₦airaland Forum

https://twitter.com/ChampionsLeague/status/1736713172399112611?t=71FAHwBzY6HblH8ZbNJiUQ&s=19


Odegad can never😂

Nobody has lost possession around our box than Zinny this season.

If we want to contest this UCL, a key weakness of our defense is our FBs. Once again, UCL no be beans. No be pap. White was caught off several times by mitoma and his partner in crime. Saliba left his spot to be doing RB duties ALL the times BHA attacked us, while BW was just 😮‍💨


As for Zinny, i already know 7teams in this R16 of UCL that will punish us instantly for all those silly loss of possession. Instantly. Perhaps we need to loan Kiwi and get a loaned FB if possible. Or just play WB style if these two are in XI.


Liverpool game... lets just colet that midfield. They'll resort to usual long balls. This is a Trossard game too. Saka comes alive better with Trossard in XI. Make Nunez no come rediscover form vs Raya abeg o. Wasteful 9.

daveP:
Nobody has lost possession around our box than Zinny this season.

If we want to contest this UCL, a key weakness of our defense is our FBs. Once again, UCL no be beans. No be pap. White was caught off several times by mitoma and his partner in crime. Saliba left his spot to be doing RB duties ALL the times BHA attacked us, while BW was just 😮‍💨


As for Zinny, i already know 7teams in this R16 of UCL that will punish us instantly for all those silly loss of possession. Instantly. Perhaps we need to loan Kiwi and get a loaned FB if possible. Or just play WB style if these two are in XI.


Liverpool game... lets just colet that midfield. They'll resort to usual long balls. This is a Trossard game too. Saka comes alive better with Trossard in XI. Make Nunez no come rediscover form vs Raya abeg o. Wasteful 9.

Starting Trossard will make Alexander-Arnold free to roam that right wing to support Loserpool's attack. With Martinelli starting, Alexander-Arnold would not be foolish enough to wander upfiield leaving a very fast Martinelli behind him.

Jodera:
The perfect MA striker Na person like Kane.

Someone who will come deep to interplay and still be active in the box. No matter how we need that Pure 9, you'll find out that Arteta doesn't needs it— at least according to the way he wants his team to play.
Even with all Nketiah presence in the box, watch him, you'll still find out he comes deep, though not like Jesus(and that's partly to the reason it's not his style of play).

if Arteta doesn't need it, then we won't be hearing rumors of search for a 9. We also can't say we are satisfied cos we got 88 without top 9. We all should be looking out for how lethal our attacks will be with a 9 getting Aubameyang numbers same season a hot Salah is getting such numbers. That's it.


Good ebening is transforming Watkins to be ahead of our attackers and we shouldn't be comfy atall. If Kane is the example, then MA knows he needs that lethal 9 if he wants to be the best of the best and not just "part of the best"

We need either of timber/tomi before ucl matches

BlueRayDick:
Starting Trossard will make Alexander-Arnold free to roam that right wing to support Loserpool's attack. With Martinelli starting, Alexander-Arnold would not be foolish enough to wander upfiield leaving a very fast Martinelli behind him.

Trossard defends. I get the TAA aspect well. But If we leave Zinny vs Salah, na L2 Raya go chop taya. Infact i doubt Raya can give tha Rams performance for that 2-2 draw last season. I dunno why. He faced over 14shots on goal. This Raya that keeps scaring someone with crosses situation?

Gp...................Raya....Gp

Or

Gp....Raya................................Gp


Back to back, this situation has scared us or led to goals

daveP:
Trossard defends. I get the TAA aspect well. But If we leave Zinny vs Salah, na L2 Raya go chop taya. Infact i doubt Raya can give tha Rams performance for that 2-2 draw last season. I dunno why. He faced over 14shots on goal. This Raya that keeps scaring someone with crosses situation?

Gp...................Raya....Gp

Or

Gp....Raya................................Gp


Back to back, this situation has scared us or led to goals

Martinelli offers us more attacking threat and also helps pin Alexander Arnold back; Trossard doesn't offer us that and as such it makes more sense for him to be subbed on in the latter part of the game. Martinelli also tracks back; in fact his track back this season has been super thus far.

As for LB, its either we use an attack minded Zinchecncko and live with the consequences or use Kiwior that can't attack and sometimes fails in his defensive work like Zinchencko.

daveP:
Even the goal, he was far from the spot a 9 should be contesting from. I loved his counter attacking play overall sha. Esp that flip on Dunk.

Me too.

daveP:
if Arteta doesn't need it, then we won't be hearing rumors of search for a 9. We also can't say we are satisfied cos we got 88 without top 9. We all should be looking out for how lethal our attacks will be with a 9 getting Aubameyang numbers same season a hot Salah is getting such numbers. That's it.


Good ebening is transforming Watkins to be ahead of our attackers and we shouldn't be comfy atall. If Kane is the example, then MA knows he needs that lethal 9 if he wants to be the best of the best and not just "part of the best"

You might be surprised that it's just media fuelling this rumor just because they feel Jesus is not capable of being our top 9. What Arteta wants is different from what we fans feel we want. That's how we were thinking of solid Cf, man went to buy Havertz.
We were saying we want Saka deputy and were even linked to people, Man went to buy Raya.

I'm not against we having a striker if it'll take us to the next level. I just want a striker that would complement our style of play while getting the goals. Tbh, I would hate for us to have a striker that will be scoring 25+ goals while dem other attackers are having single digits.

Jesus just need to be more clinical or be dangerous in his box movements cos he's way ahead of Watkins.
He was more dangerous in his box movements last season. I dunno why this season he's even lacking in that

daveP:
Nobody has lost possession around our box than Zinny this season.

If we want to contest this UCL, a key weakness of our defense is our FBs. Once again, UCL no be beans. No be pap. White was caught off several times by mitoma and his partner in crime. Saliba left his spot to be doing RB duties ALL the times BHA attacked us, while BW was just 😮‍💨


As for Zinny, i already know 7teams in this R16 of UCL that will punish us instantly for all those silly loss of possession. Instantly. Perhaps we need to loan Kiwi and get a loaned FB if possible. Or just play WB style if these two are in XI.


Liverpool game... lets just colet that midfield. They'll resort to usual long balls. This is a Trossard game too. Saka comes alive better with Trossard in XI. Make Nunez no come rediscover form vs Raya abeg o. Wasteful 9.

One thing I noticed is that Zinny loses possession most because of overconfidence in his abilities.
Most times If he can just keep it simple or if he doesn't lose concentration, then we'll be good.

Jodera:
They're not playing in the same position na.

And presently, he has no competition in his position no thanks to injuries. Glad he's picking up form and consistency.

Make him pick am well and I go become him Stan. If I can become Ramsey and Xhaka Stan, wetin come be Havertz

Fkforyou:
Hello Roland17 a penny for your thoughts?

About Arteta's man management, what is your specific line of argument? Is it that he is not developing youngsters well enough i.e bringing out their potential? or he isn't rotating the team well enough to give space for rest for other first team players.

My own opinion is that, he needs to do better with giving first team players rest, he needs to rotate the squad better so as to avoid, burnout, mental block or injury.

On the aspect of mental block, I think that is what is affecting Martinelli-that final output.

Otherwise, I think he was impressive yesterday IMO, he was causing defenders problem, but you see that "what to do with the ball in the end" that is where he is frustrating to watch.

Saka has a better chance conversion than him, but I digress

On the aspects of Arteta's player management, I am trying to see things from his perspective in the sense that, he thinks he is under pressure to win all games and as such he doesn't want to take chances by fielding in so much youngsters.

There was a time I was furious with Wenger for always featuring youngsters in such a way that we were constantly bullied by the likes of Sheffield and Stoke city.
However, if it is in the aspects of bringing out the potentials in a player, is it to early to commend Arteta for that? seeing that he was able to turn things around with Xhaka and about to do the same with Kai and Jorginho.

In essence, all am saying is that, maybe he has the ability to develop potential but he thinks now is not the right time, as he needs to deliver.

But on the aspects of Squad rotation I totally agree because asides Saka, Gabriel is another player that featured in almost all our matches.
Those guys need rest so as to be available during the final stages where teams like Man City would be in mad form.

Arteta needs to know that the league is won between March and April and we need all our squad to be fully fit by then.

What say you?

Hey Bud, thank you for the mention.

Your first paragraph encapsulates the bulk of my issues with Arteta’s man management skills and I will try to keep my post strictly around man management. Arteta’s deficit in man management is historical since he took over Arsenal. His handling of Pepe (no one should misconstrue this to mean any support for Pepe), Saliba, Gabu, Ramsdale, D. Luiz, Guendouzi, Niles and Tierney. The bulk of these issues were managed with a lot of pass aggressiveness towards the players and a total lack of communication.

The Saliba situation is the pick of the bunch for me because we could have lost Saliba and God I wouldn’t have forgiven Arteta. Our saving grace is that Saliba is mentally tough and wanted to prove himself because he knew his worth. We saw the same deficit in man management which is mostly driven by his ego and stubbornness fear it’s head early this season with the decision to bench Gabu early in the season. It took bad performances, pressure from the press and ultimately the fans before he reverted, this had absolutely nothing to do with injuries or tactics but a coach who wants to be right.

Should we talk about the artificial goalkeeping crises we currently have? Let’s be clear, maybe I can find the particular post where I thought Ramsdale needed competion after some of his performances last season. I did not think Turner provided the competition. I was also insistent that he is Arsenal’s number 1 and the competition has to be better in many ways. Problem now is, no one can definitively say Raya is better than Ramsdale. Also, the way Arteta has handled the demotion of Ramsdale leaves much to be desired. He was asked if a good performance will give Ramsdale any chance at getting back number one and Arteta flat out told the pregame press conference that it doesn’t matter what Ramsdale does, Raya is his number one.. I mean, is this now personal.

Arteta is a huge contributor to our injury crises and mismanagement of their conditioning and it doesn’t seem like he has learnt anything despite admitting it cost us the league last season. I have said this before and I will reiterate that I have no problem if Arteta says the pressure of winning the league is a convenient excuse as to why he has refused to develop/ integrate any academy playe. What I won’t accept is the narrative that Hale send doesn’t have good prospects that are ready to be developed and integrated into the first team long term.

This December makes it 4 years since Arteta joined Arsenal as manager, yet, we can not point to one single player from the academy that he has developed and integrated into the first team.. one single player in 4 years. Personally, I don’t think he has the patience, communication and player management skills to develop players, he thrives with established and experienced players in comparison. So like I said if the argument is that he needs to win now, I will tolerate but don’t tell me we don’t have prospects.

On player rotation, it’s like beating a dead horse at this point. I pray for Saka every day at this point because Arteta wouldn’t mind fielding Saka on a wheelchair. It is one thing to field your core constantly even when it is not needed, it another thing to play them heavy heavy minutes when it is not necessary. Why in God’s name did Saliba play 62 minutes against PSV, even if u were going to field him? Do you know the number of times Saka has gone down or looks dead beat before games? Partey’s situation while partly age related, it was aggravated by Arteta’s mismanagement because he ran the guy to the ground. We are talking about a coach who put Partey in the first team the following day after he flew in from AFCON. Barely 17 minutes into the game, Partey dropped to the ground and that was it!

People think I hate the guy, I don’t, I just don’t buy the hype because it is exaggerated. He is learning on the job and that cost us the league last season and the top 4, 2 seasons ago. An experienced coach in the same position would have won Arsenal the league last season.

I will also be the first to admit, he has improved on a few things but they are mostly ingame tactics which I said I would not delve into.

Welcome back everyone 😆

daveP:
Welcome back everyone 😆

Na real welcome back

While we were away Loserpool knack West Ham 5-1 . Make our boys behave on Saturday o

BlueRayDick:
Na real welcome back

Make owner sha curb wetin go make the site disappear forever. Unless he no like wetin he sweat for sha.

daveP:
Make owner sha curb wetin go make the site disappear forever. Unless he no like wetin he sweat for sha.

We can only hope he does.

BlueRayDick:
We can only hope he does.

He no get choice this time. 😂😂😂😂

@Roland17 on your post, please don't take it as I am coming to Arteta's defense but rather to create a simple balance because Arteta won't be here to defend himself.

First of all, we need to really decide what we want. Do we want to win titles or we want to see Hale End school boys become stars. If it's the former then I think Arteta is doing very well. Another thing is that giving chances to youngsters can have it's own negative influence if not well handled. Some youth players may be physically ready to play with the first team but are they mentally ready? Would they not jump the band because they feel they have arrived and begin to demand for impossible contracts etc. We saw how we lost Hutchinson to Chelsea, so where is he now? How many goals have Balogun scored for Monaco? May be if we had handled their development for a bit more time they would be here by next season winning games for us. While they can go on to become good players their decisions to leave favoured no one.

Secondly, it would be harsh to blame Arteta for all the injuries our players have suffered. One or two yea, but definitely that should not mean he was at fault for us losing the league last season due to injuries.

In terms of man management, I think in this case you were completely wrong. You only look at the dressing room and the bond of love and unity that has made Arsenal an envy to other clubs to know how man management works. The question is, how does the owners feel about the business interest? Then you look at those cases you mentioned like Aubameyang and Guendouzi and ask what happened to them after they left. I support absolute intolerance to bad characters and that's exactly what Arteta stands for and that is the bedrock of what has propelled him to the top of English football in recent times.

In the case of losing the league last season, I agree that Arteta does not have the experience but you have to get to the top of the league first before winning it. He got to the top for many months. I recall you wanted experienced Conte, before he went to Tottenham, so where is he now with all the experience? Where is Allegri? Arteta is doing well for his experience. We lost the league because Man City was the best team in the world not because of any lack of experience from Arteta.

One pass we often overlook in why we lost momentum last season was this....

Yes we got 88 last season. But who else saw the GD that City used to win that league? And some of us are content with that, thinking that the players that gave that 88 would replicate it absolutely. We've even forgotten auba sef. 22goals back to back. That's a consistency we crave but is absent in our Attacking Line right now. A consistency that Ollie was nowhere to be seen but is now bossing on the list of G&A.


Bottomline: Let's aim higher abeg. If you're comfy with 88 then you're thinking very small. Verrrryy small. Considering the teams we are up against. I always say if it went down to deciding title by GD, we won't cos we haven't been set up to give that. But some are satisfied that everyone is netting. Naaaaaah. Factory Reset pls!!

Roland17:
Hey Bud, thank you for the mention.

Your first paragraph encapsulates the bulk of my issues with Arteta’s man management skills and I will try to keep my post strictly around man management. Arteta’s deficit in man management is historical since he took over Arsenal. His handling of Pepe (no one should misconstrue this to mean any support for Pepe), Saliba, Gabu, Ramsdale, D. Luiz, Guendouzi, Niles and Tierney. The bulk of these issues were managed with a lot of pass aggressiveness towards the players and a total lack of communication.

The Saliba situation is the pick of the bunch for me because we could have lost Saliba and God I wouldn’t have forgiven Arteta. Our saving grace is that Saliba is mentally tough and wanted to prove himself because he knew his worth. We saw the same deficit in man management which is mostly driven by his ego and stubbornness fear it’s head early this season with the decision to bench Gabu early in the season. It took bad performances, pressure from the press and ultimately the fans before he reverted, this had absolutely nothing to do with injuries or tactics but a coach who wants to be right.

Should we talk about the artificial goalkeeping crises we currently have? Let’s be clear, maybe I can find the particular post where I thought Ramsdale needed competion after some of his performances last season. I did not think Turner provided the competition. I was also insistent that he is Arsenal’s number 1 and the competition has to be better in many ways. Problem now is, no one can definitively say Raya is better than Ramsdale. Also, the way Arteta has handled the demotion of Ramsdale leaves much to be desired. He was asked if a good performance will give Ramsdale any chance at getting back number one and Arteta flat out told the pregame press conference that it doesn’t matter what Ramsdale does, Raya is his number one.. I mean, is this now personal.

Arteta is a huge contributor to our injury crises and mismanagement of their conditioning and it doesn’t seem like he has learnt anything despite admitting it cost us the league last season. I have said this before and I will reiterate that I have no problem if Arteta says the pressure of winning the league is a convenient excuse as to why he has refused to develop/ integrate any academy playe. What I won’t accept is the narrative that Hale send doesn’t have good prospects that are ready to be developed and integrated into the first team long term.

This December makes it 4 years since Arteta joined Arsenal as manager, yet, we can not point to one single player from the academy that he has developed and integrated into the first team.. one single player in 4 years. Personally, I don’t think he has the patience, communication and player management skills to develop players, he thrives with established and experienced players in comparison. So like I said if the argument is that he needs to win now, I will tolerate but don’t tell me we don’t have prospects.

On player rotation, it’s like beating a dead horse at this point. I pray for Saka every day at this point because Arteta wouldn’t mind fielding Saka on a wheelchair. It is one thing to field your core constantly even when it is not needed, it another thing to play them heavy heavy minutes when it is not necessary. Why in God’s name did Saliba play 62 minutes against PSV, even if u were going to field him? Do you know the number of times Saka has gone down or looks dead beat before games? Partey’s situation while partly age related, it was aggravated by Arteta’s mismanagement because he ran the guy to the ground. We are talking about a coach who put Partey in the first team the following day after he flew in from AFCON. Barely 17 minutes into the game, Partey dropped to the ground and that was it!

People think I hate the guy, I don’t, I just don’t buy the hype because it is exaggerated. He is learning on the job and that cost us the league last season and the top 4, 2 seasons ago. An experienced coach in the same position would have won Arsenal the league last season.

I will also be the first to admit, he has improved on a few things but they are mostly ingame tactics which I said I would not delve into.

Thank you very much for indulging me.

Honestly, you made accurate and fair assessment of Artetas Flaw as a manager.

You also did justice to my question, you did so with facts, not just hard facts, but historical fact and trends, receipts choke everywhere.

I won’t lie, I sometimes thought your criticism of Arteta was unfair, even though I always respected your opinion, because we both share something in common, we love this club and want it to succeed.

All in all, I am loyal to Arsenal not Arteta, all I want is for this club to win something either by Arteta or not, even though I like him being our coach for now.

daveP:
Yes we got 88 last season. But who else saw the GD that City used to win that league? And some of us are content with that, thinking that the players that gave that 88 would replicate it absolutely. We've even forgotten auba sef. 22goals back to back. That's a consistency we crave but is absent in our Attacking Line right now. A consistency that Ollie was nowhere to be seen but is now bossing on the list of G&A.


Bottomline: Let's aim higher abeg. If you're comfy with 88 then you're thinking very small. Verrrryy small. Considering the teams we are up against. I always say if it went down to deciding title by GD, we won't cos we haven't been set up to give that. But some are satisfied that everyone is netting. Naaaaaah. Factory Reset pls!!

You are conflating two different issues. What do we want as a team?

Do we want a team that scored 88 goals in a season (which is quite impressive considering where we we are coming from) without our top 9 up there with the top goal scorers in the league?

OR

Do we want our striker to be one of the top strikers in the league and then it distorts our playing style which requires the striker to join the rest of the midfield to build up play till they get to the box?

As for goal difference, it has two components GF and GA. We are already good on GF going by last year's result, it is our defensive midfield and defence proper that needs to be well managed so we don't leak as many goals as we score in case the league goes down to the wire and goal difference will be the deciding factor.

BlueRayDick:
You are conflating two different issues. What do we want as a team?

Do we want a team that scored 88 goals in a season (which is quite impressive considering where we we are coming from) without our top 9 up there with the top goal scorers in the league?

OR

Do we want our striker to be one of the top strikers in the league and then it distorts our playing style which requires the striker to join the rest of the midfield to build up play till they get to the box?

As for goal difference, it has two components GF and GA. We are already good on GF going by last year's result, it is our defensive midfield and defence proper that needs to be well managed so we don't leak as many goals as we score in case the league goes down to the wire and goal difference will be the deciding factor.

Of course it is obvious what i want and others that see my consistent pov. No i am not conflating any two issues. I am saying we need a firepower up front like auba. Sometimes we act like auba no even score 22 for us. Seeing no one has replicated that, but we are hyped about 88 shows many never ready.

It is a feat, but we are COMPETING and need to outperform top opponents, CITY!

So, we need it now more than ever. We are even back(obviously so) after game week 17. 35goals vs 40 last season on same GW17.


We need firepower. 100+ should be the target. We should not wait till we score less than 88 after last game to now accept this angle.


Besides, why do we have to imagine an incoming 9 will distort style? How convenient!!!!

BlueRayDick:
While we were away Loserpool knack West Ham 5-1 . Make our boys behave on Saturday o

I'm more worried about us missing chances than what Liverpool will do to us. If the boys turn up, we should get all the points.

welcome back.

daveP:
Yes we got 88 last season. But who else saw the GD that City used to win that league? And some of us are content with that, thinking that the players that gave that 88 would replicate it absolutely. We've even forgotten auba sef. 22goals back to back. That's a consistency we crave but is absent in our Attacking Line right now. A consistency that Ollie was nowhere to be seen but is now bossing on the list of G&A.


Bottomline: Let's aim higher abeg. If you're comfy with 88 then you're thinking very small. Verrrryy small. Considering the teams we are up against. I always say if it went down to deciding title by GD, we won't cos we haven't been set up to give that. But some are satisfied that everyone is netting. Naaaaaah. Factory Reset pls!!

You're just dragging us back with this talk bro. The season Auba netted 22 goals, which other player came near to that figure?

We were so reliant on Auba that if he doesn't score, we are not scoring any goal.

That said, the problem is not that we don't have a 30-goal striker. The problem is that we are missing chances.

iamoyindamola has mentioned Partey about thrice now and I've been wondering if we have two Parteys.

The return date for Partey is January according to reports.

We all agreed that Arteta doesn't rotate but the question we should ask ourselves is whether the fringe players are always available.

Vieira, ESR, Nelson, Tomiyasu and Partey who are supposed to provide depth have been rotating sick beds frequently this season. That's frustrating TBH

mostob:
iamoyindamola has mentioned Partey about thrice now and I've been wondering if we have two Parteys.

The return date for Partey is January according to reports.

I read he's in training

mostob:
I'm more worried about us missing chances than what Liverpool will do to us. If the boys turn up, we should get all the points.

welcome back.

That's also my fear; missing chances when Loserpool will score half a decent chance with good shot takers like Alexander Arnold, Szoboszlai, Macallister etc

daveP:
Of course it is obvious what i want and others that see my consistent pov. No i am not conflating any two issues. I am saying we need a firepower up front like auba. Sometimes we act like auba no even score 22 for us. Seeing no one has replicated that, but we are hyped about 88 shows many never ready.

It is a feat, but we are COMPETING and need to outperform top opponents, CITY!

So, we need it now more than ever. We are even back(obviously so) after game week 17. 35goals vs 40 last season on same GW17.


We need firepower. 100+ should be the target. We should not wait till we score less than 88 after last game to now accept this angle.


Besides, why do we have to imagine an incoming 9 will distort style? How convenient!!!!

Just like Mostob pointed out, we are better off scoring loads of goals with different players on the score sheet than having a top 9 whom we all channel most of our goal scoring chances through. I prefer we scoring 100 goals through 10 different players than having one player score 50 goals and we didn't score more than 65 as a team.

I didn't say a top 9 will distort our playing style but some of the names being thrown around as our potential target by the media do not fit into Arteta's style of play from what I have seen.

I hope if Arteta eventually says he wants to get another striker with similar playing style to Jesus we won't come back to ask him to sign another top 9 in a year's time simply because the new striker is not banging in goals just like Jesus.

mostob:
You're just dragging us back with this talk bro. The season Auba netted 22 goals, which other player came near to that figure?

We were so reliant on Auba that if he doesn't score, we are not scoring any goal.

That said, the problem is not that we don't have a 30-goal striker. The problem is that we are missing chances.

My angle is let us get what will make that attack an 88+ one. That's all I'm saying. How that player will ruin our pattern is beyond me. I just can't seem to get why that's the fear of such inclusion.