As it's summer here, all this talk of tea and hot chocolate just makes me sweat! But the idea of a nice chocolate biscuit...mmmm.
Deepest, darkest, bleakest, most depressing winter here; the only time of the year I indulge in - or treat myself to - chocolate biscuits (greedily devoured, and with an unabashed, unashamed and unrestrained delight), but, what a pure pleasure.
Anyway, back to reality. I feel like Mikel Arteta has been channeling his inner Ralph Hassenhuttl. He's been studying how to lose from a winning position and take more shots than the opponent and score less.
No, I think he is attemting to force an interpretation of "positional play" on a team that aren't quite up to the challenge of meeting what he asks of them.
Kind of like a football take on "method acting".
And the team is still unbalanced, still very much a work in progress, although there has been improvement, not least in backbone and a willingness to fight, and some degree of skill in doing so.
However, a few things still bother me.
Yes, Arsenal needed to become less reliant on Aubameyang, but - notwithstanding that he is being asked to do more, in terms of sacrifice to "the system" Arteta clearly has in mind, - something, I suspect, that (as is the case, also, to a certain extent, with CR7) he is not entirely comfortable with as a footballer, his form as a successful poacher of goals, and goalscorer, has slipped shockingly.
When players cannot fit the system, perhaps the system may need to be tweaked to accommodate this (and yes, I know that I have already argued otherwise re CR7 - but, in that instance, I suppose that I do not believe that one player should be allowed to unbalance a team, or that a team should be constructed solely, or mainly, around one player, to the detriment of the creativity of others).
Having said that, I'm not entirely happy to see Granit Xhaka return; cards accompany that gentleman, the sort that come from stupid fouls, a rush of blood to the head, and poor judgment calls.
More to the point, if the players cannot adjust to the proposed system - as it is beyond them - then, one may have two problems.
The first is that the system is plainly beyond them: Then, you tweak either players or system, or, in this case, possibly both.
The second is - and I am writing as someone who taught for the best part of twenty years - if one of your students doesn't understand what was covered in class, well, they may have been distracted, not listening, or otherwise not paying attention. That is their problem, although - obviously - you will try to help them understand the topic in question.
If, however, your entire class fail to understand what you were getting at, well, then, that is on you, as a teacher (or coach); you need to be able to explain to them - clearly, - very clearly, in a way that they can understand, in a way that leaves no room for misunderstanding - what it is that you want from them.
This is also a failure in communication, or a failure in being able to explain - clearly - what it is that you want, and need, them to be able to understand, and, hopefully, then, execute or master.
