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Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?
- Thread starter OnlyOne
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LookingForEric
Patronize me again and I'll destroy you 😖
Country: Northern Ireland
People are acting as if the season is over. Lads, we have a fogggging champions league quarter final tomorrow?! There’s SIX league games left.
DJ_Markstar
Based and Artetapilled
Player:Martinelli
Two consecutive titles races in a row, I'm backing him until we don't look like we could win the league. Its not like we're up against jokers either, if we were losing the title to Leicester City or whoever the context would be very different.
Country: South Africa
Player:Nketiah
This is the next level for our team I'd say. Being able to bring in a killer upfront, but also add more to our creative game.
Teams know exactly what we are doing, they can track it in their video analysis pre and post game. The reason why they cant do much to stop it is because it happens automatically and before you can react the chance to react is gone and the gap has been created and likely exploited.
What teams are now doing is completely compacting the spaces between their lines, and have added the offside trap to that. Having to play through a midblock and stay onside is a good way to slow us down, particularly if we dont have enough line beaters upfront. This is one of the last things teams can do to really slow us down, and I expect this to be addressed over the summer.
lomekian
Essays are my thing
Bar Saka, all our forwards are streaky as hell, and confidence finishers. In our amazing run against the bottom feeders and WHU, we were banging in half chances like it was nothing. Come tighter games, the likes of Jesus, Havertz and of late even Ode & Martinelli have been wasteful. Not criminally so, but ultimately what decides trophies between well matched teams is who takes their half chances and who doesn't when the pressure is on.
I don't blame the players or the staff. Killers in front of goal, whether at CF or wide or from deeper are hard to come buy, and even more so if you are at a level where they need to impact general play as well. Bar Jesus none of our guys are aggregate bad finishers. But Saka is the only one who frequently scores in the tightest games or vs the hardest opponents.
Of course, measuring 'clutch' finishers is hard to do before they prove themselves at that level and become prohobitively expensive.
El Realista
Active Member
Country: Spain
Games did cost us the league:
1. 2-2 draw v Fulham
2. 2-2 draw v Sp**s
3. 2-0 loss v Villa
4. 2-0 loss v West Ham
5. 2-1 loss v Fulham
I am here to expose Arteta's mistakes so I have my own conclusions, make your own. What I see is patterns. I show what some don't remember about the manager, his stubbornness and how he bottled last season (Partey RB) and now this one because he went so long with an idea didn't work and experiments in the worse moment for that.
1. Partey RB, Arteta still trying what made us lose the league last season. Havertz LCM experiment started
2. Zinchenko is back, we still had no CF, and Arteta was trying with Viera.
3. Zinchenko LB exposed, GJ back to CF and Havertz LCM. This was peak of his Havertz late runs experiment, also our poor form started with this.
4. Everything remains the same but Havertz. Arteta tried with Trossard doing that SS role he was obsessed with Havertz instead of using Jorge to as mid to help Rice control the game.
5. Arteta still trying with Havertz in the middle, putting Eddie instead of him in top. Team unbalanced as result.
6. The more recent, after a lot of games of solid defensive games with Kiwi left, Jorginho displaying great games, Partey back and Havertz doing good job as CF.... suddenly our manager decided to go back to exactly the same made us lose against Villa. Back to GJ CF, Zinchenko LB exposed and the worst one Havertz LCM and Rice alone giving nothing because he is not enough progressive.
1. 2-2 draw v Fulham
2. 2-2 draw v Sp**s
3. 2-0 loss v Villa
4. 2-0 loss v West Ham
5. 2-1 loss v Fulham
I am here to expose Arteta's mistakes so I have my own conclusions, make your own. What I see is patterns. I show what some don't remember about the manager, his stubbornness and how he bottled last season (Partey RB) and now this one because he went so long with an idea didn't work and experiments in the worse moment for that.
1. Partey RB, Arteta still trying what made us lose the league last season. Havertz LCM experiment started
2. Zinchenko is back, we still had no CF, and Arteta was trying with Viera.
3. Zinchenko LB exposed, GJ back to CF and Havertz LCM. This was peak of his Havertz late runs experiment, also our poor form started with this.
4. Everything remains the same but Havertz. Arteta tried with Trossard doing that SS role he was obsessed with Havertz instead of using Jorge to as mid to help Rice control the game.
5. Arteta still trying with Havertz in the middle, putting Eddie instead of him in top. Team unbalanced as result.
6. The more recent, after a lot of games of solid defensive games with Kiwi left, Jorginho displaying great games, Partey back and Havertz doing good job as CF.... suddenly our manager decided to go back to exactly the same made us lose against Villa. Back to GJ CF, Zinchenko LB exposed and the worst one Havertz LCM and Rice alone giving nothing because he is not enough progressive.
HighburyHigh
Active Member
Country: England
As soon as I saw the name Nketiah that was enough for me to quit reading.
DJ_Markstar
Based and Artetapilled
Player:Martinelli
El Realista to replace Tets 2024
grange
Losing my brain cells 🥸
Country: USA
Player:Havertz
This is good stuff although I don't entirely agree with your conclusions. For instance, Partey made two appearances at RB last season so that's hardly enough sample size to claim Arteta bottled because of Partey in that position. Xhaka was moved to LB in an emergency two seasons ago when he lost the plot in trying to get 4th but even then that was for a game or two which isn't enough sample size to draw conclusions. Every manager makes mistakes. We're dealing with a financially doped juggernaut so his mistakes will be placed under a microscope due to the requirement of having to be near perfect over the course of 38 games in order to win this league.
Legend14
Established Member
Didn’t like the lineup yesterday, but we still should have put it away in the first half.
Didn’t like the energy in the second half, we were losing each battle. This is the disappointment.
Given our schedule, we were bound to not win all of the remaining matches. The real issue is that City do not lose. All this bottle job talk is ridiculous, we are just not there yet, no team is at City level so every team will be second best.
Didn’t like the energy in the second half, we were losing each battle. This is the disappointment.
Given our schedule, we were bound to not win all of the remaining matches. The real issue is that City do not lose. All this bottle job talk is ridiculous, we are just not there yet, no team is at City level so every team will be second best.
That renamed the thread title, huh?
My puns are much more crass.
Tl;dr If he hadn't punted Turner we'd be champions.
Country: Bangladesh
Player:Martinelli
Look, I think it’s worth analysing things like this so don’t take this the wrong way.
But it’s not a “bad” thing at all for our manager (or any manager) to continue to try different line ups and tactics and formations in the first half of the season in my opinion.
It keeps things fresh and it keeps opponents guessing and makes it harder for them to find “the one” game plan that best nullifies our game. This is exactly how we managed to string together our best run in the second half of the season when results matter the most.
Pep does exactly the same thing - and it’s a big part of why Man City are notorious for being incredible finishers imo.
The caveat here is that I don’t think you should keep fking around and finding out with 6 games left of the season. But we’re also in an awkward position because that **** conceicao gave the world a playbook on how to effectively nullify us at the worst possible time.
Every system has a weak spot and an effective counter, it’s simply not possible to have an all conquering style. Ultimately the only thing that you can never counter is individual brilliance. What city has in spades, and we don’t, is this mercurial quality. We have a team of Goose (geese?) without any Maverick. (Ok that’s harsh as I think Saka could be that guy someday but he isn’t yet).
Arteta’s tactics and coaching have done an incredible job at lifting the performances of the team to a level where we really do have to start applying @Trilly ’s “Arteta Tax” on some of our players - they aren’t as good in clutch moments as some of the best of their counterparts, regardless of how well they function in his system. Havertz is the quintessential example of a player who is putting up numbers way above his level because of the system he plays in.
Adding individual brilliance needs to be the final part of this fking process, both for my blood pressure and for our quest for trophies.
If we spend another summer buying “systems players” who can fill in at 15 different positions on the pitch without being truly world class in one well defined role then I worry we may see a repeat next season where we ultimately fall short in the clutch moments when you need more than just tactics and coaching.
The lack of links to a world class CM really worry me. At this stage last year I’m sure the Rice links were already in overdrive.
Country: England
I took Arteta tax from you I’m sure? Think I described the effect but you coined that
I’ve come a long way from not rating the guy to openly telling people at the barbershop the other day that “Havertz isn’t that good, it’s just Arteta tax”
Country: Bangladesh
Player:Martinelli
I took Arteta tax from you I’m sure? Think I described the effect but you coined that
I’ve come a long way from not rating the guy to openly telling people at the barbershop the other day that “Havertz isn’t that good, it’s just Arteta tax”
lol possibly it was one of those things where there was planetary alignment and we were just in sync lol. In any case I don’t have the street cred to make something take off like that so I’ll be the man behind the curtain for this if that’s what is needed
You’ve been right on a lot of your calls on the players anyway. Like foden vs saka for example, I’m not saying Foden is better all round (I still don’t think he is) but he is definitely more capable of He is Him moments than Bukayo and that’s basically what we lack right now.
You definitely coined xHim anyway. Or you said it and @OnlyOne coined it whatever lol
Thinking about it what we have are actually some counter clutch players - when the big moments come you can almost guarantee that they will be found wanting. The hate Zinchenko and Jesus are getting of late is because of this reason. Zinny is a fine technician but you would bet your house on him ****ting the bed when the chips are down and that’s why he’s getting rounded on. Not because of that one game or one slip up, but because of how bloody predictable it all is. That’s why he’s copping it while Trossard is relatively unscathed despite that miss.
Fallout
Active Member
My honest assessment is we ran out of steam in the second half
Too many tired legs to maintain the press cohesively, win duels, and be precise in possession
Ultimately this exposed where our weaknesses lie in terms of individuals / roster composition
It feels very much like what transpired in the last two seasons
Our next evolution as a team has to be bringing in a few more top players to rotate with our core, or displace our core - hence creating more alternatives that we can trust over 38 games
Right now we are being let down by the fact that so many players are not where they need to be to contribute / ease the burden:
Nketiah
Nelson
ESR
Vieira
Partey
Tomi
This is where Arteta is deficient vs. Pep -- whether it's a player talent issue or a managerial issue or both is up for debate, but it's going to be hard to beat City consistently until we fix it
Too many tired legs to maintain the press cohesively, win duels, and be precise in possession
Ultimately this exposed where our weaknesses lie in terms of individuals / roster composition
It feels very much like what transpired in the last two seasons
Our next evolution as a team has to be bringing in a few more top players to rotate with our core, or displace our core - hence creating more alternatives that we can trust over 38 games
Right now we are being let down by the fact that so many players are not where they need to be to contribute / ease the burden:
Nketiah
Nelson
ESR
Vieira
Partey
Tomi
This is where Arteta is deficient vs. Pep -- whether it's a player talent issue or a managerial issue or both is up for debate, but it's going to be hard to beat City consistently until we fix it
Country: England
Country: England
I do agree with this overall, and actually personally, I'd still probably back him even if we dropped into top 4 on an "off year".
I do have my grievances with Arteta sometimes but I think he's proven this year that he's a superb manager.
However, however, however.......I hope the bolded part wasn't a dig at Wenger
Nunowoolmez
Established Member
DJ_Markstar
Based and Artetapilled
Player:Martinelli
I do agree with this overall, and actually personally, I'd still probably back him even if we dropped into top 4 on an "off year".
I do have my grievances with Arteta sometimes but I think he's proven this year that he's a superb manager.
However, however, however.......I hope the bolded part wasn't a dig at Wenger
It wasn't a dig at Wenger in the sense that I want to have digs at Wenger, more that even great managers struggle to compete when not funded properly, you'd have to imagine that if Wenger had a decent budget in that time period he'd have destroyed Leicester in that title race - seem to see budgets used to detract from the success of managers a lot and its kinda weird honestly. Even guys like Maureen and Fungus needed a budget to regularly win things.
