Thread(1/n) I feel for Arteta man, while I completely fucking understand the questions raised and the doubts, people just seem to forget it's his first job as manager and he's stuck with an unbalanced low quality squad, limited funds, dressing room challenges, and a regressing

squad. Yet with those limited funds he gets two exceptional pieces in Gabriel and Thomas. With that unbalanced squad he won a cup and showed tactical acumen. (Willian is a miss but odds are he was only bought because he came free.)

But I think he's hit a roadblock for good (2/n)

I think he's started to really micromanage the game and overly fixated on minimising errors. While that's a good platform to build it also ties down players in straight jackets. Creative players are most creative when allowed full freedom once near the final 3rd. Henry said (3/n)

That Pep used to dictate structure and shape only in the first 2 thirds, because as a manager his duty was to build play up until the final third whereafter the players had the quality and chemistry to create the best attacking opportunities for themselves. That's freedom (4/n)

Which Arteta absolutely refuses to give his players. Pickup any quality attacking team and you'll see their front line switch positions freely. Salah mane do, heck even Robbo taa switch wings to create. Trust your mids to make good decisions. It's a steep learning curve (5/n)

And it's on the job unfortunately. But it is what it is, it was always this when you signed the contract. A manager is a problem solver, and how this problem gets solved will show a lot about Mikel I think. My hunch is he'll be fine, but it will take longer than we expect. Fin.

I wanted to rant, but turned out much softer. Lol. This is the Henry interview I was talking about: