So what NY resolutions do you think the club should make?
Mine are these:
1. buy a striker
2. sell Zinchenko, Havertz and Eddie and send Raya back to Brentford
3. Sack the set piece coach
4. Most importantly, quietly start the ball rolling to replace Arteta - watching him develop at a snail's pace is just too painful to watch and we don't have time for it, it won't be long before we start losing people like Saliba, once they realise that success is just not going to happen under this coach
At last, a new post. I thought this place was closed!Originally Posted by Mac76
I agree with everything except the Havertz departure. He does just enough to stay....for now.
I would judge Arteta at the end of January. If we are still doing shit then, get rid.
Problem is we are stuck with Kiwior because Zinchenko is unfit, now I’ve argued many times that Zinchenko doesn’t know what a left back does. Kiwior knows what a left back does but he is physically unable to perform that role, he also has zero passing ability…and actually what we are doing is mangling the confidence of a decent centre back. To the point where id say stick Gabriel on the left and play Kiwior in the centre. Gabriel is quick and great at interceptions.
Havertz should not be playing in the position he plays, he has far too little influence on the game in midfield, if he plays at all it should be as a deep lying forward or a number ten central attacking midfield…we are already too congested with him and Odegaard and at the moment id play him ahead of Odegaard.
At the risk of being a pedant, resolutions are something you yourself resolve to do. When they are something you believe others should resolve to do it simply becomes a wish list.
I'm not saying these things have to happen right now - obviously player sales are more likely in the summer and we will have Timber back for next season
I agree Havertz is out of position but I still feel the money would have been better spent elsewhere
I'd rather see ESR at left 8, Havertz is taking up unnecessary squad space
as for your final point i said "do you think the club should make" there's nothing intrinsically wrong with saying that so nothing to be pedantic about
I am really trying to maintain perspective with our club's current situation, so I will start with the point about replacing Arteta. It is far too early to be thinking about this IMO. There is no doubt that he has improved the team and the club more generally since his arrival. The upward trajectory of the team following our FA Cup success in 2020 is clear for all to see, and there is also no doubt that we are a million miles away from the mess that presides during AW's final years. We lost the title last season to the best team the EPL has ever seen and have been at or near the top of the league for the whole of this season. The reason that our recent blip seems so dispiriting is because objectively we were (and even just about remain) one of only a few teams tipped to win the title this year.
In terms of transfer spending of all clubs, we sit 3rd in the last 5 year period, and our league position last season equated to net spend - 2nd in the list. Before then, our finishing positions have been remarkably consistent with net spend - so I am going to regard the managers performance as par. But we also have to consider where we started from; the dross that Arteta inherited and the fact that we have (to a degree due to factors beyond the club's control) suffered badly spending wise from a lack of decent player sales. We also have to consider - if we are comparing Arsenal to Citeh and Liverpool - that it is far easier to build a team from an established base of quality than it has been for Arteta and Edu.
People are all over Mate FC and Villa as examples of what can be achieved far more quickly than has been the case at our club, but the prospects of either team winning a trophy this year are remote. Are they top 4 contenders? Yes. But whatever our frustrations with our team there are not many people predicting that we will fall out of the top 4 this season, and we narrowly missed out in 2021/22 by 2 points. Taking emotion out of it, we are firmly a top 3 club under our current manager.
That's the head speaking, so what about the heart? My heart is worried about the fragility of this team - but this feeling is relatively recent, and there is IMO at least as much chance of us arresting our current problems as there is of us falling away. I don't think there is any need to worry about our best players wanting away - at least for another season - so I am not going to go there.
As for your resolutions...
1. I can see the merit in this, but I am concerned that unless we alter a system that has become stodgy and predictable a January striker signing won't change that much. I think that our recent stutters are a result of too much disruption already (whisper it quietly, but for all his immense talent, bringing Rice into the team, and getting rid of Xhaka has diminished our menace). I am not a good enough analyst to pinpoint this - but I would not be surprised if an upgrade elsewhere might re-unlock the potency of our first choice front 3.
2. I don't like Raya and find it a bit absurd that he has forced out Ramsdale because of his alleged upgrade in terms of passing out/sweeping - yet our verticality has diminished rather than improved with him in the team, while he is not as good as Ramsdale in his core job of preventing goals. I'd be more than happy for him to go - but of course he won't. I don't think Zinchenko should be sold. We are bereft of ball progression as it is and we look better attacking with him at LB than we do without him. I would however consider him at left 8 or even in MF. Havertz, no. It is taking time for him to gel into this team but there is progress and I want to see him tried in a front 3. Eddie looks like a busted flush and if he can be sold for another striker to come in I would take that.
3. I disagree. Set pieces have been almost embarrassingly important for the goals we have scored this season, and the coach is not the problem. However if I see Trossard taking another shit corner I will lose my mind
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
so you really mean you agree, because yes, set pieces are important, but our corners and FKs are dreadful at the moment, they are supposed to used to create goal-scoring oppportunities but instead they're an embarrassment, it's a joke that we are paying somone who's supposed to make them better and in fact they've never been worse - why can't Arteta see this? why does someone who wants every detail to be exactly 'just so' allow such dreadful corner-taking to persist?
3. I disagree. Set pieces have been almost embarrassingly important for the goals we have scored this season, and the coach is not the problem. However if I see Trossard taking another shit corner I will lose my mind
Last edited by Mac76; 06-01-2024 at 07:57 PM.
I get what you are saying, but I refuse to believe in training that corners and FK's are as bad as we have seen. The set piece coach does not oversee open play shots on goal, and we have all seen how bad these are. The set piece coach can only set up plays - and we have seen really imaginative plays in games. He can't take the dead balls. I refuse to believe that with the players we have there is lack of ability on the ball. Set piece goals have been the thing that has us 5 points of the top this season - there are plenty of areas that require attention elsewhere.so you really mean you agree, because yes, set pieces are important, but our corners and FKs are dreadful at the moment, they are supposed to used to create goal-scoring oppportunities but instead they're an embarrassment, it's a joke that we are paying somone who's supposed to make them better and in fact they've never been worse - why can't Arteta see this? why does someone who wants every detail to be exactly 'just so' allow such dreadful corner-taking to persist?
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
I would say there’s a lack of consistency in the set piece taking, corner routines especially…they are either very good or fail to beat the first man.
I agree that I wouldn’t set it out as the most important thing when as you say we could be a lot worse off if not for the goals from set piece routines.
Finesse seems to be the most lacking thing. And although I don’t hold much faith in XG, the fact that we have lost the last three games despite having a greater XG count than our opponents does suggest that something is not quite right when it comes to pulling the trigger. I find the whole “Arsenal just want to walk it in” a lazy and tired cliche, but it’s also not without merit…I think we are too often trying to look to set ourselves or pass responsibility when players could take the shot on. There is a bit of an issue of luck given we’ve hit the post and the bar quite a few times this season (more so than I can remember in previous seasons) but it’s relevant in that…when this happens it plays into a players confidence.
Whilst I think we are not creating the chances we did last season, sometimes we are playing with fine margins. The same accusation of being wasteful is something we all voiced at times last season (games where we scored three and four, we could have got five and six). And the deep block is not just something that was used against us last season, take for example the home game against Everton where we won 4-0 but it took that moment of individual brilliance from Saka to score and open the game up…they kept us at arms length before that and we created very little and we looked like we were out of ideas.
Now don’t get me wrong, we clearly have needed a striker but Arteta seems not to like out and out strikers, opting instead for players like Jesus and Trossard who want to be involved in play in midfield. But I think there’s an argument also that our goal scoring issues are as much a case of fine margins as regression in style of play (we are not leaving ourselves any more open to the counter this season than last season)
"The set piece coach can only set up plays"
so why is he telling them then to aim EVERY SINGLE CORNER to the near post where they are almost always headed away by the first defender?
it's stunningly predictable, it's almost completely unsuccessful and we waste opportunity after opportunity because of it
whatever the stats say we are dreadful at corners, my eyes aren't lying to me
The stats say we’ve scored more from set pieces than any other team this season…now either opposition defences have become extraordinary poor from defending set pieces or overall we aren’t doing too bad. Dont get me wrong there are games where it’s been horrendously poor (especially against defences like Newcastle who will eat that shit up all the time) but actually there has been a lot of times where we’ve profited by creating uncertainty at the back post….from Havertz’s goal against Brentford to Jesus goal against Brighton.
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