Mikel Arteta Thread

[GP]

Love how he beats Carrick in literally every category they list.

Yeah he's really been fantastic.

[LDG]

he's doing ok in his role, which is not his natural position but it is an area we could definitely improve on.

Not trying to nit-pick at all here....but who do you think would be better at the role?

Quite clearly there are more talented players out there, but in that role, and with the game we play? There can only be a handful of players able to sustain that level of consistency accross a whole season.....

We're talking about a position where the player has to be pretty exceptional. It demands touch, eye for a pass (long, short, sideways, forwards), ability to read the game, tackle, set the tempo, workrate.....it is the hardest position on the pitch to play.

[GP]

Not trying to nit-pick at all here....but who do you think would be better at the role?

Quite clearly there are more talented players out there, but in that role, and with the game we play? There can only be a handful of players able to sustain that level of consistency accross a whole season.....

We're talking about a position where the player has to be pretty exceptional. It demands touch, eye for a pass (long, short, sideways, forwards), ability to read the game, tackle, set the tempo, workrate.....it is the hardest position on the pitch to play.

Yeah but he's not racking up 200 assists so he must be shit.

[Kano]

Not trying to nit-pick at all here....but who do you think would be better at the role?

Quite clearly there are more talented players out there, but in that role, and with the game we play? There can only be a handful of players able to sustain that level of consistency accross a whole season.....

We're talking about a position where the player has to be pretty exceptional. It demands touch, eye for a pass (long, short, sideways, forwards), ability to read the game, tackle, set the tempo, workrate.....it is the hardest position on the pitch to play.

i'm not so sure because on that basis, we would struggle to ever replace him. for me he does a 'job' in that role and in most cases does it pretty well but we definitely lack a bit more muscle there. now that doesn't mean some sort of 10ft mythical beast that a lot of people seem to think is the atypical deep lying player but someone with a better engine and who doesn't always go for the safe option (which i think is because mikel is not completely comfortable playing there, so we lose some of that dynamic drive from the back at times).

there have been times when the balance with jack/ramz/carz has been completely off and our midfield has looked at a complete loss as to what to do next. arteta is a good player, even at AM he is good. but is good, 'good' enough if we want this team/squad to evolve. i wouldn't say he is right at the top of the list right now in terms of people to remove but if we were serious (which i'm not convinced of) about doing more than fourth, then we should be looking to upgrade on a more specialised, box-to-box player from deep.

[Marc Overmars]

El Statinho.

[Özim]

Prefer him in an attacking role which is what he's best at, the position he's played in should be reserved for someone who's natural position it is, IMO someone more physical and powerful.

He's totally wasted in that role.

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

arteta.

people who believe he's good are clearly thickos that read The Sun.

[GP]

yoghurt/10

[Joker]

I don't think he's a bad player but Tuffnutz is right in saying that ideally, we'd get a more mobile player in there who is better at closing down the opposition, making interceptions and in general dictating the tempo of our game more. Arteta doesn't really do that, he's a neat and tidy passer but he fails to really set the tone for us. Maybe you can counter that by saying that should be Wilshere's responsibility, but when he's not available we need others to step up to the plate.

[LDG]

I don't think he's a bad player but Tuffnutz is right in saying that ideally, we'd get a more mobile player in there who is better at closing down the opposition, making interceptions and in general dictating the tempo of our game more. Arteta doesn't really do that, he's a neat and tidy passer but he fails to really set the tone for us. Maybe you can counter that by saying that should be Wilshere's responsibility, but when he's not available we need others to step up to the plate.

I think if you bring in the type of player both you and Terry say, then we change our style of play completely.

Incidentally, I happen to prefer that style too, but I'm assuming we're going to be set up to play the style Wenget seems to prefer nowadays....