They've gone from a decent free flowing team with a bit of 'know how' and dark arts sprinkled in, to a team that lacks ideas, and uses dark arts as a plan A to try and grab a goal from a dive & set piece and then running the clock down.
If Arteta had gone to Bayern or something in the summer and their new manager was putting this out week after week the fans would be demanding he ****s off immediately. Arteta is getting a free ride here.
It looks like something that set in and will be hard to budget.
Arteta has fallen in love with cbs at full back.
The fact skelly has come in should help them over playing yet more cbs out of position.
They have saliba, Gabriel, white, timber, kiwior and caliafori as senior and expensive cbs they have bought over time
Thry have no rb any more as tomiasyu is injured but isnt good anyway.
With white out now timber is the rb off of a sudden. He is also injured. So they've 3 out and partey there. No kid in the academy
They now have zinchenko who they won't play and kiwior who they will no longer play and timber who is injured so skelly is in and doing well. Oh and let's not forget Tierney who plays 5mins then is out 6 month.
That's simply too many defenders at too high a cost as arteta has seen pep do it and seemingly wants to follow rather than have full backs.
Any rational person wanting to follow this style would see that narrow full backs are really midfielders anyway so you should be converting midfielders to full backs for their passing ability and bit of pace rather than cbs who can't pass or cross as well as others.
In any event the problem rolls on for arsenal.
Jorignho, rice, merino, partey as the cms for the deeper roles. Two of them are almost out the door, one is injured and the other trying to settle
Roll on to attacking cms and you've odengaard and the exciting nwaneri but also havertez and Vieira (both of whom.i never understood why they bought and flogged smith rowe)
Then lw where martinelli is suffering from not having an lb partner and trossard as reserve.
Then rw where saka had no competition so they loaned sterling who is woeful now.
Then striker where jesus is never fit so havertz plays.
Their best team was
Ramsgate
White saliba Gabriel zinchenko
Xhaka partey
Saka odengaard martinelli
Jesus
And they had a great 6 months before blowing up and city caught them.
Last year I felt havertz was the wrong buy to propel them on and this year only reinforces it. He's done well but not well enough as a striker would have.
I compare this to what slot as done with klopps group.
He's got two right fulls.(cos us zero)
He's got two left fulls ( ot brilliant but two)
He's got 4 cbs and no more.
He's got no 6 but has gravenberch and maccallister playing as a double point and two he refuses to use in a real game in morton and endo
He's got 3 10s in Szoboszlai jones and Elliott even if he uses jones more flexibly again not brilliant but good.
He's got 2 lw in his head in gakpo and Diaz and has lifted gakpos gsme.massively
He's got one rw and then chiesa which is an issue
He's got 2 strikers even if one is glass and the other can't hit the target.
The squad is more balanced so players can come in and out. They are more obviously suited to doing so.
Lfc have been fairly lucky with injuries. If we lost salah to injury or macallister has a broken toe. Oh oh
