No Europe next season

[Power n Glory]

Well, Jay have a look around the blogs, opinions from ex players, coaches and people that spend years analysing the game and let me know if you find any that say the tactics weren't a problem.

If you are going to use the views of the masses of 'pundits' then make sure you actually understand what is being said to you.

so overall the tactics were fine - maybe not even right, but fine for the night against the opposition we faced.

This is self-evident by the fact we had the lions share of possession, our goalkeeper had almost nothing to do, we missed good chances and had nearly double the amount of chances Villareal did.

Don't give me popular opinion driven by emotional reactions - give me a valid answer to my challenge that the tactics were fine, even if not right, because but for some missed chances we'd have won the game.

That's an odd thing to say. Projecting perhaps? Is that why you won't look this stuff up for yourself?

You can look up the post game analysis from Ljunberg and Keown if you want. Two men that know more about football than everyone here.

Odd thing to say?

Er, no.
That's a cop out from you because you didn't actually read what I said.

The tactics were plenty good enough for us to win, that's the bottom line. They were not perfect, but then they rarely are under Arteta.

Again, if you can find a decent source that thinks our tactics were good enough on the night, please share it. Thank you.

[jayramfootball]

I don't understand how Jay can ignore the analysis of pretty much everyone!! To a man they have all called out the same issues. If Arteta doesn't f**k up the first leg the second leg becomes a walk in the park. Villareal were no threat, the only threat would come as I predicted FROM OURSELVES!!

How are you gonna shoot yourself in the foot from the get go with a stupid line up?!!! How are you going to handicap yourself in the biggest 2 games of your season?

Then in the second leg when you are chasing the game, the first half was so slow and dire you do NOTHING to put some urgency into the team. Martinelli should have started, put some fire up them from the off, with Auba there too thats 2 lots of big pain for them to worry about.

The tactics were shit the lineup was questionable, the in-game management was abysmal.

Likewise I don't understand how you can call a clear header from a right in front of goal a difficult chance.
Keeper should have had no chance.
There were other chances that we should have scored or at least got the ball on target. The 'analysis' keeps mentioning 2 shots on target. It's not Arteta's job to get shots on target when chances arise. It's not his job to put the ball in the back of the net.
I heard a lot about how 'unlucky' Auba was with his volley, but the truth is he had 2 chances in quick succession - the first he misdirected the volley, it came back to him for a second and he missed the target again. Big players in big games take those chances.
Martinelli, pulled a half chance wide instead of getting it on target.
ESR missed the target when he really should have scored. His reaction tells you he knew it too.
Auba had another chance after some good work by ESR... got the ball in the very position he has scored goals from in the past cutting in for the left and getting his shot away, but this time he didn't connect properly and it was a weak shot that the keeper easily saved. Again, Its not Arteta's job to execute a strike of the ball correctly when a chance arrives.
We could then talk about the 2 headers from Holding. One easier than the other. Not great chances, but decent chances. Both were off target. It's not Arteta's job to get headers on target.

With the number of opportunities we should have scored at least 1 goal.

Then, the tactis which were apparently the reason we lost (er, no) also manged to unlock the flanks for us. Time and again we were in good positions out wide with chances to put in good crosses.

Here is the heat map for Pepe, Martinelli, Saka and Willian


Time and again they failed to utilise those positions and get good crosses into the box.
It's not Arteta's job to pick out crosses and it's not tactics that stop our players from being able to work openings and execute crosses. When they did work openings the crosses were awful.

I could go on. I have looked at the heatmaps, chalk boards, match numbers, player numbers, watched the game twice.

That we did not win is not down tactics - it was down to the players not executing at important moments, especially in the final 3rd - which is NOT the same as saying the tactics were great. As I said several times before the game, we should have put them to the sword from minute 1. 4/5-0 was easily achievable against the quality of opposition we faced.

[Salibatelli]

To be honest we didn’t create a lot, players don’t score every opportunity either, but the point is we weren’t good enough, over two legs Villarreal were better, even in e 2nd leg we really didn’t perform well enough and didn’t really deserve to win.

Arteta is to blame, we’ve had the same thing all season and he’s on charge, if we’d fail to win after laying siege on their goal then fine you could say it wasn’t unlucky for the manager, truth is we struggled to create decent chances, the managers tactics were wrong.

The guy is hopeless and is a big reason for our failure, he did the same last season in the league and EL, we got knocked out because he couldn’t get things right.

Players take some blame, but in the end it’s the manager that picks the teams, tactics, subs, he also implements his style of play.

It’s all been dreadful since the day he arrived, he’s a failure as a manager and no team can perform with a manager who isn’t good at what they do.

[jayramfootball]

To be honest we didn’t create a lot, players don’t score every opportunity either, but the point is we weren’t good enough, over two legs Villarreal were better, even in e 2nd leg we really didn’t perform well enough and didn’t really deserve to win.

Arteta is to blame, we’ve had the same thing all season and he’s on charge, if we’d fail to win after laying siege on their goal then fine you could say it wasn’t unlucky for the manager, truth is we struggled to create decent chances, the managers tactics were wrong.

The guy is hopeless and is a big reason for our failure, he did the same last season in the league and EL, we got knocked out because he couldn’t get things right.

Players take some blame, but in the end it’s the manager that picks the teams, tactics, subs, he also implements his style of play.

It’s all been dreadful since the day he arrived, he’s a failure as a manager and no team can perform with a manager who isn’t good at what they do.

No, It hasn't.

[starmandb]

A wise man once said, top four is like a trophy, but we dismissed him.

He was wrong then
Is still wrong
A trophy is a trophy
4th is a league position

[Salibatelli]

To be honest we didn’t create a lot, players don’t score every opportunity either, but the point is we weren’t good enough, over two legs Villarreal were better, even in e 2nd leg we really didn’t perform well enough and didn’t really deserve to win.

Arteta is to blame, we’ve had the same thing all season and he’s on charge, if we’d fail to win after laying siege on their goal then fine you could say it wasn’t unlucky for the manager, truth is we struggled to create decent chances, the managers tactics were wrong.

The guy is hopeless and is a big reason for our failure, he did the same last season in the league and EL, we got knocked out because he couldn’t get things right.

Players take some blame, but in the end it’s the manager that picks the teams, tactics, subs, he also implements his style of play.

It’s all been dreadful since the day he arrived, he’s a failure as a manager and no team can perform with a manager who isn’t good at what they do.

No, It hasn't.

It has for me, results have largely been poor other than the odd short spell, football is boring, yes there’s been the odd good game but it’s been the anomaly rather than the norm.

Arteta was an assistant manager, he’s not a manager you can see that as he’s done a terrible job of it, that’s why we’re in our worst position for 25 years.

He’s a problem we need to get rid of, he got the job based on some unfounded hype.

I preferred Emery to this guy and Emery wasn’t right and got the sack, he also schooled him with an inferior team over two legs.

Just shows how poor Arteta is really. You can blame the players all you like but the manager choose who he wants to bring in, picks the team, motivates the players, set the tactics, organised training and makes the subs, so he has a big say in what happens on the pitch.

When you struggle to put a run of more than two games together almost all season it points to poor management and some of his decisions (Martinelli, Saliba to name but two) show this.

The cup win last season papered over the cracks

[starmandb]

I don't think it's a bad thing for us to be out of the EL. Let's be honest, it's only good as a means for getting into the CL. Not much else.

I think if anything, not having to play Thursday/Sunday might do us a favour.

No mate
Winning the fairs cup and cup winners cup are highlights in the history of the club
Fit footballers should be able to play every 3 days
And the old Thursday Sunday thing sounds like another excuse that the players will go
Lovely I’ll have some of that
What we want is a set up that want to win everything

[Phil71]

I don't think it's a bad thing for us to be out of the EL. Let's be honest, it's only good as a means for getting into the CL. Not much else.

I think if anything, not having to play Thursday/Sunday might do us a favour.

No mate
Winning the fairs cup and cup winners cup are highlights in the history of the club
Fit footballers should be able to play every 3 days
And the old Thursday Sunday thing sounds like another excuse that the players will go
Lovely I’ll have some of that
What we want is a set up that want to win everything

Sky Sports did some research a few years back that showed a long run in the Europa League negatively affects a club's PL finishing position by around three places.

[starmandb]

I’m not dismissing that this has been true
I just think it’s a mentality thing
Give them an excuse and they will take it
The best should have to be saved from themselves they should want to play and win football matches so much

[jayramfootball]

To be honest we didn’t create a lot, players don’t score every opportunity either, but the point is we weren’t good enough, over two legs Villarreal were better, even in e 2nd leg we really didn’t perform well enough and didn’t really deserve to win.

Arteta is to blame, we’ve had the same thing all season and he’s on charge, if we’d fail to win after laying siege on their goal then fine you could say it wasn’t unlucky for the manager, truth is we struggled to create decent chances, the managers tactics were wrong.

The guy is hopeless and is a big reason for our failure, he did the same last season in the league and EL, we got knocked out because he couldn’t get things right.

Players take some blame, but in the end it’s the manager that picks the teams, tactics, subs, he also implements his style of play.

It’s all been dreadful since the day he arrived, he’s a failure as a manager and no team can perform with a manager who isn’t good at what they do.

No, It hasn't.

It has for me, results have largely been poor other than the odd short spell, football is boring, yes there’s been the odd good game but it’s been the anomaly rather than the norm.

Arteta was an assistant manager, he’s not a manager you can see that as he’s done a terrible job of it, that’s why we’re in our worst position for 25 years.

He’s a problem we need to get rid of, he got the job based on some unfounded hype.

I preferred Emery to this guy and Emery wasn’t right and got the sack, he also schooled him with an inferior team over two legs.

Just shows how poor Arteta is really. You can blame the players all you like but the manager choose who he wants to bring in, picks the team, motivates the players, set the tactics, organised training and makes the subs, so he has a big say in what happens on the pitch.

When you struggle to put a run of more than two games together almost all season it points to poor management and some of his decisions (Martinelli, Saliba to name but two) show this.

The cup win last season papered over the cracks

We won the cup and actually did ok in the second half of last season - we could see some improvements.
We entered this season with quite high hopes and a lot of positivity lest you forget.
It simply has not been 'dreadful' since the day he arrived.

We've had a bad season and not kicked on.
You'd think from some of the reaction the club had ended.
Yes, we need big changes, but personally, I am looking forward now, not back.
I have hope for next season.

[Santi]

I’m not dismissing that this has been true
I just think it’s a mentality thing
Give them an excuse and they will take it
The best should have to be saved from themselves they should want to play and win football matches so much

Well this is exactly our problem with the current squad, they do not have the right mentality and take the easy way out over and over.

[starmandb]

I’m not dismissing that this has been true
I just think it’s a mentality thing
Give them an excuse and they will take it
The best should have to be saved from themselves they should want to play and win football matches so much

Well this is exactly our problem with the current squad, they do not have the right mentality and take the easy way out over and over.

Not just the current squad
Wenger engendered an excuse culture
Poor pitches
Bad refereeing
Tiredness etc
The message should have been go out and win anywhere under any circumstance

[theHotHead]

I don't understand how Jay can ignore the analysis of pretty much everyone!! To a man they have all called out the same issues. If Arteta doesn't f**k up the first leg the second leg becomes a walk in the park. Villareal were no threat, the only threat would come as I predicted FROM OURSELVES!!

How are you gonna shoot yourself in the foot from the get go with a stupid line up?!!! How are you going to handicap yourself in the biggest 2 games of your season?

Then in the second leg when you are chasing the game, the first half was so slow and dire you do NOTHING to put some urgency into the team. Martinelli should have started, put some fire up them from the off, with Auba there too thats 2 lots of big pain for them to worry about.

The tactics were shit the lineup was questionable, the in-game management was abysmal.

Likewise I don't understand how you can call a clear header from a right in front of goal a difficult chance.
Keeper should have had no chance.
There were other chances that we should have scored or at least got the ball on target. The 'analysis' keeps mentioning 2 shots on target. It's not Arteta's job to get shots on target when chances arise. It's not his job to put the ball in the back of the net.
I heard a lot about how 'unlucky' Auba was with his volley, but the truth is he had 2 chances in quick succession - the first he misdirected the volley, it came back to him for a second and he missed the target again. Big players in big games take those chances.
Martinelli, pulled a half chance wide instead of getting it on target.
ESR missed the target when he really should have scored. His reaction tells you he knew it too.
Auba had another chance after some good work by ESR... got the ball in the very position he has scored goals from in the past cutting in for the left and getting his shot away, but this time he didn't connect properly and it was a weak shot that the keeper easily saved. Again, Its not Arteta's job to execute a strike of the ball correctly when a chance arrives.
We could then talk about the 2 headers from Holding. One easier than the other. Not great chances, but decent chances. Both were off target. It's not Arteta's job to get headers on target.

With the number of opportunities we should have scored at least 1 goal.

Then, the tactis which were apparently the reason we lost (er, no) also manged to unlock the flanks for us. Time and again we were in good positions out wide with chances to put in good crosses.

Here is the heat map for Pepe, Martinelli, Saka and Willian


Time and again they failed to utilise those positions and get good crosses into the box.
It's not Arteta's job to pick out crosses and it's not tactics that stop our players from being able to work openings and execute crosses. When they did work openings the crosses were awful.

I could go on. I have looked at the heatmaps, chalk boards, match numbers, player numbers, watched the game twice.

That we did not win is not down tactics - it was down to the players not executing at important moments, especially in the final 3rd - which is NOT the same as saying the tactics were great. As I said several times before the game, we should have put them to the sword from minute 1. 4/5-0 was easily achievable against the quality of opposition we faced.

Jay that heatmap makes my point. Pepe and Saka were jot in positions to cause Villareal danger enough, they were wide and did nothing of note. We don't have a big centre forward battling to win crosses, so what are those 2 gonna do?

Our build up play was so slow, then inevitably the ball went wide to Pepe and Saka, you had Bellerin in support on one side and Tierney on the other. Odegaard was unable to make any key passes, ESR did a lot of running and plenty of one-twos, he was industrious but ineffective. Our entire attack was ineffective, all we had were wayward shots and blocked shots.

[jayramfootball]

I don't understand how Jay can ignore the analysis of pretty much everyone!! To a man they have all called out the same issues. If Arteta doesn't f**k up the first leg the second leg becomes a walk in the park. Villareal were no threat, the only threat would come as I predicted FROM OURSELVES!!

How are you gonna shoot yourself in the foot from the get go with a stupid line up?!!! How are you going to handicap yourself in the biggest 2 games of your season?

Then in the second leg when you are chasing the game, the first half was so slow and dire you do NOTHING to put some urgency into the team. Martinelli should have started, put some fire up them from the off, with Auba there too thats 2 lots of big pain for them to worry about.

The tactics were shit the lineup was questionable, the in-game management was abysmal.

Likewise I don't understand how you can call a clear header from a right in front of goal a difficult chance.
Keeper should have had no chance.
There were other chances that we should have scored or at least got the ball on target. The 'analysis' keeps mentioning 2 shots on target. It's not Arteta's job to get shots on target when chances arise. It's not his job to put the ball in the back of the net.
I heard a lot about how 'unlucky' Auba was with his volley, but the truth is he had 2 chances in quick succession - the first he misdirected the volley, it came back to him for a second and he missed the target again. Big players in big games take those chances.
Martinelli, pulled a half chance wide instead of getting it on target.
ESR missed the target when he really should have scored. His reaction tells you he knew it too.
Auba had another chance after some good work by ESR... got the ball in the very position he has scored goals from in the past cutting in for the left and getting his shot away, but this time he didn't connect properly and it was a weak shot that the keeper easily saved. Again, Its not Arteta's job to execute a strike of the ball correctly when a chance arrives.
We could then talk about the 2 headers from Holding. One easier than the other. Not great chances, but decent chances. Both were off target. It's not Arteta's job to get headers on target.

With the number of opportunities we should have scored at least 1 goal.

Then, the tactis which were apparently the reason we lost (er, no) also manged to unlock the flanks for us. Time and again we were in good positions out wide with chances to put in good crosses.

Here is the heat map for Pepe, Martinelli, Saka and Willian


Time and again they failed to utilise those positions and get good crosses into the box.
It's not Arteta's job to pick out crosses and it's not tactics that stop our players from being able to work openings and execute crosses. When they did work openings the crosses were awful.

I could go on. I have looked at the heatmaps, chalk boards, match numbers, player numbers, watched the game twice.

That we did not win is not down tactics - it was down to the players not executing at important moments, especially in the final 3rd - which is NOT the same as saying the tactics were great. As I said several times before the game, we should have put them to the sword from minute 1. 4/5-0 was easily achievable against the quality of opposition we faced.

Jay that heatmap makes my point. Pepe and Saka were jot in positions to cause Villareal danger enough, they were wide and did nothing of note. We don't have a big centre forward battling to win crosses, so what are those 2 gonna do?

Our build up play was so slow, then inevitably the ball went wide to Pepe and Saka, you had Bellerin in support on one side and Tierney on the other. Odegaard was unable to make any key passes, ESR did a lot of running and plenty of one-twos, he was industrious but ineffective. Our entire attack was ineffective, all we had were wayward shots and blocked shots.

Watch the game again - Odegaard in particular had plenty of chances to get the ball forward. He bottled it.
ESR did actually on more than one occasion get the ball forward through the middle, nice play setting up Auba. He was also in the box to miss a fairly easy chance. His top attacking position in possession was inside the lines of the penalty area just outside the box.

There was a key problem - and it WAS a mistake by Arteta. It wasn't a tactical mistake it was a selection mistake. Auba should have never started at CF. We may as well have had a stuffed dummy upfront because he's little better than that as a CF. Nothing at all could be played off him. Nothing got held up. He never showed for the ball.

Villareal were always going to play it tight, so opening up the flanks and attacking from there was tactically the correct thing to do, but we HAD to have a proper CF and we simply didn't.

There were of course flaws - as I have said - I am merely saying we didn't fail to win because of tactics.
We did enough to win, but it could have been so much more.

[swipe right]

I don't understand how Jay can ignore the analysis of pretty much everyone!! To a man they have all called out the same issues. If Arteta doesn't f**k up the first leg the second leg becomes a walk in the park. Villareal were no threat, the only threat would come as I predicted FROM OURSELVES!!

How are you gonna shoot yourself in the foot from the get go with a stupid line up?!!! How are you going to handicap yourself in the biggest 2 games of your season?

Then in the second leg when you are chasing the game, the first half was so slow and dire you do NOTHING to put some urgency into the team. Martinelli should have started, put some fire up them from the off, with Auba there too thats 2 lots of big pain for them to worry about.

The tactics were shit the lineup was questionable, the in-game management was abysmal.

Likewise I don't understand how you can call a clear header from a right in front of goal a difficult chance.
Keeper should have had no chance.
There were other chances that we should have scored or at least got the ball on target. The 'analysis' keeps mentioning 2 shots on target. It's not Arteta's job to get shots on target when chances arise. It's not his job to put the ball in the back of the net.
I heard a lot about how 'unlucky' Auba was with his volley, but the truth is he had 2 chances in quick succession - the first he misdirected the volley, it came back to him for a second and he missed the target again. Big players in big games take those chances.
Martinelli, pulled a half chance wide instead of getting it on target.
ESR missed the target when he really should have scored. His reaction tells you he knew it too.
Auba had another chance after some good work by ESR... got the ball in the very position he has scored goals from in the past cutting in for the left and getting his shot away, but this time he didn't connect properly and it was a weak shot that the keeper easily saved. Again, Its not Arteta's job to execute a strike of the ball correctly when a chance arrives.
We could then talk about the 2 headers from Holding. One easier than the other. Not great chances, but decent chances. Both were off target. It's not Arteta's job to get headers on target.

With the number of opportunities we should have scored at least 1 goal.

Then, the tactis which were apparently the reason we lost (er, no) also manged to unlock the flanks for us. Time and again we were in good positions out wide with chances to put in good crosses.

Here is the heat map for Pepe, Martinelli, Saka and Willian


Time and again they failed to utilise those positions and get good crosses into the box.
It's not Arteta's job to pick out crosses and it's not tactics that stop our players from being able to work openings and execute crosses. When they did work openings the crosses were awful.

I could go on. I have looked at the heatmaps, chalk boards, match numbers, player numbers, watched the game twice.

That we did not win is not down tactics - it was down to the players not executing at important moments, especially in the final 3rd - which is NOT the same as saying the tactics were great. As I said several times before the game, we should have put them to the sword from minute 1. 4/5-0 was easily achievable against the quality of opposition we faced.

Jay that heatmap makes my point. Pepe and Saka were jot in positions to cause Villareal danger enough, they were wide and did nothing of note. We don't have a big centre forward battling to win crosses, so what are those 2 gonna do?

Our build up play was so slow, then inevitably the ball went wide to Pepe and Saka, you had Bellerin in support on one side and Tierney on the other. Odegaard was unable to make any key passes, ESR did a lot of running and plenty of one-twos, he was industrious but ineffective. Our entire attack was ineffective, all we had were wayward shots and blocked shots.

Watch the game again - Odegaard in particular had plenty of chances to get the ball forward. He bottled it.
ESR did actually on more than one occasion get the ball forward through the middle, nice play setting up Auba. He was also in the box to miss a fairly easy chance. His top attacking position in possession was inside the lines of the penalty area just outside the box.

There was a key problem - and it WAS a mistake by Arteta. It wasn't a tactical mistake it was a selection mistake. Auba should have never started at CF. We may as well have had a stuffed dummy upfront because he's little better than that as a CF. Nothing at all could be played off him. Nothing got held up. He never showed for the ball.

Villareal were always going to play it tight, so opening up the flanks and attacking from there was tactically the correct thing to do, but we HAD to have a proper CF and we simply didn't.

There were of course flaws - as I have said - I am merely saying we didn't fail to win because of tactics.
We did enough to win, but it could have been so much more.

Aubameyang hit the post twice and was the only one to have any shots on goal. You spew some serious bullshit.