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I'm basically giving Arteta this season. If he delivers Champions League Football then he should be given next season. I want to see progress too, more wins, less losses.
Arteta has plenty of faults and he probably isn't the man to take us back to the top, but he should be given this season to see how things pan out.
If he does not deliver Champions League football then he should be fired.
:gp:
That’s where I am. There has been progress, we can debate whether it’s been quick enough but it’s been there. He’s now got a young squad who seem to buy in to his methods, so we need to see more progress this year. If we don’t then I won’t bear him any ill will. I basically like him and he was always a bit of a punt.
I'm giving the next guy 3 wins in a row and a 98 million quid transfer coup - at the VERY least. Before I cream my pants again.Quote:
Originally Posted by selassie
Around and around.
Good for you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Decided to wait a couple of days before commenting. Selassie - good to see you on form mate. Agree with much of what you have said.
I still feel gutted at the loss to those wankers, and the manner of it, but I want to try to be balanced here.
First the bad. We were undone by a team that was more effective and efficient than we were. Domminating possessions and controlling the game for long periods is all weel and good. But if we want to beat top teams - and in terms of the players at their disposal and recent upswing in form, Manure are a top team - we cannot afford to squander gilt-edged goal chances. We have to be more ruthless. For me, this is a team responsibility, and looking at individual errors as the reason for our loss is IMO misleading. Every team makes individual errors in every game.
The other issue I have been thinking about is emotional game state. The players need cooler heads in the big moments. If anything, they tried too hard once we were 2-1 down. In a sense this not unexpected given their average age. However the same goes for Arteta. I think the triple substitution was partly down to Arteta getting carried away with the occasion. This tendency was also on show memorably at the Liverpool Arsenal EPL game last season, with similar detrimental consequences for his team. But we have to remember that our manager is also relatively inexperienced.
Now the balance. Anyone expecting us to go to OT against a newly confident team full of talent and not find it difficult was naive. In the mood they were in and with a home crowd influencing the referee I think that all of our 'competitors' bar Citeh would have come unstuck. I was hoping for a draw, and our performance deserved this. Martinelli's goal should have stuck - it was a nonsense to have this chalked off when the ref saw Odegard's foul and waved play on. Had it done so it was a totally different game as Manure's counter-attacking plan would have been scuppered and they would have had to play higher up the pitch. The triple sub aside, IMO it was right for us to keep attacking for another goal after going 2-1 down. Yes we were keeping a high line that made us vulnerable but their 3rd goal is what can happen when you are chasing a game - not much more than that. I'm not going to stress about the eventual scoreline for thsi reason.
Finally - and yes we can debate transfer issues, but I don't think these are really part of a post game analysis - we went into this game missing our first choice and back up DM's, and against United this was always going to hurt. Would Manure have won without Fernandes or Eriksson? People are entitled to go to town on the manager, but I thought we performed well playing our 3rd choice CM (Lokonga), and ultimately, I don't even think that this is why we lost the match.
So small margins really, and while of course its top 4 or bust this season, I'm not going to ignore our great start to the season and write off the rest of it after a bum result - however much the pundits' narrative is otherwise.
I’m kind of 95% in agreement with what you’ve saidQuote:
Originally Posted by IBK
There are a couple of slight variances on my part. One the game wasn’t difficult, United were utterly pathetic not a single one of their players deserved more than a 5 with the exception of maybe Antony. But the game proved beyond any doubt what an utter liability Granit Xhaka is. They scored three goals as a result of having the freedom of Old Trafford. Other than that I actually genuinely think Bournemouth gave us a harder time than United. We naively pushed up too high because Arteta was incensed by the VAR decision (sorry it was a foul) and his arrogance refused to let us slow thing downs when we’d got ourselves back into the game.
We are as we know very wasteful in front of goal and we don’t counter attack well, United were able to score three goals under zero pressure.
Nice and balanced.Quote:
Originally Posted by IBK
I think the simple reality is that if Arsenal had just one more player who had a real cutting edge to them in front of goal they'd have probably won this game and many other games they lose points in.
It's a pretty huge problem for them.
:gp:Quote:
Originally Posted by IBK
Great analysis as always IBK, nice seeing you on here.
Only seen a few highlights. Bit annoyed by their 3rd goal. You can't play a line that high, it's too easy to spring as people can't be offside in their own half. That was pretty naive.
it's like people say, we got over excited and were pressing forward including the defence - Arteta needs to have them playing more sensibly there - as i said before the game I could take a defeat by the odd goal, as the game then still looks close, but they were allowed to make it a really convincing winQuote:
Originally Posted by Letters