Mikel Arteta: Great Coach but not Manager?

Dan Smith,

I have to say that was one of the best if not the best article I’ve read on here. No doubt you’ll get your fare share of pushback’s by Arteta’s disciples, but I totally agree with your post.

While there’s no doubt that Arteta has brought the connection between the fans and the club back, and the team have been challenging more consistently. The continued failure when it really matters can and should not be ignored.

A lot of the time he refuses to acknowledge mistakes made, and will sit there talking in riddles and sounding like he’s saying a lot when he really isn’t saying much at all.

I’ve always been of the belief that we’ll never win the big trophy’s under him. I hoped he would prove me wrong, but up to now he hasn’t. And if he doesn’t do anything major next season, then he surely has to go.

While you can’t guarantee winning trophy’s every season, at a club like Arsenal along with their history, like it or not they need and have to win their fare share of trophy’s. It’s as simple as that.

Any manager who get the Arsenal job knows that before excepting the position.

OT Dan, sorry but I couldn’t find the thread regarding racial abuse within our fanbase, so I’ll give you an update here.
The person I spoke to at the club, had no idea what I was talking about with regards to the PSG games and, as far as she was aware, no complaints has been received.
If you can give me the actual details, I’ll follow it up again, as it could be that she was not in the loop anyway.
Thanks Dan.

The author of the aticle may be well-literate but not much of a writer…

Great Article Dan
Very good read

At one point to the bemusement of many Arteta said he used more than 30 tactics in a game. Pundits baffled and said it was just overcoaching. Tony Adams once said Wenger simply was not a coach who didn’t study the tactics of opponents which made Arsenal predictable and vulnerable. Arteta at the outset did good in axing the impediments like Auba Laca Ozil and et al which was necessary measures to steady the sailing and instill the culture of professional order. For context Mourinho was just a coach not a manager who always focused on short term successes not transforming how the clubs operate. Unless Arteta wins important trophies like EPL or UCL it is hard to conclusively label him a coach nor a manager. Mr Arteta, prove us wrong this season and we’re open to inundate you with every best titles football offers let alone best coach or best manager.

For the information of members, Ange Postecoglou has been sacked despite winning Europa league Cup. So, talk of a cup at any cost!
Arteta should be judged based on both antecedents and precedents. What kind of team did he inherit? How has he transformed the team? Has he progressed or regressed? What kind of players has he brought to Arsenal? What obvious changes has Arsenal witnessed since he became the manager?
I will leave every individual fan to make their own assessment of the above issue, many of which are relatively straightforward.

That was a really in depth analysis and rather too much in one go to get to grips with.

This coming Christmas, Arteta will have been in post for 6 years, coming in as a respected coach under Pep, but with no managerial experience and no CL football for 3 years with a team that had disruptive elements within it as well as a Board that was completely underwhelming. Not quite the same scene that Slot experienced on his arrival at Liverpool.

There were times that Arteta looked decidely vulnerable before the tide turned and a 5th place finish ensued. I just don’t accept that being a good coach and a good manager don’t go hand in hand. It certainly helps too that the Board are now receptive and committed to a leading position in English football. This has really improved under Josh Kroenke and is part of the resurgence of Arsenal under Arteta. You only have to look at Utd and Chelsea to see how important the ownership and board are.

The clubs that have won the league in the last decade or so have with one exception, been clubs that were in better shape financially and at owner level. Arsenal didn’t actually have much of any value to sell to then reinvest in new talent to move the club forward. Prior to financial fair play rules and good transfer dealings cemented the positions of the likes of Chelsea, City & Liverpool. Arsenal didn’t have a Coutinho for example.

So my position with Arteta is that he is very much on the right track. I don’t accept that the season just ended was bad enough to have a full scale dissection of Arteta as a coach and a manager. If anybody wants to call it out as making excuses, feel free, but the level of injuries across the whole season made winning anything hugely testing let alone finishing 2nd.

Much is made of Arteta not rotating his squad. I think that has merit, but with the caveat that earlier it was a lack of worthwhile depth and last season there were just so many injuries to key players at key times that there was still not enough depth to cope with losing them. I feel that those injuries materially affected how he set up the team.

Let’s see if you are right, Dan, about the Kroenkes’ desire to win or to just keep the funds rolling in from CL qualification.

There is little doubt that Arteta is both a brilliant coach and manager.
To be amongst the historic great managers he would need to win one of the biggest trophies. However, the overall team improvements, consecutive second place finishes in one of the strongest leagues in the world and SF in the CL indicate that we have a special manager at this time.
The author tries to undermine Arteta managerial credibility by comparing him with Wenger. This is inherently faulty because the reason given could be reversed by suggesting that Wenger indulged certain players and kept underperforming players longer than was necessary. Sometimes it is necessary to cancel contracts or move players on so that you can get more committed players into the squad. The team needed rebuilding and the castigation for the approach is just silly and smacks of opportunism.
Arteta spoke about probability. If you actually listened to what he said he is absolutely correct. Dan here in criticising demonstrates a clear lack of insight by suggesting that Arteta’s comments indicate an inability to self-reflect. Arteta’s comments indicate that he is always reflecting and looking for ways to improve. Criticising the conservative approach means that you are failing to consider the contemporaneous issues that the team were facing. Everyone knows that we had much of our attack and creative influences unavailable for a good part of the season. It is inherently much more difficult to take chances or play beautiful football when your more creative players are out.
The author here has written with, perhaps, an attempt at some kind of balance. However, the piece provides rather flimsy out of context criticisms which are unsurprisingly seductive to certain parts of the fanbase.