Arteta was a really good buy for us, but he was found out at Champions League level where teams actually pressed. Klopp’s Dortmund side ate him alive.
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Yep, that Dortmund side was ahead of its time.
How? We’re they the first team ever to press or something?
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Their intensity and pressing throughout the match was unusual at the time. Everyone was trying to rip off Barca and their tiki taka.
We were the only ones who were trying to do that.
@Flexo so he really wasnt a good buy since he didn’t cut it at the level we wanted to perform at.
I genuinely wouldn’t mind neves
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No we weren’t, the whole world was trying to emulate Barca around that time.
It’s the norm really. Football follows the best.
Everyone started switching to 3atb when Conte won the PL, everyone started playing from the back when Pep and City were doing so.
This is actually number 1 bullshit. Ferguson, van Gaal, Mourinho, Simeone etc were all doing their own things in the early 2010s. Definitely not trying to copy Guardiola. The only person who tried that was Wenger and he was the only one who betrayed his own principles. That is why his career went to shit.
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I wouldn’t either, he isn’t the dream CM signing but if Xhaka is out the door he needs to be replaced whether we like it or not. I think ideally we’d be signing another more dynamic midfielder as well if we we’re looking at Neves.
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He’s better than Xhaka that’s for sure but that’s not setting the bar very high.
Yeah but it wasn’t a brand new innovation it was just a recycled one so I wouldn’t say they were ahead of their time.
I mean even Pep teams pressed intensely out of possession it’s just that they had so much possession people often seem to overlook it.
I just don’t like that the history of football gets disregarded to form this “modern game” narrative when really and truly it’s recycled tactics and all that jazz.
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Sure, pressing wasn’t something new. It’s just the constant intensity that they were pressing at that was new.
I personally wasn’t used to it before. There was always a notion that constant pressing isn’t maintainable but we’ve seen sides carry that style throughout the season.
I remember when Atleti won the league back then they used to be pressing similarly like mad men. I always thought they were gonna collapse but they just kept at it and shocked Barca and Madrid.
Tbh pressing was a very British thing. Paisley Liverpool in the 80s used it for a good few years.
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I wish we would replace Xhaka.
finger curls on the monkey’s paw
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Absolutely. Before my time but I tried watching those European Cup winning sides and they closed down so fast. The passing and movement was fast 1 or 2 touch stuff too. All of those things are Kloppesque tactics. Klopp may have been a fan in his childhood
Then there’s Germany’s 1954 World Cup final against Hungary who beat them comfortably prior to this. Germany used amphetamines and pressing to win the final.
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He isn’t the worst but these aren’t the sorts of players I was hoping for when KSE and Arteta said look to the summer with optimism.
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Edu about to get conned by Mendes
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Slightly more preferable to being conned by Kia