Managerial rumours: Everton now linked with Mikel Arteta
After another disastrous weekend and another defeat there are more rumours circulating about possible replacements for Everton manager Sam Allardyce.
One doing the rounds concerns the Manchester City coach and former Everton favourite, Mikel Arteta.
According to the Evening Standard, the ex Blues midfielder is the latest being mooted for the Goodison Park hot seat.
Although he did have a fine playing career at Everton and is well regarded by Evertonians, Arteta’s coaching credentials are very limited.
But he has been working with Pep Guardiola whose City side are setting new standards of attacking football in the Premier League.
So would a move for Arteta be a good one for Everton?
It’s hard to see how Allardyce can survive beyond this season, even if results do improve. His early positive impact has subsided and the Blues are once more sliding down the league table.
Perhaps more importantly the fans have never accepted him or his style.
As with several other managers who have a similar approach, (such as Roy Hodgson and David Moyes), Allardyce’s influence does not seem to be having the desired effect.
I’ve written before that I think there has been a shift in the way football is played with the impact of Guardiola’s football philosophy.
The more traditional or ‘old school; British and foreign managers always placed an emphasis on defensive organisation and discipline making their teams hard to beat.
Scoring goals was a bonus and especially away from home, securing a point was always most important even at the expense of trying to win a game.
However this season has given the Premier League another route to success. It’s true that City’s football is not the first time that a team has tried to shift the emphasis onto playing in a positive and attacking way.
It’s about trying to win matches rather than just avoid defeat.
Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal teams of the last decade have always taken a similar path but without the same spectacular results.
Manchester City have revived the tradition of total football and Guardiola has successfully transplanted the Barcelona ‘DNA’ into English football.
In fact the two most entertaining teams in the league this season, City and Liverpool have both adopted a very attacking philosophy. And of course it’s telling that the only side to beat City in the league this season is Liverpool.
There’s also the question of the quality of defending in football these days. With all the rule changes in recent seasons and the impact of saturation TV coverage it’s become more difficult for defenders to challenge for the ball in the traditional way.
In fact the penalty box has now become almost a no-contact zone and the coming of Video Assistant Referee technology is only going to accelerate that trend.
That’s why so many sides resort to the kind of defending we have seen again this past weekend with Chelsea’s desperate performance against Manchester City.
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Getting 11 men behind the ball seems the only way to try to prevent a superior team from beating you.
Of course if you don’t have the attacking resources of a Man City or Liverpool it’s not easy to have the courage to play that kind of expansive football. But perhaps it does represent the future in the game.
And maybe Arteta with his schooling in the Guardiola philosophy can be the man to infuse Everton with this approach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hceX9M4ACmA
Next: Latest Everton loss highlights crisis
Evertonians might then have to revive that chant of a few years ago: ‘There’s nobody better than Mikel Arteta, he’s the best little Spaniard I know!’