Nice read. Be great if he got a permanent transfer. I think La Liga’s more calmer pace suits his body more
Just shows how limited footballers are raised to be.
Heavily reliant on one foot, one type of game play etc etc.
Coaching needs to evolve.
It took ages for CBs to become ball players.
It’s also not bad to have different styles though, last game Kiwior was not asked to do the Zinky role and instead White came inside more. Tierney could’ve easily played at left back, in place of what Kiwior was asked to do, and probably provide more output going forward.
Arteta has hung him out to dry a little bit imo, injuries certainly cost him a lot of time but it’s not just been that.
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He was asked to do what Zinchenko does for a couple friendlies during the WC break, and like one or two official matches after that. He clearly couldn’t do it and we dropped it.
All his other performances were in that overlapping LCB/LB role which he knows very well.
You’d struggle to think of any standout performances he had in his last two seasons here. Tierney regressed long before Zinny arrived at the club. Sign were there when Tavares got a run.
By 2022 he overtook Xhaka as the weakest link in the team.
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Yeah not a surprise his best seasons with us was under Emery given his skill set
Actually, that isn’t particularly true. Emery didn’t last long after he was signed and he was out injured for most of it. 
His best period came under Arteta.
I would say his best years were 2020-2021. I remember we were all ecstatic when he signed a new contract around Euro time because people were fearing more teams would take notice of him. Same for Saka.
From 2022 and onwards he kinda fell off a cliff performance wise.
Just didn’t move like he used to, his crossing wasn’t as lethal and kind of got exposed a bit with the team around him becoming better.
I agree; Arteta had a more competent option in White for that role and should have allowed Tierney to have his usual role.
Nothing wrong with having different types of fullbacks for instances say when teams are able to shut down our right side very well.
Arteta can be very rigid in such cases.
As well as GK’s. 
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Yesteryear GKs will have panic attacks if they are thrown in to play with modern tactics.
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It’s hardly surprising because the GK’s back then would turn up at the match, straight from the pub, still wearing the same clothes.
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I just think it was absolutely retarded (can’t really say in nicer) from Arteta to force Tierney as that fake CM/LB.
As he said himself, you could see it was alien to him… Arteta could have used White or whatever RB to do that, or even one of the CBs (as Pep does with Stones) but he was so stupidly rigid with absolutely only using our LB as that fake CM, no matter who was there.
Those tactical tweaks are great, but you always have to take the player into consideration, whether he’s actually (remotely) suited to do a certain role. Otherwise you’re just going against yourself and it’s basically bad management. You’re neutralising the benefits of those “tweaks” by using the wrong player and even making the the whole system worse.
Should have never used Tierney there. If he kept using him as a somwehat normal LB (as City mostly does with Walker) and used White or even Saliba as a CM, Tierney would still have a decent role to play in this squad.
Not that I regret Tierney, just pointing out a small example how dead wrong Arteta can be about certain things/ideas etc (overall he’s still great, just for the record).
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Arteta has learnt his lesson. He’s not trying to force his inverting strategy with players who are unsuited to it like Kiwior.
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Let me have a guess. The bloke is injured atm?
People are going overboard about this.
We’re talking about 2 official games he used Tierney in that role, I’ve just checked and it’s 103 minutes in total. 
Lol, he was using him in that role basically all the time since Zinny got here and Arteta saw a LB can do some extra work in the middle.
You barely saw Tierney doing any overlaps (he did 3 I think lol) and some runs down the flank since Zinny got here.
He didn’t start using him there till the World Cup break.
If you remember people were mad that Arteta wasn’t using Tierney much when Zinny was out for most of the first half of the season and was using Tomiyasu instead. Even Cedric got the nod at left back over Tierney at one point.
He tried using Tierney as inverted LB during the WC break and it was alright, however it didn’t translate well at all competitively so he dropped it.
You can see that in his heat maps as well.
Brighton before the break:
West Ham right the break:
City later:
Upping his transfer value hopefully.
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To top Tier(ney) money please, senor.
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