administrationGood football requires a certain degree of ruthlessness, says Mikel Arteta. The new Arsenal coach will not tolerate any deviations on his way back to the top.
In the documentary scene that best reveals Pep Guardiola’s mentality, the brilliant coach does not even appear. It is his assistant, Mikel Arteta, who explains in a team meeting in one sentence that Manchester City’s beautiful play sometimes requires a little dirty play. « When it comes to transition, you have to commit a foul, » the Spaniard is adamantly teaching midfielders Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva and Ilkay Gundogan in an Amazon documentary about City’s record-breaking 2017/18 league season.
Guardiola, 48, and Mikel Arteta https://znaki.fm/persons/mikel-arteta/, 37, have not always seen eye-to-eye on tactical details, with the former Bayern Munich coach deliberately hiring the former Arsenal playmaker as an occasional sceptic on his staff in 2016. What they have in common, however, and what ultimately prompted Arsenal executives to appoint Arteta as the Premier League’s youngest manager on Friday, is a belief that dominant, entertaining football can only succeed with the utmost discipline and a degree of ruthlessness.
Arteta’s style of football: strong combinations and tough play
His friends describe him as a football fanatic who hung tactical diagrams in his Manchester flat and watched games on TV all the time. However, the board of directors did not want to entrust Wenger’s complex legacy to a newcomer. Emery was considered a safer choice. « It just wasn’t the right time, » Arteta said diplomatically.
However, it has now become clear that an uninspired group of individual players in mid-table urgently needs a more radical approach to leadership. Experience is secondary, perhaps even a hindrance. « Arsenal needs a sporting director who will first tear everything apart and then rebuild from scratch according to a specific, non-negotiable plan. It will probably take at least two years before Arsenal can play something like Arteta’s ideal: strong combinations and tough play.
First Everton, then Real Madrid
The fact that the teams are approaching the game in completely different circumstances is no reason for Arteta to take it lightly. While Arsenal are second in the Premier League standings and can still hold out hope of winning the league, Everton are 15th in the bottom half of the Premier League. « The Toffees have not won five games in a row.
In the Premier League, it’s always a challenge: how to take the game where you want it to go and how to do it as often as possible, » warns the coach of the visitors, who will play Real Madrid again in the Champions League quarter-finals next Tuesday (21:00). But Arteta cannot take this into account in his line-up: « No. The most important game for us is the Everton game and the best way to prepare for the Real Madrid game is to do what we need to do to beat Everton.
Tough times for the Toffees
Everton, on the other hand, are facing a very difficult few weeks. After losing the Merseyside derby to Liverpool (0-1), they will play Arsenal, an away match against Nottingham Forest, and then a home match against Manchester City. After that, they will travel to Chelsea. This means that the Toffees will play the top five teams in the league in five consecutive matches. Saturday will show whether the returning coach Arteta will give them even a small chance.