Where is it going wrong for our boys?
Such a good start to the season is slowing disappearing into thin air!
Only six games played, and we have won half and lost the other half! But where is it going wrong for Arsenal?
The defence will always come under scrutiny there is no doubt about that, but once that ball passes the defence, as in most games it will do, questions will be thrown towards the keeper. Leno just cannot seem to read the ball and what to do with it, which in turn gives a lack of confidence to those in front of him.
After he conceded yet again against Leicester, I will admit he was not fully at fault, but if he read the ball and the pass well enough he would have known not to move to the near post, had he stayed in the centre he would have had every chance of saving the shot. We will never know now though will we.
We have constantly said that we lack flair and creativity in the midfield, and the Leicester game again has showed the weakness and lack of talent in that midfield! Our players are individually talented, there is no doubt about that but the issue at times is clearly that they just fail to link up and communicate at certain points in certain games.
The body language I am getting from both Lacazette and Aubameyang too is that again there is a lack of communication and if I am honest, they both look drained and very very tired. If it was the end of the season, I would understand but it is six games in. And of course I get that it has been a tough year with lack of holiday and not a very long pre-season due to the pandemic, but all in all this should not be an excuse.
I feel as though teams are very quickly now picking up on Arteta’s tactics and formation, and if he is not careful then very soon everyone will have sussed him out and it really will be a case of back to square one!
Shenel Osman
Losses against Liverpool and Man City was expected in my opinion. So we have lost 1 game we should not have. Not that big of a deal.
Arteta out with his defensive mind set
But if Lacazette had taken his chances we could have beaten Liverpool, and City were there for the taking, it’s his tactics, he is turning too many players into work horses.Xhaka simply isn’t good enough and never will be, he was at fault for the goal against Leicester. Arteta needs to wake up and realise we have deadweights. Nkeitah for England in the correct role is banging in goals, but Arteta puts him on the flank, I am worried we have another Wenger but without the flair.We are playing like the way Arteta played, sideways and backwards
To all the thoughtful and polite people on JustArsenal, who have written articles or I have had discussions with, whether we agreed or not, thank you and farewell.
I have become disallusioned with the toxicity of some and I am taking a “holiday”.
Hey mate. Your sensible and objective comments will be sorely missed
So true Pat. I know you will be sorely missed ozzie and best wishes in whatever you do next. Come back soon!
Shame. Look after yourself, Ozzie 🙂
@ozziegunner,how sad man,I have agreed with the majority of your comments even when I have not they were always respectul,I can understand your frustration,all this negativity did get its toll on me, you’re right take a short break and I sincerely hope to see you back soon on this site,more than ever we need your positivity and optimism,if not I wish you good luck!👍
Agreed Siamois
I never read anything by ozziegunner that was anything other than polite and it is sad that he feels the need to take time out
👍 you’re right ,it is sad hopefully a break might do him the world of good and he will be back!
Sorry to see you leaving Ozzie but agree with your comment, the toxicity on here is painful at times, enjoy your holiday mate☹️
Take care OzzieGunner and hope it’s just a holiday – at least you’re heading into summer.
The same thought has often crossed my mind so I know where you’re coming from.
ozziegunner, I will miss your measured and polite posts, my friend.
Have tried to post before, but I can’t seem to get my thoughts recognised.
I look forward to hearing from you soon and, meanwhile take care.
Look forward to hearing from you again soon my man. I think I can rightly say you are probably one of the very few I agree with as regards virtually everything Arsenal. I’ll like it if you stayed to neutralise the negativity with more of your positive aura Ozzie. And if you can’t, I’ll understand and Goodluck to you mate.
Our captain, AUBA, focuses more on social media than on the pitch. He should exhibit his leadership role & duties in the team stop the social media role.
I will admit he was not fully at fault, but if he read the ball and the pass well enough he would have known not to move to the near post, had he stayed in the centre he would have had every chance of saving the shot. We will never know now though will we.
If he’d stayed center and Under had just shot, I’d have loved to hear your reaction. The basic is you cover the easier angle and hope your teammates will have your back.
Or like one of the greatest keepers of all time used to say ( can’t remember which one it was) you cover one side of the goal and leave the other to God.
Great comment, Joe. Can we get God to play CB instead of Mustafi?
I wish
😆
Snorky, God plays all over the pitch and for both sides at once. Rather like Gervinho used to do!
Exactly. The goalkeeper should cover his near post 100% of the time. Make yourself big to close down the angle and leave the rest to God/luck.
Simple answer! Other coaches have adjusted to our style of play.
May be the team is too big for arteta to organise. Our coach shouldn’t be focused on newcomer rather developing what we have. Look at mavonpros, saliba, gabriel, mari, all qualities
Xhaka tomas cebalos and on loan guendouzi
We have what it take to be on top. Auba should be focused on pitch as well not displaying much on sm
Arteta have to do somthing otherwise he should admit that he has failed.
Was beating Fulham and West Ham a good start or was it standard
I wrote at the time we beat Newcastle and Burnley in our first two games last season then lost at Enfield
Where’s it gone wrong ?
It was never right !
We finished 8th yet I truly think many have treated these players better then they are
Even Auba , he’s good not great
It takes great to win the Prem
Leno was not at fault.He cant stay in the near post,he had to go and he closed the angle well.Vardys movement was just superb and our CBs didnt have pace
Leicesters game plan worked.I honestly believe tgat tieleman shouldnt be allowed to pick that pass after all it started from the middle of the park.
Leicester did allow luiz to pick passes and OMG he picked some lovely passes and attackers should have done more.Leicester had 2 good chances and they converted one.
Long story short,we need to go super aggressive in europa and get some momentum…
the reason is we are predictable and show EVERY team we face far to much respect.
We need to go into games and push forward and play with more purpose as at the moment we are far to negative and lack desire to win games or score goals.
Yes we have improved defensively since MA has come in but a really great cost of creativity.
I’d rather go at teams, we have players that can do that but they are being restricted in their play in fear of defeat.
There is also no one on that pitch that can grab the game by the scruff and force it, no real leader there either, Auba isnt a captain imo, I’ve never seen him berate his team mates like Adams, Vieira or even Henry did when they needed to do it.
Like i said on a post a few days ago, we’re Stoke City under Pulis right now, hopefully its just a phase of transition between formations and will improve in time
Under Unai we weren’t good at anything. Let’s be honest. We weren’t good defensively or attacking wise. At least our back line is tighter now.
We don’t have any creative players on the pitch and we don’t have work horses in midfield or the final third to press teams.
Leeds are scoring because Bielsa has had time to coach that time how to play, the players aren’t any better but teams also don’t sit back against them and give them space. Villa is much the same in the space department.
In the absence of creativity and chemistry, you rely on either individual brilliance or coaching repitition to break down low blocks. That takes time but even the best find it difficult to do – city are a great example. Liverpool Cross a lot of balls into that box or across the pitch to try and stretch teams but they’re also struggling more this year.
Yes teams have figured us out, sit deep and wait because they can’t break teams down. Arsenal made that mistake with Emery and Arteta already alluded to this when he said you cannot get rid of all your creative players and not replace them. We used to have four possible options at 10 but now we have none. That’s not Artetas fault, that’s Arsenal’s. Ozil screwed his own pooch with his interviews and posts so he isn’t going to play no matter how much Arteta wants. Arteta also needs to show the fans that players cannot come out and speak against the club and expect to play. One club, one team, one voice.
Arteta played a 433 like we wanted, Ceballos isn’t a 10 and may never be. We didn’t buy Auorer or whoever could be our creative machine so we are where we are.
I saw some good moves with Bellerins’s shot being unlucky not to go in, some unlucky moments but it’s a waiting game as routine only becomes routine after practice and application. Arteta is a new coach, I like how he’s doing things and he’ll get things wrong but we can’t expect these players to figure it out on the pitch like Ozil, Wilshire, Ramsey, Cazorla, Rosicky did. They haven’t got those players anymore and that breed of player is being phased out sadly
This is the main issue for me in this game wen u get your chance take them or u have your self to blame later, and that’s what happened to us.
Sorry guys, majority of you guys are wrong here, majority of you guys complained about arteta’s 343(boring football but wins with and only lost two against the best two teams in premiership). You all want 433 or 4213 formation, where we will dominate the game with a lot of possession and play fine football but you guys have forgotten that the set of players are not quality enough ( or who among our attackers is/are like Sanchez, also who among our midfielders are like carzola, rosisky, Ramsey or even wilshere) for what you are all looking for. I will put the blame of our lost match to the fans for being ungrateful with what Arteta has been doing with these set of quantity players and not quality… I know some of you guys will be saying that he is not hearing or seeing your messages but is a lie, he sees it because he is on social medial(Twitter and the rest) also and reads all these, you guys put too much pressure on him and did not accept his decision on the formation and selection of players he made. When I was watching the match, I told myself that if we don’t get the goal on time we were going to lose the match and we lost which was so painful for me…. What I observe is that Leicester played like us(Arteta preferred formation) and hit us on counter or when we opened ( we got frustrated with their defensive tactics) up…. I am very sure we would have won the match hadn’t be that we used the same formation with them( that was how we beat Wolves last season at their own ground and with the same formation as theirs and also being the first time we would do that)… I hope you guys Will leave Arteta alone now and allow him to use anybody he feels like using and any formation he prefers… Thanks and gunners for life….
Scrapped past most of the team’s apart from first match and then lost 3 games to top 6 how can you say it was a good start. The writting was on the wall for everyone to see. Our wins apart from first one were not convincing at all and our football well less you say better it is. I read someone’s comment up there and he put it rightly so that MA is making everyone into work horses without being imaginative or creative. The more time passes by I feel like we have 11 James milner on the field, having one or two real work horses is good for the team but to have most of your team play in such manner and sacrifice creativity/imagination is just not going to cut it at any decent club. I think MA needs to stop micro managing the payers even when they are on the field and let them play a bit of their own style with freedom. What’s the point of having players like Messi and Ronaldo but they are not allowed to express them selves.
Mohsan, why buy a pedigree racehorse, if all you want is an up and down shire horse, ploughing the field with blinkers on?
As Platini once hinted, you do need water carriers, but not eleven of them in one team!!!
Hahahaha…well put Ken.
So spot on mate! Balance is the key and arteta just doesn’t want to find it. The playing ideology is too conservative. No body is trying to take the risk. That’s why it’s our CBs trying to do the creation. I believe Arteta has the ability to change things. Only time will tell.
Blah blah arteta, bla blah bla auba.
Go coach a team if you know better!
The author clearly has ZERO knowledge on goalkeeping! Tell me which goalkeeper in the world doesn’t cover his near post when an opposition player advances with the ball the the area?
He’s just another Leno hater, a Martinez worshipper who doesn’t know anything about goalkeeping. If Leno stayed in the middle of his goal he should be released right after the match!
*in the area
We all need to realize, for stability, you build on a team, then! improve on it, simple! you can’t build on a squad, MA has to get defined roles and players that he trusts, then play them, then build on the squad after a stable team.
1st mistake, he changes the spine often that is, keeper, CBs, CMs and Strikers, where does the chemistry come from? proof! sold a stable keeper who knew he’ll be rotated. Our CBs-are excusable due to injuries, CMs-most crucial, what wins games and championships, you need stable, efficient and complementary players there, you can’t rotate when clearly your midfield is always at fault, in our invisible season, we had vieira, silva, edu, parlour, but AW built on the 2 former before the 2 latter actually proved they were up to standard for rotation, same goes for liverpool, reason why they threatened our unbeaten record. You simply can’t! rotate the CMs before identifying a stable partnership or improving on it. You’ll all beg to differ, but Elneny is the cog of that team, not! Partey.. He’s the only player we have who can decongest the high press modern game with his press and quick ball movements in give and goes, he actually allows his partner to play, reason why even partey performed in his 1st full game, reason why when he plays with either ceballos, xhaka we still perform and move the ball forth and create chances and also very notable apart from the liverpool game that klopp performed a tactical study on MA and actually still proved his worth with his press, and after subbing xhaka for ceballos, we created chances, that proves xhaka is slow and needs to play a different role or box to box like lampard not actually sitting deep, xhaka burdens his partner, reason why partey was dormant in the leicester game, and i actually knew it will happen, bcoz he did it a lot with guendouzi, then that means you can actually partner Elneny and Partey, partey plays the box to box, Elneny sits, and create an advanced roles for ceballos and xhaka, they both can shoot from range and still can pass, then the strikers role, why play a world class striker wide! he is easily a golden boot winner every season with supply, he never registered Ozil, but Lacazette can play that role, with he’s hold up qualities and creativity, similar to firminho for liverpool, willian too, it’s his natural position, if you aren’t comfortable with ceballos/xhaka there. Then, honestly, predictability, the reason why klopp killed him in the epl game, for about 25mins, we could hardly string 4 passes, rodgers figured him out, reason why our performance against leicester was worse in the 2nd half, he is a good manager, will even be great, but honestly, he should stop! favouritism! and build a team before he starts rotating his squad, then we’ll actually start seeing stable results, because that team has now got stable quality players in all departments