Solo Pod - I Have Concerns

Loved the solo pod ... were all doing the same in our heads!!

Next time you do a solo pod you should pretend that Tim is on, but when you ask a question you just answer it yourself and never throw it to him 😂

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Really really good thinking and generates great debate. I disagreed with some of it and you explained why

LOVE the idea of instant reaction Vox pops. But PLEASE ask them to keep it short and sweet.

The beauty of this is that we can see things differently and reach different conclusions. And then measure the results and reassess and try again. Will never ask for agreement. Just productive discussion and exchange of ideas.

Couldn’t listen to the whole thing, without debate it’s just preaching. Sorry Elliot. While I hate what’s happening and am concerned about the managers lack of experience, I’m tired of this ‘move the needle’ trope. In a parallel universe there’s an Elliot fuming that the back four hadn’t been addressed, “what’s the point in a £100mil striker if you have no buildup from the back?” He would rant. Like building a house, the rebuild has to start with the foundations. You can only build a roof when you have a house to put it on. I predict that next summer we splash on the midfield and attack having bedded in a secure rear end 😊 Love the pod guys 👍

LEAVE THE MANAGER ALO---... hold on.... This actually sounds pretty reasonable. Carry on but mind yourself.

Milton

Tim has written a blog on the same topic in Arseblog. Elliot iam done with Arteta and there are enough evidences that we cannot take this forward. His tactics, man management, inconsistent use of players, disparity in what he says abd what we see on pitch, cocking up imp matches, in game management and handling of youngsters are enough evidences. We are again at a stasis and if the leadership doesn't take action we are downhill fast and top 6 can never be achieved.

I might be in the minority here. But I don’t think I would view the Arteta appointment necessarily as a failure if it turns out he can’t get us to the next level. I like the general direction that we’ve taken now and it could simply be the case of needing another manager to build off the work that Mikel has done (not too dissimilar I guess to Tuchel taking over for Lamps and bringing them to another level)

Spot on Elliot, I'm with you man !! Good pod fella 👍

That's a big concern for me also, although I'm content to see how this season pans out. We'll all be supporting Arsenal next season whether arteta is here or not... I think he will be. He's got at least another 2 seasons to sort this and I do want to see him succeed. Attack and midfield must be addressed and I'm sure its being looking into, I think only then can final judgement be made.

Banksy

Where's the rewatch???

Banksy

36mins in.. "The (w)hole is suffering a bit." made me chuckle. Thanks for the pod Elliot

I haven’t enjoyed a pod like this in a while, love how honest it was. The point about not being right really struck home with me, the main pod is insanely good but sometimes there’s the sense that some of the guys are shaking their head as if to say ‘don’t involve the manager discussion’ which you have to steer around. Maybe a section of ‘managers view’ where Clive can tell us what & why certain decisions are being made but another section where all parties can pour their feeling into would be widely well received imo :)

Hi, enjoyed the solo pod, maybe it could be a fortnightly feature on rotation?

Elliot. I share your concerns. I worry the Club is still in the grip of Wengerism. The owners’ only reference point of success is Arsene; a visionary, a dreamer for whom football was focused on technique, creativity and art. Arteta is a Wenger disciple, talks a good philosophy and the Kreonkes believe he will recreate an enhanced Arsenal Way. A form of football perfection. This is all misplaced. We cannot afford the level of player with the talent or experience to deliver that kind of football and nearly all competitive clubs are these days coached to be more physical, more robust and tactically much more capable of repelling or usurping possession orientated football. We need much greater pragmatism where the style of football we play and the players we have are fundamentally faster, stronger, more tenacious and capable of battling their way to victory rather than just passing.

Breath of fresh air! Thank you.

I agree Elliott we have not been good. I think we should make a change we don't see improvement. We just don't create any chances and we now don't defend well. Also the man management issues, I think are the biggest problem with Arteta. He struck me as a my way or the high type guy. He seems very inflexible.

I don't think Xhaka would be such a focus if someone else stood up and took some responsibility. There are too many players too busy hiding and stuffing their sorry's in a sack, to stand up and get something going when things are down.

We've had a ton of clean sheets though - Ramsdale is in contention for the golden glove having played 3 less games than his opponents. We've been solid in our build-up as well. The only thing that's not really clicking is the attack - the one place where Arteta hasn't made any signings. Once he does, the team will click. And if it doesn't... it's someone else's turn at the helm. But imo, the club needs to be patient, and buy Arteta the attacking weapons he needs - and only then make a definitive judgement on whether the manager should be sacked or not.

We have not been that great defensively as of late we have conceded 9 goals in our last 4 games and 5 in our last two, in fact we have conceded more goals this season and a higher gaxg than we did last year. That said I do think BW, Tomi, and nuno are great additions, but having the midfield break down in front of them effects them as much as it does on creating chances and having adequate build up.

Solid thoughts thanks - increasingly clear he’s out of his depth. Another sign is the change of heart by Edu / Arteta to get Wenger back in some capacity. Presume this is because the Club recognises that Arteta’s pace of learning on the job does not marry with the Club’s own timeline for success. So I suppose the question may become: Is a Wenger / Arteta management construct better than Arteta solo?

Arteta chose to strengthen the defense and we improved defensively - we are top 3 in the PL for clean sheets, since the players he bought started playing. Once he strenghtenes the attack, we'll improve offensively as well. He just needs time and better players.

If I wake up on Saturday and Arsenal are delivering some great attacking play, not this rigid no one moves from their position deep block without pressing nonsense, i am right back on board. Wenger survived 10 years based on the fact that the football was good enough to get top four and entertaining enough for people not to get too upset about not winning the league, it was fun. I'm not having any fun watching this horrible style of play. The issue for me has always been chances created and goals, football is heavily goals bias, very very few teams get away with 1-0s all season, the amount of goals you score matters alot! But I think Arteta is just way too cautious and the whole team seems setup not to get beat rather than to win. As Wenger used to say, we have the handbrake on a little and unless he changes his attacking patterns and become less reliant on crossing, we will be just the same as last year with potential for worse.

TL;DR: #artetaout

You shouldn't have to do a solo pod to be able to criticize a manager that has these attacking stats two years in a row. If people removed their biases and just looked at the football they are watching and what the data tells you, it all aligns together, we aren't unlucky, we are exactly the team we show on the pitch. I think there are extremes on both sides which make people want to vehemently defend their position, it's the same issue in politics, everyone has a team and their ideas are closely linked to their person. We are objectively the exact same team we were last year with 150mil spent. We have this attitude of being attached to a manager as if he is your friend, he is here to do a job. Is he doing his job well, if so he keeps it, if not he should be fired, it's as simple as that, no ifs or buts or excuses or circling around the issue. I always hope our manager does well , because it is tied to our own success but I don't see a long term future for the type of football we play, it's unsustainable.

First time in the comments what a bloody refreshing discourse, I’d expect nothing less tbf

You nailed this! My “speculations” have been growing with the evidence for sometime. The most recent isolation of Pepe tells me all I need. Man-management seems to be a major issue, thus the young-gun team. Veterans talk back more, Arteta can’t manage that.

Well done Elliot. I believe that you are so right in pretty much all of it.

You know what you did 😂

Over half an hour of just Elliot? Is this the equivalent of getting coal for Christmas?

Being out of Europe isn't good regardless of what level it is. It's reductive for the club status wise. A point I will make is that yes it's great for organically building players up but that only happens if your in the the Europa league. If in champions League we would be playing our best twice a week or close too it. Besides from that I do actually think we'd be better off playing more often than not with our squad. Squad players need games. Not buying the 1 game a week theory is better for team looking to improve league position

Legitimate question for folks. I am definitely kind of along the lines of Arteta agnostic that Clive described in the podcast and given everything you hear from more well connected folks about how he is very safe in his job, have accepted he will probably be around for a while. My question is, for those who have their minds pretty well made up in terms of thinking he won't be able to display the improvements required and think another manager should come in, how long and what results would it take to change your thinking on it? I assume it would require a fairly significant attacking improvement, but legitimately how long would it take, or are peoples minds made up? Feels pretty tough to me to have some bad results put you right back in the dark place of 'it'll never work with this manager' territory it seems like some people are in. In any case, I'm truly curious what people think.

Loss of Europe is actually really bad for this project imo. Can’t organically build your young players up

Good podcast today. Thanks. Great point about why did we invest in BW when we could have used Saliba and used the cash for better attackers. I think we were all hopeful that we had a deeper bench of current and future attacking players like Eddie and Balogun. None of that has materialized though, thanks to no European football.

The news subsequently though is that we always preferred he stayed

The rumours were that Roma placed a too low offer for Xhaka - they were open to selling him at the right price. But yeah, I do agree that we should move on from him, we need the midfield to be better

In terms of same fixtures we are worse though. Scott recently posted that

We had 14 points after 14 games last season. We are better than last season

Kevin

Elliot, Tim and Scott doomcast has to happen soon

And he refers to himself in the 3rd person!

Touché

😂

Bring me out of these shitty thoughts please

Doomcast adjacent content, lovely jubbly.

Normally it’s 30 seconds. 😉😂

Get in my veins 💉💉💉

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David Vass

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