He may be having to un-train them before he can get down to training them. A lot of bad habits and bad attitudes picked up over the years. This could be our wax-on, wax-off period, maybe? Then paint a few fences, clean a car and suddenly we'll spring into action and beat the shit out of everyone. Maybe.Originally Posted by Mac76
It might not be that though. Because we aren't even all that with wax.
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There was a good interview with Joe Montemurro (manager of the women's team) earlier this year where he made the point that, before any coach can get players to buy into new ideas, you first have to give them an insurance policy: a safety net of sorts that they can comfortably fall back on if they start losing control of a game.
If you ask me it looks like something like this has been going on since the start - the team was structurally weak and it was mentally weak when Arteta picked it up, and priority #1 has been to (re)learn how to set ourselves up so we don't get pounded on with every break. Through that we restore the confidence we need to start working on more complex attacking plays, but first we need to work on not falling to pieces any time we lose possession, or someone ups the tempo.
Whatever 'Artetaball' looks like, I'm not sure we've actually seen it in any serious way yet - he's got us looking more solid against most opponents, and he's given us a few plays that we can keep rolling out to score goals, but I don't think the real attacking work will start until he's added a middle to his team.
I hope there is more to come and evolve that’s for sure. Right now I can’t help but think this is who Mikel is as a coach, I mean he was very much a safety first player too, not that it automatically means that’s who he’ll be as a coach but I can’t say I’ve watched many games under him and felt like we saw a well balanced performance.
Happy to give the benefit of the doubt until he can get some new midfield options in at least though.
Last edited by Marc Overmars; 29-09-2020 at 11:47 AM.
I think Mikel is just working with what he has and trying to put some sort of system in place, safety first approach. We basically have a bunch of midfielders who are slow and unable to beat the press, these midfielders were getting dominated by pretty much every other teams midfield last season. IF Aouar and Partey come in then I think we will see a big difference in our approach, I mean look at the gap in quality between those and the likes of Xhaka and Elneny, our Midfield is an absolute mess, how we even got to this state i do not know.
Whereas Wenger was off somewhere in la-la land, and Emery still thought he was managing a big club with big players and a big club mentality, seems like Arteta gets the reality and isn't trying for too much beyond the bog standard basics for now. And it might be like that for several seasons, we aren't there yet. Football's a tough game when you're up against a determined and organised opponent, even if individually they are all a bit pants. Maybe it's the necessary work that has to happen before anything else and a real team will emerge, maybe it's all these wasters can manage in return for their six figure a week payoff. Either way, so dull to watch.
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None of that's any excuse to simply wave the white flag to Liverpool like we did on Monday, Auba muat really regretting signing that new deal now he's seen the limit of Arteta's ambition in a game like that is simply to keep the size of the defeat down...
I don't think that's true at all.
NOTE: The location of this post has been moved and the thread title (which was previously Wenger is Leaving) has been manipulated by a notorious pro-Wenger moderator. What was previously a message that contained no profanity and made a comment on a real life event has now been manipulated by a deliberately provocative title. An old and crude propaganda and censorship technique.
Yeah Auba must really be kicking himself getting £300k+ this week.
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