Originally Posted by
Niall_Quinn
So the bunch of suits they brought in to investigate the club culture sure have an easy ride. A decade of the same mistakes, repeating, getting the same outcomes. As simple as A, B, Shit.
They bring a young manager in to see if he can shake things up. Worth a punt seeing as everything else failed, and failed spectacularly. Then they do the same old shit again. Set the Top 4 Trophy as the goal. The goal should have been to play good, competitive football. Fuck the top 4 BS, just focus on purging the Barca-Lite craziness. Get the ball up the pitch and score a goal. Stop the other side scoring when they have the ball. Attack. Defence. Balance. Control. Strategy. Tactics. Each player drilled in the basics. Passing. Movement. Cover. Fucking THROW-INS even. Taking a corner. Avoiding panic when the ball arrives. All that usual shit that other teams seem to be able to achieve.
I watched carefully last night how Newcastle always looked to get the ball forwards to the players who were causing our defence the biggest problems. I mean, DUH! Of course that's what they did. And it worked. Obviously.
I also watched Arsenal fluttering around in their pretty patterns, tip-tap, sideways, backwards, always picking the easy option. And even then the passing wasn't crisp. The players were falling over their own bloody feet. No composure. No movement. No options. Until HOOF. Up went the ball, usually lost, otherwise into pointless areas where the recipient had almost no chance of success. What is that all about? What's the point of it? I think once in the entire 90 minutes there was a decent 30 seconds where the midfield moved the ball swiftly and accurately up the pitch, through the middle. So they can do it if they want to. But instead the entire focus is obviously on keeping the ball, even if they do nothing with it.
This has to change. The shit we play is not football, it's the avoidance of football. It's as if they are all terrified all the time. Haven't watched many games this season, but every time I did it was the same. Not as bad as yesterday, maybe. But huge swathes of the game bathed in pointless tapping around. It's not as if we even dominate possession these days. The players aren't good enough for that. It's not as if we wear the opponent down, not at the snail's pace we play at. Opposition defenders can stop for a tea break before getting back to cover our plodding progression.
Now that Arteta will be around for the next few years at least, he'd better find some balls, take some risks and open up our game. If he doesn't have the players to do it he better get them. It wouldn't cost a fortune. Plenty of players who can do the basics. We need eleven solid players, not two star names to placate the fans. They wouldn't be stars for long anyway. One sign of ambition or one step out of the pretty patterns and they'd be benched. So why bother? Arteta couldn't get Ozil onside. He couldn't get Auba onside. He can't get anything out of Lacazette. But he might be able to work with the younger players on some sort of game that is more suited to this league. Leave the fancy stuff for clubs that go the extra mile to sign the players who can pull it off.
Oh, and stop passing the fucking thing around at the back. What's that even about? What does it achieve? How can it be a good plan to fuck around in your own penalty box?