Although Arteta has worked closely with tons of players, he has had a specific influence on Leroy Sané. “He was just a child and here he was, at a special club, where everything felt strange and new. I had an identical experience once I visited PSG, so I had some idea of what he was experiencing. you only need to erupt it but it’s tough and you would like to understand that the coaching staff are behind you. Everything’s different: training methods, having to play in much tighter spaces, a way faster game with no space to run into – and he struggled initially.
“My priority was to reassure him what proportion faith myself and therefore the remainder of the technical team had in him. i assumed he’d be feeling a touch lost which always causes you to insecure, particularly at that age. We wanted to spice up his confidence. We showed him tons of videos so we could means where the spaces were, what options he had, the mistakes he was making, how he could increase his intensity. That’s really my role here: to seem for what’s missing during a player’s game. If I spot something, there’s no point in expecting the guy to inform me about it. He might take three months to urge round thereto. Opening up like that to a teacher, remarking your own weaknesses, that’s tough. What we do is create a secure place in order that the players feel comfortable about sharing with us. That way we will then give them the tools to form the improvements they have.”
Pep showed Arteta that very same level of trust when he received City. He had joined a technical team that was already a functioning unit, but immediately felt sort of a trusted lieutenant. Pep called him into his office at some point in his first season, before a home match against Arsenal. You’re responsible for this game,” the coach told him. “You’re quite capable of taking the team through the sport. So, it’s up to you. Do what you think that is best.”
Pep remembers the sport well. “He knew the team far better than I did, he’d only stopped twiddling with them two months before. He knew what to expect from [Arsène] Wenger and that i really had no doubts about entrusting the sport to him. So I spoke to the players and told them, ‘Mikel’s responsible in the week.’ i feel they were maybe a touch stunned initially but it had been the logical thing to try to to, given Mikel’s experience with our opponents.”
Arteta recalls: “I’m not an idiot, so I’d already done a touch of preparatory work. I assumed he’d ask my opinion. So I told him how I saw it going: ‘This is what they’ll do, so I’d decide to play like this. He liked my ideas and that we went with my plan.” The result? A 2-1 win, with the decisive goal from Raheem Sterling.” maxbetsbobet agen sbobet terbaik indonesia
Arteta still likes to participate actively in training but now the competitive spirit takes a back seat to his analytical mind. “It’s also an excellent thanks to judge how effective we are, because you’re seeing it from the within. I can see immediately if a particular position doesn’t give me enough time to shut down an area, or if I’m arriving too late, or ending abreast of my very own as we press: ‘No, this won’t work. They’ll outnumber us during this zone.’
“As a player you follow orders, you are doing what you’re told. But your perspective changes once you coach. you’ll observe how the tactics you’ve planned actually work, from the within. then you see belongings you wouldn’t have spotted otherwise.” This is an extract from Pep’s City: The Making of a Superteam, by Pol Ballus and Lu Martin, call at paperback and ebook