Alan Shearer: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is exhausting to watch on the touchline
Alan Shearer has claimed that he does not admire the touchline antics of Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, insisting they are mostly for show.
The Spaniard is among the Premier League’s more active managers on the touchline and has often been criticised for some of his antics, which have often gotten him in trouble.
Managing Arsenal has brought out a different side of his personality that was hidden during his playing days, with the 41-year-old accused of over-celebrating goals and sometimes getting booked for having a go at the officials.
“The touchline is pantomime; remember that and you won’t go far wrong,” Shearer wrote in The Athletic.
“Whether on match day or otherwise, much of what a manager does is deliberate and rehearsed, usually designed to get a message across, most often to their players and supporters, sometimes to officials and occasionally to the opposition.
“This is not to say that Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola will be knowingly theatrical when Liverpool and Manchester City face off this weekend, when the German pumps his fists and the City manager gesticulates wildly. Nor if Mikel Arteta races down the touchline should Arsenal beat Brentford the evening before. Football is about emotion and feeling and I’m sure that’s all genuine, with everything heightened in this fascinating, three-pronged title race.
“Arteta, for example, is exhausting to watch, a whirling dervish constantly urging his players to move forward or drop back, as if conducting their every move. Do the histrionics and constant hand-waving work? Results suggest so, although I’m not convinced about how much of it will actually sink in when the game is moving, the pace is blinding, and the atmosphere electric.
“That emotion is genuine, but the setup around it is artificial. Arteta puts himself front and centre, but Ange Postecoglou and Eddie Howe do the same with Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United, albeit in a very different way. Perhaps Arteta would say his lack of restraint is proof that he’s shoulder-to-shoulder with them, all for one. I never worked under an Arteta kind of manager, someone manically cajoling, telling you exactly where to stand or exactly what to do. I’ve always been of the opinion that if you’re a good player, then you know that stuff anyway.”
Arsenal want to win major trophies having last won the Premier League title in 2004, and the pressure gets to Arteta.
The former midfielder struggles to contain his emotions, and the fact that he once played for the North London club makes things personal for him as he remains a fan.
Arteta will not be stopping his touchline behaviour anytime soon from the look of things as the title run-in this term promises to be exhilarating.
The Arsenal manager will always do all he can in the technical box as long as it can help his team win a game, and the fans love him for it as it shows he is one of them.
