Mikel Arteta says the current schedule has taken a toll on some of his players, and that he’ll try to pick the strongest teams possible for the upcoming games against Liverpool and Man City.
The champions visit the Emirates tomorrow evening as the Gunners look to bounce back from a disappointing derby defeat on Sunday – and defeated legs can feel like heavy legs, something the manager has to deal with when we’re about to face two fixtures against top quality opposition.
“I believe that it’s very important to have energy and momentum going into important matches, and in order to do that you have to go game by game,” said Arteta.
“Today and tomorrow we will asses the players and how they are, and obviously they’ve been hit and a lot of them have played some crazy minutes up until now and again we’re going to have games every two and a half days.
“We will try to put the strongest team out as possible here and as well on Saturday, and to do that we need to know how everyone recovers from the game.”
Whether we see a reshaping of the defence remains to be seen, with the back three selected for the game at White Hart Lane not doing much to enhance their reputations.
Sead Kolasinac made a basic error for their equaliser; David Luiz had another indifferent display in an important game; while Shkodran Mustafi’s evil twin returned after about 70 minutes, following a marked improvement his general form.
“It is a collective game, but within that there are a lot of individual games that happen and a lot of sequencing throughout the 95 minutes that we play,” said the Arsenal boss.
“Individual errors are part of football, you can make them and they can go unnoticed if something doesn’t happen, and obviously those resulting in a goal the highlight goes there. I am not concerned about that, that is something we will sort.
“Obviously short term it is more difficult to do it, what happens after you make an individual error, how you react to that, how you keep trying and your mindset to keep continuing the game to try to put that one back and try to resolve the situation and win it.
“It is not just the player who makes the individual error, but the rest have to react to try to help the player who has done it.
“But yes, we got punished big time the other day with that and we have to learn – you know that teams are expecting that sometimes as well, and we cannot give them anything.”
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Wear a mask
The boss on Arsenal’s individual errors: “You know that teams are expecting that sometimes.”
In other words, teams are targeting our flakey defenders. He’s said it right there: they’re not good enough.
And surprising exactly nobody!
?
“asses the players”….freudian slip? 😉
More than one ass.
Sadly, at this point, the strongest possible isn’t good enough.
‘Wear a mask..’
Can I use it as a blindfold for the next week?
Might be time to change things up again — get away from the back three and return to a back four (Bellerin, Mustafi/Luiz, Holding, Tierney). Play a firm four across the midfield (Willock, Ceballos, Xhaka, Saka), with Auba and Lace up front. I say Laca as he’s found the mark again recently, and he is very capable in dropping back to free up an Auba run. Willock can provide some drive on the counter, and he’s very good at keeping possession, and would be an excellent out-option to relieve pressure. Arteta should be prepared to start bringing on fresh legs… Read more »
I’ve heard AMN’s off
We need to be able to adapt formation more quickly than Sunday if necessary. We have shortages that they don’t due to injuries/suspension and the 5 subs thing is not a help to us.
Either 4 /5 needs Tierney with Saka in front of him. Midfield has little creativity for nimble forwards. It’s a worry?
Willock? Bellerin? I’m not sure what they have done recently to make you want to choose them. I would go Cedric and Pepe.
If you look a little further back in the Kolasinac error, you find Bellerin entering the final third only to stop and turn around and avoid bothering the opposition. He is not the only one, but there seems to be an obsession in going back to our own goal and taking chances.
It might also be better to play one of the keepers in defence when Leno is fit. They both look better with their feet and more switched on than most defenders.
I think we are resigned to the facts that :
1) It will be difficult for us to catch a spot in Europe on 50 points with 3 matches to go and in 9th. Its out of our hands and unlikely. Last chance was frankly at Leicester
2) Our best bet for any form of redemption left this season is the FA cup. City stand in the way of course and thereafter a final.
So will be interesting to see how much rotation he will make exactly against Liverpool.
Hopefully we do not come away red face.
My main issue with these words from Arteta is that Arsenal haven’t reacted to the individual errors for years, they keep trying to fill the gap with the same shambolic players, or trying to fit in new players that are even more appalling. It’s time Arsenal really do react and remove some personnel and start over, but I sadly can’t see anything changing any time soon.
Course I’ll have a look tonight.
My face will be stoney grey.
Let’s face it people……..we are out of Europe.
Liverpool are Winners, and their model is the New model.
Cringe.
I keep thinking that Lacca would be a better midfielder? He tackles well and hard, runs well and understands what the strikers need.