Transcript – Arteta talks to Sky Sports about club culture, inspirations, expectations & more
Today at 06:34 AM
Ahead of Saturday's draw with Aston Villa, Mikel Arteta spoke with Sky Sports’ Patrick Davison about the fragility of managerial life, managing expectations, his approach to preparing teams, his inspirations, and fostering the right culture at Arsenal.
Here’s a transcript…
On the mood around Arsenal being subject to huge volatility, the most he's ever experienced…
Well, it is volatile because you have certain expectations. And when the expectation is to win, it’s volatile for all the teams that are in that category. It is volatile because you are there or you’re not good enough, that’s it. And not good enough means a result, it doesn’t necessarily mean a performance in sports, but we have to accept that.
On how he avoids swinging from high to low…
Just having some perspective, analysing what we do, analysing the data, striving to be better but understanding as well that a lot of the things that we do are right, because if not, you just throw everything away and it’s not right.
On whether he leans on data to understand if his side played well or if he relies on the eye test…
More than that is you have a game in mind and we understand a game that we want to play that's going to give us the best chance to win it. How similar that game it was? And if that game has been shifted, how good we’ve been with that game that we had to play. And xG is one thing, but xG has to be really well analysed, there are a lot of factors because you can get very frustrated with it as well. So it’s the dynamic of the game, what was the sequence of play, how it happened, who was involved in that, how accurate we’ve been in every phase, it’s a lot.
On how often games go as he expects…
In periods of time, a lot. Understanding why it goes the right way and the wrong way. So that’s not too difficult to predict.
On football surely being impossible to predict, for example, Arsenal going one-nil down against Sp*rs after dominating…
Yeah, but if you defend a second phase of a corner at the edge and you turn your body, it’s very likely that you’re going to concede a goal, a deflection or a penalty. So that’s probability. I’m not surprised about that. I was really annoyed that with everything that we’ve done, we haven’t scored, now we concede.
On when he started analysing football in granular detail…
[When I was ] 14, 15 years old in Barcelona, they changed the world to me. It’s like the sky opened and I said, this is a different sport.
On Guardiola citing Johan Cruyff as the man who opened his eyes and whether he had such a person in his life…
Well, Johan was the influence of everything when I was in Barcelona and La Masia at that age and all the coaches that worked in the academy, it was the same because he was the one that injected that vision, that passion and understanding for the game in the manner that he did. And then from there, obviously, the game is involved. Pep took the game and his vision to a very different level. And then all the other coaches that have helped us to get where we are.
On whether Cruyff is football's greatest innovator…
For me, yes. For me, I fall in love with that team. Honestly, I was six, seven years old, completely fall in love with that team, that way of playing.
On how that love manifested itself…
Everything, everything [posters and kits]. I had everything at home. My dad used to send me to bed. If Barcelona was losing 1-0, I was going mad.
On whether he's calmed down since…
Now, yes. Now I just suffer enough with Arsenal. I don’t suffer with any other team, believe me, I have enough. And just when I see my kids play, that’s as well I get [nervous] because I really want the best for them.
On the fragility of being a manager and how quickly a project can fall apart…
We always say that it’s the culture that creates, but that’s internal. And that’s like, I use the word drizzle all the time. It’s like not a lot of rain, but it’s always raining. And you go there without a jacket and after five minutes, I don’t need a jacket, it’s not raining. And then you are soaking wet, you know? That’s what we need every single day. Because if you don’t do it every day, in five days, in five weeks, in two months, it cracks and then it’s done and you have to start again. Because that’s how cruel the game is.
On whether this season has seen more drizzle than usual…
It’s all about expectations, honestly. And it happened with our families, with my kids. What do you expect from my kid? To get to his room and everything is tidy, go to the toilet and they flush it every time, and the toothpaste is in the right place, and they eat and they’re always in time and they’re always dressed. It’s not like this, I’m sorry. And we want everything perfect, but this game is very imperfect. And we want to be the best. And when you are there and the level of margins are so small, that’s what it is.
On how he deals with those expectations…
The worst ones are mine. I look and I’m never happy. I always look and I always have this stuff and you always want to be better and you should be better – we are late on the press, we don’t have the right timing, look at this structure, we haven’t anticipated this issue, we didn’t plan that well, they made the change that it took us three minutes instead of two. It has to be like this if you want to be better than the opposition.
On whether he's easy to work for…
That’s not a question for me.
On whether he tries to be…
I like to be challenged. I like people really to say what they think and I like people that are accountable for their jobs. And especially passionate. If you are not passionate about what you do, I think I’m a very difficult person because I’m very demanding. So I need you to love what you do. You do it for an hour, for 10 hours, love what you do because that’s why we’re here and we have to be contagious and transmit that energy to the team.
On plans to develop the team not developing because of this season's various issues…
Yeah, for sure. A lot of things. But we need to now be really consistent in the things that we are so good at because we don’t have time to train them. And we already have certain players playing in different positions, in different roles and we cannot put more [tactical] demands [on them]. They already have a lot of demands. Putting more demands is tricky. There’s always a trick and every game has three specific messages that we want to accomplish to be efficient.
On the team being given three specific messages for each game…
Yeah, sometimes one.
On the type of message he might give…
It can be one very specific thing. It can be an Achilles tendon of the position. This is the Achilles tendon. Too much information is not information for me. It means we cannot dissect the game. We cannot filter the game in a way. It’s a lot of things that have to happen and then try to understand how we get there in different ways. That’s it.
On whether being second in the league and third in the Champions League represents a crisis…
I don’t know. I think perception versus reality in this sport changes pretty dramatically. So I understand that.
On how close he is to building his 'dream' Arsenal team…
Far because that dream is constantly winning major trophies. That’s what we have to try to do and that’s the ambition of the club.
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