Not Everything is the Coach’s Fault
We always talk about results as if managers were magicians. Here is the truth: no manager can do better than his squad. Or better put: a manager can do better than his squad maybe once or twice but not over time. Everything regresses to the mean eventually.
What is the mean in football? What is average performance? Take a look at that PSG super team. Despite all of the great players they have acquired, they will still lose some games. The difference is that they will win most games. Just like those famous Barcelona and Real Madrid squads of the 2010s lost some games but they won a lot as well. This is why managers always want to buy quality players both on the defensive and attacking end. Your quality ultimately determines how far you go.
Sometimes, a team will perform worse than its quality or perform better, but no team can escape its inherent quality. A popular adage says that you are only as good as the worst player you field. This adage demonstrates how far a team can sink.
Look at the team we fielded against Brentford on Friday. In that team, we have a defender bought cheaply from South America in January for 4m euros. We have an academy boy whose best stint was playing out of position for a relegated side and whose value is surely no more than 15-20 million euros. We have a new 21-year-old from Anderlecht. A 19-year-old prospect. A 20-year-old striker from the academy who has never played Premier League football in his life. And then a 72 million euros ‘superstar’ who can’t dribble past one player.
No matter how you spin it, the team is a shambles and it was close to the best possible team we could field, given the circumstances. People will say that Arsenal still fielded a better team than Brentford and should have won. True. However, football does not always work that way. You don’t always beat teams you are better than 1-on-1. The difference is that a better team will win more points over time than a poorer side. But anything may happen in a one-off game.
Mikel Arteta, compared to Chelsea, United, City and Liverpool, is working with absolutely nothing. Maybe only 2-3 of our players arguably enter any of those sides. That is a staggering difference in quality. It is staggering and it will show.
Arteta has only gotten 3 serious players across 2 windows so far and all three are defensively oriented. Chelsea signed 5 serious players in one season. Liverpool and City, who currently have two of the best first teams in football, are still signing the likes of Dias, Grealish, Jota, Thiago, Konate and Kane into their already superb first teams. United are adding Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane and Edinson Cavani. Chelsea are adding Lukaku, Havertz, Werner, Mendy, Thiago Silva and Hakim Ziyech.
Do you see it yet? Or are you still thinking Arteta is the problem?
Even Tottenham have signed a 50M defender of their own. That’s Tottenham. We haven’t bought one attacking midfielder for Arteta yet. No forward. Only signings like Nuno Tavares for 8 million, Willian on a free transfer, Pablo Mari for 4 million, Cedric Soares on loan. It is a comedy show and you are watching the stage manager.
We came into this season knowing that we needed major players at CB, CM, AM, RB and maybe ST. That’s 5 major players. Five! And how many have we bought? One.
That is the fault.
Agboola Israel
Blame the fans!
I blame the taliban…
Blame anybody but whatever you do don’t blame those who own, plan, schedule, procure and manage the club and it’s assets.;)
Arteta picks the way we play, he is q00% responsible for our awful football and negative tactics, nobody else.
Arsenal can’t buy a new senior CF without selling Aubameyang or Lacazette first, so that department isn’t Arteta’s fault
However, their decision to buy Ben White is currently questionable. Hopefully they can successfully integrate White into the main team, otherwise we might have to sell him next summer
So, it’s Edu/Kroenke that has made all the decisions on who comes and who stays? If that is the case then MA has no place being at the club!
It’s a managers role to decide who comes and goes. He should identify the areas that are weak, should he not?
I don’t believe for one second that MA is not at fault. I also believe Edu and Kroenke are just as much to blame for being so far out of touch with what has been the real problem at the club. Them all!
GunneRay The manager Arteta tells EDU what players he wants he has a list of players he is interested in and cross off the ones not for transfer. So the buck stops with Arteta and EDU and the deadwood Chairman
That was my point, Sir Michael. MA must be making the decisions other wise he’s not the manager/coach.
Tbf the 14 signings that Edu has overseen have not all been bad and he has seen some stagnant players out of the door too.
In have come Martinelli, Tierney, Pepe, Saliba, Partey, White, Gabriel, Mari, lokonga, tavares, Luiz, Cedric, Willian, runarrsson.
Sure there are few there that we would all change like the last 4. But seeing as they only cost a total of 8m it’s not like he wasted bundles.
He looks dead set to add odegaard and ramsdale to that list who again will be great signings.
Dear Admin Pat,
Can you please include the name of the author in the title itself in the future???
p.s: I understand wholeheartedly that in your business interests, acting on my request will lead to a direct loss of revenue. Yet, I request you to consider it.
I second that!time is a precious commodity these days and most people don’t like to waste it.
All I read was more excuses
The buck stops with the manager be it results or transfers .”
No matter how you spin it the team is a shambles and the best possible team was played”
Why is that ?because Our 2 senior CFS have fallen foul of Arteta ,so who’s fault is that he couldn’t play is strongest 11 ,barring partey
Sounds as though Odegaard is a done deal with ramsdale next that is 5 players signed plus xhakas new deal .
These are the players he wanted , kw let’s see what this tactical genius as In store for us this season ,I for one cannot wait to see the process everyone keeps barking on about .
The manager recommends the players to leave and come in but doesnt actually control who comes and goes….you need to learn about economics and realities.
The team is very young atm, in 2/3 years they are all going to come on and would have been playing for a number or years together. Rome wasnt built in a day, utd actually took about 8 years to get back to top level, and thats with a lot more spending available. The others have unlimited cash, Chelsea have about 60 first team players with 30 odd on loan….and still can splash the cash….this isnt reality for all. so we need to do it longer term with younger players which will not be the finished article strait away. Sometimes instant success does not provide long term success. Reality of economics is the reality of economics, even if you just want sugar daddy. So does the other 70 teams in the football league.
That makes no sense mate
So Arteta just recommends now does he ?
So by your comment Arteta might not have wanted Ben white or now Odegaard?
But someone else he recommended ,so the last 9players that Arsenal have signed might not have been recommended by Arteta then .
I confused as What you posts sounds like a coach not a manger
Spot on, Dan Kit.
If I remember correctly, it was ARTETA who convinced the mercenary/Chelsea agent to join.
He clearly didnt say that Dan.
Essentially a project is being built, players have been recommended by Arteta to buy and sell but it is up to the negotiating team to work with him and then to secure those players, agreeing transfer fees and contracts….which includes White/Odegaard. How do you know Arteta didnt want messi and sancho and pogba? doesnt mean the club will buy them for him.
We also need to remove x amount of players left over from pre arteta before can buy more, and again he can say who he doesnt need but transfers/finance is managed by EdU etc who want to maximise sales (if they can even get offers) as wages still need to be paid.
The coach is only part of the process but as we cant compete financially we have a longer term project with one of the youngest teams in the league.
That makes no sense mate
So Arteta just recommends now does he ?
So by your comment Arteta might not have wanted Ben white or now Odegaard?
But someone else he recommended ,so the last 9players that Arsenal have signed might not have been recommended by Arteta then .
I confused as What you posted sounds like a coach not a manger
Oh Great Wizard of team building, Joel, why don’t you tell me how allocating upwards of 500,00/week on Auba and Willian or re-upping Xhaka for 4 more years, with a raise to boot, or how not selling Laca before entering his final contractual year or how randomly extending Cedric or how ostracizing/selling off several promising young prospects fits within the business model you’re so eagerly espousing…can’t wait to glean some wisdom from your infinite knowledge of the economic landscape…absolutely nonsensical banter as per usual for those within the Arteta apologist camp
Dan, that is EXACTLY what I am saying and yet you question why I have “change” my position!?!?
To say that MA is not in control of signings is completely against what the man himself has said.
He was promoted to Manager from coach and it has been reported that he wanted the Chelsea forward who signed for Roma and he voiced his disapproval for missing out.
He has also said he has complete confidence in kronkie, who supports his vision 100% – hardly the words of a manager not being in charge is it?
As for naming players who failed under Wenger, what that has to do with where we are today is a mystery to me.
That is why we need to let MA assemble his squad of players, watch what happens this season and judge him appropriately – my guess is he will fail, but will be absolutely delighted to be proven wrong.
Yes he is in charge of who we sign but doesnt negotiate the fees himself. If we cannot afford a player, or the player does not want to join…..why is this the fault of the manager?
That is correct, but we are talking about the players that HAVE signed since MA became manager…. and those he decided to offer new contracts to (Xhaka for example) and those he deemed didn’t fit his vision for the club (Ozil and Willock for examples).
So it really is down to him and Edu how the season unfolds.
If we followed your thinking, we cannot blame AW for not signing players (Messi and Ronaldo for example) but the previous board and kronkie.
“Why is that ?because Our 2 senior CFS have fallen foul of Arteta”
Add the other possible 9 players. How can a manager keep falling out with so many players? How are results going to improve if it goes on like this? Had Aubameyang and Lacazette played on Friday our chance of winning would have been higher.
Please provide one shred of evidence or proof please other than Gary Neville’s post interview hunch? fake news.
Nice one Kenny, it’s amazing that everything about this club is going backwards. This used to be a website where the club’s mistakes are analysed and the culprit made public. Not anymore. Now, it’s not Artetas+ Edu’s fault. Whose is it then, fans?
Let’s see what’s next with meetings between our Arsenal against Chelsea and City. This is a time without Auba and Laca. We are in trouble.
So we can safely say Thanks Arsene Wenger for good job well done over the past decades. Arsene can be said to be miracle man. How did Manage Top 4 for so long and his departure signaled the decline of Arsenal.
Thank Arsene for what? Did he do charity? Was he not paid 8 million a year? Did he win the Champions league? Did he win the EPL 10 times in 22 attemps?Did he even win the Carling/Carabao cup even once? Did he win 10-15 FA cups in 22 years?During the latter years did he not give us the most useless players – Ozil, Kolasinac, Mustafi, Elneny, Gabriel, Perez, Sanogo, Chamak, Park, Asano, Gervinho, Andre Santos, Kim somebody? Did he not get rid of our talents – RVP, Gnarby, Bennacer, Jeff Rene, Donyell, Glen Camara,etc. ?He heralded our doom and rightly Ivan signaled his sacking and put him out of his misery of ruining the club. AI wrote the facts, which does not suit some here, who cares.These are the facts which remain facts. Arteta inherited some of the worst players in the EPL.How comes that only Willock has been a target rest NONE of the 25+ are targets for other clubs around the world (except ESR). Xhaka is not valued more than 12M! We have the worst squad in the EPL and maybe the best in wages ONLY.
NO, he wasn’t paid £8,000,000 a year AND every time he qualified for THE CL, that paid his salary – how do you justify the salary MA is getting and/or the contracts he is dishing out?
It was only the last two seasons AW was paid that reported amount and a FA cup win and a europa semi final run, took care of that ridiculous salary anyway!!
He’s not dishing out the contract numpty, it goes like this Edu: Mikel do you want to extend this players contract or should we sell him
Manager: a) Keep please he’s apart of my plans b) hes our best player keep him at all costs
Edu: No worries we’ll open negotiations
That’s it you honestly think Arteta has a say on the amount of wages their paid 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Numpty,, of course he does and that’s why we find Aubemeyang and Willian on such ridiculous salaries…. unless, of course, you think that AW didn’t have any imput into Ozil’s salary? 🤔🙄😱
I always wonder why posts use emojis at all and in particular why so many of the same one in a row.
CAN ANYONE TELL ME THE “THINKING” BEHIND THOSE WHO DO SO? Serious question actually!
Perhaps it is just a genneration thing!
No Manager in the world will get 100% correct with every recruitments all the time. But Arsene Wenger always bought value for money with few exceptions. Ozil performed excellent apart from his last two seasons. Give credit where its due.
Well said the first person on these blogs to say it how it is.It really is as simple as admon Pat has said. Recruitment is the issue, under Arteta we achieved the 3rd best defense in the league with David Luiz at the back. Last season was the best I’ve seen Xhaka play in an Arsenal shirt. Pepe looked to have a far better output in the final half of the season. He is a good coach and becoming a great manager takes time and experience.
He also had Partey injured most of the year and Auba decided he didn’t like scoring anymore. The man needs to be backed and we need someone better than Edu spending the cash. As Pat said we needed a GK, Backup LB, RB, a DM backup,a Xhaka backup, a ACM and Striker. We’ve got 2 backups and a CB which should have been last on the list.
Delusion at its best! Just watch as we are in the bottom 5 after 5 games
Wow! You are such an enthusiastic and real optimistic “supporter”! NOT!
Though possibly for Spuds, now I come to think of it . Certainly sounds like a Spud anyway!
3rd best defence is useless in an unbalanced team! HOW DIFFICULT IS THAT TO UNDERSTAND??????
If you had the 3rd best defence and still had a decent attacking record then you can actually boast. One without the other is actually easy to obtain.
Spot on PJ, why some can’t seem to comprehend this fact is so utterly mindboggling…we literally set-up like a team attempting to avoid relegation
I agree that Xhaka and Pepe really did improve but Auba didn’t decide to stop scoring. Someone’s tactics are failing to utilize him properly.
Will relegation battle be enough proof for you Artetains to realize the man has lost the plot long ago?
Because that’s what trusting Edon’t and Fraudteta will bring us this season, should they stay after Christmas.
What so those tactics where he score tump loads in Artetas first season and in the FA cup. Same manager same position he had a tough year family and illness wise and I’m hoping his dip was down to that.
His problem is he’s not the manager the noisiest Arsenal fans wanted. The same ones who no such about how football works forced Wenger out I hang my head in shame at the lost of them
We haven’t had transfer failings yet.
I know this team needs an improvement and we lost the first game. I think we are overreacting over last game, the game to me was like a replay of arsenal vs Stoke of Delap period. Even a good arsenal side struggled with those kind of tactics, am not saying it’s a given we were going to lose but that we are reacting this way is a little bit out of order, yes we have 2 biggest teams as opponents next, and I say this is the good time to play them, it could not be worse than losses and then losing to them when we are still struggling and with no hope of winning the ties is better than playing them when we have hope IMO.
Now on our transfer, I think we have done brilliantly well, considering those players we brought in, some may argue we over paid for white but I strongly disagree, for a 24yo England international who is epl experienced, that the normal price and some may say we don’t need a cb because of some crap defensive achievements last season but let’s ask ourselves, how did we achieve 3rd best defensive record? Is it because we had a very brilliant defence or because we sacrifice attacking formations for defensive one?
And now that we want to improve people wants to complain. You say Saliba? Common a 20yo non epl experience is who you want to rely on throughout the season or Rob Holding
The window has been really good and smart up until now. So what do you mean with transfer failings?
A wise man once said it was the rain’s fault. You are beginning to sound more and more like him.
If Fraudteta understood he was brought into a club that expects from managers to make good s***t pie, he shouldn’t have signed. Let’s not forget that it was HIM who convinced the retiree-mentality king Willian to join us. Also, it was his tactical brain fart that lost us the semis against Emery.
We are only a couple of players away from
a really good starting X1.
Leno
Gabriel White Tierney
Partey Lokonga
Pepe Saka
Aubameyang.
We are short a top RB and a top no 10.
ESR is worth tryng as our 10 for now.
I would only loan Odegaard as I am not convinced we should spend 40m on a steady player.
I would save that money and put it toward
a dynamic game changing No 10
like Bruo Fernandez.
The squad we have now can get 5th place I am convinced starting with a win v Chelsea.
Sorry to say but its all on Arteta and Edu… just awful awful decision making!
We sell Guendouzi for 10mil just to bring in Lokonga for 20mil? Loaning Saliba (3rd year in a row!) While keeping Mari and Holding? Keeping Xhaka and Elneny? Not bringing any good RB? Not replacing Leno who clearly is past his best? Selling Willock who just broke PL record for scoring while no other midfielder can score a goal to save his own life? Still having Willian, Kolasinac, Torriera on our wage bill? In what world does all that make sense???
Spot on Nivo…don’t believe the hype
Wonder why he then apologized for the performance?
I was under the impression that Arsenal now buy players by committee. In other words, the days Wenger decided all by himself are long gone. They were gone already before Wenger left.
I think Arsenal has been terrible in the market for years. Edu is probably too inexperienced to be respected. And as always we move too slow. We need a striker more than we need a second ESR (which Odegaard is IMO) yet we have not and most likely will not sign a propper striker.
I don’t know how they decide on the players they want to buy but I hope Arteta has a veto.
If we sign Odegaard are we happy with that? Is he not a bit too much like ESR and a bit too small and slow? Would it have been worth it to gamble on Aouar? Last season ESR and Odegaard in the same 11 didn’t impress me that much
. Odegaard had a few good games but take those away and he was average or without much impact a bit too often for my liking, contrary to Saka and ESR.
What committee is that then?
I thought it was just MA and Edu… at least that’s what I’ve just been told by Numpty James above… so which one is it??
U want a shining new striker? What r we 2 do with the ones we have. As has been evidenced, the market is slow. We have 1 cf position n 5 players so far. Auba, laca, balo, martinelli, and nketiah. Methinks a smart manager would at least make one of them work
Look at how well Martinelli and Aubameyang performed under Emery. Martinelli is supposedly now being coached to be a CF, the position he played under Emery, before being benched by Arteta. As for Aubameyang he has totally lost form.
You’re giving lame excuses, how much did Arteta give you?
I didnt bother reading this. Y’all keep making excusesf rom him. Have you asked your what MA’s tactics are and what kinda pattern he seems to play?
A 30-Goal striker is underperforming because Mikel stiffles the teams creativity. A manager who played without a 10 for most of last season because he felt playing two DMs will help him defend better. He forgets that scoring is as much important as defending.
A manager whose team gets run at week by week. Take a look at Spurs, Nuno has implemented a pattern that suits his team in less that 5 Months. Mikel doesn’t know his best squad yet.
He let a Saliba out and spent 50M on White when we needed creator to help Pepe, Auba and Saka thrive.
If arsenal was going 2 b an attacking team this season, there is no way we could have relied on saliba + gabi as our defensive partnership. Opposition attackers would have had a field day. Now with white who has pl experience n has not made an individual error that resulted in a goal in 72 games (leeds n brighton), arteta does not have the excuse of sacrificing attack 4 more bodies in defence
Arteta must shoulder some of the responsibility for who and who isn’t signed although I very much doubt he’d have rushed to sign Cedric or Mari at the outset of his management career. On checking, I discovered that CS as well as Willian are managed by Kia Joorabchian who is also agent to Edu. Mari’s agent is a chum of Raul Sanhelli and was loaned and signed before RS left. Of course it’s always possible that Arteta really, really rated them and wanted to give them lengthy contracts ….
Surely Edu as Technical Director has the most clout and the most responsibility?
He has signed only 3 serious players. Why the hell did he sign the other 7 if they are not improvement to what we already had? What was the point? 7 players is not a joking matter. Another feeble attempt to defend the undefendable.
Why did Wenger resign? Because the results were bad compared to players we had. Why was Emery fired? Because the results were bad compared to the squad we had. Why then with the worst results in living memory should the players be a problem under Arteta? Another feeble attempt to defend the undefendable.
We all know that the current Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea squads are capable of winning the league. So I ask anyone defending Arteta to tell me from the bottom of their hearts if Arteta is put in charge of any of them right now would their chance of winning the league increase or decrease?
You may keep inventing excuse after excuse but that will not make him a better manager nor will it improve results on the pitch.
The squad is S**t wipe the S**t out of your eyes for God’s sake. The squad hasn’t been good enough for 10 years and this particular squad has been struggling 4 years before Arteta come in. If you honestly think that a team that Wenger couldn’t get a tune out of was anything decent then you know nowt about football and what a good team looks like
I know nowt about football and what a good team look like but I know a lot of tables and what a good table looked like. The table looked a lot better under the great Arsene and Emery with that poop of a squad.
I would like you to answer the questions I posed and to remind you are if the squad is poop why was Wenger and Emery let go instead of being supported to improve the squad? And will Arteta win the league with the current Man City, Chelsea or Liverpool squads?
Answer me those and I will consider wiping the brown out of my eyes.
*a lot about tables and what a good table looks like
I saw what you did there HH…kudos
TVRL thanks and I would have liked it if he continued but I don’t think he will.
The league table is a bane of those who like to excuse Arteta. It is the only thing they can’t find a way around.
Mention it once and poof they are gone.
Did the table look better under Emery? I thought Emery took us all the way down to 10th when he was finally let go?
Big difference between Emery and Arteta is this: Emery didn’t lose games because of lack of tactics, he lost because players refused to play for him. It was obvious for everyone to see. He finished 5th (because of players dropping tools) and a Europa League final. Where did Arteta finish with an improved squad? Did he better Emery in the Europa semis even though he had a better team than Villarreal?
James, Unai Emery had no say in scouting and engagement of players, yet was able as “head coach” to improve on Arsenal’s longest serving manager, Arsene Wenger’s sixth place and Europa League semi final position in his first season.
More players have been brought but the Club’s position continues to slide. Emery was getting results from lesser players, until the cligue revolted against the discipline and the Board hung him out to dry.
Let’s list these fantastic players Arteta decided he didn’t want at the club.
Martinez (wanted to leave we couldn’t guarantee 1st choice cause we had Leno), Luiz, Sokratis, Bellerin, Mavrepanos, Mustafi, Ozil, Kolasinac, Laca, Elneny, Torriera Guendouzi who is a spoiled little brat.
Well done on arsenal fans for spotting our problems there 👏 👍
Wow sack him now with all those players we would have deiffinatly won the league 🙄😒 how dare he got shot of them.
On top of that no body wants Elneny, Bellerin, Torriera, Chambers, Kolasinac and Co so it shows what the world of football thinks of them. And those players were mainstays in the team under Emery and Wenger
With better results and playing in Europe. If you are going to state facts go full in don’t cherry pick to defend the undefendable.
We r all Arsenal fans since it is a brand that operates in the highest levels of world football. Realistically, out worst players should comfortably fit into the lower levels of football. Besiktas, basel, and others for example would do with players like elneny and kolasinac. While we can blame covid for draining clubs’ revenues, we should fault arsenal’s management (not necessarily arteta) 4 failing to offload these players in a manner beneficial to the club. The kroenkes’ detachment or lack of football knowhow means that they have consistently entrusted the club in the hands of incompetent people like gazidis and sanlehi. I do not want to fault edu yet but the initial signs r not promising. I commend wenger 4 singlehandedly managing to maintain arsenal at the highest levels of football. His departure highlighted the enormity of the task he was entrusted. I digress. Until we chance on a functional management structure, our football will continue to suffer, the fans will become more disillusioned, n the brands prestige will diminish.
👍 Well said HH.
Some of you need to stop applying FIFA logic to the real world. You can’t simply put a player on the transfer list and have the player gone in 3 days. This is not a seller’s market. All the big clubs are trying to reduce their wage bill and having a difficult time doing so.
We have 3 RBs and can’t upgrade until at least one goes.
We have 2 senior strikers and likewise can’t upgrade until one has gone.
A Xhaka replacement cannot be bought for £12m therefore it makes more sense to hold onto him.
I haven’t heard about bids for any players fans regard as deadwood and as long as that is the case, incomings are necessarily limited.
MA’s tactics can (and should) be criticised, but this window has gone about as well as any of us could’ve hoped given we’ll have spent well over £100m net by the end of it.
Does Arsenal really try to reduce their wage bill? They are adding to it the way I see it.
I don’t think his tactics are the problem, they are spot on in terms of what he wants it to look like. We need to be playing with the workrate of Brentford the other night, but at the same time dominate possession of the ball. All the time when were in the final third having the cutting edge, creativity and the finish as the end product. But his blind faith or naivety this squad isn’t good enough and lacks the balance to do what he wants to do without exposing its weaknesses. We don’t have Fernandino, Aguero, KDB, Bernard, David Silver and Co to do this. The way he wants to play is correct the tools he has to do it are wrong to a degree
Also true it’s not FM2021 or FiFA we are having to practically give players away and what Roma were playing at 15m for Xhaka lol. But as long as these players are at the club Xhaka excluded cause he is committed to the cause surprisingly with out poisonous fanbase, can’t help but feel there will will always be negative vibes in the changing room which doesn’t help
So you are saying that Arteta needs players like Fernandino, Aguero, KDB, Bernard, David Silva, and Co. to play the type of football he wants to play?
Sounds like a checkbook manager, and 0% coach. Pretty much anyone could get results with the players you mentioned, all they have to do is give that bunch freedom to play and the manager looks like a genius.
It sounds to me that he should have persisted as pep’s no. 2 up until the city job became available. At arsenal, he was brought (I’m also sure that during his interview he concurred that his role was) to work with the players at his disposal, all of whom were not named kdb, bernardo s, aguero or such. It seems to me that either arteta overestimated his abilities, the enormity of the rebuilding task at Arsenal or lied to get a job that pays handsomely as he gains valuable experience to further his career. In either case, the executives, if there r any with balls, should have surmised that arteta’s initial remit seems to have changed n he now wants the entire city squad at arsenal or our football will continue to suffer
Durand, I like you always thought management was about utilizing the resources available to you to maximise individual player performance and optimize the outcomes for the team. Silly me.
James, the tactics is only as good as the results it produces. A good coach will have a tactics that brings the best out of the players available to him. MA already have 10+ of players of his signing and still the team is moving backwards. A good coach doesn’t need the whole team to be replaced for them to perform well. No one player has improved under Arteta.
A manager is responsible whether a player comes or not. If the manager is not good at signing the players he wants what is the use in having him? That’s the prime skill and is what differentiates good managers from poor managers. It’s not about ‘Blame’ it’s about whether the manager is successfully doing his job………and most would agree Arteta is not.
Don’t blame it on the Kroenkes,
Don’t blame it on Arteta,
Don’t blame it on Edu…
Blame it on the fans!!!
This is a little song for all of those who think the owner and club have no responsibility whatsoever for our rapid and clear decline to mid table mediocrity.
AOT, I haven’t seen any post that blame the fans and/or doesn’t blame either kronkie, edu or MA.
Why is it our fanbase (a section of it anyway) have suddenly become resistant about their power and status??
Wasn’t it said that the same fanbase were the reason AW and UE both left the club?
Aren’t we also going to see a big demonstration against kronkie on Sunday?
The fans are not to blame for mistakes on the pitch, but they, sure as hell, can influence the atmosphere away from it… just ask AFTV.
I’ve read a few that say it is the fans to blame for their negativity and how that impacts player performance on match day (like fans have no reason to be anyway;)
I hate excuses and the idea that we have developed an environment from we gets later years and protection of Stan and his deep pockets that we excuse find…it was the referee who did us over…it was the weather…it’s because of the injuries…etc etc..
Years of failure have created an excuse hothouse from within the club and that has permeated to some fans as well. On top of that we had we are building for the future , and we have the ‘potential’ to be competitive has now turned Into a ‘process’ that must be trusted…
It’s a never ending put off peppered with excuses from top to bottom.
Doesn’t fool me though… I know why Arsenal have slid from the position they once held. And it is most certainly not the fault of any fan for voicing their rightful and warranted concerns.
*Wenger slater years / instead of we gets later years
this is an absolutely fantastic article, intelligent, incisive, to the point. I love how the author gave background detail to the team that played Brentford and makes you realise the trouble we are in. He used the word shambolic; I would add incoherence and incomprehensible.
IF Arsenal FC were Arsenal PLC, i.e., a “proper” business, shareholders would revolt at the utter incompetence running the ship and heads would roll. At AFC of course, nobody takes responsibility.
The Willian signing in the aftermath of the disastrous Ozil contract is a case in point and it is unforgiveable that lessons from Ozil went unheeded. You wonder in disbelief, “how the heck did Willian (Mari, Soares, etc) end up on our shores “?.. and on a wedge we can ill afford.
I would far rather an average Willock, an average academy player, then the over-paid average we have been recruting. They are at least passionate about the shirt and will fight to defend it and at a wage we can afford.
Finally, we need the equivalent of a Parliamentary Committee to investigate recruitment because something is not right; something stinks. Shambolic indeed as our great club, brought low and humbled, likely faces many years in the wilderness.
Westham, newcastle, everton, even leeds 2 name a few played better football than arsenal whether they won or lost. Arsenal chances, the 22 shots, we nothing if not hopeful. Artetaball is bland, boring, and devoid of any entertainment value.
Google the meaning of synergy. It will help u rethink ur entire article
Arteta will be judged on results this year and in particular the performance of White/Odegaard. Those are his big buys. White some felt was frivolous and Odegaard is in a position where a multitude of players were within our reach. That is the reality of the situation and we shall see how it plays out it. Think Odegaard was underrated last year (especially compared to Saka/Smith-Rowe) personally but proof will be in the pudding as they say.
Same guy again same shxt again 😂😂. All his articles are always about praising and defending Arteta. I am starting to think he is actually Arteta in disguise 😜
Do you really think Arteta is not choosing these purchases? How naive.
OH YES WE CAN!!!!