Mikel Arteta: 67

[Trilly]

But I feel we just fundamentally view things differently.

This season I need Arsenal to be good enough to win the PL, that's it.

I don't require Arsenal to have the answer to every opponent in every match. There are certain times when we'll be nullified by a really well drilled low block. That's okay, as long as overall we're better at dealing with these situations than Man City and our other title challenging opponents are, which I believe is the case and is backed up statistically.

If you want perfection, then no, we're not at that level, maybe we can get closer next season but it's not about that for me currently.

There’s perfection (you’re putting words in my mouth there btw) and there’s being okay with it being a grind to beat most of the teams in the league. Seeing as

Saying that I’m asking for perfection for pointing out a weakness that I want us to improve on isn’t too different to what happened earlier in the thread where we win a game and suddenly all critique of our system/tactics is being looked down on (or in your case being viewed as having unrealistically high standards).

I’m not sure why this is happening, everyone needs to just chill out

 

[Trilly]

Was watching match of the day and can see that Pep realised that Haaland needed a rest and Foden was out of form. Rather than doing a like for like swap and slotting the new players into roles that might not have worked for them he played a 41212 against Wolves with Cherki in the 10 and Semenyo and Marnoush as the two upfront who played as wide forwards which was the perfect use of their attributes.

Yeah it was only Wolves. Yeah we’re ahead of city but this is the kind of tactical flexibility that I’d argue we need. We have too many talented players with different skills to always slot them in the same pre-defined roles. the closest we’ve seen to Arteta changing roles to better suit a player was Eze’s run of games as the 10 where he seemed to play closer to the striker but that didn’t last long.

We don’t tweak the role of the CF when Gyok plays there then call him crap for not being Havertz, same happens with Nelli who gets forced into the touch line winger role and we saw Hincapie being expected to play like Calafiori/MLS when he’s more of traditional overlapper.

I found myself making excuses for Mikel like thinking that you’d need an extended period of time to try out new roles but these are all talented high IQ players. We’re just rigid because we want to be.

 

[boonthegoon]

Was watching match of the day and can see that Pep realised that Haaland needed a rest and Foden was out of form. Rather than doing a like for like swap and slotting the new players into roles that might not have worked for them he played a 41212 against Wolves with Cherki in the 10 and Semenyo and Marnoush as the two upfront who played as wide forwards which was the perfect use of their attributes.

Yeah it was only Wolves. Yeah we’re ahead of city but this is the kind of tactical flexibility that I’d argue we need. We have too many talented players with different skills to always slot them in the same pre-defined roles. the closest we’ve seen to Arteta changing roles to better suit a player was Eze’s run of games as the 10 where he seemed to play closer to the striker but that didn’t last long.

We don’t tweak the role of the CF when Gyok plays there then call him crap for not being Havertz, same happens with Nelli who gets forced into the touch line winger role and we saw Hincapie being expected to play like Calafiori/MLS when he’s more of traditional overlapper.

I found myself making excuses for Mikel like thinking that you’d need an extended period of time to try out new roles but these are all talented high IQ players. We’re just rigid because we want to be.

This works both ways though. If we win, it's all fine. If not, then people will call it galaxy brained it, Arteta making it all about himself instead of doing what's working etc. example: playing Kai in midfield and starting Jesus as striker vs Villa in the 2024 run in. We lost but we still played well but that change is being pointed out even till now.

 

[Trilly]

This works both ways though. If we win, it's all fine. If not, then people will call it galaxy brained it, Arteta making it all about himself instead of doing what's working etc. example: playing Kai in midfield and starting Jesus as striker vs Villa in the 2024 run in. We lost but we still played well but that change is being pointed out even till now.

I didn’t complain about those things tbf, I liked the idea of the box crashing A-M role that he envisioned for Kai but Kai seemed to forget how to play football that first half a year. But yeah, it can go wrong for sure, and managers tend to get huge criticism when it’s not broken and they try to fix it.

But if for Sunderland at Home for example we see Mikel lineup with a 442 or something that’s clearly been setup with breaking down a low block in mind I don’t think he’ll get criticism to be honest. Remember how excited this place was when we played Ode and Eze in the same lineup for one half

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

There’s perfection (you’re putting words in my mouth there btw) and there’s being okay with it being a grind to beat most of the teams in the league. Seeing as

Saying that I’m asking for perfection for pointing out a weakness that I want us to improve on isn’t too different to what happened earlier in the thread where we win a game and suddenly all critique of our system/tactics is being looked down on (or in your case being viewed as having unrealistically high standards).

I’m not sure why this is happening, everyone needs to just chill out

Fair enough, I shouldn't have said perfect.

Reality is we've failed to score 3 times in the PL this season. Twice against Liverpool and the recent game against Forest. Low block teams aren't particularly nullifying us too much and you are always going to have the odd off day.

I watch a fair bit of PL football and there's no side that is playing great football and wiping the floor with most teams. It's a tough league, weaker sides are much more savvy tactically these days.

I guess where I agree with you is that the team needs to evolve and improve over time. Where I may differ is I think our current set up and philosophy is more than capable of winning the PL this season, which is the short term aim.

 

[El Realista]

The system is fine. The system has taken us to the top of the Champions League unbeaten, top of the Premier League with a 7-point lead, and the League Cup semi-finals.

What we’re missing is the final piece to turn this team into a dynasty.
A Jesus-type centre forward, but 15 cm taller and more clinical.
A younger, faster version of Trossard.
And an Ødegaard who rediscovers his form and starts taking more risks with his passing instead of playing everything safe.

Yes the system, and the fact city and Liverpool are struggling.

But yes our attacking system is cool.

 

[Bagels]

Getting ready to read about how our season is over and we should pack it in and head home as we sit only 4 points clear in first.

 

[Game Over]

Mik has been well and truly exposed.

That game is very damaging.

 

[GDeep™]

MASSIVE MASSIVE FRAUD.

 

[El Duderino]

He’s bottling this along with the team.

 

[El Realista]

Bottlers supporters will say we have no attacking problems while we keep creating nothing and rely in set pieces to get points. This way we won’t win anything again.

 

[Rattata]

I told people he didn't improve as a manager at all in the last 2-3 years. Still the exact same mistakes but he's not alone. The people above him are also not great. Everyone could see our attack has performed very poorly and we have been doing nothing this January. Embarassing.

We are simply lucky this season that there is no team like Liverpool last season or City the year before.

 

[Game Over]

Getting ready to read about how our season is over and we should pack it in and head home as we sit only 4 points clear in first.

Aye, everything’s fine mate.

 

[ArsenalInMyHeart]

Why Arteta's team is so scared like that... Ødegaard is such a face of Arteta... Coward

 

[MikelHadADream]

The 4 subs killed the game.

Was obvious we’d lose all build up capacity when Zubi and Ode went off.

It’s honestly novice stuff.

 

[UkrArsenal]

Everything is the same as it was before the season started. He either wins the title this season or has to be sacked.

 

[Aubamabludclat94]

Absolutely horrendous changes. The worst subs he's made in some time. Making Rice be the primary ball progressor is the equivalent of giving the game away imo. You have to keep one of Zubi or Ode on. ****ing horrible. He has to go this summer if we dont win anything with this squad.

 

[ArsenalInMyHeart]

The fans deserve more than this ...

 

[boonthegoon]

I was fine with the starting line up except for hincapie who struggled. The 4 subs at the same time was bad. Shouldn't be subbing off Ødegaard in these games. We need his control.

 

[GDeep™]

@boonthegoon with the red cards again but Micky got exposed today. Guy is massive fraud coward.