‘Nonsense where nothing should’ve reigned’
An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective
So the game against Liverpool might end up not really mattering for either team If we had lost however it would have been rather different. If the performance had continued in the second half the way we started the game then it could’ve mattered a whole lot.
This is the time of year where perception rules.
We are trying to purchase elite players or potentially elite players. We are trying to give our fans hope. We are trying to keep people from losing their minds with their extreme opinions about the coach. Perception is a very annoying reality, but it is reality nonetheless. If my remembrance is correct, then the world of opinion started to accelerate from television rather than the Internet. My memory was that when they started producing TV shows where people could be voted on or off then opinion got louder. Shows like Britain’s Got Talent or American Idol were hugely popular at the outset, and there were so many of them. I know that in England, the world of Big Brother and Love Island have continued the trend of everybody having to have a strong opinion. Then politics became more than just a hobby for some. We were intentionally divided into groups, whether it be gender, race, or political preference. Most certainly where I live you won’t find anybody who is ‘meh’ about Donald Trump. He is most certainly the marmite man here. We are probably not aware of how judgmental we have become and how we became addicted to black-and-white opinions rather than choosing a shade of grey.
Arteta is either in or out. You will rarely find somebody who is not sure or is willing to give that opinion. I’ve always tried to be aware of this and not be a one word answer guy. I’d rather tell you that I think that he has the potential to be the best coach in the history of the club but at the same time he has a small handful of flaws that might stop him achieving this. He has been a transformative coach. He is a multi-talented coach. I can say that I think he is more well-rounded than any coach I’ve ever seen at Arsenal or currently coaching in Europe.
The British media chose Arsenal as their favourite team to dislike quite a while ago. I think that’s because they get the most engagement and reaction from Arsenal fans as we are likely the most active across all forms of media. They chose the biggest weapon to attack us with so indirectly bring along an army of people who don’t even realize what they are saying. When you have pundits endlessly commenting on Saka diving or Skelly being a rebel, you realize that they’ve pressed the button that doesn’t even exist. Saka is actually the nicest guy in football and Skelly is out there with his 26 professional games just playing the sport and excelling. Mikel Arteta will be aware of the army and I’m sure occasionally it really upsets him. Our job is to breathe and try to be rational.
Here are a handful of the qualities needed to be a top coach;
Motivational skill
Elite coaching ability
Full respect from your players
Full respect from your staff
Full respect from those above you
Ability to choose the right topics to train on
Humility to be able to listen to everybody’s opinion
A good listener
Ability to choose the correct emotion of the occasion
Creativity so as to make work, enjoyable and keep players guessing
Guts
Ability to win major trophies
Love for those you work with
Ability to pick the correct team
Ability to make the right substitutions and at the right time
Ability to manage the physical load of your players
Media skills
The understanding of how to win in a variety of situations
Represent the values of the Football Club
Respect of the changing room
Ability to create a strong culture and maintain it through consistency and accountability
And perhaps most importantly…
Do all of these things under pressure.
When deciding if you want a coach to stay or leave, you have to put yourself in the club’s shoes. The club have to be calm under pressure themselves. They not only have to look at all of these values, but for as much as the coach might frustrate them in not being able to check every single box they have to firstly understand that nobody does and secondly that the guy coming in won’t either. They also have to consider how the players and staff will feel when you make that decision because you’re not the one that feels the weight of the decision and they have to deal with the head coach on a day-to-day basis. None of this should really even be a discussion. I feel like I’m almost wasting time talking about it.
The point I’m trying to make though is that the result against Liverpool and the performance in the second half saved this snowball that shouldn’t even be a snowball from rolling down the hill and gaining momentum. A small sliding doors moment. If I was to take a guess as to the most likely outcome for Mikel Arteta, it would be that he will win both the Premier League and the Champions League before he leaves Arsenal and will be known as the best all-around coach in the club’s history. A coach that could manage and coach both and who checked more boxes than anybody else. The type of person that gets a statue, not just because of what he won, but because he was the best in his field, and it was undisputed.
Just don’t ever expect anybody in the media to say this.
POSITIVES:
Martinelli:
Martinelli is a really interesting subject. When he first broke into the team, I immediately thought that he was out of position and could be a top striker one day. He doesn’t have any noticeable weaknesses of a top centre forward apart from full understanding of the position. So quick, so hungry, a good finisher and good in the air. Muscular enough to be taught how to be better with his back to goal and could well be the world’s best pressing striker.
The argument that Arteta would make is that with rotation, he ends up in those spaces now anyway. This is true. I just wish that he would be freed more often. I found this image from the game and it speaks to this thought. The reason I bring it up is that he makes this run quite a lot and it’s rare that the player with the ball attempts to even find him.
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As we saw, this was how Liverpool dissected our defense at least twice, and although the pass is difficult, it is not that complicated for an elite footballer, and we have quite a few of those, even at the back.
Trossard:
I often debate with myself who we need to keep if one of Martinelli and Trossard has to leave this summer. On one hand, Trossard is significantly older and you’d think that perhaps we’ve seen his best years. Maybe not though? He is more consistent than Martinelli and most certainly in front of goal. He shows up in big games consistently. He offers versatility, also. Martinelli has a higher ceiling but has stagnated so has he reached it already? He is quicker than Trossard, but Leo is a better dribbler and certainly far more unpredictable. Martinelli offers the aerial threat, but honestly, he needs to do it more often as Sunday’s goal was his first headed goal of the season, I believe. Martinelli would certainly collect likely three times the value of Trossard and that might be the determining factor for the club.
Kiwior:
I didn’t notice him really. Again. This is fantastic as he must’ve done everything in a simplistic and successful fashion.
Odegaard:
He is starting to return to better form. Yet to offer consistency throughout the 90 minutes but he is at least impacting the game on a handful of occasions in a very positive way. His shot that assisted the second goal was important as it should give him more confidence to shoot again. It was an almost perfect strike and with far more power than usual.
Interestingly, the issue with with Odegaard and his shooting is technique. You wouldn’t think it of such a technical player. He just doesn’t strike the very middle of the ball too often and therefore doesn’t get the necessary power alongside the accuracy that he needs. I still maintain that Arsenal have not seen the best of him. The very best of him is a level that separates him from other midfielders in Europe. The ability to thread the needle through very small gaps. We don’t see it because we are frankly dreadful at making runs behind the defence. It really doesn’t make any sense because he is one of our only creative players and certainly the main one. You’d think that you would play to the strengths of your main creative player, but we are yet to do so.
The run described above should be a staple Arsenal attacking tactic.
Arteta:
I absolutely loved his post match interview. The players would not expect anything less. They know because they hear it every day. The standards are simply higher than at other clubs. I know I’ve told the story before, but the biggest single difference I’ve made in a team that I’ve coached is by telling them that they weren’t playing at the level that they could, and to show me what they could actually do.
If you raise the expectations, then you’ll be surprised how much more you can squeeze out of the lemon.
The best part of his interview was when the interview was trying to get him to say that the reaction was good and he refused to focus on that. Instead, he said that the reaction was unnecessary because it should never have needed to have happened. A wonderful indirect coaching message to the players, and if anything drives us to silverware, it will be this exact attitude.
Skelly:
Am I right that he has not been dribbled past the entire season? If I’m wrong, I’m only off by one. Twenty six games played in his professional career and pocketed Salah, arguably the worlds best player right now.
I’d say that Skelly is more locked in as a starter for the English national team than almost anybody in the first team right now. Granted this is because of a lack of competition in some regard, but also because he is proving that he can play at the elite level, both defensively and offensively. I do wonder if the rumours of Arsenal signing another left back are because he may move into midfield?
And again:
MLS stats challenges " data-image-caption data-medium-file="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3669.jpeg" data-large-file="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3669.jpeg" class="size-full wp-image-49332 aligncenter lazyload" alt="IMG 3669" width="504" height="640" data-sizes="(max-width: 504px) 100vw, 504px" src="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3669.jpeg" srcset="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3669.jpeg 504w, https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3669-158x200.jpeg 158w">
What a legend!
One more time:
MLS stats duel win rates " data-image-caption data-medium-file="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Image\_1-2.jpeg" data-large-file="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Image\_1-2.jpeg" class="aligncenter wp-image-49334 lazyload" alt="Image 1 (2)" width="374" height="300" data-sizes="(max-width: 374px) 100vw, 374px" src="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Image\_1-2.jpeg" srcset="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Image\_1-2.jpeg 693w, https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Image\_1-2-200x160.jpeg 200w">
First season playing professionally. Beyond stellar. This is not normal.
NEEDS:
Surely next season won’t be like this chart.
Injury Table " data-image-caption data-medium-file="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3666.jpeg" data-large-file="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3666.jpeg" class="size-full wp-image-49333 aligncenter lazyload" alt="IMG 3666" width="394" height="640" data-sizes="(max-width: 394px) 100vw, 394px" src="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3666.jpeg" srcset="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3666.jpeg 394w, https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3666-123x200.jpeg 123w">
We won this competition rather easily.
HOPES:
Gyokeres:
Stay calm, Mike. Stay calm, brother! It hasn’t happened yet and it might not although it looks more likely. Stay calm I say!
If it happens, then we have opened up a brand new world of possibilities at Arsenal. Arsenal‘s greatest need for improvement is found in the opponents penalty area and Viktor Gyokeres alongside Victor Osimhen are the two box monsters in Europe that are available. I wonder if there’s anybody else called Victor out there?
Winger/Striker:
Nobody is really asking the question of what type of left-winger Arsenal want?
The modern game has three options. The traditional winger. The one who is right footed and plays on the right or the left on the left. Now that it looks like we are getting a proper target man I would like to see Arsenal at least go this way on certain occasions so as to put the delivering player on his best foot.
The modern trend of inverted wingers, which is what we have, will likely continue.
Then you have the goal scoring winger. We have had that with Martinelli, who is more of an inside left forward than a true winger. The issue at Arsenal becomes that we stretch the full width of the pitch and he picks the ball up with his boots literally on the sideline and far from goal.
I mention all of this because folks are not talking about the likelihood of Arsenal signing what looks like two strikers.
I know it’s expensive but if the budget is huge, then we could actually afford to spend 200 million on Gyokeres AND Isak. The Newcastle forward has spent at least half of his career as a left winger and for those that don’t watch international football, these two play together for Sweden with Isak on the left. This combination is already established and the club will know this.
Andrey Santos:
Like most of the young players in the world, he’s officially a Chelsea player. He is also officially rather good. Unofficially, Arsenal are very interested in buying him to replace Thomas Partey. Chelsea would be mugs to sell him and numbskulls to sell him to us. As exciting as a central midfielder gets. Quite possibly the next big thing. Check him out here….
Liverpool fans:
I only care about this a little, but Liverpool fans might have done their club a huge disservice on Sunday. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a fanbase, who have just won the league no less, heavily booing a local lad who wants to experience playing for the world’s biggest club. That is problem one but problem two is bigger. I talked about perception earlier and there will be big players that Liverpool wants to sign this summer and in future windows. There will be one or two that will likely now go elsewhere because they won’t be able to trust the temperament of the fanbase who can’t even appreciate and thank a Liverpool boy. Bad for Liverpool, fine by me though.
FINAL THOUGHT:
Son v Macguire for 17th place " data-image-caption data-medium-file="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3665.jpeg" data-large-file="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3665.jpeg" class="size-full wp-image-49335 aligncenter lazyload" alt="IMG 3665" width="640" height="636" data-sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" src="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3665.jpeg" srcset="https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3665.jpeg 640w, https://gunnerstown.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG\_3665-200x200.jpeg 200w">
I thought they were going to be bad this season, but I didn’t think this.
Love it!
Thanks for reading!
Positives Needs & Hopes with Mike McDonald
Former Highbury regular. Moved to TN, USA in ’99. Married with 3 kids. Coached in UK and US for 27 years.
Mike McDonald Soccer Academy in Morristown TN, Olympic Development coach, Regional Premier League Champion.
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