Mikel Arteta: Top Drawer

[SA Gunner]

As said, it won’t happen.

Buuuuut..

Inzaghi, Alonso, O’Neill, Howe, Silva, Nagelsmann in no particular order.

I would have had Amorim very high on my list as well but alas

I'll rate them from defensive to attacking, and then I'll put Flick at the end.

I think if you find this iteration of Arteta frustrating, you'd also not like Amorim. Amorim is a similar coach, possibly more focused on defensive first principles and then generating chances on the counter attack. Watch Gyokeres goals... he's almost always running into space or attacking defenses who are scrambling to get back in shape.

Howe is similar to Amorim, strong defensive principles with quick counter attacking ball. Silva the same IMO. I do not know O'Neil?

Inzaghi is more an attack minded coach who wants to manipulate shapes into creating space in behind quickly and effectively. Inzaghi as we saw yesterday has more of a defensive game about him. I'd say Inzaghi and Arteta are close.

Alonso a bit more attacking, but focused on rest defensive shapes as well. I'd say a 60-40 split between attack and defence.

Nagelsman I like.... a jack of all trades like Arteta. Sets the team up for the occassion, but based on a possession based, quick transition game.

And then there's Flick... forgot about him actually. Super attacking coach who loves the offside trap. We'd have a lot of fun watching Arsenal under Flick... but Im not sure we'll win as consistently.

 

[Riou]

I hear Wenger's free

A 4 time league and 9 time cup winner?

The current team needs to win something before we could attract him, as he doesn't manage losers

 

[El Duderino]

He's fine this season tbh and we probably finish top 3 despite all this. I can't help but feel like we have peaked under this regime though, lets see where the breaking point is.

Surprised some notable voices on Twitter who made it their personalities to defend Mikel, switching tune because of the sufferball and no titles.

Tracks directly with some folk in AM still being pro Mikel but wanting him questioned or gone if he doesn't win stuff.

Maybe it's Arnes start at Liverpool? Don't know how sustainable their run is, but if they keep it up and finish strong that should raise more questions about Arteta than any lack of trophies should.

 

[Halend]

Like what someone said before the worry is that he is not growing as a manager, the same issues of why we missed out on top 4 in 21/22 and the title runs the last 2 years are still there now but it seems worse because teams are catching up to how he sets up which has become more and more risk averse.

This time last year when we started that bad run he said himself if we don't get better in the boxes we won't win anything well fast forward 12 months and what has he done for us to get better in the boxes? Nothing.

The lack of priority in the attack in both chance creation and chance conversion has been alarming and i don't have any faith that this manager can change in that regard.

I don't go into any game with confidence no matter who we play as you have to score goals to win and i don't know where the next goal is coming from

And the worst thing about this is Man City of clearly taken a step back atm but it won't be us that reap the benefits from that it will be Liverpool.

 

[SA Gunner]

For me, if Arteta gets sacked, then I'd want a more attacking less defensive focused coach to come in. Or at the very least a coach who wants to attack more directly, as his main approach.

Ideally I'd want a coach like Klopp. Builds a strong defensive, workmanlike rest defense, with superstar players upfront having the platform to go and attack and win games for the team. That was peak Liverpool.

Anyway.... my list would have. Nagelsman, Inzaghi, De Zerbi. They would do well with this team I'd say.

 

[El Duderino]

Nagelsman

If people find Artetas personality grating, wait until they get a load of Nagelsman.

 

[SA Gunner]

He's fine this season tbh and we probably finish top 3 despite all this. I can't help but feel like we have peaked under this regime though, lets see where the breaking point is.

Yeah we are definitely top 3 at least this season.

I dont think we've peaked though, because we havent upgraded our attack to the level needed to really get the best out of this team and its ability.

I do think we still need an upgrade on Martinelli and Havertz. Players who can come in and play consistent at a high level in those positions.

This team will reach its peak once we are winning games like the recent Newcastle away game. Namely playing with no idea to get into good areas enough.... but when getting into those Martinelli and Havertz positions (they got into), we score and win the game.

 

[db10_therza]

I do think we still need an upgrade on Martinelli and Havertz. Players who can come in and play consistent at a high level in those positions.

You think our Midfield is fine??

 

[SA Gunner]

You think our Midfield is fine??

Yes I do, for the moment at least.

We already have in house solutions to both TP and Ødegaard, in Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri. I dont want to sound deluded so early in the day but hey **** it. Nwaneri is our Musiala, and hopefully can be as consistently good in time.

Ødegaard, Rice, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly, with back ups of TP, Jorginho, Merino is good for this season. We obviously have to replace the older guys, and seemingly Merino for the moment, sooner rather than later as well. Dont forget that we have that other kid Salah-Eddine coming through, as well as that Max Dowman kid slightly further behind. Of course @MutableEarth is the authority on these things, so he could advise more in that regard.

The areas where we are short are upfront. We need a similar level of investment there, as we've done with our defensive line.

 

[Dokaka]

You think our Midfield is fine??

You can play around a less technical midfield if you have proper killers up front. Liverpool were flying with Henderson, Fabinho and Wijnaldum, hardly a collection of top class technicians.

Whether you can do that with the football Arteta insists on playing is a different story of course.

 

[OnlyOne]

There isn’t a manager who gets us closer to the title.

 

[El Duderino]

Like what someone said before the worry is that he is not growing as a manager, the same issues of why we missed out on top 4 in 21/22 and the title runs the last 2 years are still there now but it seems worse because teams are catching up to how he sets up which has become more and more risk averse.

This time last year when we started that bad run he said himself if we don't get better in the boxes we won't win anything well fast forward 12 months and what has he done for us to get better in the boxes? Nothing.

The lack of priority in the attack in both chance creation and chance conversion has been alarming and i don't have any faith that this manager can change in that regard.

I don't go into any game with confidence no matter who we play as you have to score goals to win and i don't know where the next goal is coming from

And the worst thing about this is Man City of clearly taken a step back atm but it won't be us that reap the benefits from that it will be Liverpool.

[London Colney, Meeting room. Around noon in the UK]

Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta sits at the head of the conference room table, flanked by some of his coaching staff and the newly appointed Sporting Director Carlos Cuesta.

Displayed on the television set before him is a pixelated Josh Kroenke over Zoom.

It's time to plan for the summer transfer window ahead of them after a not so great third place finish in the Premier league.

[Arteta]
"Josh, bubby, I swear the next set of hybrid defenders are the ones who'll finally unlock the attack!

See? I even got an injury inspection done and they shouldn't break down like the past 6 we got!"

[A sleepy and uninterested Josh Kroenke let's out a large yawn]

Yeah, yeah, fine whatever. Just make sure I can write this off along with the new Trump tax cuts for the wealthy or that the player isn't Chinese so we don't have to pay the 500% tariff on him.

I got to go now, Miguel. Those ranches ain't going to buy themselves.

[Scene]

 

[db10_therza]

You can play around a less technical midfield if you have proper killers up front. Liverpool were flying with Henderson, Fabinho and Wijnaldum, hardly a collection of top class technicians.

Whether you can do that with the football Arteta insists on playing is a different story of course.

Yeah I don’t see that working with us. It would also mean we have to fork out 200m+ on 2 attackers as opposed to 100m on one elite midfielder.

 

[El Duderino]

There isn’t a manager who gets us closer to the title.

What if he's taller and has a better reach?

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Arteta got scared of man city imo he just changed all his approach after that 22 season we were flying offensively helped by Martinelli and Jesus been on form but he changed his approach he opted to not concede goals and win game by 1-2 goals still that fair but you have to balance the team we just focused on one thing and ignore to refresh our attack our team now have more players defensive minded than attacking minded

Every summer we looking for winger and cf we end up signing neither and this season we made not good decision by letting Fabio and ESR go without a ready replacement it didn't worry me first but now this decision becoming more dumb

Both edu and Mikel hold responsibility you can't depend on few players when you want to compete injures happen drop of form too.

 

[High Elbow]

Managed to get xhaka to play well for half a season until teams worked us out. Bought havertz to replace him, then bought merino to replace havertz who is now a striker. Now looks like havertz is better than merino in that position from the few games i've watched. I guess my question is whats his obsession with this left 8 position? Does the position need to have a player of a certain profile which includes having everything except even a little bit of flair?

Being too rigid with player perceptions and patterns of play will ultimately be his downfall. We become way too predictable sometimes. I dont think we'd be too much worse off this season if we just played and offensive game and let other teams worry about stopping us instead of the othe way around. We'd win most games just by having more quality than the opposition. Of course not every game will be that simple especially away from home and that's where his in game management should come in. His default for every away game seems to be conservative and predictable. This mindset seems to have crept into our home games too in the 2nd half if we get even a slender 1 goal lead even against teams we should be blowing away. Even if we had a full team against liverpool we still would've played the same way against liverpool in that 2nd half. Make no mistake!

 

[SA Gunner]

You can play around a less technical midfield if you have proper killers up front. Liverpool were flying with Henderson, Fabinho and Wijnaldum, hardly a collection of top class technicians.

Whether you can do that with the football Arteta insists on playing is a different story of course.

This is what we were trying to do these last weeks, and you see it in the directness statistics. Essentially be as workmanlike as possible and then creating chances with our physicality and OOP game, like Liverpool did so well in their title winning season.

The problem however is that when this stops working or getting you into the right areas consistently, you need to reintroduce that more patient play in order to manipulate and break down your opponent. This is where Arteta missed a trick by not bringing Nwaneri in sooner. And made worse by the departures of Smith Rowe and Vieira in the summer.

 

[El Duderino]

Yeah I don’t see that working with us. It would also mean we have to fork out 200m+ on 2 attackers as opposed to 100m on one elite midfielder.

Merino seems very sluggish, have a hard time seeing him on a high intensity, up and down press. Havertz in midfield is a no go.

Partey is getting injured as soon as the extension is signed and I don't see MSL or Ethan featuring enough on rotation next year.

Which means I can once again beat the dead horse thst is the joke that our first summer signing will be another fullback.

 

[db10_therza]

Yes I do, for the moment at least.

We already have in house solutions to both TP and Ødegaard, in Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri. I dont want to sound deluded so early in the day but hey **** it. Nwaneri is our Musiala, and hopefully can be as consistently good in time.

Ødegaard, Rice, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly, with back ups of TP, Jorginho, Merino is good for this season. We obviously have to replace the older guys, and seemingly Merino for the moment, sooner rather than later as well. Dont forget that we have that other kid Salah-Eddine coming through, as well as that Max Dowman kid slightly further behind. Of course @MutableEarth is the authority on these things, so he could advise more in that regard.

The areas where we are short are upfront. We need a similar level of investment there, as we've done with our defensive line.

I’d go along with this if I thought Arteta was willing to play Nwanweri and Ødegaard together in midfield with Ode dropping deeper and becoming our b2b tenpo controller but I haven’t seen anything to suggest that.

 

[Riou]

If people find Artetas personality grating, wait until they get a load of Nagelsman.

No gonna lie...

...kinda want an actual adult to manage us next.