13 Jan 2025 12:42:24
Interested in everyone's opinion. Great to see some first time posters.
If you were Arteta's boss, how would you access a few things. Rather than vented, which I do, I was interested in some of the whys.
1. Assessment of where he has taken the club to in his 5 year project.
Are we ahead of schedule
What score out of 5 does he get
2. Assessment of where he has taken the club to in his 5 year project.
Are we ahead of schedule
What score out of 5 does he get
3. In terms of this season alone, what areas is he above expectation Vs below expectation.
4. What does success look like for this season
Lastly, we all agree we are not performing at the current performance level that we would like. Why do you think that is?
What do you think needs to change between now and end of season?
Thanks and if you reply thank you again as I am trying to see the different opinions and get more balance. ?.
{Ed025's Note -
1...3/5, you are competitive at the top without the ability to win the league..
2....3/5, spent big money but squad still not good enough for Major honours..
3....below because you will win nothing..
4....top 4 but it could and should have been much better
a top striker should have been signed 2 seasons ago SY, you lack squad depth as has been proven when Odegaard was out and now Saka, your wingers martinnever and Drossard only produce in short bursts but even when they do produce good crosses there is nobody to get on the end of them, put this season down as a write off and start again next season...but if Mikel is still in charge then expect more of the same unless you get a DOF in who will bring in players befitting of a club who want to be serious challengers, apologies for the negativity because you are close, just not close enough imo mate..
13 Jan 2025 13:48:02
{Ed025's Note -
1.3/ 5, you are competitive at the top without the ability to win the league.
2.3/ 5, spent big money but squad still not good enough for Major honours.
3.below because you will win nothing.
4.top 4 but it could and should have been much better
a top striker should have been signed 2 seasons ago SY, you lack squad depth as has been proven when Odegaard was out and now Saka, your wingers martinnever and Drossard only produce in short bursts but even when they do produce good crosses there is nobody to get on the end of them, put this season down as a write off and start again next season. but if Mikel is still in charge then expect more of the same unless you get a DOF in who will bring in players befitting of a club who want to be serious challengers, apologies for the negativity because you are close, just not close enough imo mate.
Copy and pasted ED's response as it seems bang on.
13 Jan 2025 18:37:51
Hi Sy, I have a few thoughts.
Q1 and Q2 seem to be the same
So I will answer them as one.
Q1/ 2. I definitely think Arteta has brought us a long way and I feel we were pretty much on track until this year. Perhaps we were lucky with not having too many serious injuries in the previous 4 years? Mind you losing Saliba had us off the cliff edge pretty quickly a year or so ago! I still feel we are creating loads of chances but the whole world can see we have dropped off in front of goal. And how teams have very quickly learned how to shut us down. It highlights how important some of our players are and how much things change when they are missing. Perhaps our system is too rigid to adapt to constant change? Perhaps players are coached to replicate missing players even though that's not natural for them?
Q3. For this season alone. Have we exceeded expectations? Definitely not. And there is a hungry pack close behind us which could be problematic as we haven't been able to put distance between us.
Are we playing below expectations? Definitely. Nerves are definitely on show, whether that is because they are being instructed to try a different approach or the injury problems are making the team unsettled. Either way this needs to change so confidence can be restored. Being very critical, it does seem we have one group of super stars and one group of squad players and there is a big difference in ability between each group. It can quickly become obvious when the 2nd group become the dominant group.
Q4. I can only see top 4 this year and even that will be hard with resurgent teams powering through.
Why aren't we playing how we would like? There have been too many changes of personnel and tactics, both which seem to unsettle players. We need to keep things simple and accept that teams are using ever-more rough tactics to bring us down.
Lastly, what needs to change this season? Play simpler, direct football. Don't bring everyone forward for set pieces as we keep getting caught on the break. Each time it looks like the opposition could score when we are chasing the ball.
Hope that makes sense Sy. I'm typing on my phone and keep having to go back to your questions lol.
13 Jan 2025 20:15:47
1. Assessment of where he has taken the club to in his 5 year project.
Are we ahead of schedule
What score out of 5 does he get
4/ 5 personally I think he has done an amazing job from where we were and were we are. I think we were ahead of schedule 2 seasons ago i think this season is where we should have been 2 seasons ago. challenging city/ liverpool mancity
3. In terms of this season alone, what areas is he above expectation Vs below expectation.
2/ 5, Based on the rise in expectation on the performance of the two seasons this year has been a washout. The writing was on the wall we do not have a squad and to be competitive on all fronts you need a good squad. The team is very young and mentally very vunerable.
4. What does success look like for this season
3/ 5 Based on the current performance not get wiped out by other teams i'm dreading and sensing a big whopping coming any day unless we can rejuvenate the squad. Fans get behind the team and stick with the team. Play attractive football go back to basic and have that 1 nil mentality we have a very strong defense and we need to utilise them we are unable to break down the bus/ submarines teams are parking. Top 4 finish and an advance on last years champions league. regroup in the summer and strenthen the squad keep the starting 11 and anyone else that wants to leave let them leave.
13 Jan 2025 21:01:53
Hi Sally, not sure why I duplicated the question. Enjoyed the read. Made me think…
Typed it on phone while heating my soup up at work…any way - hard to disagree with where we are in our journey and that we are in a good spot coming into the season. Probably ahead of schedule if being fair to Arteta.
Yep - This season - has me puzzled. He really has signed some duds in that 700m and expensive ones which doesn’t help the depth this year. He seems to buy players and tries to convert them to other or new roles - why? He doesn’t address our problems - so he’s brought a lot on himself and got squad quality issues. Everyman and his dog knew with less rest and more games that squad quality is important. Although injuries have been crazy. Has that impacted style?
His ridged style is an issue. Funny it annoys me that he never adapts to opponents tactical changes or to press for a win. You’ve highlighted it in impacting us from kick off….
We are one dimensional, boring and predictable. That’s on him. But why? I think you are right - confidence and being over defensive as we lack quality and depth. This is a downward spiral as it’s boring and not great for fans and drawing too many games as a result. Our main threat - corners. How boring ; now teams work it out and we are exposed plus Ode can’t even take a corner.
Ode - he’s not a game player but a facilitator. He makes us better when we are playing well but does nothing for us when we are average. With us playing poor and no Saka = Ode is a passenger compared to him at his best.
Arteta doesn’t seem to sign leaders or disrupters while I think we are screaming out for more leadership. Someone to challenge status quo and give some tough feedback to players on the pitch. Don’t really have that on the bench from a Number 2 or David Dein type of person. Almost a situation to pander to Arteta on and off the pitch which is fine while we are winning. Fergie always had strong number 2s.
As I look to the future - I see the same issues repeating with Arteta. He can’t change tactics mid-game and is stubborn. We have players who want medals and have short careers plus contract renewals so it’s not a long game. He’s had a fortune. I like him as a person, loves our club and great ambassador but just has never set us up with special players, winners, dirty nasty gits etc that’s needed to win epl.
There’s a huge compounding of issues that are taking their tole
Sad to say - agree top 4 this season. Liverpool and City will beat us. Not good enough for CL and out of rest.
For me:
This season - sacked if can’t stop the sideways crap.
Next season - sacked if no trophy and top 3.
Thank you.
13 Jan 2025 21:10:47
Hi G4 - great start to his project and a huge fall this year. Yep.
You note - The team is very young and mentally very vunerable.
Confidence / vulnerability probably impacting us along with injuries. Yes.
I’m concerned about who may leave….
Top 4 doesn’t feel good enough for me - what if we are no better this time next year?
?.