Is Arteta really more Mourinho than Guardiola?

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Despite their two red cards and injury woes, Arsenal have come out of their tough 3 game period against Brighton, Tottenham and Manchester City looking stronger than ever and still within reach of the title race.

Recently though, Arteta has started to gain a reputation for playing defensive, stodgy football reminiscent of Jose Mourinho, as opposed to his earlier title of being the acolyte of Pep Guardiola.

So is Arteta closer to Mourinho or is he closer to Guardiola? Or are there various similarities and differences between the aformentioned managers and nuances in the development of Mikel Arteta's tactical philosophy and strategy that would take JJ Bull and Jon Mackenzie around 25 minutes to explain to Joe Devine?

This is The Athletic's Week in Football.

#arsenal #premierleague #arteta

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00:00 Is Arteta more Mourinho than Guardiola?
00:16 Why is the comparison between Arteta and Mourinho being made?
01:45 Arteta and Mourinho | Similarities and Differences
06:35 How Mourinho became the “sit deep and counter” manager
08:20 How Mourinho and Arteta view the role of tactics
13:20 Sinkholes! | The Athletic FC Newsletter
14:02 Arteta and Guardiola | Similarities and Differences
18:04 How Arteta evolved | Historical Narrative
20:09 How players also affect the tactical style
22:25 Weaseling and the Dark Arts
23:27 The Mourinho comparison is actually a compliment
25:13 So, Arteta isn’t more like Mourinho than Guardiola, but the outcome of what he does sometimes can appear that way, and you could understand why an ordinary audience at home might make that comparison, even if in jest?

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Additional footage sourced from AP Newsroom

[goated]

He's actually a healthy balance of both. He tried to play expansive in the first title run and came up short, last season he tried to keep it a little more compact and still came up short, now we're seeing he's saying man, whatever, whatever we gotta do to win and that's what I wanna see. The biggest example of this was Bayern last season, we got the lead and then tried to keep playing super open and p*ssed our pants. This is the growth of a good coach.

[Robert-ig]

Arteta plays expansive football he is labelled a Pep copycat...
He plays defensive football and he is labelled Mourinho... Thank God he is not Ange yet....

[zsht]

Nice to hear an actual tactical conversation, after the past week of relentless emotional gaslighting by retired former rivals.
Ex-Fergie players, no less – the absolute barefaced cheek of it is hard to fathom

[cryptofpl]

Arteta is Arteta
Pep is Pep
Mourinho is Mourinho

[Thelifeofthegoat]

I think Arteta has figured out that you don't always need the ball to control a game. The opposition can have the ball as long as you can manage what they do with it by winning individual battles and overloading attacks. Pep controls the game by possessing the ball all the time to take away the threat of the opposition and maximizing his attacking threat.

[honestarsenalfan]

Joe Devine is unrivalled at hosting podcast type videos
The only hour long videos I watched were the ones with him in it back in the day, interesting lively personality.

[Kiluei]

Did everyone go collectively braindead? They were playing with 10

[lucioledizerot]

Arteta might be one of the most adaptable coaches out there in terms of playing style, which is great

[thierryhenry]

Since Arteta joined Arsenal as a manager, Arsenal have been playing defensive football, up until the 22/23 season which they played great attacking football that season, after the signing of Jesus and Zinchenko.

Carragher interviewed Arteta in 2023, on whether he deliberately played defensive football in the seasons prior to that. Arteta said he had to, because he didn’t have the players to play the kind football he wanted to play.

In another interview, Arteta talked about the importance of tactical flexibility. He said when he was driving to work, if he got stuck in one route, then he would take another route.

So Arteta’s mindset is that he wants his team to be capable to play Mourinho’s football when they are facing opponents that are “stronger” than them, and to be capable to play Pep’s football when they are facing opponents that are “weaker” than them.

That’s why two members of his coaching team are previously from Atletico Madrid who have experience working with Simeone.

[seunmoses]

Tying to be more Pep than Pep is a recipe for disaster 😂 thankfully Arteta knows this, defence wins you games. Pep has a lethal attack and Arteta knew the players to make an equally lethal attack would cost too much (Rafael Lea, Vini Jr etc) so he built an incredible defence. Good on him that Arsenal are no longer pushovers

[JackBurton]

The season Arsenal lost the title after leading by 8 points was some of the very best free-flowing attacking football. Relentless and brilliant. Defensively more vulnerable.

[TYLOTYLOTYLO]

Arteta is Arteta. The only manager i’ve seen a very long time play multiple types of football to an insane standard.

He won an FA cup with a 5 back.
He was in a title race playing “Pep” ball
Then he was in a title race with the best defence in the league
and now we’re seeing him play pragmatic dynamic, defensive football and attacking football also in different games different opposition he switches it up.

That is proper coaching

[GUYE-FAWKES]

Any one that has watched Arteta's progression as Manager knows, The man is a blend of great defensive fundamentals and equally great attacking fundamentals. You knew it from his embrace of the half press, or whatever the purists want to call it, doesn't matter, and patiently waiting for triggers . Eddie Nketiah was a willing participant. Rewatch Artetas second season and you will see. He wants a team that can adapt to whatever game is on offer. Thats his ideology, its one step ahead from just a ball playing team or a defensive unit. This is beyond Pep and Beyond Klopp, and certainly beyond Mourinho. He is Arteta, spanish elegance with an appreciation of the aggression of English football. He clearly wants a team that can execute a plan to the highest standards, a possession based football when needed and a defensive solidity when need. ADAPT.

[Kzeditzzz]

What’s hilarious is if you watched Man City and look at their games. Fernandinho and rodri are the masters of fouls and transition fouls and rarely get a yellow.

Man City also crowd the referee but in the arsenal v Man City game arsenal players get a yellow for crowding the ref in 2022 January the rodri game winner game

The best teams have deployed little tricks and ways to exploit, but I don’t see why arsenal now gets a bad tag from it.

The free kick tactics started when Leno against Brentford got held also Douglas luis corner which ram stale was held

[bengaudin]

I think people look at possession stats in games where arsenal play more 'conservative' and immediately think they are parking the bus or playing "Mourinho" ball but out of possession they press really aggressively and still try and push for goals by dispossessing opponents in dangerous positions.

[Tees_]

John nerding out about tactical philosophy was really enjoyable

[snaggiz]

He’s got his principles, but he’s also extremely pragmatic. The ability he’s instilled in this Arsenal side to both be able to play beautiful possession football and swap to physical, tough, defensive football is impressive.

To be able to do both at a very high level is very rare.

[markright]

This is so dumb. Arsenal got two ridiculous red cards and were forced to play defensive for two halves and all of a sudden people are throwing around the phrase dark arts, so dumb.

[YTPxG]

Arteta is his own person. His main skill is adaptability (even in recruitment). More adaptive than both Pep and Mourinho. At their best, he is closest to Wenger's invincible—dominant both defensively and in attack, but better than Wenger at winning whatever way it takes.

[chajster]

Wow 2/5 game playing with 10 players and now we're talking about possession play.

Although I will admit that Arteta prioritize defense over attack because of how many players he try to overload the opposition half of the field so he needs elite defenders.