Mikel Arteta needs to stop changing his system if he wants to succeed, implies Martin Keown
Arsenal legend Martin Keown has opined that Mikel Arteta needs to stop switching things around if and settle on a system, if he wants his side to find their rhythm and succeed. The Gunners have had an average start to their Premier League season with them winning just three out of their six matches.
With a late goal from substitute Jamie Vardy, Arsenal were forced to watch as Leicester City snatched all three points away from the Gunners. Their second loss, in as many games, has seen the club slip down to tenth place in the Premier League table but the bigger problem was the fact that the North Londoners struggled to carve out opportunities to score goals.
That has many concerned about the club’s future despite the changes that Mikel Arteta has made to the team and Arsenal in general since he arrived. However, Martin Keown has admitted that the Spaniard has been tinkering with his side a little too much this season and needs to settle on a system in order to succeed. The Arsenal legend also added that Arteta is going down the Unai Emery route and that could see him struggle in the future.
"They keep changing from one system to another and they did this with Emery. That’s what I would like to see now, the same pictures, the same triangles, the same movements, the same partnerships, the same relationships. If you keep changing it, you don’t find a rhythm, and that’s something that I found in a very successful team. It was like putting an old pair of slippers on for a game," Keown said reported Goal.
“Everything was there. You’d fire it into midfield to Patrick Vieira, into Dennis Bergkamp, Henry into the channel; it was three passes. These players now are getting the ball now and it’s jamming a little bit, so I think keep it simple and start building from this team. If this is the way he wants to play, keep with it, and try to put the people in it and get the messages right and work on it. It was very static, the front three never really moved from positions, they didn’t make themselves available."