I used the expression yesterday that talk of tactics was arranging deckchairs on the titanic and I stick by that. The mistake we made was assuming that the same players who got us 91 goals was it last season would be able to repeat that feat and that’s before we ran them into the ground

Comparing our plight to Man City’s which IBK has done I find particularly curious as City haven’t to my mind really experienced a problem with breaking teams down, their problem is in keeping goals out at the other end. And that is down to the fact that they are no longer being protected by the best defensive midfielder in the world.


If the argument is that possession based football is dull, can be vulnerable to teams that counter attack well etc…I mean that’s obvious isn’t it? It’s not a revelation that’s only become true this season. There isn’t an infallible tactic.


The irony of Arteta’s wish to make sure we don’t ship goals is that shipping goals on the counter becomes more likely when you do not have efficient chance makers and goal scorers because the absence of that forces you to overcommit. Doubly so when your first choice front three is all on the injury table. We all I think agree that we should make more of counter attacks and last season in the second half anyway it’s fair to say we did.


Both our wingers would make a run even before Raya intercepted a cross into the box and would throw the ball out for them to break.


The problem this season is we find it harder to take the lead to begin with. Why? A) for some reason I think players are missing chances that they’d otherwise score and B) Teams are better at working out how to neutralise us at set pieces (last time we scored from a set piece was January 1st)

The fact is the only way we are going to be able to play more direct is if teams come out and attack us to begin with, which they are under no obligation to do and if they are sensible they won’t (Palace and City it turns out aren’t sensible) so the talk of being more direct and quick is kind of academic.

Someone here accused MLS of dithering on the ball, it’s a fair criticism I guess but players dither on the ball when they aren’t confident in possession. They are half a second too slow in deciding whether to make a pass or whether to run another few yards with the ball. That kind of instinct is something you develop as a teenager you either have it or you don’t, and frankly players like MLS, Rice etc don’t. Rice is someone built to instinctively read danger and put out fires, his reading of the game doesn’t extend to being able to play an exact pass and know someone will be on the end of it.

Tactically it’s unnecessary to play two defensive midfielders against West Ham, in reality we don’t have the luxury of remedying that situation currently.