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Mikel Arteta: Top Of The Klopps

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel

In the 00s...Arsenal won the title more times at Sp**s ground, than they lost league games to them...0 defeats in 20 matches.

Wish we could go back to that decade, was fun back then.
 

HairSprayGooners

My brother posted it ⏩
When talking about Wengers signings you need to split his years up. First half recruitment was excellent, second half was piss poor. @GDeep™ Xhaka and Mustafi may have been the only real very poor big money signings, but add up the rest of the poor signings.

In the window after Özil we spent £110M. Alexis was of course one of our best signings, excellent purchase. But he was around £38M, so where was the other £72M spent?

Chambers - £18M, baring in mind this was back in 14/15 how the hell is this guy still here? He's done nothing.
Welbeck - £18M, was he a success? For the fee I'm not sure.
Gabriel - £13.5M. I mean he had moments, but he wasn't a great defender.
Debuchy - £13.5M. Again, for the price it was pretty pants.

So that's what, £63M spent whilst being in the CL may I add on what are essentially Europa league level players and lower. £63M could've got us a proper CB and a CDM at the time. Or even a top level striker which we sorely needed.

The next year we signed Cech and Elneny for £23M. Says it all.

The year after that we spent another £100M. Xhaka for £40M, Mustafi for £35M, Lucas Perez for £18M and then Holding/Asano for peanuts. You can essentially write that window off, £100M on players who actually took us backwards.

And then 17/18 £110m spent on footballers, mainly Auba for £57M and Lacazette for £52M. Which in itself is utterly bizarre. Both are quality players and have done well for us, but why on earth would you sign two strikers within 6 months of each other? The severe unbalancing of the squad began with this stupid decision.

From when we signed Özil to when Wenger left he wasted a good £200-250M on pure dross and poor decisions, that money could've quite comfortably built a title winning squad. And right now we're paying for all these poor decisions that were made. On top of that take Emery's window and it looks even worse.
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
In the 00s...Arsenal won the title more times at Sp**s ground, than they lost league games to them...0 defeats in 20 games.

Wish we could go back to that decade, was fun back then.
Maybe everytime I quote you with 😕 you can reply with a random piece of nostalgia. 😂
 

goldengod

Member
I have been Arteta out for some time now but honestly I think what bothers me more is not necessarily the manager but just no clear vision, game plan or defined XI.

First, we have a good crop of young players: Martinelli, Saliba, Saka, ESR are probably the stand out ones. We should be embedding them in the core of our squad for the future. If Martinelli/Saliba are not given proper squad roles next year then that's just baffling (it already is this year).

Second, we need to have clearly defined plan - it seems like we're set with the 4231 now so I honestly hope we stick with it.

Third, we need to have a clearly defined XI (or near close to it) with less chopping and changing. This season for example has had us playing various CBs together (Holding/Gabriel for a while, then Holding/Mari, then Luiz/Mari and Luiz/Gabriel etc.) We've also blown hot and cold on Bellerin. Likewise, early on in the season it seemed Xhaka had fallen out of favour but now he seems to be our key player. Auba has played left, right and centre. Saka/Pepe/Willian have all switched wings etc. Arteta needs to just stick to players in a particular position and then work on improving our weaknesses. In line with that, next year we should have this squad:


Leno
Ryan

RB Saliba Gabriel Tierney
Soares Luiz Mari LB

Xhaka Partey
CM Elneny

Saka AM Pepe
Willian ESR Martinelli

Auba
CF

Then you probably keep around one of Chambers/Holding for additional depth (Chambers probably as he can also play RB) at the back. Then either promote one or two youth players (Azeez, Balogun etc.) or you keep Nketiah, Nelson, AMN around for the extra depth. In my view I'd go with the former as I think unless we give those three clear game time they will stagnate and lose value. Sell now and use the money to get the reinforcements we need.
 

HairSprayGooners

My brother posted it ⏩
I have been Arteta out for some time now but honestly I think what bothers me more is not necessarily the manager but just no clear vision, game plan or defined XI.

First, we have a good crop of young players: Martinelli, Saliba, Saka, ESR are probably the stand out ones. We should be embedding them in the core of our squad for the future. If Martinelli/Saliba are not given proper squad roles next year then that's just baffling (it already is this year).

Second, we need to have clearly defined plan - it seems like we're set with the 4231 now so I honestly hope we stick with it.

Third, we need to have a clearly defined XI (or near close to it) with less chopping and changing. This season for example has had us playing various CBs together (Holding/Gabriel for a while, then Holding/Mari, then Luiz/Mari and Luiz/Gabriel etc.) We've also blown hot and cold on Bellerin. Likewise, early on in the season it seemed Xhaka had fallen out of favour but now he seems to be our key player. Auba has played left, right and centre. Saka/Pepe/Willian have all switched wings etc. Arteta needs to just stick to players in a particular position and then work on improving our weaknesses. In line with that, next year we should have this squad:


Leno
Ryan

RB Saliba Gabriel Tierney
Soares Luiz Mari LB

Xhaka Partey
CM Elneny

Saka AM Pepe
Willian ESR Martinelli

Auba
CF

Then you probably keep around one of Chambers/Holding for additional depth (Chambers probably as he can also play RB) at the back. Then either promote one or two youth players (Azeez, Balogun etc.) or you keep Nketiah, Nelson, AMN around for the extra depth. In my view I'd go with the former as I think unless we give those three clear game time they will stagnate and lose value. Sell now and use the money to get the reinforcements we need.

We found our best system and starting 11, but it has been broken by injuries.

Leno
Cedric - Luiz - Mari/Gabriel - Tierney
Partey - Xhaka
Saka - Ødegaard - ESR/Pepe
Laca

Is our best starting 11, those players are the ones that fit what Arteta wants/needs from his team the best, some of them still aren't good enough but they play the way Arteta wants. And we saw that multiple times with multiple top performances when they were able to play together.

However Tierney being in and out the squad for the entire season, Partey being injured a lot, just recently Xhaka getting injured and Ødegaard only coming in January has of course made it difficult to field a regular starting 11.

People also are quick to forget this season is a rare one where you need to rotate due to players playing twice a week pretty much since the start of the season.

On top of that Martinelli had a horrific injury and he's being wrapped in cotton wool. Nobody knows if Saliba is good enough for the PL yet so putting that on him is a bit ridiculous. And Bellerin is clearly not what Arteta wants, however on paper he was the best right back at the club at the start of the season, so why wouldn't you start him?
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
We found our best system and starting 11, but it has been broken by injuries.

Leno
Cedric - Luiz - Mari/Gabriel - Tierney
Partey - Xhaka
Saka - Ödegaard - ESR/Pepe
Laca

Is our best starting 11, those players are the ones that fit what Arteta wants/needs from his team the best, some of them still aren't good enough but they play the way Arteta wants. And we saw that multiple times with multiple top performances when they were able to play together.

However Tierney being in and out the squad for the entire season, Partey being injured a lot, just recently Xhaka getting injured and Ödegaard only coming in January has of course made it difficult to field a regular starting 11.

People also are quick to forget this season is a rare one where you need to rotate due to players playing twice a week pretty much since the start of the season.

On top of that Martinelli had a horrific injury and he's being wrapped in cotton wool. Nobody knows if Saliba is good enough for the PL yet so putting that on him is a bit ridiculous. And Bellerin is clearly not what Arteta wants, however on paper he was the best right back at the club at the start of the season, so why wouldn't you start him?
We didn't see that setup enough, even when he goes for it, it gets changed the moment some of his favorites are available.

I wouldn't mind Auba instead of Laca when ESR is on, but if Pepe plays I prefer Laca because Pepe can add some goals from the wide position. It's finding the balance, something Arteta struggles with big time
 

HairSprayGooners

My brother posted it ⏩
We didn't see that setup enough, even when he goes for it, it gets changed the moment some of his favorites are available.

I wouldn't mind Auba instead of Laca when ESR is on, but if Pepe plays I prefer Laca because Pepe can add some goals from the wide position. It's finding the balance, something Arteta struggles with big time

We didn't see it because, like I mentioned, you can't play that team every single game. Who are Arteta's favourites exactly? Because I'd say ESR/Saka/Ødegaard/Xhaka/Partey are his favourites in terms of midfield/attack. He doesn't have a favourite right back demonstrated by the rotation in that position this season (Bellerin has been fit recently but Chambers has been starting for example) and you even mentioned the rotation at CB, so he doesn't have a CB partnership he truly trusts. Which you can understand given what we've seen this season. Mari is probably our most reliable CB and he isn't a high level. Leno and Tierney are obviously a given to start every game when fit.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
Who are Arteta's favourites exactly?
Didn't we have a couple of really good attacking performances without Auba, and then he was back as a default starter without any reason for it, switching left, right, and center just so he can play somewhere?

You can't tell me he doesn't have favorites because it's clear as day that certain players get dropped after one bad half while others can have a prolonged period of piss poor form and still get all the minutes. Martinelli was killed after one bad half against United when the whole team was rubbish, I don't even have to talk about Pepe who got benched even when he was in great form, but that stuff doesn't really apply to Auba and Laca, for example.

Sorry mate, can't accept what you're saying, it's simply not true
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
Arteta doesn't have favourites.
Michael Jordan Reaction GIF
 

HairSprayGooners

My brother posted it ⏩
Didn't we have a couple of really good attacking performances without Auba, and then he was back as a default starter without any reason for it, switching left, right, and center just so he can play somewhere?

You can't tell me he doesn't have favorites because it's clear as day that certain players get dropped after one bad half while others can have a prolonged period of piss poor form and still get all the minutes. Martinelli was killed after one bad half against United when the whole team was rubbish, I don't even have to talk about Pepe who got benched even when he was in great form, but that stuff doesn't really apply to Auba and Laca, for example.

Sorry mate, can't accept what you're saying, it's simply not true

We've been rotating the wide players and striker all season. The only player who is a nailed on starter is Saka, and rightly so as he's the most consistent. ESR played on the left against Sp**s, and then played against Olympiakos, he was in need of a rest which came against West Ham. Lacazette was in need of a rest so Auba started up front against Olympiakos, again, the correct decision. Auba played on the right against West Ham which was a poor decision but Pepe had just played against Olympiakos. Its just normal rotation, and obviously in the last game against Liverpool both ESR and Saka were out injured so we basically had to play Auba and Pepe out wide. Its also about playing the right players in the right games, for example as someone mentioned above you'd play Auba up front with ESR/Saka/Ødegaard behind him, because he's that sort of striker. But with Laca you can play Pepe.

Who has stayed in the side after a prolonged period of piss poor form? Willian was dropped, Bellerin was dropped, everyone has had a fair crack at getting and staying in the team this season. The only ones to rightly come out of it as nailed on starters when fit are Leno, Tierney, Xhaka, Partey, Saka and Ødegaard. The others have simply been rotated because they're so inconsistent or downright rubbish. Hence why Mikel said he wants 5 new starters.

Its funny you talk about appearances and minutes. Here are the players and their corresponding appearances this season -

Leno - 39
Pepe - 36
Xhaka - 36
Laca - 35
Saka - 35
Tierney - 33 (Somehow despite it feeling like he's been injured most of the season)
Elneny - 32
Ceballos - 32
Auba - 32
Bellerin - 30
Willian - 30
Luiz - 29
Holding - 29
Gabriel - 25
Nketiah - 24
ESR - 23 (Injured for most of the season)
Cedric - 22
Partey - 21 (injured for most of the season)

Now, obviously appearances aren't everything and minutes are very important. But if we're talking about so called "favourites" specifically amongst the attackers that we're talking about. Pepe has played more minutes (2181) than Lacazette (2071). Auba has played 2595 minutes whilst Willian just 1600 minutes. Saka has of course played the most minutes out of our attackers at 2788. Emile Smith Rowe has been in the squad since boxing day and played in every single game since then except against Burnley and Liverpool where he wasn't in the squad. Martinelli came back in the loss against Everton for 19 minutes. He then started against Chelsea and started against Brighton with no goals or assists. He then picked up an ankle injury and tbh I think we've been wrapping him up in cotton wool since then, rightly so. In terms of defenders Gabriel, Luiz and Holding all have around the same minutes and Mari in terms of being available after injury has been rotated just as much, no favourites.

So considering the above, does Arteta have "favourites", well yes. His favourites are Leno, Xhaka, Partey, Tierney, Saka, Ødegaard, ESR and Aubameyang. Are these rightly favourites? I'd say yes, they're our best players and the players that fit Arteta's style the best. Auba has been in poor form, but he's still our best goalscorer, and tbh his minutes are relatively close to Pepe/Laca anyway.

The rest of the players are quite literally being rotated because Arteta doesn't rate them/they don't fit his style or they aren't good enough or consistent enough. And tbh you'd think that was obvious considering how much better we are when Saka, ESR, Tierney etc play over guys like Pepe, Elneny, Ceballos, Bellerin etc.
 
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