was already showing he was class before Arteta arrived. Wenger was in the CL every year with kids nowhere near Saka's talent level. I think we're all dumber for having read your braindead post.

 

[Legend14]

Just finished the match. That was a pretty lucky and sad victory. And, as I said before, the manager matters less than the player quality in the end. We had absolutely no strategy and we still won.

If Arteta thinks Ødegaard is better in the middle than ESR, he is blind. Arteta basically killed what momentum and continuity we had when ESR was in the center, by rethinking the lineup. He took a hot player, put him in a different position, and replaced him with a stone cold player, new to the team. Ødegaard is likely heading back. ESR will be here. ESR should play in his best position. Ødegaard should relieve him as needed.

I am shifting to Leaning Out at the end of season. Just not impressed with Arteta’s progress. Seems like the learning curve is too steep at this point and I don’t think I can tolerate another full season of this. I don’t hate the guy, but I think we can do better and we do not have 5 years to wait for him to mature as a manager.

Partey still limping and playing. Saka is exhausted. Bellerin still playing. Willian still subbing in. ESR losing confidence. Pepe losing confidence. Laca losing confidence. The red flags are exceeding the greens ones.

 

[Moah]

Wenger had better to build around a couldn’t manage it. That’s why he’s not here anymore.

The fact of the matter is no Arsenal manager in the last 25 years has consistently got high class performances from teenagers that have come through the system. Mikel has. Give him some credit.

Him consistently sticking with the teenagers is not by choice. The guy would've been sacked a month or two ago if it weren't for them.

There is a reason why most teams don't get consistent high class performances from their teenagers, its because they rest them and give them a chance to recover. You don't develop teenagers by running them into the ground.

 

[Iceman10]

I also thought one of MO and ESR would have made room for a striker. However this is just a theory and we don't know what he has tried in training and how much data he has on trying this. i am sure we would see them soon, then we can revisit this based on the result/performance.

I also agree the team has not synced yet in terms of a collective spirit. You can see players like KT , Saka etc have the courage and desire in them to take charge. Auba was decisive today. You need more of the players to step up and soon a collective spirit and confidence would develop.

My criticism of Arteta over both legs was why we never tried to beat their high line. The amount of times Auba and ESR where angling and timing runs into space , but yet no balls from Xhaka or Dani over the line was criminal. Even Luis who always looks for those runs was timid to try today. I hope Arteta works on this. We were always trying to play out and combine and go wide all the time. ESR got tired of making the runs with no service.

Having thought about it more, although Saka can score goals this idea of playing three playmakers while compromising on goal scoring by omitting Pepe/Laca seems to be more about Arteta building the case to buy Ødegaard this summer, both with the board and Ødegaard (playing minutes). I don’t want to think the worst of Arteta, and this isn’t necessarily it anyway, I would like to buy Ødegaard also this summer, but there is a cost with this approach with lessened minutes for Pepe and Martinelli. I’m ok with Laca and Auba rotating so for Laca it is not necessarily a direct impact of Ødegaard, but I don’t really get the meritocracy component of dropping Pepe and Laca when they weren’t exactly in bad form before this run of games with reduced minutes.

Edit: I’m highlighting selection of Ødegaard here because ESR did not start against City, so arguably this was the game to start ESR and rest Ødegaard. Saka playing every match is not ideal but also something hard to avoid at this point.

 

[Ash10]

Wenger had better to build around a couldn’t manage it. That’s why he’s not here anymore.

The fact of the matter is no Arsenal manager in the last 25 years has consistently got high class performances from teenagers that have come through the system. Mikel has. Give him some credit.

That's a terrible take

 

[Macho]

Wenger had better to build around a couldn’t manage it. That’s why he’s not here anymore.

The fact of the matter is no Arsenal manager in the last 25 years has consistently got high class performances from teenagers that have come through the system. Mikel has. Give him some credit.

I see Sweet ‘n’ Sour is still talking a whole heap of sh*t.

Anelka? Cesc? They came from other academies I guess, but Wilshere? Clichy? Bellerin? Gibbs who made over a hundred appearances and has seen Champions league football? Coquelin who came from academy?

Don’t think you thought this one through or forgot to switch accounts or something.

 

[blrgooner]

We should replace Mikel with Rodgers. He'd bring us up a level.... Oh, wait...

Haha yeah true. Its not like Rodgers will struggle to beat some croatian team in Europa league. That could never happen.

Incredible over reaction here. Especially in the match thread. Calling that win lucky or that Auba/Saka bailed him out etc is just silly IMO. We were way better than the opposition over two legs and Auba missing sitters was the reason we were in a tight game yesterday. So if Auba "balied him out", with the same logic Auba put him into the situation which needed "bailing out". We basically gifted them 2 goals due to individual errors too.So Ceballos and ESR put him in a situation that needed "bailing out". Its all a silly argument though.

At the same time, I do understand criticism that we didn`t really play well yesterday.It was not a great performance for sure. We always struggle against teams who use low block. This is something Arteta hasn`t figured out as yet and it has come back to haunt him again and again.Hope we get better at this since we are likely to be facing this in our next 3 games in the league.

 

[dashsnow17]

Just finished the match. That was a pretty lucky and sad victory. And, as I said before, the manager matters less than the player quality in the end. We had absolutely no strategy and we still won.

If Arteta thinks Ødegaard is better in the middle than ESR, he is blind. Arteta basically killed what momentum and continuity we had when ESR was in the center, by rethinking the lineup. He took a hot player, put him in a different position, and replaced him with a stone cold player, new to the team. Ødegaard is likely heading back. ESR will be here. ESR should play in his best position. Ødegaard should relieve him as needed.

I am shifting to Leaning Out at the end of season. Just not impressed with Arteta’s progress. Seems like the learning curve is too steep at this point and I don’t think I can tolerate another full season of this. I don’t hate the guy, but I think we can do better and we do not have 5 years to wait for him to mature as a manager.

Partey still limping and playing. Saka is exhausted. Bellerin still playing. Willian still subbing in. ESR losing confidence. Pepe losing confidence. Laca losing confidence. The red flags are exceeding the greens ones.

Basically sums up my feelings, I don't think everything is terrible with Arteta, and I imagine if you gave him years and years to build a team entirely in his own image he'd eventually have a good one, but the days of Fergie having 7 years or whatever at Utd before he's successful are over, you don't get that time in modern football, too much money at stake.

This isn't a 2-3 years before we're competitive in the CL type project, this is a 2-3 years before we're maybe good enough to qualify for CL type project. There's surely got to be a manager out there who'd do better than that.