vantoure
Well-Known Member
He's done a good job not getting absolutely smashed at Anfield, we were in the game until late and I'm sure some Liverpool fans/players/staff were a bit nervy going into the last 10 after Laca missed the 1on1.
My criticism for Arteta was how safe he played it tonight. He dropped Gabriel (maybe to protect him) dropped Ceballos and didnt play Pepe. On top of that he started the slow Lacazette over Nketiah who could have pressed with more energy and been a threat on the counter.
We are a potentially an extremely quick team in attack so I think we should use that to our advantage in a game like this. We weren't ever going to have much possession of the ball so there was no point playing Willian and Lacazette in some ways (even if it was tough dropping them after a win), thats my opinion.
I've no problem with Arteta, apart from the strange Özil beef. I find what he's doing right now to be boring, if somewhat effective.
However, there does appear to be a kind of placebo by fans here and we've seen it before. Liverpool at Anfield last season under Emery was a very similar setup and performance, and same thing was said by the fans - at least we didn't get steamrolled. Of course, we didn't because we setup that way (in both games).
Key point being, this performance and result is not different from the Emery one (against the same opposition last season). And the conclusions now appear that it's a step forward? Hmm...