₦airaland Forum

Spy360:
January market has hardly favoured us. It's expensive and the player most times will still need time to bed in. If Ozil will be available, your suggestion is the best. If...

In case we get him, I hope he bed in quickly the way Auba did. Who knows he might be our own Bruno.

Spy360:
OK.

It's obvious Arteta mostly employed defensive tactics. We all saw this and condemned it especially when it was against smaller teams. I am with you on this. But the question of whether right or wrong is totally personal. Like I said, for me it's wrong. But this has nothing to do with the defense wins you league arguments.

My case was actually centred on whether we improved defensively compared to last season or not (without reference to whether we played defensively or not), which from stats we actually improved.

Also the signing of Gabriel for me was needed. Yes, it adds to our list of uncountable defenders but that's because we could not throw them all out. Most of those guys shouldn't be playing for a club like ours. Luckily some are finding their way out and many will by the end of the season. But we needed to get better defenders. This is where I supported the emphasis on strengthening our defense.

That does not mean I supported our failure not signing attackers. In fact, I lamented so much about the failure to get an AM and then freezing Ozil. I remember I stated top 4 will be a mirage since we failed to get the AM we needed.

In summary, at the beginning of the season we needed 3signings to boost the squad...
A defender, a defensive midfielder and an attacking midfielder. We got 2 and missed one, which shouldn't have happened. Nevertheless, I am happy for the two we got and hope we get the AM this January...

Not to drag the issue any further let's agree to disagree .COYG

angelfallz:
2 gold sentences from this piece

1. A gold digger DOES NOT ask for money. What she does is She presents a problem. If a man loves her enough, he offers a solution. By spending.
2. A man will see a woman for the very first time and shout "That's my wife right there!", genuinely believing he's in love. But what he's really experiencing is a rush of feelings and emotions that he's incorrectly decoding.

This rush of feelings and emotions is not a man's natural state. It is a temporary state. And his weakest state.

You deserve this for quoting everything

Spy360:
Akinbahm

I have gone through your responses and deduced that you feel Arteta has employed defensive tactics which is wrong and that he should attack more. Am I right? Just wabtvro know if I comprehended you.

You are right at the emboldened, that's why I keep emphasizing on them prioritizing defense to attack.

At the italicized can u show me evidence prolly am the one seeing it wrongly?

OlayemiAshraf:
You will just open mouth waaaaaa bi ewure

Ewure self get sense pass him, ewure don dey wise if you bend or carry stick them go Japa.

ubunja:
big talk from someone who has named himself after a woman's private part.

Baba, you sha wan pepper these Simpson guys sha continue with the Ministry bro oil dey ur head..

Well, wahala for who is not flexible enough to manipulate things to his favour...

Even if you tell a lady your weakest point if you can maneuver your way very well u can still use it against her.

Spy360:
Akinbahm

If we r talking about team attacking never include lead according to their status they have attack cause they just gt promoted back to Epl I wonder why Biesla abi wetin be their head coach name still see in Bamford they better come for Nketia or Balogun to help their attack more.

Go and watch them against Man u that tells u if as a team ur front 3 cannot get toe to toe with ur opponent never attack any how cause once ur attackers get disposed your defence gonna suffer it that's why Emery suffered in the hands of Klopp and Pep during his tenure in Arsenal and that's why Mourinho got sth from Man city this season he knows his attackers cant go toe to toe with them he jejely deployed counter attack tactics because his two power attackers dont get disposed anyhow Kane and Son.

Spy360:
https://www.nairaland.com/810639/arsenal-fans-thread-finally-reborn/2079#97314636

For your attention @Akinbahm

You still went ahead nd shoot yourself with that page u referred me back to.

Let's take it outside football, some hoodlums threatened you in your street you didnt loose composure towards them because you believe you are man, you waited and challenged them.

Do you know what you just did with that challenge you just finish attacking them which indirectly serves as defense for u it's now left to you how hot/cold ur challenge is will determine whether those hoodlums will succumb to ur challenge or not.

If they succumb to it u just successfully attacked them.

It they didnt that means your challenge is not hot enough to make them succumb to your challenge.

Now, imagine u kept silent when they threaten u do you know u also defence yourself but in a wrong manner by giving the chance to oppress you more. Bro, now link it to football you are playing opposition with mad front three u went to defend despite having more crazy front 3 than ur opponent bro that's fire on your defense cause your front 3 has opened them for fire.

I guess with this little analogy without any form of bias or sentiment u should get our angle if not then I think I have to accept nd free u off the argument.

Spy360:
If I get your point...

I accept that Arteta prioritized defence ahead of attack even in his tactics (mind you I would do same because our defending before was sickening to be fair) and signings but that doesn't mean he ignored attack, we got Willian and had just signed Pepe few months before.

If any of you think that decision was bad then you probably need to check for amnesia. Defense was a headache last season and Arteta so far has done a good job fixing it.

The problem led to another one in attacking midfield do to the Ozil situation. But fortunately we have ESR to salvage the team. Hence our recent performances. You guys are slow to see that despite our poor form our defending has been up there compared to those higher up the league. I showed this a couple of weeks ago using stats from league table (Jodera where are you na) which led to some arguments. Go and check.

The defence you claimed he has sorted I asked a Barcelona fan just now after reading what u typed up there his response was it's still the same and end his sayings with if your midfield connect very well with attack and ur attackers are very sharp your defenders will flex.

He said Barca have defence but the midfield and attack are yet to gel which is affecting them big time we all know where they are on log table nd ended his speech with the best way to defend is to attack. A neutral being who doesnt know what we r fighting here over.

What I deduced from his words the defence still look average, why? the attackers are very blunt.

afrodoc2:
Factors that we have been talking about all day.

1) Defensive formation with 5 defenders

2) Defensive mindset placing multiple players behind the ball and ceding possession

3) Shackling 2 of your best creative outlets with defensive responsibilities I.e Tierney at LCB and Saka at WB

4) Depending on impotent attacking players like Willian, Willock, Pepe when Saka, ESR were available.

Ati bee bee lo.

Baba am done with u also, what was our arguement from onset?

Arteta should prioritize attack to defence but u people said defence to attack because the way pundit painted your defense as if those defenders sabi nth same media nd pundit that over hyped Pepe are twisting mouth u people never learn.

All our problem you high listed up there 90% is on attack

1: Defenders are more than attackers.

2: Willian was bought because he can support defence that shows their hidden agenda nah defence not attack.

3: Out of 10players on field we only have to players who are creative yet they want us to believe attack was prioritized over defence truly issokay...

4: First 3 players u listed shows our attackers are very blunt cause am not carried away with Auba goals nd Saka creativity last season I/we foreseen it those duos cant do it alone thus we requested for new addition in attack first b4 defence.

Consistently, our attack is our major set back Gabu nah fine player do we need him now NO, why? Our attack is not good enough to pressurize defense considering the position of our players in the then squad b4 getting Gabu, Willian and Partey.

Those players that gingered others were injured nd some were not trusted enough (Martinelli nd ESR) b4 covid nd injury forced our coach to use them nd we r seeing the results now.

In conclusion remove ESR nd ESR nd we are back to square one.

kokanepyramid:
don't mind them, after claiming defence wins you league to support the prioritising of Gabu's signing over AM. As fate would have it we got a fresh leg to play the AM role while Gabu is out and we have recorded more success in game play and results than when Gabu was in and no potent AM. yet they want to piss in my face and tell me it is raining.

I go follow your path soon I go leave them with their wailings.

Spy360:
Up till now you have failed to make a single point or line of thought. This is worse than blind arguments because you are just roaming about and quoting people with no point to note. At least a blind man needs help but when you are blind but won't accept, how can one help you? This is ignorant blindedness. Do as you said, let it slide.

How do others see the point I keep driving out which you failed to see well, dont take my sacarsm words to heart too much.

Jodera:
Yeah.. I won't, as long as they are been handled with care.
You see the way Arteta rested martinelli ystdy, that's the "rest here and there" I'm talking about.

As long as Arteta don't run dem to the ground and give them some needed rest, bar injuries, they'll be able to take us far

To be handled with care they needed a guidance in their respective position to help them gel do we have the guidance no, that's why we clamored for attack to defense... very simple logic

Spy360:
My problem with you is that you are just running here and there like a house rat without making a point. Please make q statement of point/fact let's understand your thinking.

Even a blind could read through the lines on my stand.

Our attackers r not good enough. what I was expecting you people should point out is where exactly in our attack needs recruitment.

Spy360:
My problem with you is that you are just running here and there like a house rat without making a point. Please make q statement of point/fact let's understand your thinking.

Even a blind could read through the lines on my stand.

Our attackers r not good enough. what I was expecting you people should point out is where exactly in our attack needs recruitment.

Spy360:
If you were following you would know that the Aouar deal was almost done until his brother came with some demands the club found offensive and pulled out.

Now you know the circumstances, what's your point?

Baba let it slide am not in for that I hate having forth and back arguement.

BlueRayDick:
You need to define what u mean by "the young lads taking us far ". The best Arsenal can get this season is Europa league place next season or going to the Champions league vide by winning this year's Europa. If we agree first on our expectations, then we can then move on and talk about whether this current team with less injury can achieve this and more.

This current arsenal team is work in progress, we still need to add AM, we need to do something about RB with Bellerin's inconsistent display, we still need to get a decent striker with Auba on a decline and Nketiah refusing to step his game up.....etc.

Some of us are not expecting miracle especial when we know we have a rookie manager in charge

Am talking about Top4 cause that's the agenda since the beginning of the season nd dont tell me it's far fetched cause even the 1st is only leading with just 13points nd 4th is leading us with just 6points.

What's my own with injury nd WIP baba nah u dey always accuse of someone turning amala what r u doing my questions are clear nd simple enough.

Jodera:
We're not carried away oo, we're just optimistic.


In case of these guys, It depends if they're injury prone or not.
Saka have proven he isn't injury prone, we'll wait and see ESR and martinelli to know weda they're injury prone or not.

Bar injury those guys can carry us, with a little rest here and there. Saka and martinelli are 19yrs, ESR is 20yrs. So it's not as if they're too young to be seeing first team opportunities

I hope it you wont say other wise later.

Spy360:
My brother, go back and check, we are not being carried away, we actually predicted it.

Some people blamed Xhaka, some Willian but I said we just needed any AM to complete this team. I even brought up stats comparing Arsenal with the likes of Leicester and Leeds (Jodera, you can testify)

Now that we have an AM, just wait let Partey returns...

Is the Am part of attack or defence biko yes/no answer.

Spy360:
It's your last line I have problems with. The club was actively in pursuit of an AM and would have done a deal if not for some circumstances.

We had three positions to strengthen, defense(Gabriel), central midfield (Partey) and attacking midfield. The later failed.

My issue with Arteta was ruling out Ozil after we failed to get the AM. This also I will not blame him as the Ozil issue is beyond him. We are only fortunate to have ESR in form.

If you check, all our additions are not part of this winning selection, so our problem is not one of personel but of structure. I remember saying that we should just get any AM even expired ones like Sony Erickson and our performance will improve. I said so because I saw improvements in all other aspects of the game apart from chance creation. With ESR, that problem was eliminated. Our problem is not personel but structure.

What circumstance you wey them never give u scouting job don scout 2 better playmakers wey dey cheaper so what are the clueless being given the work to do has been doing. Do you just say words without knowing the consequence?

Spy360:
I want to give him the benefit of doubt that having Ozil unavailable and not trusting ESR may have necessitated his weird tactics. I say this because there were times when he tried Lacazette in the AM position.

I have always stated here that despite his losing streaks, one gain we can count is that he strengthened our defensive aspect of the game and changed the mentality of the defenders which reduced their comical shows.

Hence, in comparison, the most significant factor that changed our recent fortunes is the peak form of ESR. He has allowed other players like Saka, Lacazette etc to focus on their strengths with Saka moving to the inverted winger position on the RW.

Those talking midfield strengthen defense are just short sighted, because we still have the same midfield, same defense, same attack. So the change factor is just the peak form of ESR of which if we had gotten an AM earlier we won't have been in that poor state we found ourselves.

During the match last night you would easily notice a revert to old ways the moment ESR was taken off.

Having said that, I am torn between giving the lad more games and signing another AM to compete with him. I know that with more games we will definitely improve same way as Saka.

Kokanepyramind come nd join me laugh. It seems you are just arguing blindly then so to say

afrodoc2:
Correct post. I co-sign completely. An AM was not the only factor. There were about 4 or 5 factors most of which were due to Arteta's actions.

List those 4 or 5 factors bro.

Jodera:
Did you know he dumped the 5 man defence against Leeds playing this same formation we're playing presently, yet our defence was cut and sliced through. He, out of I think fear made him ran back to the 5man defence again?
I've forgotten the 2nd match he started with same formation too, yet it didn't gel also. I mean we still played nonsense as a team.

They were some matches this season he started saka on the wings, yet he wasn't so effective the way he is presently (even tho he normally was our best in attack). Substitute ESR for willock and Willian in that role and see us struggle massively again just as we did the two times we struggled with either of those duo.

ESR really changed things and it's not me going overboard. At least, even Auba was not in form last night, yet our attack was functioning well.

You get energy aswear, I wish I could have half energy you possessed when it comes to convincing people to see things the way it is rather from the way they perceived it...

Pepe, Willock, Willian, Luis nd Nketia needed to b integrated back into the squad for them to see ow much we would be battling with Liverpool for 1st position.

Someone even open his mouth nd ask was ESR bought in December for the sudden change oh I forget ESR nd Martinelli played 2 nd 3 respectively for our sudden change in Attack.

Man u was not any different from our current predicament last season b4 they got Bruno imagine OGS went to buy a replacement for slow Maguire instead of spending the cash on Bruno my brother am telling u man u will b battling with relegation.

Back to our discussion ESR is an Arsenal player truly and he was not used by coach during our woeful days am 90% sure nobody believe here he gonna fill the void the way he is doing right now? In as much as one of the areas we clamored for recruitment is d the one giving us positive result right now, that enough is okay to debunk their claim of defence will do this and that...

Jodera if u av that energy to continue dragging ur lord is ur strength.

Jodera:
Well... I think we all have an understanding. Just a little misunderstanding somewhere..

Bro, BlueRayDick in all honesty do you have confidence on our attackers and you believe these young lads could take us far since u said Areta buried the attack.

If Yes, let's die down the argument on Attack/Defence argument.

If No, then our major problem lies on attack which is obviously visible...

Note: I hope we fans wont get carried away with just 3 win in a rows.

BlueRayDick:
What is this one saying

Do u even know the defenders we referred to as clowns to start with? Did u see any of them in the team that has won against Chelsea, Brighton and West Brom?

My post was clear and had no agenda laden in it unlike urs. The team has improved because Arteta has been getting his selection right.

If Arteta wants to undo everything he's doing let him choose these same attackers and let him pair Mustafi and Chambers, let's see how well that will end.

The only reason Gabriel is not playing is cos of COVID-19. He has done exceptionally well in the games he's played. Any other thing aside this is just emotional sentiments.

You still end up agreeing to our claim so no point engaging you further.

Last question, the current attackers are they good enough to ditching it out good week in week out?

BlueRayDick:
Arsenal's resurgence in recent times is hinged on more than 1 factor like some us want to believe ;

1.There's the factor of Tierney being allowed the freedom of roaming and being let fly on the left wing. He's no longer being wasted in the LCB role that has not yielded much for us in the recent past.

2. There's the factor of Saka being used in RWF where he can easily do opposing defenders dirty and cut in either playing shot or making a decent cross to our attackers. Thus far he's been flourishing there.

3. There's the Martinelli factor and the great press he affords the team upfront. Nobody has given that much press prior to his comeback from injury.

4. Then the introduction of Smith-Rowe who is hungry and ready to do both the dirty work and smooth pay to cement a place in the team has really been a good boost for the team.

In all what we can see is that Arteta has not been playing to the team's strength prior to now. Let's hope he will not undo everything by Imposing Willock and Willian on the team.going forward

I said I wont delve into this agreement anymore but u forced me to again. Dont you think you just shoot yourself with what u wrote up there?

I want to ask just 2 questions.

1: Those young lads you mentioned can they do it alone through out the season and do you believe they have to be eased in in order not to dent their career at tender age?

2: Those defenders we called clowns were in the squad in our last 3 games we won do they suddenly turn to world class?

The attackers suddenly made them good small now imagine if kids could made them look like that what would a proven attackers do which we clamored for?

Note: Gabriel was a good addition but not at the expense of ignoring attack completely...

afrodoc2:
So you have acknowledged that Arteta's defensive and callow formations and lineups rather than lack of new attacking players is the reason for your struggles. It took a long meandering but you finally agreed with my point.

Do you think these youngs could do it from the start of the season till the end of the season?

afrodoc2:

You have the 5th best defence in the league and you are saying Gabriel was not impactful. Replace him with Mustafi and all those 1-0 and 2-1 losses become 4-1 and 3-0.

That shows the only difference visible to us is that the way we consume goals reduced but the rate we loses match is not far fetched from previous season we have your so called clowns at the back. Nice point bro...

Which attacking player did Arteta buy in December to effect this turnaround? Why are you now scoring multiple goals in your matches? Who are theses important acquisitions in attack that have made this attacking football possible?

Now imagine adding better option to that attack that means all those 1-0, 0-0 losing with a margin of 1/2 goals could be averted to winning ways with a strong attackers addition. We didnt rule out defence completely what we are saying is since we r aiming for Top4 attack should b prioritized.

Note: Dont get carried away with these young guns I hope they dont get burn out easily cause they r still young to b doing it week in week out this is not Bundesliga or Laliga that u will have it free its Physicality league (Epl).

If you remember despite leading 4-0 they still have it easy small to our defense but Leno keep us in shape with his saves and the defenders self add join but not quality wise enough though it gave us the 3points which is very essential to get our aim achieved.

Jodera:
Man u

With Partey & Elneny doing the dirty Job now imagine Grealish/Maddison in front of them the attack go mad.

ubunja:
yes man that is how they do us. The moment we want that Thing is the moment they list their problems for us. Nice one man. Happy 2021.

Same boss, how is ministry I hope those holes nd Simpson ain't on your neck anymore with your Gospel