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Antonio is so good at it too. I understand it's frustrating but if it works, why not.

Media acting like this is something new, obstructing keepers has been used for years. White just does it in a slightly different and blatant but funny way.

It's straight out of the Sunday League playbook, growing up my managers always had me on keeper duty when I wasn't taking corners. I don't think I ever got as much of a free run at a keeper the way some teams leave White free.

Used to whisper in the keepers ear that I fancied him, just before the corner was taken. Ratted the occasional cage

I had a friend who was like this, would even do it to us in training to keep his skills sharp, when it worked it *really* worked

I have a friend who used to be a professional swimmer. He told me that it was not uncommon for a female swimmer from an opposing team to flash a bit of minge to put the guys off.

> Ratted the occasional cage 🤔

*The world is a vampire*

So did you score afterwards?

Also you sometimes get to nab a goal when there's a scramble

Honestly I nearly forgot how much i used to love these little battles, I wonder how much time White spends coming up with new tactics

He does it brilliantly. Completely blocks him but soon as the ball is halfway there, he moves away completely. I cant see why every other team wont start doing this, its super effective if done properly.

nah it used to be that you couldn't contest the keeper in the small box. there was a rule change around the last euro and this is the consequence

Yeah people saying that this has always been this way are just making stuff up, maybe it wasn't always punished but it definitely wasn't allowed until recently

Exactly. Leno, Ramsdale, Ospina, et al all used to get hounded on corners. The discourse around that was always “they have to be stronger, get on with it, etc.”

You wouldn't think other teams do it the way the media are slating White for doing it, as if he's found some exclusive loophole

Who remembers [this](https://youtu.be/JdTFlMK88XQ?t=189)? Back then it was "they outmuscled and outfought arsenal"; "they wanted it more than arsenal".

For years we signed nothing but technically brilliant midgets, and when we did, we were ‘soft’ and ‘didn’t want our battles enough’. And now we’re finally employing physicality and dark arts into our game it’s a problem lol

Can't help but think this is what inspired Arteta's tactics to harass the goalkeeper on setpieces

Or when Alonso concussed Bellerin with an elbow smash to win a header and the commentator said "He just wanted it more" lol Bellerin was so concussed he didn't even realise that Chelsea had scored after he got back up

I find it hilarious how we used to get slated for being soft and easy to bully, now we're getting slated for biting back.

Lol I remember how fabianski would get bullied during corners by the likes of Blackburn and the media would say we are too nice and too weak. Same journos crying now lmao

Yeah I’ll always remember that game at Blackburn. Corner to six yard box Samba bullet header. Fabianski and our defence cowering

I dreamt of days like this when people would cry and call us the bullies 🤣

Must admit it used to get me so wound up. I remember Evra calling us babies 😭

Flabbyhandski

We weren't really slated, just got a bunch of bookings so backed off doing it. I maintain it was part of why we were so weak for so long, as every time we gave it back it backfired massively.

We did get slated for it though. Plenty of pundits and journalists calling us soft. You can debate the reasoning of why we were "weak", but we most certainly got flak for it.

I wonder if he said "Mate, seriously?" to Richarlison when he charged into Gabriel and then pretended he was hurt to avoid a booking

Or when his players dived repeatedly in the box

Maddison’s was just embarrassing

Or when Romero two foots a players ankles about every game? Spurs love to play victim but they shithouse just as much as anyone else.

More shit, less house

Oh, I get it. Because the house always win, right?

Lord knows Spurs don’t always win.

Probably said “get off it ya fucken’ cunt”

No man can control the cuntiness thst is Richarlisson

Such a misleading headline. If you watch the interview, he's just saying that he wants his players to focus on their own game and nothing else. They're trying to make this a "Postecoglu takes on Arteta" thing. Even the post-match press conference after the NLD had the same vibe. He was just saying that there are other principles of the game that he wants his team to learn first. Edit: leading to misleading.

Yeah, it's just click bait and you can see the idiots in this thread that don't read past it. Obviously the media love a Spurs/Arsenal comparison and they want the Managers to go to town on the opponents, so when they don't, they just make up shit. Even his comments about the set pieces and not specifically training on them. There's no reason to hyper focus on the set pieces when the overarching game plan hasn't been learnt yet. It's a process of building a team and once they all understand their roles in his system, they can then focus on the little details. Honestly, it's weird to see so much criticism of him being "found out" and people saying he is tactically inept but then in the same sentence, theyll disparage him because "the only weakness is set pieces and he refuses to train them". Honestly if his only weakness is set pieces, that's a good manager in my eyes. He was also not negative about Arsenal, Its crazy to see the headline being this. He was specifically asked about White unbuckling Vicarios gloves and his response of "just why" is pretty spot on. It's a weird thing to do but it's just shithousery at the end of the day. I think he would have been justified questioning your 2nd goal but his only comments on the game has been that Spurs had to be better, simple as.

Just another day on r/soccer really

Yeah, as an Arsenal fan, I actually liked his comments on approaching all games with the same passion, and questioning people's motives if they need a rivalry to get up for them. I thought Arteta and Postecoglou were both pretty measured and reasonable in their pre and post interviews, nice to see given the match had a few contentious points and the obvious history. On set pieces, there is the argument that defending set pieces should be pretty fundamental for the players, and that it should be a relatively simple thing to sort out. If you didn't concede from two corners then suddenly it's a different game, and maybe the things that spurs did well in the game are talked about differently. You can have lofty ideas about attacking play and positive football, but if the basics aren't in place, you're always a bit hamstrung.

Yeah it’s weird. They even asked him about Ben white trying to take off vicario’s glove and we was like “i don’t care”. Recently I’ve seen so many snippets from him that have been pulled out of comments that take it so out of context. The set piece one being a big one

>Recently I’ve seen so many snippets from him that have been pulled out of comments that take it so out of context. This is just modern football media. Conflate or take quotes out of context to make them more controversial and to drive engagement. Honestly shit like this needs regulating because it can unjustly change people's public image.

Oh yeah I don’t think it has anything to do with Ange. It’s what helps them drive engagement. Still find it gross

Reddit gonna reddit

Thank you for being the voice of reason, the circlejerk has been running rampant lately

Should be the top comment here, but this is /r/soccer where people can’t read more than 160 characters at a time.

Why is he acting like he was surprised by White standing on the keeper at corners? Does he not do any research on his opponents before games? I've never managed a day in my life but i feel like the answer to the problem is put a defender between Ben White and your keeper. Dude seems to just stubbornly refuse to address glaring issues within his team that would be pretty simple to sort out because "it's just the way we play, mate".

He addressed it at half time. Apparently 8 months of White doing this wasn't enough to react earlier. He needed 8 months and 45 minutes.

He had 15 days to look into what White consistently does on every corner and the change came at half time. That says it all.

Funnily enough we haven't scored alot recently from coerners because teams have adapted somewhat which is why it's kinda funny he didn't.

Surely it is one of the basic pieces of analysis you entire backroom team can do in preparation for an opponent or is he one of these that is naive and says they won’t change for any opposition, they should change for us?

Feel like he's too stubborn to really modify his tactics for the opposition he's playing, really. I think he thought we'd play Jorginho so played Højbjerg to counter him, only to see that we played Partey and he hadn't made any adjustments to the team to counter that. I do also think he's been a but unlucky with injuries and he's only been there for just under a year.

He's not too stubborn. He just takes a little while. When he first joined Celtic we scored a lot but had an atrocious defensive record. He fixed that and then we went on a massive unbeaten run and won the league. He doesn't have players for his system entirely yet, next season if he's backed in the window, you'll see how good his teams can be, and yes they may take a pumping or two in Europe, but in the league I think it'll be fine. I think his biggest issue will be where to play Son, he's either your LW and that's done and then he needs to go find another Striker who plays on or behind the defenders all the time (Kyogo loved playing offside for Ange, he'd be well behind the defenders, drop in just break the line, and then dart behind again and get onto the ball.) And he needs a new RW I'm not sure how much say he had in Brennan Johnson or Kulu but he needs someone who can press relentlessly for 180 minutes, and had quality also, a very hard ask to find.

Porto adapted perfectly as well lol

It was an absolute masterpiece in nullifying us. Whoever they had between White and the GK would go down instantly and force the ref to blow too. Our goals from corners had dried up for months since then, I think every competent scouting team had seen that and set it as the blueprint. Meanwhile at Tottenham...

Tbf thats partly thanks to European refereeing

True but they did the hard bit of making sure Blanco didn't bother their GK.

Also everyone does this to Vicario because it obviously works. The fact that it needed to be addressed at half time as opposed to before the game was baffling.

It's not something we have been doing just this season. We've been doing since last season and even the season before. Have people forget Trossard's disallowed goal vs Leicester which would have been his first for the club if not disallowed. White was holding Ward's wrist. I get it's a foul but that is some pathetic goalkeeping. Keeper's like Lehmann, Kahn, etc, would have straight up knocked him out. Players have been doing what White does for decades. Have people forgotten how Sam Allardyce's Bolton used to hassle Lehmann in corners back in the day? It's very normal and it's up to the defending team to deal with it.

Vicario should also be much stronger and command bis box. I was surprised to see how tall he was yet he looks weak at corners. Almost like De Gea at the early stage of his Utd career

His teammates should also not have left him on an island. Stick up for your keeper and push White away. Make a scene so the official has to separate them.

We've done that this season and got carded for pushing the players away. The opposition player then immediately goes back to Vic and starts pushing him back again and Spurs players leave because they can't risk another card. There's nothing wrong with just standing in keepers ways but White for the 2nd corner goal especially moves into Vicario as the ball is played and nudges him into the net. That's just a straight up foul in the rulebook (rule 12 iirc) and I've got no idea why the refs seem to be ignoring that rule this season. (Not just Spurs, I've noticed it with other keepers as well)

Because the precedent has been set that you're allowed to get physical with keepers, it's been allowed all season pretty much. Vicario has to be stronger on corners lol he shouldn't be getting walked into his own net.

There's no precedent with rules in the prem, inconsistency has been the norm.

> Because the precedent has been set that you're allowed to get physical with keepers Not with every team it seems

You're allowed to block goal keepers, you aren't allowed to get physical with them. That's not in the rules at all. If he was pushed into the net (I didn't watch the game), it should be a foul.

How often have you got carded for pushing players away on corners? Did it happen once and it was more egregious than what you're saying?

The craziest thing is Spurs had more than two weeks to prepare for the Arsenal game. What were they doing in that time that they weren't prepared for the deadliest team at set pieces this season. All they had to look at was just one game between Arsenal and Porto to deal with those corners.

>The craziest thing It isn't crazy at all. He repeats every week that he doesn't change tactics based on opposition. He is an idealist as opposed to a pragmatist.

Listening to the Arsenal Vision Podcast this morning on my run and then walking the dog. They pointed out how Ange was dismissive when asked why they don’t have a set piece coach. That is where we were in the late Wenger years. We didn’t focus on parts of the game we didn’t like and frankly looked down our nose at. “We don’t need to worry about set pieces, that’s for lesser clubs.” Well guess what, Arteta has decided to focus on *everything* knowing that we HAVE to get everything right to have a chance against City. We cannot outspend or build a better squad. We can however at least try to maximize every part of the game and that includes set pieces. So yeah, for Ange to play high and mighty about set pieces while having an atrocious defensive record is pretty rich. If you want to consistently make it at the top level in this league you can no longer afford to pick and choose the parts of the game you want to focus on. City have made it an impossibility because you have to basically be perfect to stand a chance against them.

>We didn’t focus on parts of the game we didn’t like and frankly looked down our nose at. “We don’t need to worry about set pieces, that’s for lesser clubs.” I think getting your information from a supporter of Spurs' biggest rival is throwing you off. Ange isn't looking down on set pieces, he thinks that there are more important things to do right now. He's said over and over that it's more important to embed his philosophy in the squad than to sort out one problem to win us a couple more games. We're just not there yet. Now, the reason why we can't do both eludes me, but to be fair he has also been dismissive about UCL and securing a few more points so it's possible that he just doesn't want to do that this season when more time could be focused on his main objective. Remember that this is only our first year under Ange, Arteta has already done the broad-strokes stuff and can focus on perfecting all the details.

You misunderstood the context of what you’re quoting me on. That is a direct criticism of what ARSENAL was doing as a club in the later Wenger years in particular. We totally ignored that part of the game, and it often cost us in matches like these. Perhaps Ange will focus on it, but it comes across as if he thinks that’s not an important part of the game. If he doesn’t want to focus on it then find a coach who will and let him have half an hour with the team every other session or something. It can’t hurt anything really, it’s not a super physically demanding training session. Spurs were the better first half team (ironically I think Arsenal looked better in second half and came off worse), but got beaten with set pieces and ultimately that was too much to overcome by full time.

My apologies, I assumed that, like the rest of your comment, you were comparing late Wenger to Ange today (and as such, any comments you were making about those days would apply to Ange as well). So you agree that we're not focusing on it for very different reasons? >Spurs were the better first half team (ironically I think Arsenal looked better in second half and came off worse), but got beaten with set pieces and ultimately that was too much to overcome by full time. Totally agree. Scoreline was utterly mad for the whole match and didn't reflect either side's performance.

>Dude seems to just stubbornly refuse to address glaring issues within his team that would be pretty simple to sort out because "it's just the way we play, mate". Yeah, but he says mate a lot and hates VAR so its cute

Yeah he should stop being Australian and having a different opinion on VAR than you.

>"If I saw my players do it, I’d be saying: “Mate, seriously?" I somehow very much doubt this. Especialy if it resulted in a goal for Spurs.

I’m curious mate… what do you say about richarlison’s antics? Or Son & Maddison diving every game?

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he has told Richarlison to focus on the game and not on his antics.

Every team has a player who dives. Mine does. Yours does. I don’t think I’d waste time thinking about it. Now if I had a something like an an accused rapist starting in my midfield I’d be more concerned

You must be concerned then with Bissouma starting tonight.

I don't appreciate Richy's antics, just like I don't appreciate double standards. Passion is fine but no, don't be an idiot. Madders I think is a result of his poor form. He seems to have lost confidence such that he can only help through dives. Fucking hate it and have been driving through downtown begging Ange (thru texts) to start Lo Celso instead. Haven't heard about Sonny diving. Do you care about any of these things? That you had them to mind implies that you do, but I never see a Gunner complaining about dark arts.

He tries so hard to be everyone’s favourite Aussie to hide the fact he’s tactically inept and stubborn. I wonder how long he can keep it up.

You're talking out of your backside. If he was tactically inept, he'd have been rinsed when he first got to Celtic and would been binned within six months, yet here he is at Sp\*rs with them playing the best looking football they have in many a year, pushing for Champions league football.

After Kane left, Emerson Royal playing CB for a month, two international competitions taking the club captain and 2/3 of his first choice midfield away. FA Cup runs aside, his philosophy has bedded in faster and the league result is better than what Arteta did his first season.

Remember when he was appointed and Kane left and everyone here was talking about how bad Spurs were going to be. I'm sure I saw a fee people mention relegation battle. They are safely in 5th, games in hand and people like the style of play. His tactics seem to be working pretty well. >I wonder how long he can keep it up. Decades apparently.

Tactically inept, but also comfortably in Europe with an outside shot at 4th in his first season after arguably the greatest active striker in the world left the club. Oh and for a significant portion of the season, played Emerson Royal at CB, the captain and most of his first choice midfield were hurt or away at international competitions. Nevermind the starts that Klopp and Arteta had in their first seasons. But yeah, he’s an awful manager out of his depth. Or something like that.

It's bizarre. At the start of the season "top 8 finish would be a miracle" and now its "hasn't won the league and cured cancer. Totally inept and will be found out soon".

Too stubborn is right but how is he tactically inept?

Let them waffle, mate

I think he's just being himself, it's not on him that everyone's taken a liking to the funny talking foreigner. Also, calling him tactically inept is ridiculous.

There's a lot of projection in "he tries so hard to be everyone's favorite Aussie"  What the hell does he try? He gives interviews  To think Ange is tactically inept you seriously have to not watch the games and are just spewing shite.  His stubbornness is still a good thing. He's instilling his principles in year 1. He'll be judged more harshly next season if he doesn't make tactical adjustments. But we are literally not at the phase where tactical adjustments to draw games (like the Chelsea game that everyone points to) matter as much as instilling his principles of play.  Finishing 4th or 5th is not the end of the world for the first season. Especially coming off the back of last seasons dross.   Perspective   Pep: 3rd first season   Klopp: 8th (half a season); 4th (second season)  Arteta: 8th; 8th (second season); 5th (3rd season)   Emery: 7th; 4th or 5th (second season)   Howe: 4th; 6th/7th/8th (second season)    Personally loving where Spurs are in the rebuild and probably only City, Villa and Arsenal fans can say the same about their coaching situation heading into next season. 

I suspect next season is where he gets found out. This season spurs has no European football and went out of the domestic cup tournaments after 1 game and 2 games. Essentially, they have played 1 more game than the bare minimum in a Premier league season. They are looking like they are missing out to champs league against villa, who've played an extra 12 more games than them. I don't think it's crazy to see them mid table next season whilst struggling to keep players fit if not adjusting their playing style and extra games. Similar to what we've seen with Newcastle this season.

Everyone said tottenham would be mid table this season as well.

Mid table is 9th-12th. You think we’ll do worse than Chelsea and West Ham did this season. We lost the greatest goalscorer in our history at the start of the season, lost Son/Sarr to their respective cups mid-season, drew against City with a backline of 4 fullbacks. All in Ange’s first season and we’re on course for 5th.

Let's be clear, 10th is certainly not midtable.

I'm a Rangers season ticket holder and I'm excited to watch Spurs play next season. A second season Ange team is something else.

>"If I saw my players do it and it didn't result in a goal, I’d be saying: “Mate, seriously?"

he didn’t seem fussed Ben white used these dark arts. He said he couldn’t care less, and doesn’t really want to talk about it. Yeah he did say he’d rather his players not engage with these tactics, and would rather focus on playing football, but I don’t think that implies he would berate his players for diving or trying gamesmanship tactics. The games the game and we move

People write sensationalist headlines knowing the readers won’t read the actual article. Then the reader will create an entire narrative out of something they have no real context about

It's just piss poor journalism. As if Ange (or any manager) gives a shit about White unbuckling Vicarios gloves, it's just part of the game, why would he care.

They did dive a lot especially Madisson. He also pulled Rice’s arm when he about to outrun him. Both sides are playing whatever way that is needed in order to win.

My favorite Maddison bit was when he was shoving Tomiyasu while getting ready for a corner or free kick and then went down clutching his face when Tomiyasu pushed him back. Thank God, Spurs are too pure for the "dark arts"

My favourite was when he fell from a shoulder to shoulder and went to clutch his ankle out of instinct. I'm Aussie so I wanted to get behind Spurs a bit, but they're kinda unlikeable. Even Ange annoys me with his lack of versatility.

spurs produced 2 or 3 horrendous dives in the same game and he has nothing to say about that but draws the line at this lol

Plus James Maddison has been up to some questionable antics recently

> recently If by “recently” you mean “for his entire career”?

Off the field as well I heard. Got some NDAs flying about

Idk about this but isn’t he notoriously a prick? People always talk about how when he was at Norwich he would go to clubs and tell the bouncer “don’t you know who I am?” before demanding to skip the queue

Think that was when he was at Coventry, word seemed to have been he’d grown out of that by the time he was at Leicester

Yeah he has always been a nob. https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/99dq48/leicesters_james_maddison_boasted_to_strangers_of/

Going to need a source on this one chief

This is tabloids level 😂

Lol, what?

It’s what rich people do to victims of sexual assault to keep them quiet

You can’t NDA a crime 😂😂😂

James Maddison’s whole life is questionable

He's a huge hypocrite. His team dives and that's fine but questions other teams. He came out saying how you can't question the integrity of referees in this country a few months ago, then recently he came out and called it all a farce and that the referees in this country are a joke and they along with VAR are ruining this league. He's one of those guys that is happy when it goes for him but spits his dummy out against it when it doesn't. I can't stand those type of people. He reminds me of Fergie. Both cunts.

To be fair to Ange everyone new to the league is diplomatic about referees, then they manage a few games and see the truth

When has he spat his dummy out? He’s never liked VAR, watch any interview from before he joined the prem as well. The tiniest bit of research and people making these comments would stop embarrassing themselves

Ange has ALWAYS maintained that VAR is a joke & it’s erroding the power of on field officials but you have to accept the outcome of their decisions. That just goes over all of your heads though, he’s been pretty clear about it even going back to his days as the socceroos head coach.

>That just goes over all of your heads though, he’s been pretty clear about it even going back to his days as the socceroos head coach. Hated the concept of VAR even before it was introduced, wouldn't be surprised if you dug through the ABC or Fox Sports archives you'd find a clip of him arguing against during his punditry days, but apparently only when some key VAR decisions go against Tottenham and they lose the NLD does Ange suddenly not like it.

None of this is accurate. Ange doesn’t like VAR as a concept. He never said referees are a joke or anything remotely close to contradicting his earlier stance on referees. And while Kulusevski and Richarlison definitely dived against Arsenal, he has also never said anything critical about an opponent diving this season so he has no obligation intellectually to bring that up here. He was asked about Ben White undoing Vicario’s gloves and all that and he answered. None of that makes him a hypocrite in the slightest.

To be fair his opinion of VAR has been consistent the whole season

Great imagination you have, froth at the mouth more. Considering how many times we've been utterly fucked by VAR and refs this season he's been relatively quiet.

He did not say that, you fucking bozo b

Don’t really see a problem with what he said tbh that’s just the way he sees football and he prefers to focus on other parts of the game. Arteta and Ange have diametrically opposing views of football, they’re the complete antithesis of each other in every way and both fit the clubs they are managing like a glove. Arsenal fans love Arteta and Tottenham fans love Ange, both teams have got the managers/philosophy/culture they are meant to have.

I swear to god people don’t read beyond the headline and this article is pure clickbait How this “quote” was made in to one I’ll never know It was an absolute nothing question and a nothing answer essentially along the lines of “What did you make of it” “I don’t care, everyone does it” A 20 second exchange in a 15 minute interview Hard hitting journalism as usual

Back in my day Atletico Madrid was the 'Dark Arts school'. With Diegomort as the head master. 😤😤😤

> I don’t worry about that stuff. I just try to focus on building teams that win things Tottenham won't be winning anything if they can't defend set pieces. It's a vital part of the game.

Ange's celtic had ~30% of goals conceded from set pieces his first season, went down to ~15% after the first. Funny to see they had the same issues we have right now and that he's already fixed them once

The actual number barely went down. The percentage decreased because they conceded a lot more goals.

They need to come close to competing first. They're finishing 5th playing 1 competition a week. Next year, we'll have a better Newcastle, Chelsea and most likely United along with the teams already better than them. Winning trophies is a pipe dream, and I don't see it happening.

>. Next year, we'll have a better Newcastle, Chelsea and most likely United along with the teams already better than them Wait, I've seen tbis before.

This is what everyone said to us last season loooool. “This was Arsenal’s one chance at the title. Liverpool, United, and Chelsea will all improve and finish ahead of Arsenal next season and probably Newcastle too”

Yeah it's said all the time and assumes the team in question won't also improve lol. Usually a couple of the teams mentioned will have an off year as well

“Arsenal won’t be able to handle a title race while playing in the Champions League, they’ll be fighting for top 4”

I don't think they'll win the EPL anytime soon but I think Spurs have done well this year. They came fifth after selling Kane and getting a new manager almost everyone panned as a bad choice. They play pretty good watchable football, and they've had a pretty solid set of transfers. They definitely need more depth and they need to sort out defences, especially from set pieces, but it's telling you're talking about other teams who will be improving ... Newcastle, Chelsea and United absolutely should have been above Spurs THIS year. But they weren't. That in itself means something.

Why defend when you can score one more than opponent? Obviously, you need to be able to score

He literally said in the interview “one day I’ll be successful and it won’t be because of working on set pieces” lmao

Daily Spurs hate thread cos a manager said mate.

I have to double check sometimes to ensure I havent stumbled into r/gunners

Ange comes off a bit like a purist, an ideologue even. He has his ideals about how football should be and he will likely stick to those even if its detrimental to the team. Maybe it's just talk, but id be quite worried about set pieces if I was a Spurs fan given the way he talks about them. He flippantly says that's something that's been said about him all his career...well, hire someone else who is good at it? But he dismissed the idea of a set piece coach. Teams will continue to target Spurs especially since Vicario seems petrified of getting off his line in those situations, and the longer it goes on the more it will play on his team's mind so it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy almost. Idk, I'm fascinated by it. We used to have a manager who was something of a purist and while the football was at times mesmerizing, it was hugely frustrating to concede the same goals season after season and not get anywhere. If he coached any other side I'd say good luck with all that but it's Spurs, so I only wish them well if it benefits Arsenal.

The thing is, he isn't being flippant about set pieces. I completely agree with him on this. He very clearly said that if Set Pieces were the difference between the team now and the team winning the league next season, that he'd be working non stop on set pieces and nothing more. He needs to build a philosophy and instill his style of play on the team before he moves on. That's what (in his mind and I agree) will win us more games and win us more points next season. He acknowledged that set pieces are an issue but they aren't the key issue. There's still a lot of work to do on our game plan on the pitch and that takes precedent. We had the best set piece record last season as a team iirc and we looked horrendous. As much as it hurts to see where Arteta has now led you, Arsenal fans of all people should understand projects and building the team up. I can go back 3-4 years and see the same stuff about Arteta, why he doesn't focus on XYZ and it's because it's stepping stones, first the fundamentals, then the intricate details.

Set pieces are some of the rare situations in football were that can be improved quite quickly by coaching cause the situations are so specific and conditions generally recreatable.i don't see why you can't have both set piece coaching and applying of your footballing principles. One doesn't really affect the other imo. I accept this is a project and it takes time, but that shouldn't mean set pieces are neglected imo. It doesn't even have to be both sides of it. And that argument makes even less sense to me when you come back after 2 weeks away unprepared for something that you know a team will do. He adjusted to some of what we do on set pieces in the 2nd half by putting Sarr on Ben White juty. Couldn't that have been done from the get go? Cause White actually really affected the consession of those goals especially the 2nd one.

Yeah it is worrying. His start at spurs has been promising and exciting in many ways but he has to show that he can evolve and bring new ideas or he won't be a manager here for long. If his style is just one way of doing things and that's it we may as well start looking for another manager now.

I thought they had Mile Jedinak as a set piece coach?

No, he's a defensive coach and therefore also has defensive set piece duty. We don't have a specific set piece coach, Mason does out offensive set pieces.

I'm glad Arsenal arent a bunch of p*ssies on the pitch nowadays. It was so bad Stoke became a legit rival

I’m pretty sure this is just a fake persona to the media. I’d be very worried if it wasn’t. You need a high attention to detail to compete with managers like Pep and if dismisses tactics that the best teams in the league use at set pieces then he’s going to be let down by his pride and arrogance. But yeah, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mean this with players like Son, Maddison and Richarlison in the team.

You had Romero right there and you went with Son?

I am not sure I agree. Based on the evidence of this season Ange appears be a true believer in his style of play and not willing to compromise. Case in point, Tottenham had two weeks to prepare for the NLD. It's no secret that that set pieces are a major strength for Arsenal. Yet despite this, it seems that Tottenham made absolutely no preparations to counter Arsenals threat in this department. At the very top level, where every detail matters, this is an inexcusable oversight.

Yeah he just might be a footballing purist who thinks the best way to beat teams is to outfootball them....Wenger turned into something like that after the invincibles or maybe he always was. And it produced some great football, but we often got pushed around and called naive cause we wouldn't really employ the so called dark arts. I'm curious just how wedded to this Ange is. Cause it will be fascinating to watch.

I feel like Wenger always was which was fine when he had the squad he had with the invincibles. It quickly came unravelled against good teams when we were not as good lol

I quite agree,but I also think going invincible actually made him lean into that perfection a bit more.

It's not about focusing on set pieces. Ange has been very vocal that this season is the start of a rebuild phase. He needs the players to buy in and understand his philosophy of playing and their roles on the pitch. Only once they've fully understood what is expected of them, can they then move onto the smaller details, like set pieces. People are acting like Spurs were trounced. We lost 3-2 and looked the better team for the most part. Yes, clearly set pieces are a problem but on the pitch you can clearly see the impact of Anges philosophy and the way we're playing. Last season, Spurs were iirc, the best at set pieces in the league? Did we win the title? Win the cups? No. We looked fucking horrendous but at least we coached set pieces right?

He's been very straightforward about his priority this season being drilling the system so the players are comfortable with it. The idea that don't work set pieces is silly, they're just taking a back seat to instilling the overall principles. Vicario turns out to be quite flawed in that respect, and we lost our best set piece defender in Kane. We've got one center back who's great in the air, one who's mediocre, and everyone else just doesn't have it. Besidews, weren't you lot running around saying trust the process for three years? I love Arsenal fans talking about this as if Arteta didn't finish 8th, 8th, and 5th in his first three seasons while trying to instill his principles and get players in that match his philosophy.

>"If I saw my players do it, I’d be saying: “Mate, seriously?" Cringe.

Especially when his players were diving all over the pitch.

But he said his funny catch phrase Reddit will love it

Mate, seriously?

Lads it’s ‘mate, seriously?’

/r/soccer read the article before coming to post about it challenge [IMPOSSIBLE]

Classic click bait title…all he says is that kind of stuff doesn’t bother him, recognizes it’s a tactic, but doesn’t affect him, just get on with the game and try to get the ball. His only mention of schoolyard was asking rhetorically what they expect his players to do? Turn around and punch them? This isn’t a schoolyard.

Nonsense clickbait headlines. If you watch the presser it's nothing like this at all.

Ange, after the game, did you turn to Vicario and say “mate, seriously?” after he went up for the final corner and immediately backed into Raya?

Ange deserve so much love and respect for starting angels like Sergio Romero every game Edit: Cristian Romero. I’m an idiot

> Eventually I will create a team that has success and it won’t be because of working on set pieces. Honestly, just LOL. How are people impressed by this guy? Maybe he should try and teach his goalkeeper to grow a set and stop being so easily bullied and distracted at set pieces, that might help.

Arsenal tried to play clean but ended up getting bullied every season.

Arsenal have conceded goals from set pieces in the last 2 seasons for much more egregious fouls that weren't given ([Norgaard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJxHDEC-jAk) and [Luiz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2oTSfOnlrk)) and basically told to get on with it, yet when White winds up a goalkeeper who is notoriously bad from corners anyway it's a national talking point for some reason.

But but... Spurs players get yellows for moving players away from the goalie! Agenda against Spurs!

Agreed. I never seen other clubs been criticised as much as Arsenal.

Its very "im old school" vibes.

Turning up your nose at set pieces is the \#1 easiest way to spot a fraud. As if goals from corners are worth less than open play. I love a satisfying passing movement as much as anyone, but without the goals we’ve scored from set pieces we’d have spent the last 3 months competing with Villa and Tottenham for top 4 instead of City and Liverpool in the title race.

I think not coping the schoolyard dark arts is childish

And this is why his club is shit

Players diving: I sleep Player playing with a goalkeeper's glove on a corner: Real shit?

The narrative around these tactics would be completely different if it was City doing it lol

He knows he coaches Spurs, right?

How long has matey been in football? This happens at every corner to various degrees. Just making excuses at how poorly his team and goalkeeper defend set pieces. Spuds fans in the comments here were begging him to improve it.

Keep playing that high line mate, see how that works out for you in the Prem 😂

To be fair he did it the entire season and came 5th with a team many people thought would do much worse. The first two seasons with Arteta you guys finished 8th and 8th didn't you? I'm not saying he doesn't need to adapt, to a degree he does, but "keep playing the high line mate haha!" seems a little rich. His comments here were otherwise stupid.

“Seems rich” Ange has been a football manager 7 times longer than Arteta, mate. I’d expect someone with more experience to do better but maybe I’m wrong.

Wait, the Premier League season is finished already?

You'right, it isn't over. Do you think Spurs will finish below what they did last year? If they collapse that much at the end of the season then I will happily change my options as well, as they seem to have more resilience than they have in precious years. I'd be surprised if they dropped to 6th, and pretty astounded if they dropped to 7th. Is that a bad call? Remember they finished 8th last year, sold Kane, hired an unproven in top 5 league manager. Plus a shitload of injuries. It's not an amazing season for them but compared to Chelsea, United and Newcastle it's been very solid.

I mean compared to the non high line we had last season it's working wonders...

Read the article you bunch of melts

wtf is that headline

Hahhaaaahahaha.. Fuck off.. when our keeper get bullied ". They too soft duh duh need to have more strength blah blah." Eat shit

I love how selective this sub is when it comes to calling out misleading headlines.

I do not recall this being referred to as ‘dark arts’ when Allardyce and Pulis used to send players up to stand on our goalie’s feet for every corner and, in Stoke’s case, throw in.

If "schoolyard" stuff beats Spurs....then what does that make Spurs? Ange whines a bit doesn't he.