Normally after anything other than a win I would have a media blackout. Today however, I’m so ambivalent that whatever crosses my eyes crosses my eyes and I accept that.
No matter how well Arteta has done, he’s always had his doubters and now they’re all piping up, pushing for his sacking.
I just saw a post by James Lawrence Alcott about one player you wish your club never sold and he suggested ours is Xhaka. I couldn’t disagree more.
Henry’s comments about the team’s performances and how the issues were apparent from the second game are poignant too.
Especially on the back of the Ramsdale sale, Arteta was basking in the reputation of being ruthless. But if we’re honest, it’s just one player that fell out of his favour. The evidence says that he’s stubborn and isn’t ruthless enough.
At the level we’re trying to be at, there’s no free spots in the squad everyone has to play and be able to play at the standard we set. Problem is, he kept the likes of Nketiah and Nelson and didn’t play them. Now he’s doing it with Nwaneri, who he says falls short off the ball.
He’s set standards and even when we fall short of those standards, he refuses to adapt. Trosaard has stinker after stinker and he still stays on and then starts the next game. It’s not just Trosaard, Partey is another issue. He flatters to deceive, being nearly useless defensively. It’s no surprise we concede more this season.
With Ødegaard out, Arteta sacrificed both Havertz and Trosaard to try and fill the gap and it didn’t work, despite some results suggesting otherwise. To bring Partey into the squad, we sacrifice defensive stability and Rice. It doesn’t make sense.
The whole reason I was so excited about Merino was for that left 8. Replacing Xhaka finally. Because Martinelli, who is often isolated needs stability and support and we need to be less dependent on the right side. Arteta decided to put Rice there.
Gabriel has said that we don’t understand all that has happened with his injuries but a more ruthless manager would’ve moved him on, because we can’t rely on him and even when he comes on, he’s great defensively but offers nothing in attack and unfortunately for him, goals win games.
Arteta just seems to be out of ideas and it’s giving his critics ammunition. I’m personally not wanting him out, but it’s unacceptable to take the giant steps backwards that we have. Especially when the issue isn’t quality but tactical.
Do you think I’m being overly critical? Is he having these conversations with his team? Because he needs critique. An echo chamber is bad for everyone, especially our club and our ambitions.
Honestly, next game, I wanna see Rice back at DM, Partey and Trosaard on the bench. Nwaneri starting and to see us actually trying to win rather than trying not to lose.
I see this as a symptom of our mediocre attacker recruitment during the summer. We brought in Merino (while I know he’s capable of scoring, it’s not his biggest strength), and Sterling on a loan (who I had low expectations of but he has still underperformed overall IMO). Meanwhile we got rid of ESR and some others (Nelson, Vieira - though TBF they were dead wood).
We have excellent resources in defense, but we are thin in attack. And the strategy seemed to be to hope we got no major injuries, which was incredibly naive. So when Odegaard got injured we were screwed. We need 3 or 4 quality attacking players to challenge for the title. But honestly, with 3 losses already, and the fact that the January transfer window is notoriously difficult, and now with no Edu… our title challenge is likely done for the season.
Good to see Area is giving the likes of Nwaneri and MLS more play time. That’s a good idea. Hopefully they can both come of age this season and add a whole new dimension. But we can’t hope for a good if teenagers to full in like that. Spend big in January, if we can. Or just resign ourselves to trying to get a CL spot and regroup for next season.
Which attacking player/s would you recruit? I don’t see the options there tbh.
I don’t recall right now, but there were several decent ones in the summer transfers list that I maintained here during the last transfer window.
Of those who would have been able to make a direct impact, I can only remember Osimhen and the money was very likely not there for one Europe’s best. Especially considering he was the only one on the market, so at a premium…
Maybe I’m wrong though… You would have had a better overview, that list was really well maintained!