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AI

12 Sep, 12 tweets, 2 min read

Tacticos often mistake a coach adapting to the profiles he's got as some baffling tactical choice or philosophy pivot. This happens with analysts, too.

'Pressing is a means of chance creation. Why are Arsenal not pressing more? At least Klopp did it in Liverpool's first year.'

Team rebuilds are different from club to club. Arsenal were notorious for being defensively inept when Arteta came, conceding an unholy amount of shots every game.

You think that is the kind of atmosphere to instill a gung-ho approach? Especially with a coach who wants control?

You have to make choices with respect to your situation. Arsenal needed a steady ship at the back. That is what Arteta instilled immediately—top coach. The profiles of defenders in the squad were not conducive to pressing high anyways: Sokratis and Mustafi.

Arteta has displayed enough flexibility and realism to be praised in that aspects. The likes of Bielsa come in with 'My way or the highway, a 100% immediately' and is slathered with praise for sticking to his convictions.

Outside of football, that is called foolhardiness.

Bielsa's teams always try to be gung-ho, no matter the situation, especially against a far more talented team. There is little room for circumspection or adaptation. His boys are thrown out there in the wilderness, freezing, bearing sticks against wolves like Spartan boy-soldiers

There will be pyrhicc victories and dominant victories but the glory is short-lived. The soldiers are worn out. The constant battle gets into your head. Players start to get weary, start to believe less in the efficacy of his methods, start wondering if there's no better way.

Even Jurgen Klopp, the master of heavy metal football, is one of the most proficient coaches of defensive blocks in the world. Beneath the clanging cymbals and strings lie hardmen and hats, a party of men ready to hunker down and keep you out.

And over time, the hard metal has

softened to a more graceful soft metal orchestra. While Arsene Wenger sides sang beautiful and consonant romantic melodies, Klopp's new orchestra sing military tunes with perfect precision.

Klopp's Liverpool are pressing less and passing more. Bielsa's Leeds are still going

man-to-man like wardens after prisoners. It's a disgrace at this level and there is every possibility that it settles into a disaster or something worse: a stale morass of overworked football.

Bielsa the Revolutionary will not build a sustainable republic. Forever goes the war.

Men want peace. Men want security. Men want brothers and sisters and mothers. Men want stable republics. How long shall the taste of war suffice them, especially a war sliding out of reach and fought by the same veterans of 5 other wars?

The war will be over and Bielsa will move

On to another country, on to new plains, in search of things that need to be turned over, in search of a place bubbling with repressed emotions, waiting for a sign of change, waiting to feel something again. The Revolutionary as the Messiah!

How tf did I turn a 2-tweet thread into whatever I turned it into ffs?

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More from @nonewthing

AI

@nonewthing

15 Sep

People often ask me why I am so willing to defend Arteta like he's the second coming of Christ.

Today, I will answer this.

This is why I believe Mikel Arteta is the best appointment Arsenal have made since we hired Arsene Wenger from Japan over 20 years.

(a massive thread)

Just look at some of the signings we've made at his behest:

—Gabriel
—Partey
—Tomiyasu
—Lokonga
—Odegaard

I have no words to describe how transformative these signings are. No words or I'm going to be writing poetry. This is extremely good talent ID, especially with the state

of the club when Arteta arrived. We LACKED technical ability. We couldn't keep the ball in any phase of the game. Up front, we had Pepe and Aubameyang. At the back we had Sokratis and Holding.

This is why Emery resorted to a 3-4-2-1 knock it down football. It was TERRIBLE.

Read 30 tweets

AI

@nonewthing

14 Sep

Any Arsenal fan who watched the Bayern v Barca game can immediately tell that Arteta is a far superior coach to the likes of Ronald Koeman.

Structurally, our shapes are so much better than the rubbish Barca had tonight. We are so incredibly lucky to have Arteta, you will see.

I was not really impressed with Nagelsmann's structures tonight. His Leipzig were far more interesting. But it's early days, yet.

People don't see how incredible Arteta as a rookie coach is but they will. He's actually amazing if you know what to look for in a top coach.

Whenever I remember that it is Arteta in charge, I actually smile. It's like having a young Tuchel manage your club. His is more difficult due to the league strength and cultural issues at Arsenal but he is so good all the same.

Only a matter of time, lol. Next star manager.

Read 4 tweets

AI

@nonewthing

12 Sep

People who use results without context to judge teams have the worst ball knowledge around.

Was Pirlo bad or was it Juventus that were bad?

Juventus are a little like Arsenal before this transfer window: lacking in the necessary elite technical quality to meet their ambitions.

The way out for Juventus is to admit the state of their squad. This means that the manager get ALL THE excuses in this world until the team is infused with sufficient quality. Just like with Ole, Klopp and Arteta.

The best way to successfully compete is to play with sustained

pressure. Find a coach who can do that and give him the keys. Depending on the characteristics of the coach you may or may not let him dictate signings. Ole and Arteta are exceptional in this regard as both are amazing at identifying talent.

Lock in for the scrappy results and

Read 9 tweets

AI

@nonewthing

11 Sep

Football is amazingly nuanced. In the mishmash of the game and with macro factors above macro factors, recorded events are not necessarily the best version of the truth.

Saying X Player did X number of this does not equal to a useful take. It only shows a basic take on the game.

A lot of our attack against Norwich was ran through Pepe. Anyone who has watched Liverpool or City or even Chelsea know that it is a different game if Mahrez, Salah, Hudson-Odoi see as much of the ball as Pepe did against Norwich.

He created a decent amount but that statistic is

not proportional with the amount of the ball, chances and situations that we had with him. A top forward produces more with so much. Even if you argue that what he created was proportionately sufficient for you (which I strongly disagree with seeing as he was indecisive), you

Read 12 tweets

AI

@nonewthing

11 Sep

Don't get it wrong. Today's start at RW was another massive opportunity that Arteta handed to Pepe to prove himself as part of our future going forward—and he absolutely ruined it.

Another infuriatingly wasteful performance from the most expensive player in our history.

Do not be surprised when he gets dropped for our next games. And do not accept the stunning mediocrity that Pepe, a 72 million euro acquisition, has to offer. Half of his touches result in an offensive transition for our opponents. This is anathema to the way we want to play.

We want to play and win games by sustaining pressure on the opposition, by locking them in their own halves: that is how we ought to play; that is how top teams play and that is how we can get back to the top and Pepe absolutely ruins that for us. Unbearable.

Read 7 tweets

AI

@nonewthing

10 Sep

Timed Outlets, or How Pep Guardiola Wants to Redefine Possession Play.

(a thread/?).

Possession football has had a long and conflicted history. From historical highs under Wenger's Invincibles to the stodgy, despiriting football of Van Gaal's United, coaches and fans alike have praised and panned possession play. One unique exception has been Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola is regarded as one of the finest tactical minds in the history of the game. His keen appreciation and extremely successful coaching of possession play has resonated deeply across all tiers of football.

In recent years, however, a sense of staleness has creeped in.

Read 38 tweets

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