Mate, he was the one picking the squad. He didn’t “get” a competent sqaud to work with, that team was essentially forced upon him. He wasn’t hard done by, he was the problem.
Considering two points per game is supposedly our default level now let’s see if we compete for the title next season too.
23 game stretch or no how any of you can have faith in this sorry excuse for a coach going in to next season is beyond me.
He wanted Auoar and Partey. Got Partey who played 2 90’s until Christmas time and no Auoar. Attacking mid and CM options pre Christmas: Xhaka, Elneny, Ceballos, Willian, Pepe, Saka, Nelson, Auba, Laca. Ditching Pepe for Willian from September to December was a big fuck up but that batch of players has no where near enough creativity and isn’t competing for top 4 regardless.
Perhaps missing out on Auoar was a blessing in disguise as he’s had a poor season, he isn’t some world beater anyway. He also wanted Willian and for Xhaka to stay, goes both ways.
He had most of these players who you say played a big part in this 23 game stretch in the latter stages of the Europa League and got turned over by Emery going out with a whimper.
And I disagree, Moyes competed for top four with his band of players as did Rodgers, in this kind of season even our team should have been able to do so. Difference is we have a lame duck coach masquerading as a good one.
Last night I heard Liverpool have more points than anyone else is in the last 9 games.
We can move these goal posts as much as we want but one thing we can’t get away from is even with our run, we have never been in a favourable position for top 6.
Really can’t be taking for granted that we are on an upward curve that guarantees us better season next time out.
Other teams started better and fell away. Anyone can concentrate on their positives in a season and convince themselves of better to come.
There’s a glimmer of better and more maybe with good recruitment but it’s not a given.
Nobody around us is quaking because of this run and it’s along way back and a lot of hard work ahead.
Partey is hardly a match winner and our squad is a lot better than some clubs that have finished either ahead or just below us.
As for not having very good attacking options, even when he has had Pepe, Odegaard, ESR and Saka, we’ve still struggled to score against clubs like Burnley, Aston Villa, Fulham, Everton etc.
West Ham, Leicester and spurs have squads comparable, or not s good as ours, yet they score more goals and even Leeds, who were in the Championship last season, have scored more than us.
I just can’t see how we’re going to be challenging for a CL place next season if we still have Arteta.
14 points from 14 games to start the season leaves too much work to do and no margin for error from there onwards
Well I can’t imagine we’ll play a third of the season without any attacking midfielder again, so that’s a start
I’d have to track back in threads but it was a few comments post the Villarreal exit I think it was.
As I said, even when he has had Odegaard, Pepe, Saka and Partey available, we’ve struggled to score against Burnley, Fulham, Aston Villa, Everton, Olympiacos, Villareal, etc.
Yeah and taking into account all those games we’re 2nd since christmas and nearly 2ppg in that time.
Burnley and Fulham were fine performances; unlucky to not win and we created a lot. Evened out lately though with the win at Chelsea and yesterday too.
If we’d score at the same rate we have since Christmas with all those players available it results in 68 goals in a campaign, whilst that isn’t awesome it also isn’t terrible.
Agree we must get significantly better offensively though.
It’s valid and wrong too dismiss the turnaround on results.
Think my biggest problem for me is style of play and performance overall. Granted a couple of signings could help and should help define our approach because I’m never convinced of our style.
There definitely has too be a release of the handbrake and more dominance in games. There’s too many performances even in this run of lethargic, drab halves of football.
Yep agreed @Stroller, like last night for example the way we just retreated after we scored instead of putting the foot on the throat like top sides would do. Those sorts of things need to change if we’re to really progress as a football club.
We need more halves like the NLD first half, West Ham 2nd half and Wolves first half. That’s the blueprint. Chelsea at the Emirates too.
Yeah can’t argue here. Mikel was his own worst enemy. I still can’t believe that even after Willian had shit the bed for months Arteta kept using him until he was forced to stop cuz covid protocol. Also persisting with Xhaka and convincing him to stay is unforgivable. His stubborn/cuntishness cost us massively first half of the season. Also have to say, the way he’s made Partey play isn’t exactly promising. Gotten Denilson type performances out of a player with Viera potential. Did the same with Willian, and Auba.
Mikel is quite simply just a fucking idiot. Playing Xhaka at LB in the EL Semis should be enough to know he’s low on ideas and a coward to boot. He’s benefited from playing a lot of squads that have finished their season, avoided relegation, and are playing with much less intensity, Chelsea resting half their first team ect.
Imo our squad will have a revival next season. We will play better but reality is an Ole level manager will still be at the helm. We will finish top 6 but I really have reservations of Mikels ability to develop players, so even if we buy guys he will not extract the most out of them and they will most likely digress as players. Still too much talent not to finish 4 to 6 though. Look how bad we’ve been and we still only just missed out on Europe.
It was me.
I maintain that’s more like likely than us finishing top 4, especially if no Odegaard next season and Saka/ESR get ruined by overplaying.
You just need some perspective as bad as we’ve been at times this season we’re 30 points clear of relegation and 8 points off the CL places.
I’d love to hate on Arteta for this, but all four managers (Wenger, Emery, Freddie + Arteta) had a similar stance on Xhaka.
Except when Xhaka was actually trying to leave himself, Arteta convinced him to stay. Plus that’s off the heels of telling the fans to fuck off ect. We’d seen plenty of Xhaka at this point, completely unacceptable to persist with him. The Xhaka thing was on its death bed and Arteta revived it.
And it was a good move seeing as he has been one of our best and most important players this season 