At the tail-end of last season, Mikel Arteta hinted he had ideas for making Arsenal more unpredictable but implementing them during a title race with the players at his disposal was too risky.
He subsequently allowed Granit Xhaka to leave the club and spent £200 million recruiting Jurrien Timber, Declan Rice and Kai Havertz.
Experimentation in pre-season saw Timber tested at left-back, a role held by Oleksandr Zinchenko last season, while Rice was given minutes as a midfield anchor and as a left-eight. For better or worse, Arteta even flirted with Thomas Partey as an inverted right-back in the opening games of the season.
Then disaster struck. The Gunners lost Timber to surgery after the opening weekend and Partey’s long-standing thigh issues returned to haunt him. The manager has regrets about the situation.
“It was a huge blow,” said Arteta of Timber’s ruptured ACL; an injury that will likely rule him for the rest of the campaign.
“Everybody could see from day one what he was going to bring to the team – the versatility, the quality, another kind of leadership and ability that we didn’t have in that back line.
“It was a huge blow as well losing Thomas because we had other plans as well with him to become very versatile and unpredictable in our way of playing.
“We haven’t had them and that was difficult. We have them in the building, which is a joy, but we haven’t had them on the field as much as we wanted.”
Other players have also fallen by the wayside along the way. The likes of Fabio Vieira, Emile Smith Rowe, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel Jesus have all been sidelined at some point.
With a stretched squad, Arteta has had to adopt a ‘make do and mend’ attitude while integrating new players and adapting to more conservative tactics from opponents. At times, Arsenal have looked anything but unpredictable – stodgy is a word that sums up many performances – and that’s problematic.
Asked if it’s better to have more strings to his bow, Arteta explained: “It is always because you become more unpredictable and that’s easier for us and more difficult for the opponent because they have to spend a lot of time preparing things and that’s something very good for us.”
Alas, as was the case last season, he’s reticent to foist new ideas on players who don’t necessarily have the technical capability to deliver his plans.
“That will depend on the players that we have available,” he replied when asked if he wants to change things up in the second half of the season.
“We have to play on the players’ strengths, that’s the first thing. I don’t want to put players to do things that they don’t feel comfortable doing, that’s the first principle that we have to apply, play everybody in their strength. We have some really good players and we’ll win matches for sure.”
All the same, it feels like we’re stuck in a frustrating loop at the moment. It’ll be interesting to see whether any recruitment in the January transfer window unlocks our true potential.
Understand all that but still MA has refused to let ESR & the youngsters off the leash ? As supporters we wouldn’t mind as an individual I’d prefer to see it ! Not in bulk but maybe two of those lads max at any given time ! Otherwise we won’t progress then or know if they could be the next Saka ? Remember ESR & Saka together ? They got that song for a reason !!!
ESR needs to be sold – not because he is a bad player, far from it but because he clearly is not in MA’s plans – a bit like Tierney. The funds could be used to buy the players he wants for the team. It just seems that ESR is wasting his career at Arsenal waiting for MA to change his mind.
Just from a sentimental perspective I’d rather he has a good career elsewhere than stagnate here, being strung along by Arteta claiming he really rates him and sees him as part of his plans but refuses to give him a meaningful chance. He was establishing himself in the England squad a couple years ago and hardly played since, partly due to injury of course
Use him or lose him and reinvest in someone who will actually play (but doesn’t play so much that Martinelli never does)
Interesting you mention Martinelli because he’s not hit the same height recently and I think he could do with a game or two out. ESR was playing that position until Martinelli got in ahead of him so why not give ESR a game or two from the left?
ESR on the left worked because Tierney was overlapping. We now use another system where the left winger stays wide, which is less suited to ESR.
I prefer to keep ESR instead of MA.
That’s a really ridiculous thing to say, man. MA loves his job, loves Arsenal, and loves to win. If there was a way ESR could help us do that, MA who watches him training every week would have him in the first team to help ensure wins. Of the glimpses we’ve seen this season, what I see is a player who hasn’t reached his former heights, and while that is understandable given his limited time on the pitch and his lengthy time off it, his defensive awareness and workrate hasn’t improved at all either. He’s competing against Havertz who is… Read more »
I understand your point, but I think he must give ESR at least some chance to prove himself.
Havertz a “workhorse off the ball”?! Cmon mate you’re having a laugh. He’s had next to no impact since joining and is a big reason we have regressed this season. We could have spent 65mil so much better than on him. We will not finish higher than 4th this year because of this and the other mistakes made not investing properly in the areas that need most attention.
You sum up your own point very well. ‘Glimpses’. MA gives certain other players a lot more than that, but not ESR. I don’t think there is necessarily a right or a wrong arsenal perspective to hold right now here, but I refuse to hold either in higher regard. Both are fully dispensable to me.
I still wonder the version of Havertz y’al watch to justify that workhorse tag because I certainly haven’t seen that much in him this season.
Absolutely no sign , not even the merest hint of that plan. In that the total opposite.
I’d be surprised if this is printed on your editor selected filtered website because most opinions are not, but here goes. Arsenal’s Achilles Hill have been two fold. First is the lacking in runs by their makeshift fullbacks in both overlapping attack and recovering in defense. Second is the clinical finishing by all of their forward players, with the poor amount of goals to expected goals ratio. How do we rectify this. Arteta has injury carrying players to partially blame, but he needs to rectify this problem on the training pitch and take a risk with his fring players and… Read more »
Would love to visit Achilles Hill
It’s definitely the one to fight on.
My thoughts for the last couple of weeks was exactly this, we started off this season wanting to be more unpredictable but injuries have thrown a spanner in the works.
That said Arteta’s not completely blameless, i think reverting to a 4231 with Jorginho alongside Rice with Zinchenko operating as a conventional full back could open up more attacking space for us and create variety.
I don’t think we have to reinvent the wheel to become unpredictable, sometimes going back to something more old fashioned has the same effect.
Zinchenko can’t defend…
Exactly, so why ask him to play in central midfield?
You just said you want to play him as a conventional left back!! lol. He can’t fkn defend!
Do you think there’s much difference in defensive responsibility as a conventional full back or central midfielder? I don’t, in fact i think defensive mistakes are more harshly punished in midfield. And anyway Zinchenko plays as a conventional full back when we don’t have the ball anyway so his defensive mistakes are punished regardless. Back to the point though, my suggestion is if we wish to add an element of unpredictability pull one of our attacking midfielders out of the front line and have him making some overlapping runs, that might also push Martinelli into the box a bit more.… Read more »
In practice, a 4-2-3-1 is a 4-3-3 with two of the midfielders playing deep (unless you have Haaland or someone similar, no one plays with a 9 ahead of three attackers, certainly not Gabriel Jesus). If you play Rice and Jorginho with Zinchenko as a Tierney-style left fullback, then Odegaard is on his own–he is the 10 and the “right 8” and there is no “left 8.” In my opinion, this does not open up more attacking space, except possibly in counters, with long balls to the wingers. It might be how you play at Anfield or at Madrid. If… Read more »
It pulls out one of our attacking 8’s that congest the attacking third potentially pulling out a defender. Allows a deep runner into the attacking third either Rice in the 8 position or Zinchenko on the over lap allowing our best finisher, Martinelli to move closer the box.
Will it work? Who knows but it adds unpredictability to our play with the players we have fit where we currently have none. It also allows to keep our 3241 shape we play with when we have the ball
The problem we have at the moment is we’ve lost our spare man as the opposition know exactly where all our players are going to stand
We have missed Partey much more than we have recognized, because Rice has been brilliant–but not at the one thing at which Partey might be the best in the world. That is receiving the ball, even under real pressure, from the centre-halves or the keeper, typically on the half-turn, and advancing it quickly into the attack, especially to Odegaard or the advancing Ben White. Last year at our most dangerous, in possession our formation was something like a 2-2-3-3 (Saliba and Gabriel–Partey and Zinchenko–White, Odegaard, and Xhaka–Saka, Gabriel Jesus, and Martinelli. (If you like, you can move White back a… Read more »
Good post
The problem is we have injuries and Partey is one of them. The question is what do we do when our players are injured? Try to play as we would without them but worse or make adjustments to get the best possible results. We have to disagree as I don’t think we were great against West Ham, i thought we were awful and thought we’d lose as soon as they scored. It’s interesting you mention the West Ham match because their first goal came when Rice dropped into the centre half position, a tactic i think the manager has introduced… Read more »
If you play Zinchenko as a Tierney-style left back you are getting an inferior version of Tierney merely to satisfy the manager’s ego so he doesn’t have to admit he’s made a mistake by loaning out Tierney to play someone at left back who can’t play at left back as well as Tierney.
I honestly thought we’d keep Tierney around to add veriety and the option to go on the outside, especially as we now have Havertz’ arial ability.
Loaning out Tierney and effectively replacing him in the squad with Raya will possibly go down as the mistake of the season
*And yes i know they don’t play in the same position but it terms of allocation of squad resources
Timber’s injury was extremely unfortunate and entirely unforeseeable – it was just very bad luck.
Given TP’s history with injury in recent seasons it was always a question of when and how bad his injury would be.
A long term replacement for TP is required but may be a project for the summer.
More pressing is a left back and a top class striker – which will be difficult this month.
I just wonder how much FFP will impact on our transfer plans this month.
Midfield is, and has been, the pressing need in the side since the summer. Yes, we signed rice, but our other options in that area are out of contract, injury prone, and over 30.
Left back looks like a priority because of how the players in that area are being coached to play, not because we lack personnel.
Nope. We have no natural left back. That’s why we struggle there. We try to force fit non-lb’s into that position and get fkd because of it!
If that’s the case then why did we loan our only natural left back? Arteta has made a choice in that position, and moaning about it won’t make him change his mind.
Moaning about it because it was really really bad choice.
“It was a huge blow as well losing Thomas because we had other plans as well with him to become very versatile and unpredictable in our way of playing.”
Those “other” plans at start of season still give me PTSD. Glad injury to Partey niped them in the bud otherwise we would be on verge of losing Gabriel to other clubs too.
We are too predictable at the moment but I don’t think Arteta’s apparent vision of unpredictability is very helpful either. The most successful teams don’t randomly bust out experimental tactics like we saw in the opening games of the season, or against Villarreal a couple of seasons ago in the EL. Pep’s sides are maybe an exception, but that has also been his downfall in key games on several occasions. The best sides generally don’t change too much tactically within a season, sometimes even going for multiple months with the same starting XI performing the same roles. But their tactics… Read more »
Just as I feared more excuses. The Arteta project has reached it’s course. Time for a master plan instead. Let the academic go in June and bring in a new professor as don’t need so much experimenting with the players and excuses for it each season. We are are top club and have invested so deserve a manager capable of bringing in trophies.
He’s earned the right to have a chance to turn things around. He’s learned from misjudgements before and is a better manager than 2, 3 years ago. Performances have been ugly, but we’re not too far from where we should be results wise – still in the title race and comfortably in the last 16 of the CL The board do seem to have gone all in on him though to the extent that I think it would take them far too long to make a change if it becomes necessary. It seems to be going back to the Wenger… Read more »
He is 4 years into his 5 year school project. It has been good but time for a masterclass. He has dropped a keeper very motivational on the team with someone bang average. Put on loan a quality left back so we will be stuck with Kiowr tomorrow and likely to be beaten by in form Liverpool, could not persuade to keep an influential Xhaka, played TP at right back in a position he got long term injury and plays Eddie like Jesus when Eddie is more of fox in the box player. Does not play ESR and made some… Read more »
Glad you aren’t making decisions for the club. Remember where this team was when Arteta took over? Aside from a few key players who were in place, he had to completely rebuild this team. And it’s not done. Last year he was ahead of schedule. Just didn’t have a deep enough team to deal with injuries. It’s amazing how far the team has come, but that rebuild, including continuing to add depth, is still not complete. So we have a couple of bad games and you want to abort this amazing project before completion? It’s too stupid for words.
Texas Red, I am also glad myself that I don’t make decisions for the club as I am certainly not qualified to do so but as a support of the club and as a supporter of the invincibles, my expectations are apparently higher than yours. You are making some excuse about injuries and I guess you get hurt about VAR and seeing a single magpie in the morning on the way to work. I think this project is close to a conclusion and now we need a manager that can win the PL that’s what we have all been patiently… Read more »
The injuries were bound to stack up, but not having a contingency plan, or even appearing to work on one, is on the manager and his coaching staff. Improvements are needed, and swiftly, because what we have seen the last five games or so is a tired and unmotivated team bereft of ideas.
So his entire plan was reliant on one player or two? That’s really odd. And how can you not have contingent plans?
7 points gained from our last 6 league games is starting to get worrying, ok injuries to Timber/Partey aside we should still have enough quality to be consistent, can’t see us doing any business in Jan window either, Miki’s only option is to get the players he’s got to play better and pray no injuries to Rice/Gabi/Saliba/Saka/Odergaurd and he gets more of a tune out of the rest, a victory over an in form Liverpool would be a start.
Yes the injuries are unfortunate and will have impacted the way we play but you know what doesn’t make you unpredictable or frightening to play against:
– Havertz
– Eddie
– Nelson
– Dropping a huge personality like Ramsdale
– Not having a proven goal scorer
Every team has injuries. Some teams have had it way worse than us and we can’t use that an excuse. We have dropped 5 points against Fulham this season and lost twice to West Ham already ( 1 in the league cup). This is just due to poor tactics and not adjusting and planning for situations that maybe go against us. We play the same way every game. Pass left to Saka, if he can’t get through then pass all the way to Martinelli with a very slow build up. Teams have figured us out. I am no expert and… Read more »