re: Arsenal 2020/2021 Season Thread - shite Team

The reality is that neither Emery nor Arteta are up for the job. We should have backed Wenger 100% rather than rely on anyone else. Wenger understood that when you are constrained from getting the best players, the answer isn't to become a stilted, defensive team obsessed with defensive spacing. That is precisely the way you get to the mid-table. You have to be expansive with your play, and you have to put pressure on the opponent, regardless of whether they are made up of superstars or also-rans. It's amazing to me that there were only a handful of games under every season, maybe 5 or less, where we were definitively out-classed.

People insisted Wenger wasn't being pragmatic when he insisted on the attacking principles, but it should be obvious now that he was being pragmatic by insisting on them, as it was calculated decision based on percentages. Limiting the time his error-prone defenders actually had to defend, limiting the amount of possession the other team had, limiting the amount his players had to think and rather, focus all his time on making patterns and movements second nature and fluid.

This is a bad team, among the worst we've ever fielded, and unless Arteta understands how Wenger could consistently get top-four despite fielding far worse players, he is going to be sacked. We might as well get fricking Allardyce if we are going to play 11 behind the ball.

What needs to happen is Arteta has to stop choking the creativity and movement out of this team. Stop tinkering and let them play, with attacking principles reinforced in training through small sided games.