Mikel Arteta: All The President’s Men

[El Duderino]

It's a bit of a double edge sword. On the one hand, if you had told me at the beginning of the season that with an injury crisis in defense and a points lead at the top of the table, he wouldn't go full haram playing for 1 nils, I would never have believed it.

I do like and appreciate the fact that he has not gone into a shell and is still trying to set the team out to play a front foot game rather than the terrorist ball we saw early in the season.

That said, I do think he's got to make a bit of a concession in the absence of Gabriel and Saliba and modify what we do defensively to account for their absence as well as now Mosquera's. Timber and Hincapie simply cannot defend vast spaces the way Gabriel and Saliba do so the way we approach our game in possession has got to change so that we don't look so shaky out of it. The role of the LB has got to be adapted to avoid putting the back line under huge pressure from a long ball every time we lose possession.

I'm glad he's not reverting to the handrake but we do also need to be realistic about the drop off in that back line and account for it tactically.

It's a compounding issue when Calas role is what it is.

Should probably tell him to tuck in more and play Leo + eze + Ode provided Merino keeps starting as striker.

Reckon if Gabriel was fit, we'd see that and Hincapie at lb a lot.

 

[viktor]

I can see what he's doing, trying to jinx us

his jinx success

 

[viktor]

he jinx us

 

[Synical]

he jinx us

Nah
Drew one, lost one. Not too bad

 

[wirey279]

Just don't know if he's brave enough particularly in game management to reduce the number draws ....but he has raised expectations ...I think hope for more fluent , fast passing and quick starts to games particularly against so called bigger teams is forlorn

 

[GDeep™]

That’s two losses now, the average losses for a pl winning team is like four right?
Trickiest fixtures out of the way, easier back nine for him now, to speak in frisbee golf terms (regular golf is for wankers and thieves)

Losses happens, Villa are a great team with an outstanding manager

5 losses probably wins you this league if you’re not getting too many draws.

City have lost 4 already and will probably lose 2-4 more.

 

[IrishGooner93]

I expect he'll have the team bounce back in forthcoming fixtures , although Goodison is another banana skin. Some points below in what I think he's still failing at and recurring mistakes every year that means he and Arsenal can't push through to the next level:

Overall he draws too many games. Last season was the worst for it but were already seeing a few this season.
Doesn't win the big games in the league , particularly away. This season alone , Liverpool away , city home , chelsea away , villa away. The first two sides were vulnerable at the time and we weren't ruthless and let them walk away with 4pts. Was very close to losing to this city team. Chelsea 10 men we weren't ruthless and villa we lost it last minute. No wins there and sinply not good enough for title contenders considering they were all there for the taking bar Villa. He and the team lack that ruthless streak.
We lack an X factor player up front who will win you games.
And of course injuries are becoming ridiculous. Whether this is down to the training pitch , or training methods or playing style who knows.

He's taken us very far and done an excellent job. Particularly he's bought some excellent defenders and is great at making the team hard to beat. But until he corrects all or most of the above we won't make that next step. If he can't achieve that this season then when will he? He's had 6 seasons now and hundreds of millions. For me the best balance and closest he's got to this was the 2nd half of the 2023 24 season when we went on that great run. We were quite solid and scoring for fun. I believe that was the peak of this side and best chance to win the title and I don't think we're better than that this season yet.

 

[viktor]

For me the best balance and closest he's got to this was the 2nd half of the 2023 24 season when we went on that great run. We were quite solid and scoring for fun. I believe that was the peak of this side and best chance to win the title and I don't think we're better than that this season yet.

we have best squad in emirates era this season & we are not face prime mancity squad 23/24 and 22/23, so this season is best chance to win premier league that is very logic and even this season best chance to win champions league

 

[IrishGooner93]

we have best squad in emirates era this season & we are not face prime mancity squad 23/24 and 22/23, so this season is best chance to win premier league that is very logic and even this season best chance to win champions league

Our best squad and yes not prime man city, they've lost 4 games yet we haven't opened a gap on them. Only 2 pts ahead.
City have never lost a title race. Last year they weren't in one they'd lost like 6 games by this stage and Liverpool were flying.
To take the league off them you need to do what pool done twice and that is race ahead of them by Xmas so they're not contention because they always improve 2nd half of the season. We've failed to do the above.
City are the best attacking team in the division. Most creativity , most goals , x factor up front and more offensively minded. They do need to tighten up a bit defensively, but attacks win titles not defence, contrary to the saying. Statistically the team that scores most goals wins the league way more than concedes the least, based on the last 20 winners.

 

[Dennis_Bergkamp_10]

Our best squad and yes not prime man city, they've lost 4 games yet we haven't opened a gap on them. Only 2 pts ahead.
City have never lost a title race. Last year they weren't in one they'd lost like 6 games by this stage and Liverpool were flying.
To take the league off them you need to do what pool done twice and that is race ahead of them by Xmas so they're not contention because they always improve 2nd half of the season. We've failed to do the above.
City are the best attacking team in the division. Most creativity , most goals , x factor up front and more offensively minded. They do need to tighten up a bit defensively, but attacks win titles not defence, contrary to the saying. Statistically the team that scores most goals wins the league way more than concedes the least, based on the last 20 winners.

City are on plus 10 points if you compare the same fixtures with last year. So if City performed like they did last year, we'd be 12 points ahead of them, and you wouldn't be moaning about how we failed to do anything. That's not just Liverpool opening up a gap, it's also City's massive failure last year and improving this year.

Things aren't as simple as you make them seem.

 

[merciarsene]

I think in isolation you could make a case of each of the Sunderland, Chelsea and Villa results not being total disasters. The concern for me now is the pattern. That's 3 aways games on the bounce without a win, dropped 7 points, conceded 5 goals.

Our next away games are Everton, who are on a great run of form this season and who are record against them away is generally terrible. 1 win away in 8 years. And then Bournemouth, who granted have fallen off since their very good start to the season but are still 7th on home form and have only lost 1 home game this season (coincidentally to Everton).

Even liverpool. We were too timid in tacrics and blunt in attack. Played their reputation and not what was in front of us.

 

[Trilly]

Thoughts?

 

[UpTheGunnerz]

Thoughts?

No thoughts from me on the subject, Clive

 

[El Duderino]

Thoughts?

eeeeeeh, it's a mix.

Would have to look at an injury by injury cases, but my gut feeling is that the part that has to do with him is more of a compounding issue stemming from the previous seasons where he rotated very little, while asking for a couple of players to contribute defensively a lot more than other managers would.

This year he honestly got unlucky with the schedule, injuries during internationals and the knock on effect that can have, but I'll say he has also rotated more and more proactively anyway.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Thoughts?

I disagree mostly but I dont have information about our trainings, some rumors say we have very intense trainings but given most hate Arsenal who talk about Arsenal I will ignore that for now.

We were still rather early into the season before the cluster injuries happened in the attack. I dont believe anyone top athlete can be run into the ground before 1/3 of the season is played.

I think CBs usually play all league games and CL games. Maybe they miss 1 or 2 but most title competors have the same CBs for majority of the games in the league. We rotated where we could in the league cup against Brighton. So for Saliba and Gabriel I think there are other factors than just Arteta running them into the ground.

I think only there is a case for our midfielders where we should have been rotating a lot more. Overall I think we have seen a lot of energy conservation in games and Arteta has been using the subs well.

But maybe we need to compensate for all the added internationals and CL games and reduce intensity and running in games to reduce risk of injuries. would love to see this place if we do that.

What is your thoughts?

 

[OnlyOne]

Thoughts?

Don’t think he’s really run anyone into the ground tbh.

We’re being run into the ground by consistently not having players available.

The reason we haven’t been able to rest Rice is because Merino’s been having to play up to. Merino is up top because we haven’t been able to rest Gyo who got injured as Havertz and Jesus has also been injured.

It’s a vicious circle as he’s mentioned.

Saliba, Mosq, Madueke, Gyokeres, Havertz, Ødegaard have all had significant impact injuries.

I think there’s an element with Gabriel and rotating him but I’m sure Hincapie picked up a knock early as well.

 

[Trilly]

No thoughts from me on the subject, Clive

Brilliant from you as per. So good, so so good.

 

[HattoriHanzo]

eeeeeeh, it's a mix.

Would have to look at an injury by injury cases, but my gut feeling is that the part that has to do with him is more of a compounding issue stemming from the previous seasons where he rotated very little, while asking for a couple of players to contribute defensively a lot more than other managers would.

This year he honestly got unlucky with the schedule, injuries during internationals and the knock on effect that can have, but I'll say he has also rotated more and more proactively anyway.

This is the only way to look at injuries.
Mosquera certainly wasn't overplayed and now is out for 6 to 8 weeks..
Dowman also and he is out for 2 months.

Havertz was injured in the 1st match of the season, he certainly wasn't overplayed.
Ødegaard was injured 3 times this season, all 3 times it was contact injury, not due to overplaying.

Gabriel was injured during friendly match playing for Brazil.
It was obviously match he shouldn't have played at all, and Ancelotti still played him.

Hincapie was injured immediately when he arrived, he wasn't overplayed.

Gyokeres played too much this season, because Havertz is out since mid August.
Same can be said about White 2 seasons ago, when Timber was out the whole season due to his ACL injury.
And Timber tore his ancle in his 2nd match for Arsenal, he certainly wasn't overplayed.

I would say that only 3 players played too much this season, Rice, Timber and Zubimendi and they deserve rest.

Arteta is much better in rotation then previous seasons (because bench is much stronger), but also this season he should do more.
He should have used Nørgaard more, in order to rest Zubimendi.

Why Rice played all 90 minutes against Sp**s?
He could have been substituted last 15 minutes, after our 4th goal.
Merino should be substitute for Rice, but he had to play as CF because Havertz, Gyokeres and G. Jesus (all 3) were/ are injured.

Trossard is injured, he wasn't overplayed.

It's a vicious circle, 1 player goes out for long, immediately other players are loaded more.

 

[El Duderino]

This is the only way to look at injuries.
Mosquera certainly wasn't overplayed and now is out for 6 to 8 weeks..
Dowman also and he is out for 2 months.

Havertz was injured in the 1st match of the season, he certainly wasn't overplayed.
Ødegaard was injured 3 times this season, all 3 times it was contact injury, not due to overplaying.

Gabriel was injured during friendly match playing for Brazil.
It was obviously match he shouldn't have played at all, and Ancelotti still played him.

Hincapie was injured immediately when he arrived, he wasn't overplayed.

Gyokeres played too much this season, because Havertz is out since mid August.
Same can be said about White 2 seasons ago, when Timber was out the whole season due to his ACL injury.
And Timber tore his ancle in his 2nd match for Arsenal, he certainly wasn't overplayed.

I would say that only 3 players played too much this season, Rice, Timber and Zubimendi and they deserve rest.

Arteta is much better in rotation then previous seasons (because bench is much stronger), but also this season he should do more.
He should have used Nørgaard more, in order to rest Zubimendi.

Why Rice played all 90 minutes against Sp**s?
He could have been substituted last 15 minutes, after our 4th goal.
Merino should be substitute for Rice, but he had to play as CF because Havertz, Gyokeres and G. Jesus (all 3) were/ are injured.

Trossard is injured, he wasn't overplayed.

It's a vicious circle, 1 player goes out for long, immediately other players are loaded more.

Think I'd add Saka to that roster of overplayed players, though his problems are a mix of (imo) having to do too much on both ends of the pitch and the fact that he's hardly had a real rest ever since becoming a mainstay.

Played a lot of football between club and country, made it to the finals, which makes him not have as much as a layoff and missing parts of pre-season.

Again, at least now there's Noni there to lighten the load, and he has been used accordingly, but part of the damage was done, so to speak.

 

[Riou]

Brilliant from you as per. So good, so so good.

That's why he really is the Elneny of the forum, comes up BIG in crunch moments like this