Mikel Arteta: Managerial Royalty

[Polar Bear]

Arteta is doing a very poor job, the players are much better than 15th, don't fall into this trap that we have league 2 players, its nonsense and an easy get out clause for Arteta. its BS

I was chatting to one of my cousins today who is a West Ham fan, and I was asking him what players he would want at West ham from our squad, and he named a lot !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Leno, Saka, Tierney, Auba, Laca, Partey, Cebbalos, Özil, and he even said he might take Luiz but was unsure, 50/50 on him. But yeah anyways thats a fair amount of players. 15th and a few points from relegation zone is totally unacceptable, and the players are nowhere near as sh*t as Arteta's PR team wants you too believe.

I should have asked him what players would he take from the teams around us like Burnley, Fulham, West Brom etc etc but I didn't ask, but I am sure he would say no one, or maybe 1 player at the most lol

 

[Polar Bear]

Yeah Wenger surprised me with wanting Vardy, wasn’t a Wenger type signing at all but he saw the quality. I wonder what his plans for him were. Wenger was pretty decent when he wanted to go system mode, gave Theo a career by just spamming his pace.

Wish he used that kind of system thinking later in his career when he had a real weird blend of semi limited players with very useful attributes in the squad but he was a purist till the very end.

I really wish we had brought Vardy back when Wenger tried to sign him, he would have been an amazing player for us!!

The thing about Vardy is that he scores all types of goals. Vardy scores inside the box, outside the box, headers, penalties, shots from weird acute angles, he really can do it all. I wish we had him!!.
Vardy is one of the best strikers in the world, no doubt about it in my mind.. the guy scores 20+ goals every season in the Prem, constantly for 5 seasons.. he also assists a fair amount too.. he is so fast and has one of the best acceleration in world football.. amazing player.

I actually think Vardy and Auba would be such a great combination, they are both very different!, very different personalities and very different style. They would contemplate each other so well. Would be such a deadly and lethal combo

 

[Rex Stone]

Yeah Wenger surprised me with wanting Vardy, wasn’t a Wenger type signing at all but he saw the quality. I wonder what his plans for him were. Wenger was pretty decent when he wanted to go system mode, gave Theo a career by just spamming his pace.

Wish he used that kind of system thinking later in his career when he had a real weird blend of semi limited players with very useful attributes in the squad but he was a purist till the very end.

You mentioned Salah before and I remember reading that Liverpool were really scared when they bought him from Roma because they were sure we’d be in for him as he was a typical Arsène player but the interest never came.

Instead we ended up with a square peg in a round hole with Lacazette and the most anti-Wengerball fullback in Kolasinac I’ve ever seen.

Our transfers were messy. When had Wenger ever used a deep sitting playmaker with limited mobility like Xhaka? He wants all action midfielders like Ramsey or Vieira and we gave him the opposite.

Ironically if he had Guendouzi, Partey and Ceballos I reckon he’d have thought he’d died and gone to heaven.

 

[Riou]

 

[Rimaal]

It's time for Arteta to put on his big boy pants and take a chance. His preferred players, tactics and formation have barely got him a point per game. Have real go in the next 5 games and see how things go- Willock isn't the best but he can provide drive and potentially goals from midfield. Bellerin looks knackered-play Cedric, Chambers or get ready to register Sok. Don't persist with failure. AMN provides legs in midfield-he may not provide creativity but we won't be tun through. Others gave said play Willian as a 10-just do it. Give Pepe a run. I have doubts he will improve but at least we'll know.
He just needs to try something different. We're on course for less than 50 points at this rate.

Exactly. Well put.

 

[scytheavatar]

Does Willian not realise he's not starting under a serious manager? It's genuinely best for him if Arteta stays as long as possible.

Willian is getting screwed over by Artetaball tactics, both him and Bellerin. With the Bellerin underlapping and Willian staying out wide to cross balls tactics. No matter how much you hate Willian it's impossible to deny that he plays better in Chelsea.

 

[<<reed>>]

Didn't manage to get the original tweet being quoted, but it wouldn't surprise me the Chelsea agents are on it.

Our so-called "captains" (Auba, Xhaka) should have done it weeks ago.
Can't blame Luiz and Willian for not wanting to waste the last years of their careers under the football terrorist, they have played for top clubs and have got some standards.

 

[<<reed>>]

Peak example is 2016. Wenger keen for Jamie Vardy and we give him Lucas Perez.

Didn't Vardy reject us because he wasn't sure he would start over Giroud?
A big fish in a small pond and all that.

 

[krackpot]

now it's like some Mexican drama every new day new story

oh damn, Yousif!

 

[2Smokeyy]

Our so-called "captains" (Auba, Xhaka) should have done it weeks ago.
Can't blame Luiz and Willian for not wanting to waste the last years of their careers under the football terrorist, they have played for top clubs and have got some standards.

I’d get rid of the Paella and Favela bums imo. Clear out the lot and start this project again properly with men who’ve got a clue about football in charge.

Big Mik and Edu have to be held accountable for their criminal activity in handing David Luiz his contract extension and that expired bum, Willian his 3 year deal at 200k a week.

The club is a ****show ffs and things just seem to be getting worse every day. Not surprised though with rookies in charge trying to direct the club.

 

[Macho]

Didn't Vardy reject us because he wasn't sure he would start over Giroud?
A big fish in a small pond and all that.

He had concerns over our playing style. I’m sure he’d have been shunted on the left, he made the right decision.

 

[<<reed>>]

He had concerns over our playing style. I’m sure he’d have been shunted on the left, he made the right decision.

Iirc he just started playing for the English NT at that time and didn't want to lose his place because of the playing time at Arsenal.

 

[<<reed>>]

I’d get rid of the Paella and Favela bums imo. Clear out the lot and start this project again properly with men who’ve got a clue about football in charge.

Big Mik and Edu have to be held accountable for their criminal activity in handing David Luiz his contract extension and that expired bum, Willian his 3 year deal at 200k a week.

The club is a ****show ffs and things just seem to be getting worse every day. Not surprised though with rookies in charge trying to direct the club.

I still don't have enough info about Edu to hate him tbh, but if he needs to get sacked to get rid of Arteta, so be it. Not sure we can blame him for Luiz and Willian for example, because it looks like it was mainly Arteta's wish to have these players

 

[2Smokeyy]

I still don't have enough info about Edu to hate him tbh, but if he needs to get sacked to get rid of Arteta, so be it. Not sure we can blame him for Luiz and Willian for example, because it looks like it was mainly Arteta's wish to have these players

Edu being hired was just pointless. He’s only at the club due to sentiment.

Yes, it was definitely Arteta’s wish but Edu probably vouched for them. Plus both Willian and Luiz are represented by Kia as is Edu. Arteta and Edu are both responsible for those deals imo.

As a club, we just need to cut ties completely with Kia. There was a reason that AW refused to get involved with these sewer rats.

 

[Macho]

A year of Arteta survey results: Team of dilemmas, with Özil splitting fans

https://theathletic.co.uk/2268120/2020/12/18/arsenal-year-of-arteta-poll-arsenal-Özil/

Amy Lawrence from The Athletic held a survey with subscribers regarding Arteta's year in charge.

Was unsure if this probably should have got it's own thread. I'm sure you'll all enjoy anyways.

Spoiler: Arsenal survey: A year of Arteta

It is coming up for a year since Mikel Arteta returned to Arsenal to lead a club yearning for a revival. As debut years in football coaching go, it has been something of a crash course in the extreme demands of the sharp end. Like all these things, timing can be a huge factor in our perceptions and it so happens that Arteta’s anniversary, something that just a few weeks ago looked like it could easily have been a happy one, now feels considerably more fraught.

Here at The Athletic, we were keen to find out your views, how you felt about this fledgling era and the series of dilemmas and decisions this young manager has faced.

Having come into a club which was not functioning well on or off the pitch, he has had to make high-pressure calls with risky ramifications. The upshot of that was epitomised by a beautiful day out at Wembley last August and an FA Cup final victory to savour as a tangible reward for progress — it symbolised the best of how Arteta had reignited a sense of collective motivation and a more positive culture. The downside, though, is that those sentiments and results have taken a nosedive this season. Now pressure and problems are carried like deadweights.

Since he walked back into a familiar dressing room last December to introduce himself as the instigator of non-negotiables, Arteta can barely have had a day when he wasn’t mulling over a serious decision. From trying to inspire players to having to cut them out of his squad, from managing egos to being roped in by the club hierarchy to resolve a pay-cut dispute, from winning silverware at the expense of top opponents to a seemingly interminable losing streak, from public statements of intent to private conversations about the direction of the club, Arteta has been at the heart of everything during a tumultuous first year in management.

You voted on his choices in your thousands — which was pretty generous considering these are not fun times around the Emirates, so thank you for that.

Here are the results, with a few extra thoughts from readers’ comments and our Arsenal correspondents, to try to make a semblance of sense of it all…

Rewinding to December 20, 2019, the day he took charge, it is notable that optimism about Arteta’s suitability for the job was sky-high. Only 3.3 per cent declared themselves not encouraged by the appointment of the former Arsenal captain and Pep Guardiola’s 37-year-old Manchester City assistant. The undecideds were not too numerous either, so it’s a very heavy lean towards enthusiasm for him taking over. Even though he had been a strong contender on the shortlist to follow in Arsène Wenger’s footsteps 18 months previously, the interim period of Unai Emery, who seldom felt like quite the right fit for the club and had communication issues, paved a clearer path. At the second time of asking, Arteta would still arrive with no experience of the ultimate responsibility, but Arsenal were convinced they were accessing a special talent. The impression he made in those first few weeks, both as a figurehead and a reorganiser of a damaged squad, vindicated that.

One of those quoted on the official club announcement was head of football Raul Sanllehi, who described Arteta as “the perfect person” for the task. Sanllehi has since been removed, one of the highest-profile changes in the staff around Arteta as the club tried to streamline their operation. Arteta’s first year must be assessed within the context of an environment which has been extremely challenging — the new world of behind-closed-doors coronavirus football, changes in senior personnel, his own job title switching to manager with all the associated extra responsibility that brings, restricted finances and club-staff redundancies. He has had a hell of a lot to juggle. Perhaps some of it should be taken on by someone outside the coaching sphere.

The Athletic verdict: Arteta was a breath of fresh air when he was appointed, remotivating just about everyone and inspiring a fresh sense of unity and belief. There was almost a queue to jump “on the boat” with him to start with. But those who have since gone overboard, or been directed towards the plank, show how the second phase of the job has been a much tougher test than the first.

Unsurprisingly given recent events, his approval rating has slipped. That is really not surprising especially given the timing of this survey, which was active for a few days around the Europa League group stage win away to Dundalk (yay!) and their excruciatingly self-inflicted defeat at home to Burnley (doomed…). A month’s worth of form that has fluctuated between the Thursday night Europa strolls and the Sunday night Premier League depressions has taken a toll which lingers. Faith in Arteta has been tested much more seriously in recent weeks, with repeating patterns, team selections and disappointments in the league swaying public opinion.

The number who no longer have faith in him for the longer term is 12.5 per cent — not too extreme — with almost a third of those polled believing he needs more time before such a crucial question can be properly assessed. Considering the average lifespan of a manager across England’s four divisions is roughly 18 months, time and patience are not easy commodities but the scale of the job Arteta inherited is a factor here. The mess in need of a clean-up could not be done superficially. It’s deep stuff.

Some of our readers are feeling pushed quite close to a point of no return. As Justin P says: “My confidence in him is at a low ebb. He’s made some really daft decisions.” But on the other hand, there are still plenty of supportive voices. Chris L has some concerns but nothing major: “I still back him fully. Sure, it has wavered after these recent results, but I still think he has the charisma and leadership required.” James B puts most of the difficulties down to inexperience: “Arteta has made some mistakes. He is a rookie manager. We have to give him support.” That support from within the club is a moot point. As Adrian M suggests: “This isn’t entirely Arteta’s fault. We’ve developed an unbalanced squad with an unclear recruitment path.” January, never an optimal time for player trading, feels critical for Arteta. He needs support from the club to be tangible rather than just verbal.

The Athletic verdict: Both Vinai Venkatesham and Edu have publicly backed their man over the past few days. It’s sincere backing, too. The next few months will tell us if Arteta is the right man for the long term. A recovery in terms of league position and performances will buy back a lot of goodwill. If not, the pressure on him and the hierarchy will mount quickly.

Right, on to the players. During his year Arteta has had a whole team’s worth of dilemmas to try to resolve.

We’ll start at the back…

Two-thirds of respondents to our survey feel Arteta did the right thing here. It was a really complex choice, particularly as Arsenal were trying to raise money to invest in the squad and were so frustrated by their inability to offload other players. Martinez became an Arsenal darling with his fairytale rise to prominence post-lockdown last season when Leno was injured. The perennial understudy, so often loaned out, seldom seen as an answer, was thrust to centre stage and seized the moment heroically. Martinez cried when he helped win the FA Cup. He is an emotional player but in practical terms he demonstrated qualities that were not Leno’s strengths — big personality, super confidence playing the ball around — but the German’s greater experience was considered favourable.

The Athletic verdict: Easy to feel swayed each way by this one but the ratio of the poll results looks about right.

Hector Bellerin is, in some ways, a surprisingly divisive figure. The Catalan Cockney, as he was referred to when he first broke through having joined in his teens from Barcelona and thrown himself into London life, has certain core values to be admired. He never hides, he is a proud representative of himself and the club, his attitude and professionalism are beyond question.

On the pitch though some question marks prevail.

He did lose some of his natural pace when he returned from a long-term knee ligament injury and has not quite refined the defensive instincts for the role, as his positioning does sometimes get exposed. In the longer term, Arteta might want a different profile player in that role — and Cedric Soares seems very much the current understudy, which is another story — but perhaps last summer was not the time to make a sale without reinvesting in a replacement. Ainsley Maitland-Niles can, of course, fill in there but it is not his preferred long-term role.

It was close but our readers leaned towards keeping him and Tom G outlines how he sees the good in Bellerin outweighing the bad: “He may not be everyone’s choice for right-back, but I think he is a good person to have at the club. Squads need that sort of personality in there.”

The Athletic verdict: With the club trying to rebuild, keeping some broadly reliable players with very reliable characters made sense.

At the time, this felt like a mad situation. The fact David Luiz’s deal was for one season with an option was in itself enough to raise eyebrows. Then option time came at a point when he gave what could only be described as a distasterclass in the first match back after lockdown, capped by a late sending-off, which shone a whole new light on the madness. It certainly added pressure to the situation.

Luiz brings big personality though and many have hailed his influence in the dressing room, plus he is a centre-back who can progress the ball forward with his long passes, but the totting up of red cards and penalties conceded was a serious problem. Ordinarily, the option would have coincided with the end of last season but because of the months without football during the initial outbreak of coronavirus, an extension needed approval (or not) with multiple games remaining and an ongoing injury crisis at centre-back. Over half of The Athletic readers polled would have kept him on, but this was a close one.

The Athletic verdict: Arsenal need to step away from short-term signings of veteran players with no resale value. But under the difficult scenario they faced, with games to play and injuries at his position, an extension under the circumstances was understandable.

This situation baffles. Arsenal put serious investment into a teenager who had made strides in Ligue 1, a player earmarked to hopefully lead their defence of the future, and yet Arteta has made a strong judgement call without actually seeing William Saliba play a minute of competitive football for the club.

Saliba’s adaptation has been particularly trying, with family difficulties on top of this forced stasis of his professional development. Arsenal had advocated sending him on another loan, as they felt injury last season while he was back at St Etienne denied him some progression time, but they failed to organise one before the deadline.

There is some sympathy among the voters here. But overall less than two per cent of readers who responded to this survey agreed with the action taken by Arteta. One of them, Kareem H, offers a very reasonable counter-argument to the player being omitted from both official squads: “Saliba being left out completely is a decision that I don’t understand. He had trouble on and off the pitch but is there a better place to start your career in a foreign country than a Europa League group stage game that doesn’t even have a crowd?”

The Athletic verdict: This is a situation where Arsenal and Arteta have not covered themselves in glory. It feels like there has been not enough time devoted to looking after Saliba’s development properly. Given the ease of their Europa League group draw, surely he would have benefitted to at least have that option. More experienced players were not required in the squad at this stage. The inability to sort out a loan didn’t help, but this was a bad call.

There was money on the table for Ainsley Maitland-Niles during the last window and with Arsenal struggling to arrange sales elsewhere, the temptation to cash in on him was a genuine consideration. But the sheer quality of his elevated performances in the biggest games prompted second thoughts. He excelled in the big FA Cup games at Wembley, with an energy and tactical awareness that eventually propelled him into the England squad.

It is an oddity that he has slipped back down the pecking order this season. It feels confusing, especially while the team has been struggling and sluggish. His versatility is a huge asset but he perhaps merits a more regular berth in a solid position. Blending his qualities with Thomas Partey’s when fit, for example, would surely present Arsenal with far more drive in midfield. Maitland-Niles played 90 minutes in two of Arsenal first three league games this season but then didn’t get another start until the 1-1 draw with Southampton this week. Reader Reuben S airs some frustration at this use of resources: “If he isn’t going to get minutes (or at least consistently make the Premier League bench) he should have been sold to fund an upgrade in midfield.”

The Athletic verdict: Arsenal are not good enough right now to not make better use of a player with Maitland-Niles’s qualities. Not only should they not have sanctioned a sale, they should find a way to have him in their team more prominently.

After his recent, petulant red card against Burnley, Granit Xhaka is back in lightning-rod territory. His poor performances during this generally dismal Arsenal spell highlight how the tone of a team can often be set by their midfield. The combination of Xhaka and Dani Ceballos was one of Arteta’s successes last season. He rehabilitated both players, individually and collectively, and they formed a partnership that was central to the FA Cup win. Credit all round. But now the stock of both players has fallen again.

Reader Collins P sums up the sentiment of weariness about the tempo they set in midfield: “Sigh. I just don’t see it. I don’t think I really saw it in the season restart either. Respect to Xhaka for his comeback after the Crystal Palace incident, but even before then, I just wasn’t sure he was a great fit.” All in all, just eight per cent of those surveyed back this midfield pairing.

The Athletic verdict: While it was a pleasure to see how both players rose to the FA Cup occasions, the overall picture is not great in the Premier League where, invariably, this combination gets outplayed and outpaced.

This midfield question dovetails with the previous one. They are part of the same issue. Like anything, if results are good then the players who are not in the equation become more easily forgotten, but with Matteo Guendouzi earning rave reviews with Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga and Torreira playing for top of La Liga Atletico Madrid, maybe both are better off without Arsenal rather than the other way round this season.

The mix of responses here shows it was a tricky one with no clear and obvious solution. Over to reader Tim J for a passionate defence of the loaned players: “I don’t care about the dramas, without these players our central midfield options are bottom-half Premier League, at best. How you can ostracise some promising youngsters with hunger, temperament and clear technical ability is beyond me and he (Arteta) absolutely should not escape any criticism around these decisions.” The Guendouzi decision was particularly based on personality and discipline but rather than work with it, Arteta chose he would prefer to be without it. Maybe there are some lessons there in how he approaches man-management, with different ideas and nuances required sometimes for different people.

The Athletic verdict: A bloated squad needed trimming, which was very problematic and it looked like something might give in midfield. But it is hard not to imagine one or other of these players being of use to Arsenal this season. Guendouzi’s determination and free spirit could have been integrated better.

It’s fair to say Arteta inherited quite a few complexities within the squad and a £72 million record signing who has struggled for consistency is fairly high up on the list. Perhaps Nicolas Pepe’s best performance under Arteta was in the FA Cup final, where there was so much more focus to his efforts. Arteta was keen to instil greater work rate and defensive awareness when he first arrived and it took a while but the penny seemed to be dropping with Pepe. The recent sending off against Leeds borne of frustration was a bitter pill at a bad moment. Pepe is one of the few who does bring unpredictability to an attack desperately short of invention currently. The majority on the survey’s voters fancy Arteta to back him or at least give him more time.

The Athletic verdict: Adaptation time was needed for Pepe, but this second season was supposed to be the one where he could explode. He looks like the kind of player who needs the team to play well around him to flourish rather than taking too much responsibility to do it all himself.

Ooof. Of all the key decisions Arteta has made, this is the one which caused the biggest ripples.

Again, if Arsenal were winning matches, the Mesut Özil affair would be less overt, less destabilising, but the fact his precise playing qualities are the team’s most glaring omission cuts deep. As reader Alan M points out: “Arteta has made mistakes that have contributed to this high-pressure situation. The Özil question looms over every ball kicked in midfield. To state that he is not there for ‘football reasons’ has heaped massive pressure on.”

The poll result numbers are spookily close to the Brexit vote’s, and almost just as divisive. People really take sides on the Özil conundrum. It’s obvious Arsenal wanted to sell and when they couldn’t, his omission from the squad was inevitably contentious and was always likely to be destructive. Özil was one of the high-profile players to warmly approve the return of Arteta a year ago, tweeting, “Welcome back to the Arsenal family #YaGunnersYa”. This situation has curdled, to nobody’s benefit.

The Athletic verdict: This is going to cost them but Arsenal should do what they perhaps could have done during the last transfer window. If they were that sure they didn’t want him involved, arrange a suitable deal to buy him out the remainder of his contract and bring in the best quality replacement they can find.

Our survey said… (insert angsty noise here)… less than five per cent are in favour of this transfer.

Willian has been played often but without much end-product or a sense of where exactly he fits into whatever Arsenal are trying to do. The optics are not helped by the concepts that recruiting players in their late 20s and, in his case, early 30s demands readiness to get down to work but also comes with worries about hunger and energy levels over time. Reader Jonathan S makes a pertinent point: “The general thinking is that, ‘If you’re good enough, you’re old enough’. However, Arteta’s Arsenal seem to operate with an, ‘If you’re old enough, you’re good enough’ model. Worrisome to say the least.”

There was perceived value here, with an experienced Premier League player who arrived out of contract. But don’t be kidded by the free transfer idea. It isn’t free — a player’s meaty salary plus agent’s fees add up, and there is an economic and stylistic question over whether that can be better directed towards younger talent. Those questions are only answered with top performances.

The Athletic verdict: Simply, Arsenal should stop signing old players from Chelsea.

There is a good spread of answers here, which perhaps reflects a few broader issues.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored freely from the left-hand side but the temptation to play him centrally comes from the trouble Arsenal have in getting regular goals from the centre-forward position — well, regular goals period at the moment. It has been an unusually tough dry spell for the captain and while there was some relief when he scored against Southampton, he still looks generally burdened by the team’s struggles and creative dead zone. He carried the team exceptionally when Arteta first arrived, but the manager has to find a way for that load to be shared out.

The Athletic verdict: As he gets older, a more central role seems to make sense as the massive workload he carried tracking back and then haring up the pitch from the left last season was extraordinary. But frankly, anywhere in any combination that gets him back among the goals works.

I'd have like to have seen the results if AM took that survey.

 

[DUFFMAN]

**** luiz and Willian.

 

[gamechannel]

**** luiz and Willian.

**** Arteta too.

 

[Rex Stone]

Didn't Vardy reject us because he wasn't sure he would start over Giroud?
A big fish in a small pond and all that.

Surely not

 

[DUFFMAN]

**** Arteta too.

Luiz gets into a huff about been dropped last month and upsets the team and club.

He thinks he's bigger than the club that he can cause unrest.

He has form, **** him.

 

[gamechannel]

Luiz gets into a huff about been dropped last month and upsets the team and club.

He thinks he's bigger than the club that he can cause unrest.

He has form, **** him.

I'm not siding with Luiz. I'm saying Arteta is **** as well. He can **** off along with Luiz.