I think we all agree with Arteta that we want to see fighters on the pitch and to be honest, while this may have been an issue in the last few years, I feel like we do have some players with fighting spirit and a positive mindset to fight for our club and victories. Name your perceived fighters and perceived victims.
Who would make it in the New Zealand Rugby Squad?
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
I love watching the Haka, it is one of modern day sports great spectacles.
Saka,manglahaes,teirney,martinelli, absolute fighters
Tierney – potential captain material.
I read a piece on one of your acolyte’s blogs quoting Guillene Balague that Arteta has the full backing of the players. I find that utterly ridiculous considering how some of them have been performing.
I’ve bumped into Balague a few times. A nice guy, but not one to ask any awkward questions. I think he did a similar piece with Emery not long before he got the boot.
Tieney, Saka, Gabriel, Holding, Niles, Mustafi, Elneny, Partey Ceballos and Leno are fighters the rest forget
Tier 1: AMN, Holding, Gabs, Tierney, Saka, El Neny, Partey, Nketiah
Tier 2: Leno, Mustafi, Luiz, Xhaka, Willock, Laca
M baffled by Arteta’s interview today where he said we have been unfortunate because the stats say so…It is not good enough Mikel – not enough movement, not enough goals and not enough decisive actions in any of the boxes.
That new Zealand side looks rough
The Haka is such an inspiring dance/tradition.
We have some warriors for sure but I wonder who Arteta labelled as victims? Auba, Willian, Pepe, Bellerin?
Thanks RC
I’ve missed the last few days on here and missed commenting on recent posts. I would say that we’ve been a tad unlucky in the last 2 games and the last 2 performances have been better but are still a long way from what the current squad could deliver.
Everyone is searching for a reason why things are wrong at the moment. For some it feels more to do with the players and others the way we are lining up. The truth is it’s probably a bit of a few factors from the board to the recruitment team, to the players, to the managers recent go to system and formation.
This post is more player focused. Arteta will need some ins and outs to improve the quality in certain areas and to get a changing room he can trust to knuckle down and fight. No sulkers.
Maybe there are a couple of players not giving 100% but I am not sure it’s open mutiny and more likely lacking belief in themselves and the recent formations and tactics. We can go on about how much they are paid e.t.c but that is just the nature of the beast with many modern players.
Arteta needs to slowly add more fighters and quality to the squad but still has a responsibility to get the most out of what is currently at his disposal. I dont think his formations have been getting anywhere near the best from the squad and I haven’t recently seen a line up I like that much.
We are lacking goals and a goal threat as well as creativity but a 3-4-3 system doesn’t play the extra creative CM anyway so thinking the answer to that lies in a transfer before we have tried out what we already have has never sat well with me. We have 3-4 options of someone to play “in the hole” that we could try.
Similarly playing inverted wing forwards either side of the 9 increases goal threat of those players cutting in on their more dangerous shooting foot and creates better overlapping options with the FB or wing back.
Yourself and GIE proposed decent line ups RC in the comments from your last post. My preference has always been the 4-3-3 with inverted wing forwards because this gets us the extra CM player “in the hole” as well as maximising the goal threat of the front 3.
This would be my preference when all are fit:
———————– Leno
Bellerin —— Luiz —— Gabriel —— Tierney
————– AMN ————- Partey
————————- Saka
——- Pepe —— Martinelli —— Aubamayeng
If a 3-4-3 system is to be used then none if this doubling up of left footed crosses from the left and ditto on the right with right footers. We can still line up more effectively in an attacking sense with the inverted wide attackers in the front 3.
In fact, closer scrutiny shows that doubling up with lefties on the left and righties on the right is only a recent Arteta trend. The community shield and FA cup final both had inverted wide attackers either side if the number 9.
I think one was (from left to right) Saka, Lacazette, Aubamayeng and the other was Pepe, Nketieh, Aubamayeng, so Arteta was utilising the inverted wide attackers in games we have looked decent in and only gone away from this recently, to poor effect.
I would suggest something even more revolutionary in using inverted wing backs as well as inverted wing forwards. Is that a bit too much?
Well not really because Arteta has already semi done this in both of the games mentioned above by playing AMN as a right footed left wing back where he was putting in MOTM performances no less. And, all this behind a front 3 with inverted wide attackers.
Why not go that 1 stage further in the 3-4-3 system and double up with the inverted wide players in the front 3 and the wing backs. I think I still slightly prefer the 4-3-3 but could get really get behind this team as well:
——————— Leno
——– Luiz ——Gabriel —— Tierney
Saka ——– Partey ——– Elneny ——– AMN
—— Pepe —– Martinelli —- Aubamayeng
Great work RC – for this and all your posts.
I think you don’t get to be a top professional footballer without being a fighter.
To make it even in the lower pro leagues you will have to have overcome hundreds of other hopefuls.
Maybe some have a talent so great that they don’t need to be true fighters, but I don’t really believe that. Any of us who have played a lot of footy will know of people who had real footballing gifts but not the mentality to succeed. If you succeed, it means your were strong in character as well as skilled with your feet.
However, even if we accept that all successful players are ‘fighters’ it would be ludicrous to deny that there is any difference between, say, a Tony Adams and a Bobby Pires.
I happen to think they’re both real fighters, but in different ways. Bobby fights with his talents, even if he’s not a “get stuck un, put yourself about” type of player he still hates to lose and does everything in his power not to do so. Adams, for all his outstanding talents, may not have Bobby’s sublime touch, but he augments his skills with extraordinary physical and mental courage.
You only ever get a small number of the Adams types in any one team, but they raise the fight level of the others around them.
So, that said, what’s the situation at Arsenal?
For the reasons stated above, I do not believe that Willian, for example, is not a fighter. It’s just that right now he’s not fighting. And that speaks to problems within the squad or within the club more broadly.
We can probably all agree on the handful of players who have been showing some genuine physical and mental courage during these difficult days. Others will need to be pulled up by an improvement in the situation around them.
But until some of the squad dissatisfaction issues are dealt with (by some outbound transfers) it’s going to be hard to solve this one.
New Post