What I don’t like about Mikel Arteta

But I don’t want him to go

As regular readers will know, I am a supporter of Mikel Arteta. I do not want him to leave and retain belief that he can bring us to the next level. That does not preclude me from being critical at times. In fact, his style is the opposite of what I like to see in a manager. The constant gesticulations from the sidelines, the excessive exhortations to the players to play the way he is telling them, the complete reliance on tactics and the slow build-up that rarely varies. Plus our predictability which means we find it hard to break down teams and add to that the constant cards he gets along with the petulant behaviour he models for the players leading them to get sent off for testiness as well.

Maybe I should be the manager, eh?

I have little idea whether my concerns are shared among the fanbase as I reckon that for too many fans winning is all that matters. If we win, tickets are very hard to get, if we lose they are a lot easier. But I will go through the areas that irritate me and for sure I believe that these are weaknesses, but are they capable of stopping us getting to the next level?

If it's not Arteta screaming at the players , it's Nicolas Jover

The persistent animation on the sidelines is one of the biggest for me. I have always hated being micro-managed and if I was a top footballer I would not abide a manager telling me where to move, what to do, and constantly criticizing me. Looking over at the manager to see what he wants must be a huge distraction, plus it must also make players nervous that the manager is shouting at them. Unai Emery was the same at Arsenal – and his other teams , and it annoyed the hell out of me. I have to accept they are top managers but they are not top of the range at the moment. Wenger was also, eventually, very animated on the sidelines but he never liked telling players what to do, believing in their ability.

The players are overcoached?

The problem with Arteta’s approach is that top players cannot be told what to do. Can you imagine trying to tell Pele how to play, Maradona, Cruyff, Best, Beckenbauer, Ronaldo, Messi, Zidane, etc? To me, that means that Arteta only wants those players who can be told. That means we will not get the true greats, even if they come to Arsenal, because he will want to coach their greatness out of them. Ozil, who was never regarded as difficult at his previous clubs, became a casualty , as did Aubameyang, who was difficult.

Maybe Arteta would have tried to tell Maradona how to play football?

Emery was famous for saying that at PSG, Neymar was in charge not him but was that because Neymar believed in his own ability and decision making prowess on the pitch? It was one of the few places that Unai Emery struggled. I think Arteta might have the same problem if he leaves for a Real Madrid or a Barcelona. How will he cope with established superstars?

Here's an idea -The managerial staff should be role models

Arteta has surrounded himself with all sorts of assistants and the two most familiar to fans are Albert Stuivenberg, his assistant manager, and Nicolas Jover, the set-piece coach. They get involved on the pitch heatedly as well and have been subject to referee sanctions also. In my opinion a manager or a coach should never get a card because the players need them to be role models. We have lost too many players to red cards over the years. Arterta regularly picks up cards. He should never do so again. The players would definitely benefit.

Albert Stuivenberg - also a regular on the side of the pitch

Arsenal are predictable. Lately even the set-piece goals have dried up as teams figure us out. We have lots of possession and many half or quarter chances but a bad goals to chance ratio. Is that all down to not having a recognized striker? I don’t think so, even when we had recognised strikers they weren’t scoring freely.  Arteta and his coaches are always shouting instructions from the sidelines forcing the players to get into shape when perhaps a quick long ball, spotted by a smart player, is the best option. Are players children or they cannot use their own football brain? Do tactics really win games or is it the ability of the players?

The thought process of a midfielder

A definite problem that Arteta has is that he thinks like a midfielder. Get the ball and keep it until it can be distributed to a colleague is the logic of a midfielder. Get the ball and try  and score is the logic of a forward manager. Ask Alex Ferguson or Brian Clough, both strikers, they always wanted the team to score. Wenger was a bit of an anomaly as a midfielder as he always wanted his team to score and wasn’t too great at closing out a match. Arteta has our boys switching to defence mode every time we score. Instead of demolishing teams we allow them to come back at us. Jack Charlton (centrehalf) as a defensive manager just wanted the ball booted up the pitch at every opportunity. He wanted his teams to defend at all times even his attackers.

His football vision was that of a striker

Yes, when our team gel, get into a good passing rhythm, flicking the ball around with great movement we can look good, and we score some nice goals. But to get to the next level we need to be less predictable. I, for one, would love to see Arteta stay calm on the sidelines, trust in his players, get them to have conviction in their instincts, and have a freer style.

He struggles with superstars?

Lastly, though, it is man management. A top team will sign the top players. We don’t usually. And I would be afraid that Arteta will struggle with such players. His current top players have mostly been with him young and they respect him. If we buy an established superstar will that be a problem not an asset?

Perhaps Neymar didn't want Emery to tell him how to play?

These are my criticisms. As I have said, I believe in Arteta and I want him to stay. But I also believe he has his weaknesses and they are as I have outlined above. He must work to improve himself. He has to work on both his strengths and his weaknesses and get better at both. I have never mentioned in this column before that I have taught at higher level for many years in training managers for the Institute of Leadership and Management, the world’s leader in such training, and the great ones never stop learning, never stop improving, and a large part of that is being able to honestly assess your strengths and weaknesses.

He must reflect honestly about himself

This is Mikel’s first such job. He has done very well. Can he become a world great? I believe he must now, in this close season, take stock of who he is, assess how he can make the next steps, improve himself, and transfer those skills to the team. I feel a crucial part of that will be to let go of the habit of trying to control everything on the pitch, and instead give the players the trust and the knowledge before they enter the pitch and restrain himself to minor tweaks that doesn’t make them nervous when they are trying to build up fluency. It is what I have said to many top managers and bosses over the years. You have to train and trust your teams and give them the freedom to do it. You cannot do it for them.

Unai Emery couldn't take the next step at PSG - can Arteta take it at Arsenal?

Is there anyone to advise Mikel? To get him now, at this crucial juncture in his career, to make the higher step of taking an in-depth look at what he has learned so far, and what he needs to learn to get to the top. I hope he has, because I feel he may well have come to his peak and will get no further. Change is needed and it is in him that it is required. Otherwise he will always be good, but not great.