Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[El Duderino]

Even if the starting XI’s were swapped with each other, I don’t think there would’ve been a massive difference in the result of that game imo.

We’ve seen different faces in our starting XI over the past 3 years but that same pitiful performance always returns when it matters. Fair play to Tuchel as tactically he done a number on Arteta last night.

Think questions being asked about his run ins are more than fair, this is the third season in a row now.

April is the new February for Mikel, it seems.

He's done well overall, and post Dubai our football massively improved, but we are beginning to look like that pre-warm weather training team again, even if the sample size is a bit small and compact in its time span.

The pressure gets to this team and manager. The second half against Liverpool where we lost our nerves (iirc) comes to mind, as well.

 

[Ljonin]

The inexperience argument won’t hold up for very much longer either. He’s not that young anymore and has now managed a top club for almost 5 years.

Look what the younger Alonso has achieved in 1 year with ****ing Leverkusen.

 

[LittleMo]

The inexperience argument won’t hold up for very much longer either. He’s not that young anymore and has now managed a top club for almost 5 years.

Look what the younger Alonso has achieved in 1 year with ****ing Leverkusen.

Alonso does put it into perspective a bit. Leverkusen aren’t full of stars but he’s got them winning the Bundesliga and not just that, competing well in Europe.

 

[LookingForEric]

Everyone? No, we could have lost to City and Brighton and still won. You're making stuff up.

I’m going off what actually happened. Did we collapse? Yes. But City also won 14 out of 15 games to win the league. Which even if we didn’t drop as many points, is an almost impossible task to overcome.

 

[lomekian]

Lol. Add him in then if it gets you hot under the collar, it makes no difference to my analysis. City still haven’t spent as much as Chelsea, so it does not account for their ridiculous dominance. You’ll see when Pep goes there will be another small drop off like there was with United when Ferguson left. It won’t be massive because money will keep them in the running, but expect more 2nd, 3rd, 4th or worse placed finishes mixed in.

Funky logic,

because Chavski screwed up (although they won the ECL, which we would kill for.), it means that City's resources are irrelevant....hmm.

 

[dka1]

Already responded to this but the post was deleted.

Go on Transfermarkt, look up those years. They were towards the top end of spending but weren't gapping anyone. They tended to spend big on one player (big as in something around £60-70m in today's market, factoring in fees relative to other deals etc.) and that's about it. Guardiola spent literally 6x-8x more per window, the comparison is genuinely insane. Yeah Man Utd bought Paul Ince for £10m but Guardiola literally bought 4-5 Ince's in one window two years in a row.

I think that's fair enough, but the way you tried to phrase it in your reply to Jones definitely tried to minimise that £17M, at least that's how it came across.

 

[Dokaka]

Alonso does put it into perspective a bit. Leverkusen aren’t full of stars but he’s got them winning the Bundesliga and not just that, competing well in Europe.

Alonso doesn't put anything into perspective IMO, what he's doing is beyond something you can reasonably expect from a manager. Would be like calling every manager who finished below Ranieri's Leicester a failure when we all know that was a one season wonder.

I think Xabi is class and his football is great to watch, but going "Arteta is meh, look at Xabi" is a tricky path because you aren't replicating that, he's captured lightning in a bottle.

 

[lomekian]

We need to overcome ourselves.

We are our biggest hurdle.

The moment we stop psyching ourselves out, is the moment we win trophies.

That is a hurdle, but not our biggest.

Our biggest hurdles are 1) the consistent exellence of the opposition, for whatever reason and 2) For all we have a great team with very good players, we have no worldie players who consistently produce match winning moments of nothing. If this squad had TH14, IW8, peak RVP, peak Sanchez etc we'd be a very different proposition, both just practically, but also mentally. Having a player that you can win you a game even if they get rubbish service or feed off scraps is SUCH a boost for the team. Even bigger than having a cast-iron defence, which is the direction we've tried to go in.

We all know we need better balance in midfield, a better long-term LB solution and more pace, but having a KDB or Salah level threat is the real difference maker.

 

[dka1]

Alonso does put it into perspective a bit. Leverkusen aren’t full of stars but he’s got them winning the Bundesliga and not just that, competing well in Europe.

Hmm what Alonso did is amazing.

Icl I don't keep up with the Bundas-liga (), but how was Alonso able to topple Bayern with the relatively little spending?

Also do people that keep up with the Bundesliga think this is a one off or he's actually elite level?

 

[Menard]

Alonso doesn't put anything into perspective IMO, what he's doing is beyond something you can reasonably expect from a manager. Would be like calling every manager who finished below Ranieri's Leicester a failure when we all know that was a one season wonder.

I think Xabi is class and his football is great to watch, but going "Arteta is meh, look at Xabi" is a tricky path because you aren't replicating that, he's captured lightning in a bottle.

Well said, what Xabi has done is frankly absolutely freakish, no manager is going to be able to stack up to potentially winning the league unbeaten as underdogs in your first full season. Klopp didn't do that, Ferguson didn't do that, Ancelotti didn't do that.

 

[Sapient Hawk]

He's the one who signed the guys he has. Also the one who paid Auba who's at 25 this season to leave.

Liverpool got Salah but before he joined them his career high at season end was 15 goals. A top manager takes what he's got and make it work instead of blaming his squad for being inadequate after spending a billion pounds

Which why lack much in the same way we do a 30-40 goal striker.

 

[lomekian]

City are second for wages too.

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FIrstly those figures ignore the gargantuan bonuses, signing on fees, payments to Haaland's dad and under the counter benefits that City dole out.
Secondly, City are top heavy wage wise. They have the smallest squad but the best squad players becasue they pay big wages to the bench warmers but don't bother having a 25 man senior squad.

Also Utd being idiots doesn't really change the argument. Everyone looking from the outside were WTF-ing about long term deals for Casimero, Varane, Martial, Maguire etc on those wages. They have literally been setting the template for how not to run a big club, until Todd threw his hat in the ring.

 

[A_G]

I’m seeing a lot of cry babies. Very interesting.

What are your expectations for next season?

 

[lomekian]

Arteta’s systematic football sucks the soul and bravery out of our football. Too robotic, cautious and fearful.

This team desperately needs some magic sprinkled in there, a real solo player and game changer.

Would kill for a prime Cazorla or Sanchez, they’d complete this team.

Hope Arteta will ease off next season, we’ve ended too many seasons in this flat fashion now. He needs to be introspective and make changes this summer, can’t keep making the same mistakes again and again.

I'm pretty sure if you offered Arteta prime Cazorla or Sanchez he'd bite your hand off, particularly given the former is one of his best mates and they linked really well when they briefly played together.

 

[dka1]

What are your expectations for next season?

As moderator of AM what do you bring to the table?

 

[lomekian]

The one thing that's definitely against him is that he's completely botched the midfield. We basically have to play Jorginho who can't really play every game because as soon as he's taken out we lost any ability to keep the ball and play between the lines.

Kind of ignores the fact that Partey, who was elite for 2/3 of last season has missed 30+ games in all comps....

 

[lomekian]

He does not seem to know how to motivate players when it really matters. two halfs in a row where we have not been urgency and it has cost us. lack of rotation too.

We always end seasons badly with him, run out of steam

Lack of rotation I'll give you. Hard to cite motivation when its obvious the key players are blowing out of their arse after 70 mins - simply not used to playing such high intensity matches twice a week.

 

[lomekian]

Skill issue against Bayern.

Premier League is poor. That's why we are challenging. We got found out against a proper European team tonight.

Partly. But its also that Bayern chucked the league weeks ago and have basically been treating it like a training exercise between ECL games, whereas we are competing for a title against 1 stellar teams and every game has been high pressure.

Frankly, if we'd come into the Bayern games fully fit and at the level we were just a few weeks ago, we'd probably have beaten them. But by these games Saka, Rice, Jorgi have all looked knackerd, Kiwior was having to play LB (which contributed to both their goals at our place) because Tomi wasn't fit and Timber injured. I know Bayern had injuries too, but their squad is deeper than ours.

 

[LittleMo]

It’s getting a bit like Groundhog Day. Last year was the same as this year, disappointing end to the season, ID gaps in the squad that we hope they put right in the summer and expect to compete better next year.

The problem is the gaps in the squad are for players that Arteta has bought to fill them already.

Why do we have to buy for midfield when we spent millions on Partey, Rice and Jorginho? Why do we need a new striker after spending all that money on Jesus and Havertz, we have bought Zinchenko, Kiwior, Tomi who probably all will be replaced/phased out because they aren’t good enough and we still have to buy a new left back despite all these players playing there.

Obviously players will need replaced and building a squad is a constant process but none of our new buys seem to last more than a few seasons.

How many seasons have Liverpool gotten out of Salah, Alisson, Robertson, Trent etc etc? Or Man City with De Bruyne or Stones etc? They buy players but they are getting a damn site more than 3-4 years out of them.

 

[OnlyOne]

What are your expectations for next season?

Difficult question. I think this season I’ve been very much on the side, just get top 4 again and show we’re progressing which we have. CL was all dependent on who we drew and I think where we exited is about right.

Next season silverware is important as many has stressed but my expectations are a title race and QF CL again, along with cup.

Then there’s the other factors as well like rotation and youth he still needs to do better.