comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Maul Person (U12977)
posted 12 hours, 7 minutes ago
comment by Oldie@Ride🪑or Die (U21751)
posted 14 minutes ago
I would swap Auba for Coutinho it’s a no brainer. Auba is hopeless with the ball and older than Coutinho
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I can see that argument but the flipside is to let Laca go because it stops him leaving on a free at the end of the season and having Coutinho in the midfield mix ultimately means that Auba won't have to / be expected to play on the left.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Where else can he play?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In middle like he did at Dortmund?

comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 39 minutes ago
comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Maul Person (U12977)
posted 12 hours, 7 minutes ago
comment by Oldie@Ride🪑or Die (U21751)
posted 14 minutes ago
I would swap Auba for Coutinho it’s a no brainer. Auba is hopeless with the ball and older than Coutinho
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I can see that argument but the flipside is to let Laca go because it stops him leaving on a free at the end of the season and having Coutinho in the midfield mix ultimately means that Auba won't have to / be expected to play on the left.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Where else can he play?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In middle like he did at Dortmund?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We have tried that and it hasn't worked

comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 57 minutes ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 39 minutes ago
comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Maul Person (U12977)
posted 12 hours, 7 minutes ago
comment by Oldie@Ride🪑or Die (U21751)
posted 14 minutes ago
I would swap Auba for Coutinho it’s a no brainer. Auba is hopeless with the ball and older than Coutinho
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I can see that argument but the flipside is to let Laca go because it stops him leaving on a free at the end of the season and having Coutinho in the midfield mix ultimately means that Auba won't have to / be expected to play on the left.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Where else can he play?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In middle like he did at Dortmund?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We have tried that and it hasn't worked
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Arteta wouldn't know how to play that style. My hope is that if it is Coutinho, he's already seen it at Liverpool. Sturridge is far inferior to Aubameyang but he scored 20+ because of him.

comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 6 hours, 48 minutes ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 39 minutes ago
comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Maul Person (U12977)
posted 12 hours, 7 minutes ago
comment by Oldie@Ride🪑or Die (U21751)
posted 14 minutes ago
I would swap Auba for Coutinho it’s a no brainer. Auba is hopeless with the ball and older than Coutinho
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I can see that argument but the flipside is to let Laca go because it stops him leaving on a free at the end of the season and having Coutinho in the midfield mix ultimately means that Auba won't have to / be expected to play on the left.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Where else can he play?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In middle like he did at Dortmund?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We have tried that and it hasn't worked
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Another reason to look at Arteta. If he can't use a proven striker... AS A STRIKER... I have no hope for him.

They both could just be isolating because of a Covid scare.

comment by 2-4-5 Trioxin (U22016)
posted 34 minutes ago
They both could just be isolating because of a Covid scare.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The club would have said. As they did with Arteta.

comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 1 day, 4 hours ago
comment by 8bit (U2653)
posted 15 hours, 4 minutes ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 1 hour, 20 minutes ago
comment by 8bit (U2653)
posted 13 seconds ago
comment by Maul Person (U12977)
posted 2 hours, 58 minutes ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 1 hour, 51 minutes ago
Who is going to score our goals?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Martinez who will come in with Conte... if that rumour is to be believed!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I doubt Conte would consider us, if he did take the job he'd be arrested for GBH within a week working with our players.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From the reports, Arteta seems to be the over complicating things rather than the players being unreceptive to his methods.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Neville said after Brentford that you can tell Arteta doesn't like many of these players, he's flopped badly but it's still a shocking squad in terms of quality and mentality. Even with Arteta's tactics Tierney, Saka, ESR always stand out as our best players, the rest just aren't up to it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Its an easy out for a manager to blame the players. But this is not Arteta's first season. And he has bought a lot of players but we look as disorganised as we did last season. Gary Neville has always defended Arteta because its a mirror image to his own circumstances as a manager. But no amounts of empathy can cover how shambolic the team looks.

For example Carragher should have followed up by asking Gary why Ben White was considered one of the best CBs in England but unable to clear a bouncing ball from a throw in? Did Arteta not do any homework on how Brentford play and practise positional defending?

I don't buy 'its all the players fault anymore'. It is obvious that Arsenal players are individually better than Brentford players. We weren't playing Man City. But collectively they looked relegation fodder. I am sorry thats all down to poor management.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not about defending the manager, he bought and extended contracts for a lot of these players anyway. I'm not interested in Arteta agendas, the problem started under Wenger and got progressively worse. Yes we would improve with a better manager but nothing will really change until we fix our recruitment and stop spending all our money on rubbish players.

comment by 8bit (U2653)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 1 day, 4 hours ago
comment by 8bit (U2653)
posted 15 hours, 4 minutes ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 1 hour, 20 minutes ago
comment by 8bit (U2653)
posted 13 seconds ago
comment by Maul Person (U12977)
posted 2 hours, 58 minutes ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 1 hour, 51 minutes ago
Who is going to score our goals?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Martinez who will come in with Conte... if that rumour is to be believed!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I doubt Conte would consider us, if he did take the job he'd be arrested for GBH within a week working with our players.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From the reports, Arteta seems to be the over complicating things rather than the players being unreceptive to his methods.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Neville said after Brentford that you can tell Arteta doesn't like many of these players, he's flopped badly but it's still a shocking squad in terms of quality and mentality. Even with Arteta's tactics Tierney, Saka, ESR always stand out as our best players, the rest just aren't up to it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Its an easy out for a manager to blame the players. But this is not Arteta's first season. And he has bought a lot of players but we look as disorganised as we did last season. Gary Neville has always defended Arteta because its a mirror image to his own circumstances as a manager. But no amounts of empathy can cover how shambolic the team looks.

For example Carragher should have followed up by asking Gary why Ben White was considered one of the best CBs in England but unable to clear a bouncing ball from a throw in? Did Arteta not do any homework on how Brentford play and practise positional defending?

I don't buy 'its all the players fault anymore'. It is obvious that Arsenal players are individually better than Brentford players. We weren't playing Man City. But collectively they looked relegation fodder. I am sorry thats all down to poor management.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not about defending the manager, he bought and extended contracts for a lot of these players anyway. I'm not interested in Arteta agendas, the problem started under Wenger and got progressively worse. Yes we would improve with a better manager but nothing will really change until we fix our recruitment and stop spending all our money on rubbish players.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wenger is long gone. What value is it bringing him into a conversation about the current situation?

Our current situation didn't just happen overnight, it's the result of years of mismanagement.

comment by 8bit (U2653)
posted 31 minutes ago

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Neville said after Brentford that you can tell Arteta doesn't like many of these players, he's flopped badly but it's still a shocking squad in terms of quality and mentality. Even with Arteta's tactics Tierney, Saka, ESR always stand out as our best players, the rest just aren't up to it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Its an easy out for a manager to blame the players. But this is not Arteta's first season. And he has bought a lot of players but we look as disorganised as we did last season. Gary Neville has always defended Arteta because its a mirror image to his own circumstances as a manager. But no amounts of empathy can cover how shambolic the team looks.

For example Carragher should have followed up by asking Gary why Ben White was considered one of the best CBs in England but unable to clear a bouncing ball from a throw in? Did Arteta not do any homework on how Brentford play and practise positional defending?

I don't buy 'its all the players fault anymore'. It is obvious that Arsenal players are individually better than Brentford players. We weren't playing Man City. But collectively they looked relegation fodder. I am sorry thats all down to poor management.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not about defending the manager, he bought and extended contracts for a lot of these players anyway. I'm not interested in Arteta agendas, the problem started under Wenger and got progressively worse. Yes we would improve with a better manager but nothing will really change until we fix our recruitment and stop spending all our money on rubbish players.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

8bit thats a bit simplistic. I think you conflating different issues.

Wenger had a defined style and a lot of the problems started after his recruitment got old and stale to find players that fitted in with his style. So the club had to decide whether Wenger would have the energy and enthusiasm to conduct the overhaul in recruitment setup at Arsenal that was required.

They tried to patch it up by hiring Sanhelli and Mislintat and Emery. Emery inherited most of those players. He tried to adapt his style to fit them in while Raul/Mislintat/Edu tried to at least bring the age of the squad down and fill immediate holes.

Under Arteta however we ripped it up. Fired most of our scouts and gave the power to Arteta and Edu. This was in my opinion a complete mistake. Our recruitment has been all over the place just likes our coaching team. Arteta has no defined style so we can't recruit players to fit something that doesn't exist. On one hand we buy the likes of Willian, Cedric and Mari and then Arteta dislikes them and we don't see them again. On the other we buy established quality players like Gabriel and Partey who look woeful under Arteta.

It was one thing for KSE to so much power to someone like Wenger who was an established manager with experince of recruitment gained at Monaco and under David Dein. Altogether another thing to give it someone like Arteta who was not even capable of hiring quality coaches (his primary job) or having a clue about tactics.

You're making it more complicated than it needs to be. At the end of the day buy poor players and we'll have a poor team. Whether that's under Wenger, Raul and Sven, Arteta and Edu doesn't make a difference. The scouts we fired deserved to be fired because they recommended the likes of Mustafi or Pepe etc. Our recruitment structure has been rotten for the best part of 10 years and that's more important than getting the manager right because even if a manager fails you get another one who has a strong squad to work with.

8bit. Recruitment is even more complicated than I have stated. I haven't mentioned balance sheet ratios, FFP, metrics and moneyball. Clubs are making multimillion pound investments when they buy players.

The manager drives the recruitment at every club apart from Chelsea. And Chelsea make it a point to hire managers who plays complementary style to the players at the club. Its absolutely vital to have a manager in charge who knows what they are doing and the type of player they are recruiting.

And why would any club buy poor players?

Players are bought because they perform well.

Yeah we're not buying sub standard players on purpose... it's down to the judgement of those making the decisions. Most clubs have a director of football now in charge of transfers with the manager having varying levels of input. Recruitment is the same for every club out there, the fact that it's complicated is why it's important to get it spot on... and we are what happens when you get it wrong squandering hundreds of millions.

Yes. Totally agree.

Which is why I hold,

1) Manager as the most important, then,
2) Technical Director, then,
3) Scouts, then
4) Negotiations Director

responsible when it goes t!ts up.