Morning all.
I’m not referring to the song by Beverley Knight, as good as it is, I’m talking about football fans and right now, Arsenal fans in particular.
Adam got me thinking with his article yesterday which included the amount of negativity there is around the club these days. Well, for quite a while really. Like he, you, all of us really, I want the good times back. Trophies would be a bonus but to just be in the mix for a Premier League title come March/April each year would be a start. But it’s not that easy I’m sure otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing the same old clubs in and around the top few places each season. It’s not as simple as just throwing money around either, after all, I read that Everton have spent just over £500 million on players since Alisher Usmanov’s old chum decided to get involved up there.
There seems to be three kinds of football fans on the Internet. Those who regardless of what goes on on the pitch, there’s dislike, hatred almost for the current manager. On the opposite side, there are those who have complete and utter faith in what the manager does, regardless of results or level of performance, and somewhere in the middle sits the rational, objective and do I dare say ‘fair’ fans. Those who perhaps see the football rather than the face of the man who manages the team/squad. Those who want to see the club succeed rather than see the manager fail if it means he’ll be sacked.
I’ve always been sceptical over the appointment of Mikel Arteta but not because of him, his playing days at the club, or any other reason. Only his lack of experience made me think he possibly wasn’t, or still isn’t the right manager for the club but do I want him to prove me and all his other doubters wrong? Of course I do because that would mean Arsenal are on the right track. Whether I think he will or not is irrelevant really because that decision isn’t mine to make but as I’ve suggested before, logic alone suggests he’s going nowhere anytime soon. Unless of course, we’re still stuck in the relegation places come Christmas.
Whilst ‘we’ and I use that word loosely, sit at home, typing out who ‘shoulda, woulda, coulda’ done a better job on the pitch than the players Mikel Arteta selected did, it’s easy to forget that it’s not our job on line when it comes to the way Arsenal play. After another loss, it’s often suggested that ‘player X’ would have done better than ‘player Y’ and yet ‘player Y’ might have started and had an absolute stinker of a game. I’m guilty of having done that before, many times too. As Adam said yesterday, the team selection before a game, or the tactics Mikel Arteta should deploy is something else which can be seen a lot over the Arsenal blogosphere, yet a player, maybe two might just wake up on a match-day feeling out of sorts so he’s left out of the squad. Not every little symptom a players suffers has to be broadcast to the media.
A manager can spend all week on the training pitch, planning for the next opposition with the players he’s going to include not only in the first eleven but the substitutes too but then the night before, or even on the day, those plans are wrecked because of sickness, injury, or something else. Not a problem if it’s Pep, Ole, Tuchel etc because they have deep squads but for Mikel Arteta, lose Aubameyang and Lacazette and he’s snookered. Losing Thomas Partey in pre-season was a huge blow too. It’s easy for us to say, go and sign someone else, but I’ve no idea how much money the club had to spend in the summer, have you?
I have to hold my hands up as during the summer I thought we didn’t need a right-back, not with Chambers, Cedric and AMN in the squad but three games in, both Cedric and Chambers have failed to impress and AMN remains on the sidelines. So yes, I’m pleased we signed Takehiro Tomiyasu because he joined the club with very good reviews. I didn’t think we needed Ben White because William Saliba is already an Arsenal player but I’ve no idea what Frenchman’s personality is like, or his attitude towards the club so the only choice is to trust the management and I’ve already said, is their job on the line if decisions they make backfire in a big way.
Just like it’s they who’ll deserve praise if Ben White, along with the other summer signings, excel in an Arsenal shirt over the weeks and months to come. And yes, I hope they do. Just as I Hope Granit Xhaka is pushed to the sidelines now that Thomas Partey is back fit. Sambi and Thomas have to be the way forwards surely? There, I’ve done it again yet the reality is, Arsene Wenger, Unai Emery and now Mikel Arteta believe in our Swiss international.
Of course the ‘shoulda, woulda, coulda’ comments will continue because it’s what we football fans do but it doesn’t mean we’re right or that the players we wanted to see would have worked any better. There will always be the glaringly obvious as a game plays out, like continually watching an area of the pitch be exploited by the opposition and that’s where I think Mikel’s inexperience shows. His in game management which had he managed a club or two prior to being appointed Arsenal manager, he might be better at. That’s just my opinion and I’m entitled to that.
Anyway, the domestic season returns this weekend and we should all be right behind the manager and players as they take on Norwich. After all, we want Arsenal to win don’t we?
See you in the comments.
Morning Rico and all
Well put Rico If the board really wanted Arteta then they should have hired him to coach our under 23 team for a year or two to get some experience then if needed bring him in as the senior coach while at the same time the younger players would get to know and understand his game plan
Cicero great news must be a lot of weight off your shoulders getting the all clear
Morning Geoff, all.
Perhaps a stint in the Championship would have been good because that’s a tough league but I guess the club and he thought a few years under Pep and he was ready. I don’t think he was or still is.
Honestly, I think we’d have been better off appointing Freddie as he’d already built up a rapport with the younger players and from what’s been said by many of them, he was and still is respected. Perhaps that’s why he left…
Morning rico, all. Just thinking, if we all agreed on every player, formation, and aspect of Arsenal it would be pretty boring, and the blog would dry up. While I don’t go on many other sites, I often switch the news off and spend ten minutes on YouTube listening to Robbie. No harms done.
Some very good comments on this site, don’t agree with everything, but do with the majority which is good. If there is one failing we have, myself included, it’s expecting the upcoming or new players to be our savour. All the time Balogan was not in the squad, it was expected he would come in and be that answer. So far he has been underwhelming, maybe too early, maybe in when the team is struggling, but so far hasn’t looked better than Nketiah. But then all our strikers have been a disappointment to be honest. Let’s hope one turns the corner and pretty sharpish, against Norwich.
Afternoon Andrew. Agree, it’d be really boring if we all agreed. I’m guilty of thinking the alternative is often better than the one who’s messing things up on the pitch. Just like a different manager is better than the one we have. Who knows though, until it’s played out..
Afternoon Rico. Very good post today. The break has given us all a bit of time for reflection as I mentioned yesterday.
If I think back on the really successful managers from all clubs it seems to me that they share an identifiable quality. They have a certain detached presence about them that commands respect from their players. There’s obviously a psychological aspect to sending a team out, prepared for the task at hand. But how do you motivate young millionaires or perhaps players who are supremely gifted technically yet might not have that attitude which, when the team is 2-0 down against Man City, says “No, we’re not having this”?
We might look at the Tony Adams stance to going down to 10 men as we often did. Belligerence? Refusal to accept what might seem inevitable? You name it, but thinking back to Man City a few weeks back, who among us thought that we could win after 15 minutes? I might even think that we were beaten before we went on the pitch.
Klopp, Pep and Ferguson had it as well as Wenger. Mourinho used to have it too. It’s as difficult to find as it is to describe. For me Freddie, talented though he may be at evaluating players, games and shapes just doesn’t have it right now. To send young men out to do battle on the pitch and essentially to go those extra painful yards to the manager and of course the club and to never, ever give up. In essence to win games by imposing their will on the opposition regardless of who they are. Guardiola bullied us because he knew that, so far, Mikel only talks a good game and his own players fear him.
It’s rare and I think that some managers find the secret somewhere along the way and wield it with precision.
I remember going down to 10 against a feisty West Ham years ago and you could see Adam’s realigning ‘his’ team to face the onslaught. He scolded and clapped his mates and by his own presence, refused to bow to what seemed only a matter of time. The nourishment and inspiration that fed into the team after that game spread far beyond that pitch that evening.
It’s a different game these days I know. But what disappointed me most against Man City was that we rolled over. It was like we knew they would keep on making chances and that they would eventually go into the net. I could smell it through the TV screen and it spread like wildfire through just about every Arsenal supporter who watched it.
Can Mikel stem that fear? Can he make hard men from these talented boys ?
Saturday would be a good place to start.
I have a certain sympathy with Balogun, he was doing well with a side that played to his strengths. When he came into the senior squad he found himself within a team that was used to playing two main strikers who rarely, if ever, competed for high balls played into the area. Consequently Balogun was denied the kind of service his playing style demanded.
Arteta’s “City light” style has no place for an old school centre forward.
Adam That’s part of problem as I have been saying for a while, how can any player respect some one as a coach when he has never coached before, Respect is earned both ways.
I can just Imagine it, our young players are full of dreams, winning Trophies then the fame and fortune that comes with it. Then they look up at a senior coach barking orders at them wondering who the hell is he to tell us what to do when he has never coached before on his own. So they look to the older players for advice and guidance only to see them show little to no respect for the coach who stands in front of them.
I can just imagine the first day Arteta arrived.
Arteta: I am the coach and you will do as I say and any one who does not like it can go.
Senior player: Before you tell me what to do what have you won in your coaching career.
Afternoon Adam, thanks.
Good comment by the way and I agree totally with what you say. This group of players do roll over far too easily but then we don’t have real characters in the squad. So far at least although what any of the new signings will bring to the team is yet to be seen or discovered even.
Is that half the problem though Cicero. Arteta has learned a style of football which can only really be played by signing the best players. It’s what Pep always done wherever he’s been I think. Arteta hasn’t experienced life really as far as football management goes. He’s trying to play the Pep way but without the tools. It’s a bit like trying to hammer a nail into wood with a screwdriver…
Geoff/Adam. Did you by chance see the interview with Pique about life playing the game under Guardiola?
Rico. I read a part of it and understand that Pep didn’t think Shakira was right for him. That was a liberty I think.
Having said that, I haven’t forgotten his behaviour (or Reina’s) when Pep decided they wanted Cesc over at Barca. Hypocrisy comes easy to those people.
If the stories that we have heard are to be believed then he has had his clear the air and those that don’t like it can go chat and that has got us where we are at present . We have shed some of the “”dead wood “” but others have dug their heels in and remained to see out the contracts that we foolishly awarded them.
My feelings are that unless he turns out to be a coaching genius , we will keep chopping and changing until the cows come home and always be two signings away from getting it right.
If you study the Barcelona style , it flourished with Messi , Iniesta , Xavi , Puyol. but it started with Cruyff years before Guardiola and the managers that preceeded him were all top of the tree , Robson , Van Gaal, Rijkaard all kept to the same system.
It took 12 years between the two before Pep took over and 5 managers 6 if you count Van Gaal twice. We are now into our second since Wenger , I fear it might take a few more manageerial changes before we get back to the top.
I may have told this story before but questioning rolling over and Tony Adams .
He had just come out of prison and the club had stood with him . Arsenal reserves turned up to play Norwich reserves and Tony came on for the second half. We were 4 nil up with about 2 minutes to go when Norwich broke down our right back area and their winger who I might be right was I think Robert Fleck , ran onto the ball and hit a piledriver towards goal . About two yards away Adams lept in the way and took the ball full face on.
It didn’t matter, we had won but he wanted a clean sheet and was prepared to put himself in the way to get it.
No rolling over there !
Adam, I was thinking more about Pep being a control freak.
Rico. That doesn’t come as much of a surprise though.
He’s a great manager but difficult as a person I reckon. His conference post our game made me cringe. I wonder if Mikel appreciated it😀
Not heard that one about Adams, he was certainly a rare breed.
I guess the clear the air talks are what Auba was alluding to when he suggested the players needed to talk. I feel that anyone not on board with Arteta will be shown the door.
Arsenal Women one nil up against Slavia Prague 4 – 0 on aggregate after sixty minutes.
Make that 3 – 0 now 7 – 0 on aggregate.
Final score 4 – 0. A very good win 7 – 0 on aggregate.
Miedema hit a hatrick, if we could get her to self identify as a man she could play for us against Brighton. Wadyafink? 😉
Rico no I haven’t heard the story of Pique
Hi all,
Totally agree that Pep had the style and team’s made for him before he arrived. So many greats talk about how Pep had his favorites and ignored ones he didn’t like. Eto top goal scorer and said not once that season did he speak to him.
Inherit a team with Riebery and Robben, get to Man City where he spends 1 billion pounds in 5 years.
Arteta will never have that and will have to try it with hopefully stars to come. Problem is that they young so inconsistent.
Norwich are quite poor and if they going to attack us and not double back 4 defence counter attack, we will spank them like the others did. We are good when we have the space to play.
Or Norwich even, which ever comes first. 😉
Here you go Geoff.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9965099/Gerard-Pique-reveals-relationship-tense-Pep-Guardiola-changed-met-Shakira.html
New post up now