Footy

@fahdahmed987 @Jon_Mackenzie @htomufc I think also worth pointing out that according to virtually all reports Arteta was very “meh” on signing Eze throughout virtually the whole process. And that is almost certainly due to how he performs OOP. But they did sign him in the end so 🤷‍♂️.

@Jon_Mackenzie has talked about the marginalisation of Arsenal's football a lot. It leaves them susceptible to slight variances. It's definitely a way that Arteta and the SDs have decided to go, with defence being the priority. I wonder how many times they've passed on the opportunity to sign a world class forward due to out-of-possession reasons or prioritising the purchase of a defensive player instead. I think there's logic behind their decisions obviously but would've liked to see them take a bit more risk by bringing another top class forward. I say that because Arsenal already have the defensive quality to cope with transitions and in all other settled defensive phases. Also wonder if they might make the decision to bring another quality forward over the summer.

Not defending it in the slightest but just caught the Eze goal last night, has anyone ever thought that the majority of the ‘marginalisation’ of Arsenal’s football ie. set pieces & routines is mostly down to a lack of attacking quality? Outside of Eze, Havertz & Saka, the majority of the rest are pretty mediocre. City have beautiful patterns between the front 4 but mostly because Cherki is a wizard, Doku is one of the best box enterers I’ve seen, Haaland’s a generational striker & Semenyo has insane talents for a wide attacking forward. Don’t get me wrong, the majority of it is an Arsenal/Arteta/Berta issue but can’t help but think they’ve needed a superstar attacker for 4 years and the rigidity & ‘boringness’ argument is largely because of the players he’s working with. Idk, just a thought I’ve had for a few weeks.

@ghostgoal Yeah think you maybe started a couple years ago, it was still a bit late. Having said that, you were one of the first in the mainstream media to get it. So yeah, maybe I was being harsh.

@Footballfilth1 I’ve been writing about these topics for years.

Interview with José Alberto, head coach of Racing Santander, who’s taken his team to the top of the table. He’s done it defying tactical conventions, instead seeing football as ‘a living system, where the team flows rather than being strictly organised.’ skysports.com/football/news/…

@umirf1 @BBCSport It’s so great that people like yourself are now writing for mainstream media outlets. About 5 years too late but at least they are now hiring people that actually understand the game.

I rewatched and analysed every City game to figure out the story of City’s season & how Pep landed on this current system for @BBCSport. I then wrote it into a many thousands word document before trying to condense it into something for BBC. Read here: bbc.co.uk/sport/football…