Mikel Arteta | Lego Pep watch

H does look 'weird' in that video, but then I watched the press conference from the other day and he looks no different from usual from what I can see?

 
GoonerBear said:
H does look 'weird' in that video, but then I watched the press conference from the other day and he looks no different from usual from what I can see?

[=youtube]_Y00SWVrtSg[/MEDIA]
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There's something weird about that video, it bounces between him looking weird (like a deep fake) and looking normal on close ups. In his recent pre game interviews he's looked normal so don't think he's had anything done as people are suggesting.
 
VARsenal said:
There's something weird about that video, it bounces between him looking weird (like a deep fake) and looking normal on close ups. In his recent pre game interviews he's looked normal so don't think he's had anything done as people are suggesting.
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I saw the press conference a few days day where he sat next Odegaard. Arteta looked pretty normal then. I have no idea what is up with this face in the video above.
 
Merino deal almost done now. Satisfied at this! Just wished we had a proper striker too but can't complain
 
ArtetasHair said:
Merino deal almost done now. Satisfied at this! Just wished we had a proper striker too but can't complain
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Seems to be the missing component for me as well. Hope that Havertz starts this season with the way he finished the last one.
 
ArtetasHair said:
Merino deal almost done now. Satisfied at this! Just wished we had a proper striker too but can't complain
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A 'proper striker'. What does that even mean? Havertz is false 9 and id we swapped him for Ivan Toney I would absolutely think we have gone down.

Arteta's forward needs to press, needs to bring others into play, needs to vibe with the rest of the team. What is it with fans obsessesion with a number 9 scoring the goals. We scored 91 goals in the league last year which is out highest ever PL tally. If Tomiyasu scores, its one goal, if the number 9 scores, its one goal.

I cannot comprehend the Arsenal fans who are possessed by the idea the striker needs to score the goals. 10 goals per 10 players is 100 goals in the league.

There are Arsenal fans who would say 'I told you so' we we signed a striker who scored 30 goals in the league and we scored 80 goals - 11 less than last year!!!!

False 9. Its a choice Arteta has made, and we have had our two best goal scoring years in the past two seasons!!!!!

Oh no, but it doesnt count, because we didnt have a striker who scored 20 in the league, Arteta, please, sign Ivans Toney's so we can appease the melts with their outdates views. hehee hehehe
 
I cannot believe we have gone from:

Luiz, Sokratis, Mustafi, Mari, Holding, Chambers, Bellerin*, AMN, Monreal*, Kolasinac

To:

Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, White, Calafiori, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Zinchenko, KT

Edu and Arteta deserve a LOT of credit for completely overhauling our defence.

* don't deserve any hate. Luiz probably doesn't either
 
Further to the above, it seems Arteta is really targeting tall and relatively physically imposing players.

We will be very strong in the air defensively and we should still be dangerous from set pieces again, with all of Saliba, Havertz, Gabriel, Rice, Calafiori, Merino (if signed) being really good in the air. White, Tomiyasu and Partey who are also handy in the air too.
 
ArtetaInInIn said:
A 'proper striker'. What does that even mean? Havertz is false 9 and id we swapped him for Ivan Toney I would absolutely think we have gone down.

Arteta's forward needs to press, needs to bring others into play, needs to vibe with the rest of the team. What is it with fans obsessesion with a number 9 scoring the goals. We scored 91 goals in the league last year which is out highest ever PL tally. If Tomiyasu scores, its one goal, if the number 9 scores, its one goal.

I cannot comprehend the Arsenal fans who are possessed by the idea the striker needs to score the goals. 10 goals per 10 players is 100 goals in the league.

There are Arsenal fans who would say 'I told you so' we we signed a striker who scored 30 goals in the league and we scored 80 goals - 11 less than last year!!!!

False 9. Its a choice Arteta has made, and we have had our two best goal scoring years in the past two seasons!!!!!

Oh no, but it doesnt count, because we didnt have a striker who scored 20 in the league, Arteta, please, sign Ivans Toney's so we can appease the melts with their outdates views. hehee hehehe
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To answer your baffling long rant

You need a striker because there were a lot of games where we were missing dollies due to Jesus being useless infront of goal and Nketiah being well useless. We have no option from the bench if Havertz isn't working. There's noone who can come and give us a plan B. Those idiotic points we lost eg Fulham at home where we missed chances may not have happened and again a striker would just give us something different



Im a match going fan for decades nott sure who you're calling a melt or why your post is so aggressive towards me unless I've offended your family in some way?

Have a day off
 
ArtetaInInIn said:
A 'proper striker'. What does that even mean? Havertz is false 9 and id we swapped him for Ivan Toney I would absolutely think we have gone down.

Arteta's forward needs to press, needs to bring others into play, needs to vibe with the rest of the team. What is it with fans obsessesion with a number 9 scoring the goals. We scored 91 goals in the league last year which is out highest ever PL tally. If Tomiyasu scores, its one goal, if the number 9 scores, its one goal.

I cannot comprehend the Arsenal fans who are possessed by the idea the striker needs to score the goals. 10 goals per 10 players is 100 goals in the league.

There are Arsenal fans who would say 'I told you so' we we signed a striker who scored 30 goals in the league and we scored 80 goals - 11 less than last year!!!!

False 9. Its a choice Arteta has made, and we have had our two best goal scoring years in the past two seasons!!!!!

Oh no, but it doesnt count, because we didnt have a striker who scored 20 in the league, Arteta, please, sign Ivans Toney's so we can appease the melts with their outdates views. hehee hehehe
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What a strange post. You’re trying to win the league and you don’t have a great striker. In fact you don’t even have a very good one. It’s fine if you feel you can win it without one but that’s one of your team’s weaknesses.
 
cesc's_mullet said:
I cannot believe we have gone from:

Luiz, Sokratis, Mustafi, Mari, Holding, Chambers, Bellerin*, AMN, Monreal*, Kolasinac

To:

Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, White, Calafiori, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Zinchenko, KT

Edu and Arteta deserve a LOT of credit for completely overhauling our defence.

* don't deserve any hate. Luiz probably doesn't either
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While it seems on paper as a step forward towards trophies it isn’t. Arteta need to be strong and fix your central midfield. Not making it worse. At same time, if your attackers don’t work in both ways, it is game over. We have seen that to many times.
 
I think he needs a striker ASAP, maybe the problem is they spunked this year's budget, last year on Rice.
 
Litch said:
I think he needs a striker ASAP, maybe the problem is they spunked this year's budget, last year on Rice.
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We have spent ESR money on Merino so you're right we need sales before another striker. Problem is I am not sure there's any 'good' one who is on the cheap. Even players like Toney their clubs are asking an insane amount.

The positive thing is despite all this we weren't far behind City, a point only.
 
ArtetaInInIn said:
Arteta's forward needs to press, needs to bring others into play, needs to vibe with the rest of the team. What is it with fans obsessesion with a number 9 scoring the goals. We scored 91 goals in the league last year which is out highest ever PL tally. If Tomiyasu scores, its one goal, if the number 9 scores, its one goal.

I cannot comprehend the Arsenal fans who are possessed by the idea the striker needs to score the goals. 10 goals per 10 players is 100 goals in the league.

There are Arsenal fans who would say 'I told you so' we we signed a striker who scored 30 goals in the league and we scored 80 goals - 11 less than last year!!!!

False 9. Its a choice Arteta has made, and we have had our two best goal scoring years in the past two seasons!!!!!
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It's not that a striker needs to be the main goalscorer. It's that you need reliable goalscorers, and the easiest position for one is as striker.

In theory you can get 100 goals with 10 players scoring 10 goals each, but in practice, how many teams score their goals this way? I would wager not many. Arsenal had 91 league goals last year, of which 45% were scored by 3 players: Saka, Havertz, and Trossard. The previous season, 3 players scored 50% of all league goals.
 
ArtetaInInIn said:
A 'proper striker'. What does that even mean? Havertz is false 9 and id we swapped him for Ivan Toney I would absolutely think we have gone down.

Arteta's forward needs to press, needs to bring others into play, needs to vibe with the rest of the team. What is it with fans obsessesion with a number 9 scoring the goals. We scored 91 goals in the league last year which is out highest ever PL tally. If Tomiyasu scores, its one goal, if the number 9 scores, its one goal.

I cannot comprehend the Arsenal fans who are possessed by the idea the striker needs to score the goals. 10 goals per 10 players is 100 goals in the league.

There are Arsenal fans who would say 'I told you so' we we signed a striker who scored 30 goals in the league and we scored 80 goals - 11 less than last year!!!!

False 9. Its a choice Arteta has made, and we have had our two best goal scoring years in the past two seasons!!!!!

Oh no, but it doesnt count, because we didnt have a striker who scored 20 in the league, Arteta, please, sign Ivans Toney's so we can appease the melts with their outdates views. hehee hehehe
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Have a good point, Arsenal do look better in possession with the false 9 and it's hard to measure it against having a pure striker when the team has run within inches of winning the league.

The classic cliche of needing an out-out striker is lost nowadays with the spaces so compressed, it's almost unanimously more beneficial to have an attacker who can drop into the midfield (overloads) and create in the spaces in-between the lines or playing on the half turn.

What offsets the need is to have goals from wide areas. Hence City before Haaland, Liverpool in Klopp's golden era and this current Arsenal team, no definitive prolific striker.

The game is moving beyond these norms.
 
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90 + 5min said:
While it seems on paper as a step forward towards trophies it isn’t. Arteta need to be strong and fix your central midfield. Not making it worse. At same time, if your attackers don’t work in both ways, it is game over. We have seen that to many times.
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So Calafiori and Merino, who is a midfielder, aren't going to improve the side?

Havertz, Jesus, Odegaard and Saka work damn hard defensively. What a weird post.
 
cesc's_mullet said:
So Calafiori and Merino, who is a midfielder, aren't going to improve the side?

Havertz, Jesus, Odegaard and Saka work damn hard defensively. What a weird post.
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I haven’t said they don’t work. Read again. They are very good at it. When it doesn’t work midfield is poor and can’t handle other teams.

Jorginho need a good partner. Partey can do the job but is often injuried. I’m not a big fan of Merino. Average player. So it is no improvement.
 
I still don't understand why he's not going for a striker yet. Not even rumors.
 
Hoof the ball said:
4-0. Smacking Alonso around today.
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Friendlies, played with half the intensity. I didn't even know it was on today, lot of people get too invested in them. They're good for fitness levels, checking little niggles and so on. Need a massive start in the league
 
Crimson Hunter said:
I still don't understand why he's not going for a striker yet. Not even rumors.
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Honestly, I think they might be waiting to see who goes out the door. Squad is pretty stacked still, think the likes of Nketiah, Nelson, Kiwior and Ramsdale could still leave.
 
cesc's_mullet said:
I cannot believe we have gone from:

Luiz, Sokratis, Mustafi, Mari, Holding, Chambers, Bellerin*, AMN, Monreal*, Kolasinac

To:

Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, White, Calafiori, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Zinchenko, KT

Edu and Arteta deserve a LOT of credit for completely overhauling our defence.

* don't deserve any hate. Luiz probably doesn't either
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I actually view Monreal's stay as mostly positive. Not a world class signing by any means but he was generally ok. Gosh that was a lot of dross. Seeing the vitriol continues to be chucked at Edu is baffling. You can't get them all right but he has done well overall.
 
We definitely are a striker short. Dont know why there is much debate about it. Getting one would put us in a great position to win the league in my opinion...and also to go further in the cups. There are just games where the play is crying for a guy that can make that bit of space and smash one in....and also needs to be a threat on the counter too. We are looking rather limited when we are forced back into our own half.

Havertz has done well....i hope he can keep his end of season form going. Otherwise we will likely come up short again.

I dont think we have FFP space to pull this off though. We don't all have hotels to sell or 115 charges to absorb.
 
Crimson Hunter said:
I still don't understand why he's not going for a striker yet. Not even rumors.
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I guess he’s kind of happy with Havertz? But the club obviously went aggressively for Benjamin Sesko and then had no interest in a forward after.

I’m confused with the transfer strategy this summer but we’ll see
 
Changeisgood said:
I actually view Monreal's stay as mostly positive. Not a world class signing by any means but he was generally ok. Gosh that was a lot of dross. Seeing the vitriol continues to be chucked at Edu is baffling. You can't get them all right but he has done well overall.
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Monreal was a very good LB, and in his later years a good LCB (back three). Monreal, Bellerin (ACL really hindered him) and to a lesser extent Luiz don't deserve the hate. But the rest were simply poor. Koscielny was excellent too, so I'm not including him on that list.

We have come such a long way. Arsenal hasn't been known for having a rock solid defence since the invincible era. Now we've got several great options, and most of which are very versatile (Tomiyasu, Timber, Calafiori, White).
 
Crimson Hunter said:
I looked it up. He says Chelsea withdrew, and it could go to Arsenal. Or so says google translation.
It doesn't seems like anything substantial. Just cheap name throwing to generate clicks.

https://gianlucadimarzio.com/it/osimhen-chelsea-punto-calciomercato-news-5-agosto-2024
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Yes that could be.

It could also be something as that’s how the Calafiori noises started as well. Arsenal would need some sort of extra threat in behind if Nketiah leaves, to give that extra out ball in addition to Martinelli.That ability to transition on teams is still something we need in abundance.

The question comes back to how it works alongside Havertz I’d guess.
 
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The evolution from Lego Pep to Lego Brendan Rodgers is almost complete
 
Sensationslism aside. I see nothing wrong this incident. He's trying to motivate his players, and most likely the two sides are comfortable enough with each other to allow such pranks.
 
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