Quote Originally Posted by IBK View Post
A fair counter. And I appreciate of course that we have been hurt by injuries. But I don't think your analysis of our players' form is correct. Starting from the back, Saliba has been uncharacteristically shaky in a number of games now - having been near perfect last season. I don't need to argue Zinchenko and Kiwior. In MF Rice was acknowledged as in poor form during the first part of the season, and has been patchy since. Martinelli has been largely indifferent. Before his injury, Havertz was not producing the output of last season. You've acknowledged Trossard and Odegard. In general terms, I just don't think the players we have available have clicked like they did last time around.

As for the system - well it is clearly not working very well. I think that one of our problems is that even when we had most of our players fit we continue to struggle against the mid/low block. We are also now seeing goals scored against us from a very limited number of opposition chances - an issue that arises partly because we continue to play a high line to no effect in terms of scoring.

We have a dearth of strikers and with the malaise of our single point of creativity from MF we look ineffectual, and vulnerable to the counter.

Maybe with everything going for us and everyone fit and on form things would be different. But I don't think you sustain a title challenge with one or two single points of failure. We don't have signicant injury problems outside our front 3, so why do we seem so easy to score against? I don't think I said that we need to tear everything up and start again, but I think only the biggest optimist would argue that there is a lot of work for us to do in the Summer to get this team on a winning track again.
I’m no fan of the system. I’ve been very outspoken in saying I don’t enjoy the football we play. But as I say no system is infallible/fool proof. My feeling and my concern is that Arteta wants to model us on the Euro 2024 Spain team. The most noticeable aspect of that team was that the centre forward was largely the most peripheral part of that team. Alvaro Morata at his best was never prolific, and he certainly wasn’t at his best during that tournament. A bit like Havertz for Germany the role of the front man was to hold up the ball and create space for others. But then Germany also had an old fashioned meat and potatoes centre forward in Fullkrug to throw on.


The question is whether we are willing to change our tactics slightly. The most aggravated I’ve been with our system and our manager’s dogmatic reliance on it was against Everton at home. We were struggling to break down Everton yet he made like for like swaps rather than play Odegaard and Nwaneri together. Would it have worked thus turning a draw into a win? I have no idea but the refusal to even countenance it absolutely incensed me.


This is for me the only game I can think of where the system was the primary reason for dropping points, in terms of it being more relevant than other factors.

I don’t think we have the players to break down a stubborn defence like Newcastle. They have always dealt with our set pieces well even when we have had everyone available and they could become our bogey team. Equally a lot of what I’d call upper mid table teams give us problem, because they are able to keep us at bay and then catch us out with a long ball


A route one striker and a player that isn’t Xhaka but has his ability for long passes might not go amiss