By Tony Attwood
First off, I thought I might list all 31 dirty tricks Argentina used against England, at least according to the media today. But then I thought I would leave it up to you to find out – you can look the tricks up in the Daily Mirror if you wish.
But overall the consensus was that the South Americans are “masters of the dark arts lived up to their reputation in World Cup semi-final,” which really makes one wonder why the newspaper didn’t warn us of that first, or indeed tip off the manager and his team how they might cope with it.”
Anyway, apparently the media men did stay to watch “jubilant Argentina fans burn England flags in Buenos Aires” and found that and what followed an “”an eye-opening experience,” which I guess means that these newspaper men have not learned what happens when a population is repeatedly told that the team you are playing really are the invading enemy.
As for the performance by England, we are told that “Tuchel’s tactical blunders that proved so costly for England” and that the German (and at this moment of criticism we must remember to call him a German), “must take heavy share of the blame for defeat after defensive substitutions backfired when Argentina were there for the taking.” Indeed, overall, “Tuchel blew it worse than Southgate ever did.”
The problem it seems was that the “German’s” (which is what we have to call him apparently, now that England have lost) “tactical decisions at a crucial point in semi-final against Argentina cost England…”
However, after the match, what I was left wondering was what does it do to the country and how it makes us English people feel. For according to the Guardian, “More than 200 countries endorse Infantino for fourth Fifa term despite Balogun scandal,” while “Only a handful of FAs have not declared their support”.
- Uefa has made its opposition clear on number of issues
So anyway I’ve had enough of all that and decided instead to have a look at the Arsenal squad for the coming season,, not least now we have a few signings coming along giving us a good sense of the sort of players we might have as we defend the title and go for a second.
Goal: David Raya, Illan Meslier, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Tommy Setford (4)
Centre Back: William Saliba, Gabriel, Piero Hincapié, Cristhian Mosquera (4)
Left back: Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly (2)
Righ back: Jurriën Timber , Ben White (2)
Defensive midfield: Martín Zubimendi (1)
Central midfield: Declan Rice, Mikel Merino (2)
Attacking midfield: Martin Ødegaard , Eberechi Eze, Ethan Nwaneri, Fábio Vieira (4)
Left wing: Gabriel Martinelli, Reiss Nelson (2)
Righ wing: Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Max Downman (3)
Centre forward: Viktor Gyokers, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus (3)
That makes 27 players and I don’t have the exact birth dates in front of me but I know that several are not going to count as over 21 for the new season, so there doesn’t look to be a problem there.
And even if I have made a mistake with the adding up (which given that it is me, is always a possibility) that still looks like a very strong squad in my eyes. What is more, we still have half of July and all of August to go, so although it gets harder to get the players you really want the closer we get to the end of the window, that still looks like a good squad.
Obviously one or two players might move on, but then equally one or two others might step up. And there should be no worrying about there being 27 in the 25 man squad since not all of them are over age, so they don’t all count.
Now of course, there are going to be some positions that people will leap upon and pick out as weaknesses, such as left wing and defensive midfield, but there are still about six weeks of window to go, and there is every chance that I have, in my normal style, missed someone. Please do point the names out, although gently if possible. I feel a bit fragile after watching a lot of footy on TV or late.
So maybe another defensive midfielder, perhaps? And just remember although there are 27 players listed, not all of them are over 21, so they don’t all count.
Personally, I am thinking this squad is starting to look rather good.
They said the 2003/4 invincibles still looked good the following year 2004/5, where we lost Keown but gained Van Percy, but they unfortunately fell just a bit short of the improving Chelsea that following 2004/5 year.
I think we had about 4 in and 4 out the following year or there abouts of equal quality, but our tactics remained the same with no improvement or change the following year.
Chelsea had abramavich join in 2003 and by 2004 the billionaire owner had brought in 19 new players and one new manager, Jose Mourinho.
They improved their team and also Jose Mourinho had new players to implement some surprise major tactical improvements in defence and attack by changing formations to flood the midfield to add that element of surprise in his first year.
He further improved the team by adding more class players in 2005/6 and made further improved tactical changes to formation with inverting wingers among other tweeks to maintain that element of tactical improvement and surprise as well as new players to retain the title 2005/6.
It’s all about fine margins as other teams will close the gap by making improvements to their teams.
The invincibles made equal in and out player changes maintaining equal strength without any real team improvement, and they kept to the same tactics without any additional improvements as they felt the team be the invincibles looked the same therefore strong enough to retain the title with any player and tactical improvements. They dropped just 7 points from the previous year, but Finnished 2nd behind the improving Chelsea.
Chelsea by making improvements to their first 11 and tactical addictional surprises they did enough to leap frog the mainly unchanged invincibles and then the following year adding additional competing first selection players and adding additional tactical surprise elements, to help them maintain an improving forward projectory and retain the title.
Arsenal must continue to improve both in players and tactics. History is a good lesson and the invincibles is a good example. IMO.
I won’t quote George Graham again, but he basically said that we must not become stubborn in thinking our title winning team is perfect and we must continue to improve as other teams will do the same.
Gooners forever improving and moving forward.
It’s all about fine margins as other teams will close the gap by making improvements to their teams.
That, if I may reply, is the key. Except that although other teaams with TRY to close the gap and TRY to make improvements, they wont always get it right, and there is where those trying to rise up and take the crown get it wrong. There are human judgements involved, and many “experts” are not able to get those judgements right.
You have left out Norgaard and also Remy Mitchell is now classed as a senior player like Mosquera, as would Sagoe Jr be if he was not on loan. It appears also that Nygaatd, Salmon, Dixon and Kabia could well be in the 1st team squad for preseason training as they are the most experienced of the u21s and the squad will obviously be short in numbers due to the world cup. I strongly believe that as players return from their world cup break and new signings are made, we could see the departures of Kepa, Norgaard, Vieira, Nelson and Jesus. Plus a few of the youngsters might head out on loan.
Tony, I am just going by what history tells us as we have been in this post before and no doubt both our views were discussed back then whether their was a need for small additional improvements, but we both know the what outcome was when we did not retain the trophy.
I hope this time is different and you are proven right Tony.
You know what a wise man once said about hope, “hope for the best, but plan for the worst”.
In other words, their is no harm in taking precautions by making some small improvements just in case we do need the tactical and player additions. I know what extreme cost I pay for a season ticket, and I know we are not exactly skint to invest in further player improvements and if our players do once again manage the fatigue and injuries and perform again brilliantly, then they will keep their place ahead of any new additions. I am also very happy with our squad as I was with the invincibles and they all deserve to stay, but we can also invest and improve wisely! send out fringe players on “short 6 month” loans, invest in more under 21s, replace our injured players only while they get operations and rest, just add only a few players each season as their will be players leaving anyway, and keep the old tactic but mix it up with some surprise new ones.
As I mentioned, I agree with the hope argument and what ever happens it’s just opinions on history assessments and at the end of the day it’s still worth making calculated improvements and we trust Arteta we view both situations of small tactical and player improvements while also keeping our positive part or our status quo and making everyone happy once again for another winning season, but I agree with both our views where middle ground is probably the answer, as Arteta will probably already know.
It’s good to debate and swap opinions, and be respectful, which is why I love this site rather than the low IQ trolls to be ignored on the other well known A-Wipe site. Keep up the good work Tony.
In Arteta we trust, gooners for ever