Will sound odd to those outside the club but I think it is fair enough.
This football is insufferable and has been for two years. The only justification would have been winning the title, and that is looking pretty unlikely.
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Will sound odd to those outside the club but I think it is fair enough.
This football is insufferable and has been for two years. The only justification would have been winning the title, and that is looking pretty unlikely.
Fairly sure he has credit in the bank with the owners. We?re not known for knee jerk hiring and firing, so he?s probably safe. He?ll also escape the momentum of supporters wrath.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
The season will be over and thoughts will shift towards the World Cup. If the club make a couple of bold summer signings, it?ll buy him more time.
The crowd will be the ultimate barometer, as always. They tend to be the catalyst for those on the board to begin shifting gears.
I?d have him out but I?m of the view that after six seasons, things are unlikely to get significantly better.
It?s like those companies who have peaked, then find themselves on the revenue downward slide as the market shifts. They then try to reinvent themselves in areas away from what was their core competency.
It can occasionally works but in most cases it doesn?t.
He is due a new contract this summer. Tough to hand that out if we've blown everything again, which is looking very likely.Quote:
Originally Posted by 7sisters
He has to change the way we play next season. Fans are not going to put up with this rubbish unless we are winning things.
I've seen it a few times in the software sector. A top heavy old crew of golf addicts and chancers realising the jig is up and tries to act like a start-up. New image, couple of new slogans but the energy just isn't there.Quote:
Originally Posted by 7sisters
He can't change the way we play. If he could change the way we play, we wouldn't be playing this way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
Of course he can. He changed the way we play to this rubbish. He can change it back.Quote:
Originally Posted by Herbert Augustus Chapman
And if he cant, or doesn't want to, then he can leave.
The contrast of how The Arsenal play against this rampant Man City team.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
Chalk and cheese.
We're ****ed in the Premier league race. FACT!
Certainly seems that way. Hard to see us turning it around from hereQuote:
Originally Posted by IUFG
It?s life, H. Arteta?s still young and would probably benefit from a new challenge. In time, he?ll get over the sleepless nights and that ringing in his ears from Arsenal fans calling him a useless git but, like Lampard, he?ll find his feet and catch a break at somewhere like Norwich. :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Herbert Augustus Chapman
I think he should go to Spain. To Atletico to be precise. They'll be needing a new manager when we recruit Diego.Quote:
Originally Posted by 7sisters
This is exactly it. Clearly our front three need a full upgrade (Saka aside maybe).Quote:
Originally Posted by Herbert Augustus Chapman
Against City Havertz will have to play up top. There is absolutely no point playing Gyokores in that game as City will play very deep with defenders that can easily mange his limited skill set.
Yes. He can. But he can?t do that while competing for titles. So what do you want?Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
Don?t be obtuse.
He did. And we did compete for the title. In fact, we got closer then, against a good city side, than we will this season against a **** one. And we won more points than we will this season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
If we had played like that this season we would have won the league. There is nothing obtuse about it.
This....style....of....play....does....not.....wor k!
But you are treating the way teams play against us as a constant. They have adapted? previously we were afforded lots of space in the PL which is why players with limited technical ability excelled. Now we face the deepest block in the league every week.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
This is also why we do so well in the CL now.
The only answer (and I really mean it) is elite talent in the final third. We have very much mid range talent there now. Which makes us unusual compared to our rivals.
It doesn't seem to me teams are playing deep anymore in fact they are high pressing and we don't have a clue what to do.
You need to get over Gyok, Rich. You told everyone he was the worst Arsenal player you had ever seen. He made you look stupid. You apologised.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
It's time to move on less you begin looking stupid again.
Yeah, because back in the Wenger years everyone came to Higbury/Emirates and attacked us for 90 minutes. No one ever put 10 men behind the ball and played for 0-0 back then. Defending deep and in numbers against us has only happened in the past few years :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
He won't play against City in fairness. He's improved but still a liability against better teams.Quote:
Originally Posted by WES
He will play. Unless he gets injured against Sporting.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
And I expect Havertz will play behind him, lingering as the long ball outlet to help us bypass the City press. What Arteta doesn't know, and wont have prepared for, is that Pep will have a different plan for us this time.
Our inability, or lack of desire, to pass through a high press has been with us a while, Peter. If Arteta could have solved it this season, with these players, I think he would have.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
It would surprise me if City do anything other than what they did at the start of the second half in the Caraboa Cup.
Minnd you, I have no intention of watching it :-)
Didn't he score a hat-trick against them in the CL?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
He certainly did - Two penalties and a goal where he had an entire half of the football pitch to run into unchallenged.Quote:
Originally Posted by PSRB
Meanwhile you've never ceased to look stupid telling everyone how great he is.Quote:
Originally Posted by WES
That would be a fair point, Herb, had I ever said he was great, even once.Quote:
Originally Posted by Herbert Augustus Chapman
But you're talking *******s, Herb. Again.
He does take great penalties thoughQuote:
Originally Posted by WES
I'll give him that and would suggest he should take them over Saka - when both are on the pitch at the same time.Quote:
Originally Posted by PSRB
He has also improved his first touch quite significantly which is to his credit.
But is he a top PL striker? No. Nice squad option to have but he's not going to win us any titles.
he might be in a different squad. hard to tell looking at the way we play.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
Yes, but you are forgetting that he didn't have to face a low block then.Quote:
Originally Posted by PSRB
In case you are confused, the low block was invented for the first time at the start of last season, and is only ever used against Arsenal.......
But not to worry. In a startling moment of tactical genius, Arteta decided that the best way to win the league is to focus all your attention on passing sideways, winning corners and wasting time at throw ins.
And to be fair,in a season where everyone else is ****, and after spending another quarter of a billion on the squad, it nearly worked.... :-(
I have a feeling we might win the Champions League (that has been dampened by the fact we'll face Athletico rather than Barca).Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
I have completely given up all hope of the PL, though. City will definitely beat us by a couple of goals on Sunday and I can't really see us winning more than one or two of our remaining league fixtures anyway.
I hate football :-(
I like football. I just wished we played it sometimes :-(Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
We could get to the CL final. But I don't see us beating Bayern or PSG, and I don't see us turning up for a final even if we were facing someone beatable.
You cant expect player to be brave and bold when you coach them from a position of fear every ****ing day, in every ****ing game. If you coach a side to waste time for 70 minutes at Fulham to defend a 1-0 lead, you can hardly expect them to believe that they can beat the best sides in Europe.
Someone needs to tell Arteta to lighten the **** up and leave the ****ing players alone.
:nod: I keep saying this, we have the players to play really nice attacking football. We did it against Bayern for instance but we just seem to have decided to try and defend and nick a goal. Saturday was awful.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
You can't legislate for nerves. They do funny things to people in all sports. Look how an England batting order can implode in Australia when the pressure is on. Watch a golfer with the yips putting.Quote:
Originally Posted by PSRB
I'm sure Arteta tells them to relax but that's easier said than done. You can see how tense they are with some of the basic errors that keep being made.
The only two solutions are to (a) win something or (b) bring in 2 or 3 players that are used to winning the biggest trophies in the sport.
Re: solution (b); I think there might be a case for playing Gabi Jesus on the left for a bit. He can be no less effective than Martinelli or Trossard. We know he has a goal in him. We know he's very tricky. We know he's a great passer and we know he's a born winner.
Have you learned nothing of the intractable Arteta mindset :hehe:Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
I think it was Coppola who had the humour to use The Doors song, The End, at the beginning of Apocalypse Now. Those glorious helicopters flying around above the napalm.
The inevitable hopelessness of it all.
That?s us, that is..
:hehe: I disagree but I know the scene well.Quote:
Originally Posted by 7sisters
I'd do that. Worth a gamble. Which side did he play on when he was winning things with City?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
Jeez on the left, Kai up top, Easy at no.10. Give it a go. There's some skill and creativity in there. When are B and Odin meant to be back?
B = Achilles tendon, might not return this season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult
It was days rather than weeks yesterday.Quote:
Originally Posted by pjlincs
That was then. This is today's Guardian:Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
'with Manchester City breathing down their necks again and major doubts about when talisman Bukayo Saka will play again due to an achilles issue' plus 'and, in the absence of Saka for the foreseeable future'.
Apparently instead of bringing your lunch it's going to be 'No fear, pure fire' tonight :shrugs:
Hearing Arteta demanding 'no fear' is a bit like hearing Hitler demanding no anti semitism.Quote:
Originally Posted by pjlincs
AFTV, quite ridiculously in my opinion, are saying he should be sacked on Monday if we lose at City......
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter