Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[SA Gunner]

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How

What did I say to you earlier

Think its in jest though, or done by rival fans.

 

[SA Gunner]

More than the subs, I'm a bit disappointed in our ability to adapt. Felt like going into the second half, we would see something different - for the better. Second half turned out to be worse than the first, for me.

I feel like there's two options to counter the way Everton set-up, you either aim to completely stretch the pitch laterally to open up half spaces, and look to recycle/switch the ball when as near to the final third as possible (and as quickly as possible) when Everton start to overload the wing. We saw a couple switches, but with long diagonals hardly inside their half, which gave Everton plenty of time to switch. It seems like we half had this idea, but executed it really poorly.

The second would be to laterally compress to match Everton's overload, but keep our opposite winger hugging the pitch with the fullback ready to support. We often do something similar vertically, drawing in the press, matching the numbers, and then beating it into opposite space.

In actuality, we really didn't seem to do much at all. Felt like we let Everton dictate the flow of the match.

Good analysis.

You could see us doing what you saying in the first half. Namely the overload to isolate tactic, and we found Saka in space a lot of the time.
Problem was, Everton players looked to triple mark him and ensure that ball did not find its way into zone 14, only backwards at best. This allowing them to recover back into their tight block, once again closing the spaces created as they shifted over back into shape.

They could contribute more numbers to Saka, as Martinelli was struggling 1v1 with Coleman, so they saved a man there. Add to that remaining tight on Xhaka and Ødegaard, and you have us locked down and can launch quick counters with the lost balls too.

Today I think we saw two things.

The first is that Martinelli will need to be upgraded on unfortunately. He isnt effective enough right now on the left, giving the opposition the need to mark him 2v1, which creates the spaces we need.

The second is the importance of Jesus as a space creator in central and wide zones. Once Ødegaard, Xhaka and Saka were closed down, we looked very weak as an attacking unit.

The short term solution is to add more creators onto the pitch to occupy our players IMO. Get Trossard starting and bring Jesus back as soon as possible.

 

[Bagels]

Good analysis.

You could see us doing what you saying in the first half. Namely the overload to isolate tactic, and we found Saka in space a lot of the time.
Problem was, Everton players looked to triple mark him and ensure that ball did not find its way into zone 14, only backwards at best. This allowing them to recover back into their tight block, once again closing the spaces created as they shifted over back into shape.

They could contribute more numbers to Saka, as Martinelli was struggling 1v1 with Coleman, so they saved a man there. Add to that remaining tight on Xhaka and Ødegaard, and you have us locked down and can launch quick counters with the lost balls too.

Today I think we saw two things.

The first is that Martinelli will need to be upgraded on unfortunately. He isnt effective enough right now on the left, giving the opposition the need to mark him 2v1, which creates the spaces we need.

The second is the importance of Jesus as a space creator in central and wide zones. Once Ødegaard, Xhaka and Saka were closed down, we looked very weak as an attacking unit.

The short term solution is to add more creators onto the pitch to occupy our players IMO. Get Trossard starting and bring Jesus back as soon as possible.

I was defending Martinelli in the first half, because his options were becoming pretty limited, but given no significant adjustments were made going into the second half, I probably would've thrown Trossard in right away if the plan was more of the same.

I mentioned it in the Gabriel Jesus thread, but he was a big miss for this sort of game. His movement creates loads of space for us on both wings and centrally, which ultimately frees up both wingers. Nketiah, right now, is just not that guy. Not a knock on him, just different players.

I'm being hyper-critical here, because Xhaka has been phenomenal and I've been a big fan of his turnaround (there were points during his career here where I didn't trust him at all ) but I also think games like this call for something a bit different than what he offers. His intelligence excels in our set-up, but sometimes you need a bit more of a robust athleticism on the ball and off it. If we had a player in his position more comfortable taking a man on and driving into space on the ball, it would've given Everton something else to consider.

I actually think this is the sort of game where Tierney would have helped our attack on the left wing as well, but people are going to start calling me crazy if I get into that

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

We have to respond. That is what teams in title challenge do!

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Would like to see more flexibility. Ødegaard almost never combines on the left wing. We are getting a bit predictable.

 

[boonthegoon]

 

[El Duderino]

Guys begging to be saved from Dyche and probably needs a good recomendation letter.

 

[Macho]

Would like to see more flexibility. Ødegaard almost never combines on the left wing. We are getting a bit predictable.

I respect your opinion so it hurts me to see you critique my beloved Ødegaard, but you are right.

 

[MartiSaka]

The loss sucks but the way we played was even more worrying.

We couldn't change the game and it was relatively easy to control our attack, the left side at the moment is struggling.

 

[El Duderino]

The loss sucks but the way we played was even more worrying.

We couldn't change the game and it was relatively easy to control our attack, the left side at the moment is struggling.

Being a left winger on this set up must be pain if you're not absolutely on it or you at least have Jesus on the team. Understandable since Saka-Ødegaard works so well, as does Zynchenko roaming around.

Would've liked to have seen KT at some point with Zynchenko moving central, even if the latter wasn't having that good of a game when compared to his high standards.

 

[Makingtrax]

Dyche did a number on Arteta doubling up on Saka and Martinelli, which completely stifled our attack. Those two have been rampant for much of the season so far. Just hope other managers weren't watching or Arteta decides to go to plan B.

 

[The_Playmaker]

Dyche did a number on Arteta doubling up on Saka and Martinelli, which completely stifled our attack. Those two have been rampant for much of the season so far. Just hope other managers weren't watching or Arteta decides to go to plan B.

Thing is. Arteta lacked bravery and we just stuck to the game plan. It worked vs United as we had complete control and they lack physicality in midfield.

I think we missed a trick and basically had no plan B which would have been quite simple. All the changes were like for like. We didn't make an offensive substitution. We were struggling to create overloads so he had a few options in my opinion.

Add an overlapping full back on the left in Tierney and switch Zinchenko into midfield, taking Xhaka off.

He could have kept Martinelli on and Brought Trossard on instead of Ødegaard.

I think we needed to take a risk like we have done in the past.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Remember when Arteta used to take off a defender for another attacker and basically Saka would be used as a RW/RWB hybrid basically. How come we never see that anymore? Not that it worked too often mind.

I can kind of see what people are saying tho, even City sometimes go with Haaland and Alvarez together up top, we don't really deviate from our set system too much.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

You can't just swap Ødegaard for Vieira and White for Tomi and expect a massive difference. Surely that's when you want to be gambling a bit.

 

[The_Playmaker]

Remember when Arteta used to take off a defender for another attacker and basically Saka would be used as a RW/RWB hybrid basically. How come we never see that anymore? Not that it worked too often mind.

I can kind of see what people are saying tho, even City sometimes go with Haaland and Alvarez together up top, we don't really deviate from our set system too much.

We don't see it often as we have barely lost and rarely been behind.

Maybe a bit of complacency from him and just thinking they have turned it around before and will do so again.

We really miss Jesus. There is less rotation with Eddie up front. Martinelli doesn't get a chance to move infield.

He needs to trust Vieira more, especially as an option as a left 8 and he needs to lean into going two up top. Saka as a RWB is also an option.

We just needed a 6 Attackers 4 defenders rather than 5 Attackers 5 defenders.

 

[db10_therza]

I’m not sure this was the game where we bring on an extra attacker. We were getting bullied right up until the 90th minute. Sub a forward on for a mid and we’d have conceded another, I’m sure of it. There were tactical things we could/should have done (overlaps) but we needed 5+5 imo

 

[Tir Na Nog]

We don't see it often as we have barely lost and rarely been behind.

Maybe a bit of complacency from him and just thinking they have turned it around before and will do so again.

We really miss Jesus. There is less rotation with Eddie up front. Martinelli doesn't get a chance to move infield.

He needs to trust Vieira more, especially as an option as a left 8 and he needs to lean into going two up top. Saka as a RWB is also an option.

We just needed a 6 Attackers 4 defenders rather than 5 Attackers 5 defenders.

When I seen Vieira coming on I assumed it was for Xhaka, maybe Mik felt a midfield of Vieira-Odeagaard ahead of Jorginho was too lightweight.

 

[Farzad Stoned]

Dyche did a number on Arteta doubling up on Saka and Martinelli, which completely stifled our attack. Those two have been rampant for much of the season so far. Just hope other managers weren't watching or Arteta decides to go to plan B.

Of course they all were watching it wasn’t like he found some magic bullet. The thing that bothers me more than that there is now a playbook for beating Arteta’s side is his inability to adjust. The problem is that Arteta at least till now hasn’t showed me that he can make mid match tactical adjustments, i have yet to seeArteta effectively counter a tactic like that in the middle of the match. Just more Artetaball, and very poor with his rotations

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

I respect your opinion so it hurts me to see you critique my beloved Ødegaard, but you are right.

I think it is more design of the system. Dont get me wrong, I think our system is good at the moment and it has gotten us this far. We did create Nketiah and Ødegaard chances yesterday.

I just wonder if we could benefit from mixing it up a little bit against low blocks like Newcastle and like Everton yesterday!

Will be interesting to see how we respond! Historically I fear the worst. But if we respond well the race is still on! Big weeks ahead!

 

[Makingtrax]

Of course they all were watching it wasn’t like he found some magic bullet. The thing that bothers me more than that there is now a playbook for beating Arteta’s side is his inability to adjust. The problem is that Arteta at least till now hasn’t showed me that he can make mid match tactical adjustments, i have yet to seeArteta effectively counter a tactic like that in the middle of the match. Just more Artetaball, and very poor with his rotations

He took White off and replaced him with Tomi against Grealish at half time. Not really a tactical change though.