Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[A_G]

@American_Gooner can you save this in a draft somewhere? Thanks.

 

[MikelHadADream]

I really want Arteta to succeed here but even with the win I came away from the match with more doubts than answers.

I think to me it largely boils down to game management and being too negative and reactionary.

After we went 1-0 up we should have really gone for Benfica's throat and we could have put the tie to bed before HT. Yet we pretty much sat back, almost happy to take the 1-0 score line to HT. You deserve to get punished when you have that sort of mentality.

This season it's often felt to me that our main point of focus is to nullify the opponents as an attacking threat. Fair enough against the likes of Man City, who are just better than us man for man, but not against the likes of Benfica. It's way too timid.

We don't have the best squad in the world, fair enough, but offensively we've got dangerous players in Auba, Saka, ESR, Ødegaard, KT etc. I want us to be setting the tone and tempo of most matches and take it to the opposition first and foremost. Make them worry about how we can hurt them rather than vice verse.

To be fair I think since the Chelsea game we've been doing that. We've been the better team or at least equal to the opposition in every game bar the City, Southampton (cup) and possibly Villa game. We're still obviously no where near where we have to be, but at least there has been some progress in that regard.

That being said he had to win tonight, going out to Benfica would have been unacceptable.

 

[ThisFather]

Emery destroyed these kind of teams in the Europa League. How on earth are we worse with a better squad???

 

[Hleb's Sirush]

@HairSprayGooners @Riou

'Just Do It'. It always surprises me the inspiration for those words came from a multiple murderer.

 

[Riou]

@HairSprayGooners @Riou

Taking this as an avi for a bit!

 

[Riou]

"I'm gonna tell you all, with a tear in my eye, this is the greatest moment of my life..."

Mikel Arteta (mainly the FA Cup final, but also a little tonight)

 

[Iceman10]

It’s a vicious cycle the more Pepe, Laca, and Martinelli are kept on the sidelines as they are right now, and what happened with AMN earlier. I don’t criticise the starting line up so much (Benfica) although I would have gone with only one of ESR and Ødegaard for the start, and still don’t know why Willian (sub) is preferred ahead of other players. It was a decent pass by Willian, but that’s all it was, followed by a special shot on goal by Tierney.

I imagine there will be rotation for the LCFC match where some players will come in, but if we played only two out of three of Saka/ESR/Ødegaard every match there wouldn’t be so much differential between our strongest and weakest teams used in rotation. Should we really be needing all three players to be beating Benfica? I don’t think so. It is more to do with overall “system” issues with backpasses and the lack of directness with the style of play.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

We scored three well worked goals and somehow it is individual brilliance?

Those are team goals, the kind of goals a patient possession, juego de posición team scores...patient possession, work ball into interesting areas, have a good final ball and finish...such dismissive, tendentious nonsense to just tack it up to individual brilliance, you don't score a goal without a bit of quality like there was in all three, and if you do from 'individual brilliance' or 'luck' it looks either like Lacazette's goal from long range (forget against who, I think at the end of the season last?) or Gabriel's header on a corner against Wolves in the first loss.

 

[DubbedTheNewWenger]

Arteta's subs and pushing Saka back into right back sums him up.
A defensive coward who's more preoccupied with the opponent rather than his own team's strengths. Basically the opposite of Wenger.
Clueless.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

Arteta's subs and pushing Saka back into right back sums him up.
A defensive coward who's more preoccupied with the opponent rather than his own team's strengths. Basically the opposite of Wenger.
Clueless.

Pushing Saka to ""RB"" (I put it in quotes because it was basically leaving him in the same position and putting another striker on the pitch) was literally the most offensive and attacking substitution he could've made, and it resulted in the winning goal...

 

[DubbedTheNewWenger]

Pushing Saka to ""RB"" (I put it in quotes because it was basically leaving him in the same position and putting another striker on the pitch) was literally the most offensive and attacking substitution he could've made, and it resulted in the winning goal...

It resulted in a goal when Saka got into, wait for it, the final third of the pitch. Proving my point exactly.
Why push your most efficient attacker further back the pitch.

Give it a rest. And stop rimming Paelladyce off. The guy is a fraud.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

It resulted in a goal when Saka got into, wait for it, the final third of the pitch. Proving my point exactly.

How does it prove your point, lol? Saka was always going to get into those positions, Arteta was never moving him deep into the pitch when looking desperately for a goal, the sub changed nothing except for, wait for it, allowing an extra body in the box, which conveniently allows for Auba to make precisely the type of back post run which Saka found him at and he scored from



Palleadyce

 

[DUFFMAN]

Arteta's subs and pushing Saka back into right back sums him up.
A defensive coward who's more preoccupied with the opponent rather than his own team's strengths. Basically the opposite of Wenger.
Clueless.

LOL. Saka set up the winner from the opposite end of the pitch.

What are you on about???

 

[A_G]

Emery destroyed these kind of teams in the Europa League. How on earth are we worse with a better squad???

Emery lost the first leg to BATE Borisov and had a bad result against Rennes too.

 

[Finesse]

Pushing Saka to ""RB"" (I put it in quotes because it was basically leaving him in the same position and putting another striker on the pitch) was literally the most offensive and attacking substitution he could've made, and it resulted in the winning goal...

Sometimes you wonder if these are bots or humans making football opinions. Getting a defender off and bring on a striker is cowardice. Even though Saka from the same position provided the winner. The hatred for the Manager out-ways the objectivity on here.

 

[DUFFMAN]

It resulted in a goal when Saka got into, wait for it, the final third of the pitch. Proving my point exactly.
Why push your most efficient attacker further back the pitch.

Give it a rest. And stop rimming Paelladyce off. The guy is a fraud.

The Arteta reasons to hate him get more ridiculous by the day.

He literally made subs that won us the tie after been 2 goals down.

And you tell us he should have done something different when we're were 2 goals down that MIGHT have won the tie

 

[DUFFMAN]

Sometimes you wonder if these are bots or humans making football opinions. Getting a defender off and bring on a striker is cowardice. Even though Saka from the same position provided the winner. The hatred for the Manager out-ways the objectivity on here.

I'm starting to think the forum has been infiltrated by Sp**s to Stoke up tension.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Criticizing Arteta for bringing on Willian instead of Pepe or Martinelli is one thing. I can at least understand the thought process.

Criticizing Arteta for pushing Saka to RB when you've taken Bellerin off for Laca is ridiculous. It was an obviously attacking move given the state of the game and the time remaining.

Saka was only nominally a RB for those 12 minutes anyway, he was playing on the right wing in reality.

 

[DubbedTheNewWenger]

How does it prove your point, lol? Saka was always going to get into those positions, Arteta was never moving him deep into the pitch when looking desperately for a goal, the sub changed nothing except for, wait for it, allowing an extra body in the box, which conveniently allows for Auba to make precisely the type of back post run which Saka found him at and he scored from



Palleadyce

My days.
You really are grasping at straws ain't you. If Arteta possessed a modicum of footballing intelligence he'd simply take off Ødegård who was having a shocker for Laca. He could play with two strikers that way.
If I'd take someone else off after that it would be Xhaka a CM rather than a RB.

In fact taking off Bellerin and bringing on a striker actually threw our momentum off. Arteta changed our whole shape.

My point was simple. Saka was efficient in the final third why push him back and kill the flow?

 

[Finesse]

My days.
You really are grasping at straws ain't you. If Arteta possessed a modicum of footballing intelligence he'd simply take off Ødegård who was having a shocker for Laca. He could play with two strikers that way.
If I'd take someone else off after that it would be Xhaka a CM rather than a RB.

In fact taking off Bellerin and bringing on a striker actually threw our momentum off. Arteta changed our whole shape.

My point was simple. Saka was efficient in the final third why push him back and kill the flow?

Haha. Modicum of football intelligence! This got me. Hilarious.