There was no blind support. It hasn’t been like Arsenal finished 4th for five seasons straight with no progression. There has been improvement in style of play and league finishes which gave him the benefit of the doubt (8th, 8th, 5th, 2nd, 2nd and 2nd). But would Guardiola, Mourinho and Conte stepped in at that step? Our reputation was ruined and the spending came only after we had some big names (Ozil, Auba) of our books.
Needless to say at some point he has to deliver a League and/or Champions League title.
I think it depends on where those managers were at the time. Back in 2019 Pep was still at City; but I think if he had just finished his Bayern job and was available and we threw the kitchen sink at him; he’d have come here. Same for Klopp.
If these managers were given promises of £1bn to spend within a 5-6 year period, I think they’d all be stupid to turn it down.
Perhaps the allure of Arsenal as a project was pretty low in the banter era, but Liverpool finished 8th or 6th can’t remember - then got Klopp.
EDIT: City were a soulless club and got Pep. All it took was money to bring him.
So you think if Man U now offered Klopp £1Bn now in 5-6 years he would go there? He would be stupid not to…Name a manager currently at his peak who you consider TOP that you think would move to Man U now under those circumstances? I will answer that for you - no one!
They finished 6th - BUT Klopp the season before going to Pool finished in 7th in the Bundesliga - if Arsenal had hired him after a 7th place in the Farmers League, you would be the first to slate the club for lack of ambition and not signing a TOP manager.
City were a cheating machine, which guaranteed Pep money and titles - going to City would mean he had done it in 3 leagues - his ego alone meant he was going to City. He MIGHT have gone to Arsenal after Wenger (I doubt it personally), if promised a war chest but Kroenkes never took over Arsenal until after Pep was at City, so there was never going to be this massive transfer budget and so ZERO chance of Pep coming.
All the hate for Arteta, but given where we were when he took over, I think fans would have snapped your hand off if you offered them the progression seen under Arteta. This is the first season under Arteta where we even have a full squad - previous we have always been short.
Has Arteta made mistakes? Definitely! could we have won something under him before now? Possibly BUT that was always what we were getting with a novice manager with huge potential. Arteta’s work and what he has done within the club to bring us where we are today is the reason why the expectations on him are so great.
He’s done great for Palace but it will be interesting to see if he can translate that at a top club, particularly with the fact he loves his 5/3 at the back formation.
I agree with these guys that the set-pieces being pre-dominant tactics in football is boring and we need rules to not let set-pieces take away from the football.
Introducing time restrictions on long throws and corners will significantly increase the time ball is in actual play.
Last season, Even Arsenal fans were complaining how long we were taking to start a corner and needlessly losing time when we are down.
I get the frustration that this conversation is happening when Arsenal is getting the best of it & it’s ignoring the nuance of Rice & Saka executing world class deliveries but watching players spend good 20-30 seconds to line up long throws has been pissing me off.
I prefer long throws compared to short ones since I find them more direct and exciting but I am not a fan of ball drying tactics & delays.
I would have no issue with a time limit on set pieces, however the main delay at corners is refs interfering and telling players to stop grappling before the delivery is made.
These restrictions feel very American-like when the tactical thinking has basically been removed from the game in order to make sports more entertaining and fake-ish. Football shouldn’t go that way. If you are presented with a tactical problem: figure it out. That’s also part of sports, not just the entertainment.
What’s tactical about throw ins and corners taking so long?
One of the stat on that podcast is one of the teams spending 70 mins on long throws in 10 PL matches. That’s ridiculous amount of time spent on long throws.
What’s the point of such tactical thinking when the fans continue to get increasingly low on the pitch football time season by season?
Arsenal fans may not like the last season’s rule on not delaying the play but it had a tangible improvement on the game.
There MUST be an advantage to delaying throw ins and corners - Arsenal specifically and deliberately delay these and have had huge success. It could be as simple as the delays cause opponents to lose concentration, which we then take advantage of
What can opponent even do about it? What can opponents do to possibly figure out a way for Arsenal to not deliberately delay the corner?
Unlike open play, where you can press and make the keeper or defender make a pass, you can do nothing during the corner routine to make the corner taker take the corner
Yeah, if the problem being discussed is players taking too long to get the ball back in play, that isn’t something their opponents can address with a tactical change. That would be a problem that referees would have to address via policing the amount of time taken at set pieces.
So as I pressed send on previous post, I thought, it can actually allow more then concentration:
Concentration/physcology
Allow Arsenal to get our shape and positioning correct (to prevent us getting caught out) - in years past, how many times did we not concede after having a corner.
Allows Arsenal to control the Rhythm of the game.
To answer your question.
Opponents can set their positioning based on what Arsenal are doing - and turn it to their own advantage.
Force their own set pieces like corners/long throw ins by not simply sitting in a low block and actually attacking themselves.
For years Arsenal suffered against set pieces and it riled Arsenal fans. Now we have used it tactically to our advantage and now opposition and some of our own fans are criticising us for it…
It should be seen in a positive light by all Arsenal fans that Arteta and his team have found a way to gain an advantage within the rules.