The Queen’s Gambit

I went into this review with a question: how did Walter Tevis write the Queen’s Gambit? Did he labor over the chess games described in the book? Making sure that they were accurate and thrilling? Was he a chess player? Did he study chess the way that the main character (Beth Harmon) did? By reading piles of books on chess? Was he good at chess?

And what I discovered was that yes, he did play chess, he was pretty good at chess, and he did read “Modern Chess Openings” – the book that Beth Harmon reads in the miniseries – but also, just like the main character, Walter Tevis was an alcoholic.

The fictional Beth Harmon is in many ways modeled after Walter Tevis. Both were abandoned as children, both were given barbiturates as children, and both later went on to find solace in booze.

But Beth Harmon’s drinking is different from Walter’s. Tevis’ drinking was much more in line with my own experience.

In the Queen’s Gambit, Beth goes on a couple of benders – I won’t give away too many spoilers – and in the big one, the one which I think most epitomizes alcoholism and addiction, she takes the phone off the hook and drinks every day to excess. She shirks her commitments, she shuns her friends, she rejects help, and meanwhile the cigarette butts and booze bottles keep piling up while she hides from her demons.

Where Beth let everything spin out of control in a short burst, Tevis tried to make life work by hiding his drinking, claiming that he wouldn’t drink during the day and instead spent the hours of midnight to 4 am drinking. Then he would, one assumes, pass out for a few hours, get up, and go teach English.

That’s very close to what I did. I have shared custody of my daughter and for years I would only drink when she was at her mom’s house. As soon as I dropped her off, it was straight to the bar for Maker’s on the rocks. And I would do that every night until Wednesday when I got her back.

My drinking got worse. Instead of only when my daughter was away I started drinking on Friday nights after I sent her to bed. I would live in fear of her getting up in the middle of the night and seeing me drunk but it didn’t stop me. And the thing about all this is that no matter how “sneaky” we think we are being as drunks, we don’t really hide these things. Kids are perceptive.

Walter thinks he would only drink from midnight to 4am but Walter’s son, William, tells it a little different; describing how his father would go to the grocery store and buy vanilla extract on Sundays or how he would come home from football practice and dad would be in his office, the night’s drinking already underway.

On the one hand I don’t mind that the Queen’s Gambit wasn’t some long slog through addiction. Addicts are self loathing creatures, wallowing in misery and bursting out in emotional, childish, tantrums like boils. More than one episode of that would have turned off everyone who loved the series. Pretty much how addicts often turn off everyone around them.

But I wonder how the book and the miniseries dealt with Beth’s addiction? Were they the same? Was the conclusion the same? I don’t want to reveal the end of the series, so I won’t, but I will just say that everything felt a little too simplistic for me: like it was too much Modern Chess Openings and not enough end game theory.

That’s the only question I have from this otherwise delightful series on Netflix. Superbly acted by Anya Taylor-Joy and the rest of the supporting cast, wonderfully written and beautifully staged and shot, this is a series worth the price of a month of Netflix. And to find out how Tevis dealt with Beth’s addiction, I suppose I will have to read the book. I can’t remember the last time a movie/series made me want to read the book. That’s how good this show was.

Update on Donations To One Tree Planted

I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who donated to the One Tree Planted fundraiser this year. We raised $407 through 23 donations and that means we will be planting 407 trees this year! Yay team!

This whole thing really made me happy. Just to know that there are so many generous people out there and that you want to make a difference raised my hope for humanity just a tiny bit. I think I will do this every year from now on.

Arsenal thoughts

I wonder where Arteta’s head’s at these days?

The crossing thing is very strange. If you don’t know he keeps saying (it feels like he’s doubling down) that crosses are mathematically good. That if we keep crossing the ball, if we keep pumping in crosses, that eventually we will start scoring.

But… This isn’t a straightforward fact. Crosses are neither good nor bad: they are simply one way of delivering the ball to the forwards. However there are a lot of different types of crosses and some crosses are inherently better than others and some crosses are still good, if you have the right guy delivering and receiving.

Arsenal do have a player who is excellent at all types of crosses: Kieran Tierney. However, Arsenal don’t have any players who are good at receiving aerial crosses. And the key thing about the game against Tottenham, where Arteta said that we were unlucky on our crosses, is that 46 of the 53 crosses we pumped in were aerial.

There’s a fan video of Kieran’s crosses against Spurs and yeah, man, he really does deliver some incredible passes. What makes his crosses so special is that not only do they dip in a way that makes them hard to defend but he’s also able to play them from way deeper than most other players can. He’s a lot like Trent Alexander-Arnold in that regard.

But look at Aubameyang’s reception rate in that game: targeted 56 times, Auba controlled just 17 passes, for a 30% target success rate. Nketiah had the same problem: targeted 13 times, 5 receptions. Look at Spurs’ draw to Wham: Antonio makes 27 receptions on 41 targeted passes (63%). Or Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s 63% receptions rate in Everton’s win.

The funny thing there, though, is that Calvert-Lewin and Antonio weren’t out there dominating headers. I tricked you! Their teams were finding different ways to get them the ball!

And this brings me to the thing that I don’t get about Arteta. I keep hearing that he’s well respected and that he’s a very talented coach but playing zonal defense and whipping in crosses is very basic stuff. It’s not what I’d expect to see from a highly lauded coaching mind.

Of course, the answer to that criticism is that “that’s all he can do with these players” but that’s not true is it? These are mostly the same players as we had last year and we weren’t playing football this way. In fact, it’s only the last four games that we have had consistently 20+ crosses per game. Last season we had 4 Premier League matches with 20+ crosses. We’ve had three in the last 4 games this season and none before that.

And not only that but we signed Willian and Soares to long-term contracts. Both of those players are well known for their crosses with Arteta even praising Soares for his crossing, calling him our best player in the final third.

This is all very odd stuff from Arteta. I don’t quite get it. Unless he’s really starting to panic. And if that’s the case, then he’s done as a manager at Arsenal. The players will sense the panic and like sharks to blood, they’ll eat him alive.

Qq

79 comments

  1. I respect Arteta as a coach because of certain things I have seen.

    Playing Auba,laca,Ozil and Pepe together and still look compact.

    Build up under a press.
    Pressing (initially in Arteta’s managerial reign)

    The structure in both scenarios were good.

    The structure with and without the ball is very good.

    It’s not easy to coach a good structure in possession which he can do.

    The problem is he hasn’t had a single proper pre season.

    And had games every 3 days post lockdown so no time to coach.

    But he has given our attackers awkward roles to perform.

    That is why a 6-8th best attack is performing like a relegation threatened one.

    Crosses are fine,even aerial crosses but the location from where crosses are delivered need to be changed

    Cross from half spaces instead of the flanks.
    Then we would be better.
    Use more cutbacks.

    1. 1. We deffo didn’t look compact when we played Auba, Laca, Ozil, and Pepe – xGA last season was terrible and the goals against stat was just luck – that’s why he dropped half of those players this season and adopted the absurd zonal defense that we are playing now.

      2. Build up under a press is ok.

      3. The structure with the ball is atrocious. We have no clue what to do when we get past the half way line. Play slows down. Arteta then shouts commands at the players (which lately has been about playing the ball to the wings for a cross).

      4. The structure without the ball is literally amature stuff.

      5. Every other coach does it. Even Roy Hodgson.

      6. Every other coach has the same problems with pre-season and games every 3 days.

      7. Jose Mourinho changed his team during the COVID break.

      8. The awkward roles are because he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

      9. We are the worst attacking team in the league because we have no clue what we are doing in possession (though it looks like it’s going to be crosses from here on out!)

      10. No. Aerial crosses to Lacazette and Aubameyang are literally just throwing possession away. Yes, also the position of the crosses needs to change but that would require the wingbacks/forwards beating a man and someone in midfield to support.

      11. Cutbacks are great but see 10, we need to beat a man on a dribble/pass/overlap. That would even further expose the back line, which Arteta doesn’t want to do because that would mean breaking up his stupid zonal defensive structure.

      So, because he doesn’t want to compromise his zonal defense, we get a team that doesn’t press, doesn’t tackle, doesn’t even really intercept the ball and whose only attack is deep aerial crosses to players who suck at that sort of play.

      Not only is this basic, it’s also fucking stupid.

    2. ‘It’s not easy to coach a good structure in possession which he can do.’
      Our ‘possession’ is basically players standing in their positions and passing the ball back and forth between themselves, with little movement.

      I don’t think there’s anything ‘hard’ to coach in that, if it can even be called ‘coaching’

    3. “But he has given our attackers awkward roles to perform.

      That is why a 6-8th best attack is performing like a relegation threatened one.”

      The issue is positional rigidity which is asking the midfielders to take too many touches in order to advance the ball… last year we saw more one-touch passing combinations when Arteta initially showed up, but to do that players need to congregate in smaller areas of the pitch and provide more movement off-the-ball and be braver to abandon their defensive cover areas. And it becomes a downward spiral – when the midfielders take too many touches, the strikers hold their runs because the timing is off or they don’t have the confidence that a pass will get delivered to them. The strikers stop making runs and now we’re playing sideways or playing to feet to static players in traffic, and rather than breaking the lines with intention the ball just comes right back out again and it’s CB passing to CB. The only advancement is on the wings through our fullbacks… a la Emery, but build-up on the flanks is way way less preferable to build up through the middle. I could go on. It’s the trap of trying to combine possession football with positional discipline in order to make sure the defense is covered – it doesn’t work.

  2. Brother you’re on fire today. Greg commented on the last post it’s funny to see Arteta get increasingly crabby as the pressure mounts. I’d guess that like myself you don’t suffer fools easily (Ha!)

    I’m going to say something that makes me feel dirty but hey…. Maureen has done a very good job so far. He’s remotivated them, got them focused on defence first football and actually installed a good pressing system. In comparison it seems like dear Mikel is swinging for the fences.

    There were two aspects of Martinez’ play which we’re missing. He commands his area with greater authority which gives his defenders greater confidence. But it’s his distribution particularly speed of decision making and early ball release which are sorely missed. Our lack of quick passing and especially quick transitions into attack are killing us and we allow the competition to reset. Sure it’s not the answer to all of our dilemmas but for me it’s no coincidence that we’ve looked less threatening this season.

  3. Are you all not really saying the same thing in that Arteta’s “system” is too rigid and uncompromising. No one is allowed to improvise or use initiative.

    Add to that the fact that we have no one capable of making regular incisive and defence-splitting passes, the only route to goal is from the wings, but by the time they get there, the defence is in place and more than capable of repelling the attack.

    There only the one plan, nothing else.

    If the response is that it is done to protect the defence, then all one can say is that it is not working by a mile.

    I am beginning to feel sorry for Arteta as he has been trying hard in difficult times, but I feel he has fallen very short of where he should be after a year, even without a pre-season.

  4. Great work Tim.
    Two thumbs up for The Queen’s Gambit and for your effort as well.
    I thought Bill Camp in the role of Mr Schaibel was very good too.

    Can’t remember a single headed goal by Auba when he wasn’t running into space, or where there wasn’t clear separation between him and a defender……and that’s his entire career.

    Laca is more physical but shorter and doesn’t climb very well , so pumping balls into area for these two to fight it out against 6’3” and taller defenders is pure madness.

    The more talking Arteta does the more it becomes clear he might be light on substance with this whole coaching thing he was supposed to be so good at.

  5. Tim, is it time to burn it all down again? Is anyone better than Arteta at this point in your opinion?

    (Note: Markedly disagree, but won’t argue with you in current mood)

    1. I thought I have been pretty clear that I don’t have an opinion on this. I literally don’t care if we keep him or fire him. I don’t think it matters much either way.

      I believe that if we had anything even remotely approaching an owner who cared about the club, we would be looking at a lot of changes. We have the most inexperienced manager, with a front office that is also vastly inexperienced, and a massive mess in terms of contracts and bad players. No owner who cared about the club and was willing to actually invest his own money would allow this situation to rot like this for the last three years. And don’t give me that stuff about “he put his own money in” or “he does care” because he didn’t put his own money in – at best he guaranteed some loans secured against the asset that is Arsenal – and his version of caring is what you see right in front of you.

      Maybe someone can ring him up during a Rams game and see if he wants to do another puff piece.

      1. It seems pretty clear you do have an opinion on Arteta… it’s also pretty clear what that opinion is. It’s weird that you won’t own it. The ownership stuff is kind of moot isn’t it? KSE won’t fire themselves.

        1. What’s weird is deliberately misconstruing someone’s words to imply that they are being somehow disingenuous.

          1. Plus the personal stuff. It often has to be about the other person and some hidden motive and not the ideas.

          2. ??????

            Read Tim’s responses above to Left Foot Curler and tell me where I’m misconstruing something. How can he claim to have no opinion after a post like that? And no, this was not personal. I don’t view “weird” as an insult, but perhaps it came across that way. Would strange/bewildering work better? How can you sit on the fence after coming down so hard on one side a few minutes ago?

            Tim, you literally steamroll anyone who disagrees with you on Arteta. I’ve watched you do it for multiple posts to multiple posters and have said nothing. That’s your right as this website’s creator, etc. etc. and far be it from me to tell you what to think or how to post on your website. I know what I think about what you’ve said but that’s not the issue either. I just barely spoke up because I don’t get why you do it and yet claim not to care. It’s obvious you care. Then you go “poor me,” Doc’s at it with the Ad hom’s again… it’s not Ad hom and it’s not personal. I’m pointing out the discrepancy between what you claim and what you say. That would normally elicit an explanatory response, not a defense mechanism. As I said before, I am not attacking you. I am not challenging your authority. I am responding with a logical query to your own words in two different places because they are so obviously and vastly in opposition to each other. Don’t you think that deserves an explanation? And isn’t a free, open forum an appropriate place to bring up such a discussion? So please, let’s discuss.

          3. Sigh.

            Half of me wants to give you a long response, the other half just wants to laugh and say no. But I guess I’ll just say what I’ve been saying in another way and that will be the end of it from me.

            I guess what you’re struggling with (??) is that I do care about the bad performances and terrible football, that bothers me. I would prefer not to have to sit through trash like that first half against Tottenham. And it bothers me that we play such passive football. I’m exasperated by it (obviously). And I care that people keep pretending that these things aren’t happening.

            But I don’t care if we fire Arteta. And I gave you the reasons for that but let’s do it again (this is fun!): because I don’t think Kroenke will appoint anyone better and I don’t think (this is the important part) Kroenke will ever make us a title challenger again (unless we get lucky). So, we might as well keep muddling through with Arteta. Maybe he will magic upon the answer. Maybe he won’t. Maybe the owners will take a passing interest and hire a new manager and some front office people, maybe they won’t. Maybe the players will get upset and stab Caesar in the streets (this seems like how Arteta will end and it feels like it’s coming soon).

            The sad facts are that we have a hilariously bad owner who doesn’t care and some absurd contracts and purchases that we will be burdened with for the remainder of their terms. If the owner “put his own money in” or cared about the club he would have just bought Ozil out last year, or would have sold off a bunch of these dead weight players for losses. But instead! We got about 30m in salary coming off the books this summer and we’ve already spent it on Willian, Partey, Mari, David luiz, and fucking Cedric. Instead of clearing things out so that we could rebuild, our hands-off owner turned the club over to Raul, Edu, and their friends the superagents.

            We are going to be stuck with lodestone contracts for the foreseeable future (and hilariously the talk is about getting that burnout Erikson in the team now! lol).

            See. It doesn’t matter, Doc.

            As for my psyche, how I’m steamrolling people, how I hate when people “challenge my authority” like I’m Erik Cartman or something, please stop.

            Sigh.

            This was exhausting. I can’t believe I just spent so much time on a response to this. Good work pushing all the right buttons there, Doc.

          4. Thanks, I appreciate that response. I’m genuinely sorry it all seems so hopeless to you, that must be difficult. Now I understand where you’re coming from.

        2. The only thing I care less about (at this second) than whether Arteta stays or goes is what you think I need to own.

  6. Off topic, 17 Republican led states have filed a lawsuit to cancel results of democratically held presidential elections, and over 80 % of Republicans believe the Presidency was stolen from Trump.
    Let’s have a dialogue with them, however, and compromise…..as some on here have suggested.

      1. Doc,
        Let them hit the streets with their AR 15s after Biden’s inauguration, the government has drones and tanks.
        The Civil War re-enactments have been getting so boring , they’ll be needing new material in the not so distant future.

        1. I actually floated the idea awhile back to pay off all Trump’s financial obligations and debts so long as he leaves office admitting defeat to ensure peaceful transition of power.
          I know you’re not supposed to negotiate with terrorists but I would make an exception in Trump’s case for the greater good of the nation.
          The only problem is of course , international terrorists are more likely to honor agreements than Trump.

          1. I don’t think any of that will be necessary. The courts have been unanimous in their judgment of his feeble arguments. A challenge to the democratic process should not be met with a response that degrades the democratic process further.

          2. Doc, yes , the Judiciary has held but The Republic was founded on the principle the losing side had the responsibility to concede and come back four years later with a better effort.
            The Republicans have just forfeited that obligation.
            The system is broken and probably beyond repair.

          3. Also, We can’t look at this and not wonder what if the election was actually closer. Will the courts hold next time when it is?

          4. Seems a dramatic view. They are contesting in court which is part of the system. It’s distasteful but ultimately futile. They haven’t refused to hand over power outright. Let the process play out.

  7. Here’s my opening gambit, let’s give Trump two more years and see if he leaves after …. only fair.

  8. Agree on the cross thing. Low/Driven crosses might have at least occasional success with our players, though they are obviously easier to block. Lots of aerial crosses is a fools errand, though Martinelli might help on that front, as I recall him being decent in the air.
    As far as Arteta goes….I have no doubt that he’s a smart guy. But it’s a little worrying that he seems stuck in certain patterns and not able to learn from results.

    1. Scott (who started out writing here) took a look at the numbers and best case scenario crosses result in goals (directly) at about a 3% rate. In some of the places where Tierney is crossing from you get crazy low numbers like 1 or 2 in a thousand. The best places, by the way, require the crosser to beat his man and get into those half spaces. We literally don’t do that. And not only that but lofted crosses are the worst. And not only that but lofted crosses to players who don’t score headers seems particularly odd.

      Arteta is either wildly misinformed, intentionally obfuscating, or he has access to some super-secret data that shows how important crosses are which no other team has access to.

      BTW: I also looked at the stats for percentage of balls in the final third from crosses and there seems to be a tipping point where if you cross the ball too much you tip over into being a really shitty team.

      1. Talking about crosses broadly is a bit like talking about bacteria, broadly. They’re all the same and yet all completely different. To me a good cross is a great option when the defense is not set and the player crossing knows what he’s doing. Problem is when you face a team defending their penalty box, they’re pretty much always set. When you play from behind, you pretty much always face a set defense. They funnel you out wide, so you have two bad options: recycle and repeat the horseshoe or try a cross and expose yourself to a transition after a low percentage action. The moral of the story is don’t fall behind.

  9. Tim

    Great post again. I plan to watch The Queens Gambit when I get a chance.

    With regard to crossing I agree completely. It’s not going to work and its a matter of desperation when nothing else is working and if Arteta really believes that flinging in crosses thru the air is the best way forward then we are in big trouble.

    This is not a squad which can be successful playing anything resembling Wengerball or Pepball. We just don’t have the talent. In Arteta’s time with the club we played some really good games and we have beaten Man City, Liverpool Chelsea and ManU and in those 4 games we had around 30% of the ball possession. We won by playing solid defense and then a goal or 2 on the counterattack. That type of tactical setup is probably the best way for this squad to get results.

  10. Crosses and corners are not exactly hit and hope, but they are very low percentage. Even if you have a team of Drogbas, Adebayors, and Andy Carrolls (I dont care what anyone says… he was a superb header of the football). With Arsenal’s forwards, theyre last chance saloon stuff… you’ve run out of ideas.

    That said, you dont have to be tall to be a good header. I remember Tierney providing deliciously for Martinelli last season.

    Like Arsene or hate him, but he would never have us playing such turgid football. Even Emery, by employing Iwobi and Kolasinac a lot in combination, understood the virtue of employing other tactics. In fact if kola was more composed, he’d have hatful of goals and assists. If Iwobi had been of slightly better quality, he would too.

    We need a dribbler… someone like Jack in his prime (not the Jack who held on to it too long and got kicked). We need a lockpicker, someone like Ozil in his prime. And we need a midfield runner, someone like Ramsey in his prime. The properly offensively functioning Arsenal teams have always had goal threat from wide, which Pepe and Willian should be capable of, and which Saka will have to improve in. We are very predictable inn our skillsets, and how the coach deploys them. No wonder we’ve cross so much of late.

    1. The key phrase you’re using is “in his prime”.
      I don’t see a lot of our players who perform like they belong in that category.

  11. Speaking of headed goals, anyone see Lukaku mess up Alexis’ effort for Inter today? 😄

    1. I am a huge fan of Lukaku but he must have some kind of record for blocking his teammates shots.

      1. Well, it could be worse, you could be Timo Werner clearing Giroud’s goal bound ball off the line.

  12. But what is the meaning of life is what I want to ask. Is it, as Monty Python suggested many years ago, 42?

    Hey Tim, great reading your thoughts on The Queen’s Gambit, and also I just always appreciate your vulnerability when you talk about your persona life. But generally — and I know I don’t say this often enough — you’re just a terrific writer. I wish I could write like you so that I could publish more than dry academic papers that no-one will ever read! Keep up the great work, even when you’re cranky!

    1. It is 42, but the question is “what do you get when you multiply 6 by 9?” Because as we know, there is something deeply wrong with the universe

  13. Oh yeah! That’s right!

    The Wikipedia entry for Monty Python’s film has the last line as follows: “Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

    Nice sentiments, but what are the warrants?

  14. Dammit people we need some accuracy on here if we are supposed to maintain our global reputation as the pinnacle of Arsenal-related chit chat.

    1. Arteta specifically said that crosses don’t have to be lofted balls, they can be along the ground or they can be cut-backs, so everything must be OK, only kidding it’s all still terrible

    2. I haven’t read or seen the Queen’s Gambit (is it a book as well?) so now I just feel inadequate and we all need to talk about something I already know about, just kidding, I will watch it and thanks for the review

    3. Giroud’s effort was heading wide of the post before Werner enthusiastically defended it

    4. Hitch-Hiker’s Guide is Douglas Adams, not Monty Python, although he was friends with them, but that’s not surprising for a country whose sole reason for existing sometimes seems to be the perpetuation of institutional class and race-based discrimination where only white male Oxford and Cambridge graduates with identical world views are allowed to do TV and radio, and an even smaller group of those white male Oxbridge graduates allowed to do comedy, with the result that even when those guys are very talented, smart, funny and well-meaning, and even when they are doing surreal stuff, and even when their material is wonderful and even when they are doing anti-establishment stuff they still find it impossible not to be a bit paternalistic in that horrible comfortable, superior British establishment way so yeah it’s easy to get them mixed up

    5. I am willing to give Arteta a break on a few things.

    This crosses thing has been blown out of proportion because it’s something he has said in press conferences when he’s grumpy and hasn’t bothered to properly explain himself because he doesn’t see why he should.

    I am not ready to dismiss his coaching ability, several Arsenal players have talked about how good his sessions are, unprompted, and I’m willing to believe them. He did make Arsenal more compact and he did transform the atmosphere in the club, raising standards.

    I am also willing to give him a break on the fact that what he is trying to do is harder than what other coaches are trying to do – turn around a failing club full of expensive players, without resources from the ownership. We shouldn’t underestimate the size of this task, and yes, doing it without fans in the middle of a pandemic makes it that much harder – mostly because of the squeeze on the market, making it that much harder to move on players who it was already hard to move on.

    I think we’ll move up the table pretty quickly as soon as we start scoring, it will make everything easier including the defence. I expected us to have sorted out the scoring before now, and the fact that we haven’t yet is a concern. But right now, I think it will come. 9 games to the end of the year, let’s see where things are in Jan.

    Overall I don’t expect Arteta do be able to do anything substantial with this team until resources are freed up at the end of this season, we recruit according to our playing style, and we get a proper pre-season. He needs different players. When is Xhaka’s contract up? We get through this season and try to rescue our dignity, pride, belief, and entertain the fans. I don’t really care where we finish but for everyone’s sake I hope it’s top half at least.

    None of this means that I don’t have reservations about him, and Allegri might be the smart move for the club.

  15. Regarding Point 4.
    I’ve got an Oxbridge Advent Calendar. All the doors open by themselves.

    1. I love this joke thank you, it genuinely makes me happy.

      In case anyone thinks I have a chip on my shoulder, well my Dad and my sister both went to private school and to Oxbridge, but I didn’t, so yes I probably do.

  16. So, for Arteta to succeed he needs a whole team of new players. Out with all the old and in with the new.

    Most new players take a season or 2 to bed in, so whilst we are buying up all those arteta-compliant players, and of course it will be hit or miss, as some may not fit into his rigid regime, do we ask the Epl to suspend games, or do we wait until we are on the Championship before we get it arteta-right?

    How many new managers come to a team and expect to replace the entire team in order to fit into his vision?

    This is becoming simply ridiculous.

    Did arteta have dossiers on the players as well?

  17. Unrelated topic. Saw on the BBC that Trump is rushing through a series of federal executions before handover. As an outsider looking in you’d be forgiven for thinking the US has increasingly become either a police state or a tinpot dictatorship.

    Tim you teased us some time back that you’d share some thoughts on the election. Would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on what the future might hold.

  18. JJGSOL, no. Arteta cant have a whole new team of players. That’s simply not practical. He has to work with what he has, and change it incrementally, given that he wont have even a fraction of the transfer budget that he had at City.

    To me this whole notion that Arteta has a duff squad and that is why we are the way we are makes little sense as a logical argument. That group of players at Arteta’s disposal — flawed as some of them are — is not the 15th best in the Premier League. We have much better and stronger squads than West Ham, Wolves or Southampton. I’d argue that, overall, we have a better squad than Top 4 Leicester. In our professional lives, we should be held accountable. This kind of argument does not hold Mikel accountable. A HUGE part of coaching is (a) improving players (b) outwitting coaches with better squads, and having them punch above their weight. Arteta’s squad, expensively assembled and highly paid, is punching well below its collective weight, playing dross, and he is responsible for that state of affairs. The job that Arteta is currently doing is bad enough to get him fired before New Year’s Day. Raineri, a title winning manager, was fired for less.

    Do I want him fired is a different question. I dont, for the same reasons that Greg counsels patience (super comment, Greg). But I dont sit on the Arsenal board, or have equity in the club, so what I or Greg want doesnt really carry weight. He has to turn things around, fast, with the players he has. He has a little wriggle room in January. But if his December is anything like his November in the league, the board could decide that it is not his room to wriggle in.

    I can and do simultaneously hold the positions that Arteta has been disappointing, that he’s been refreshing, and, taking the long view, I want him to stay. No contradictions, and no absolutes.

    1. I can and do simultaneously hold the positions that Arteta has been disappointing, that he’s been refreshing, and, taking the long view, I want him to stay. No contradictions, and no absolutes…. ha, yes, perfect.

    2. It would be a defiance of the Law of Gravity if Arsenal under Arteta’s management were to now become a success. The Law of Gravity says: If you catapult something up into the air and it doesn’t fly, then it’s not going to start flying if you give it more time. It’s not going to start flying if you go up and give it a mid-air refueling before it hits the ground. If it doesn’t fly then flying is what it doesn’t do, fullstop. Which part of the word “doesn’t fly” do you not understand?

      ClaudeIvan is more deeply knowledgeable about soccer than I am. I am confused and perturbed to hear him saying he wants Arteta to stay longterm while he has repeatedly pointed out that Arteta has failed to fly. I can only hear him as contradicting himself about it.

  19. And to Greg’s point about Arteta needing different players….

    He DID GET different players. Willian to do the job of The Exile, for example. How is that going? He got young Saliba (finally, and our second most expensive defender ever), but decided that Rob Holding, Musti and Calum Chambers better. How did that go against Spurs?

    He sent Guendouzi to Coventry (not literally) and ELECTED to keep Xhaka, the player you referenced. He bought Partey, and sent Torreira on loan (something Im fine with), and it cost the club a lot in fees and wages.

    He added Cedric, permanently. He okayed the return of Ceballos. He and/or Edu added Pablo Mari permanently to an already bloated defense roster, and had to cut Sokratis and keep him on the wage bill. He signed Gabriel. Just as AMN made a breakthrough with England, he cant get a game with Arsenal.

    He’s not gotten everything he wants (who does?), but it’s not as if he’s gotten nothing. What he’s got is fairly significant. If Xhaka is not what he wants, why does he start him so much?

    Mikels got to do better, now, with what he has. With his incomings and his outgoings, he did ok. He has made decisions on who he doesnt want, and who he does. He has made his bed, even if he didnt get all of the fine linens he wanted. He has to lie on it.

    1. If we wish to improve the team pursuing Aouar or Szoboszlai we need to look better than the 15th best side in England #viciouscircle

      1. Even when Arsene was in decline, he’d already built up a long rep that was respected by players. So they would join an Arsenal in 5th or 6th (happy days!) and unable to offer them top level European, because of Arsene alone.

        Arteta saying “I used to play bass guitar to Pep’s lead vocals” doesnt quite cut it 🙂

  20. I agree with Claude that sitting in 15th place is underperforming and I don’t think we are going to be this low in the table by the start of 2021. Unfortunately I don’t believe there can be any consistent improvement of our goal scoring output unless Auba regains his form. I think we can move into the top 1/2 of the table fairly quickly if Auba rediscovers his shooting boots but we are going to struggle to climb above 10-12th place if he doesn’t.

  21. I’ve enjoyed our Europa League games, generally, but one thing I haven’t enjoyed is watching Pepe labor against this kind of quality of opposition. Disheartening.

    1. Yeah, it wasn’t good. He seems to be trying very hard, but just isn’t that effective. He’s not terrible. Just not as good as what we paid for him.

    2. It was frustrating watching a guy we paid 70m for get shut down by a man whose main job is churning butter.

  22. In truth, watching today’s match, Soares didn’t look too bad. Certainly no worse than Bellerin has in multiple matches. Jury’s still out on Mari. Chambers looked fairly good, and I don’t think can be blamed for the defender mess as he was injured.
    Elneny looked good. I’d much rather see him in the first team than Xhaka. And certainly much more than Guend, who I was never all that impressed with, even aside from his attitude issues.

  23. I don’t think you can draw any accurate conclusions from a group stage Europa league. However, when one of our players struggles against poor competition it does raise concern. It was a basically meaningless games for both teams and perhaps Pepe treated it that way.

  24. Regarding Auba’s recent run of bad form I think we have to at consider the possibility that signing a big new contract may have negatively affected him at the start of this season. Another possibility is his skills are beginning to fade. I am not suggesting that either of these have happened to Auba but we have certainly seen another superstar player in the latter part of his career who saw a dramatic decline in his productivity that corresponded almost exactly to the time he signed a big new contract.

    1. Pretty darned hard to establish correlation between Auba’s getting a big pay raise (a motivator, one would’ve thought), and a plunge in performance. Pure guesswork.

    1. i love you, 1nil. to this forum, you’re like chef on south park. any problem the kids had, he could present an inspirational song…mostly about making sweet love down by the fire but inspired nonetheless.

  25. It’s a shame. Pepe looked a different player – focused, direct and verging on unplayable – in the last two Europa games. He’s clearly struggling with motivation or belief or something, and Arteta hasn’t found the key to unlock him.

  26. mikel arteta has plenty of talent available…far too much to be so low in the table. i hold the manager responsible for the performances/results we’ve witnessed as it’s his responsibility to maximize this talent-rich squad. like claude has alluded to, there are plenty of teams who have far less talent that are higher up the table than arsenal.

    back to the initial thread, tim hit the nail on the head. he said it as a joke but it’s true. the guys that lead the line have to be able to win and keep the ball, full stop. it’s the most important quality of a center forward, even more than goals. center forwards tend to score a lot because they’re often the closest to the goal but it’s about facilitating the team’s attack. the first principle of attack is penetration; for those that don’t know, penetration is basically getting the ball as close as possible to the other team’s goal.

    tim mentioned how calvert-lewin and antonio have a better ability to keep the ball than our guys. it’s because they’re actual center forwards. however, aubameyang is not, which is why arsenal struggles with penetration. it’s the same as when theo and alexis played through the middle and that didn’t work. as a result, everton and west ham get better central penetration where arsenal has to rely on the wide areas. likewise, they get more goal-scoring chances. everton and west ham also have more goals than arsenal this season. this is not a coincidence, folks. i’m not implying that antonio is a better player than auba, just a better center forward.

    arsenal’s goals aren’t going to magically improve by simply playing aubameyang centrally. it’s not what he’s good at. even arshavin is a better center forward than aubameyang. if you play auba centrally he’s being double-teamed by two 6’3″ central defenders with his back to goal. we want auba using his speed and running at defenders.

    1. as you know thereare a lot of ways to get penetration. at Borussia Dortmund, Auba played centrally but there were a lot of other players who penetrated for him: Reuss and Mkhitaryan were pretty incredible in their time there. He did also play with a CF (Immobile) though they didn’t use the two together very often.

      What we need to do is play to Auba’s strength. His strength is his movement. He will destroy center backs with his off ball movement but he needs a set-up guy, someone to deliver that incredible final ball. It’s not a coincidence that he’s not scoring goals. He’s only been given two chances over 10% conversion rate: one by Bellerin (0.11 xG) and one by Saka (0.12 xG) this season. Last season he had 38, about 1 per game.

      This is such a huge shame.

  27. i don’t think aubameyang is struggling for form. he’s simply not getting enough decent chances to score. i think that comes down to the strategic approach.

    1. When you’re constantly playing from behind it forces your strikers to operate in a very restricted space. We need to score the first goal and that will open things up for him. Easier said than done.

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